‘And So Was England Born’

Editor’s note: Madeleine Kearns writes a weekly column noting peculiar aspects of cultural, artistic, and natural marvels.

While addressing the Royal Society of St. George in 1935, the English journalist, poet, novelist, and author Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) mourned the loss of a generation as a result of the First World War — especially, as he saw it, the loss of virtue begun in boyhood and carried into manhood. He hoped that “looking back through the luminous years to where we here stumble and falter,” future generations would appreciate the “height of strength, wisdom, and enduring honour [that] had lifted their land.”