Once, writes Dalrymple, the qualities of the English population included
- cool and ironic detachment from its own experience, that permitted it to face adversity with great good humour and modesty rather than by resort to histrionics
- a polite restraint that was a precondition of depth of character. This restraint seemed to me heroic in an undemonstrative way; it was also the guarantor of an implicit subtlety
Today the chief characteristics of the English, Dalrymple points out, are
- militant vulgarity
- lack of restraint
- arrogant loudness
- ferocious and determined drunkenness
- antisocial egotism
- aggression and quick resort to violence
- grossness of appetites
- prideful ugliness of appearance
- lack of finesse in any department of human existence