Myth and minstrelsy

Winston Churchill once famously declared, ‘this pudding has no theme’. Michael Alexander’s book, subtitled ‘The Middle Ages in Modern England’ — a period which in his view stretches from well before the Industrial Revolution virtually to contemporary culture — has far too many. His contention is that medievalism sprang from two main impulses: the rise of antiquarianism in the second half of the 18th century, studying the material evidence of the Middle Ages, on one hand, and the imaginative adoption of what were conceived to be the ideals of that era, on the other. As a word, it is surprisingly recent with the first recorded use in the Gentleman’s Magazine as late at 1827.

Recent books about the origins and development of the Gothic Revival have dwelt, for the most part, on its architectural expression. Buildings such as the New Palace of Westminster or the Grand Midland Hotel fronting St Pancras Station are today once more much loved features of the London townscape.