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1 Henry Jenner and the Celtic Revival in Cornwall. Submitted By Henry Jenner and the Celtic Revival in Cornwall. Submitted by Samantha Rayne to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in March 2012. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 Abstract This thesis seeks to explore the influence of Henry Jenner as one of the most prominent figures of the Celtic Revival in Cornwall and in the wider Celtic community. To contextualise this, it will examine the image of the Celts as a people in the first half of the twentieth century and the assertion of Celtic identity in that period through the Celtic Revival. The opening chapter examines the concepts of nations and nationalism, particularly Celtic nationalism. The second chapter focuses on the Victorian era as a motivating force for Henry Jenner and others to ‘write back’ against a long and insidious discourse of discrimination. Chapter Three goes on to look at how the political situation in both Britain and Ireland came to influence the nature of Celtic identity assertion and also the extent to which Jenner’s own political views impacted on the nature of Cornwall’s Celtic Revival. In Chapter Four the impact of tourism on Cornwall, and on Cornish identity, is examined, particularly how the image of Cornwall as a Celtic nation created by Jenner and others was embraced and manipulated by that industry. Chapter Five looks at the consequences of image manipulation on tourist- dependent regions. The final chapter concentrates more specifically on the work of Jenner and the Old Cornwall Societies, and the thesis concludes by appraising the influence of the ideas and beliefs of Henry Jenner on our contemporary vision of Cornwall. It focuses particularly on how the predominance of memory created a haunted identity which was embraced by the burgeoning tourist industry and examines how this identity has subsequently impacted on the economic well-being of the region. But it also concludes that Jenner’s legacy endures in so many of the positive images of, and statements about, Cornwall today. 2 Henry Jenner M.A., F.S.A. 1848-19341 1 Image of Henry Jenner. Personal photograph taken from The Jenner Papers, the Courtney Library, Truro. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Marion Gibson for all her time, help and support with this thesis and for being so much more than a supervisor. I would also like to thank Doctor Garry Tregidga for his invaluable knowledge and advice throughout, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, who provided the funding for our project. Thanks also go to Doctor Shelley Trower who conducted the interviews with me and has been supportive throughout too. This project could not have been possible without the help of the staff at the Courtney Library in Truro, particularly Angela Broom, the staff at the Morrab Library in Penzance, and those at the Plymouth Proprietary Library. I also need to thank those at the University of Plymouth Library for allowing an Exeter student such ready access to their materials, and those in the Plymouth Central Library’s reference section for all their help. On a personal level, fellow student Jo Esra has been a great support, as have my other employers and my family. 4 Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 4 Table of Contents 5 Introduction 6 Chapter One Nations, Nationalism and Celtic Nationalism: The Theoretical Context 58 Chapter Two Race, the Celts and Cornwall: Why Did Henry Jenner ‘Write Back’? 95 Chapter Three The Cultural Politics of the Celtic Cornish Revival: Jenner, Catholicism, Cornish Liberalism and Legitimism 136 Chapter Four The Growth of Tourism in Cornwall and the Role of the Revivalists 182 Chapter Five Haunting and Identity: The Politics of Mystical Cornwall 218 Chapter Six Language, Dialect and the Assertion of Celtic Identity in Cornwall 247 Conclusion 267 Archive Sources 285 Interviews 287 Bibliography 293 5 Introduction This Thesis By detailed examination of Jenner’s collection of papers at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro, and of the Jenner papers at the British Library in London and the County Record Office in Truro, this thesis will offer a new perspective on Henry Jenner himself. Held at the Royal Institution of Cornwall in The Courtney Library, Truro, the Jenner collection, the largest of the archives, consists of 20 boxes containing many of Jenner's personal documents, a majority of which are letters. The collection also contains drafts of Jenner's speeches, a selection of Legitimist magazines, newspaper articles, cards and photographs. The subject areas are varied but many of the documents relate to Cornish institutions including the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, the Royal Institution of Cornwall, the Archaeological Society and various school education committees. Using this and other resources, it is hoped that Jenner’s and other Revivalists’ attempts at instilling pride in the concept of a Celtic Cornish identity can be placed within the context of the discourse of prejudice experienced by the Celtic peoples as a whole in nineteenth century England. Through the examination of the Celtic Revivalists’ work in Cornwall it is possible to attain an understanding of how the Celts went from being a maligned people to an ethnic group with recognisable and sought-after cultural traits, of which it was, and is, desirable to be a member. In particular it focuses on Jenner’s legacy and how the image of Cornwall he was so influential in creating endures in modern times in the symbols and ideas he revived and invented. 6 This thesis will also examine how Henry Jenner’s own political views informed his Revivalist agenda, with particular reference to his concept of ‘Merry England’ and his support for (and subsequent loss of interest in) the Legitimist cause. It will also demonstrate how the notion of the Celtic Cornwall created by Jenner and other Revivalists was manipulated by the tourist industry, and the consequences such identity manipulations had, and continue to have, on the county. Following on from this, the idea of Cornwall as a place associated with hauntings, and how this image affects it within the wider context, will be explored through comparison with other similar areas. The thesis concludes that Jenner’s legacy endures today both in Cornwall and in our understanding of the cultural politics of memory, haunting, the economics of tourism and nationalism itself. The opening chapter provides a theoretical context for this work by examining the concept of nations and the nature of nationalism, particularly Celtic nationalism. Academics have debated the issue of what defines a ‘nation’ for years and there are several factors that have been identified as contributing to a people being recognised by themselves and others as a nation, including social factors such as a common history, a shared language, and a sense of common identity. A people may also feel they share ethnic or ‘racial’ origins, or have a common dominant religion. They may be linked by their geographical location, by a common political outlook, and by their economic lives. However, not all these characteristics have to be present in order for a people to be defined as a nation; some may be completely absent or present in varying degrees. In the case of Cornwall, some of the characteristics defined by scholars as important to 7 nation-formation can be useful in discussing Jenner’s work.2 As Liah Greenfeld stated, one of the functions of a ‘nation’ is that the population, however stratified in class or divided by other beliefs in reality ‘is perceived as essentially homogeneous and the lines of status and class as superficial’.3 Similarly, Benedict Anderson described nations as ‘imagined communities’ partly because he believed the affiliations between the nation’s members’ (most of whom will never meet) were perceived to be a ‘deep, horizontal comradeship’ however hierarchical that community may be in reality.4 Henry Jenner’s vision of ‘Merry England’, as discussed in this thesis, reflects this idea of a unified yet stratified society. Jenner was strongly opposed to socialism but was committed to the concept of a united Celtic Cornish people. In the case of the Celtic nations this sense of community was fostered not just within individual nations, but also between nations, too, so that, to some extent, they came to be seen as a cohesive whole. This can be envisaged partly as an ‘imagined’ identity, but historians have also identified tenable common historical experiences between the British Celtic nations, particularly in their relationship to the British state and to England. Again, Jenner was committed to these ideas of the unity of the Celtic nations and the idea that Cornwall was part of that family of nations. The context of Jenner’s activities in a period of Irish nationalism was also important. 2 See John Hutchinson and Anthony. D. Smith (eds) Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), D Boswell and J Evans, Representing the Nation: A Reader. Histories, Heritage and Museums (London: Routledge, 1999) and Steven Grosby, Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 3 Liah Greenfeld, “Types of European Nationalism.” In Hutchinson and Smith, Nationalism 165. 4 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991. 6-7. 8 Whereas within the Celtic nations themselves there was a fostering of a positive sense of Celtic identity, Powell noted that, as a result of the debates on Home Rule, there was what he described as ‘an English backlash against Celtic nationalism’ as the assertion of a strong Celtic identity threatened the unity of the British state.5 During the same period there were those who viewed the Celtic parts of Britain in colonialist terms, including respected historian J.
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