A short, uneventful stroll along the Public Rights of Way encircling Harewood House today, which remained tastefully out of sight for most of the way—probably for the best. I shall reserve for another time any reference to the minor detail that Harewood House owes its existence largely to money wrung from slavery and sugar plantations in the West Indies. No need to spoil the mood with historical accuracy.
We did come across this charming fellow, handsome but unburdened with any meaningful backstory. Still, such a lack provides a useful excuse to mention that Britain’s beloved cultural rituals and spectacles—however baffling—are about to be enshrined in a shiny new heritage list. Because clearly, that is what the country needs right now.
The UK government, in a dazzling display of relevance, is cobbling together an “Inventory Of Living Heritage” to catalogue the nation’s treasured cultural bits and bobs. The public will be invited to nominate their favourite foods and pastimes, the latter sorted into thrilling categories such as performing arts, sports, crafts, oral expressions, and other equally riveting things like “nature” and “spirituality”1The Observer 12 Apr 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/apr/12/mines-a-pint-of-unesco-brewers-chase-heritage-status-for-british-cask-ale.
This bureaucratic project follows the UK’s signing of the “2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage”, presumably after someone noticed it gathering dust in a filing cabinet. The Heritage Minister is urging people to nominate whatever national quirks they think sum up the country, which should go well given the current state of national identity.
Communities across the UK will soon be falling over themselves to nominate everything from Notting Hill Carnival to the great cheese-rolling stampede of Gloucestershire. Meanwhile, a small but vocal lobby is already demanding that the government recognise the sacred rite of pouring warm, flat beer from wooden barrels—on par, apparently, with French baguettes and Arabic coffee.
Naturally, one group positively fizzing with excitement is the hunting crowd, who are seizing this golden opportunity to dress up fox hunting as a treasured cultural ritual. Here’s a survey they’ve cobbled together but I suspect negative opinions will be ignored. Otter and stag hunting will no doubt trot along behind, followed shortly by hare coursing. Give it a year and we shall all be treated to earnest debates about the heritage value of cock-fighting and bear baiting. A glorious renaissance indeed.
- 1
Leave a Reply