The other week I was reading Virtual History, a collection of essays on counterfactual historical scenarios edited by my Oxford coeval Niall Ferguson.
In Ferguson's introduction, he quotes this joking history of my ancestral homeland, supposedly written by the anonymous "AE" in 1914. "Progress", you see, isn't always forwards.
The small holdings of the 19th and 20th centuries gradually come into the hands of the large landowners; in the 18th century progress has been made and the first glimmerings of self-government appear; religious troubles and wars follow until the last Englishman, Strongbow, leaves the country; culture begins; religious intolerance ceases with the disappearance of Patrick, about 400 AD, and we approach the great age of the heroes and gods.
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