第十一章（第9/17页）

但在街角处，警察举手示意，三辆载满铁件的卡车得以通过，震得那座破旧的教堂左右摇晃。卡车过去后，他才来得及向从男爵夫人行礼。

So it was. Upon the old crooked burgess streets hordes of oldish blackened miners' dwellings crowded, lining the roads out. And immediately after these came the newer, pinker rows of rather larger houses, plastering the valley: the homes of more modern workmen. And beyond that again, in the wide rolling regions of the castles, smoke waved against steam, and patch after patch of raw reddish brick showed the newer mining settlements, sometimes in the hollows, sometimes gruesomely ugly along the sky-line of the slopes. And between, in between, were the tattered remnants of the old coaching and cottage England, even the England of Robin Hood, where the miners prowled with the dismalness of suppressed sporting instincts, when they were not at work.

这里就是如此。曲曲折折的旧街两旁，挤满破败黢黑的矿工房舍，迤逦向前延伸。紧接着映入眼帘的，是鳞列于山谷间的宽敞房屋，较先见的更新，且颜色更加鲜艳，那里住着新式产业工人。再向远处延伸，在古城堡盘踞的广阔区域，烟尘与蒸汽相互交缠，成片新盖的红砖房同样是矿工们的住所。有的建于低洼处，有的则位于高坡上，狰狞可怖地直插天际。然而，其间依然随处可见残破的马车及农舍，甚至是罗宾汉时代英格兰的古老遗迹。不当班的时候，矿工们便可四处游荡，使压抑已久的好动本能得以纾解。

England, my England! But which is MY England? The stately homes of England make good photographs, and create the illusion of a connexion with the Elizabethans. The handsome old halls are there, from the days of Good Queen Anne and Tom Jones. But smuts fall and blacken on the drab stucco, that has long ceased to be golden. And one by one, like the stately homes, they were abandoned. Now they are being pulled down. As for the cottages of England—there they are—great plasterings of brick dwellings on the hopeless countryside.

英格兰，我的英格兰！可究竟哪个英格兰才是属于我的？雄伟奢华的英式古宅确是拍照的绝佳选择，创造出置身于伊丽莎白时代的幻象。这些古老美观的宅邸，始建于仁爱的安妮女王（注：1665-1714，斯图亚特王朝的末代君主）或者汤姆·琼斯（注：英国小说家菲尔丁的名作《弃儿汤姆·琼斯的历史》中的主人公）时代。但飘落的煤尘弄黑了它们黄褐色的墙壁，金碧辉煌的壮观景象早已不复存在。像那些堂皇的古宅一样，这些豪宅渐渐都被废弃。如今它们正遭遇被摧毁的命运。至于那些英式村舍——散落在那里——这些砖砌的农家已变成绝望乡野上硕大的灰泥补丁。

"Now they are pulling down the stately homes, the Georgian halls are going. Fritchley, a perfect old Georgian mansion, was even now, as Connie passed in the car, being demolished. It was in perfect repair: till the war the Weatherleys had lived in style there. But now it was too big, too expensive, and the country had become too uncongenial. The gentry were departing to pleasanter places, where they could spend their money without having to see how it was made.” This is history. One England blots out another. The mines had made the halls wealthy. Now they were blotting them out, as they had already blotted out the cottages. The industrial England blots out the agricultural England. One meaning blots out another. The new England blots out the old England. And the continuity is not Organic, but mechanical.

如今，这些奢华的古宅逐渐被拆毁，乔治时代（注：乔治一世到乔治四世统治时期，1714-1830）的府邸正在消亡。就连弗里奇利，那座乔治时代美轮美奂的古老庄园，也难逃被夷为平地的宿命，康妮乘车路过时，正好目睹这一切。这座府邸几经修缮，依旧完好，大战爆发前，韦瑟利家族住在那里，过着骄奢淫逸的生活。但时过境迁，现在它显得太过庞大，太费金钱，与周围的环境也格格不入。贵族老爷们纷纷离去，寻找新的天堂，在那里，他们依然可以挥金如土，但无需过问钱财的来路。历史就是如此。旧日的英格兰被今时的取而代之。煤矿曾让这些府邸富丽堂皇。而此刻，却将它们送上覆灭的道路，先前，平头百姓的农舍同样遭遇过这样的命运。农业的英格兰被工业的所取代。新旧的理念交替更迭。旧英格兰被新英格兰所取代。历史的演进并非顺理成章，而是呆板僵化的。

Connie, belonging to the leisured classes, had clung to the remnants of the old England. It had taken her years to realize that it was really blotted out by this terrifying new and gruesome England, and that the blotting out would go on till it was complete. Fritchley was gone, Eastwood was gone, Shipley was going: Squire Winter's beloved Shipley.