This is a description of England by the novelist Peter Vansittart, beginning with the mythical land of Albion, of Jack the Giant Killer, Arthur and Merlin. This idealized view of England informs his account of the more conventional heroes and villains, oppressions and advances in this island.;The author discusses English character traits, and progresses to English personalities such as the British theologian Pelagius, William of Occam, Wycliffe, Wolsey and Elizabeth I. After an a panegyric on the Tudor chimney, a portrait of Shakespeare, and an evocation of that lost art, the masque, the book surveys the period of Merrie England, the Imperial Age and England at war.