England comes to me through my various senses ... The sounds of England, the tinkle of the hammer on the anvil in the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewy morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone, and the sight of a plough team coming over the brow of a hill, the sight that has been seen in England since England was a land, and may be seen in England long after the Empire has perished and every works [i.e. factory] in England has ceased to function: for centuries, the one eternal sight of England.
Stanley Baldwin, from a speech delivered to the Royal Society of St George, 6 May 1924; later published in On England and Other Addresses.
The corncrake:
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