Britishness, what it is and what it could be, is now high on both ...

puzzle. In the 1920s A.K.Hamilton Jenkin, Cornwall’s mining h<strong>is</strong>torian, recounted an
apocryphal story from the nineteenth century:
“Hes Coornwall a nashion [nation], hes a a Hil<strong>and</strong> [<strong>is</strong>l<strong>and</strong>], or hes a ferren
[foreign] country?”, an old school dame, Peggy Com<strong>be</strong>llack, would ask.
“He hedn’t no nashon, he hedn’t no <strong>high</strong>lan, nor he hedn’t no ferren country,” the
brightest of the scholars on one occasion answered.
“What hes a then?” asked Peggy.
“Why, he’s kidged [joined] to a furren country from the top h<strong>and</strong>”, was the reply. 8
Peggy Com<strong>be</strong>llack’s conundrum <strong>is</strong>, according to modern Corn<strong>is</strong>h h<strong>is</strong>torian Philip Payton,
“as significant today as <strong>it</strong> was in Peggy’s time”. For Payton, Cornwall <strong>and</strong> the Corn<strong>is</strong>h
“remain together an enigma – not falling neatly or happily into the new categories that
are appearing, a battleground perhaps for conflicting v<strong>is</strong>ions, constructions, imaginings of
Corn<strong>is</strong>hness, Celtic<strong>it</strong>y <strong>and</strong> <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong>”. 9
If th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> the case, <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> some<strong>what</strong> surpr<strong>is</strong>ing that Cornwall has <strong>be</strong>en largely ignored in the
academic l<strong>it</strong>erature on Br<strong>it</strong>ain <strong>and</strong> <strong>Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>hness</strong>. Here <strong>is</strong> an instance of an ident<strong>it</strong>y from
w<strong>it</strong>hin which some people claim national status, but, uniquely, from a marginal location
at the edge of Engl<strong>is</strong>hness. Th<strong>is</strong> emplacement guarantees Cornwall’s categorically
uncertain place in academic d<strong>is</strong>courses. Both “of Engl<strong>and</strong>” <strong>and</strong> “not of Engl<strong>and</strong>”, <strong>it</strong>
defies easy analys<strong>is</strong>. Cornwall <strong>and</strong> the Corn<strong>is</strong>h teeter on the brink of a conceptual <strong>and</strong>
h<strong>is</strong>toriographical crevasse, ne<strong>it</strong>her county nor nation. As a result of th<strong>is</strong> conceptual
ind<strong>is</strong>tinctiveness, <strong>it</strong>s ident<strong>it</strong>y remains unfathomed. The intention here <strong>is</strong> to restore
Cornwall <strong>and</strong> Corn<strong>is</strong>hness to a more v<strong>is</strong>ible place in the Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h mosaic, both as a unique
case in <strong>it</strong>s own right <strong>and</strong> as a useful comparator for work on other Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h regions <strong>and</strong>
nations. In order to do so I first trace the parameters of Corn<strong>is</strong>hness. The article then
moves on to review how Cornwall <strong>and</strong> <strong>it</strong>s ident<strong>it</strong>y <strong>is</strong> addressed w<strong>it</strong>hin various categories,
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