title: Popular culture and sporting life in the rural margins of late eighteenth-century England: the world of Robert Anderson, "The Cumberland Bard".
abstract: This study sets out to extend and challenge existing historiography on late eighteenth century British popular culture, customary sports, class and cultural identity, focusing upon the rural geo-political borderland of England. It suggests that prevailing class-based and more London-biased studies need to be balanced with more regionalist-based work, and shows the importance of northern regional leisure variants. The textual and historical analysis draws largely on the published works of a neglected working-class dialect poet, Robert Anderson, living and working in Cumberland, arguing that he represented a strain of ''bardic regionalism,'' a variant of Katie Trumpener’s ''bardic nationalism.''
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huggins
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D003466:Cultural Characteristics / Q000266:history; D004739:England / Q000208:ethnology; D006663:Historiography; D049671:History, 18th Century; D008019:Life Style / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D012423:Rural Health / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D012424:Rural Population / Q000266:history; D012923:Social Class / Q000266:history; D013177:Sports / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology