Jan Morris: Trying the Smile Test on the English

I am reading my daughter's copy of "In My Mind's Eye, A Thought Diary", by Jan Morris.

Read her thought for Day 11, included in an FT article (Home truths: Jan Morris on writing a diary at 90)

"Try the Smile Test now, as a middle-aged, obviously English couple approaches us down the promenade. We turn the smile on and wait for a passing response. There is none. Not a flicker of a response. Their eyes are resolutely averted. They look, if not actually scared, at least suspicious. It is as though they never expect the best, only the worst, as though if we are not actually going to harm them, we might be laughing at them. Far from responding de haut en bas, as the world used to expect of them, or with the confident fraternity that we might look for today, or even with their once-famous national humour, they look as though they have been reprimanded by destiny. Perhaps they have?"

Have the English, from all walks of life, lost their pride in being English? Jan's thoughts about the English and the question of the changing English national character seem all the more true and perceptive when read in a place like Washington DC, where almost everyone one meets seems so open, friendly and happy to chat - passing the 'smile test' with flying colours (colors).

Related:

The best European jokes about the British, BBC