Perhaps (re: my post above concerning the possible survival/influence of 'Celtic' word-order on the languages(s) of the first Germanic immigrants here).
Which leads me to wonder just how much of the old pre-Germanic tradition has survived and been passed down in these islands. Celtic word-order perhaps, every-day place names like 'London' and the 'Thames' of course, a knowledge of herbal remedies until quite recently probably; but what about the less tangible?
The British love of nature and the way it manifests itself is fascinating; it's similar to the Japanese love of nature but there are differences. The indigenous Shinto (pagan) religion was never suppressed, or even assimilated, by Buddhism and so the two religions grew, exist and still happily function side by side today - it's extraordinary. You can walk past a Shinto shrine with a straw and paper garland tied round one of the great oak trees in its grounds and, virtually next-door, you'll pass a Buddhist temple with monks chanting Buddhist sutras within. It's like having the ancient pagan religions of Britain happily co-existing alongside the Christian Church.
You don't have to untangle the different threads or peel back the mixed layers of belief and history between Shinto and Buddhism because they never were mixed; in Britain the old religions and Christianity were - but were they always? I can't help thinking (perhaps hoping) that some of those ancient traditions did survive... perhaps in ways yet to be discovered :-)
