The brilliantly designed image of a British virtue, often bewilderingly mocked by continental observers, but valued in England as an integral part of everyday culture and nurtured for centuries: eccentricity. It unites aristocrats and servants, citizens and artists, town and country, as well as both genders in the unrestrained celebration of their individuality. Dame Edith Sitwell, herself an eccentric of the highest degree, has erected a lasting monument to them.