Where does the expression "lay back and think of England" come from?

Answer 1

From the upper middle class married ladies that would have sex (mainly for procreation) for queen and country during the victorian era.

Not surprisingly the female orgasim hadn't been discovered or invented I suppose. So the husbands were pobably some of the finest fat minute men to walk the earth. This is the time frame where women would go to the doctor to get a handjob because women just weren't taught to masterbate.

Anyhoo, just look up Victorian sexual principles on google. Some funny ideas. Although in 100 years future generations will be giggling about our collective sex lives in 2006.

Answer 2

Quote directly from Yaelf.com

"What is the origin of "lie back and think of England"? "close your eyes and think of England"?

(Phrase origins)

From _Dictionary of Catchphrases_ (1995) by Nigel Rees:

"close your eyes and think of England": traditional advice given to women when confronted with the inevitability of sexual intercourse, or jocular encouragement to either sex about doing anything unpalatable.

The source given for this phrase -- Lady Hillingdon's (or Hillingham's) _Journal_ (1912) is suspect and has not been verified:

'I am happy now that Charles calls on .... '

_Salome Dear, Not With a Porcupine_ (ed. Arthur Marshall, 1982) has it instead that the newly-wed Mrs Stanley Baldwyn was supposed to have declared subsequently: 'I shut my eyes tight and thought of the Empire.'

In 1977, there was play by John Chapman and Anthony Marriott at the Apollo Theatre, London, with the title _Shut Your Eyes and Think of England_.

Sometimes the phrase occurs in the form *lie back and think of England* but this probably comes from confusion with *she should lie back and enjoy it*.

Adrian Room, in _Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable_ (2000), writes:

Alice, Lady Hillingdon (1857-1940) married the 2nd Baron Hillingdon in 1886, but the whereabouts or even existence of her _Journal_ is unknown.

_The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Fifth Edition_ (1999) gives in the "Sayings and slogans" section: Close your eyes and think of England. said to derive from a 1912 entry in the journal of Lady Hillingdon (1857-1940), but the journal has never been traced

(extract from the aue archives, article by "masakim", follow the link to see the complete thread)

http://groups.google.com/groups?
hl=en&selm=3CB5DB07.55AFBAD0%40Berlin.DE"

Answer 3

I think it's from Queen Victoria, women in those day's weren't supposed to enjoy sex, it was just something they had to endure to have children, so that's the advise they were given.

Answer 4

It refers to the wifely duties, when a woman doesn't want to.