Where, anciently, silly Lily had an air of backwardness? (7)
I believe the answer is:
illyria
'where anciently' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'silly lily had an air of backwardness?' is the wordplay.
'silly' indicates an anagram.
'had' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'an air of backwardness?' becomes 'ria' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'lily' with letters rearranged gives 'illy'.
'illy'+'ria'='ILLYRIA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for illyria that I've seen before include "Ancient Adriatic region, scene of "Twelfth Night"" , "Ancient region of Adriatic coast, setting for Twelfth Night" , "Classical Albania" , "Orsino's dukedom" , "Orsino's place" .)