English panorama

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The charm of Britain lies in the variety of scenery. The variety of scenery in Britain is a reflection of the complex geological history of the islands. Geologically, Britain is a mu­seum model. There are fundamental distinctions between Lowland Britain and Highland Britain.

In Lowland Britain the land is more kindly, gently rolling rarely reaching a thousand feet above sea-level. Ploughed lands and grass fields, farms and villages form an intricate but continu­ous pattern.

Highland Britain includes the whole of Scotland. The northern part of Scotland is formed by the Highlands. The southern Uplands are continued into the Pennines which form the backbone of England.

The countryside is generally acknowledged to be of a very special loveliness. It is blessed with a thousand rivers and streams. Mild suns and soft rains continually refresh its verdure. Na­ture was in a beneficent mood when it created this island.

But the charm of the English rural scene lies in more than these characteristics. It lies in the intimacy, in the sense of order and design. The landscape has, indeed, a composed quality. Trees and hedges give it a rhythmic pattern. Village and hamlet, cottage and hall display a deep accord between man and Nature. It is the landscape of a high civilization.

The contrast of this countryside with the towns is startling. Some parts of older towns snow something of the sense of order, which the countryside displays. But they are very few. It might be expected that it would be the town that should reflect man's civilization. It is not so in England. The towns have neither form nor order, let alone beauty. In comparison with the civilized countryside they seem to represent the landscape of barbarism.

The Cowper's /1731-1800/ explanation –«God made the country and man made the town» - is not sufficient. The country which man received from God was gigantic, wild and terrible. The «time-made» England is in the countryside and «man-made» England is in the manufacturing towns. This is perhaps a more accurate definition. The Englishmen have never really been a nation of town-dwellers, but are countrymen at heart. The countrymen who are the makers of towns.

The English countryside is one of the most designed landscapes in the world. It is naturally the most humanized, the most charming of landscapes. No other landscape has the friendli­ness of the English landscape, none its quality of security.

And this miracle has been achieved by the simplest of means. Having been divided into small fields, hedged with natural solid visible boundaries, the English landscape has become a comfortable and friendly place.

But if the English countryside is indeed man-made, that merely makes the contrast be­tween it and the towns the more surprising.

Between the fair boundaries of the counties of Hereford and Worcester rise the sloping pastures of the Malvern Hills. This admirable region is a compendium of the general physiog­nomy of England. Reaching the summits of the Hills, you find half England unrolled at your feet.

The English sky is a fit antithesis to the complex English earth. They possess in America the infinite beauty of the blue: England possesses the splendour of combined and animated clouds.