Green and Pleasant Land

Britain was the first country to industrialize, the first country in the history of the world to have more people employed in industry than in agriculture, and the first country in the history of the world to have more of its population living in cities than in the countryside.

Despite this, there are two persistent images of Britain, which apply particularly strongly to England: that it is a "green and pleasant land", and that it maintains immemorial ways of doing things. Those who tend to celebrate or seek to make political capital out of these images are often conservative (to say the least), but the images themselves are not by any means limited to right-wingers.

And while both images can be misleading, there is some truth in both. Despite the high level of urbanization, Britain does have beautiful countryside, and it is readily accessible from most cities: the Derbyshire peak district, for instance, from Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester; North Wales from Liverpool; the Yorkshire moors from Leeds, Bradford, and so on. South Wales (see picture) also manages in places to be both urbanized and scenic. This is not the unspoilt "village England" of church bells and wodsmoke, but still the notion expressed in the Schama documentary (and also in Jeremy Paxman's The English) that the "green and pleasant" theme applies only to the South of England is a misconception not found outside the South of England.

For immemorial custom, see the separate post.