Landskipping is a ravishing celebration of landscape, its iridescent
beauty and its potential to comfort, awe and mesmerise. In spirit as
romantic as rational, Anna Pavord explores the different ways in which
we have, throughout the ages, responded to the land.
In the 18th century, artists first started to paint English scenery, and
the lakes, as well as Snowdon, began to attract a new kind of visitor:
the landscape tourist.
Early travel guides sought to capture the beauty and inspiration of
waterfall, lake and fell. "Sublime! Picturesque!" they said as they laid
down rules for correctly appreciating a view.
While painters painted and writers wrote, an entirely different band of
men, the agricultural improvers, also travelled the land and published a
series of remarkable commentaries on the state of agricultural England.
They looked at the land in terms of its usefulness as well as its
beauty, and, using their reports, Anna Pavord explores the many
different ways that land was managed and farmed, showing that what is
universal is a place's capacity to frame and define our experience.
Moving from the rolling hills of Dorset to the peaks of the Scottish
Highlands, this is an exquisite and compelling book, written with zest,
passion and deep understanding.
