And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green
No, that picture of The Palace of Westminster is not yet another dreary attempt by Global Warming fanatics to paint a scary future where cities like London are drowned by rising oceans.
Quite the opposite in fact, that picture is superimposing the Palace of today onto the same spot far back in Anglo Saxon times, Thorney Island. Tom Harwood takes up the story:
The patch of soggy land was subject to the tidal River Thames, and cut off from the mainland by a delta in the ancient river Tyburn.
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There is a temptation to think of England as an unchanging land, blessed by the holy Lamb of God and pleasant pastures, all since ancient time. But history disagrees. When the Romans stumbled upon the Ancient Britons, they found a swamp dwelling people.
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According to these Roman historians, the Ancient Britons sound almost aquatic. While no doubt somewhat exaggerated, these descriptions do give us an indication of what life was like in much of the country before land was reclaimed and properly cultivated. Until the modern era, much of Eastern England was largely below water for much of the year.
The rolling hills we think of elsewhere in the country were not pleasant pastures either. Many were covered by ancient rainforest. The pastures that William Blake pens in perhaps the most famous natural portrait of England ever written, were ironically man made.
And it took the industrial revolution, those “Satanic Mills” of the same poem, Dutch windmills and then English coal-fired steam pumps, that made the draining of the fens possible and permanent. No doubt the people who made a living fishing from such waters were upset at slowly losing their livelihood but as it used to be said across the West, “that’s progress”:
We have moulded the land to our purpose. We have turned sea to shore, and elsewhere dug soil and clay to hold fresh water (albeit not in Britain since 1992). We have been the masters of the universe, and the world is better for it.
A handful of other writers have often made the point that our “natural world” is in fact very much a world crafted by human beings – while the environmental movement that emerged in the 1960’s has cursed all human development as a blight on nature. As Harwood (and that picture) show, that’s just not true. Our beautiful landscapes – think hydro lakes in New Zealand – are often as much a product of the human mind and effort as they are of nature.
Harwood contrasts this with today when seemingly nothing can get built, starting with a bypass that’s basically a bridge to nowhere after years of construction. The 18th century fisherman did not have the Town and Country Planning Act (1947) to wield against developers.
No Minister 
I used to live in Chertsey in Surrey. A beautiful, green place. As the etymology of the name tells you though, it didn’t used to be that.
Wow. I’m envious.
In my brief time in Britain it was only London – with only a trip to Edinburgh and Liverpool.
Years later Beloved Wife and I did rent a car and drive up to Wocestershire to see a Kiwi mate who was living there and in summer it was a beautiful drive.
But that’s it really. I’ve seen more of Italy than Britain.
If you want to see one of the most stunning things in the world, drive through the oak forests in Spring when the bluebells appear. It is incredible.
And then visit Woking. Where else will you see the birthplace of the War of the Worlds and The Jam?
Perhaps in the next few years.
Tom and Nick you both need to get up to Scotland then on to Skye and The Outer Hebrides – particularly The Isles Of Lewis and Harris (one Island). It is another world.
pdm it is an absolute regret of mine that I never made it to either Scotland or Wales. It is a plan though to go back and spend a few weeks just driving around the UK.
That and doing a road trip from the East coast of the USA to the West coast through the Southern states.