Man and the Natural World 1

Modern sociologists have been puzzled by the innate anti-urbanism and love of 'nature' of the English. For instance, Mann notes that 'the attraction of the rural residence and urban work is very apparent'. The only explanation he can give is to follow Anthony Sampson, and argue in a circular way, that it is 'part of the Englishman's basic desire to become a landed aristocrat'.' 2 This is one aspect of a wider set of paradoxes which presented the enquiring foreigner in the nineteenth century with something of a shock. England was the most urbanized country in the world, yet one where the yearning for the countryside and rural values was the most developed. Its strangely anti-urban bias was shown in the prevalence of parks, the ubiquity of flower gardens, the country holiday industry, the dreams of retirement to a honeysuckle cottage and the emphasis on 'nature' and rural values in the Romantic and pre-Raphaelite movements. One of the most acute analysts of these curiosities was the Frenchman, Hyppolyte Taine, in his Notes on England, based on impressions of England during the 1860s.