206 NATURAL BEAUTY 



may be properly seen. Gardens are laid out, the 

 famous lawns of England are created, and flowering 

 and variegated shrubs from many lands are planted 

 round them. And homes are built — the simple 

 homes of the poor and the stately homes of the 

 rich — which in the setting of trees and lawns and 

 gardens add unquestionably to the natural beauty 

 of the land. St. James's Park, with its lake, its 

 well-tended trees, its daisy-covered lawns, its flower- 

 beds, its may and lilac, laburnum and horse-chest- 

 nut, and with the towers of Westminster Abbey 

 and the Houses of Parliament rising behind it, is 

 certainly more beautiful than the same piece of land 

 was two thousand years ago in its natural condition. 



What has been done in this respect in England 

 is only typical of what is done in every country and 

 of what has been done for ages past. The Moghul 

 emperors, by the planting of gardens on the borders 

 of the Dal Lake in Kashmir, added greatly to its 

 beauty. And the Japanese are famous for the choice 

 of beautiful surroundings for their temples and for 

 the addition which they themselves, by the erection 

 of graceful temples and by properly cared-for trees 

 and gardens, make to the natural beauty of the 

 place. 



So man is both affected by the Beauty of the 

 Earth's features and himself affects that Beauty. 

 And this relationship between man and the Natural 

 Beauty of the Earth is one of which Geography 

 should take as much cognisance as it does of the 

 relationship between man and the productivity of 

 the Earth. 



But Natural Beauty is manifested in an 



