230 NATURAL BEAUTY 



and the spirit of the district acted and reacted upon 

 one another and came into harmony with one 

 another. And as he had the capacity for com- 

 municating to others what he himself had seen, we 

 are now able to see in the Lakeland beauties which 

 our forefathers had scarcely known. 



This is why I suggest to you that Natural 

 Beauty should be considered as a legitimate part of 

 Geography. And if you will look about you, you 

 will note that Natural Beauty is having an increasing 

 effect upon the movements of men. There is a 

 very definite relationship between the Beauty of 

 the Earth and her human inhabitants. The Poet 

 Laureate builds his house on the top of Boar's Hill 

 not because the soil is specially productive up there 

 so that he may be able to grow food, for the soil is 

 rather poor; not because water is easily available, 

 for it is very difficult to get, as he found when his 

 house took fire ; not because of the climate, for the 

 climate is just as good a hundred feet lower down ; 

 not because it is easily accessible to Oxford, for a 

 big climb up the hill is entailed every time he returns 

 from that city — not for any of these reasons did he 

 build his house there, but because of the view which 

 he obtains from that spot. It was Natural Beauty 

 which drew the Poet Laureate to Boar's Hill, as it 

 was Natural Beauty which drew Tennyson to Black- 

 down to build Aldworth with a view all over the 

 Surrey hills and the Sussex Downs. 



It is this same spell of Natural Beauty, too, 

 which is drawing people all over England to build 

 their houses on the most beautiful spots. Our great 

 country-seats — the pride of England — are usually 



