A sweet view: the making of an English idyll

Abstract

"A Sweet View explores how writers and artists in the nineteenth century shaped the English countryside as a partly imaginary idyll, with its distinctive repertoire of idealized scenery: the village green, the old country churchyard, hedgerows and cottages, scenic variety concentrated into a small compass, snugness and comfort. The book draws on a very wide range of contemporary sources, and features some of the key makers of the 'South Country' rural idyll, including Samuel Palmer, Myles Birket Foster and Richard Jefferies. The legacy of the idyll still influences popular perceptions of the essential character of a certain kind of English landscape - indeed for Henry James that imagery constituted 'the very essence of England' itself. The countryside idyll forged over a century ago is still with us today."--Publisher description

Contents

Part 1. The Picturesque and English Scenery, 1770-1860 : The Picturesque and the Promotion of English Landscape -- Roughness, Neglect and Constable's 'Genuine English Scenery' -- The Domestication of Picturesque England, 1800-1860 -- Part 2. Painting and Writing English Scenery : 'Going-in-itiveness': Samuel Palmer's English Pastoral -- Myles Birket Foster and the Surrey Scene -- Writing English Scenery: Richard Jefferies -- Part 3. 'The Very Essence of England' : English Rural Scenery: A Repertoire -- The Country Cottage -- Epilogue: 'A Haunt of Ancient Peace'.