Abstract
IT is curious to reflect on the history of man's inquiry into the origin of the landscapes among which he has lived for so many thousand years, and to find how recent is his intelligent interest in the subject. Within the memory of many who are still alive and active, the present topography of the land hardly came within the scope of scientific investigation, and while the utmost energy and enthusiasm were displayed in unravelling the secrets of the rocks below the surface and thus reconstructing the geography and scenery of the successive eras of the geological past, only meagre attention was given to the causes which had brought about the existing features of that surface. The popular notion that everything remained as it had been from the beginning was known to be untenable and absurd; nevertheless, the subject failed to excite the interest of geologists as a body. Some of them were Wernerian tories, others Plutonist conservatives or Uniformitarian liberals; but whatever might be their geological creed, they were for the most part Gallios in this matter, never caring to set themselves seriously to consider how their familiar hills and valleys were in detail to be accounted for.
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The Scenery of England . Nature 65, 490–493 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065490a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065490a0