Help with essay!

[Blastoderm]

Here's the question:
What is the meaning of 'Nature' in 18th century English landscape design?

Need some help on it. Links, answers, whatever is needed.




I know sometimes you guys don't help much but it's worth the try.

[Stew]

1st time I've ever seen a landscape academic question on GD!!

[JonnyBGood]

You have actually got to be shitting me here.

[Marilyn Manson]

This sounds like a question a Channel Four presenter would ask you when they were drunk.

[roadrunner_0]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

You have actually got to be shitting me here.

seriously, what the hell course are you doing?????

[KraKto$is8]

wtf?

That's a crazy quesion.

[Blastoderm]

Thanks for the help.

[the_dastardley_chihuahua]

well its a bit of a stupid ****ing question to ask here in the first place. i assume you have actually been to the classes that cover this topic, the chances of someone here knowing more about it than you is (give or take) ZERO

[Dace]

Taking a flying guess at this question ...

Look at the design of manor houses etc that were built at that time.

Was there a movement from formal gardens to something more impressive (mazes or something)?

What about water features (did they become big then)?



If you're being asked the question you really should know something about the subject.

And not just the period you are being asked about.

You should talk about how the design in that period is different from the period before and after and what social issues (industrial revolution?) had to do with this.




Hope ive helped.

[pablissimo]

There's some form of 'option' revolving around finding an old dictionary definition of 'Nature' and saying 'but 300 years ago' but to be honest it wouldn't so much be a 'comedy' option as a '****ing shit' option.

[Blastoderm]

Cheers Dace. That could be a starter.




Some people only seem to know their maths when a ****ed up maths question is asked in here.

[acropolis]

In a manner reminiscent of that felt by Langston Hughes in his poem "Winter Moon", nature was something the Brit missed without knowing it. It has classically been shown that the Winter months wreak psychological damage on almost all who live through it; being shut in for long periods, not seeing or feeling the soul-refreshing rays of the sun. A similar depression was assuredly felt by the English at the time, living through their , no sunlight, no warmth, no green fields on which to retire and rejuvenate.

Nature was that which was absent from the industrial landscape. The woods and streams, birds and small mammals all pushed aside by the spread of cities... Lords and landholders sought to possess tracts and fields of grass and wood

Clearly many sources indicate that the possession of 'nature' on one's land was very much a powerful status symbol. But I would contend that the desire to have nature caused it being a status symbol, and not the other way around;

Hey, when they say 18th century do they mean early 18th or late 18th? I seem to remember industrial revolution being an 18th century fling for england.

[Stew]

it was more than a fling...
altho my lecturer said it never happenned today, but then he did tell us to go and walk 15miles in the country....

[acropolis]

the well-discussed though perhaps not well-concluded issue of water, and in particular streams, on these 'natural' landscapes. One early view, proposed by H. P. Magrim et al (1958) was that "the streams came into being largely to pacify the disloyal amongst the household staff." Magrim claimed that the help was often too 'in the know' about backroom business transactions and romantic affairs and too willing too gossip (and often blackmail) for the heads of rich households to be at ease. And so the streams existed as a "threat." Perhaps it is difficult to see how it could have been much of a threat, but few among the lower classes could swim by that point as manors moved farther and farther from the shore, and drowning was rumored to be the utmost horrible way to die. A lord or lady with access to a nearby stream was certainly not someone to cross or betray. L. Sawyer (1961) soon rebutted this, arguing that "while the undeniable threat was certainly a fringe benefit, it was not the raison d'etre. The landholders of the time already had the staff at their beck and call; it was power over those not living on the premises that interested these Noblemen." Sawyer's spirited argument described the different powers someone with a stream on their property had over those living downstream; while most obvious was the ability to cut the flow off at will, the streamowner could also "defecate into the drinking water of the masses, making it clear who was above whom on the social ladder." While both of these hypotheses seem reasonable at first glance, a thorough reading of the available journals of the noblemen who were having their property landscaped as such indicates otherwise. If the urge to defecate in others drinking water and threaten the household staff were major reasons for having streams, these noblemen would not admit it, even to themselves. One reason common to the majority of such journals is a certain aesthetic sense, it fit with the surroundings and seemed to belong; in a word, the stream running across your property looked "pretty."