ABSTRACT
The first chapter of this book was concerned with the evolution of the fundamental structures of the landscape of Britain. We have seen these structures evolve over inconceivably long periods of time to reach their present forms, and we have been able to tell their story with no more than a sidelong glance at men, not least because men have made no contribution whatsoever to the evolution of the British landscape down to the stage where we left it at the end of the last chapter. But with these structures established, we must now turn our attention to those men and women who, by going about the everyday business of their lives, have moulded and shaped these structures into an inhabitable environment. To this environment successive generations have each made their own distinctive contribution without erasing entirely that of their predecessors, so that the landscape of today resembles a palimpsest from which even the most ancient texts can be recovered, at least in part, and provided we know where to look and what to look for.
