ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Sir John Denham's poem at the hinge of this landscape's cultural history, glancing both backward and forward to construct a biography of place. The road from Reading and Windsor to London, that is, the road past Cooper's Hill through Runnymede is implicitly negotiated dozens of times in the Histoire. As Camden charts the journey of the Thames, various locales emerge as lieux de memoire, prompting the recollection of different historical events. Just as nearby Hampton Court recalls the pride and downfall of Cardinal Wolsey, so Runnymede is indelibly linked to the events of 1215. Runnymede's associations with Magna Carta are restored in Mark Akenside's poem 'For a Column at Runnymede', one of an intriguing series of 'Inscriptions' for imaginary monuments. William Lambarde's topographical dictionary remained in manuscript until the eighteenth century, and is unlikely to have been available to Denham in researching the history of the landscape he celebrated in Cooper's Hill.
