ABSTRACT
The cause of rural preservation was therefore given added poignancy by a sense that the traditional order of the countryside was on the verge of extinction. Progressive element was the relationship between the preservationist movement and emerging patterns of recreation and leisure, linked to concerns for the physical and mental health of an urbanized population. Progressive feature of the preservation movement was the faltering steps it made towards an ecological consciousness and an understanding of the need to impose limits on the technological subjugation of the natural world. Preservation was initially a cause with radical connotations, embracing radical liberals and socialists who challenged what they saw as a philistine and inhuman materialism, as well as absolute notions of property rights and the power of landownership. The concept of the Trust arose out of the work of the Commons Preservation Society which, since its foundation in 1865, had been conducting legal battles to save common land and stretches of countryside.
