ABSTRACT
There is in Anglo-Saxon culture a deep and enduring tension between the image of the town and that of the countryside. The imagery is that of opposites, for the virtues of rural life-family, traditional morality, community-are mirrored in the vices of the cityegoism, materialism, anonymity-while the advantages of urban living are similarly reflected in the disadvantages of rural existence. As Raymond Williams observes,
On the country has gathered the idea of a natural way of life: of peace, innocence and simple virtue. On the city has gathered the idea of an achieved centre: of learning, communication, light. Powerful hostile associations have also developed: on the city as a place of noise, worldliness and ambition; on the country as a place of backwardness, ignorance, limitation. A contrast between country and city, as fundamental ways of life, reaches back into classical times (Williams 1973, p. 1).
