ABSTRACT
It was not only what my eyes perceived but also William Blake’s line that gave content to my first sight of the country of most of my life. What I therefore saw was England’s green and pleasant land. It was unlike any earlier first sight, say of New York before it began to seem just pushier than anywhere else, or any subsequent first sight, say of Venice from the lagoon, or the square of the winter palace in St Petersburg. My sight of England, from the deck of the liner Italia, as we came in along the coast to Portsmouth harbour in July 1959, was wonderfully affecting. The image remains with me.
