This illuminating and stimulating book argues that the history of English landscape from about 1760 to 1820 reflected a struggle between proponents of a traditional, natural, Christian, organic-or tory-view of the landscape versus those who advocated the aggressive, privatizing, impersonal-or whig-tendencies of contemporary "improvement". Examining literature, painted and engraved images, and the physical environment of the period, Nigel Everett depicts a lively, intelligent debate about the development of English society and the relation of people to the land.