The Rural Ideal

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BRITAIN IN CLOSE–UP

CULTURAL AND STYLE: NATIONAL AND SELF–EXPRESSION

While many might agree that the charac­teristics and behaviour mentioned above are recognisably British there are, of course, many cultures reflecting age, class, gender, ethnicity and social outlook. Broadly speak­ing there is a divide between the cultures of the controlling majority and those of the protesting minority, people who feel com­paratively weak.

One of the most striking aspects of pop­ular mainstream culture in Britain is the love of the countryside. Many people, whether they live in a suburban house or in a flat in a high-rise block, would say their dream home was a country cottage with roses growing over the door. In 1977 a col­lection of Edwardian amateur watercolours and sketches of wild flowers and simple rural scenes were published under the title The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. To the surprise of the publishers this proved to be the best selling book of the next ten years. It appealed to romantic (and upper-class) nostalgia for the countryside. The Archers, radio's longest running serial soap opera (over thirty-five years so far), Laura Ash­ley's highly successful decor and fashion shops, and the fashion for unpainted pine furniture, all tap deeply into the British rural imagination.

As a nation, the British have made a men­tal retreat from the urban environment. They have a deep nostalgia for an idealised world of neat hedgerows, cottages and great coun­try houses, surrounded by parkland, that clever eighteenth–century style of garden­ing that looked 'natural'. The nostalgia stems partly from a sense of loss which has lin­gered since the Industrial Revolution two centuries ago, and from a romantic love of nature which has been such a powerful theme in English literature. The National Trust, which owns or manages hundreds of country estates, stretches of countryside and great country houses, was founded more than a century ago on the rising nostalgia for a lost rural paradise. Its growth in mem­bership from 315,000 to 1.3 million, illus­trates its success in encouraging a love of the country and of the past.

A basic reason why so many town dwell­ers wish to live in the suburbs is to have a garden in which to grow flowers. Indeed, many suburban houses imitate a cottage style. Even in the heart of London, its great parks, such as St James', Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, are informal, recre­ating a rural ideal, and city–dwelling chil­dren often know the names of wild flowers and birds.

Britain is a country where over 80 per cent of the population live in towns of 50,000 inhabitants or more. Yet most reject the urban industrial culture, viewing life in the city as an 'unnatural' economic necessity.

This sense of nostalgia and traditional­ism is also expressed in appearances. The 1989 British Interior Design Exhibition con­tained twenty-seven example room sets, the majority of which were traditional, pretty and were mainly some version of the Eng­lish country house. Laura Ashley floral wall­papers and fabrics decorate suburban and even high-rise homes all over the land.

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