The Land of the Lune - Drakkar Press

204 Chapter 13: The Lune to Lancaster
County of Lancashire (1854) indicates: the view “leaves
nothing to be desired in a landscape that pleases rather
than surprises, and of which the prevailing character is
more beauty than grandeur … we see nothing misplaced,
and desire neither to add to nor take away [a] solitary
object.” Since then we have added eight wind turbines.
Today, trees largely obscure the view and it is surprising
that we are encouraged to dash across the dangerous
A683 to see what’s left of it. (Gray’s Seat is probably
not Gray’s view at all: he stood to the north of the road,
400m below the “more advantageous station”, according
to the 1821 editor of Gray’s Guide to the Lakes.)
As we sit with our cuppa at the Crook o’Lune picnic
tables, admiring the view (shown on page
8) up the Lune valley to Ingleborough,
contemplating the words of Thomas
Gray, mulling over the wind turbines on
Caton Moor, and fretting over the banks
of Himalayan balsam, we may lapse into
a reverie on the nature of naturalness. In
2006 various agencies coalesced to form
Natural England, which on first hearing
seems a rather strange name for a public
organisation. Its brief is “to conserve
and enhance the natural environment”.
So, naturally, we are led to ask: “What is
natural?” and in particular “What of Loyne
is natural?”
The name of Himalayan balsam tells
us that it doesn’t belong here. Similarly, for
the more pernicious Japanese knotweed.
What about the rhododendron that has run
amok at Kitmere and many other places
in Loyne? It is a native of Southern Asia.
Should we seek to eradicate it? Is there
any enthusiasm for giant hogweed (from
Asia)? Its name alone suggests we can do
without it! What about all those alien plants
that Reginald Farrer brought to Clapham?
Should we demand the removal of the fine
araucaria that stands alone in a field near
the Roman milestone at Middleton? It is
not a native tree: is it a natural one?
Apart from introduced species, what
about all those plants, such as cowslip and
primrose, that used to be abundant but are
now rare or extinct? Are they, or should
they be, part of the natural environment?
So many of our lowland meadows have been taken
over for agricultural purposes that those that remain in
anything like a natural state (such as those at Raisbeck,
Bretherdale and Tatham) are so rare that have been made
Sites of Special Scientific Interest. And, as we have seen,
the grouse moors have to be carefully managed to retain
what we now consider to be their natural state.
What could be more natural than the Ingleborough
that we see in the distance? Well, we know that a century
ago it would in the autumn have looked purple from the
Crook o’Lune viewpoint. Its slopes were then heatherclad.
Before that, they would have been tree-covered.
Even Aughton Woods in the middle distance are not
Near the Crook o’Lune
This is Chapter 13 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self