The Lake District, William Wordsworth wrote in 1810, should be “a sort of national property”, a place for everyone who has an “eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy”. In that phrase lies the origin of something precious: an understanding that the countryside enhances the common good. We look after it to make our lives — and those that come after — richer, deeper, happier and healthier.
So “horror” is not too strong a word to describe the prospect of England’s national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) falling prey to investment zones, thinly thought-through wheezes to get things built in what government describes menacingly as “undeveloped and under-developed areas”.
Of course, if you want to see it that way, the peat
