Читать книгу Resilience. Persistence and Change in Landscape Forms онлайн

21 страница из 59

The face of the country is the most important historical document that we possess. Upon the map of England – “that marvellous palimpsest” – is written much of English history: written in letters of earth and stone, of bank and ditch, of foliage and crop. As is the case with every map, the writing is not such as he that runs may read. It needs patience to discover, knowledge to decipher, insight, sometimes amounting to genius, to interpret. But the writing is there, all else awaits the competence of the reader. (Randall 1934, p. 5)

For Maitland and Randall, this written past was not concealed or erased by more recent “writings”. Ancient forms are present in the current landscape, and can be accessed by anyone who knows how to read them. One must simply look for clues in the image, as in an Épinal printssss1, where the most important points are not necessarily the most obvious. The villages which Maitland studied, using maps, were still part of the contemporary landscape, but they had retained elements betraying their ancient origins: groupings of elements, road layouts, housing patterns etc., which “never have been thoroughly effaced” (Maitland 1987, p. 15).