Our ‘great entail’: constructing the cultural value of the Lake District

It is widely recognised that shifting perceptions of nature and the attributing of value to specific natural landscapes, such as the English Lake District, are processes that are shaped and influenced by various forms of cultural expression. In order to re-examine the complex interactions between cultural activity and our response to natural spaces, this chapter considers a body of written accounts of the Lakes landscape from a period during which its meanings and value were being radically revaluated, and before the deeply influential Wordsworthian construction of place had been fully established.