With this issue we inaugurate a new feature: reprints of famous or forgotten prescriptive statements by past geographers, together with commentaries on how far their aims have been realized. Geographers have repeatedly asserted that theirs was an age, if not the age, of ‘progress’. Modern devotees of progress may find it salutary, if not chastening, to examine past expectations in the light of subsequent achievements.
The first Past and present feature is Sir Francis Younghusband's (1920) presidential address to the Royal Geographical Society, on ‘Natural beauty and geographical science’, to which David Lowenthal appends a retrospective commentary.
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References
1.
BonacinaL. C. W.1921: [Letter]. Geographical Review11, 160.
2.
CornishV.1928: Harmonies of scenery: An outline of aesthetic geography. Geography14, 275–83, 383–94.
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CornishV.1943: The beauties of scenery: a geographical survey.London: Frederick Muller.
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DavisW. M.1920: The beauty of geographical features. Geographical Review10, 420.
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GilbertE. W.1965: Vaughan Cornish and the advancement of knowledge relating to the beauty of scenery in town and country.Oxford: Oxford Preservation Trust.
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GommeA. W.1921: The scenery of Greece. Geographical Journal57, 418–30.
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YounghusbandF. E.1921. The heart of nature, or the quest for natural beauty.London: J. Murray.
