In Chapter 4 of The Lie of the Land, we look at the effects - both direct and indirect - that the recent glaciations of the current Ice Age have had on the landscape of Britain. Along the way we take in the musings of Kurt Schwitters, John Ruskin and Wordsworth, including the following masterpiece of literate tourist guidance.

Wordsworth was, of course, an accomplished artistic interpreter of nature, but he had scientific insight also. In his book A Complete Guide to the Lakes... in which he collaborated with one of the foremost geologists of his day - Adam Sedgwick - it was Wordsworth, not Sedgwick, who first noticed the radial drainage pattern of the Lake District (page 118, below).