How gardens became more than just lawns and borders, and transformed instead into a microcosm of the natural world.

How Wordsworth expressed a sense of nature's powers in his poetry that has influenced thinking about the countryside ever since.

How John Seymour's 1976 Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency proved a huge hit with disaffected city dwellers keen on a rural life.

The stylist explores how field sports contributed to the idea of the country house as a seat of social and political power.

How the idea of escaping to the countryside, seen as a modern symbol of city dweller angst, is as old as the Romans.

How the rural landscape came to be seen as a place of moral, physical and spiritual healing for First World War veterans.

The designer explains how Mother Nature inspired a group of 1970s artists to paint rural life in the countryside.

The legacy of O'Connor's 1842 plan for poor Britons to plough their own furrow for financial independence and social dignity.

Laurence explores changing ideas about the countryside, starting with early 19th-century landscape designer Humphrey Repton.

How Octavia set up the National Trust, based on her belief in the importance of nature for the working class.