Our relationship with landscape fascinates me, particularly when it manifests in people who have a deep knowledge and love of a particular place, whether from an agricultural, historical, geological or other angle.

This quotation is from a love letter to a landscape and a way of life: Herdwick sheep farming in the north of England.

‘My old man can hardly spell common words, but has an encyclopaedic knowledge of landscape. I think it makes a mockery of conventional ideas about who is and who isn’t “intelligent”.’

See also my love letter to this wonderful book, including a mosaic of quotations.

Source: James Rebanks, The Shepherd’s Life (London: Allen Lane, 2015), p. 22

Photo credit: TimHill at pixabay