View from Mount Edgcumbe towards Penlee Point and Rame Head by Nicholas Condy (1793-1857)
Connecting with the past
- a note by Dr Malcolm Cross
MERIT has been formed in an era of pronounced social and economic change. Powerful advances in computing power may bring hitherto un-dreamt of access to information. General artificial intelligence may facilitate new drugs and procedures to address longstanding barriers to full health. The list of opportunities for the future is impressive. And yet we also live in an age of anxiety.
. . an age of anxiety
Perhaps the number one issue in most western countries is affordability or the capacity to meet obligations with incomes that for many have not kept pace with the prices of essentials such as rents, debt payments, utilities and food. In fact, the issue is wider. People worry about the work-life balance, levels of education and training in rapidly changing labour markets and niggling concerns about what for many appears to be a widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots. Surveys conducted in the last few years show that women in particular are more likely to be ‘extremely worried’ about these matters, especially if they are struggling within less secure family environments with fewer resources to care for children newly bombarded with disruptive messages from seemingly unaccountable social media platforms.
Unsurprisingly perhaps these pressures have taken their toll on a sense of wellbeing. This is occurring just when the treatment model of health care is being replaced by a new emphasis on every citizen’s need to assume personal responsibility for a range of preventative measures, including exercise and a ‘healthy’ life style. A comparison by the National Centre for Social Research of the period before and after Covid showed that women were now much more likely than men to be extremely worried about the health and wellbeing both of their children and of their parents. Much of the public focus has been on the decline in mental health. While men show lower levels of satisfaction with their lives and higher suicide rates, women are three times more likely than men to experience common mental health problems up from1993 when they were twice as likely (1). Young women (16 – 24) in particular are almost three times as likely (26%) to experience a common mental health issue as males of the same age (9%).
At a broader level many of the old certainties appear to be fading in the face of global warming and the long-term sustainability of the planet. Fears of global instability, international tensions and the threat of armed conflict are also spreading. Although between 1680 and 1850, Britain fought in 17 major international wars and a much larger number of imperial conflicts, rebellions, and global skirmishes, the period from 1945 to the end of the century is viewed as a golden age of predictability and calm compared to the period since.
Does this mean that the time for concerns about the past has passed?
Does all this mean that the past is passé; that the time for concerns about the past has passed? There are those who certainly believe this. What is the point of worrying about a sea-bounded area in the face of coastal erosion; why replant trees felled by wild storms fuelled by unavoidable climate change; why care for a landscape, however carefully designed, when challenges to bio-diversity suggest a strategy of re-wilding?
These arguments are at best unhelpful and at worst counterproductive. They will do little or nothing to address the anxieties over resources, wellbeing and instability identified above. Even those who would concede that the past has lessons for the future often fail to appreciate the real rewards that flow from engagement with what has gone before. The past is so much more than prophecy.
This is especially true in areas of great natural beauty. Experiencing the virtues of the pre-industrial life in the post-industrial age is a form of therapy. It has been shown that exposure to natural landscapes lowers anxiety. Much more recently the blue has been added to the green; water in all its moods makes a hugely positive difference.
But Mount Edgcumbe is much more than this. The justly famous early 18th century poet, Alexander Pope – a great friend of the Edgcumbe family – captured the human role perfectly when he insisted that the goal was to dress nature but not to overdress "treat the goddess [Nature] like a modest fair/ Nor overdress, nor leave her wholly bare”.
The majesty of trees is a case in point. In the designed landscape they were carefully selected by type and placed so as to frame spectacular views. Different settings were chosen to project divergent meanings. The frequent depictions of poetry are intended to point this out. As Pope insisted each space possessed its own genius that would draw us back time and again. Once the viewer knows why a building is located in a singular place and why it was designed in a particular way, he or she is in the company of those that planned and built it. In these circumstances, you can be alone but never lonely.
The effects of the 1891 blizzard in Mount Edgcumbe
Communities are more resilient through having a strong sense of place. Connecting citizens to local history has been shown to increase life satisfaction, mental resilience and pride. Historic England’s recent report surveys more than 70 studies demonstrating these links (2). Legacy stimulates change and in turn inspires solutions. Environmental shocks are real but they have occurred before and in all cases, solutions were eventually found. The 1891 blizzard felled over 2000 trees in the park alone but they were replaced as thoughtfully as before. By all means leave some rotting wood to sustain bio-diversity but not at the expense of destroying a design built on so much careful thought.
Legacy stimulates change and in turn inspires solution
The designed landscape at Mount Edgcumbe was a product of the Enlightenment. The stimulating marriage of art and science that characterised the ‘long’ eighteenth century has now been largely overshadowed by the constraining boundaries of specialisation. The parkland was created by gifted amateurs spurred on by myriad visitors and occasional specialists. It is uniquely placed for a community-based revival, even if currently lost in plain sight.
(1) National Centre for Social Research (2023) Briefing Paper ‘Society Watch 2022 – Anxious Britain: How Worried are we in 2022?
(2) Historic England (2025) Research Evidence for the Social Impact of Heritage (https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/caring-for-heritage/social-impact/indicators/research-evidence/