Countryside and country living in the 18th century

Aims of the course

This course aims to: 

• Give you a richer understanding of the practical realities of rural husbandry in the 18th century  
• Equip you to explore the place of the countryside in the 18th-century English imagination
• Reveal a pre-Romantic vision of countryside and country living before the era of the Lakes poets and Nature worship

Content

This five-day course explores ideas surrounding the countryside and country living as well as the practical realities of rural husbandry in the 18th century. Never the quaint, unchanging idyll of sentimental recollection, the countryside in the 18th century was in fact home to a vibrant and complex society: economically dynamic, culturally rich, and imaginatively contested. ‘Countryside and Country Living in the 18th Century’ aims to reconstruct this world.    

Presentation of the course 

This course will be taught across five seminars. Each seminar will pursue a different aspect of the period’s political and cultural history, and will involve a mixture of lecture, class discussion and group activity. The style of the seminars is informal, friendly and relaxed, and questions are actively encouraged at all stages! 

Class sessions 

1. Country society: order and change 
2. Rural customs and folklore 
3. Time and timekeeping in the English shires 
4. Nature stewardship: theory and practice 
5. Capitalistic farming and the wealth of nations 

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are: 

• To deepen your knowledge of life in the English countryside in the 18th century
• To reveal the ways in which the countryside and country living figured in the 18th-century imagination
• To see the world of the English countryside through eyes other than the Romantics’ and Sentimentalists’

Required reading 

Please read at least one of the following three items before the course: 

G E Mingay, English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, Routledge & Paul, 1963)  

J M Neeson, Commoners: Common Rights, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700-1820 (Cambridge, CUP, 1993) 

M Overton, Agricultural Revolution in England 1500-1850 (Cambridge, CUP, 1996)  

Typical week: Monday to Friday

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students. 

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.