The Lowlands and Highlands

The Lowlands

Practically the whole south and most of the east of the island of Great Britain are occupied by the lowlands. However, one should not think that there are no hills and mountains there at all. When the geographers use the word "lowland" they just mean that the land is lowlying, but it does not mean that the place is flat. In many parts of Lowland Britain there are groups of rather high hills called the downs.

This term is rather misleading for foreigners who tend to think that it refers to the low-lying places. As a matter of fact, the noun "down" used to mean "a hill" in the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons (the Old English). Now the word refers to a rather special kind of hill — consisting ofxhalk and covered with grass. Where the downs meet the sea, they break off in cliffs. The white chalky cliffs near Dover which the people can see while crossing the English Channel, is the sort of symbol of England. Because of them, the Romans used to call the country Albion (from the word albus which means "white"). There are two great ridges of downs there, which are facing each other: the South Downs and the North Downs. They meet on Salisbury Plain, which isn't really a plain, but a grass-covered chalky upland. For more than a century it has been the great training grounds for the British Army. Some of the earliest airfields were also built on the Plain, and near its centre, at Boscombe Down, there is the airfield where many new planes are stillested out. These green ridges, usually four or five hundred feet high, were free of shrub and wood even in prehistoric times, and the people used them as highways — or ridgeways, as they are often called.

In the central part of Lowland Britain rise two groups of hills called the Cotswolds and the Chilterns. The Chilterns begin near Oxford (the oldest university town) and stretch in the direction of Cambridge (the other old university town). The Cotswolds are known for the fine lime-stone of which most towns and villages of southeast are built. The Cotswolds also gave the name to the local sheep, which are so big that are jokingly called "Cotswold lions". The western part of Lowland Britain contains another famous group of hills — the Mendips, also made largely of limestone. It is a very picturesque, romantic place with many caves and gorges.

As different as it can be is the scenery of the eastern section of the Lowland Britain, which is usually called East Anglia. It is the place where the flat fields lie below sea level. The region is also called "Little Holland" (or "The Parts of Holland") because it resembles this European country where the land lies so low that it has to be protected from the sea by dykes. The scenery of East Anglia is peculiar — the great flat swamps with occasional isles of high places that rise above the level of the surrounding swamp. The largest of these "isles" is called the Isle of Ely, famous for the medieval cathedral and the monastery. Such kind of scenery is called the fens. In the 17th century a big portion of the fens was drained and the places were turned into pasture and farmland.

Where the fens meet the sea, there are about thirty shallow inland lakes called the Broads. The scientists say that the Broads appeared as a result of human activity: the people of the early Middle Ages cut the peat they used as fuel. They cut out millions of cubic feet of the stuff, and then, about the 18th century, the land began to sink and the places of former diggings were filled with water. Nowadays the Broads are often called the great "playgrounds of Southern England". Lots of people come there to enjoy boating. Every summer thousands of enthusiasts navigate up and down the shallow channels connecting the Broads, study the abundant bird life through binoculars (this popular hobby is called bird-watching), and sail down to the open sea.

 Answer the following questions:

1. What part of the island of Great Britain is called Lowland Britain?

2. What is the exact meaning of the word "lowland"? Is it necessary for a place to be absolutely flat, so that we may call it a "lowland"?

3. What term is used to refer to the chains of hills in southeastern England? What is the etymology of this term? Is it used to refer to any hill or a hill of some special type?

4. What is the difference between a down and a cliff? Why did the cliffs near Dover become a symbol of England? Explain the etymology of the name which the Romans gave to the island?

5. In what directions do the South and North Downs stretch out? How have these ridges of hills been used since the people began to live there? What is the name of the place where they meet? How has this place been used for more than two hundred years?

6. What hills are situated in the central and western parts of England? Do they look exactly like those in the southeast? What are these hills famous for? What explains their being so picturesque?

7. What sort of scenery is typical for the eastern part of Lowland Britain? What term is used to refer to it? What is the name of this region? Are there any hills there? What term do the people use there to refer to the elevated places of land? In what way are they different from hills?

8. What is the name of the lakes situated in the places where the fens meet the sea? When and how did they appear? Why is this place so popular with holidaymakers? What do they do there?

The Highlands

The north and the west of the island of Great Britain are occupied by the highlands, here and there split by valleys. There are even two big plains there: the Lancashire Plain and Anglesey.

England's farthest west (the counties of Devon and Cornwall) has a reputation in Britain for "foreignness": in the past, the Cornish people had even their own language which is now being revived, they still keep up some customs that go back to ancient times. Actually, neither Romans, nor Saxons could really settle in these places. It is the land where King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were supposed to live. The historians say that this legendary king was the leader of the Cornish people who fought so bravely against the Anglo-Saxon invaders. This region is often called "England's Little California", because it has a warmer climate than any other part of England; it also has some of the finest coast scenery, with dozens of wonderful bays, stretches of golden sand, and fine cliffs. The utmost westerly point of the peninsula is called Land's End, popular for holidaymaking and surf riding because it is the only place in Great Britain where great ocean waves (called "rollers") can be enjoyed. Practically there is no difference between summer and winter temperatures. As in real California, fruit, vegetables, and flowers are grown for winter and spring markets of other parts of the country. The hillsides are covered with heather and remain green all year round, except August, when they become purple because of flowering heather. This type of scenery — hills covered with heather — is called the moor.

The English names of types of landscape are often confusing. For instance, the words moor and heath refer to the open areas covered with heather, but a moor is hilly, while a heath is flat. In other cases, the things may be similar from the geological point of view, but the vegetation that grow there or the shapes of hills may be responsible forthe use of different terms. For instance, a valley between the hills is called a coomb in Cornwall, a chine in Hampshire, a dale in Yorkshire, a glen in Scotland. From the geological point of view, they are alike, but the colour or/and the shape of rocks are different: the hills around a Cornish coomb are covered with heather, while on both sides of a Hampshire chine are bare cliffs, and the hills on both sides of a Yorkshire dale are more round, resembling a basket of eggs.

Travelling further to the north, you get to Cumberland. The place most popular with the visitors because of the Lake District, made famous in the end of the 18th century by the great Romantic poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southy) who lived and worked there. The district contains the nub of mountains, the highest in England, from which radiate a number of valleys, most of them containing long lakes. The most famous of them is Windermere — the largest lake in England. The place is frequented by goers, who enjoy walking over and round the heather-covered mountains called fells. The place is also an attraction for the rock-climbers, as there are many rocks with sharp-pointed summits called the pikes.

If you move from the Lake District along the border with Scotland, you have to cross the Cheviots — the 35-mile range of grassy hills noted for the sort of sheep that graze on them — cheviots. It is one of the loneliest places in England, as there are no towns or even big villages there. Northern England also includes the Pennines — "the backbone of England" — a chain of hills that runs down to the Midlands, separating the Lancashire Plain from the Yorkshire Moors. On the moorland between the hills, which Emily Bronte described in her novel "Wuthering Heights", there are many small lakes, called here "loughs" (pronounced [mxs] or [bks]), similar to the word the Scots used for lake, "loch". The lakes are small but beautiful. To the south of the Moors the land becomes low-lying. This part of the county is called Yorkshire Dales— the scenery, described by John Priestley as most wonderful, where everything worth seeing on the Earth is packed within short distances.

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the reputation of the counties situated in the western part of England?

2. Who was King Arthur of the Celts' legends? What enemies did he fight against?

3. Why is this region called "England's Little California"?

4. What place is called Land's End? Why is it popular with the surf-riders?

5. What term is used to describe the scenery of the West Country? Can you explain the difference between the types of landscapes described by the terms "moor" and "heath"?

6. What types of valleys are described by the terms "coomb",'idale" and "glen"?

7. What place in the north of England is especially popular with the visitors? What attracts them there? What does the place look like? Do you remember the name of the largest lake in England?

8. What term is used to refer to the people who like to walk over the mountainous places? And those who like to climb the mountain peaks? What is the difference between the fells and the pikes?

9. How long is the Cheviot chain of hills? What sort of place is it? Do they look different from the hills in the Lake District?

10. In what direction does the Pennine chain of hills stretch out? Why is it called the "backbone of England"? What places doesit separate? In what well-known English novel the place called Yorkshire Moors is described? What is the difference between the moors and the dales? Why did the writer John Priestley like the Yorkshire Dales?