Nature's Beauty

I am well aware of the old cliché that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but a journey from my sister’s flat in South London, back home to the wilds of North Wales has got me thinking about the nature of beauty. Whilst on the bus to Euston I crossed Waterloo Bridge and the view of London from this vantage point showed the city at its best. I could see the Palace of Westminster, St Paul’s Cathedral, the London Eye, the Gherkin, the OXO tower, Somerset House, Canary Wharf and the South Bank. Each of these landmarks or buildings is aesthetically appealing, and doubtlessly when seen together are a sight to behold, showing the grandeur and majesty of London. But are they truly beautiful? The reason I ask this, is that on the train back to North Wales I passed some breathtaking landscapes such as the estuary of the Conwy River, and the mountains of Snowdonia still capped by the winter’s snow. These views were truly breathtaking and made me reconsider my earlier judgement of the view of London? Was it beautiful after all or merely pleasing to the eye? But was it fair to compare these vastly different views? Is it possible to compare natural and man-made beauty? Can we use the same benchmarks for a mountain, created over thousands, if not millions of years, and a building created by man’s own endeavour?

It might be that I am missing the point completely; it might be that a place’s beauty is not solely judged by its aesthetic, but also by its meaning and resonance to the viewer. That is, the view of London meant relatively little to me personally, but the view of Snowdonia meant that I was home. A person brought up in London might have seen a deeper meaning to the city’s landscape, and the memories intertwined with this view would have given it a significance that a stranger to the city would not feel.

The feeling of belonging to a place means that one can see beauty in the most down at heel town or village and can appreciate the intricacies and mannerisms that might not register on the radar of a visitor. It might be that its beauty lays in its smell , its sounds, its accents, or even something so subtle that it cannot be put into words, but still exists.

I believe that the above is true to an extent, but that still doesn’t explain why a building made by man’s hands will never live up to the beauty of nature (in my mind at least).