I

Abstract

Charming, picturesque. There is no British Standard by which to measure the idyllic and consequently the quality and extent of any particular idyll must be largely in the eye of the beholder. It all depends on what kind of surroundings one is used to. To anyone forced to spend most of his time in an urban slum, Kew Gardens or Croxteth Park, Liverpool, would seem idyllic, but to a person reared in mid-Devon or the Scottish Highlands, such places could well seem something of a letdown and ‘idyllic’ would be much too flattering a description. It is clearly a word to be approached with great caution and a translation of ‘Our Head Office and factory are situated in an idyllic situation in South Wales’ (The Daily Telegraph, 4 Feb 1982) could be decidedly tricky. A photograph would undoubtedly help.