To reach the summit of the Hartside Pass, high in the North Pennines, is to marvel at the rich tapestry that is the British landscape: our land. From this Cumbrian vantage point, you can view prime pasture, marginal upland, mountain top and forested fell-side, moorland, wide estuary, and adjoining coastal plains on the English and Scottish sides of the Solway Firth. The spirits can be lifted, the inner soul replenished, by the infinite variety on offer in this slice of our land – to which we can surely claim a moral, if not a legal, right as UK citizens.

No other place in a small island offers such a panoramic sweep across England and into Scotland: two nations broadly sharing a system of ownership that, in some areas, has remained relatively unchanged for centuries. But for how much longer?

Below the immediate summit of Hartside, one of the highest roads in England, the rich dairy farmland of the Eden valley rolls into the extensive holdings of one of the country’s oldest aristocracies – the Lowthers – stretching back to the 11th century and the subsequent largesse of Edward I. It provides a lush, pastoral foreground to the majestic peaks of the Lake District westwards, the ultimate summit of England, which incorporates the biggest single chunk of land owned by the UK’s largest conservation and membership charity, the National Trust.

The spectacular view from the Hartside summit – for me, the most varied, breathtaking vista in Britain – reveals not only our island in microcosm, but also the concentrated pattern of landownership that has long characterised Britain, briefly disturbed by an English civil war in the 17th century. It provides a starting point to raise several questions about our land, and the true value we place upon it beyond the sometimes obscene monetary gain from either trading it or using it as a shelter from taxation (of which more later).