[bbc.com]
Closely shorn grass lawns first emerged in 17th century England at the homes of large, wealthy landowners. While sheep were still grazed on many such park-lands, landowners increasingly depended on human labor to tend the grass closest to their homes.

@Killtheskyfairy I lived with my paternal grandmother in Mississippi from 1962 to 1965. She was old, but took care of my bedridden grandfather, who was considerably older than her. My family says that I broke his hip when I was a child. My grandfather was born at the end of the Civil War in 1868, so he was 60 years old when my dad was born. He would get mad while watching Westerns on our black and white TV because he could see lawns, but they didn't have lawns back then. Our yard was just hard-packed earth. Grandma would pull out any grass that grew up because it could hide snakes and unpleasant insects. She would gather reeds from the river to tie into a broom to sweep the yard. In areas where there was grass, grazing animals were often left to nibble because they required less attention. However, these areas were usually away from the house. The more isolated a house was on dead earth, the better off the occupants were. As I consider the range of conditions and perceptions I've experienced in my life, I feel like I'm 200 years old. Imagine going back in time and not knowing the common technical terms for parts of a horse-drawn carriage or any of the equipment used with horses, such as saddles and bags. Every single part and piece had a name, and those who used them referred to them as often as we do our iPhones today. Growing old is like experiencing culture shock in the country you grew up in, with no other forces at play except the passage of time.

@Killtheskyfairy Yes, the rich loved their parks, but the grazed grass of a park actually supports a lot of wildlife especially flowers, since grazing is natural and animals graze and dung sellectively. It was only when the middle classes, who did not have enough ground for grazing or hay making started to copy the fashion, and used machines which blindly chopped everything, that lawns became a problem.