48 THE FOOTPATH PltESERVATION SOCIETY. [Nov. 



through. The farmer summoned him ; but the magistrate said that 

 the defendant was perfectly in the right, as there should have been 

 sufficient room left for him to have gone through the field, and not 

 a mere hare track. Mr. Taylor then spoke of the value of footpaths 

 in his localit}^ his parisli being very much scattered, and stated 

 that it would be a great boon to the poor if the existing footpaths 

 were properly defined. 



Mr. Hugh Browne, solicitor, Nottingham, stated that in his own 

 experience lie had found the unpaid magistrates were better 

 disposed towards the maintenance of public rights than the paid 

 magistrates, the reason being that the unpaid were subject to the 

 criticism of the press, while the paid were practically free from such 

 criticism, and could and did do as they pleased. Some time ago 

 a footpath leading from Kirkby to Newstead was stopped by a land- 

 owner. Tlie case was taken before a jury, and although most con- 

 clusive evidence was adduced tliat the path had been a public path 

 for very many years, the jury were directed to find a verdict 

 adverse to the public right of user, and some poor men who had 

 ventured to defend the public right which they and their fathers 

 had held for two generations, were cast in costs of some £200, and 

 also the legal liability to pay a considerable sum to the landowner, 

 but which, the speaker added, that gentleman, to his credit be it 

 said, had the honesty never to ask for. The National Footpath 

 I'reservation Society would unite tlie scattered efforts of such 

 isolated contenders for public rights. Mr. Allnutt was elected 

 secretary of the new Society. 



