FIELD PATHS. 
139 
the smooth, dry track, winding away in easy curves, along some 
green slope to the churchyard, to the forest grange, or to the 
embowered cottage.” 
“ Stiles and footpaths are vanishing everywhere. There is 
nothing upon which the advance of wealth and population has 
made so serious an inroad. As land has increased in value, 
wastes and heaths have been parcelled out and enclosed, but 
seldom have footpaths been left. The poet and the naturalist, 
who before had, perhaps, the greatest real property in them, 
have had no allotment. They have been totally driven out of 
the promised land.” 
* * * * * * 
“ Those are commonly the most jealous of pedestrian tres- 
passers who seldom visit their own estates, but permit the 
seasons to scatter their charms around their villas and rural 
possessions without the heart to enjoy, or even the presence to 
behold them. How often have I myself been arrested in some 
long-frequented dale — in some spot endeared by its own beauties 
and the fascinations of memory, by a board exhibiting in giant 
characters ‘ Stopped by an Order of Sessions,’ and denouncing 
the terrors of the law upon trespassers ! ” 
“ When the path of immemorial usage is closed — when the 
little streak, almost as fine as a mathematical line, along the 
wealthy man’s ample field is grudgingly erased — it is impossible 
not to feel indignant at the pitiful monopoly. Is there no village 
champion to be found bold enough to put in his protest against 
these encroachments, to assert the public right ? For a right it 
is as authentic as that by which the land itself is held and as 
clearly acknowledged by the laws. Is there no local ‘ Hampden 
with dauntless breast ’ to ‘ withstand the petty tyrants of the 
fields,’ and to save our good old footpaths ? If not, we shall in 
a few years be doomed to the highways and the hedges ; to 
look, like Dives, from a sultry region of turnpikes, into a 
pleasant one of verdure and foliage which we may not ap- 
proach.” 
# * * * * * 
“ It is when I see unnecessary and arbitrary encroachment 
upon the rural privileges of the public that I grieve. Exactly 
in the same proportion as our population and commercial habits 
gain upon us do we need all possible opportunities to keep alive 
in us the spirit of Nature. 
The world is too much with us ; late and soon, 
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers ; 
Little there is in nature that is ours. 
We give ourselves up to the artificial habits and objects of 
ambition till we endanger the higher and better feelings and 
