PRESERVATION OF OPEN SPACES. 189 
considering the law on the subject, and the points in which it 
may advantageously be amended, it has drafted a Bill which 
will no doubt, sooner or later, furnish matter for discussion in the 
House of Commons. The main object in view is to emphasize 
the duty of local authorities to put the law in motion wherever 
a footpath, reputed to be a public way, is shut up or obstructed. 
At present the duty usually falls upon individuals, and as the 
existence of a public right of way depends mainly upon the 
extent and nature of its use, in case of litigation many witnesses 
must be called, and the expenses are considerable. There are 
moreover one or two highly technical doctrines on the subject 
of footpaths which are often abused to the public detriment, 
and which the Society seek to abrogate. Hitherto, however, 
it has been found that more is done for the protection of public 
rights by quietly enforcing the law as it is, and thus educating 
public opinion, than by new legislation ; and perhaps the most 
important advance in the protection of footpaths is that which 
was first suggested by the Kyrle Society. A local society is 
formed, the ordnance maps of the districts are obtained, and 
every footpath is carefully walked and examined, and its course 
traced on the map, while a record is made of the state of the 
path and the character of the gates and stiles. Application is 
then made to the local authority to restore stiles and put up 
guide-posts, and generally to assist the public in the assertion of 
its rights of way. A very good example of such a society is the 
Northern Heights Footpath Association, which has its head- 
quarters at Hampstead and meets at the house of Mr. Edmund 
Maurice. Without being driven to actual litigation in a single 
instance, the Association has restored to the public many paths 
which were rapidly falling into disuse, and the series of maps 
which it will shortly publish will probably induce at the same 
time both a larger use and a more vigilant guardianship of the 
rural ways of the neighbourhood. 
I should not omit to say that there is a National Foot-path 
Preservation Society, which like the Commons Preservation 
Society, gives advice and aid in the protection of footpaths. I 
am not personally acquainted with the nature of its work, 
which, however, has been already described in the June number 
of Nature Notes. 
Closely akin to foot-paths in the pleasure they afford to the 
wayfarer, are the green strips by the road-side, still happily 
common in rural England. In many places these have been 
inclosed through a spirit of greed on the side of the landlord, 
and through ignorance and supineness on the part of the public. 
As a rule the right of way of the public extends from hedge to 
hedge, and though certain summary remedies against encroach- 
ment apply only to the distance of fifteen feet from the crown of 
the road, any inclosure or obstruction on the green sward by the 
side is unlawful, and may be prevented by the proper legal pro- 
cedure. There have been some notable cases in which this 
