FOOTPATHS AND COMMONS. 
9 
FOOTPATHS AND COMMONS.=*= 
HOSE who have done battle for so many years in the 
cause of footpaths and open spaces can have but one 
feeling — that of hopefulness and thorough satisfaction — 
as they peruse the pages of Sir Robert Hunter’s very 
complete summary of the principles of law which now “govern 
the preservation of footpaths, roadside wastes, commons, and 
village greens.” It is less than two years ago since we brought 
before the readers of Nature Notes the history of the struggle 
to win back open spaces that were well-nigh lost and to main- 
tain those that still remained, so graphically described in Mr. 
Shaw Lefevre’s work English Commons and Forests; and since 
the publication of his narrative the machinery of the law for 
their preservation has been at once strengthened and simplified 
by the provisions of the Local Government Act of 1894. 
Hitherto the burden of preventing obstruction of footpaths 
and encroachments on commons has laid largely on public- 
spirited individuals, but now the lately-created Parish and 
District Councils are practically made responsible for keeping 
open paths to the public and for putting a stop to enclosure 
of common land. 
All our readers will agree that, second to the enjoyment of 
open spaces, there is no more valuable heritage than the vast net- 
work of footpaths that overspreads our land. High roads and 
lanes alone, which are often bordered by walls and hedges shut- 
ting out the view, cannot give us a true idea of the beauties of 
the landscape, but footpaths lead us to the inmost shrines of the 
temple of nature. Once existing, they can only be destroyed by 
an Act of Parliament or by an order of Justices enrolled in 
Quarter Sessions. The latter can now only be obtained by the 
consent of the District and Parish Councils, and against this 
order a single individual has it in his power to appeal. But 
footpaths are in far more danger from obstruction by selfish 
owners of property, and, in instituting legal proceedings, it must 
be proved that the path was originally dedicated by the land- 
owner (not a lessee or tenant) to the public, or that the “ user ” of 
the footpath has extended over a given number of years. Here, 
however, the duty of proceeding against unlawful obstruction is 
incumbent on the District Council, or, if it fail, the County 
Council. Both the District and Parish Councils are likewise 
bound to keep footpaths in repair. 
Passing over the question of our pleasant and pleasure- 
giving roadside wastes, so many of which have been lost through 
the erroneous old notion that the public right of way extended to 
only fifteen feet from the road-centre, we will only say that they 
* Footpaths and Commons, and Parish and District Councils, by Sir Robert 
Hunter, M.A. (Cassell & Co., 1895, 8vo, pp. 32.) Price 6d. 
