PUBLIC FOOTPATHS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—We might add to Dr. Jacks' Litany, quoted in Mr. Brewer's letter to the Spectator for May 2nd :—" From barbed wire and notices that Trespassers will be Prosecuted, Good Lord, deliver us ! "
My father being an inveterate naturalist, I early learnt to evade, defy or mollify keepers and other enemies who try to prevent children being free of the woods and meadows which are their rightful heritage, so long as they do no harm. But the children who live on the edge of the encroaching towns, are naturally regarded as a source of damage and inconvenience and are apt to be turned off with rude words.
How can we possibly rear a generation of, lovers of the countryside, incapable of crimes such as leaving litter about, unless we let the children wander in the woods and meadows in intimacy with birds and flowers and trees and other wild creatures ? How can they be educated without this direct experience of Nature ?
There should be Guilds of Naturalists, with 'badges for
. those who can be trusted off-the" public footpaths, signed
farmers and land-owners as well as by the teacher or Guider or Scout-Master who would recommend them for this honour. The badges should be given cautiously, perhaps only after some definite piece of nature study done at first-hand under guidance. Guild members with badges should themselves be sentinels to see that no privilege was abused. Notices should show what trespassing means. " Quiet ! Nesting- Time ! " " Look where you tread ! " " Take great care of the • rare flowers ! " " Leave gates as you find them ! "
Enclosed for hay ! " &c.—I am, Sir, &c.,
[we are much interested in the suggestion, and rejoice to hear that • something like it has been tried in Derbyshire by the local committee of the C.P.R.E. We hope to return to the subject in a leading article.—En. Spectator.]
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