A CHARTER FOR WALKERS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Mr. C. E. M. Joad, in supporting the Access to Moun- tains and Moorlands Bill in your last issue, entirely ignores the economic side of the question. Nobody will deny that it would be extremely pleasant for our rambling citizens to wander over hill and glen ; but what of Mr. Joad's " rich men," presumably citizens too, who have paid large sums for the privileges which the 'rambler is to have free ? Admittedly the rambler will have no sporting rights, but that will not prevent him spoiling the sport of the tenant or of the owner. " Hundreds of ramblers with bare knees
and sun-tanned faces " may be an impressive sight on the Wirral peninsula, but appearing at a critical Moment in a grouse drive or in a stalk they would present quite a different aspect to the tenant who saw his money and his holiday alike wasted. And it is no good thinking that ramblers and sportsmen can: use the hills and the moors simultaneously. There are very few places in the Highlands where ramblers are not allowed to climb at will except in the months of August, September and the beginning of October, and for their exclusion in these months there is the very good reason that it is upon these months that a great many men depend for their livelihood. A moor or a forest in Scotland may be a luxury to the tenant, but his luxury means to most pro- prietors the upkeep of their estates for another year, to hundreds of stalkers and keepers their only livelihood, to a host of gullies a welcome addition to their scanty earnings on the croft or in the herring fleet. It is not likely that tenants will be forthcoming much longer if they are to have their grouse drives spoilt by some cheerful party of ramblers crossing the line, their stalks spoilt by some carefree climber giving his wind to every beast on the ground. The passing of this Bill may mean an added pleasure to walkers, but it will mean unemployment and ruin to a great part of the
Argyll.
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