At a meeting of the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society,
held at Keswick on Monday, the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley read an interesting paper on the preservation of public footpaths,—a duty which, at all events in the Lake country, becomes not merely a local, but a national duty. He said that in the neighbourhood of Ambleside alone no less than twenty-two pleasant and ancient footpaths by hill and valley had been closed to the public in the course of fifteen years. The same thing is going on elsewhere, though it is not, of course, so very great a calamity in ordinary scenery as it is in the midst of the lovely scenery of Cumberland and Westmoreland. Mr. Rawnsley, however, seems to think that-public footpaths are not footpaths which you have any right to take a dog. If he only means that you must not let your dogs disturb the game in the neighbourhood of such footpaths, he is quite right. But if he means that when there is no such game, you ought always to • leave your dog at- home• when you enter on a way through private grounds, he is undoiug half the value of his claim, to keep country footpaths open. How is a man to enjoy even beautiful scenery to the fullest extent without his best friend.?
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