Country Life
BY IAN NIALL I HAVE just received a reprint copy of The Country Code and, if volumes more could be written to establish common ground between, townsman and countryman, at least this little fourpenny booklet, produced by the Stationery Office, does all it can to impress on the visitor to the country that much of his time he is walking in someone else's backyard by virtue of rights of way and so on. Each year we have a crop of new stories about forestry fires, trespass and the desecration of beauty spots. Most of the trouble arises from the great gap between two different ways of life. At times it is said that every townsman was once a countryman but this has no bearing when it comes to the conduct of the individual. My backyard is a gorse hill and a few whitewashed Welsh farms to be seen from our windows, for we are only on the fringe of the country. I find it hard to excuse people who come out of the industrial towns to shake off all restraint in what the Americans, with room and to spare, call the Great Outdoors. Holiday resorts often put up a sign like 'Seatown welcomes you.' It isn't at all a bad idea. The habit might spread to the country. The notice should read, 'Re- member this is someone else's backyard!'
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