29 SEPTEMBER 1894, Page 18

THE IRREGULARITY OF ENGLISH FIELDS.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.'] Sin,—It seems to me that your correspondent, Mr. Herbert, puts effect before cause, since it is pretty certain that roads came into existence before inclosed fields. There is very little doubt that when primitive man drove his primitive cart across the uninclosed country, he did not take a bee-line to his destination, but curved and turned about to avoid soft ground ; and the tracks thus made became, in time, rights of way, and when the fields were inclosed, their boundaries were naturally shaped by these roads.—I am, Sir, &o.,