The Value of Maps
Some admirable survey maps have already been made and published. One of the best is for the Watford district, and it contains about 600 paths open to the public. The amusing suggestion was made at a meeting (held at the new building of the R.I.B.A.) for the purpose (in Mr. Churchill's idiom) of gingering the local councils of Hertfordshire that the quaint old habit of beating the bounds should be revived in a new form. The intense local patriotism of the Saxon village, surviving into later times, was at least one cause of this picturesque habit : villages are not as proud as they used to be ; but the desire for access to the heart of the country is much stronger than ever it was. What a bright festival IL would be if our villagers appointed one day in the year for perambulating the footpaths and bridlepaths dedicated to the public, to the end of demonstrating beyond all question which paths were truly and legally rights of way. Such a ceremony would have several incidental advantages. Some public roads disappear by the same process as destroyed the Garden of 17.den. I know one road, once well metalled, on which the growth was so big and plentiful that an out-of- work villager kept his family alive by cutting and selling the timber. The barbs of nettles as well as of wire have obstructed other paths that would be a godsend to the pedestrian. If any village will organize such a path-beating annual celebration it will certainly receive the highest measure of publicity ; and one object lesson would be of service.
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