The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-07-11 00:00:00

THE OLD PATHS.

THE process of anwm, Icing landed estates.
by adding field to field, which followed the
adoption and exten.ion tvf the large farm and
high rent sptem, hag neecssitated the for-
mation of soeieties with the view of preserv-
ing to the public use what remains of ancient
commons, waste ground, old fields, and river-

bank paths and roadside margins, in connec-
tion with which there exists inalienable
rights of grass-cutting and pasturage. The
exercise of vigilance was indeed required to
put a stop .to further encroachments and
appropriation. It was just the want of this
preventative watchfulness that led to the
gradual diminution of wide expanses of com-
mon to Jess than one-half or one-fourth of
their original extent. The dwellers in villages
and roadside hamlets might grumble on from
generation to generation when they observed
what was taking place, but they did not
move in the matter, and no person of influ-
ence took the trouble to act energetically on
their behalf But for the powerful and
timely intervention of the Corcoration of
London, a lew years back, the vast popula-
tion in the East-end of the metropolis might
have lost altogether, on account Of the con-
stant increase of enclosures, the splendid
recreation ground of Epping Forest, which
is the favourite resort of thousands on sum-
mer hol days. Rights of way, in connection
with old field paths and riverside paths, need
to be jealously guarded, in a similar manner,
in order to ward off the risk of finding them
surreptitiously filched away. It is easy to
understand the combination of disappointed,
disgusted, and angry feelings which must
agitate the enthusiastic angler who, when he
has set out to enjoy the first day's sport, with
rod and fishing tackle all in good trim, on the
return of a new season, suddenly discovers
to his dismay, as he nears his favourite pool,
that his further progress is debarred by a
notice-board. announcing that trespassers will
be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the
law. Some selfish new proprietor, he finds,
has actually resolved to keep out all itinerant
anglers, and to set up a claim for sole right
of fishing along the whole stretch of river
that runs through his many-acred domain.
The expense of contesting unjust claims of
this kind before the proper tribunals has
often proved injurious to the interests of the
public. It is in the suburban districts of
great cities that immemorial field paths and
rural lanes bordered with hedgerows are felt
to be most delightful, affording refreshment
to the eye and solace to the mind ; and yet
here, beyond anywhere else, the societiesl
referred to find themselves helpless when at
the land about is delivered into the hands of
building companies and speculators in
clusters of red and white brick villas, which

have generally an upstart look about them
wherever they stand, Truly, in all cases
when it is practicable, the old familiar bye-
ways paced slowly with meditative steps by
heavy feet that have trotted over them lightly
enough in early years, should be carefully
preserved from age to age, like cherished
family heirlooms, around which cluster many
endearing associations. There is an inde-
sc!ribable charm in the field paths wherever
they meet the eye, leadirg off from the dusty
highway into the heart of green pastures,
skirting the hawthorn hedge that crowns
the embankment where wild flowers peep
out from the tangled grass crossing the rus-
tic bridge over a prattling bebbly brook,
dipping under the shadow of a line of leafy
trees in whose branches song-birds carol
sweetly, and winding up the slopes of hilly
ridges where they sem, like Thomas the
Rhymer's bonny braeside bridle-road, in the
quaint madireval ballad, to shape their course
far away to the dreamy regions of Fairyland.
These pleasant paths are knit to the heart by
many memories. They are associated with
the flower gathering, and nutting rambles,
and gleesome sports of childhood; the sum-
mer twilight and moonlight walks of fond
lovers, who linger long at the st:les ; the de-
lightful sensations of returning health felt
by convalescents on revisiting favourite
spots; and recollections of solitary strolls
when the mind expanded under the genial
influences of nature, or formed resolves that
bore good fruit in later life. Many there are
who would willingly see the words, "Cursed
be he that removeth his neighbour's land-
mark," changed into " Curseth be he that
destroveth the old fieldpaths." Only surly
misanthropes can have the heart to dispute
the rights-of-way on river banks which pos-
sess charms for thousands, besides the ardent
devotees of the gentle art of angling in still
waters. Has not Robert Burns penned these
lines ?
The Muse, nae coet ever fend ber
Till by himsel' ; he learn'd to wander
Adown some tret:ing bun's meander,

his belief evidently being that if inspiration
did not come where rivers flow, it would
come nowhere else in the world; not even
on the mountain top, or on the shore of the
sounding sea. From Shakespeare, who has
described the streamlet "making sweet music
with the enamelled stones," to Tennyson,
who has imitated, in liquid verses, the rippl-
ing melody with rising and falling cadences
of the ever-running brook, all our finest poets
have imbibed inspiring influences from the
same source, and therefore the riparian
owners of land, who seek to block the river
banks, are enemies not only of ordinary
mortals in search of wholesome recreation,
but of the tuneful immortals sons and
daughters of the Muse--who form the con-
summate flower of the human race. On the'
banks of romantic streams there arc resting
nooks where hours may be spent pleasantly
in profitable contemplation. In the most '
solitary spots, there is abundance of life and
movement. The ceaseless flow of the water
creates a thoughtful mood, and it is interest-
ing, in the h:ghest degree, to watch and ,tudy
all that comes within range of the eve up
sprining-
and down streara—the sudden vigorous up
of a fly-catching trout, the grace-
ful piddling of water-fowl in and out among
the reeds and broad fronds of aquatic plants,
the swimming of a water-rat from bank to
hank, the curving flight of :3'6 allows as they
dip their wings and skim away, or the flash
past of the bright Lin,gfisher hastening home-
w‘rd to its nest o3i. some overhanging bough.
bryon has said that "There is a pleasure in
the pathless woods," but there is also a plea-
sure in leisurely pacing along the pathways
that lead through vi oods, where the silence
is only broken, in the stillncss of summer
noon, by the whidding sound of scared rab-
bits, the pattering of squirrels' paws as they
take flying leaps from branch to brand], and
the mellow cooing of stock doves, that has
the pleasant effect of a bass accompaniment
to the treble piping of the smaller tribes of
singing birds. The people's prayer for the
sparing of old paths must be held to include
w°°(lpaths, as well as those that lead through
the fields and 1
a ong grassy or tree-fringed
river banks,

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