Just a few weeks ago, the popular hideaway he runs in England's scenic Lake District, the Wasdale Head Inn, was teeming with visitors. You couldn't get a room. Almost overnight, the tourists disappeared.
People come here to walk along the lakes and in the mountains.
But the only thing you can walk on now is tarmac. If farming is the backbone of our rural economy, tourism is its flesh and blood, and we are bleeding to death. Also closed are the 2.4 million acres run by the Forestry Commission, the nation's largest landowner, and nature reserves operated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other groups. English Heritage, the division of the government that oversees the nation's castles, abbeys and historic ruins, has shuttered nearly 200 of its 389 sites, including Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall. The non-profit National Trust, which operates historic houses and gardens, has closed all but a handful of its 300 sites.