The Footpath That Runs Through the Farmer's Field — Epoche A2
In England a public footpath can run straight across a farmer's field, and the walker on it is in the right. I learnt this at a stile last spring, with a very unhappy farmer standing on the other side of it. Two things are true at the same time, and the argument at the stile happens because each person knows only one of them. The farmer The walker owns the field and the crop owns not one metre of it may plough the path up may still walk the line must put the path back soon after must keep to it and not wander may ask you to leave the wheat must close gates and hold the dog The path is not a kindness. It is drawn on the county's official map, and once it is on that map it stays, even when the hedge changes and the owner changes. So "private land" does not mean "nobody may walk here". It means the field is private and the line across it is public. The farmer who shouts is usually right about the crop. The walker who says sorry and keeps walking is usually right about the path. Neither of them owns the whole story.