If you can't afford to eat out any more, or even to buy the occasional bootleg DVD, you may be consoling yourself with the thought that one of life's pleasures will always be free. Whatever happens to the economy, whatever the authorities decide to slash, there will always be walking.

Bad news. According to the Ramblers, the English countryside could be "closed off" as local authorities cut spending on rights-of-way staff. These are the people who keep public paths clear of obstructions, cut back undergrowth, signpost routes, even, if necessary, take obnoxious landowners to court.

In the long term, this could spell disaster for such popular attractions as the South West Coast Path, Herriot Country or the Peak District national park. Right now, thousands of obscure local footpaths are already in trouble.

"The network isn't going to become unusable overnight," admits Adrian Morris, the Ramblers' head of walking environment, "but in a year or two we could be in real difficulties."

The association already gets more than 200 reports a week of paths that are difficult or impossible to use. Recent letters complain of wobbly stiles and locked gates in the parish of Lamberhurst in Tunbridge Wells, impenetrable undergrowth near Ardsley reservoir in West Yorkshire and confusing signage near High Barnes farm in Newcastle. Near Birds Wood in east Cheshire, a woman finds a footpath that is "barely passable due to very deep (over top of boots) runny mud plus other substances of an animal nature". The Ramblers notes that the local authority concerned has stopped all path maintenance until the end of the financial year, except for essential safety reasons.

It sounds like a suitable image for modern Britain, doesn't it? Just like the old one, but with added manure.

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