\"There s no barbed wire???\" said Wendy Lamport??? looking along the<br >hedgerow.<br > \"That s something??? I suppose???\" said her companion??? Gordon<br >Briggs??? grudgingly. He was verging on late middle age and difficult<br >about almost everything.<br > \"And???\" she said??? looking over into the field??? \"not a bull in sight.\"<br > \"I should hope not???\" responded Gordon Briggs roundly.<br >\"There s a bylaw about bulls in fields in Calleshire. It s illegal to<br >have a bull more than twelve months old in any field in the county<br >containing a public footpath.\"<br > \"No warning notices??? either??? that I can see???\" carried on the girl???<br >completing her survey of the terrain before them.<br > \"Warning notices???\" pronounced Briggs pedantically??? \"have no<br >significance whatsoever in relation to public footpaths and rights<br >of way. You should know that by now??? Wendy.\"<br > \"Yes??? Gordon.\" Wendy Lamport nodded. She had heard him say<br >it time and time again. \"It doesn t stop them trying it on??? though???<br >does it?\" she added.<br > \"Landowners can put what they like on notice-boards???\" de-<br >clared Briggs??? adding militantly??? \"but they can t keep us out.\"<br > \"Let them try??? that s all???\" said Wendy Lamport loyally. \"Just let<br >them try.\"<br > \"That s the spirit???\" said Gordon Briggs.<br > It might have been the spirit behind the Berebury Country<br >Footpaths Society but their actual rallying cry was more ambigu-<br >ous. \"Every walk a challenge\" was the motto printed under the<br >masthead on their writing paper. The challenge??? though??? was not<br >usually to the walker. The gauntlet was thrown down in front of<br >the luckless owners of the land over which they proposed to walk.<br >If??? that is??? those owners of the land happened to have an official<br >public footpath or right of way running over it.<br >