The case of City vs Countryside vs Me.
by a_spod on Comments
I can't remember the last time I was so nervous. Not for a job interview. Not for an exam. Not for anything; not in a long time. I may have a face modelled on a Halloween mask, but I'm about as hard boiled as a scrambled egg, and I really didn't fancy Friday. What had happened, was that on Thursday, as I roamed the hedgerows with the dog, I'd encountered the land owner. And as I stood in the driving rain, being interogated through the open window of a Range Rover, he made it clear that I was trespassing. Adding, however, that if I went to see the Estate Manager in the Equestrian Centre I might receive permission. The lack of outright refusal made me think I permission would be granted, although I was ready for a rider about keeping the dog on the lead. But something about the "Landlord" (as he'd called himself) and his two silent lackeys, had conjured a regal and intimidating atmosphere. And his muttering about wanting to know who was on the land, led me to expect a form filling session at a desk somewhere inside the stately home or one of the plush new buildings of the business park growing up around it. Certainly the butterflies in my stomach weren't listening to reason. In reality, it was all rather pointless. The Equestrian Centre turned out to be a couple of banged up stables out back, and the manager a bloke in welly boots and a clay-washed jumper, who answered without hesitation, "that's fine", when, at the second attempt, I spluttered forth my request. And that was it. Maybe the Landlord himself expected more. But he felt alien. I'm not of the countryside, any more than I am of the city; but in the countryside people don't behave like that. The Estate Manger never asked my name; yet I exchanged names with the Landlord. I repeatedly asked where the public footpaths actually were, yet the Landlord refused to say. I'm sure some of that was a legal thing, but the whole recourse to legalese and asking permission was as alien as finding red tape flowering amongst the hedges; a scion of the acquisitive financial mindset. Anyway it was strange and it worked out for the best.