I was out walking in the Lincolnshire hills and started talking to an old countryman about where one was and wasn’t allowed to walk. He told me that there was an ancient law that whenever one was in the countryside, when the church bells rang out one could make a direct line to the nearest church. It is interesting to observe that so many of our “rights” are rooted in our Christian teachings.

He then told me another interesting anecdote. When he was young he had spoken to an old shepherd. The shepherd had told him that when he himself was young there were 16 men working on the five-hundred-acre farm which he worked. Now he was the only one. In those days all the shepherds were required to go to church on Sunday by their boss. I made no comment on whether that was a good or a bad thing! It’s just fascinating how these two social customs have changed and how within living memory the countryside was such a different place, with its religious obligations thoroughly embedded. Now the countryside has become nothing more than a dormitory for the cities.