It just happened that someone was about to depart in a RR Discovery, he left very, very slowly and waited a long time at the exit, leaving me with the impression that he was keeping an eye on me.
This suspicion that all strangers are 'ne'er do wells' is the historic basis of much of the problem, landowners are encouraged to think that keeping people out of the countryside improves their security. Yet the percentage of law abiding people in all walks of life shows the error in this thinking.
Technology now could link the visitor directly the occupier of that part of the countryside they are in. So the visitor could play a far greater part in rural crime watch. Many rural home owners are away from their properties more than they are in residence, yet does the criminal go about his business on foot?
The time when country people had eyes all over their demesne and not much happened that that was not commented on is long gone. The farm buildings that came in with the Norfolk rotation are converted dwellings.
The walker has replaced Old Tom, cleaning a ditch or Sid, Dick and Harry brushing the hedges of Pea Leasowe and the Thistly Furlogue as the eyes in the countryside. Yesterdays ploughmen had more chance of spotting a tramp on his way than today's contractor in a air conditioned cab with ipod, will spot wrong in a city based criminal carry goods out of a house rather than making a delivery.
Yet the landowners see countryside visitors as a reason for the insurance premiums going up, rather than a means for them to come down.