LONG may the bounds of country parishes continue to be beaten, but I fear they won?t be, unless more children are encouraged to take part. In years gone by, when those who ran our schools were more in tune with the activities of the countryside, it was acceptable for children to miss a few days during the year to help with urgent farm work such as harvesting and for the occasional treat like fairs or bounds beating. The latter was considered an essential way to teach successive generations the geography of their parishes, and it mattered not if the chosen date fell on a schoolday. Now, however, young people miss a day?s education at their peril. Any institution which sticks slavishly to old practices and is inflexible to changing conditions will quickly die; examples are all around us. As long as the seven or five-year period is observed, are there any valid reasons why the bounds should not be beaten on a Saturday or during the spring half-term or during the summer holidays? Surely, this would make the occasion more accessible to and enjoyable for many more people, whether residents of, or visitors to, places such as Belstone, where on Thursday June 7, children were conspicuous by their absence. Zoe Bradshaw East Steet Okehampton
