walking path · viii · a working short
The cut is not, properly, a walk. It is the shortest way from the orchard wicket to the chapel door, and it does its job in five minutes. The path is straight, the hedges high, the ground rutted. Where the longer routes will offer you a view, this one offers you arrival. It is the path of those who have somewhere to be, and is used, in practice, every Sunday and most weekdays.
Walkers see, from this path: the hedges, the cobbles at the chapel end, the chapel itself growing from a roof-line to a building, and, looking back, the orchard receding to its wicket. There is little to see and that is the point of it. The cut has been mended four times in living memory; its line has not changed since the chapel was built.
It connects, at the wicket, to the orchard path; at the door, to the chapel and, behind it, to the long churchyard. It is taken, at speed, by anyone late; at pace, by the custodian; with great deliberation, by mourners. A working path that does not pretend to be a walk. See also the circular walk for those who have time.