Rural Isolation? Rubbish Indeed. Rural Eastern Berwickshire is Third World in dealing with environmental issues. Take rubbish; as they do on Wednesdays. Not a wheelie bin in sight -black, blue or otherwise. If you are an Old Mansian you struggle down muddy pock marked Kirk Lane with your cardboard boxes and your black bag filled with the weeks ashes , plastic bags and dead food. We spend a lot of time in enlightened Berwick recycling paper, plastic, glass and cans-a 17 mile round trip -2 litres of petrol. I fear that many villagers do not and everything goes into black bags, or left by the kerbside including sizeable bits of furniture and the obliging refuse collectors (called Environmental Hygenists in politically correct hotspots like Islington and Brent ) take it all way to the appropriate land fill site. Yet 7 miles away in B upon T Blue and black bins abound-a lovely sight as you drive into town on Tuesdays. It is in this respect that Dr Johnson's off quoted comment comes into its own:
Sir. Norway too has noble wild prospects and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects.
But Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which
a Scotchman (sic) ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England.
