Mud & the City: Dos & Don'ts for Townies in the Country

For the average townie - brick dust in the veins and an unholy dependency on carbon monoxide - the country is a bit of an enigma. That green bit beyond the city to which you occasionally venture - for a wedding, a pub lunch or a rave - before dashing back to civilisation.

Sound familiar? Yet for a vast number of us, there is one abiding fantasy that helps us though the urban nine to five: the hope that one day we too will up-sticks, downsize and green-shift to the country. The dream of seeing out our twilight years Barbour-clad, the Aga on and roses around the cottage door is undiminished.

As 'going organic' and 'buying local' become the maxims of our age, more of us than ever are making this fantasy a reality. In the last ten years more than two million dyed-in-the-wool urbanites have fled the big smoke in search of this rural idyll.

But before you trade in the mean streets for muddy tracks - even if it's just a weekend visit or an impromptu ramble - there is an unwritten 'country code' that should not be ignored. How to behave? Where to wander? What to wear? When to arrive? Who to ask?

Whether you're going fruit-picking, spending a hen weekend in a remote cottage, or planning to buy the perfect rural retreat, this is the ideal purchase for anyone who has ever been caught off-guard whithout a pair of wellies in the great outdoors.