A friend entertains a fantasy of retiring to the Cotswolds; I suggest Rutland instead. The same broad plateau of high Wolds, the same rolling agricultural landscape, the same outcrop of iron rich oolitic limestone that stretches across England from Lyme Bay in Dorset to the North Sea. Perfect. Having sold Uppingham as the dream weekend away, with a free day available I decided to walk out from Leicester. The Gartree Road – the ‘Via Devana’ – seemed like an obvious path.