On the lane which leads to the popular viewing point known as Hampsfell Hospice in Grange-over-Sands there are a number of benches which offer the weary traveller a chance to catch a breather.

The benches are strategically placed to make the most of the view across the Bay. Except that now there is no view and the benches look on to dense thickets of trees.

A newcomer will be wholly unaware that a view ever existed, but only 20 years ago the prospect was entirely open.

The trees are, in the main, self-seeded sycamores, weeds essentially, which have been allowed to grow unhindered so that they are now mature trees.

This is a scenario which is repeated throughout the southern Lake District and its environs.

In some places coppice woods which were at one time properly managed, have been allowed to become dense thickets. In others, sparsely wooded areas, with a few specimen trees, have, through neglect, become overgrown, concealing the fine specimens and everything around them.

The result is that relatively open aspects, which give a good view of the landscape beyond, have become enclosed, hiding the view altogether.

There is a related problem, which is that hedgerows which were designed to be at waist height have been allowed to grow as tall as houses.

Driving along a country lane, as often as not all you see is a wall of trees, instead of the view beyond.

The combined effect of overgrown hedges and over-dense woodland is particularly marked on the road from Newby Bridge to Bowness. Any visitor ambling along the eight-mile stretch, which follows the contours of Windermere, might be completely unaware that he is driving beside a lake.

In the last few months I have been carrying out research for a book on the historic gardens of Cumbria. Time and again I have visited a garden, armed with pictures and descriptions of the garden in its prime, only to be told by a rather despondent owner that the views which once existed, and which made the garden special, have now disappeared.

This is particularly evident at the garden designed by Wordsworth at Rydal Mount.

In "A Poet's Home" Maria Jane Jewsbury wrote: 'Then, far off, a glorious sheen Of wide and sun-lit waters seen Hills that in the distance lie, Blue and yielding to the sky.'

This poem, as Saeko Yoshikawa has observed in her new book 'William Wordsworth and the Invention of Tourism', was widely quoted in guidebooks and magazines, and helped to launch tourism in the Lakes. Now, the famous view has gone- there is only the merest glimpse of the lake from the house.

The problem has arisen so slowly and insidiously that it has hardly been noticed. It needs to be tackled now.

The owners of hedgerows, who are mainly farmers, should be encouraged to maintain them. In the National Park, it should be a condition of the receipt of the single farm payment that hedges are kept to their original height.

The owners of woodland should be encouraged, not least by the relaxation of the rules relating to Tree Preservation Orders, to maintain and thin woodland while preserving trees of quality.

The land which obscures the view on Hampsfell Road is owned by South Lakeland District Council. I suspect that they have forgotten that they own it - they have certainly done precious little to maintain it in the last 20 years.

Much of the over-grown woodland belongs to public bodies of one kind or another. They should be the first to take action and set an example.

One way or another this problem must be tackled before the Lake District becomes an impenetrable mess.