When the door of a country pub creaks open to admit a stranger, popular myth dictates that the yokels sitting inside will stop talking and a conspiratorial silence will fall.

It is a bit of pantomime-dramatics that has been parodied many times, perhaps most memorably in the cult film An American Werewolf in London, and yet the idea still goes to the heart of the mutual suspicions of city and country folk.

Those who live in the city often regard the countryside as a rather mysterious theme park. When weekenders arrive in their hatchbacks and convertibles, they are looking for the standard series of romantic images, from quaint village greens to blasted heaths. It is up to the tourist trade to offer all this, or suffer the consequences.

Over the past 50 days, of course, it has been a good deal harder than usual for the industry to send out the right message to its consumers. Foot and mouth has stamped down from nowhere and squashed many precariously balanced visitor attractions to the point of near death.

As a result, it was with something of that pantomime, 'townie' trepidation that I drove into the deepest West, zooming past the gigantic statue of a running figure that is the South-West's answer to the Angel of the North . Meanwhile, Zoe from the tourist information office in Tiverton reassured Radio Devon listeners that it was quite safe to go to their favourite spots over the Easter holiday and every other ad-break on the sta tion seemed to carry a Government announcement with the same message. In one field I glimpsed a banner that read 'Food you can trust' while, a few miles on, a big piece of farm machinery bore the graffiti slogan 'Blair Out'. Everywhere in the rural landscape were reminders of the recent rows about fox hunting, BSE and GM crops - each problem now overshadowed by the advent of foot and mouth.

Once in Devon, the county which, after Cumbria, is the most severely afflicted, the name of the country pub in that werewolf film, The Slaughtered Lamb, no longer seems quite so funny. These days the gruesome rituals performed by farmers are carried out on instructions from Westminster and will have a grave impact on their lives for years to come. It is soon clear that people here feel real fury about the Government's early advice not to venture into the countryside. The warning painted a picture of total shutdown, while, in fact, many visitor attractions were still open.

'We are normally packed at this time of year,' said David, who runs a butterfly farm and otter sanctuary in Buckfastleigh. 'But we are almost 50 per cent down. I am just thankful that at least we haven't had to shut our doors.'

This week more blighted visitor centres are reopening as the Government quickly backtracks and demands our support for rural tourism. Around Dartmoor, the steam railway to Totnes is running as usual and the cider centre and the neighbouring Dartington Hall Gardens are open too. The bee-keeping monks of Buckfast Abbey will show you their honey-making techniques by appointment and you can catch a boat down the river estuary to Dartmouth if you want to enjoy the landscape without the use of hiking boots. Off-road cyclists can also now make use of five Forestry Commission estates in the county and on Good Friday the National Trust sites at Coleton Fishacre, Castle Drogo and Bradley Manor all reopened too. The Devon coastline is also relatively unaffected by the crisis. The pier at Kiss-me-Quick Paignton was packed with families last weekend.

So far, there are few visible signs of the impact of the crisis even on Devon's open farmland. Sheep and cattle are still grazing and the gorse and primroses are flowering for Easter, as they always do. It would be silly to pretend, though, that a holidaymaker wouldn't notice the sombre mood.

'At first there was an air of resignation about it all,' one shopkeeper told me. 'Then, quite quickly, it turned to anger as people realised that it would affect pretty much the whole economy.'

Devon has adopted a siege mentality, he added. 'My friend has a caravan site near the sea and no one has booked in for the spring. He does not know what he is going to do.'

At Holne Chase, a country house hotel near Ashburton on the fringes of Dartmoor, business goes on as usual. Fires burn in the hearths and all the dining room tables are laid out beautifully, regardless of the fact that there are only a handful of guests.

'We have a few more bookings now, but we really do want people to realise Devon is still open,' said Philippa Hughes, who owns the hotel with her husband Sebastian. 'It is true the moors are closed off and all the lay-bys and car parks are blocked, but there are plenty of villages to walk around and places to visit.'

At this time of year the hotel would normally be full, so to boost their numbers the couple have laid down a challenge to Tony Blair. They have invited him to come and stay with them for free this spring and to spurn his usual Tuscan haunts. For the rest of us, there are enticements, too. Holne Chase is one of a number of places offering discounts, in this case, two nights for the price of one.

'We have been worried about the disease spreading to the moor,' said Mrs Hughes. 'So far it has been left alone, but in 1967 they had to clear it of all livestock. I don't know how they would do that now. There are far more animals and fewer farmhands to help these days.'

Guests at Holne Chase confirm that the foot and mouth measures already in place have done nothing to limit their fun.

'After all, this hotel is set in 70 acres of its own grounds anyway,' said a visitor who had brought his family down from Newbury in Berkshire, 'so there are still plenty of places to walk.'

And if it is space and a sense of isolation that you seek, the roads across the moor have never been so broodingly lonely. At the foot of Hound Tor, an imposing stack of stone that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Hound of the Baskervilles , a solitary Dartmoor pony was picking his way through the morasses and mires that cover the moor under slate skies.

A little further along the road, the blighted burial place known as Jay's Grave is marked for the passer-by with a small bouquet. Here a young servant girl who conceived out of wedlock and died was laid to rest outside the town boundary. The pathway around her grave may be roped off at the moment, but this has not stopped an anonymous hand placing the customary wild flowers on her grave.

'For 400 years that grave has always had flowers lying on it,' said Sebastian Hughes, back at the hotel. 'As boys we even slept up there one night to try to see who did it.'

Eerie local folklore like this can still be enjoyed from the comfort of your car and there is no danger of spreading foot and mouth if you stick to the roads.

If the moor eventually has to be cleared, this may well be the last chance to see its barren, close-cropped beauty for some years. Without livestock to keep it trim it will revert to scrubland in weeks and will stay that way until new animals can be safely introduced.

Devon is clearly in collective pain, but it has lost none of its astonishing variety. A visit to the area at the moment is quite unforgettable, not just because it is so empty, but also because the county is at the centre of a major national crisis. Far from regarding us as unwelcome strangers, the publicans and hoteliers of rural Devon now need more than just fair weather friendship from their townie visitors.

Fact file

Where to stay: Vanessa Thorpe stayed at Holne Chase Hotel, near Ashburton (01364 631471). A double room, including full English breakfast, is £125 per night. A front facing double B&B is £145. Until 31 May, the hotel is offering one night free (room only) for every night booked on a B&B basis, subject to availability.

Things to do: South Devon Railway (0845 345 1420)

The Buckfast Butterfly Farm and Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary at Buckfastleigh (01364 642916)

Dartmoor Driving in horse and trap with John and Maggie Arden, The Brookings, Michelcombe, Holne (01364 631438).

Getting there: Vanessa hired a car from Hertz (0870 599 6699). A Fiat Punto costs £51 a day, including taxes and insurance.

More information: Devon Tourist Information Service (0870 608 5531)