
Rural Rides
'Rural Rides' Summary
Cobbett disapproved of proposals for remedies for agricultural distress suggested in Parliament in 1821. He made up his mind to see rural conditions for himself, and to "enforce by actual observation of rural conditions" the statements he had made in answer to the arguments of the landlords before the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee.
He embarked on a series of journeys by horseback through the countryside of Southeast England and the English Midlands. He wrote down what he saw from the points of view both of a farmer and a social reformer. The result documents the early 19th-century countryside and its people as well as giving free vent to Cobbett's opinions.
He first published his observations in serial form in the Political Register, between 1822 and 1826. Four rides from 1822, 1823, 1825 and 1826 were first published in book form in two volumes in 1830. In 1853, his son James published an expanded edition, including rides from 1821, as well as his father's 1830-32 political tours to the Midlands, North and Scotland.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1822Authors

William Cobbett
United States
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, journalist, Member of Parliament and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey, one of a popular agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten borough...
Books by William CobbettDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

Life's Enthusiasms by David Starr Jordan
That is poetry in which truth is expressed in the fewest possible words, in words which are inevitable, in words which could not be changed without we...

G.K. Chesterton in The British Review by Gilbert K. Chesterton
Four articles/essays written by G.K. Chesterton for "The British Review". These were published in 1913 and 1914.

Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold
According to his view advanced in the book, "Culture is a study of perfection". He further wrote that: "[Culture] seeks to do away with classes; to ma...

Areopagitica by John Milton
Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England is a 1644 prose polemic by the English p...

The Tocsin of Revolt, and other Essays by Brander Matthews
In his groundbreaking 1922 collection of essays, The Tocsin of Revolt, Brander Matthews challenges the status quo and calls for a revolution in the ar...

The Appetite of Tyranny by Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Unless we are all mad, there is at the back of the most bewildering business a story: and if we are all mad, there is no such thing as madness. If I...

The Spring of Joy: A Little Book of Healing by Mary Webb
What if you could find healing and joy in the natural world? In The Spring of Joy: A Little Book of Healing, Mary Webb shares her insights on the pow...

Woman and War by Olive Schreiner
What is the true cost of war on women? Woman and War by Olive Schreiner is a powerful and moving novel that explores the impact of war on women. Set...

Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft by Sir Walter Scott
A series of letters written by Scott on the history of witchcraft and other supernatural events in England and other locations. He documents stories a...

Essay on the Trial by Jury by Lysander Spooner
FOR more than six hundred years that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215 there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, tha...
Reviews for Rural Rides
No reviews posted or approved, yet...