YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
ANN S. FARNAM FUND

RURAL RIDES, &c.

RURAL RIDES
3n tbe Counties of
SURREY, KENT. SUSSEX, HANTS, BERKS, OXFORD,
BUCKS, WILTS. SOMERSET, GLOUCESTER, HEREFORD,
SALOP, WORCESTER, STAFFORD, LEICESTER,
HERTFORD, ESSEX, SUFFOLK, NORFOLK,
CAMBRIDGE, HUNTINGDON, NOTTINGHAM, LINCOLN,
YORK, LANCASTER, DURHAM, AND
NORTHUMBERLAND,
DURING THE YEARS 1821 TO iSjs:
XUitb Economical and fl>oiftical ©b.ervatlons.
BY THE LATE
WILLIAM COBBETT,
M.P. FOR OLDHAM.
A NEW EDITION, WITH NOTES,
BY
PITT COBBETT,
VICAR OF CROFTON, HANTS-

VOL. II.
LONDON
REEVES AND TURNER
1908
[All rights reserved]

RURAL RIDES, &c.

RIDE, FROM BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD.
Hurstboitrne Tarrant [or Uphusband),
Monday, "jth November, 1825.
We came off from Burghclere yesterday afternoon, crossing
Lord Carnarvon's park, going out of it on the west side of
Beacon Hill, and sloping away to our right over the downs
towards Woodcote. The afternoon was singularly beautiful.
The downs (even the poorest of them) are perfectly green :
the sheep on the downs look, this year, like fatting sheep ; we
came through a fine flock of ewes, and, looking round us, we
saw, all at once, seven flocks, on different parts of the downs,
each flock on an average, containing at least 500 sheep.
It is about six miles from Burghclere to this place ; and,
we made it about twelve ; not in order to avoid the turnpike-
road ; but, because we do not ride about to see turnpike-roads ;
and, moreover, because I had seen this most monstrously-
hilly turnpike-road before. We came through a village called
Woodcote, and another, called Binley. I never saw any
inhabited places more recluse than these. Yet into these, the
-all-searching eye of the taxing Thing reaches. Its Exciseman
can tell it, what is doing even in the little odd corner of
Binley; for even there I saw, over the door of a place, not
half so good as the place in which my fowls roost, " Licensed
to deal in tea and tobacco." Poor, half-starved wretches of
Binley ! The hand of taxation, the collection for the sinecures
VOL. II. A

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and pensions, must fix its nails even in them, who really
appeared too miserable to be called by the name of people.
Yet there was one whom the taxing Thing had licensed (good
God 1 licensed 1) to serve out cat-lap to these wretched
creatures ! x And, our impudent and ignorant newspaper
scribes, talk of the degraded state of the people of Spain I Im
pudent impostors ! Can they show a group so wretched, so
miserable, so truly enslaved as this, in all Spain ? No : and
those of them who are not sheer fools know it well. But,
there would have been misery equal to this in Spain, if the
Jews and Jobbers could have carried the Bond-scheme into
effect. The people of Spain were, through the instrumen
tality of patriot-loan makers, within an inch of being made as
" enlightened " as the poor, starving things of Binley. They
would soon have had people " licensed " to make them pay :
the Jews for permission to chew tobacco, or to have a light
in their dreary abodes. The people of Spain were preserved
from this by the French army, for which the Jews cursed the
French army ; and the same army put an end to those
" bonds," by means of which pious Protestants hoped to be
able to get at the convents in Spain, and thereby put down
" idolatry " in that country. These bonds seem now not to
1 Tea is supposed to have been first introduced into Europe by the Dutch
A.D. 1610. It was rarely used in England until 1657, at which time it
was sold for £6, and even ^io, per lb. From 1660 to 1689, a duty was
levied on the drink made with tea, at the rate of 8d. per gallon ; but at the
latter date a duty of 5s. per lb. (together with 5 per cent, ad valorem) was
levied. For many years the duties, although continual y changed, were
always very high, and were levied both by the Customs and the Excise.
In 1836 one uniform rate of 2s. id. per lb was levied. In 1865 the
duty was reduced to 6d. per lb., at which it still remains. Licences to sell
tea were abolished in 1869.
The consumption of tea in 1S81 was as follows :

Great Britain
United States
Australia .

Million* lbs.
. 167
• 7* 14

Oz. per
in habitant. "3
218l

Russia
Various ,

•

• 37
. 114

7

Tota

. 4°4

Burghclere to Petersfield.

be worth a farthing ; and so, after all, the Spanish people will
have no one " licensed " by the Jews to make them pay for
turning the fat of their sheep into candles and soap. These
poor creatures that I behold here, pass their lives amidst flocks
of sheep ; but, never does a morsel of mutton enter their lips.
A labouring man told me, at Binley, that he had not tasted
meat since harvest ; and his looks vouched for the statement.
Let the Spaniards come and look at this poor, shotten-herring
of a creature : and then let them estimate what is due to a
set of "enlightening" and loan-making "patriots." Old
Fortescue says that " the English are clothed in good woollens
" throughout," and that they have "plenty of flesh of all sorts
"to eat." Yes; but at this time, the nation was not mort
gaged. The " enlightening " Patriots would have made Spain
what England now is. The people must never more, after a
few years, have tasted mutton, though living surrounded with
flocks of sheep. Easton, near Winchester,
Wednesday Evening, tyh A ov.
I intended to go from Uphusband to Stonehenge, thence
to Old Sarum, and thence through the New Forest, to South
ampton and Botley, and thence across into Sussex, to see Up-
Park and Cowdry House. But, then, there must be no loss
of time: I must -adhere to a certain route as strictly as a
regiment on a march. I had written the route : and Laver-
stock, after seeing Stonehenge and Old Sarum, was to be the
resting-place of yesterday (Tuesday) : but when it came, it
brought rain with it after a white frost on Monday. It was
likely to rain again to-day. It became necessary to change
the route, as I must get to London by a certain day; and so
the first day, on the new route, brought us here.
I had been three times at Uphusband before, and had, as
my readers will, perhaps, recollect, described the bourn here,
or the brook. It has, in general, no water at all in it, from
August to March. There is the bed of a little river ; but no
water. In March, or thereabouts, the water begins to boil up,

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in thousands upon thousands of places, in the little narrow
meadows, just above the village ; that is to say a little higher
up the valley. When the chalk hills are full; when the chalk
will hold no more water; then it comes out at the lowest
spots near these immense hills and becomes a rivulet first, and
then a river. But, until this visit to Uphusband (or Hurst-
bourn Tarrant, as the map calls it), little did I imagine, that
this rivulet, dry half the year, was the head of the river Teste,
which, after passing through Stockbridge and Romsey, falls
into the sea near Southampton.
We had to follow the bed of this river to Bourne ; but there
the water begins to appear ; and it runs all the year long
about a mile lower down. Here it crosses Lord Portsmouth's
out-park, and our road took us the same way to the village
called Down- Husband, the scene (as the broad-sheet tells us) of
so many of that Noble Lord's ringing and cart-driving exploits.
Here we crossed the London and Andover road, and leaving
Andover to our right and Whitchurch to our left, we came on
to Long Parish, where, crossing the water, we came up again
to that high country, which continues all across to Winchester.
After passing Bullington, Sutton, and Wonston, we veered
away from Stoke-Charity, and came across the fields to the
high down, whence you see Winchester, or rather the Cathe
dral; for, at this distance, you can distinguish nothing else
clearly. As we had to come to this place, which is three miles up
the river Itchen from Winchester, we crossed the Winchester
and Basingstoke road at King's Worthy. This brought us,
before we crossed the river, along through Martyr's Worthy,
so long the seat of the Ogles, and now, as I observed in mv
last Register, sold to a general, or colonel These Ogles had
been deans, I believe ; or prebends, or something of that sort
and the one that used to live here had been, and was when he
died, an "admiral." However, this last one, "Sir Charles"
the loyal address mover, is my man for the present. We saw
down by the water-side, opposite to "Sir Charles's" late family
mansion, a beautiful strawberry garden, capable of being

Burghclere to Petersfield.

watered by a branch of the Itchen which comes close by it,
and which is, I suppose, brought there on purpose. Just by,
on the greensward, under the shade of very fine trees, is an
alcove, wherein to sit to eat the strawberries, coming from the
little garden- just mentioned, and met by bowls of cream
coming from a little milk-house, shaded by another clump a
little lower down the stream. What delight ! What a ter
restrial paradise ! " Sir Charles" might be very frequently in this
paradise,, while that Sidmouth, whose Bill he so applauded,
had many men shut up in loathsome dungeons ! Ah, well !
" Sir Charles," those very men may, perhaps, at this very
moment, envy neither you nor Sidmouth ; no, nor Sidmouth's
son and heir, even though Clerk of the Pells. At any rate, it
is not likely that " Sir Charles " will sit again in this paradise,
contemplating another loyal address, to carry to a county
meeting ready engrossed on parchment, to be presented by
Fleming and supported by Lockhart and the " Hampshire
Parsons." I think I saw, as I came along, the new owner of the estate.
It seems that he bought it "stock and fluke" as the sailors
call it; that is to say, that he bought movables and the
whole. He appeared to me to be a keen man. I can't find
out where he comes from, or what he, or his father, has been.
I like to see the revolution going on ; but I like to be able to
trace the parties a little more closely. " Sir Charles," the royal
address gentleman, lives in London, I hear. I will, I think,
call upon him (if I can find him out) when I get back, and
ask how he does now? There is one Holiest, a George
Holiest, who figured pretty bigly on that same loyal address
day. This man is become quite an inoffensive harmless
creature. If we were to have another county meeting, he
would not, I think, threaten to put the sash down upon any
body's bead ! Oh ! Peel, Peel, Peel ! Thy bill, oh, Peel, did
sicken them so ! Let us, oh, thou offspring of the great
Spinning Jenny promoter, who subscribed ten thousand
pounds towards the late " glorious " war ; who was, after that.
made a Baronet, and whose biographers (in the Baronetage)

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tell the world, that he had a "presentiment that he should be
the founder of a family." Oh, thou, thou great Peel, do thou
let us have only two more years of thy Bill ! Or, oh, great
Peel, Minister of the interior, do thou let us have repeal of
Corn Bill ! Either will do, great Peel. We shall then see
such modest 'squires, and parsons looking so queer! How
ever, if thou wilt not listen to us, great Peel, we must, perhaps,
(and only perhaps) wait a little longer. It is sure to come at
last, and to come, too, in the most efficient way.1
The water in the Itchen is, they say, famed for its clearness.
As I was crossing the river the other day, at Avington, I told
Richard to look at it, and I asked him if he did not think it
very clear. I now find, that this has been remarked by very
ancient writers. I see, in a newspaper just received, an
account of dreadful fires in New Brunswick. It is curious,
that, in my Register of the 29th October (dated from Chil-
worth in Surrey,) I should have put a question, relative to
1 It may be interesting to note the effects of the repeal of the Corn Laws,
by the prodigious increase in the imports of grain from 1828 to the present
time. The average grain imports into the United Kingdom fur the

10 years ending 1850 were 5 million bushels.

1840

,,

8

n

1850

,,

3'

„ ,, i860
,,
78
»
1870
,,
127
n
» »88o
11
229
u
In 1881
>»
256
The average price of wheat
above period was as follows : —
at
intervals of 10 years
throughout the
S. d.
In 1830
.
64 3
, 1840
.
66 4
„ 1850
.
49 3
„ i860
.
53 3
„ 1S70
.
40 ti
„ 1880
.
44 4
„ 1882
¦
45 '
While, at the present time (November i
884!, at a Conl
erence inst „»M
in London, to "consider the present agricultural crisis," the chairman (Mr
(1. Judd) stated that after the late splendid season, with fine corn weiehinff
65 lbs. to the bushel, it only fetched 32s. per quarter. s *
Burghclere to Petersfield.

the White-Clover, the Huckleberries, or the Raspberries, which
start up after the burning down of woods in America. These
fires have been at two places which I saw when there were
hardly any people in the whole country; and, if there never
had been any people there to this day, it would have been a
good thing for England. Those colonies are a dead expense
without a possibility of their ever being of any use, There
are, I see, a church and a barrack destroyed. And, why a
barrack? What ! were there bayonets wanted already to keep
the people in order ? For, as to an enemy, where was he to
come from? And, if there really be an enemy any where
there about, woulH it not be a wise way to leave the worth
less country to him, to use it after his own way? I was at
that very Fredericton, where they say thirty houses and thirty-
nine barns have now been burnt. I can remember, when there
was no more thought, of there ever being a barn there, than
there is now thought of there being economy in our Govern:
ment. The English money used to be spent prettily in that
country. What- do we want with armies, and barracks and
chaplains in those woods? What does any body want with
them; but we, above all the rest of the world? There is
nothing there, no house, no barrack, no wharf, nothing, but
what is bought with taxes raised on the half-starving people of
England. What do we want with these wildernesses? Ahi
but, they are wanted by creatures who will not work in Eng
land, and whom this fine system of ours, sends out into those
woods to live in idleness upon the fruit of English labour.
The soldier, the commissary, the barrack-master, all the whole
tribe, no matter under what name; what keeps them? They
are paid "by Government;" and I wish, that we constantly
bore in mind, that the "Government" pays our money. It
is, to be sure, sorrowful to hear of such fires and such dreadr
ful effects proceeding from them ; but to me, it is beyond all
measure more sorrowful to see the labourers of England worse
fed than the convicts in the gaols ; and, I know very well, that
these worthless and jobbing colonies have assisted to .bring
England into this horrible state. The honest labouring man

8 Rural Ride from
is allowed (aye, by the magistrates) less food than the felon ir
the goal ; and the felon is clothed and has fuel ; and the
labouring man has nothing allowed for these. These worth
less colonies, which find places for people that the Thing pro
vides for, have helped to produce this dreadful state in Eng
land. Therefore, any assistance the sufferers should never have
from me, while I could find an honest and industrious English
labourer (unloaded with a family too) fed worse than a felon
in the gaols ; and this I can find in every part of the country. .

Peter sfield, Friday Evening,
\lth November.
We lost another day at Easton; the whole of yesterday,
it having rained the whole day; so that we could not have
come an inch but in the wet We started, therefore, this
morning, coming through the Duke of Buckingham's Park,
at Avington, which is close by Easten, and on the same side
of the Itchen. This is a very beautiful place. The house is
close down at the edge of the meadow land ; there is a lawn
before it, and a pond, supplied by the Itchen, at the end of
the lawn, and bounded by the park on the other side. The hi^h
road, through the park, goes very near to this water; and we saw
thousands of wild-ducks in the pond, or sitting round on the
green edges of it, while, on one side of the pond, the hares and
pheasants were moving about upon a gravel walk on the side of
a very fine plantation. We looked down upon all this from a
rising ground, and the water, like a looking-glass, showed us the
trees, and even the animals. This is certainly one of the verv
prettiest spots in the world. The wild water-fowl seem to
take particular delight in this place. There are a great many
at Lord Carnarvon's; but, there the water is much larger
and the ground about it comparatively rude and coarse.
Here, at Avington, every thing is in such beautiful order • the
lawn, before the house, is of the finest green, and most neatly
kept ; and, the edge of the pond (which is.of several acres)^
is as smooth as if it formed part of a bowling-green. To see

Burghclere to Petersfield.

so many wild-fowl, in a situation where every thing is in the
parterre-order, has a most pleasant effect on the mind ; and
Richard and I, like Pope's cock in the farm-yard, could not
help thanking the Duke and Duchess for having generously
made such, ample provision for our pleasure, and that, too,
merely to please us as we were passing along. Now, this is
the advantage of going about on horseback. On foot, the
fatigue is too great, and you go too slowly. In any sort of
carriage, you cannot get into the real country places. To travel
in stage coaches is to be hurried along by force, in a box, with
an air-hole in it, and constantly exposed to broken limbs, the
danger being much greater than that of ship-board, and the
noise much more disagreeable, while the company is frequently
not a great deal more to one's liking.
From this beautiful spot we had to mount gradually the
downs to the southward ; but, it is impossible to quit the vale
of the Itchen without one more look back at it. To form a
just estimate of its real value, and that of the lands near it,
it is only necessary to know, that, from its source, at Bishop's
Sutton, this river has, on its two banks, in the distance of
nine miles (before it reaches Winchester) thirteen parish
churches. There must have been some people to erect these
churches. It is not true, then, that Pitt and George III.
created the English nation, notwithstanding all that the Scotch
feelosofers are ready to swear about the matter. In short,
there can be no doubt in the mind of any rational man, that
in the time of the Plantagenets, England was, out of all com
parison, more populous than it is now.
When we began to get up towards the Downs, we, to our
great surprise, saw them covered with Snow.. "Sad times
coming on for poor Sir Glory,"1 said I to Richard. "Why?"
said Dick. It was too cold to talk much ; and, besides, a
great sluggishness in his horse made us both rather serious.

1 Alluding to Sir Francis Burdett, M.P. for Westminster, who was
called, by his admirers, the " Pride of Westminster," and hence nicknamed
by the Author "Sir Glory."

i o Rural Ride from
The horse had been too hard ridden at Burghclere, and had
got cold. This made us change our route again, and instead of
going over the downs towards Hambledon, in our way to see
the park and the innumerable hares and pheasants of Sir
Harry Featherstone, we pulled away more to the left, to go
through Bramdean, and so on to Petersfield, contracting
greatly our intended circuit. And, besides, I had never seen
Bramdean, the spot on which, it is said, Alfred fought his
last great and glorious battle with the Danes. A fine country
for a battle sure enough ! We stopped at the village to bait
our horses ; and, while we were in the public-house, an
Exciseman came and rummaged it all over, taking an account
of the various sorts of liquor in it, having the air of a complete
master of the premises, while a very pretty and modest girl
waited on him to produce the divers bottles, jars, and kegs.
I wonder whether Alfred had a thought of anything like this,
when he was clearing England from her oppressors ?
A little to our right, as we came along, we left the village
of Kimston, where 'Squire Grseme once lived, as was before
related. Here, too, lived a 'Squire Ridge, a famous fox-
hunter, at a great mansion, now used as a farm-house ; and it
is curious enough, that this 'Squire's son-in-law, one Gunner,
an attorney at Bishop's Waltham, is steward to the man who
now owns the estate.
Before we got to Petersfield, we called at an old friend's
and got some bread and cheese and small beer, which we
preferred to strong. In approaching Petersfield we began to
descend from the high chalk-country, which (with the ex
ception of the valleys of the Itchen and the Teste) had lasted
us from Uphusband (almost the north-west point of the
county) to this place, which is not far from the south-east
point of it. Here we quit flint and chalk and downs and
take to sand, clay, hedges, and coppices ; and here, on the
verge of Hampshire, we begin again to see those endless
little bubble-formed hills that we before saw round the foot
of Hindhead. We have got in in very good time, and got, at
the Dolphin, good stabling for our horses. . The waiters an<L

Burghclere to Petersfield. 1 1
people at inns look so hard at us to see us so liberal as to
horse-feed, fire, candle, beds, and room, while we are so very
very sparing in the article of drink I They seem to pity out-
taste. I hear people complain of the " exorbitant charges "
at inns ; but, my wonder always is, how the people can live
with charging so little. Except in one single instance, I have
uniformly, _ince I have been from home, thought the charges
too low for people to live by.
This long evening has given me time to look at the Star
newspaper of last night ; and I see, that, with all possible
desire to disguise the fact, there is a great "panic" brewing.
It is impossible that this thing can go on, in its present way,
for any length of time. The talk about " speculations ; "
that is to say, "adventurous dealings," or rather,, commer
cial gamblings ; the talk about these having been the cause of
the breakings and the other symptoms of approaching convul
sion, is the most miserable nonsense that ever was conceived
in the heads of idiots. These are effect ; not cause. The
cause is the Small-note Bill, that last brilliant effort of the
joint mind of Van and Castlereagh. That Bill was, as I
always called it, a respite ; and it was, and could be, nothing
more. It could only put off the evil hour; it could not
prevent the final arrival of that hour. To have proceeded
with Peel's Bill was, indeed, to produce total convulsion.
The land must have been surrendered to the overseers for the
use of the poor. That is to say, without an "Equitable
Adjustment." But that adjustment, as prayed for by Kent,
Norfolk, Hereford, and Surrey, might have taken place; it
ought to have taken place ; and it must, at last, take place, or
convulsion must come. As to the nature of this " adjustment,"
is it not most distinctly described in the Norfolk Petition ? Is
not that memorable petition now in the Journals of the House
of Commons? What more is wanted than to act on the
prayer of that very petition ? Had I to draw up a petition again,
I would not change a single word of that. It pleased Mr.
Brougham's "best public instructor" to abuse that petition,
and it pleased Daddy Coke and the Hickory Quaker, Gurney,

i 2 Rural Ride from

and the wise barn-orator, to calumniate its author1 They
succeeded ; but, their success was but shame to them ; and
that author is yet destined to triumph over them. I have seen
no London paper for ten days, until to-day ; and I should not
have seen this, if the waiter had not forced it upon me. I
know very nearly what will happen by next May, or there
abouts ; and, as to the manner in which things will work in
the meanwhile, it is of far less consequence to the nation,
than it is what sort of weather I shall have to ride in to
morrow. One thing, however, I wish to observe, and that is,
that, if any attempt be made to repeal the Corn-Bill, the main
body of the farmers will be crushed into total ruin. I come
into contact with few, who are not gentlemen, or very sub
stantial farmers : but, I know the state of the whole ; and I
know, that, even with present prices, and with honest labourers
fed worse than felons, it is rub-and-go with nineteen twentieths
of the farmers ; and of this fact I beseech the ministers to be
well aware. And with this fact staring them in the face !
with that other horrid fact, that, by the regulations of the
magistrates, (who cannot avoid it, mind,) the honest labourer
is fed worse than the convicted felon ; with the breakings of
merchants, so ruinous to confiding foreigners, so disgraceful
to the name of England ; with the thousands of industrious
and care-taking creatures reduced to beggary by bank-paper ;
with panic upon panic, plunging thousands upon thousands
into despair : with all this notorious as the sun at noon-day,
will they again advise their Royal Master to tell the Parlia
ment and the world, that this country is " in a state of un
equalled prosperity," and that this prosperity "must be
permanent, because all the great interests are flourishing f "
Let them 1 That will not alter the result. I had been, for
several weeks, saying, that the seeming prosperity was fal
lacious ; that the cause of it must lead to ultimate and shock-
1 This term the Author applied to Mr. Edmund Wodehouse, one of
the members for Norfolk, and from whom Mr. Cobbett adopted the phrase
" equitable adjustment."

Petersfield to Kensington.

ing ruin ; that it could not last, because it arose from causes
so manifestly fictitious ; that, in short, it was the fair-looking,
but poisonous, fruit of a miserable expedient. I had been
saying this for several weeks, when, out came the King's
Speech, and gave me and my doctrines the lie direct, as to
every point. Well : now, then, we shall soon see.

RURAL RIDE : FROM PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON.
Petworth, Saturday, \2.th Nov. 1825.
I was at this town in the summer of 1823, when I crossed
Sussex from Worth to Huntingdon, in my way to Titchfield
in Hampshire. We came this morning from Petersfield, with
an intention to cross to Horsham, and go thence to Worth,
and then into Kent ; but Richard's horse seemed not to be
fit for so strong a bout, and therefore we resolved to bend our
course homewards, and first of all, to fall back upon our
resources at Thursley, which we intend to reach to-morrow,
going through North Chapel, Chiddingfold, and Brook.
At about four miles from Petersfield, we passed through
a village, called Rogate. Just before we came to it, I asked
a man who was hedging on the side of the road, how much
he got a day. He said, is. 6d. : and he told me that the
allowed wages was "jd. a day for the man and a gallon loaf a week
for the rest of his family ; that is to say, one pound and two
and a quarter ounces of bread for each of them ; and nothing
more ! And this, observe, is one-third short of the bread
allowance of gaols, to say nothing of the meat and clothing
and lodging of the inhabitants of gaols. If the man have full
work; if he get his eighteen-pence a day, the whole nine
shillings does not purchase a gallon loaf each for a wife and
three children, and two gallon loaves for himself. In the gaols,
the convicted felons have a pound and a half each of bread
a day to begin with : they have some meat generally, and it
has been found absolutely necessary to allow them meat when

1 4 Rural Ride from

they work at the tread-mill. It is impossible to make them
work at the tread-mill without it. However, let us take the
bare allowance of bread allowed in the gaols. This allowance
is, for five people, fifty-two pounds and a half in the week ;
whereas, the man's nine shillings will buy but fifty-two pounds
of bread ; and this, observe, is a vast deal better than the
state of things in the north of Hampshire, where the day-
labourer gets but eight shillings a week I asked this man
how much a day they gave to a young able man who had no
family, and who was compelled to come to the parish-officers
for work. Observe, that there are a great many young men
in this situation, because the farmers will not employ single
men at full wages, these full wages being wanted for the
married man's family, just to keep them alive according to the
calculation that we have just seen. About the borders of the
north of Hampshire, they give to these single men two gallon
loaves a week, or, in money, two shillings and eight-pence,
and nothing more. Here, in this part of Sussex, they give the
single man seven-pence a day, that is to say, enough to buy two
pounds and a quarter of bread for six days in the week, and
as he does not work on the Sunday, there is no seven-pence
allowed for the Sunday, and of course nothing to eat : and this
is the allowance, settled by the magistrates, for a young, hearty,
labouring man ; and that, too, in the part of England where,
I believe, they live better than in any other part of it The
poor creature here has seven-pence a cay for six days in the
week to find him food, clothes, washing, and lodging ! It is
just seven-pence, less than one half of what the meanest foot
soldier in the standing army receives ; besides that the latter
has clothing, candle, fire, and lodging into the bargain ! Well
may we call our happy state of things the "envy of surround
ing nations, and the admiration of the world ! " We hear of
the efforts of Mrs. Fry, Mr. Buxton, and numerous other
persons, to improve the situation of felons in the gaols ; but
never, no never, do we catch them ejaculating one sin"le
pious sigh for these innumerable sufferers, who are doomed to
become felons or to waste away their bodies by hunger.

Petersfield to Kensington. 1 5
When we came into the village of Rogate, I saw a little
group of persons standing before a blacksmith's shop. The
church-yard was on the other side of the road, surrounded by
a low wall. The earth of the church-yard was about four feet
and a half higher than the common level of the ground round
about it; and you may see, by the nearness of the church
windows to the ground, that this bed of earth has been made
by the innumerable burials that have taken place in it. The
group, consisting of the blacksmith, the wheelwright, perhaps,
and three or four others, appeared to me to be in a delibera
tive mood. So I said, looking significantly at the church
yard, "It has taken a pretty many thousands of your fore-
" fathers to raise that ground up so high." " Yes, Sir," said
one of them. "And," said I, "for about nine hundred years
"those who built that church thought about religion very
" differently from what we do." " Yes," said another. "And,"
said I, "do you think that all those who made that heap there
-" are gone to the devil ? " I got no answer to this. "At any
" rate," added I, " they never worked for a pound and a half
" of bread a day." They looked hard at me, and then looked
hard at one another ; and I, having trotted off, looked round at
the first turning, and saw them looking after us still. I should
suppose that the church was built about seven or eight hundred
years ago, that is to say, the present church ; for the first
church built upon this spot was, I daresay, erected more than
a thousand years ago. If I had had time, I should have told
this group, that, before the Protestant Reformation, the
labourers of Rogate received four-pence a day from Michael
mas to Lady-day ; five-pence a day from Lady-day to Michael
mas, except in harvest and grass-mowing time, when able
labourers had seven-pence a day ; and that, at this time, bacon
was not so much as a halfpenny a pound: and, moreover, that
the parson of the parish maintained out of the tithes all those
persons in the parish that were reduced to indigence by means
of old age or other cause of inability to labour. I should have
.told them this, and, in all probability a great deal more, but
I had not time ; and, besides, they will have an opportunity

1 6 Rural Ride from
of reading all about it in my little book called the History of
the Protestant Reformation.
From Rogate we came on to Trotten, where a Mr. Twyford
is the squire, and where there is a very fine and ancient church
close by the squire's house. I saw the squire looking at some
poor devils who were making " wauste improvements, ma'am,"
on the road which passes by the squire's door. He looked
uncommonly hard at me. It was a scrutinising sort of look,
mixed, as I thought, with a little surprise, if not of jealousy,
as much as to say, "I wonder who the devil you can be?"
My look at the squire was with the head a little on one side,
and with the cheek drawn up from the left corner of the mouth,
expressive of anything rather than a sense of inferiority to the
squire, of whom, however, I had never heard speak before.
Seeing the good and commodious and capacious church, I
could not help reflecting on the intolerable baseness of this
description of men, who have remained mute as fishes, while
they have been taxed to build churches for the convenience
of the Cotton-Lords and the Stock-jobbers. First, their
estates have been taxed to pay interest of debts contracted
with these Stock-jobbers, and to make wars for the sale of
the goods of the Cotton-Lords. This drain upon their estates
has collected the people into great masses, and now the same
estates are taxed to build churches for them in these masses.
And yet the tame fellows remain as silent as if they had been
born deaf and dumb and blind. As towards the labourers,
they are sharp and vigorous and brave as heart could wish ;
here they are bold as Hector. They pare down the wretched
souls to what is below gaol allowance. But, as towards the
taxers, they are gentle as doves. With regard, however, to
this Squire Twyford, he is not, as I afterwards found, without
some little consolation ; for, one of his sons, I understand, is,
like Squire Rawlinson of Hampshire, a police justice in Lon
don t I hear, that Squire Twyford was always a distinguisheii
champion of loyalty ; what we call a staunch friend of Govern
ment ; and, it is therefore natural that the Government should
be a staunch friend to him. By the taxing of his estate, and

Petersfield to Kensington. 1 7
paying the Stock-jobbers out of the proceeds, the people have
been got together in great masses, and, as there are Justices
wanted to keep them in order in those masses, it seems but
reasonable that the squire should, in one way or another, enjoy
some portion of the profits of keeping them in order. How
ever, this cannot be the case with every loyal squire ; and
there are many of them, who, for want of a share in the dis
tribution, have been totally extinguished, I should suppose
Squire Twyford to be in the second rank upwards (dividing
the whole of the proprietors of land into five ranks.) It
appears to me, that pretty nearly the whole of this second
rank is gone ; that the Stock-jobbers have eaten them clean
up, having less mercy than the cannibals, who usually leave
the hands and the feet ; so that this squire, has had pretty
good luck.
From Trotten we came to Midhurst, and, having baited
our horses, went into Cowdry Park to see the ruins of that
once noble mansion, from which the Countess of Salisbury
(the last of the Plantagenets) was brought by the tyrant
Henry the Eighth to be cruelly murdered, in revenge for
the integrity and the other great virtues of her son, Cardinal
Pole, as we have seen in Number Four, paragraph 115, of
the " History of the Protestant Reformation," This noble
estate, one of the finest in the whole kingdom, was seized
on by the king, after the possessor had been murdered on
his scaffold. She had committed no crime. No crime was
proved against her. The miscreant Thomas Cromwell, find
ing that no form of trial would answer his purpose, invented a
new mode of bringing people to their death ; namely, a Bill
brought into Parliament, condemning her to death. The
estate was then granted to a Sir Anthony Brown, who was
physician to the king. By the descendants of this Brown,
one of whom was afterwards created Lord Montague, the
estate has been held to this day ; and Mr. Poyntz, who mar*
ried the sole remaining heiress of this family, a Miss Brown,
is now the proprietor of the estate, comprising I believe,
forty or fifty manort, the greater part of which are in this
VOL. 11. b

1 8 Rural Ride from
neighbourhood, some of them, however, extending more than
twenty miles from the mansion. We entered the park through
a great iron-gateway, part of which being wanting, the gap was
stopped up by a hurdle. We rode down to the house and all
round about and in amongst the ruins, now in part covered
with ivy, and inhabited by innumerable starlings and jackdaws.
The last possessor, was, I believe, that Lord Montague who
was put an end to by the celebrated nautical adventure on the
Rhine along with the brother of Sir Glory. These two sen
sible worthies took it into their heads to go down a place
something resembling the waterfall of an overshot milL They
were drowned just as two young kittens or two young puppies
would have been. And, as an instance of the truth that it is
an ill wind that blows nobody good, had it no: been for this
sensible enterprize, never would there have been a West
minster Rump to celebrate the talents and virtues of West
minster's Pride and England's glory. It was this Lord
Montague, I believe, who had this ancient and noble mansion
completely repaired, and fitted up as a place of residence : and
a few days, or a very few weeks at any rate, after the work was
completed, the house was set on fire (by accident, I suppose),
and left nearly in the state in which it now stands, except
that the ivy has grown up about it, and partly hidden the
stones from our sight. You may see, however, the hour of
the day or night at which the fire took place ; for there still
remains the brass of the face of the clock, and the hand
pointing to the hour. Close by this mansion, there runs a
little river which runs winding away through tiie valleys, and
at last falls into the Arun. After viewing the ruins, we had
to return into the turnpike road, and then enter another part
of the park, which we crossed, in order to go to Petworth.
When you are in a part of this road through the park, you look
down and see the house in the middle of a very fine valley,
the distant boundary of which, to the south and south-west, is
the South down Hills. Some of the trees here are very fine,
particularly some most magnificent rows of the Spanish-
chestnuts. I asked the people at Midhurst where Mr. PoynU

Petersfield to Kensington. 1 9
himself lived ; and they told me at the lodge in the park,
which lodge was formerly the residence of the head keeper.
The land is very good about here. It is fine rich loam at
top, with clay further down. It is good for all sorts of trees,
and they seem to grow here very fast.
We got to Petworth pretty early in the day. On entering
it you see the house of Lord Egremont, which is close up
against the park-wall, and which wall bounds this little vale on
two sides. There is a sort of a town hall here, and on one
side of it there is the bust of Charles the Second, I should have
thought ; but they tell me it is that of Sir William Wyndham,
from whom Lord Egremont is descended. But there is another
building much more capacious and magnificent than the town
hall ; namely, the Bridewell, which from the modernness of
its structure, appears to be one of those "wauste improvements,
Ma'am," which distinguish this enlightened age. This struc
ture vies, in point of magnitude, with the house of Lord
Egremont itself, though that is one of the largest mansions
in the whole kingdom. The Bridewell has a wall round it
that I should suppose to be twenty feet high. This place
was not wanted, when the labourer got twice as much, instead
of half as much as the common standing soldier. Here you
see the true cause why the young labouring man is " content"
to exist upon id. a day, for six days in the week, and nothing
for Sunday. Oh ! we are a most free and enlightened people ;
our happy constitution in Church and state has supplanted
Popery and slavery ; but we go to a Bridewell unless we
quietly exist and work upon id. a day ! ThursUy,
Sunday, iya Nov.
To our great delight we found Richard's horse quite well
this morning, and off we set for this place. The first part of
our road, for about three miles and a half, was through Lord
Egremont's Park. The morning was very fine ; the sun
shining ; a sharp frost after a foggy evening ; the grass all
white, the twigs of the trees white, the ponds frozen over;

_o Rural Ride from:
and everything looking exceedingly beautiful. The spot itself
being one of the very finest in the world, not excepting, I
daresay, that of the father of Saxe Cobourg itself, who has,
doubtless, many such fine places.
In a very fine pond not far from the house and close by
the road, there are some little artificial islands, upon one of
which I observed an arbutus loaded with its beautiful fruit
(quite ripe) even more thickly than any one I ever saw even
in America. There were, on the side of the pond, a most
numerous and beautiful collection of water-fowl, foreign as
well as domestic. I never saw so great a variety of water
fowl collected together in my life. They had been ejected
from the water by the frost, and were sitting apparently in
a state of great dejection : but this circumstance had brought
them into a comparatively small compass ; and we, facing our
horses about, sat and looked at them, at the pond, at the
grass, at the house, till we were tired of admiring. Everything
here is in the neatest and most beautiful state. Endless herds
of deer, of all the varieties of colours ; and, what adds greatly
to your pleasure in such a case, you see comfortable retreats
prepared for them in different parts of tiie woods. When we
came to what we thought the end of the park, the gate-keeper
told us that we should find other walls to pass through. We
now entered upon woods, we then came to another wall, and
there we entered upon farms to our right and to our left At
last we came to a third wall, and the gate in that let us out
into the turnpike road. The gate-keeper here told us, that
the whole enclosure was nine miles round; and this, after al!,
forms, probably, not a quarter part of what this nobleman
possesses. And, is it wrong that one man should possess so
much? By no means; but in my opinion it is wrong that a
system should exist which compels this man to have his estate
taken away from him unless he throw the junior branches of
his family for maintenance upon the public.
Lord Egremont bears an excellent character. Every thing
that I have ever heard of him makes me believe that he is
worthy of this princely estate. But, I cannot forget that his

Petersfield to Kensington. 2 1
two brothers, who are now very old men, have had, from their
infancy, enormous revenues in sinecure places in the West
Indies, while the general property and labour of England is
taxed to maintain those West Indies in their state of depend
ence upon England ; and I cannot forget that the burden of
these sinecures are amongst the grievances of which the West
Indians justly complain. True, the taxing system has taken
from the family of Wyndham, during the lives of these two
gentlemen, as much, and even more, than what that family
has gained by those sinecures ; but then let it be recollected,
that it is not the helpless people of England who have been
the cause of this system. It is not the fault of those who
receive id. a day. It is the fault of the family of Wyndham
and of such persons ; and, if they have chosen to suffer- the
Jews and jobbers to take away so large a part of their income,
it is not fair for them to come to the people at large to make
up for the loss.
Thus it has gone on. The great masses of property have,
in general, been able to take care of themselves : but the little
masses have melted away, like butter before the sun. The
little gentry have had not even any disposition to resist.
They merit their fate most justly. They have vied with each
other in endeavours to ingratiate themselves with power, and
to obtain compensation for their losses. The big fishes have
had no feeling for them ; have seen them sink with a sneer,
rather than with compassion ; but, at last, the cormorant
threatens even themselves ; and they are struggling with might
and main for their own preservation. They every where
"most liberally" take the Stock-jobber or the Jew by the
hand, though they hate him mortally at the same time for his
power to outdo them on the sideboard, on the table, and in
the equipage. They seem to think nothing of the extinguish
ment of the small fry; they hug themselves in the thought
that they escape ; and yet, at times, their minds misgive them,
and they tremble for their own fate. The country people
really gain by the change ; for the small gentry have been
•rendered, by their miseries, so niggardly and so cruel, that it

__ Rural Ride from
is quite a blessing, in a village, to see a rich Jew or Jobber
come to supplant them. They come, too, with far less cun
ning than the half-broken gentry. Cunning as the Stock
jobber is in Change Alley, I deiy him to be cunning enough
lor the country people, brought to their present state of
duplicity by a series of cruelties, which no pen can adequately
describe. The Stock-jobber goes from London with the cant
of humanity upon his lips, at any rate ; whereas the half-
broken Squire, takes not the least pains to disguise the
hardness of his heart.
It is impossible for any just man to regret the sweeping away
of this base race of Squires ; but the sweeping of them away
is produced by causes that have a wider extent These causes
reach the good as well as the bad : all are involved alike : like
the pestilence, this horrible system is no respecter of persons:
and decay and beggary mark the whole face of the country.
North Chapel is a little town in the Weald of Sussex, where
there were formerly post-chaises kept ; but where there are
none kept now. And here is another complete revolution.
In almost every country town the post-chaise houses have
been lessened in number, and those that remain have become
comparatively solitary and mean. The guests at inns are not
now gentlemen, but bumpers, who, from being called (at the
inns) " riders," became " travellers," and are now " commercial
gentlemen," who go about in gigs, instead of on horseback, and
who are in such numbers as to occupy a great part of the room
in all the inns, in every part of the country. There are, pro
bably, twenty thousand of them always out, who may perhaps
have, on an average throughout the year, three or four thousand
"ladies" travelling with them. The expense of this can be little
short of fifteen millions a year, all to be paid by the country-
people who consume the goods, and a large part of it to be
drawn up to the Wen.
From North Chapel we came to Chiddingfold, which is in
the Weald of Surrey ; that is to say, the country of oak-timber.
Between these two places, there are a couple of pieces of
that famous commodity, called " Government property." It

Petersfield to Kensington. 23
seems, that these places, which have extensive buildings on.
them, were for the purpose of making gunpowder. Like most
other of these enterprises, they have been given up, after a
time, and so the ground and all the buildings, and the mon
strous fences, erected at enormous expense, have been sold.
They were sold, it seems, some time ago, in lots, with the
intention of being pulled down and carried away, though they.
are now nearly new, and built in the most solid, substantial,,
and expensive manner ; brick walls eighteen inches through,
and the buildings covered with lead and slate. It appears that
they have been purchased by a Mr. Stovell, a Sussex banker ;
but for some reason or other, though the purchase was made
long ago, " Government " still holds the possession ; and, what
is more, it keeps people there to take care of the premises. It
would be curious to have a complete history of these pretty
establishments at Chiddingfoid ; but, this is a sort of history.
that we shall never be treated with until there be somebody in
Parliament to rummage things to the bottom. It would be
very easy to call for a specific account of the cost of these
establishments, and also of the quantity of powder made at
them. I should not be at all surprised, if the concern, all
taken together, brought the powder to a hundred times the
price at which similar powder could have been purchased.
When we came through Chiddingfoid, the people were just
going to church ; and we saw a carriage and pair conveying
an old gentleman and some ladies to the churchyard steps.
Upon inquiry, we found that this was Lord Winterton, whose
name, they told us, was Tumour. I thought I had heard of all
the Lords, first or last ; but, if I had ever heard of this one
before, I had forgotten him. He lives down in the Weald,
between the gunpowder establishments and Horsham, and has
the reputation of being a harmless, good sort of man, and that
being the case I was sorry to see that he appeared to be greatly
afflicted with the gout, being obliged to be helped up the steps
by a stout man. However, it is as broad, perhaps, as it is
long : a man is not to have all the enjoyments of making the
gout, and the enjoyments of abstinence too : that would not be

24 Rural Ride from
fair play ; and I dare say that Lord Winterton is just enough
to be content with the consequences of his enjoyments.
This Chiddingfoid is a very pretty place. There is a very
pretty and extensive green opposite the church ; and we were
at the proper time of the day to perceive that the modem
system of education had by no means overlooked this little
village. We saw the schools marching towards the church in
military order. Two of them passed us on our road. The
boys looked very hard at us, and I saluted them with "There's
brave boys, you'll all be parsons or lawyers or doctors."
Another school seemed to be in a less happy state. The
scholars were too much in uniform, to have had their clothes
purchased by their parents; and they looked, besides, as if a
little more victuals, and a little less education, would have
done as well. There were about twenty of them, without one
single tinge of red in their whole twenty faces. In short, I
never saw more deplorable-looking objects since I was born.
And can it be of any use to expend money in this sort of way
upon poor creatures that have not half a bellyful of food ?
We had not breakfasted when we passed them. We felt, at
that moment, what hunger was. We had some bits of bread
and meat in our pockets, however; and these, which were
merely intended as stay-stomachs, amounted, I dare say, to the
allowance of any half dozen of these poor boys for the day.
I could, with all my heart, have pulled the victuals out of my
pocket and given it to them ; but I did not like to do that
which would have interrupted the march, and might have been
construed into a sort of insult. To quiet my conscience,
however, I gave a poor man that I met soon afterwards six
pence, under pretence of rewarding him for telling me the way
to Thursley, which I knew as well as he, and which I had
determined, in my own mind, not to follow.
We had now come on the turnpike road from my Lord
Egremont's Park to Chiddingfoid. I had made two or three
attempts to get out of it, and to bear away to the north-west,
to get through the oak-woods to Thursley; but I was con
stantly prevented, by being told that the road, which I wished

Petersfield to Kensington. 25
to take, would lead me to Haslemere. If you talk to ostlers,
or landlords, or post-boys; or, indeed, to almost anybody else,
they mean by a road a turnpike road ; and they positively will
not talk to you about any other. Now, just after quitting
Chiddingfoid, Thursley lies over fine woods and coppices, in a
north-west direction, or thereabouts ; and the turnpike road,
which goes from Petworth to Godalming, goes in a north-north
east direction. I was resolved, be the consequences what they
might, not to follow the turnpike road one .ingle inch further;
for I had not above three miles or thereabouts to get to
Thursley, through the woods ; and I had, perhaps, six miles
at least to get to it the other way ; but the great thing was to
see the interior of these woods ; to see the stems of the trees,
as well as the tops of them. I saw a lane opening in the right
direction ; I saw indeed, that my horses must go up to their
knees in clay ; but I resolved to enter and go along that lane,
and long before the end of my journey I found myself most
amply compensated for the toil that I was about to encounter.
But talk of toil ! It was the horse that had the toil ; and I
had nothing to do but to sit upon his back, turn my head from
side to side and admire the fine trees in every direction. Little
bits of fields and meadows here and there; shaded all over, or
nearly all over, by the surrounding trees. Here and there a
labourer's house buried in the woods. We had drawn out our
luncheons and eaten them while the horses took us through the
clay ; but I stopped at a little house, and asked the woman, who
looked very clean and nice, whether she would let us dine
with her. She said " Yes," with all her heart, but that she had
no place to put our horses in, and that her dinner would not be
ready for an hour, when she expected her husband home from
church. She said they had a bit of bacon and a pudding and
some cabbage ; but that she had not much bread in the house.
She had only one child, and that was not very old, so we left
her, quite convinced that my old observation is true, that
people in the woodland countries are best off, and that it is
absolutely impossible to reduce them to that state of starvation
in which they are in the corn-growing part of the kingdom.

2 6 Ru ral Ride from
Here is that great blessing, abundance of fuel at all times of
the year, and particularly in the winter.
We came on for about a mile further in these clayey lanes,
when we renewed our inquiries as to our course, as our road
now seemed to point towards Godalming again. 1 asked a
man how I should get to Thursley? He pointed to some fir-
trees upon a hill, told me I must go by them, and that there
was no other way. "Where then," said I, "is Thursley?"
He pointed with his hand, and said, " Right over those
" woods ; but there is no road there, and it is impossible for
"you to get through those woods." "Thank you," said I;
" but through those woods we mean to go." Just at the
border of the woods I saw a cottage. There must be some
way to that cottage ; and we soon found a gate that let us
into a field, across which we went to this cottage. We there
found an old man and a young one. Upon inquiry we found
that it was possible to get through these woods. Richard
gave the old man threepence to buy a pint of beer, and I gave
the young one a shilling to pilot us through the woods.
These were oak-woods with underwood beneath : and there
was a little stream of water running down the middle of the
woods, the annual and long overflowings of which have formed
a meadow sometimes a rod wide, and sometimes twenty rods
wide, while the bed of the stream itself was the most serpen
tine that can possibly be imagined, describing, in many places,
nearly a complete circle, going round for many rods together,
and coming within a rod or two of a point that it had passed
before. I stopped the man several times, to sit and admire
this beautiful spot, shaded in great part by lofty and wide-
spreading oak trees. We had to cross this brook several
times, over bridges that the owner had erected for the con
venience of the fox-hunters. At last, we came into an ash»
coppice, which had been planted in regular rows, at about
four feet distances, which had been once cut, and which was
now in the state of six years' growth. A road through it,
made for the fox-hunters, was as straight as a line, and of so
great a length, that, on entering it, the further end appeared

Petersfield to Kensington. 2 7
not to be a foot wide. Upon seeing this, I asked the man
whom these coppices belonged to, and he told me to Squire
Leech, at Lea. My surprise ceased, but my admiration did
not. A piece of ordinary coppice ground, close adjoining> this,
and with no timber in it, and upon just the same soil (if
there had been such a piece), would, at ten years' growth, be
worth, at present prices, from five to seven pounds the acre.
This coppice, at ten years' growth, will be worth twenty
pounds the acre ; and, at the next cutting, when the stems
will send out so many more shoots, it will be worth thirty
pounds the acre. I did not ask the question when I afterr
wards saw Mr. Leech, but, I dare say, the ground was trenched
before it was planted ; but, what is that expense when com
pared with the great, the permanent profit of such an under
taking ! And, above all things, what a convenient species of
property does a man here create. Here are no tenants' rack,
no anxiety about crops and seasons ; the rust and the mildew
never come here ; a man knows what he has got, and he
knows that nothing short of an earthquake can take it from
him, unless, indeed, by attempting to vie with the stock
jobber in the expense of living, he enable the stock-jobber
to come and perform the office of the earthquake. Mr.
Leech's father planted, I think it was, forty acres of such
coppice in the same manner ; and, at the same time, he
sowed the ground with acorns. The acorns have become oak
trees, and have begun and made great progress in diminishing
the value of the ash, which have now to contend against the
shade and the roots of the oak. For present profit, and,
indeed, for permanent profit, it would be judicious to grub up
the oak; but the owner has determined otherwise. He
cannot endure the idea of destroying an oak wood.
If such be the profit of planting ash, what would be the
profit of planting locust, even for poles and stakes? The
locust would outgrow the ash, as we have seen in the case of
Mr. Gunter's plantation, more than three to one. I am
satisfied that it will do this upon any soil, if you give the

_ 8 Rttf'al Ride from
trees fifteen years to grow in ; and, in short, that the locusts
will be trees when the ash are merely poles, if both are left to
grow up in single stems. If in coppice, the locust will make
as good poles ; I mean as large and as long poles in six years,
as the ash will in ten years : to say nothing of the superior
durability of the locust. I have seen locusts, at Mr. Knowles's,
at Thursley, sufficient for a hop-pole, for an ordinary hop-
pole, with only five years' growth in them, and leaving the
last year's growth to be cut off, leaving the top of the pole
three quarters of an inch through. There is nothing that we
have ever heard of, of the timber kind, equal to this in point
of quickness of growth. In parts of the country where
hop-poles are not wanted, espalier stakes, wood for small
fencing, hedge stakes, hurdle stakes, fold-shores, as the people
call them, are always wanted ; and is it not better to have
a thing that will last twenty years, than a thing that will
last only three ? I know of no English underwood which
gives a hedge stake to last even two years. I should think
that a very profitable way of employing the locust would be
this. Plant a coppice, the plants two feet apart Thus planted,
the trees will protect one another against the wind. Keep
the side shoots pruned off. At the end of six years, the
coppice, if well planted and managed, will be, at the very
least, twenty feet high to the tips of the trees. Not if the
grass and weeds are suffered to grow up to draw all the
moisture up out of the ground, to keep the air from the young
plants, and to intercept the gentle rains and the dews ; but,
trenched ground, planted carefully, and kept clean ; and
always bearing in mind that hares and rabbits and young
locust trees will never live together; for the hares and
rabbits will not only bite them off; but will gnaw them
down to the ground, and, when they have done that, will
scratch away the ground to gnaw into the very root. A
gentleman bought some locust trees of me last year, and
brought me a dismal account in the summer of their being all
dead ; but I have since found that they were all eaten up by
the hares. He saw some of my refuse ; some of those which

Petersfield to Kensington. 29
were too bad to send to him, which were a great deal higher
than his head. His ground was as good as mine, according
to his account ; but I had no hares to fight against ; or else
mine would have been all dead too.
I say, then, that a locust plantation, in pretty good land,
well managed, would be twenty feet high in six years ; sup
pose it, however, to be only fifteen, there would be, at the
bottom, wood to make two lobust PINS for ship-building ;
•two locust pins at the bottom of each tree. Two at the very
least; and here would be twenty-two thousand locust pins to
the acre, probably enough for the building of a seventy-four
gun ship. These pins are about eighteen inches long, and,
perhaps, an inch and half through ; and there is this surprising
quality in the wood of the locust, that it is just as hard and
as durable at five or six years' growth as it is at fifty years'
growth. Of which I can produce an abundance of instances.
The stake which I brought home from America, and which is
now at Fleet-street, had stood as a stake for about eight and
¦twenty years, as certified to me by Judge Mitchell, of North
Hampstead in Long Island, who gave me the stake, and who
said to me at the time, " Now are you really going to take
" that crooked miserable stick to England ! " Now it is
pretty well known, at least, I have been so informed, that our
Government have sent to America, in consequence of my
writings about the locust, to endeavour to get locust pins for
the navy. I have been informed that they have been told that
the American Government has bought them all up. Be this
as it may, I know that a waggon-load of these pins is, in
America itself, equal in value to a waggon-load of barrels of
the finest flour. This being undeniable, and the fact being
undeniable that we can grow locust pins here, that I can take
a seed to-day, and say that it shall produce two pins in seven
years' time, will it not become an article of heavy accusation
against the Government if they neglect even one day to set
about tearing up their infernal Scotch firs and larches in
Woolmer Forest and elsewhere, and putting locust trees in
their stead, in order, first to provide this excellent material

30 Rural Ride from
for ship-building; and next to have some fine plantations in
the Holt Forest, Woolmer Forest, the New Forest, the Forest
of Dean, and elsewhere, the only possible argument against
doing which being, that I may possibly take a ride round
amongst their plantations, and that it may be everlastingly
recorded, that it was I, who was the cause of the Govern
ment's adopting this wise and beneficial measure ?
I am disposed to believe, however, that the Government
will not be brutish enough, obstinately to reject the advice
given to them on this head, it being observed, however, that
I wish to have no hand in their proceedings, directly or in
directly. I can sell all the trees that I have for sale to other
customers. Let them look out for themselves ; and, as to
any reports that their creatures may make upon the subjects
I shall be able to produce proofs enough that such reports, if
unfavourable, are false. I wrote, in a Register from Long
Island, that I could if I would tell insolent Castlereagh, who
was for making Englishmen dig holes one day and fill them
up the next, how he might profitably put something into those
holes, but that I would not tell him as long as the Borough-
mongers should be in the state in which they then were.
They are no longer in that state, I thank God. There has
been no positive law to alter their state, but it is manifest
that there must be such law before it be long. Events are
working together to make the country worth living in, which,
for the great body of the people, is at present hardly the case.
Above all things in the world, it is the duty of every man,
who has it in his power, to do what he can to promote the
creation of materials for the building of ships, in the best
manner; and it is now a fact of perfect notoriety, that, with
regard to the building of ships, it cannot be done in the best
manner, without the assistance of this sort of wood.
I have seen a specimen of the locust wood used in the
making of furniture. I saw it in the posts of a bed-stead ; and
any thing more handsome I never saw in my life. I had
used it myself in the making of rules ; but I never saw it in
this shape before. It admits ot a polish nearly as fine as that

Petersfield to Kensington.

of box. It is a bright and beautiful yellow. And in bed
steads, for instance, it would last for ever, and would not
become loose at the joints, like oak and other perishable
wood ; because, like the live oak and the red cedar, no worm
or insect ever preys upon it There is no fear of the quantity
being too great It would take a century to make as many
plantations as are absolutely wanted in England. It would
be a prodigious creation of real and solid wealth. Not such a
creation as that of paper money, which only takes the dinner
from one man and gives it to another, which only gives an
unnatural swell to a city or a watering-place by beggaring a
thousand villages; but it would be a creation of money's
worth things. Let any man go and look at a farm-house
that was built a hundred years ago. He will find it, though
very well built with stone or brick, actually falling to pieces,
unless very frequently repaired, owing entirely to the rotten
wood in the window-sills, the door-sills, the plates, the pins,
the door frames, the window frames, and all those parts of the
beams, the joists, and the rafters, that come in contact with
the rain or the moisture. The two parts of a park paling
which give way first, are, the parts of the post that meet the
ground, and the pins which hold the rails to the post. Both
these rot long before the paling rots. Now, all this is
avoided by the use of locust as sills, as joists, as posts, as
frames, and as pins. Many a roof has come down merely
from the rotting of the pins. The best of spine oak is
generally chosen for these pins. But after a time, the air gets
into the pin-hole. The pin rots from the moist air, it gives
way, the wind shakes the roof, and down it comes, or, it
swags, the wet gets in, and the house is rotten. In ships,
the pins are the first things that give way. Many a ship
would last twenty years after it is broken up, if put together
with locust pins. I am aware that some readers will become
tired of this subject: and, nothing but my conviction of its
being of the very first importance to the whole kingdom could
make me thus dwell upon it.
We got to Thursley after our beautiful ride through Mr,

3 2 Rural Ride from
Leech's coppices, and the weather being pretty cold we found
ourselves most happily situated here by the side of an American
fireplace, making extremely comfortable a room wliich was
formerly amongst the most uncomfortable in the world. This
is another of what the malignant parsons call Cobbett.
Quackeries. But my real opinion is that the whole body of
them, all put together, have never, since they were born, con
ferred so much benefit upon the country, as I have conferred
upon it by introducing this fire-place. Mr. Judson of Ken
sington, who is the manufaciurer of them, tells me that he has
a great demand, which gives me much pleasure; but really,
coming to conscience, no man ougr.t to sit by one of these
fire-places that does not go the full length with me both in
politics and religion. It is not fair for them to enjoy the
warmth without subscribing to the doctrines of the giver of
the warmth. However, as I have nothing to do with Mr.
Judson's affair, either as to the profit or the loss, he must sell
the fire-piaces to whomsoever he pleases. Kensington,
Sunday, 20/A Nov.
Coming to Godalming on Friday, where business kept us
that night, we had to experience at the inn the want of our
American fire-place. A large and long room to sit in, with a
miserable thing called a screen to keep the wind from our
backs, with a smoke in the room half an hour after the fire
was lighted, we, consuming a full bushel of coals in order to
keep us warm, were not half so well off as we should have
been in the same room, and without any screen, and with two
gallons of coals, if we had our American fire-place. I gave
the landlord my advice upon the subject, and he said he
would go and look at the fire-place at Mr. Knowles's. That
was precisely one of these rooms which stand in absolute need
of such a fire-place. It is, I should think, five-and-thirty, or
forty feet long, and preity nearly twenty feet wide. I could
sooner dine with a labouring man upon his allowance of bread,
such as I have mentioned above, than I would, in winter time,

Petersfield to Kensington.

dine in that room upon turbot and sirloin of beef. An American
fireplace, with a good fire in it, would make every part of that
room pleasant to dine in, in the coldest day in winter. I saw
a public-house drinking-room, where the owner has tortured
his invention to get a little warmth for his guests, where he
fetches his coals in a waggon from a distance of twenty miles
or thereabouts, and where he consumes these coals by the
bushel, to effect that, which he cannot effect at all, and which
he might effect completely with about a fourth part of the
coals. It looked like rain on Saturday morning, we therefore sent
our horses on from Godalming to Ripley, and took a post-
chaise to convey us after them. Being shut up in the post-
chaise did not prevent me from taking a look at a little snug
house stuck under the hill on the road side, just opposite the
old chapel on St. Catherine's-hill, which house was not there
when I was a boy. I found that this house is now occupied
by the family Molyneux, for ages the owners of Losely Park,
on the out-skirts of which estate this house stands. The
house at Losely is of great antiquity, and had, or perhaps
has, attached to it the great manors of Godalming and Chid
dingfoid. I believe that Sir Thomas More lived at Losely,
or, at any rate, that the Molyneuxes are, in some degree,
descended from him. The estate is, I fancy, theirs yet ; but
here they are, in this little house, while one Gunning (an East
Indian, I believe) occupies the house of their ancestors. At
Send, or Sutton, where Mr. Webb Weston lived, there is a
Baron somebody, with a De before his name. The name is
German or Dutch, I believe. How the Baron came there I
know ncjt; but as I have read his name amongst the Justices
of the Peace for the county of Surrey, he must have been born
in England, or the law has been violated in making him a
Justice of the Peace, seeing that no person not born a subject
of the king, and a subject in this country too, can lawfully
hold a commission under the crown, either civil or military.
Nor is it lawful for any man born abroad of Scotch or Irish
parents, to hold such commission under the crown, though
VOL. n. c

34 Rural Ride from
such commissions have been held, and are held, by persons
who are neither natural born subjects of the king, nor born of
English parents abroad. It should also be known and borne
in mind by the people, that it is unlawful to grant any pension
from the crown to any foreigner whatever. And no natural
isation act can take away this disability. Yet the Whigs, as
they call themselves, granted such pensions during the short
time that they were in power.
When we got to Ripley, we found the day very fine, and we
got upon our horses and rode home to dinner, after an absence
of just one month, agreeably to our original intention, having
seen a great deal of the country, having had a great deal of
sport, and having, I trust, laid in a stock of health for the
winter, sufficient to enable us to withstand the suffocation of
this smoking and stinking Wen.
But, Richard and I have done something else, besides ride,
and hunt, and course, and stare about us, during this month.
He was eleven years old last March, and it was now time for
him to begin to know something about letters and figures. He
has learned to work in the garden, and having been a good
deal in the country, knows a great deal about farming affairs.
He can ride any thing of a horse, and over any thing that a
horse will go over. So expert at hunting, that his first teacher,
Mr. Budd, gave the hounds up to his management in the field;
but now he begins to talk about nothing but fox-hunting !
That is a dangerous thing. When he and I went from home,
I had business at Reigate. It was a very wet morning, and
we went off long before daylight in a post-chaise, intending
to have our horses brought after us. He began to talk in
anticipation of the sport he was going to have, and was very
inquisitive as to the probability of our meeting with fox-hounds,
which gave me occasion to address him thus: "Fox-hunting
" is a very fine thing, and very proper for people to be engaged
" in, and it is very desirable to be able to ride well and to be
" in at the death ; but that is not ALL ; that is not every thing.
" Any fool can ride a horse, and draw a cover; any groom
*' or any stable-fellow, who is as ignorant as the horse, can

Petersfield lo Kensington. 35
" do these things ; but, all gentlemen that go a fox-hunting
" [I hope God will forgive me for the lie] are scholars, Richard.
" It is not the riding, nor the scarlet coats, that make them
" gentlemen ; it is -their scholarship." What he thought I do
not know; for he sat as mute as a fish, and I could not see
his countenance. " So," said I, " you must now begin to learn
"something; and you must begin with arithmetic." He had
learned from mere play, to read, being first set to work of his
own accord, to find out what was said about Thurtell, when all
the world was talking and reading about Thurtell. That had
induced us to give him Robinson Crusoe ; and that had made
him a passable reader. Then he had scrawled down letters*
and words upon paper, and had written letters to me, in the
strangest way imaginable- His knowledge of figures he had
acquired from the necessity of knowing the several numbers
on the barrels of seeds brought from America, and the
numbers upon the doors of houses. So that I had pretty
nearly a blank sheet of paper to begin upon ; and I have
always held it to be stupidity in the last degree to attempt to
put book-learning into children who are too young to reason
with. I began with a pretty long lecture on the utility of arith
metic; the absolute necessity of it, in order for us to make
out our accounts of the trees and seeds that we should have
to sell in the winter, and the utter impossibility of our getting
paid for our pains unless we were able to make out our
accounts, which accounts could not be made out unless we
understood something about arithmetic. Having thus made
him understand the utility of the thing, and given him a very
strong instance in the case of our nursery affairs, I proceeded
to explain to him the meaning of the word arithmetic, the
power of figures, according to the place they occupied. I
then, for it was still dark, taught him to add a few figures,
together, I naming the figures one after another, while he, at
the mention of each new figure, said the amount, and if incor
rectly, he was corrected by me. When we had got a sum of
of about 24, I said now there is another line of figures on the

36 Rural Ride from
left of this, and therefore you are to put down the 4 and carry
2. " What is cartyingt" said he. I then explained to him the!
why and the wherefore of this, and he perfectly understood me at
once. We then did several other little sums; and, by the
time we got to Sutton, it becoming daylight, I took a pencil
and set him a little sum upon paper, which, after making a
mistake or two, he did very well. By the time we got to
Reigate he had done several more, and at last, a pretty long
one, with very few errors. We had business all day, and
thought no more of our scholarship until we went to bed, and
then we did, in our post-chaise fashion, a great many lines in
¦arithmetic before we went to sleep. Thus we went on mixing
our riding and hunting with our arithmetic, until we quitted
Godalming, when he did a sum very nicely in multiplication of
money, falling a little short of what I had laid out, which was
to make him learn the four rules in whole numbers first, and
then in money, before I got home.
Friends' houses are not so good as inns for executing a
project like this ; because you cannot very well be by your
self ; and we slept but four nights at inns during our absence.
So that we have actually stolen the time to accomplish this
job, and Richard's Journal records that he was more than
fifteen days out of the thirty-one, coursing or hunting. Nothing
struck me more than the facility, the perfect readiness with
which he at once performed addition of money. There is a
pence table which boys usually learn, and during the learning
of which they usually get no small number of thumps. This
table I found it wholly unnecessary to set him. I had written
it for him in one of the leaves of his journal book. But, upon
looking at it, he said, <l I don't want this, because, you know,
" I have nothing to do but to divide by tocelze." " That is right,"
said I, " you are a clever fellow, Dick ; " and I shut up the
book. Now, when there is so much talk about education, let me
ask how many pounds it generally costs parents to have a boy
taught this much of arithmetic ; how much time it costs also ;
and, which is a far more serious consideration, how much

Petersfield to Kensington. 37
mortification, and very often how much loss of health, it costs
the poor scolded broken-hearted child, who becomes dunder-
headed and dull for all his life-time, merely because that has
been imposed upon him as a task which he ought to regard
as an object of pleasant pursuit. I never even once desired
him to stay a moment from any other thing that he had a
mind to go at. I just wrote the sums down upon paper, laid
them upon the table, and left him to tackle them when lie
pleased. In the case of the multiplication-table, the learning
of which is something of a job, and which it is absolutely
necessary to learn perfectly, I advised him to go up into his
bed-room, and read it twenty times over out loud every
morning, before he went a hunting, and ten times over every
night, after he came back, till it all came as pat upon his lips
as the names of persons that he knew. He did this, and at
the end of about a week he was ready to set on upon multi
plication. It is the irksomeness of the thing which is the
great bar to learning of every sort. I took care not to suffer
irksomeness to seize his mind for a moment, and the conse
quence was that which I have described. I wish clearly to
be understood as ascribing nothing to extraordinary natural
ability. There are, as I have often said, as many sorts of men
as there are of dogs; but, I do not pretend to be of any
peculiarly excellent sort, and I have never discovered any
indications of it. There are, to be sure, sorts that are
naturally stupid; but, the generality of men are not so; and
I believe that every boy of the same age, equally healthy, and
brought up in the same manner, would (unless of one of the
stupid kinds) learn in just the same sort of way ; but, not if
begun to be thumped at five or six years old, when the poor
little things have no idea of the utility of anything ; who are
hardly sensible beings, and have but just understanding
enough to know that it will hurt them if they jump down a
chalk pit. I am sure, from thousands of instances that have
come under my own eyes, that to begin to teach children
book-learning before they are capable of reasoning, is the sure
and certain way to enfeeble their minds for life ; arid, if they

o

8 Rural Ride from

have natural genius, to cramp, if not totally to destroy that
genius. I think I shall be tempted to mould into a little book these
lessons of arithmetic given to Richard. I think that a boy
of sense, and of age equal to that of my scholar, would derive
great profit from such a little book. It would not be equal
to my verbal explanations, especially accompanied with the
other parts of my conduct towards my scholar ; but, at any
rate, it would be plain ; it would be what a boy could under
stand ; it would encourage him by giving him a glimpse at the
reasons for what he was doing : it would contain principles ;
and the difference between principles and rules is this, that
the former are persuasions and the latter are commands.
There is a great deal of difference between carrying 2 for such
and such a reason, and carrying 2 because you must carry 2.
You see boys that can cover reams of paper with figures, and
do it with perfect correctness too ; and at the same time, can
give you not a single reason for any part of what they have
done. Now this is really doing very litde. The rule is soon
forgotten, and then all is forgotten. It would be the same
with a lawyer, that understood none of the principles of law.
As far as he could find and remember cases exactly similar in
all their parts to the case which he might have to manage, he
would be as profound a lawyer as any in the world ; but, if
there was the slightest difference between his case and the
cases he had found upon record, there would be an end of
his law.
Some people will say, here is a monstrous deal of vanity
and egotism ; and if they will tell me, how such a story is to
be told without exposing a man to this imputation, I will
adopt their mode another time. I get nothing by telling the
story. I should get full as much by keeping it to myself; but
it may be useful to others, and therefore I tell it Nothing is
so dangerous as supposing that you have eight wonders of the
world. I have no pretensions to any such possession. I look
upon my boy as being like other boys in general Their
fathers can teach arithmetic as well as I ; and if they have

Petersfield to Kensington. 39
not a mind to pursue my method, they must pursue their own.
Let them apply to the outside of the head and to the back, if
they like ; let them bargain for thumps and the birch rod ; it
is their affair and not mine. I never yet saw in my house a
child that was afraid; that was in any fear whatever; that
was ever for a moment under any sort of apprehension, on
account of the learning of anything ; and I never in my life
gave a command, an order, a request, or even advice, to look
into any book ; and I am quite satisfied that the way to make.
children dunces, to make them detest books, and justify that
detestation, is to tease them and bother them upon the
subject. As to the age at which children ought to begin to be taught,
it is very curious, that, while I was at a friend's house during
my ride, I looked into, by mere accident, a little child's
abridgment of the History of England : a little thing about
twice as big as a crown-piece. Even into this abridgment the
historian had introduced the circumstance of Alfred's father,
who, " through a mistaken notion of kindness to his son, had
suffered him to live to the age of twelve years without any
attempt being made to give him education." How came this
writer to know that it was a mistaken notion 1 Ought he not
rather, when he looked at the result, when he considered the
1 astonishing knowledge and great deeds of Alfred — ought he
not to have hesitated before, he thus criticised the notions of
the father? It appears from the result that the notions of the
father were perfectly correct ; and I am satisfied, that if they
had begun to thump the head of Alfred when he was a child,
we should not at this day have heard talk of Alfred the Great.1

1 It is a great error to suppose that because a man knows a thing, there
fore he can teach it.
Teaching is one of the most difficult arts, and requires skill and experi
ence. The necessity of special study and practical training to make a
" school-master," has given rise to Normal Schools and Training Colleges.
It is to an improved system of teaching that we must look, for the solu
tion of one of the greatest difficulties of the day, viz., how to economize the
time, so as most to train the thinking faculties, without undue pressure to
the health and cheerfulness of the pupil. It canno^ be doubted that three

40 Rural Ride from
Great apologies are due to the OLD LADY from me, on
account of my apparent inattention towards her, during her
recent, or rather, I may say, her present, fit of that tormenting
disorder which, as I observed before, comes upon her by spells.
Dr. M'Culloch may say what he pleases about her being
"wi' bairn.'' I say it's the wet gripes; and I saw a poor old
mare down in Hampshire in just the same way; but God
forbid the catastrophe should be the same, for they shot poor
old Ball for the hounds. This disorder comes by spells. It
sometimes seems as if it were altogether going off; the pulse
rises, and the appetite returns. By-and-by a fresh grumbling
begins to take place in the bowels. These are followed by
acute pains ; the patient becomes tremulous ; the pulse begins
to fall, and the most gloomy apprehensions begin again to be
entertained. At every spell the pulse does not cease falling
till it becomes lower than it was brought to by the preceding
spell ; and thus, spell after spell, finally produces the natural
result. It is useless at present to say much about the equivocating
and blundering of the newspapers, relative to the cause of the
fall. They are very shy, extremely cautious ; become wonder
fully wary, with regard to this subject They do not know
what to make of it. They all remember, that I told them
that their prosperity was delusive ; that it would soon come to
an end, while they were telling me of the falsification of all
my predictions. I told them the Small-note Bill had only
given a respite. I told them that the foreign loans, and the
shares, and all the astonishing enterprises, arose purely out of
hours of hearty spirited effort in the way of learning will do more than is
accomplished in most schools in double that time. The three hours thus
set free would be clear gain, for time spent in trifling or in heartless fagging
is worse than lost : it is mentally demoralizing. The subject of studying the
" happiness " of children while they are under instruction is seldom thought
of. Sidney Smith has, however, observed, " if you make them happy now,
you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it." It
is asserted that at the present time there is an alarming amount of over
pressure in elementnry schools. I'robably a happier system of teaching
would result by shortening the school hours and by prolonging the hours
for recreation and play. <

Petersfield to Kensington. 4 r
the Small-note Bill ; and that a; _hort time would see the
Small-note Bill driving the gold out of the country, and bring
us back to another restriction, OR, to wheat at four shillings
a bushel. They remember that I told them all this; and now,
some of them begin to regard me as the principal cause of the
present embarrassments ! This is pretty work indeed ! What !
I ! The poor deluded creature, whose predictions were all
falsified, who knew nothing at all about such matters, who
was a perfect pedlar in political economy, who was " a con-
" ceited and obstinate old dotard," as that polite and enlight
ened paper, the Morning Herald, called me : is it possible
that such a poor miserable creature can have had the power
to produce effects so prodigious ? Yet this really appears to
be the opinion of one, at least, of these Mr. Brougham's best
possible public instructors. The Public Ledger, of the 16th of
November, has the following passage : —
" It is fully ascertained that the Country Banking Establish-
" ments in England have latterly been compelled to limit
" their paper circulation, for the writings of Mr. Cobbett
" are widely circulated in the Agricultural districts, and they
" have been so successful as to induce the Boobies to call for
" gold in place of country paper, a circumstance which has
"produced a greater effect on the currency than any exportation
" of the precious metals to the Continent, either of Europe or
" America, could have done, although it too must have con-
" tributed to render money for a season scarce."
And, so, the "boobies" call for gold instead of country
bank-notes! Bless the "boobies"! I wish they would do
it to a greater extent, which they would, if they were not so
dependent as they are upon the ragmen. But, does the
Public Ledger think that those unfortunate creatures who
suffered the other day at Plymouth, would have been
"boobies" if they had gone and got sovereigns before the
banks broke? This brother of the broad sheet should act
justly and fairly as I do. He should ascribe these demands
for gold to Mr. Jones of Bristol and not to me. Mr. Jones
taught the ." boobies " that they might have gold for asking

4 2 Rural Ride from
for, or send the rag-men to jail It is Mr. Jones, therefore,
that they should blame, and not me. But, seriously speaking,
what a mess, what a pickle, what a horrible mess, must the
thing be in, if any man, or any thousand of men, or any
hundred thousand of men, can change the value of money,
unhinge all contracts and all engagements, and plunge the
pecuniary affairs of a nation into confusion? I have been
often accused of wishing to be thought the cleverest man in
the country ; but surely it is no vanity (for vanity means un
just pretension) for me to think myself the cleverest man in
the country, if I can of my own head, and at my own pleasure,
produce effects like these. Truth, however, and fair dealing
with my readers, call upon me to disclaim so haughty a pre
tension. I have no such power as this public instructor
ascribes to me. Greater causes are at work to produce such
effects ; causes wholly uncontrollable by me, and, what is
more, wholly uncontrollable in the long run by the Govern
ment itself, though heartily co-operating with the bank direc
tors. These united can do nothing to arrest the progress of
events. Peel's bill produced the horrible distresses of 1822;
the part repeal of that bill produced a respite, that respite is
now about to expire ; and neither Government nor bank, nor
both joined together, can prevent the ultimate consequences.
They may postpone them for a little ; but mark, every post
ponement will render the catastrophe the more dreadful.
I see everlasting attempts by the ''Instructor" to cast
blame upon the bank. I can see no blame in the bank. The
bank has issued no small notes, though it has liberty to do it.
The bank pays in gold agreeably to the law. What more
does any body want with the bank? The bank lends money
I suppose when it chooses ; and is not it to be the judge,
when it shall lend and when it shall not ? The bank is
blamed for putting out paper and causing high prices; and
blamed at the same time for not putting out paper to accom
modate merchants and keep them from breaking. It cannot
•be to blame for both, and, indeed, it is blamable for neither.
It is the fellows that put out the paper and then break, that do

Petersfield to Kensington.

43

the mischief. However, a breaking merchant, whom the
bank will no longer prop up, will naturally blame the bank,
just as every insolvent blames a solvent, that will not lend him
money.1 When the foreign loans first began to go on, Peter Maccul-
loch, and all the Scotch were cock o' whoop. They said that

1 In 1797 the Bank of England found itself likely to be obliged to suspend
payments, and its notes were therefore declared (by law) a legal tender
although no longer convertible into coin. There was thus no check upon
the Bank as to the amount of its issues, and the currency became depreci
ated ; that is, a £$ no'e would not exchange for five sovereigns, and every
man to whom £5 was due, was obliged to accept payment in a £5 note
not worth £$. Peel's Act in 1821, however, declared that cash payments
in the current coin of the realm should be made for notes if demanded.
This led to a great commercial panic, and the Bank was more than once
on the verge of a suspension of payments owing to foreign drains upon its
gold. The Government of the day has taken upon itself, on several occa
sions, the responsibility of authorising the Bank to issue notes not repre
sented by gold. The Act of 1844 prevented the issue of notes beyond the
value of fifteen millions unless an equal amount of gold was held by the Bank.
It follows therefore that the gold in hand by the Bank affects the
briskness or depression of trade, because her paper issue depends upon the
influx of gold. Thus, between 1851 and 1852, the Bank received an
addition to her gold of seven millions, and during the same period her
issue of notes increased from nineteen, millions to twenty-three millions.
Whenever there are signs of a foreign drain, the Bank counteracts that
tendency, by raising the rate of discount and restricting its loans. The
purchasing power of the public is thereby limited, and prices kept down.
The solvency therefore of the Bank is undoubted. The import and
export of gold between Great Britain and other great trading countries
since 1S61 have been as follow, according to Mulhall : —

Gold, Millions Pounds.

Great Britain . .
France. ....
. United States . .
Australia ....
Other countries . ,
Total . .
! . - ¦

Imports.

Exports.

Net
Imports.

Net
Exports.

1861-70.

1871-80.

1861-70.

1881-80.

1861-80.

1861-80.

171
189 31 9
112

180IS* 42 s
126

li
ng
"3 108 60

172 90
74
7692

67
131"86

114170

512

5°4

512

504

...

...

44 Rural Ride from
there were prodigious advantages in lending money to South
America, that the interest would come home to enrich us ;
that the amount of the loans would go out chiefly in English
manufactures ; that the commercial gains would be enormous;
and that this country would thus be made rich, and powerful,
and happy, by employing in this way its "surplus capital,"
and thereby contributing at the same time to the uprooting
of despotism and superstition, and the establishing of freedom
and liberality in their stead. Unhappy and purblind, I could
not for the life of me see the matter in this light My per
verted optics could perceive no surplus capital in bundles of
bank-notes. I could see no gain in sending out goods which
somebody in England was to pay for, without, as it appeared
to me, the smallest chance of ever being paid again. I could
see no chance of gain in the purchase of a bond, nominally
bearing interest at six per cent, and on which, as I thought,
no interest at all would ever be paid. I despised the idea of
paying bits of paper by bits of paper. I knew that a bond,
though said to bear six per cent interest, was not worth a
farthing, unless some interest were paid upon it I declared,
when Spanish bonds were at seventy-five, that I would not
give a crown for a hundred pounds in them, if I were com
pelled to keep them unsold for seven years; and I now
declare, as to South American bonds, I think them of less
value than the Spanish bonds now are, if the owner be com
pelled to keep them unsold for a year. It is very true, that
these opinions agree with my wishes ; but they have not been
created by those wishes. They are founded on my knowledge
of the state of things, and upon my firm conviction of the folly
of expecting that the interest of these things will ever come
from the respective countries to which they relate.
Mr. Canning's despatch, which I shall insert below, has,
doubtless, had a tendency (whether expected or not) to prop
up the credit of these sublime speculations. The propping up
of the credit of them can, however, do no sort of good. The
keeping up the price of them for the present may assist some
of the actual speculators, but it can do nothing for the spec*

Petei'sfield lo Kensington. 45
lation in the end, and this speculation, which was wholly an
effect of the Small-note Bill, will finally have a most ruinous
effect How is it to be otherwise ? Have we ever received
any evidence, or anything whereon to build a belief, that the
interest of these bonds will be paid ? Never ; and the man
must be mad ; mad with avarice or a love of gambling, that
could advance his money upon any such a thing as these
bonds. The fact is, however, that it was not money : it was
paper : it was borrowed, or created, for the purpose of being
advanced. Observe too, that when the loans were made,
money was at a lower value than it is now ; therefore, those
who would have to pay the interest, would have too much to
pay if they were to fulfil their engagement. Mr. Canning's
State Paper clearly proves to me, that the main object of it
is to make the loans to South America finally be paid,
because, if they be not paid, not only is the amount of them
lost to the bond-holders ; but, there is an end, at once, to all
that brilliant commerce with which that shining Minister
appears to be so much enchanted. All the silver and gold,
all the Mexican and Peruvian dreams vanish in an instant,
and leave behind the wretched Cotton-Lords and wretched
Jews and Jobbers to go to the workhouse, or to Botany-Bay.
The whole of the loans are said to amount to about twenty-
one or twenty-two millions. It is supposed, that twelve mil
lions have actually been sent out in goods. These goods
have perhaps been paid for here, but they have been paid for
out of English money or by English promises. The money
to pay with, has come from those who gave money for the
South American bonds, and these bond-holders are to be
repaid, if repaid at all, by the South Americans. If not paid
at all, then England will have sent away twelve millions'
worth of goods for nothing; and this would be the Scotch
way of obtaining enormous advantages for the country by
laying out its "surplus capital" in foreign loans. I shall
conclude this subject by inserting a letter which I find in the
Morning Chronicle, of the 18th instant. I perfectly agree
with the writer. The Editor of the Morning Chronicle does

46 Rural Ride from
not, as appears by the remark which he makes at the head of
it j but I shall insert the whole, his remark and all, and add
a remark or two of my own. — [See Register, vol. 56, p. 556.]
This is a pretty round sum — a sum, the very naming of
which would make anybody but half-mad Englishmen stare.
To make comparisons with our own debt would have little effect,
that being so monstrous that every other sum shrinks into
nothingness at the sight of it. But let us look at the United
States, for they have a debt, and a debt is a debt ; and this
debt of the United States is often cited as an apology for
ours, even the parsons having at last come to cite the United
States as presenting us with a system of perfection. What,
then, is this debt of the United States ? Why, it was on the
ist of January, 1824, 90,177,962; that is to say dollars;
that is to say, at four shillings and sixpence the dollar, just
twenty millions sterling ; that is to say, 594,000 pounds less
than our "surplus capital" men have lent to the South
Americans ! But now let us see what is the net revenue of
this same United States. Why, 20,500,755, that it to say, in
sterling money, three millions, three hundred and thirty
thousand, and some odd hundreds ; that is to say, almost to a
mere fraction, a sixth part of the whole gross amount of the
debt. Observe this well, that the whole of the debt amounts
to only six times as much as one single year's net revenue.
Then, again, look at the exports of the United States. These
exports, in one single year, amount to 74,699,030 dollars, and
in pounds sterling ^16,599,783. Now, what can the South
American State show in this way? Have they any exports?
Or, at least, have they any that any man can speak of with
certainty? Have they any revenue, wherewith to pay the
interest of a debt, when they are borrowing the very means of
maintaining themselves now against the bare name of their
king ? We are often told that the Americans borrowed their
money to carry on their Revolutionary war with. Money;
Aye ; a farthing is money, and a double sovereign is no more
than money. But surely some regard is to be had to the
quantity; some regard is to be had to the amount of the

Burghclere to Petersfield 47
money ; and is there any man in his senses that will put the
half million, which the Americans borrowed of the Dutch, in
competition, that will name on the same day, this half million,
with the twenty-one millions and a half borrowed by the
South Americans as above stated ? In short, it is almost to
insult the understandings of my readers, to seem to institute
any comparison between the two things ; and nothing in the
world, short of this gambling, this unprincipled, this madden
ing paper-money system, could have made men look with
patience for one single moment at loans like these, tossed
into the air with the hope and expectation of re-payment.
However, let the bond-owners keep their bonds. Let them
feel the sweets of the Small-note Bill, and of the consequent
puffing up of the English funds. The affair is theirs. They
have rejected my advice ; they have listened to the broad
sheet; and let them take all the consequences. Let them,
with all my heart, die with starvation, and as they expire, let
them curse Mr. Brougham's best possible public Instructor.
Uphusband (Hampshire},
Thursday, 2i^h Aug. 1826.
We left Burghclere last evening, in the rain ; but, as our
distance was only about seven miles, the consequence was
little. The crops of corn, except oats, have been very fine
hereabouts ; and, there are never any peas, nor any beans,
grown here. The sainfoin fields, though on these high lands,
and though the dry weather has been of such long continu
ance, look as green as watered meadows, and a great deal
more brilliant and beautiful. I have often described this
beautiful village (which lies in a deep dell) and its very
variously shaped environs, in my Register of November, 1822.
This is one of those countries of chalk and flint and dry-top
soil and hard roads and high and bare hills and deep dells,
with clumps of lofty trees, here and there, which are so many
rookeries : this is one of those countries, or rather, approach
ing towards those countries, of downs and flocks of sheep,
which I like so much, which I always get to when I can, and

48 Rural Ride from
which many people seem to flee from as naturally as men
flee from pestilence. They call such countries naked and
barren, though they are, in the summer months, actually
covered with meat and with corn.
I saw, the other day, in the Morning Herald, London,
" best public instructor," that all those had deceived themselves,
who had expected to see the price of agricultural produce
brought down by the lessening of the quantity of paper-money.
Now, in the first place, com is, on an average, a seventh
lower in price than it was last year at this time; and, what
would it have been, if the crop and the stock had now been
equal to what they were last year ? All in good time, there
fore, good Mr. Thwaites. Let us have a little time. The
" best public instructors " have, as yet, only fallen, in number
sold, about a third, since this time last year. Give them a
little time, good Mr. Thwaites, and you will see them come
down to your heart's content Only let us fairly see an end
to small notes, and there will soon be not two daily "best
"public instructors" left in all the "entire" great "British
"Empire." But, as man is not to live on bread alone, so corn is not
the only thing that the owners and occupiers of the land have
to look to. There are timber, bark, underwood, wool, hides,
pigs, sheep, and cattle. All these together make, in amount,
four times the corn, at the very least I know that all these
have greatly fallen in price since last year ; but, I am in a
sheep and wool country, and can speak positively as to them,
which are two articles of very great importance. As to sheep;
I am speaking of South Downs, which are the great stock of
these counties ; as to sheep, they have fallen one-third in price
since last August, lambs as well as ewes. And, as to the
wool, it sold, in 1824, at 40s. a tod ; it sold last year, at 35s.
a tod ; and it now sells at 19s. a tod ! A tod is 281b. avoir
dupois weight ; so that the price of South Down wool now is,
8d. a pound and a fraction over; and this is, I believe,
cheaper than it has ever been known within the memory of
the oldest man living ! The " best public instructor " may,

Burghclere to Petersfield. 49
perhaps, think, that sheep and wool are a trifling affair. There
are many thousands of farmers who keep each a flock of at
least a thousand sheep. An ewe yields about 31b. of wool, a
wether 41b., a ram 71b. Calculate, good Mr. Thwaites, what
a difference it is when this wool becomes 8d. a pound instead
of i7d., and instead of 3od. as it was not many years ago !
In short, every middling sheep farmer receives, this year,
about ^250 less, as the produce of sheep and wool, than he
received last year ; and, on an average, ^250 is more than
half his rent
There is a great falling off in the price of horses, and of all
cattle except fat cattle ; and, observe, when the prospect is
good, it shows a rise in the price of lean cattle ; not in that
of the meat, which is just ready to go info the mouth. Prices
will go on gradually falling, as they did from 1819 to 1822
inclusive, unless upheld by untoward seasons, or by an issue
of assignats ; for, mind, it would be no joke, no sham, this
time ; it would be an issue of as real, as bona fide assignats
as ever came from the mint of any set of rascals, that ever
robbed and enslaved a people in the names of •' liberty and
law." East Everley ( Wiltshire),
Sunday, Tjth August, Evening.
We set off from Uphusband on Friday, about ten o'clock,
the morning having been wet. My sons caine round, in the
chaise, by Andover and Weyhill, while I came right across
the country towards Ludgershall, which lies in the road from
Andover to this place. I never knew the flies so troublesome,
in England, as I found them in this ride. I was obliged to
carry a great bough, and to l?eep it in constant motion, in
order to make the horse peaceable enough to enable me to
keep on his back. It is a country of fields, lanes, and high
hedges ; so that no wind could come to relieve my horse ;
and, in spite of all I could do, a great part of him was
covered with foam from the sweat. In the midst of this, I
got, at one time, a little out of my road, in, or near, a place
vol. 11. D

50 Rural Ride from
called Tangley. I rode up to the garden-wicket of a cottage,
and asked the woman, who had two children, and who seemed
to be about thirty years old, which was the way to Ludgers-
hall, which I knew could not be more than about four miles
off. She did not know I A very neat, smart, and pretty
woman ; but, she did not know the way to this rotten borough,
which was, I was sure, only about four miles off I " Well, my
dear good woman," said I, " but you have been at Ludgers-
Hall?" — "No." — "Nor at Andover?" (six miles another
way) — "No." — "Nor at Marlborough?" (nine miles another
way) — "No." — "Pray, were you born in this house?" —
"Yes." — "And, how far have you ever been from this house?"
— " Oh ! I have been up in the parish and over to Chute."
That is to say, the utmost extent of her voyages had been
about two and a half miles ! Let no one laugh at her, and,
above all others, let not me, who am convinced, that the
facilities, which now exist, of moving human bodies from place
to place, are amongst the curses of the country, the destroyers
of industry, of morals, and, of course, of happiness. It is a
great error to suppose, that people are rendered stupid by
remaining always in the same place.1 This was a very acute
woman, and as well behaved as need to be. There was, in
July last (last month) a Preston-man, who had never been
further from home than Chorley (about eight or ten miles),
and who started off, on foot, and went, alone, to Rouen, in
France, and back again to London, in the space of about ten
days ; and that, too, without being able to speak, or to under
stand, a word of French. N.B. Those gentlemen, who, at
1 The modern farm labourer enjoys almost a magical facility of loco-
motion, compared with the time alluded to by the Author. He is whirled
along with a velocity, ease, and comfort, which would have excited the
wonder and astonishment of the country folks in those days ; and wherever
be has occasion to go, he knows that, by law, he can travel, by certain
parliamentary trains, at the rate of one penny per mile, and sometimes at
a less rate. It may be interesting to know that the railways of the world
carry every month, on an average, 145 million passengers, at an average
fare of 19 pence, for an average journey of 21 miles; and that the train-
ways of Great Britain, France, and North America, carry every month 130
million of passengers, at an average fare of two pence.

Burghclere to Petersfield. 5 1
Green-street, in Kent, were so kind to this man, upon finding
that he had voted for me, will be pleased to accept of my best
thanks. Wilding (that is the man's name) was full of expres
sions of gratitude towards these gentlemen. He spoke of
others who were good to him on his way ; and even at Calais
he found friends on my account ; but he was particularly loud
in his praises of the gentlemen in Kent, who had been so
good and so kind to him, that he seemed quite in an extacy
when he talked of their conduct.
Before I got to the rotten-borough, I came out upon a
Down, just on the border of the two counties, Hampshire and
Wiltshire. Here I came up with my sons, and we entered
the rotten-borough together. It contained some rashers of
bacon and a very civil landlady ; but, it is one of the most
mean and beggarly places that man ever set his eyes on, The
curse, attending corruption, seems to be upon it. The look
of the place would make one swear, that there never was a
clean shirt ih it, since the first stone of it was laid. It must
have been a large place once, though it now contains only
479 persons, men, women, and children. The borough is, as
to all practical purposes, as much private property as this
pen is my private property. Aye, aye ! Let the petitioners
of Manchester bawl, as long as they like, against all other
evils ; but, until they touch this master-evil, they do nothing
at all.
Everley is but about three miles from Ludgershall, so that
we got here in the afternoon of Friday : and, in the evening a
Very heavy storm came and drove away all flies, and made the
air delightful. This is a real _?<7zwz-country. Here you see
miles and miles square without a tree, or hedge, or bush. It
is country of green-sward. This is the most famous place in
all England for coursing. I was here, at this very inn, with a
party eighteen years ago ; and the landlord, who is still the
same, recognised me as soon as he saw me. There were forty
brace of greyhounds taken out into the field on one of the
days, and every brace had one course, and some of them two.
The ground is the finest in the world ; from two to three miles

52 Rural Ride from
for the hare to run to cover, and not a stone nor a bush nor a
hillock. It was here proved to me, that the hare is, by far,
the swiftest of all English animals ; for I saw three hares, in
one day, run away from the dogs. To give dog and hare a
fair trial, there should be but one dog. Then, if that dog got
so close as to compel the hare to turn, that would be a proof
that the dog ran fastest When the dog, or dogs, never get
near enough to the hare to induce her to turn, she is said, and
very justly, to " run away " from them ; and, as I saw three
hares do this in one day, I conclude, that the hare is the
swifter animal of the two.
This inn is one of the nicest, and, in summer, one of the
pleasantest, in England ; for, I think, that my experience in
this way will justify me in speaking thus positively. The
house is large, the yard and the stables good, the landlord a
farmer also, and, therefore, no cribbing your horses in hay or
straw and yourself in eggs and cream. The garden, which
adjoins the south side of the house, is large, of good shape,
has a terrace on one side, lies on the slope, consists of well-
disposed clumps of shrubs and flowers, and of short-grass very
neatly kept In the lower part of the garden there are high
trees, and, amongst these, the tulip-tree and the live-oak.
Beyond the garden is a large clump of lofty sycamores, and, in
these a most populous rookery, in which, of all things in the
world, I delight. The village, which contains 301 souls, lies
to the north of the inn, but adjoining its premises. All the
rest, in every direction, is bare down or open arable. I am
now sitting at one of the southern windows of this inn, looking
across the garden towards the rookery. It is nearly sun-
setting ; the rooks are skimming and curving over the tops of
the trees ; while, under the branches, I see a flock of several
hundred sheep, coming nibbling their way in from the Down,
and going to their fold.
Now, what ill-natured devil could bring Old Nic Grimshaw
into my head in company with these innocent sheep ? Why,
the truth is this : nothing is so swift as thought: it runs over
a life-time in a moment ; and, while I was writing the last

Burghclere to Petersfield. 53
sentence of the foregoing paragraph, 'thought took hie up at
the time when I Used to wear a smock-frock and to carry a
wooden bottle like that shepherd's boy ; and, in an instant, it
hurried me along through my no Very short life of adventure,
of toil, of peril, of pleasure, of ardent friendship ahd not less
ardent enmity ; and after filling me with wonder, that a heart
and mind so wrapped up in everything belonging to the
gardens, the fields and the woods, should have been condemned
to waste themselves away amidst the stench, the noise and the
strife of cities, it brought me to the present moment, and sent
my mind back to what I have yet to perform about Nicholas
Grimshaw and his ditches 1 x
My sons set off about three o'clock to-day, on their way to
Herefordshire, where I intend to join them, when I have had
a pretty good ride in this country. There is no pleasure in
travelling, except on horseback, or on foot. Carriages take
your body from place to place ; and, if you merely want to be
conveyed, they are very good ; but they enable you to see and
to know nothing at all of the country.

East Everley, Monday Morning
5 o'clock, 2%th Aug. 1826.
A very fine morning; a man, eighty-two years of age, just
beginning to mow the short-grass, in the garden : I thought
it, even when I was young, the hardest work that man had
to do. To look on, this work seems nothing ; but, it tries
every sinew in your frame, if you go upright and do your work
1 Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw was Mayor of Preston in 1826 when the
Author was candidate at the election of two Members for that town. Mr.
Cobbett was brought forward by Sir Thomas Beevor of Hargham, near
Attleborough, Norfolk, in the agricultural interest. A famous contest took
place. There was comparatively little ruffianism, but sufficient to impair fair
voting. The " ditches " to which reference is made, were the passages
formed in the crowds for bringing up the voters. The other candidates
were the Hon. E. G. Stanley (afterwards Earl Derby), Mr. John Wood
a citizen merchant, and Captain Barrie, R.N. The election commenced
on June 9th, and ended on June 26th. The numbers were — Stanley, 3041 ;
Wood, 1982 ; Barrie, 1657 ; Cobbett, 993. The former two gentlemen
were consequently elected.

54 Rural Ride down

well. This old man never knew how to do it well, and he
stoops, and he hangs his scythe wrong ; but, with all this, it
must be a surprising man to mow short-grass, as well as he
does, at eiglity. I wish I may be able to mow short-grass at
eighty ! That's all I have to say of the matter. I am just
setting off for the source of the Avon, which runs from near
Marlborough to Salisbury, and thence to the sea; and, I
intend to pursue it as far as Salisbury. In the distance of
thirty miles, here are, I see by the books, more than thirty
churches. I wish to see, with my own eyes, what evidence
there is, that those thirty churches were built without hands,
without money, and without a congregation ; and thus, to find
matter, if I can, to justify the mad wretches, who, from Com
mittee-Rooms and elsewhere, are bothering this half-distracted
nation to death, about a " surplus popalashon, mon."
My horse is ready ; and the rooks are just gone off to the
stubble-fields. These rooks rob the pigs ; but, they have a
right to do it I wonder (upon my soul I do) that there is
no lawyer, Scotchman, or Parson-Justice, to propose a law, to
punish the rooks for trespass.

RIDE DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE AVON IN WILTSHIRE.
" Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn ; and,
The labourer is worthy of his reward." — Deuteronomy, ch. xxv. ver. 4;
I Cor. ix. 9 ; I Tim. v. 18. Milston, Monday, 28th August.
I came off this morning on the Marlborough road, about
two miles, or three, and then turned off, over the downs, in
a north-westerly direction, in search of the source of the Avon
River, which goes down to Salisbury. I had once been at
Netheravon, a village in this valley ; but I had often heard
this valley described, as one of the finest pieces of land in all
England ; I knew that there were about thirty parish churches^

The Valley of the Avon. 55
standing in a length of about thirty miles, and in an average
width, of hardly a mile ; and I was resolved to see a little into
the reasons that could have induced our fathers to build all
these churches, especially if, as the Scotch would have us
believe, there were but a mere handful of people in England
until of late years.
The first part of my ride this morning was by the side of
Sir John Astley's park. This man is one of the members of
the county (gallon-loaf Bennet being the other). They say
that he is good to the labouring people ; and he ought to be,
good for something, being a member of Parliament of the
Lethbridge and Dickenson stamp. However, he has got a
thumping estate ; though, be it borne in mind, the working-
people, and the fund-holders, and the dead-weight, have each
their separate mortgage upon it ; of which this Baronet has, I
daresay, too much justice to complain, seeing that the amount
of these mortgages, was absolutely necessary, to carry on Pitt,
and Perceval, and Castlereagh Wars ; to support Hanoverian
soldiers in England ; to fight and beat the Americans, on the
Serpentine River; to give Wellington, a kingly estate; and
to defray the expenses of Manchester, and other yeomanry
cavalry; besides all the various charges of Power-of-Imprison-
ment Bills and of Six-Acts. These being the cause of the
mortgages, the " worthy Baronet " has, I will engage, too much
justice to complain of them.
In steering across the down, I came to a large farm, which
a shepherd told me was Milston Hill Farm. This was upon
the high land, and before I came to the edge of this Valley of
Avon, which was my land of promise ; or, at least, of great
expectation ; for I could not imagine that thirty churches had
been built for nothing, by the side of a brook (for it is no more
during the greater part of the way) thirty miles long. The
shepherd showed me the way towards Milston; and at the
end of about a mile, from the top of a very high part of the
down, with a steep slope towards the valley, I first saw this
Valley of Avon ; and a most beautiful sight it was ! Villages,
hamlets, large farms, towers, steeples, fields, meadows, orchards,

56 Rural Ride down
and very fine timber trees, scattered all over the valley. The
shape of the thing is this : on each side downs, very lofty and
steep, in some places( and sloping miles back, in other places ;
but the out-sides of the valley are downs. From the edge of
the downs begin capital arable fields, generally of very great
dimensions, and, in some places, running a mile or two back
into little cross-valleys, formed by hills of downs. After the
corn-fields come meadows, on each side, down to the brook,
or river. The farm-houses, mansions, villages, and hamlets,
are generally situated in that part of the arable land which
comes nearest the meadows.
Great as my expectations had been, they were more than
fulfilled. I delight In this sort of country; and I had
frequently seen the vale of the Itchen, that of the Bourn, and
also that of the Teste, in Hampshire ; I had seen the vales
amongst the South Downs ; but I never before saw anything to
please me like this valley of the Avon. I sat upon my horse
and looked over Milston and Easton and Pewsey for half an
hour, though I had not breakfasted. The hill was very steep.
A road, going slanting down it, was still so steep, and washed so
very deep, by the rains of ages, that I did not attempt to ride
down it, and I did not like to lead my horse, the path was so
narrow. So seeing a boy with a drove of pigs, going out to
the stubbles, I beckoned him to come up to me ; and he
came, and led my horse down for me. But now, before I
begin to ride down this beautiful vale, let me give, as well as
my means will enable me, a plan or map of it, which I have
made in this way : a friend has lent me a very old map of
Wiltshire, describing the spots where all the churches stand,
and also all the spots where Manor-houses, or Mansion-houses,
stood. I laid a piece of very thin paper upon the map, and
thus traced the river upon my paper, putting^i^wro to repre
sent the spots where churches stand, and putting stars to
represent the spots where Manor-houses or Mansion-houses
formerly stood.1 Endless is the variety in the shape of the
1 Tho map here produced is a facsimile, on a reduced scale, of the

The Valley of the Avon. 57
high lands which form this valley. Sometimes the slope is
very gentle, and the arable lands go back very far. At others,
the downs come out into the valley almost like piers into the
sea, being very steep in their sides, as well as their ends,
towards the valley. They have no slope at their other ends :
indeed they have no back ends, but run into the main high
land. There is also great variety in the width of the valley ;
great variety in the width of the meadows; but the land
appears all to be of the very best; and it must be so, for the
farmers confess it.
It seemed to me, that one way, and that not, perhaps, the
least striking, of exposing the folly, the stupidity, the inanity,
the presumption, the insufferable emptiness and insolence and
barbarity, of those numerous wretches, who have now the
audacity, to propose to transport the people of England, upon
the principle of the monster Malthus, who has furnished the
unfeeling oligarchs, and their toad-eaters, with the pretence,
that man has a natural propensity to breed faster, than, food can
be raised for the increase ; it seemed to me, that one way of
exposing this mixture of madness and of blasphemy was, -to
take a look, now that the harvest is in, at the produce, the
mouths, the condition, and the changes that have taken place,
in a spot like this, which God has favoured with every good,
that he has had to bestow upon man.
From the top of the hill I was not a little surprised to see, in
every part of the valley that my eye could reach> a large portion
of fields of Swedish turnips, all looking extremely well. I had
found the turnips, of both sorts, by no means bad, from Salt Hill
to Newbury; but from Newbury through Burghclere, Highclere,
Uphusband, and Tangley, I had seen but few. At and about
present Ordnance map, representing the Valley of the Avon. Upon
examination, it will be found fully to corroborate the opinion of the
Author, respecting the former population of this valley. There are several
villages in the map, which are not mentioned by Mr. Cobbett, while
there are several villages, mentioned by him, which do not appear in the
map ; probably, however, their names have been altered. It will also be
seen that several villages haVe duplicate names. The map, supplied in the
former editions of the work, was very meagre.

58 Rural Ride down
Ludgershall and Everley, I had seen hardly any. But, when
I came, this morning, to Milston Hill farm, I saw a very large
field of what appeared to me to be fine Swedish Turnips. In
the valley, however, I found them much finer, and the fields
were very beautiful objects, forming, as their colour did, so
great a contrast with that of the fallows, and the stubbles,
which latter are, this year, singularly clean and bright
Having got to the bottom of the hill, I proceeded on to
the village of Milston, the church of which is, in the map,
represented by the figure 2. I left Easton (3) away at my
right, and I did not go up to Wooton Rivers (1) where the
river Avon rises, and which lies just close to the south-west
corner of Marlborough Forest, and at about 5 or 6 miles
from the town of Marlborough. Lower down the river, as I
thought, there lived a friend, who was a great farmer, and
whom I intended to call on. It being my way, however,
always to begin making enquiries soon enough, I asked the
pig-driver where this friend lived ; and, to my surprise, I found
that he lived in the parish of Milston (2). After riding up to
the church, as being the centre of the village, I went on
towards the house of my friend, which lay on my road down
the valley. I have many, many times witnessed agreeable
surprise ; but I do not know, that I ever in the whole course
of my life, saw people so much surprised and pleased, as this
farmer and his family were, at seeing me. People often tell
you, that they are glad to see you ; and in general they speak
truth. I take pretty good care not to approach any house,
with the smallest appearance of a design to eat or drink in it,
unless I be quite sure of a cordial reception ; but my friend at
Fifield (it is in Milston parish) (2) and all his family, really
seemed to be delighted beyond all expression.
When I set out this morning, I intended to go all the way
down to the city of Salisbury (31) to-day ; but, I soon found,
that to refuse to sleep at Fifield, would cost me a great deal
more trouble than a day was worth. So that I made my mind
up, to stay in this farm-house, which has one of the nicest
gardens, and it contains some of the finest flowers, that I ever

The Valley of the Avon. 59
saw, and all is disposed, with as much good taste, as I have
ever witnessed. Here I am, then, just going to bed after
having spent as pleasant a day, as I ever spent in my life. I
have heard to-day, that Birkbeck lost his life by attempting to
cross a river, on horse-back ; but if what I have heard besides
be true, that life must have been hardly worth preserving ; for,
they say, that he was reduced to a very deplorable state ; and
I have heard, from what I deem unquestionable authority, that
his two beautiful and accomplished daughters are married to two
common labourers, one a Yankee, and the other an Irishman,
neither of whom has, probably, a second shirt to his back, or
a single pair of shoes, to put his feet into ! These poor girls
owe their ruin and misery (if my information be correct), and,
at any rate, hundreds besides Birkbeck himself, owe their
utter ruin, the most scandalous degradation, together with
great bodily suffering, to the vanity, the conceit, the presump
tion of Birkbeck, who, observe, richly merited all that he
suffered, not excepting his death ; for, he sinned with his eyes
open ; he rejected all advice ; he persevered, after he saw his
error; he dragged thousands into ruin along with him ; and
he most vilely calumniated the man, who, after having most
disinterestedly, but in vain, endeavoured to preserve him from
ruin, endeavoured to preserve those who were in danger of
being deluded by him. When, in 181 7, before he set out for
America, I was, in Catherine Street, Strand, London, so
earnestly pressing him not to go to the back countries, he had
one of these daughters with him. After talking to him for
some time, and describing the risks and disadvantages of the
back countries, I turned towards the daughter, and, in a sort
of joking way, said : "Miss Birkbeck, take my advice : don't
" let anybody get you more than twenty miles from Boston,
"New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore." Upon which he
gave me a most dignified look, and, observed : " Miss Birk-
"beck has a father, Sir, whom she knows it to be her duty
"to obey." This snap was enough for me. I saw, that this
was a man so full of self-conceit, that it was impossible to do
anything with him. He seemed to me to be bent upon his

60 Rural Ride down
own destruction. I thought it my duty to warn others of their
danger : some took the warning ; others did not ; but he and
his brother adventurer, Flower, never forgave me, and they
resorted to all the means in their power to do me injury.
They did me no injury, no thanks to them ; and I have seen
them most severely, but most justly, punished.1
Amesbury, Tuesday, 2gth August.
I set off from Fifield, near Pawsey, this morning, and got
here (25) about one o'clock, with my clothes wet While
they are drying, and while a mutton chop is getting ready, I
sit down to make some notes of what I have seen since I left
Enford (No. 15) ; but, here comes my dinner : and I must put
off my notes till I have dined. Salisbury, Wednesday, 30/A August.
My ride yesterday, from Milston (No. 2) to this city of
Salisbury, was, without any exception, the most pleasant ; it
brought before me the greatest number of, to me, interesting
objects, and it gave rise to more interesting reflections, than I
remember ever to have had brought before my eyes, or into
my mind, in any one day of my life ; and therefore, this ride
was, without any exception, the most pleasant I ever had
1 Mr. Morris Birkbeck was a prosperous farmer at Wanborough in
Surrey. He left England in 1817, for America, with the view to carry ont
an Emigration Scheme in the Western States. After his arrival, he sent to
England, for publication, two pamphlets ; one called " Notes on a Journey
in America from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois j " the
other was called " Letters from Illinois." He did this, for the purpose of
inducing other farmers in England to join him. Mr. Cobbett {as he tells
us here) tried to dissuade him from settling in the back countries ; but
Birkbeck acted in opposition to this advice, and subsequently found that
his highly coloured theories were but illusions ; at length, he lost all his
property, and, finally, was drowned in trying to cross a swollen river on
horseback. Mr. Benjamin Flower also emigrated to the backwoods with
Mr. Birkbeck. He was originally editor of a periodical published at
Harlow, in Essex, called the "Political Review and Monthly Register" (of
a moderate liberal character). How long he stayed in America we aie not
told ; but he was associated with Birkbeck in publishing the " Letters from
Illinois" in 1822.

The Valley of the Avon. 61
in my life, as far as my recollection serves me. I got a little
wet in the middle of the day; but I got dry again, and I
arrived here in very good time, though I went over the
Accursed Hill (Old Sarum), and went across to Laverstock,
before I came to Salisbury.
Let us now, then, look back over this part of Wiltshire,
and see whether the inhabitants ought to be "transported"
by order of the " Emigration Committee," of which we shall
see and say more by-and-by. I have before described this
valley, generally; let me now speak of it a little more, in
detail. The farms are all large, and, generally speaking, they
were always large, I daresay ; because sheep is one of the great
things here ; and sheep, in a country like this, must be kept
in flocks, to be of any profit. The sheep principally manure
the land. This is to be done only by folding ; and, to fold,
you must have a flock. Every farm has its portion of down,
arable, and meadow ; and, in many places, the latter are
watered meadows, which is a great resource where sheep are
kept in flocks ; because these meadows furnish grass for the
suckling ewes, early in the spring ; and, indeed, because they
have always food in them for sheep and cattle of all sorts.
These meadows have had no part of the suffering from the
drought, this year. They fed the ewes and lambs in the
spring, and they are now yielding a heavy crop of hay ; for I
saw men mowing in them, in several places, particularly about
Netheravon (18), though it was raining at the time.
The turnips look pretty well all the way down the valley ;
but, I see very few, except Swedish turnips. The early
common turnips very nearly all failed, I believe. But, the
stubbles, are beautifully bright ; and the rick-yards tell us,
that the crops are good, especially of wheat This is not a
country of peas and beans, nor of oats, except for home
ponsumption. The crops are wheat, barley, wool and lambs,
and these latter, not to be sold to butchers, but to be sold, at
the great fairs, to those who are going to keep them for some
time, whether to breed from, or, finally^ to fat for the butcher.
It is the pulse and the oats, that appear to have failed most

6 2 Rural Ride down
this year ; and, therefore, this Valley has not suffered. I do
not perceive that they have many potatoes ; but what they
have of this base root, seem to look well enough. It was one
of the greatest villains upon earth (Sir Walter Raleigh), who
(they say) first brought this root into England. He was
beheaded at last ! What a pity, since he was to be beheaded,
the execution did not take place before he became such a
mischievous devil as he was in the latter two-thirds of his life !
The stack-yards down this valley, are beautiful to behold.
They contain from five to fifteen banging wheat-ricks, besides
barley-ricks, and hay-ricks, and also besides the contents of
the barns, many of which exceed a hundred, some two
hundred, and I saw one at Pewsey (5), and another at Fighel-
dean (19), each of which exceeded two hundred and fifty feet
in length. At a farm, which, in the old maps, is called
Chisenbury Priory (14) I think I counted twenty-seven ricks
of one sort and another, and sixteen or eighteen of them
wheat-ricks. I could not conveniently get to the yard,
without longer delay than I wished to make ; but, I could not
be much out in my counting. A very fine sight this was, and
it could not meet the eye, without making one look round
(and in vain) to see the people who were to eat all this food;
and without making one reflect on the horrible, the unnatural,
the base and infamous state, in which we must be, when pro
jects are on foot, and are openly avowed, for transporting,
those who raise this food, because they want to eat enough of
it to keep them alive ; and when no project is on foot for
transporting the idlers, who live in luxury upon this same
food ; when no project is on foot for transporting pensioners;
parsons, or dead-weight people !
A little while before I came to this farm-yard, I saw, in
one piece, about four hundred acres of wheat-stubble, and I
saw a sheep-fold, which, I thought, contained an acre of
ground, and had in it, about four thousand sheep and lambs;
The fold was divided into three separate flocks ; but the piece
of ground was one and the same ; and I thought it contained
about an acre. At one farm, between Pewsey and Upavon,

The Valley of the Avon. 63
I counted more than 300 hogs in one stubble. This is
certainly the most delightful farming in the world. No ditches,
no water-furrows, no drains, hardly any hedges, no dirt and
mire even in the wettest seasons of the year : and though the
downs, are naked and cold, the valleys are snugness itself.
They are, as to the downs, what ah-alu I are, in parks or
lawns. When you are going over the downs, you look over
the valleys, as in the case of the ah-ah ; and, if you be not
acquainted with the country, your surprise, when you come to
the edge of the hill, is very great. The shelter, in these
valleys, and particularly where the downs are steep and lofty
on the sides, is very complete. Then, the trees are every
where lofty. They are generally elms, with some ashes,
which delight in the soil that they find here. There are,
almost always, two or three large clumps of trees in every
parish, and a rookery or two (not nz^-rookery) to every parish.
By the water's edge there are willows ; and to almost every
farm, there is a fine orchard, the trees being, in general, very
fine, and, this year, they are, in general, well loaded with fruit.
So that, all taken together, it seems impossible to find a more
beautiful and pleasant country than this, or to imagine any
life more easy and happy than men might here lead, if theyx
were untormented by an accursed system, that takes the food
from those that raise it, and gives it to those, that do nothing
that is useful to man.
Here the farmer has always an abundance of straw. His
farm-yard is never without it. Cattle and horses are bedded
up to their eyes. The yards are put close under the shelter
of a hill, or are protected by lofty and thick-set trees. Every
animal seems comfortably situated ; and, in the dreariest
days of winter, these are, perhaps, the happiest scenes in the
world ; or, rather, they would be such, if those, whose labour
makes it all, trees, corn, sheep and every thing, had but their
fair share of the produce of that labour. What share they
really have of it, one cannot exactly say; but, I should suppose,
that every labouring man in this valley raises as much food, as
would' suffice for fifty, or a hundred persons, fed like himself!

64 Rural Ride down
At a farm at Milston (2) there were, according to my calcu
lation, 600 quarters of wheat and 1200 quarters of barley
of the present year's crop. The farm keeps, on an average,
1400 sheep, it breeds and rears an usual proportion of pigs,
fats the usual proportion of hogs, and, I suppose, rears and
fats, the usual proportion of poultry. Upon inquiry, I found
that this farm, was, in point of produce, about one-fifth of the
parish. Therefore, the land of this parish produces annually,
about 3000 quarters of wheat, 6000 quarters of barley, the
wool of 7000 sheep, together with the pigs and poultry. Now,
then, leaving green, or moist, vegetables out of the question,
as being things that human creatures, and especially labouring
human creatures ought never to use at sustenance, and saying
nothing, at present, about milk and butter ; leaving these
wholly out of the question, let us see how many people the
produce of this parish would keep, supposing the people to
live all alike, and to have plenty of food and clothing. In
order to come at the fact here, let us see what would be the
consumption of one family ; let it be a family of five persons ;
a man, wife, and three children, one child big enough to work,
one big enough to eat heartily, and one a baby ; and this is a
pretty fair average of the state of people in tiie country. Such
a family would want 5 lb. of bread a-day ; they would want a
pound of mutton a-day ; they would want two pounds of
bacon a-day; they would want, on an average, winter anci
summer, a gallon and a half of beer a-day ; for I mean that
they should live, without the aid of the Eastern or the Western
slave-drivers. If sweets were absolutely necessary for the baby,
there would be quite honey enough in the parish. Now, then, to
begin with the bread, a pound of good wheat, makes a pound
of good bread ; for, though the offal be taken out, the water is
put in ; and, indeed, the fact is, that a pound of wheat will
make a pound of bread, leaving the offal of the wheat to feed
pigs, or other animals, and to produce other human food in
this way. The family would, then, use 1825 lb. of wheat in the
year, which, at 60 lb. a bushel, would be (leaving out a fraction)
30 bushels, or three quarters and six bushels, for the year.

The Valley of the Avon. 65
Next comes the mutton, 365 lb. for the year. Next the
bacon, 730 lb. As to the quantity of mutton produced ; the
sheep are bred here, and not fatted in general ; but we may
fairly suppose, that each of the sheep kept here, each of the
standing-stock, makes, first, or last, half a fat sheep ; so that a
farm that keeps, on an average, 100 sheep, produces annually
50 fat sheep. Suppose the mutton to be 15 lb. a quarter,
then the family will want, within a trifle of, seven sheep a
year. Of bacon or pork, 36 score will be wanted. Hogs
differ so much in their propensity to fat, that it is difficult to
calculate about them ; but this is a very good rule : when you
see a fat hog, and know how many score he will weigh, set
down to his account a sack (half a quarter) of barley for every
score of his weight ; for, let him have been educated (as the
French call it) as he may, this will be about the real cost of
him when he is fat. A sack of barley will make a score of
bacon, and it will not make more. Therefore, the family-
would want 18 quarters of barley in the year for bacon.
As to the beer, 18 gallons to the bushel of malt is very
good ; but, as we allow of no spirits, no wine, and none of
the slave produce, we will suppose that a sixth part of the
beer is strong stuff. This would require two bushels of malt to
the 18 gallons. The whole would, therefore, take 35 bushels
of malt ; and a bushel of barley makes a bushel of malt, and,
by the increase pays the expense of malting. Here, then, the
family would want, for beer, four quarters and three bushels
of barley. The annual consumption of the family, in victuals
and drink, would then be as follows :,• Qrs. Bush;.
Wheat .  3 6
Barley  22 3

Sheep

This being the case, the 300a quarters of wheat, which the
parish annually produces, would suffice for 800 families. The
6000 quarters of barley, would suffice for 207 families. The
3560 fat sheep, being half the number kept, would. suffice for
vol. 11. e

66 Rural Ride down
500 families. So that here is, produced in the parish of Milston
(2), bread for 800, mutton for 500, and bacon and beer for 207
families. Besides victuals and drink, there are clothes, fuel,
tools, and household goods wanting; but, there are milk,
butter, eggs, poultry, rabbits, hares, and partridges, which I
have not noticed, and these are all eatables, and are all eaten
too. And as to clothing, and, indeed, fuel and all other wants
beyond eating and drinking, are there not 7000 fleeces of
South-down wool, weighing, all together, 21,000 lb., and
capable of being made into 8400 yards of broad cloth, at two
pounds and a half of wool to the yard ? Setting, therefore,
the wool, the milk, butter, eggs, poultry, and game against
all the wants beyond the solid food and drink, we see that the
parish of Milston (2) that we have under our eye, would give
bread to 800 families, mutton to 500, and bacon and beer to
207. The reason why wheat and mutton are produced in a
proportion so much greater than the materials for making
bacon and beer, is, that the wheat and the mutton are more
loudly demanded from a distance, and are much more cheaply
conveyed away in proportion to their value. For instance, '
the wheat and mutton are wanted in the infernal Wen, and
some barley is wanted there in the shape of malt ; but hogs
are not fatted in the Wen, and a larger proportion of the barley
is used where it is grown.
Here is, then, bread for Soo families, mutton for 500, and
bacon and beer for 207. Let us take the average of the three,
and then we have 502 families, for the keeping of whom, and
in this good manner too, the parish of Milston (.) yields a
sufficiency. In the wool, die milk, butter, eggs, poultry, and
game, we have seen ample, and much more than ample,
provision for all wants, other than those of mere food and
drink. What I have allowed in food and drink, is by no
means excessive. It is but a pound of bread, and a little
more than half-a-pound of meat a day, to each person on an
average ; and the beer is not a drop too much. There are no
green and moist vegetables, included in my account; but,
there would be some, and they would not do any harm ; but,

The Valley of the Avon. 67
no man can say, or, at least, none but a base usurer, who
would grind money out of the bones of his own father; no
other man can, or will, say, that I have been too liberal to this
family ; and yet, good God 1 what extravagance is here, if the
labourers of England be now treated justly !
Is there a family, even amongst those who live the hardest,
in the Wen, that would not shudder at the thought of living
upon what I have allowed to this family? Yet what do
labourers' families get, compared to this ? The answer to that
question, ought to make us shudder indeed. The amount of
my allowance, compared with the amount of the allowance
that labourers now have, is necessary to be stated here, before
I proceed further. The wheat, 3 qrs. and 6 bushels, at present
price (56^. the quarter) amounts to 10/. 10s. The barley (for
bacon and beer) 22 qrs. 3 bushels, at present price (34J. the
quarter), amounts to 37/. 16.. gd. The seven sheep, at 40s.
each, amount to 14/. The total is 62/. 6s, gd. ; and this,
observe, for bare victuals and drink; just food and drink
enough to keep people in working condition.
What then do the labourers get ? To what fare has this
wretched and most infamous system brought them ! Why such
a family as I have described is allowed to have, at the utmost,
only about 95. a week. The parish allowance is only about
•js. 6d. for the five people, including clothing, fuel, bedding
and everything ! Monstrous state of things ! But, let us sup
pose it to be nine shillings. Even that makes only 23/. 8s. a
year, for food, drink, clothing, fuel and everything, whereas I
allow 62/. 6s. 8d. a year for the bare eating and drinking; and
that is little enough. Monstrous, barbarous, horrible as this
appears, we do not, however, see it, in half its horrors; our
indignation and rage against this infernal system, is not half
roused, till we see the small number of labourers who raise all
the food and the drink, and, of course, the mere trifling portion
of it that they are suffered to retain for their own use.1
1 The following tables, taken from Mulhall's Statistics, show — 1st. The
yearly average consumption of necessaries per inhabitant in different

68

Rural Ride down

The parish of Milston (2) does, as we have seen, produce
food, drink, clothing, and all other things, enough for 502
families, or 2510 persons upon my allowance, which is a great
deal more than three times the present allowance, because the
present allowance includes clothing, fuel, tools and everything.
Now, then, according to the "Population Return," laid before

countries ; 2nd, The average rate of agricultural wages in England in the
years 1800, 1850, and 1880; and 3rd, average annual cost of living of agri
cultural family : —
1. — Yearly Consumption of Necessaries.

Per Inhabitant, lbs.

Value.

Grain.

Meat.

Butter.

Sugar.

lbs.

lbs.

Ibi

lbs.

£ s- d.

United Kingdom . . .

330

IC-5

13

68

720

France ....

5°5
74
4
21
5 II 0
Germany . .
585
69
8
21
S 17 0
Russia . . .
49o
48
3
7
3 4°
Austria . . .
410
64
S
14
4 16 0
Italy . . .
420
23
1
7
3 3°
United States
392
120
16
23
660
Average . .
445
81
7
23
S 2 0
2. — Average Rate of Agricultural Wages in England.
In year 1800 . .
„ 1850 . .
„ 1880 . .
Bailiff.
Shepherd.
Labourer.
Woman.
Boy.
£=o 40
£16 2S3°
£" 20
30
£s 10
15
£6 8
10
3-— Average Annual Cost of Living of Agricultural Family,
(five persons).
In year 1823 , ,
» 1883 . .
Bread, Meat,
&c.
Groceries.
Rent.
Clothing, &C.
Total.
&7 20
£3 5
£3 4
£8 8
£3^ 37
The Valley of the Avon. 69
Parliament, this parish contains 500 persons, or, according to
my division, one hundred families. So that here are about one
hundred families to raise food and drink enough, and to raise
wool and other things to pay for all other necessaries, for five
hundred and hvo families ! Aye, and five hundred and two
families fed and lodged, too, on my liberal scale. Fed and
lodged according to the present scale, this one hundred
families raise enough to supply more, and many more, than
fifteen hundred families ; or seven thousand five hundred
persons ! And yet those who do the work are half-starved ! .
In the 100 families there are, we will suppose, 80 able working
men, and as many boys, sometimes assisted by the women and
stout girls. What a handful of people to raise such a quantity
of food ! What injustice, what a hellish system it must be, to
make those who raise it, skin and bone and nakedness, while
the food and drink and wool are almost all carried away to be
heaped on the fund-holders, pensioners, soldiers, dead-weight
and other swarms of tax-eaters ! If such an operation do not
need putting an end to, then the devil himself is a saint.
Thus it must be, or something like it, all the way down
this fine and beautiful and interesting valley. There are 29
agricultural parishes, the two last (30 and 31) being in town;
being Fisherton and Salisbury. Now, according to the " Popu
lation Return," the whole of these 29 parishes contain 9,116
persons ; or, according to my division 1,823 families. There
is no reason to believe, that the proportion that we have seen
in the case of Milston (2) does not hold good all the way
through; that is, there is no reason to suppose, that the
produce does not exceed the consumption in every other case
in the same degree, that it does in the case of Milston (2).
And, indeed if I were to judge from the number of houses and
the number of ricks of corn, I should suppose that the excess
was still greater in several of the other parishes. But, supposing
it to be no greater ; supposing the same proportion to continue
all the way from Wooton Rivers (1) to Stratford (29), then here
are 9,116 persons raising food and raiment sufficient for 45,580
persons, fed and lodged according to my scale; and sufti-i

70 Rural Ride down
cient for .36,740 persons, according to the scale on which the
unhappy labourers of this fine valley are now fed and lodged I
And yet there is an "Emigration Committee" sitting to
devise the means of getting rid, not of the idlers, not of the
pensioners, not of the dead-weight, not of the parsons (to
" relieve " whom we have seen the poor labourers taxed to the
tune of a million and a half of money), not of the soldiers;
but to devise means of getting rid of these working people, who
are grudged even the miserable morsel that they get ! There
is in the men calling themselves "English country gentlemen "
something superlatively base. They are, I sincerely believe,
the most cruel, the most unfeeling, the most brutally insolent :
but I know, I can prove, I can safely take my oath, that they
are the most base of all the creatures, that God ever suffered
to disgrace the human shape. The base wretches know well,
that the taxes amount to more than sixty millions a year, and
that the poor-rates amount to about seven millions ; yet, while
the cowardly reptiles never utter a word against the taxes,
they are incessantly railing against the poor-rates, though it is,
(and they know it) the taxes that make the paupers. The
base wretches know well, that the sum of money given, even
to the fellows that gather the taxes, is greater in amount than
the poor-rates ; the base wretches know well, that the money,
given to the dead-weight (who ought not to have a single
farthing), amounts to more than the poor receive out of the
rates; the base wretches know well, that the common foot
soldier now receives more pay per week (7.. id.) exclusive of
clothing, firing, candle, and lodging ; the base wretches know,
that the common foot soldier receives more to go down his
own single throat, than the overseers and magistrates allow
to a working man, his wife and three children ; the base
wretches know all this well ; and yet their railings are confined
to the poor, and the poor-rates ; and it is expected that they
will, next session, urge the Parliament to pass a law to enable
overseers and vestries and magistrates to transport paupers
beyond the seas I They are base enough for this, or for any
thing; but the whole system will go to the d  long before

The Valley of the Avon. ji
they will get such an Act passed ; long before they will see
perfected this consummation of their infamous tyranny.1
It is manifest enough, that the population of this valley was,
at one time, many times over what it is now ; for, in the first
place, what were the twenty-nine churches built fori The
population of the 29 parishes is now but little more than one-
half of that of the single parish of Kensington ; and there are
several of the churches bigger than the church at Kensington.
What, then, should all these churches have been built for 1
And besides, where did the hands come from ? And where
did the money come from ? These twenty-nine churches would

1 On this subject, the previous Editor remarks that at the time he was
writing (1853) it was reported that the emigration from the United
Kingdom was at the rate of iooo per day ; and that during eleven months
of 1848 244,251 persons emigrated. Upon the same subject the Economist
paper, a ministerial organ, in an article, dated 17th February 1849, re
marked : — " Not only the Continent of Europe but the United States and all
our colonies are now thrown open to the industry of the farmers of
England, who are no longer limited to the land owned by the English
aristocracy. It is the alteration in the relation between farmers and land
lords and the substitution of considerations, purely commercial, against
which the landowners of England (since the soil of the United States has
been offered to the industry of our farmers) will have to provide. It will
be the business of the landlords, to keep them and their capital, within
the nation, by offering the land to them on the easiest terms possible."
If the above comment on agricultural prospects had been dated 1884, in
lieu of 1849, it could not better describe the present condition of the
farming interest.
With respect to the emigration of paupers (by the 4th and 5th
William IV. c. 76, s. 62), parishes in England and Wales were empowered
to raise funds by a yearly rate for defraying the expenses of poor persons
willing to emigrate ; by the nth and I2th Vic. c. no, the guardians were
empowered to promote the voluntary emigration of the poor (as above
stated), and to charge the expenses upon the " ordinary funds for the relief
of the poor."
By the 12th and 13th Vic, c. 103, s. 20, the guardians are empowered
to expend a sum, not extending £10 for each person, on the emigration of
paupers. By the 13th and 14th Vic. c. 101, s. 4. the guardians are em
powered to expend money in the emigration of any poor orphan or deserted
child under the age of sixteen years. In justice to the guardians, however,
it is right to state, that they are very loth to expend any large amount for
emigration purposes, as they consider that the pressure of the poor rates
upon many of the rate-payers is so heavy, that it is unjust to tax those
who are but little removed from paupers for the purpose of aiding paupers
to secure a free and independent position in life.

7 2 Rural Ride down
now not only hold all the inhabitants, men, women, and
children, but all the household goods, and tools, and imple
ments, of the whole of them, farmers and all, if you leave out
the waggons and carts. In three instances, Fifield, Milston,
and Durrington (16, 22, and 23), the church-porches will hold
all the inhabitants, even down to the bed-ridden, and the
babies. What then, will any man believe, that these churches
were built for such little knots of people ? We are told about
the great superstition of our fathers, and of their readiness to
gratify the priests, by building altars and other religious edi
fices. But, we must think those priests to have been most
devout creatures indeed, if we believe, that they chose to have
the money laid out in useless churches, rather than have it put
into their own pockets ! At any rate, we all know that
Protestant Priests have no whim of this sort; and that they
never lay out upon churches any money, that they can, by any
means, get hold of.
But, suppose that we were to believe that the Priests had,
in old times, this unaccountable taste ; and suppose we were
to believe that a knot of people, who might be crammed into
a church-porch, were seized, and very frequently too, with the
desire of having a big church to go to ; we must, after all this,
believe that this knot of people were more than giants, or that
they had surprising riches, else we cannot believe that they
had the means of gratifying the strange wishes of their Priests,
and their own not less strange piety and devotion. Even if we
could believe that they thought that they were paving their
way to heaven, by building churches which were a hundred
times too large for the population, still we cannot believe, that
the building could have been effected without bodily force ;
and, where was this force to come from, if the people were
not more numerous than they now are ? What, again, I ask,
were these twenty-nine churches stuck up, not a mile from
each other : what were twenty-nine churches ma.de for, if the
population had been no greater than it is now?
But, in fact, you plainly see all the traces of a great ancient
population. The churches are almost all large, and built in

The Valley of the Avon. 73

the best manner. Many of them are very fine edifices ; very
costly in the building ; and, in the cases where the body of
the church has been altered in the repairing of it, so as to
make it smaller, the tower, which every where defies the
hostility of time, shows you what the church must formerly
have been. This is the case in several instances ; and there
are two or three of these villages which must formerly have
been market-towns, and particularly Pewsey and Upavon (5
and 13). There are now no less than nine of the parishes,
out of the twenty-nine, that have either no parsonage-houses,
or have such as are in such a state that a Parson will not, or
cannot, live in them. Three of them are without any parson
age-houses at all, and the rest are become poor, mean, falling-
down places. This latter is the case at Upavon, which was
formerly a very considerable place. Nothing can more clearly
show, than this, that all, as far as buildings and population
are concerned, have been long upon the decline and decay.
Dilapidation after dilapidation have, at last, almost effaced
even the parsonage-houses, and that too in defiance of the law,
ecclesiastical as well as civil. The land remains; and the
•crops and the sheep come as abundantly as ever; but they
are now sent almost wholly away, instead of remaining as
formerly, to be, in great part, consumed in these twenty-nine
parishes. The stars, in my map, mark the spots where manor-houses,
or gentlemen's mansions, formerly stood, and stood, too, only
about sixty years ago. Every parish had its manor-house in
the first place ; and then there were, down this Valley, twenty-
one others ; so that, in this distance of about thirty miles,
there stood fifty mansion-houses. Where are they now? I
believe there are but eight, that are at all worthy of the name
of mansion houses ; and even these are but poorly kept up,
and, except in two or three instances, are of no benefit to the
labouring people ; they employ but few persons ; and, in short,
do not half supply the place of any eight of the old mansions.
All these mansions, all these parsonages, aye, and their goods
and furniture, together with the clocks, the brass. kettles, the

74 Rural Ride down
brewing-vessels, the good bedding, and good clothes, and good
furniture, and the stock in pigs, or in money, of the inferior
classes, in this series of once populous, and gay villages and
hamlets ; all these have been by the accursed system of taxing
and funding and paper-money, by the well-known exactions of
the state, and by the not less real, though less generally
understood, extortions of the monopolies arising out of paper-
money ; all these have been, by these accursed means, con
veyed away, out of this Valley, to the haunts of the tax-eaters,
and the monopolizers. There are many of the mansion houses,
the ruins of which you yet behold. At Milston (2) there are
two mansion houses, the walls and the roofs of which yet
remain, but which are falling gradually to pieces, and the
garden walls are crumbling down. At Enford (15), Bennet
the Member for the county, had a large mansion house, the
stables of which are yet standing. In several places, I saw,
still remaining, indubitable traces of an ancient manor house,
namely a dove-cote or pigeon-house. The poor pigeons have
kept possession of their heritage, from generation to genera
tion, and so have the rooks, in their several rookeries, while
the paper-system has swept away, or, rather swallowed up, the
owners of the dove-cotes and of the lofty trees, about forty
families of which owners have been ousted in this one Valley,
and have became dead-weight creatures, tax-gatherers, barrack-
fellows, thief-takers, or, perhaps, paupers or thieves.
Senator Snip1 congratulated, some years ago, that pre
ciously honourable " Collective Wisdom" of which he is a
most worthy Member; Snip congratulated it on the success
of the late war in creating capital ! Snip is, you must know,
a great feelosofer, and a not less great feenanceer. Snip cited,
as a proof of the great and glorious effects of paper-money,
the new and fine houses in London, the new streets and
squares, the new roads, new canals and bridges. Snip was
not, I dare say, aware, that this same paper-money had
1 This nickname (to which reference has been already made) is supposed
to refer to Mr. John Maberly, M.P., who had been engaged in Governoieut
contracts for army clothing.

The Valley of the Avon. 75
•—  k
destroyed forty mansion houses in this Vale of Avon, and had
taken away all the goods, all the substance, of the little gentry
and of the labouring class. Snip was not, I dare say, aware,
that this same paper-money had, in this one Vale of only
thirty miles long, dilapidated, and, in some cases, wholly
demolished, nine out of twenty-nine even of the parsonage
houses. I told Snip at the time, (1821), that paper money
could create no valuable thing. I begged Snip to bear this in
mind. I besought all my readers, and particularly Mr. Mathias
Atwood (one of the members for Lowlhertown), not to believe
that paper-money ever did, or ever could, create any thing ot
any value. I besought him to look well into the matter, and
assured him, that he would find that though paper-money
could create nothing of value, it was able to transfer every
thing of value ; able to strip a little gentry ; able to dilapidate
even parsonage houses ; able to rob gentlemen of their estates,
and labourers of their Sunday-coats and their barrels of beer ;
able to snatch the dinner from the board of the reaper or the
mower, and to convey it to the barrack-table of the Hessian,
or Hanoverian grenadier; able to take away the wool, that
ought to give warmth to the bodies of those who rear the
sheep, and put it on the backs of those who carry arms to
keep the poor, half-famished shepherds in order !
I have never been able clearly to comprehend what the
beastly Scotch feelosofers mean by their " national wealth ; "
but, as far as I can understand them, this is their meaning :
that national wealth means, that which is left of the products
of the country over and above what is consumed, or used, by
those whose labour causes the products to be. This being the
notion, it follows, of course, that the fewer poor devils, you
can screw the products out of, the richer the nation is.1
This is, too, the notion of Burdett as expressed in his silly
and most nasty, musty aristocratic speech of last session.
1 One of the problems, which it is the business of political economy to
solve, is how to produce the most, with the least labour. The present
interchange of commerce, which exists throughout the civilised world,
furnishes a ready market for the over-produce of any country.

76 Rural Ride down
______________-—————_-_——————--—— —————— ——-—-— —————— -_-_______» — t.
What, then, is to be done with this over-produce ? Who is to
have it ? Is it to go to pensioners, placemen, tax-gatherers,
dead-weight people, soldiers, gendarmerie, police-people, and,
in short, to whole millions who do no work at all t Is this a
cause of " national wealth ? " Is a nation made rich by taking
the food and clothing from those who create them, and giving
them to those who do nothing of any use ? Aye, but this
over-produce may be given to manufacturers, and to those who
supply the food-raisers with what they want besides food. Oh !
but this is merely an exchange of one valuable thing for
another valuable thing ; it is an exchange of labour in Wilt
shire, for labour in Lancashire ; and, upon the whole, here is
no over-production. If the produce be exported, it is the same
thing : it is an exchange of one sort of labour for another.
But, our case is, that there is not an exchange; that those
who labour, no matter in what way, have a large part of the
fruit of their labour taken away, and receive nothing in
exchange. If the over-produce of this Valley of Avon were
given, by the farmers, to the weavers in Lancashire, to the
iron and steel chaps of Warwickshire, and to other makers or
sellers of useful things, there would come an abundance of all
these useful things into this valley from Lancashire and other
parts ; but if, as is the case, the over-produce goes to the fund-
holders, the dead-weight, the soldiers, the lord and lady and
master and miss pensioners and sinecure people ; if the over
produce go to them, as a very great part of it does, nothing,
not even the parings of one's nails, can come back to the
valley in exchange. And, can this operation, then, add to
the " national wealth " ? It adds to the " wealth " of those
who carry on the affairs of state ; it fills their pockets, those
of their relatives and dependents ; it fattens all tax-eaters; but
it can give no wealth to the "nation," which means the
whole of the people. National Wealth means the Common
wealth or Commonweal ; and these mean, the general good,
or happiness, of the people, and the safety and honour of the
state ; and these are not to be secured by robbing those who
labour, in order to support a large part of the community ip

The Valley of the Avon. 77
idleness. Devizes is the market-town to which the corn goes
from the greater part of this Valley. If, when a waggon-load
of wheat.goes off in the morning, the waggon came back at
night loaded with cloth, salt, or something or other, equal in
Value to the wheat, except what might be necessary to leave
with the shopkeeper as his profit ;• then, indeed, the people
might see the waggon go off without tears in their eyes. But,
now, they see it go to carry away, and to bring next to nothing
in return.
What a twist a head must have before it can come to the
conclusion, that the nation gains in wealth by the Government
being able to cause the work to be done by those who have
hardly any share in the fruit of the labour ! What a twist
such a head must have ! The Scotch feelosofers, who seem all
to have been, by nature, formed for negro-drivers, have an
insuperable objection to all those establishments and customs
which occasion holidays. They call them a great hindrance,
a great bar to industry, a great drawback from " national
wealth." I wish each of these unfeeling fellows had a spade
put into his hand for ten days, only ten days, and that he were
compelled to dig only just as much as one of the common
labourers at Fulham. The metaphysical gentleman would, I
believe, soon discover the use of holidays 1 But, why should
men, why should any men work hard? Why, I ask, should
they work incessantly, if working part of the days of the week
be sufficient? Why should the people at Milston (2), for
instance, work incessantly, when they now raise food, and
clothing, and fuel, and every necessary to maintain well five
times their number ? Why should they not have some holi
days?1 And, pray, say, thou conceited Scotch feelosofer, how
the " national wealth " can be increased by making these people

1 The establishment of Bank Holidays (Act, 25th May 1871) has been
of great benefit to a certain class ; but it may be doubted whether it is an
unmixed good to those who are enforced to sacrifice a day's pay for the
holiday. Most of the agricultural labourers, for instance, would lose a day's
wage if they took advantage of the Act, and their families would consequently
suffer.

78 Rural Ride down
work incessantly, that they may raise food and clothing, to go
to feed and clothe people who do not work at all ?
The state of this Valley seems to illustrate the infamous, and
really diabolical assertion of Malthus, which is, that the human
kind have a natural tendency to increase beyond the means of
sustenance for them. Hence, all the schemes of this, and the
other Scotch writers for what they call checking population,
Now, look at this»Valley of Avon. Here the, people raise
nearly twenty times as much food and clothing, as they con
sume. They raise five times as much, even according to my
scale of living. They have been doing this for many, many
years. They have been doing it for several generations.
Where, then, is their natural tendency to increase beyond the
means of sustenance for them ? Beyond, indeed, the means of
that sustenance which a system like this will leave them. Say
that, Sawneys, and I agree with you. Far beyond the means
that the taxing and monopolising system will leave in their
hands : that is very true ; for it leaves them nothing but the
scale of the poor-book : they must cease to breed at all, or they
must exceed this mark : but, the earth, which gives them their
fair share of its products, will always give sustenance in suf
ficiency, to those who apply to it by skilful and diligent labour.1
The villages down this Valley of Avon, and, indeed, it was
the same in almost every part of this county, and in the North
and West of Hampshire also, used to have great employment
for the women and children in the carding and spinning of
wool for the making of broad-cloth. This was a very general
1 Lord Brougham, in a speech in the House of Commons, April 9,
18 16, said, "It might be objectionable (on many grounds) to withhold
reliel from the future issue of marriages already contracted : but' why may
not such relief be refused to the children born of marriages contracted after
a certain period ? "
The dismal doctrines on "excessive population" seem to have been
carried to such an excess, that a work appeared in 1838 (entitled "On the
Possibility of Limiting Populousness," by Marcus), in which a plan was
gravely recommended for murdering infant children, by means of (what the
author calls) " painless extinction. The book (which contained 73 8vo
liarres^ was snlrl liv A rpinprrnlilo Arm e\( niiKliel.Ai-e ..;-. IV^.^^w. CU-rur/wl

The Valley of the Avon. 79
employment for the women and girls ; but, it is now wholly
gone; and this has made avast change in the condition of
the people, and in the state of property and of manners and of
morals. In 1816, I wrote and published a Letter to the Lud
dites, the object of which was to combat their hostility to the
use of machinery. The arguments I there made use of were
general. I took the matter in the abstract. The principles
were all correct enough; but their application cannot be
universal; and, we have a case here before us, at this moment,
which, in my opinion, shows, that the mechanic inventions,
pushed to the extent that they have been, have been produc
tive of great calamity to this country, and that they will be
productive of still greater calamity ; unless, indeed, it be their
brilliant destiny, to be the immediate cause of putting an end
to the present system.
The greater part of manufactures consists of clothing and
bedding. Now, if by using a machine, we can get our coat
with less labour than we got it before, the machine is a
desirable thing. But, then, mind, we must have the machine
at home, and we ourselves must have the profit of it ; for, if
the machine be elsewhere; if it be worked by other hands;
if other persons have the profit of it ; and if, in consequence
of the existence of the machine, we have hands at home, who
have nothing to do, and whom we must keep, then the machine
is an injury to us, however advantageous it may be to those
who use it, and whatever traffic it may occasion with foreign
States. Such is the case with regard to this cloth-making. The
machines are at Upton-Level, Warmister, Bradford, Westbury,
and Trowbridge, and here are some of the hands in the Valley
of Avon. This Valley raises food and clothing ; but, in order
to raise them, it must have labourers. These are absolutely
necessary; for, without them, this rich and beautiful Valley
becomes worth nothing, except to wild animals and their
pursuers. The labourers are men and boys. Women and
girls occasionally ; but the men and the boys are as necessary
as the light of day, or as the air and the water. Now, if

So Rural Ride down
beastly Malthus, or any of his nasty disciples, can discover a
mode of having men and boys without having women and
girls, then, certainly, the machine must be a good thing; but,
if this Valley must absolutely have the women and the girls,
then the machine, by leaving them with nothing to do, is a
mischievous thing; and a producer of most dreadful misery.
What, with regard to the poor, is the great complaint now?
Why, that the single man does not receive the same, or any
thing like the same, wages as the married man. Aye, it is
the wife and girls that are the burden ; and to be sure a burden
they must be, under a system of taxation like the present, and
with no work to do. Therefore, whatever may be saved in
labour by the machine is no benefit, but an injury to the mass
of the people. For, in fact, all that the women and children
earned was so much clear addition to what the family earns
now. The greatest part of the clothing in the United States
of America, is made by the farm women and girls. They do
almost the whole of it ; and all that they do, is done at home.
To be sure, they might buy cheap ; but they must buy for less
than nothing, if not, it would not answer their puipose to make
the things.1

1 It has never been questioned that machinery has aided greatly to
place the poor more nearly on a par with the rich, by enabling them to
obtain, at a cheap rate, many comforts which they could not otherwise
possess. A fallacy often prevails, that machinery dispenses with hand labour.
But machinery must, first of all, be made with hands : moreover, machinery
does not diminish the capital of a country, but it increases it, and this
capital is still employed in the payment of wages. It is, however, true that
there is often a shifting of the parties to whom the wages are paid. The
remedy for this is, for the working man to learn the faculty of turning his
hand to any new employment, when he finds it necessary to do so. la
1816 the people in the Northern and Midland Counties (being in great
distress) attributed their calamity to the use of machinery, and great rioting
and destruction of property followed. The rioters were called "Luddites,
and have already been mentioned in this work. Mr. Cobbett was requested
to issue a public address in his Register to these misguided people, and
he did so, in a twopenny paper addressed To the Journeymen and
Labourers of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The effect which
this address produced was marvellous. In 1831 Lord Brougham obtained
permission from the Author to republish the address; so important an
influence was it supposed to possess.

The Valley of the Avon. 81
• The survey of this Valley is, I think, the finest answer in
the world, to the " Emigration Committee " fellows, and td
Jerry Curteis (one of the Members for Sussex), who has been
giving " evidence " before it. I shall find out, when I can get
to see the report, what this " Emigration Committee " would
be after. I remember, that, last winter, a young woman, com
plained to one of the Police Justices, that the Overseers of
some parish were going to transport her orphan brother to
Canada, because he became chargeable to their parish ! I
remember also, that the Justice said, that the intention of the
Overseers was "premature," for that "the Bill had not yet-
passed ! " This was rather an ugly story ; and I do think,
that we shall find, that there have been, and are, some pretty
propositions before this " Committee." We shall see all about
the matter, however, by-and-by; and, when we get the trans
porting project fairly before us, shall we not then loudly
proclaim " the envy of surrounding nations and admiration of
the world ! "
But, what ignorance, impudence, and insolence must thos©
base wretches have, who propose to transport the labouring
people, as being too numerous, while the produce, which is;
obtained by their labour, is more than sufficient for three, four,
or five, or even ten times their numbers ! Jerry Curteis, who
has, it seems, been a famous witness on this occasion, says
that the poor-rates, in many cases, amount to as much as the
rent. Well : and what then, Jerry ? The rent may be high
enough too, and the farmer may afford to pay them both ; for,
a very large part of what you call poor-rates, ought to be called
wages. But, at any rate, what has all this to do, with the
necessity of emigration? To make out such necessity,
you must make out that you have more mouths, than the
produce of the parish will feed ? Do then,. Jerry, tell us,
another time, a little about the quantity of food, annually raised
in four or five adjoining parishes; for, is it not something
rather damnable, Jerry, to talk of transporting Englishmen,
on account of the excess of their numbers, when the fact
is notorious, that their labour produces, five or ten times
VOL. II. F

82 Rural Ride down
as much food and raiment as they and their families
consume? However, to drop Jerry, for the present, the baseness, the
foul, the stinking, the carrion baseness, of the fellows that call
themselves " country gentlemen," is, that the wretches, while
railing against the poor and the poor-rates ; while affecting to
believe, that the poor are wicked and lazy ; while complaining
that the poor, the working people, are too numerous, and^hat
the country villages are too populous : the carrion baseness
of these wretches, is that, while they are thus bold with regard
to the working and poor people, they never even whisper a
word against pensioners, placemen, soldiers, parsons, fund-
holders, tax-gatherers, or tax-eaters ! They say not a word
against the prolific dead-weight, to whom they give a premium
for breeding, while they want to check the population of
labourers ! They never say a word about the too great
populousness of the Wen ; nor about that of Liverpool,
Manchester, Cheltenham, and the like ! Oh ! they are the
most cowardly, the very basest, the most scandalously base
reptiles, that ever were warmed into life by the rays of
the sun !
In taking my leave of this beautiful vale, I have to express
my deep shame, as an Englishman, at beholding the general
extreme poverty of those, who cause this vale to produce such
quantities of food and raiment This is, I verily believe it,
the worst used labouring people upon the face of tlu earth. Dogs,
and hogs, and horses, are treated with more civility ; and as
to food and lodging, how gladly would the labourers change
with them ! This state of things never can continue many
years 1 By some means or ot/ier there must be an end to it,
and my firm belief is, that that end will be dreadful. In the
mean while I see, and I see it with pleasure, that the common
people know that they are ill used ; and that they cordially,
most cordially, hate those who ill-treat them.
During the day, I crossed the river about fifteen or sixteen
times, and in such hot weather it was very pleasant to be so
much amongst meadows and water. I had been at Nether-

The Valley of the Avon. 8

_

avon (18) about eighteen years ago, where I had seen a great
quantity of hares. It is a place belonging to Mr. Hicks
Beach, or Beech, who was once a member of parliament. I
found the place altered a good deal ; out of repair ; the gates
rather rotten ; and (a very bad sign ! ) the roof of the dog-
kennel falling in ! There is a church, at this village of
Netheravon, large enough to hold a thousand or two of
people, and the whole parish contains only 350 souls, men,
women and children. This Netheravon was formerly a great ¦
lordship, and in the parish, there were three considerable
mansion-houses, besides the one near the church. These
mansions are all down now ; and it is curious enough to see
the former walled gardens become orchards, together with other
changes, all tending to prove the gradual decay in all except
what appertains merely to the land as a thing of production
for the distant market. But, indeed, the people and the
means of enjoyment must go away. They are drawn away
by the taxes, and the paper-money. How are twenty thousand
new houses to be, all at once, building in the Wen, without
people and food and raiment going from this valley towards
the Wen ? It must be so ; and this unnatural, this dilapidating,
this ruining and debasing work must go on, until that which
produces it be destroyed.
When I came down to Stratford (29) I wanted to go across
to Laverstock, which lay to my left of Salisbury ; but just*
on the side of the road here, at Stratford Dean, rises the
Accursed Hill. It is very lofty. It was originally a hill in an
irregular sort of sugar-loaf shape : but, it was so altered by the
Romans, or by somebody, that the upper three-quarter parts
of the hill now, when seen from a distance, somewhat resemble
three cheeses, laid one upon another ; the bottom one a great
deal broader than the next, and the top one like a Stilton
cheese, in proportion to a Gloucester one. I resolved to ride
over this accursed Hill. As I was going up a field towards it,
I met a man going home from work. I asked how he got on 1
He said, very badly. I asked him what was the cause of it ?
He said the hard times. " What times ? " said I, " was there

84 Rural Ride.

" ever a finer summer, a finer harvest, and is there not an
" old wheat-rick in every farm-yard ?" " Ah ! " said he, "they
" make it bad for poor people, for all that" " They > " said I,
" who are they t " He was silent. " Oh, no, no ! my friend,"
said I, "it is not they; it is that Accursed Hill that has
" robbed you of the supper that you ought to find smoking on
" the table when you get home." I gave him the price of a pot
of beer, and on I went, leaving the poor dejected assemblage
of skin and bone to wonder at my words.
The hill is very steep, and I dismounted and led my horse up."
Being as near to the top as I could conveniently get, I stood a
little while reflecting, not so much on the changes which that
hill had seen, as on the changes, the terrible changes, which, in
all human probability, it had yet to see, and which it would have
greatly helped lo produce. It was impossible to stand on this
accursed spot, without swelling with indignation against the base
and plundering and murderous sons of corruption. I have
often wished, and I, speaking out aloud, expressed the wish
now; " May that man perish for ever and ever, who, having the
" power, neglects to bring to justice the perjured, the subom-
" ing, the insolent and perfidious miscreants, who openly sell
" their country's rights and their own souls."
From the Accursed Hill, I went to Laverstock where
" Jemmy Burrough " (as they call him here) the Judge, lives.
I have not heard much about ''Jemmy" since he tried and
condemned the two young men who had wounded the game.
keepers of Ashton Smith and Lord Palmerston. His Lord
ship (Palmerston) is, I see, making a tolerable figure in the
newspapers as a share-man J I got into Salisbury about half-
past seven o'clock, less tired than I recollect ever to have been,
after so long a ride ; for, including my several crossings of the
river, and my deviations to look at churches and farm-yards
and rick-yards, I think I must have ridden nearly forty miles.

Salisbury to Highworth. 85

RIDE FROM SALISBURY TO WARMINSTER, FROM WARMINSTER
TO FROME, FROM FROME TO DEVIZES, AND FROM DEVIZES
TO HIGHWORTH.

v Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of
" the land to fail : saying, When will the new moon be gone that we may
" sell corn ? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the
" Ephah small, and the Shekel great, and falsifying the balances by
" deceit ; that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of
" shoes ; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat ? Shall not the land
"tremble for this; and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? I will
" turn your feasts into mourning, saith the Lord God, and all your songs
" into lamentations." — Amos, chap. viii. ver. 4 to 10.

Heytesbury ( Wilts), Thursday,
31st August, 1826.
This place, which is one of the rotten boroughs of Wilt
shire, and which was formerly a considerable town, is now
but a very miserable affair. Yesterday morning I went into
the Cathedral at Salisbury about 7 o'clock. When I got into
the nave of the church, and was looking up and admiring the
columns and the roof, I heard a sort of humming, in some
place which appeared to be in the transept of the building. I
wondered what it was, and made my way towards the place
whence the noise appeared to issue. As I approached it, the
noise seemed to grow louder. At last, I thought, I could
distinguish the sounds of the human voice. This encouraged
me to proceed; and, still following the sound, I at last turned
in at a doorway to my left, where I found a priest and, his
congregation assembled. It was a parson of some sort, with
a white covering on him, and five women, and four men :
when I arrived, there were five couple of us. I joined the
congregation, until they came to the litany ; and then, being
monstrously hungry, I did not think myself bound to stay any
longer. I wonder what the founders would say, if they could
rise from the grave, and see such a congregation as this, in

86 Rural Ride from
this most magnificent and beautiful cathedral? I wonder
what they would say, if they could know to what purpose the
endowments of this Cathedral are now applied ; and above
all things, I wonder what they would say, if they could see the
half-starved labourers, that now minister to the luxuries of
those, who wallow in the wealth of those endowments. There
is one thing, at any rate, that might be abstained from, by
those, that revel in the riches of those endowments ; namely,
to abuse and blackguard those of our forefathers, from whom
the endowments came, and who erected the edifice, and
carried so far towards the skies, that beautiful and matchless
spire, of which the present possessors have the impudence to
boast, while they represent as ignorant and benighted creatures,
those who conceived the grand design, and who executed the
scientific and costly work These fellows, in big white wigs,
of the size of half a bushel, have the audacity, even within the
walls of the Cathedrals themselves, to rail against those who
founded them; and Rennell and Sturges, while they were
actually, literally, fattening on the spoils of the monastery of
St. Swithin, at Winchester, were publishing abusive pamphlets
against that Catholic religion which had given them their very
bread.1 For my part, I could not look up at the spire and
the whole of the church at Salisbury, without feeling that I
lived in degenerate times. Such a thing never could be made
now. We feel that, as we look at the building. It really does
appear that if our forefathers had not made these buildings,
we should have forgotten, before now, what the Christian
religion was ! 3
1 The Author is here referring to a " pamphlet controversy," which took
place in the year 1800, between Dr. Sturges, a Prebendary of Winchester,
and Dr. Milner, a Roman Catholic Bishop. The correspondence of the
latter, was published under the title of Letters to a Prebendary.
3 The Author appears here, and elsewhere, to fall into the popular error,
that the property of the Church of England was acquired, when the
Church was under the sway of " Roman Catholicism," and therefore that the
Romanists have a sort of equitable claim to it, on the ground that it was
given by people who held their doctrines, for the purpose of maintaining
those doctrines. The truth is, however, that nearly all the property which
the Church at present possesses, was acquired either before or within tw»

Salisbury to Highworth. 87
At Salisbury, or very near to it, four other rivers fall into
the Avon. The Wyly river, the Nadder, the Born, apd
another little river that comes from Norrington. These all
become one, at last, just below Salisbury, and then, under the
name of the Avon, wind along down and fall into the sea at
Christchurch. In coming from Salisbury, I came up the road
which runs pretty nearly parallel with the river Wyly, which
river rises at Warminster and in the neighbourhood. This
river runs down a valley twenty-two miles long. It is not so
pretty as the valley of the Avon ; but it is very fine in its
whole length from Salisbury to this place (Heytesbury).
Here are watered meadows, nearest to the river on both sides;
then the gardens, the houses, and the corn-fields. After the
corn-fields come the downs; but, generally speaking, the
downs are not so bold here as they are on the sides of the
Avon. The downs do not come out in promontories so often
as they do, on the sides of the Avon. The Ah-ah 1 if I may
so express it, is not so deep, and the sides of it not so steep,
as in the case of the Avon ; but the villages are as frequent ;
there is more than one church in every mile, and there has
been a due proportion of mansion houses, demolished and
defaced. The farms are very fine up this vale, and the
meadows, particularly at a place called Stapleford, are singur
larly fine. They had just been mowed at Stapleford, and the
hay carried off. At Stapleford, there is a little cross valley,
running up between two hills of the down. There is a little
run of water, about a yard wide at this time, coming down
this little vale across the road into the river. The little vale
runs up three miles. It does not appear to be half a mile

centuries after the Norman Conquest, or since the Reformation. The
Episcopal and Capitular Estates, the Tithes, and most of the Glebe Lands,
were given (as has been already shown) by Royal grants, and by land
owners, before the Norman Conquest, or within two centuries of that time.
Salisbury Cathedral was begun A.D. 1220, and finished A.D. 1 258. From the
latter date to the Reformation the property which the Church acquired
consisted mainly of monasteries and chantries, and of all these she was
deprived by Henry VIII., as well as of nearly one half the Great Tithes,
which thenceforth passed into lay hands.

88 Rural Ride from
wide ; but in those three miles there are four churches ;
namely, Stapleford, Uppington, Berwick St. James, and
Winterborne Stoke. The present population of these four
villages is 769 souls, men, women, and children, the whole of
whom, could very conveniently be seated in the chancel of
the church, at Stapleford. Indeed, the church and parish of
Uppington seem to have been united, with one of the other
parishes, like the parish in Kent, which was united with North
Cray, and not a single house of which now remains. What
were these four churches built for within the distance of three
miles? There are three parsonage houses still remaining;
but, and it is a very curious fact, neither of them good enough
for the parson to live in ! Here are seven hundred and sixty
souls to be taken care of, but there is no parsonage house for
a soul-curer to stay in, or at least that he will stay in ; and all
the three parsonages are, in the return laid before Parliament,
represented to be no better than miserable labourers' cottages,
though the parish of Winterborne Stoke has a church suffi
cient, to contain two or three thousand people. The truth
is, that the parsons have been receiving the revenues of the
livings, and have been suffering the parsonage houses to fall
into decay. Here were two or three mansion houses, which
are also gone, even from the sides of this little run of water.
To-day has been exceedingly hot Hotter, I think, for a
short time, than I ever felt it in England before. In coming
through a village called Wishford, and mounting a little hill, I
thought the heat upon my back was as great as I had ever
felt it in my life. There were thunder storms about, and it
had rained at Wishford, a little before I came to it.
My next village was one that I had lived in, for a short
time, when I was only about ten or eleven years of age. I
had been sent down with a horse from Farnham, and I
remember that I went by Stone-henge, and rode up and looked
at the stones. From Stone-henge I went to the village of
Steeple Langford, where I remained from the month of June
till the fall of the year. I remembered the beautiful villages,
up and clown this valley. I also remembered, very well, that

Salisbury to Highworth. 89
the women at Steeple Langford used to card, and spin dyed
wool. I was, therefore, somewhat filled with curiosity, to see
this Steeple Langford again ; and, indeed, it was the recollec
tion of this village, that made me take a ride into Wiltshire
this summer. I have, I dare say, a thousand times talked
about this Steeple Langford, and about the beautiful farms
and meadows along this valley. I have talked of these to my
children, a great many times ; and I formed the design of
letting two of them see this valley this year, and to go through
Warminster to Stroud, and so on to Gloucester and Hereford.
But, when I got to Everley, I found that they would never get
along fast enough to get into Herefordshire in time for what
they intended ; so that I parted from them in the manner, I
have before described. I was resolved, however, to see
Steeple Langford myself, and I was impatient to get to it,
hoping to find a public-house, and a stable to put my horse
in, to protect him, for a while, against the flies, which tor
mented him to such a degree, that to ride him was work, as
hard as threshing. When I got to Steeple Langford, I found
no public-house, and I found it a much more miserable place
than 1 had remembered it. The Steeple, to which it owed its
distinctive appellation, was gone ; and the place altogether
seemed to me, to be very much altered for the worse, A
little further on, however, I came to a very famous inn, called
Deptford Inn, which is in the parish of Wyly. I stayed at
this inn till about four o'clock in the afternoon. I remem
bered Wyly very well, and thought it a gay place when I was
a boy. I remembered a very beautiful garden belonging to a
rich farmer and miller. I went to see it ; but, alas ! though
the statues in the water and on the grass-plat were still
remaining, every thing seemed to be in a state of perfect care
lessness and neglect. The living of this parish of Wyly was
lately owned by Dampier (a brother of the Judge), who lived
at, and I believe had the living of, Meon Stoke in Hampshire.
This fellow, I believe, never saw the parish of Wyly, but
once, though it must have yielded him a pretty good fleece.
It is a Rectory, and the great tithes must be worth, I

90 Rural Ride from
should think, six or seven hundred pounds a year, at the.
least It is a part of our system to have certain families, who have,
no particular merit, but who are to be maintained, without
why, or wherefore, at the public expense, in some shape, or
under some name, or other, it matters not much what shape
or what name. If you look through the old list of pensioners,
sinecurists, parsons, and the like, you will find the same names
everlastingly recurring. They seem to be a sort of creatures
that have an inheritance in the public carcass, like the maggots,
that some people have in their skins. This family of Dampier
seems to be one of those. What, in God's name, should have
made one of these a Bishop, and the other a Judge ! I never
heard of the smallest particle of talent, that either of thera
possessed. This Rector of Wyly was another of them. There
was no harm in them that I know of, beyond that of living
upon the public; but, where were their merits? They had
none, to distinguish them, and to entitle them, to the great
sums they received ; and, under any other system than such a
system as this, they would, in all human probability, have
been gentlemen's servants or little shopkeepers. I dare say
there is some of the breed left; and, if there be, I would
pledge my existence, that they are, in some shape or other,
feeding upon the public. However, thus it must be, until
that change come, which will put an end to men paying four-
pence in tax upon a pot of beer.
This Deptford Inn was a famous place of meeting for the
Yeomanry Cavalry, in glorious anti-jacobin times, when wheat
was twenty shillings a bushel, and when a man could be
crammed into gaol for years, for only looking awry. This inn
was a glorious place in the days of Peg Nicholson l and her

1 Peg Nicholson made an attempt upon the life of George III. in 1787-
While she presented to him a petition with one hand, she attempted to
stab him, with the other. She was instantly seized, and the king (alto
gether forgetful of the danger which he had escaped) only exclaimed,
" Don't hurt the poor woman, she must be mad." This on inquiry proved
to be the case, and she was sent to Bedlam for life.

Salisbury to Highworth. 91
Knights. Strangely altered now. The shape of the garden
shows you what revelry used to be carried on here. Peel's
Bill gave this inn, and all belonging to it, a terrible souse.
The unfeeling brutes, who used to brandish their swords, and
swagger about, at the news of what was called "a victory,"
have now to lower their scale in clothing, in drink, in eating,
in dress, in horseflesh, and everything else. They are now a
lower sort of men than they were. They look at their rusty
sword and their old dusty helmet, and their once gay regi
mental jacket. They do not hang these up now in the
" parlour " for everybody to see them : they hang them up in
their bedrooms, or in a cockloft ; and when they meet their
eye, they look at them as a cow does at a bastard calf, or as
the bridegroom does at a girl, that the overseers are about to
compel him to marry. If their children should happen to see
these implements of war twenty or thirty years hence, they
will certainly think that their fathers were the greatest fools
that ever walked the face of the earth ; and that will be a
most filial and charitable way of thinking of them ;. for, it is
not from ignorance that they have sinned, but from excessive
baseness ; and when any of them now complain, of those acts
of the Government which strip them, (as the new Order in
Council will do) 1 of a fifth part of their property in an hour, let
them recollect their own base and malignant conduct towards
those persecuted reformers, who, if they had not been sup
pressed by these very yeomen, would, long ago, have put an
end to the cause of that ruin of which these yeomen now
complain. When they complain of their ruin, let them
remember the toasts which they drank in anti-jacobin times ;
let them remember their base and insulting exultations on the
occasion of the 16th of August at Manchester;2 let them
1 This Order in Council (dated ist September 1826) was made for the
purpose of admitting the importation of certain grain, at low duties. This
was merely a foreshadowing of the great importation Bill, of Sir Robert
Peel, which passed in 1846, and which led to the total repeal of the Cora
Laws, in 1869.
2 Referring to the Peterloo massacre, as the Author styles it (in 1819),
in which eleven persons were killed, and six hundred wounded, by the

g 2 Rural Ride from
remember their cowardly abuse of men, who were endeavour
ing to free their country from that horrible scourge, which
they themselves now feel.
Just close by this Deptford Inn is the farm-house of the
farm, where that Gourlay lived, who has long been making a
noise in the Court of Chancery, and who is now, I believe,
confined in some place or other for having assaulted Mr.
Brougham. This fellow, who is confined, the newspapers tell
us, on a charge of being insane, is certainly one of the most
malignant devils, that I ever knew anything of, in my life. He
went to Canada, about the time that I went last to the United
States. He got into a quarrel with the Government there
about something, I know not what. He came to see me, at
my house in the neighbourhood of Xew York, just before I
came home. He told me his Canada story. I showed him
all the kindness in my power, and he went away, knowing that
I was just then coming to England I had hardly got home,
before the Scotch newspapers contained communications from
a person, pretending to derive his information from Gourlay,
relating to what Gourlay had described, as having passed
between him and me ; and which description was a tissue of
most abominable falsehoods, all having a direct tendency to
do injury to me, who had never, either by word or deed, done
anything that could possibly have a tendency, to do injury to
this Gourlay. What the vile Scotch newspapers had begun,
the malignant reptile himself continued after his return to
England, and, in an address to Lord Bathurst, endeavoured to
make his court to the Government, by the most foul, false,
and detestable slanders upon me, from whom, observe, he
had never received any injury, or attempt at injury, in the
whole course of his life; whom he had visited; to whose
house he had gone, of his own accord, and that, too, as he
said, out of respect for me; endeavoured, I say, to make his
court to the Government, by the most abominable slanders
military, who attempted to repress a monster Reform meeting, consisting
of nearly 100,000 persons. The authorities were greatly to blame in the
matter. Allusion has already been made to the subject.

Salisbury to Highworth. 93
against me. He is now, even now, putting forth, under the
form of letters to me, a revival, of what he pretends, was a
conversation that passed between us at my house, near New
York. Even if what he says were true, none but caitiffs as
base as those who conduct the English newspapers, would give
circulation to his letters, containing, as they must, the sub
stance of a conversation purely private. But, I never had
any conversation with him : I never talked to him at all,
about the things that he is now bringing forward : I heard the
fellow's stories about Canada : I thought he told me lies ; and,
besides, I did not care a straw whether his stories were true
or not ; I looked upon him as a sort of gambling adventurer ;
but I treated him, as is the fashion of the country in which I
was, with great civility and hospitality. There are two fellows
of the name of Jacob and Johnson at Winchester, and two
fellows at Salisbury of the name of Brodie and Dowding.
These reptiles publish, each couple of them, a newspaper;
and in these newspapers, they seem to take particular delight
in calumniating me. The two Winchester fellows insert the
letters of this half crazy, half cunning, Scotchman, Gourlay ;
the other fellows insert, still viler slanders ; and, if I had seen
one of their papers, before I left Salisbury, which I have seen
since, I certainly would have given Mr. Brodie something, to
make him remember me. This fellow, who was a little coal-
merchant but a short while ago, is now, it seems, a paper-
money maker, as well as a newspaper maker. Stop, Master
Brodie, till I go to Salisbury again ; and see whether I do not
give you a check, even such as you did not receive during the
late run 1 Gourlay, amongst other whims, took it into his
head to write against the poor laws, saying that they were a
bad thing. He found, however, at last, that they were neces
sary to keep him from starving ; for he came down to Wyly,
three or four years ago, and threw himself upon the parish.
The overseers, who recollected what a swaggering blade it
was, when it came here to teach the moon-rakers " hoo to
farm, mon," did not see the sense of keeping him like a
gentleman; so, they set him to' crack stones, upon, the -high-

94 Rural Ride from
way ; and that set him off again, pretty quickly. The farm
that he rented, is a very fine farm, with a fine large farm-house
to it. It is looked upon, as one of the best farms in the
country : the present occupier is a farmer born in the neigh
bourhood ; a man such as ought to occupy it; and Gourlay,
who came here with his Scotch impudence, to teach others
how to farm,1 is much about where, and how, he ought to be.
Jacob and Johnson, of Winchester, know perfectly well, that
all the fellow says about me is lies : they know also, that then-
parson readers know, that it is a mass of lies : they further
know, that the parsons know, that they know, that it is a mass
of lies ; but they know, that their paper will sell the better for
that ; they know, that to circulate lies about me, will get them
money, and this is what they do it for, and such is the
character of English newspapers, and of a great part of the
readers of those newspapers. Therefore, when I hear of
people "suffering;" when I hear of people being "ruined;"
when I hear of " unfortunate families ; " when I hear a talk of
this kind, I stop, before I either express or feel compassion,
to ascertain who and what the sufferers are ; and whether they
have or have not participated in, or approved of, acts like.
those of Jacob and Johnson, and Brodie and Dowding ; for,
if they have, if they have malignantly calumniated those who
have been labouring to prevent their ruin and misery, then
a crushed ear-wig, or spider, or eft, or toad, is as much entitled
to the compassion of a just and sensible man. Let the
reptiles perish : it would be injustice ; it would be to fly in
the face of morality and religion, to express sorrow for their
ruin. They themselves have felt for no man, and for the wife
and children of no man, if that man's public virtues thwarted
their own selfish views, or even excited their groundless fears.

The previous Editor informs us that the Author here refers to the
circumstance " that Gourlay claimed for the Scotch, the credit of having
introduced the swing ploughs, worked by two horses abreast, driven with
reins ; but that the Author had himself adopted this plan (from Suffolk)
as early as l8n, and that the practice was common in Surrey in 1813,
»nd perhaps long before."

Salisbury to Highworth. 95
They have signed addresses, applauding every thing tyrannical
and inhuman. They have seemed to glory in the shame of
their country, to rejoice in its degradation, and even to exult
in the shedding of innocent blood, if these things did but tend,
as they thought, to give them permanent security in the enjoy
ment of their unjust gains. Such has been their conduct ;
they are numerous : they are to be found in all parts of the
kingdom : therefore again I say, when I hear of " ruin " or
" misery," I must know what the conduct of the sufferers has
been, before I bestow my compassion. Warminster ( Wilts), Friday, Ist Sept.
I set out from Heytesbury this morning about six o'clock.
Last night, before I went to bed, I found that there were some
nvsn and boys in the house, who had come all the way from
Bradford, about twelve miles, in order to get nuts. These
people were men and boys, that had been employed in the
cloth factories at Bradford and about Bradford. I had some
talk with some of these nutters, and I am quite convinced,
not that the cloth making is at an end ; but that it never will'
be again what it has been. Before last Christmas these manu
facturers had full work, at one shilling and threepence a yard
at broad-cloth weaving. They have now a quarter work, at
one shilling a yard ! One and three-pence a yard for this
weaving has been given at all times within the memory of
man ! Nothing can show more clearly than this, and in a
stronger light, the great change which has taken place in the
remuneration for labour. There was a turn out last winter,
when the price was reduced to a shilling a yard ; but it was
put an end to in the usual way; the constable's staff, the
bayonet, the gaoL These poor nutters were extremely ragged.
I saved my supper, and I fasted instead of breakfasting.
That was three shillings, which I had saved, and I added five
to them, with a resolution to save them afterwards, in order
to give these chaps a breakfast for once in their lives. There
were eight of them, six men, and two boys ; and I gave them
two quartern loaves, two pounds of cheese, and eight pints of

96 Rural Ride from
strong beer. The fellows were very thankful, but the conduct
of the landlord and landlady pleased me exceedingly. When
I came to pay my bill, they had said nothing about my bed,
which had been a very good one ; and, when I asked, why
they had not put the bed into the bill, they said they would
not charge any thing for the bed, since I had been so good to
the poor men. Yes, said I, but I must not throw the expense
upon you. I had no supper, and I have had no breakfast ;
and, therefore, I am not called upon, to pay for them : but 1
have had the bed. It ended by my paying for the bed, and;
coming off, leaving the nutters at their breakfast, and very
much delighted with the landlord and his wife; and I must
here observe, that I have pretty generally found a good deal
of compassion for the poor people to prevail amongst publi
cans and their wives.
From Heytesbury to Warminster is a part of the country
singularly bright and beautiful. From Salisbury up to very
near Heytesbury, you have the valley, as before described by
me. Meadows next the water; then arable land; then the
downs; but, when you come to Heytesbury, and indeed, a
little before, in looking forward you see (he vale stretch out,
from about three miles wide to ten miles wide, from high
land to high land. From a hill before you come down to
Heytesbury, you see through this wide opening into Somerset
shire. You see a round hill rising in the middle of the open
ing ; but all the rest a flat enclosed country, and apparently
full of wood. In looking back down this vale, one cannot
help being struck with the innumerable proofs that there are,
of a decline in point of population. In the first place, there
are twenty-four parishes, each of which takes a little strip
across the valley, and runs up through the arable land into
the down. There are twenty-four parish churches, and there
ought to be as many parsonage-houses ; but seven of these, out
of the twenty-four, that is to say, nearly one-third of them, are,
in the returns laid before Parliament (and of which returns I
shall, speak more particularly by-and-by), stated to be such
miserable dwellings, as to be unfit for a parson to reside in,,

Salisbury to Highworth. 97
Two of them, however, are gone. There are no parsonage
houses in those two parishes : there are the sites ; there are
the glebes ; but the houses have been suffered to fall down
and to be totally carried away. The tithes remain, indeed,
and the parson sacks the amount of them. A journeyman
parson comes and works in three or four churches of a
Sunday; but the master parson is not there. He generally
carries away the produce to spend it in London, at Bath, or
somewhere else, to show off his daughters; and the overseers,1
that is to say, the farmers, manage the poor, in their own way,
instead of having, according to the ancient law, a third-part
of all the tithes, to keep them with.
¦The falling down and the beggary of these parsonage-
houses, prove beyond all question the decayed state of the
population. And, indeed, the mansion-houses are gone, ex
cept in a very few instances. There are but five left, that I
could perceive, all the way from Salisbury to Warminster,
though the country is the most pleasant that can be imagined.
Here is water, here are meadows ; plenty of fresh-water fish ;
hares and partridges in abundance, and it is next to impossible
to destroy them. Here are shooting, coursing, hunting; hills
of every height, size, and form; valleys, the same; lofty trees,
and rookeries in every mile; roads always solid and good;
always pleasant for exercise ; and the air must be of the best
in the world. Yet it is manifest, that four-fifths of the
mansions have been swept away. There is a parliamentary
return, to prove that nearly a third of the parsonage houses
have become beggarly holes or have disappeared. I have
now been in nearly three, score villages, and in twenty or
thirty or forty hamlets of Wiltshire ; and I do not know that
I have been in one, however small, in which I did not see a
house or two, and sometimes more, either tumbled down, or
beginning to tumble down. It is impossible for the eyes of
man to be fixed on a finer country than that, between the
village of Codford and the town of Warminster; and it is not
very easy for the eyes of man to discover labouring people
more miserable. There are two villages, one called Norton
vol. 11. G

98 Rural Ride from
Bovant, and the other Bishopstrow, which I think form,
together, one of the prettiest spots that my eyes ever beheld.
The former village belongs to Bennet, the member for the
county, who has a mansion there, in which two of his sisters
live, I am told. There is a farm at Bishopstrow, standing at
the back of the arable land, up in a vale, formed by two very
lofty hills, upon each of which there was formerly a Roman
Camp, in consideration of which farm, if the owner would
give it me, I would almost consent to let Ottiwell Wood
remain quiet in his seat, and suffer the pretty gentlemen of
Whitehall to go on without note or comment, till they had
fairly blown up their concern. The farm-yard is surrounded
by lofty and beautiful trees. In the rick-yard, I counted
twenty-two ricks of one sort and another. The hills shelter
the house, and the yard and the trees, most completely, from
every wind but the south. The arable land goes down before
the house, and spreads along the edge of the down, going,
with a gentle slope, down to the meadows. So that, going
along the turnpike road, which runs between the lower fields
of the arable land, you see the large and beautiful flocks of
sheep upon the sides of the down, while the homed-catde are
up to their eyes in grass in the meadows. Just when I was
coming along here, the sun was about half an hour high ; it
shined through the trees most brilliantly ; and, to crown the
whole, I met, just as I was entering the village, a very pretty
girl, who was apparently going a gleaning in the fields. I
asked her the name of the place, and when she told me it
was Bishopstrow, she pointed to the situation of the church,
which, she said, was on the other side of the river. She
really put me in mind of the pretty girls at Preston, who spat
upon the "individual" of the Derby family, and I made her
a bow accordingly.
The whole of the population of the twenty-four parishes
down this vale, amounts to only 11,195 souls, according to
the Official return to Parliament ; and, mind, I include the
parish of Fisherton Anger (a suburb of the city of Salisbury),
which contains 893 of the number. I include the town of

Salisbury to Highworth. 99
Heytesbury, with its 1,023 souls; and I further include this
very good and large market town of Warminster, with its popu
lation of 5,000 ! So that I leave, in the other twenty-one
parishes, only 4,170 souls, men, women, and children! That
is to say, a hundred and ninety-eight souls to each parish ; or,
reckoning five to a family, thirty-nine families to each parish.
Above one half of the population never could be expected to
be in the church at one time ; so that, here are one-and-twenty
churches built for the purpose of holding two thousand and
eighty people ! There are several of these churches, any one
of which would conveniently contain the whole of these
people, the two thousand and eighty ! The church of Bishop
strow would contain the whole of the two thousand and
eighty very well indeed ; and, it is curious enough to observe,
that the churches of Fisherton Anger, Heytesbury, and War
minster, though quite sufficient to contain the people that go
to church, are none of them nearly so big, as several of the
village churches. All these churches are built, long and long
before the reign of Richard the Second ; that is to say, they
were founded long before that time, and if the first churches
were gone, these others were built in their stead. There is
hardly one of them that is not as old as the reign of Richard
the Second ; and yet that impudent Scotchman, George Chal
mers, would make us believe, that, in the reign of Richard
the Second, the population of the country was hardly anything
at all! He has the impudence, or the gross ignorance, to
state the population of England and Wales at two millions,
which, as I have shown in the last Number of the Protestant
Reformation, would allow only twelve able men to every
parish church throughout the kingdom. What, I ask, for
about the thousandth time I ask it ; what were these twenty
churches built for? Some of them stand within a quarter of a
mile of each other. They are pretty nearly as close to each
other as the churches in London and Westminster are.
What a monstrous thing, to suppose that they were built
without there being people to go to them; and built, too,
without money and without hands ! The whole of the popu-

i oo Rural Ride from
lation in these twenty-one parishes could stand, and without
much crowding too, in the bottoms of the towers of the
several churches. Nay, in three or four of the parishes, the
whole of the people could stand in the church porches.
Then, the church-yards show you how numerous the popula
tion must have been. You see, in some cases, only here and
there the mark of a grave, where the church-yard contains
from half an acre to an acre of land, and sometimes more. In
short, everything shows, that here was once a great and opu
lent population ; that there was an abundance to eat, to wear,
and to spare ; that all the land that is now under cultivation,
and a great deal that is not now under cultivation, was under
cultivation in former times. The Scotch beggars, would
make us believe that we sprang from beggars. The impudent
scribes would make us believe, that England was formerly
nothing at all, till they came to enlighten it and fatten upon
it. Let the beggars answer me this question ; let the impu
dent, the brazen scribes, that impose upon the credulous and
cowed-down English; let them tell me, why these twenty-one
churches were built? what they were built for? why the
large churches of the two Codfords were stuck up within a
few hundred yards of each other, if the whole of the popula
tion could then, as it can now, be crammed into the chancel
of either of the two churches? Let them answer me this
question, or shut up their mouths upon this subject, on which
they have told so many lies.
As to the produce of this valley, it must be at least ten
times as great as its consumption, even if we include the three
towns that belong to it I am sure I saw produce enough, in
five or six of the farm-yards, or rick-yards, to feed the whole
of the population of the twenty-one parishes. But the infernal
system, causes it all to be carried away. Not a bit of good
beef, or mutton, or veal, and scarcely a bit of bacon is left for
those, who raise all this food and wool. The labourers here
look as if they were half-starved. They answer extremely
well to the picture that Fortescue gave of the French in
his day.

Salisbury to Highworth. 101
Talk of "liberty," indeed; "civil and religious liberty:"
the Inquisition, with a belly full, is far preferable to a state
of things like this. For my own part, I really am ashamed to
ride a fat horse, to have a full belly, and to have a clean shirt
upon my back, while I look at these wretched countrymen of
mine ; while I actually see them reeling with weakness ; when
I see their poor faces present me nothing but skin and bone,
while they are toiling to get the wheat and the meat, ready to be
carried away to be devoured by the tax-eaters. I am ashamed
to look at these poor souls, and to reflect that they are my
countrymen ; and particularly to reflect, that we are descended
from those, amongst whom " beef, pork, mutton, and veal,
"were the food of the poorer sort of people."1 What! and
is the "Emigration Committee" sitting, to invent the means
of getting rid of some part of the thirty-nine families, that are
employed in raising the immense quantities of food, in each
of these twenty-one parishes ? Are there schemers to go before
this conjuration Committee; Wiltshire schemers, to tell the
Committee how they can get rid of a part of these one hundred
and ninety-eight persons to every parish ? Are there schemers
of this sort of work still, while no man, no man at all, not a
single man, says a word about getting rid of the dead-weight,
or the supernumerary parsons, both of whom have actually a
premium given them for breeding, and are filling the country
with idlers? We are reversing the maxim of the Scripture :
our laws almost say, that those that work shall not eat, and
that those who do not work, shall have the food. I repeat,
that the baseness of the English land-owners surpasses that,
of any other men that ever lived in the world. The cowards
know well, that the labourers that give value to their land, are
skin and bone. They are not such brutes, as not to know that

1 Quoting the words of Sir John Fortescue (Lord Chancellor in the
reign of Henry VI.), in his celebrated work " De Laudibus Legum
Anglise," A.D. 1463. It is to be feared that very few of the present agricul-
tural labourers often taste fresh meat except it be a hare or a rabbit that is
snared.

i o 2 Rural Ride from
this starvation, is produced by taxation. They know well, how
unjust it is, to treat their labourers in this way. They know
well that there goes down the common foot soldier's single
throat, more food than is allowed by them to a labourer, his
wife, and three children. They know well that the present
standing army in time of peace, consumes more food and
raiment, than a million of the labourers consume ; aye, than
two millions of them consume ; if you include the women and
the children; they well know these things; they know that
their poor labourers are taxed, to keep this army in fatness
and in splendour. They know that the dead-weight, which, in
the opinion of most men of sense, ought not to receive a
single farthing of the public money, swallow more of good
food than a third or a fourth part of the real labourers of
England swallow. They know that a million and a half of
pounds sterling was taken out of the taxes, partly raised upon
the labourers, to enable the poor Clergy of the Church of
England to marry and to breed. They know that a regulation
has been recently adopted, by which an old dead-weight man
is enabled to sell his dead-weight to a young man ; and that,
thus, this burden would, if the system were to be continued,
be rendered perpetual. They know that a good slice of the
dead-weight money goes to Hanover ; and that even these
Hanoverians, can sell the dead-weight claim upon us. The
" country gentlemen " fellows know all this : they know that
the poor labourers, including all the poor manufacturers, pay
one-half of their wages in taxes to support all these things ;
and yet not a word about these things is ever said, or even
hinted at, by these mean, these cruel, these cowardly, these
carrion, these dastardly reptiles. Sir James Graham, of
Netherby, who, I understand, is a young fellow instead of an
old one, may invoke our pity upon these " ancient families,"
but he will invoke in vain. It was their duty to stand forward
and prevent Power-of-Imprisonment Bills, Six Acts, Ellen-
borough's Act, Poaching Transportation Act, New Trespass
Act, Sunday Tolls, and the hundreds of other things that could
be named. On the contrary, they were the cause of them all.

Salisbury to Highworth.

They were the cause of all the taxes, and all the debts ; and
now let them take the consequences ! 1 Saturday, September 2nd.
After I got to Warminster yesterday, it began to rain, which
stopped me in my way to Frome in Somersetshire, which lies
about seven or eight miles from this place ; but, as I meant
to be quite in the northern part of the county, by to-morrow
noon, or there-abouts, I took a post-chaise in the afternoon of
yesterday, and went to Frome, where I saw, upon my entrance
into the town, between two or three hundred weavers, men and
boys, cracking stones, moving earth, and doing other sorts of
work, towards making a fine road into the town. I drove into
the town, and through the principal streets, and then I put my
chaise up a little, at one of the inns.
This appears to be a sort of little Manchester. A very
small Manchester, indeed ; for it does not contain above ten
or twelve thousand people, but, it has all the flash of a
Manchester, and the innkeepers and their people look and
behave like the Manchester fellows. I was, I must confess,
glad to find proofs of the irretrievable decay of the place.
I remembered how ready the bluff manufacturers had been,
to call in the troops of various descriptions. " Let them," said
I to myself, " call the troops in now, to make their trade revive.
" Let them now resort to their friends of the yeomanry and of
" the army ; let them now threaten their poor workmen with
" the gaol, when they dare to ask for the means of preventing
"starvation in their families. Let them, who have, in fact,
"lived and thriven by the sword, now call upon the parson-
" magistrate, to bring out the soldiers to compel me, for
" instance, to give thirty shillings a yard for the superfine black
" broad cloth (made at Frome), which Mr. ~Rae, at Kensington,

1 Since the time the above was written, nearly all the taxes (of which
the Author so justly complains) have been repealed, so that a "free break
fast table" has been provided for the agricultural labourer, although in
many districts he is still most inadequately paid.

104 Rural Ride from
" offered me at seven shillings and sixpence a yard, just before
" I left home ! Yes, these men have ground down into powder
"those, who were earning them their fortunes : let the grinders
"themselves now be ground, and, according to the usual wise
" and just course of Providence, let them be crushed by the
" system which they have delighted in, because it made others
" crouch beneath them." Their poor work-people cannot be
worse off than they long have been. The parish pay, which
they now get upon the roads, is 2s. 6d. a week for a man, 2s.
for his wife, is. 3d. for each child under eight years of age, 3^.
a week, in addition, for each child above eight, who can go to
work : and, if the children above eight years old, whether girls
or boys, do not go to work upon the road, they have nothing !
Thus, a family of five people, have just as much, and eight-
pence over, as goes down the throat of one single foot soldier ;
but, observe, the standing soldier; that "truly English insti
tution," has clothing, fuel, candle, soap, and house-rent, over
and above, what is allowed to this miserable family ! And yet
the base reptiles, who, are cailed " country gentlemen," and
whom Sir James Graham calls upon us, to commit all sorts of
acts of injustice in order to preserve, never utter a whisper
about' the expenses of keeping the soldiers, while they are
everlastingly railing against the working people of every
description, and representing them, and them only, as the
cause of the loss of their estates !
These poor creatures at Frome, have pawned all their things,
or nearly all. All their best clothes, their blankets and sheets ;
their looms ; any little piece of furniture that they had, and
that was good for anything. Mothers have been compelled
to pawn, all the tolerably good clothes, that their children had.
In case of a man having two or three shirts, he is left with
only one, and sometimes without any shirt; and, though this
is a sort of manuUfcture, that cannot very well come to a com
plete end ; still it has received a blow from which it cannot
possibly recover. The population of this Frome, has been
augmented to the degree of one-third, within the last six or
seven years. There are here all the usual signs of accommo-

Salisbury to Highworth. 105
dation bills, and all false paper stuff, called money: new
houses, in abundance, half finished ; new gingerbread " places
of worship," as they are called ; great swaggering inns ; parcels
of swaggering fellows going about, with vulgarity imprinted upon
their countenances, but with good clothes upon their backs.
I found the working people at Frome very intelligent ; very
well informed as to the cause of their misery; not at all
humbugged by the canters, whether about religion or loyalty.
When I got to the inn, I sent my post-chaise boy back to the
road, to tell one or two of the weavers to come to me at the
inn. The landlord did not at first, like to let such ragged
fellows, upstairs. I insisted, however, upon their coming up,
and I had a long talk with them. They were very intelligent
men ; had much clearer views of what is likely to happen, than
the pretty gentlemen of Whitehall seem to have ; and, it is
curious enough, that they, these common weavers, should tell
me, that they thought that the trade, never would come back
again, to what it was before ; or, rather, to what it has been
for some years past. This is the impression everywhere ; that
the puffing is over ; that we must come back again to some
thing like reality. The first factories that I met with were at
a village called Upton Loveli, just before I came to Heytes
bury. There they were doing not more than a quarter
work. There is only one factory, I believe, here at Warmin
ster, and that has been suspended, during the harvest, at any
rate. At Frome, they are all upon about a quarter work. It
is the same at Bradford, and Trowbridge ; and, as curious a
thing as ever was heard of, in the world is, that here are,
through all these towns, and throughout this country, weavers
from the North, singing about the towns, ballads of Distress !
They had been doing it at Salisbury, just before I was there.
The landlord at Heytesbury told me, that people that could
afford it, generally gave them something ; and I was told that
they did the same at Salisbury. The landlord at Heytesbury
told me, that every one of them had a license to beg, given them
he said, "by the Government." I suppose it was %orae pass
from a Magistrate ; though I know of no law that allows of

1 06 Rural Ride from

such passes; and a pretty thing it would be, to grant such
licenses, or such passes, when the law so positively commands,
that the poor of every parish, shall be maintained in, and by,
every such parish.1
However, all law of this sort, all salutary and humane law,
really seems to be drawing towards an end, in this now miser
able country, where the thousands are caused to wallow in
luxury, to be surfeited with food and drink, while the millions
are continually on the point of famishing. In order to form
an idea of the degradation of the people of this country, and
of the abandonment of every English principle, what need we
of more than this one disgraceful and truly horrible fact,
namely, that the common soldiers, of the standing army in time
of peace, subscribe, in order to furnish the meanest of diet, to keep
from starving, the industrious people who are taxed lo the
amount of one-half of their wages, and out of which taxes, the
very pay of these soldiers comes ! Is not this one fact ; this dis
graceful, this damning fact; is not this enough to convince
us, there must be a change; that there must be a complete and
radical change ; or, that England must become a country of
the basest slavery, that ever disgraced the earth ?
Devises, (Wilts),
Sunday Morning, yd Sept.
I left Warminster yesterday at about one o'clock. It is
contrary to my practice to set out at all, unless I can do it early
in the morning ; but, at Warminster I was at the South- West
corner of this county, and I had made a sort of promise to
be to-day at Highworth, which is at the North-East corner,
and which parish, indeed, joins up to Berkshire. The distance,
1 In ancient times beggars were tolerated because they were often
musicians and ballad-singers. Licences to beg, were granted in the reigns
of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. But in 1572, by the Act (14 Elizabeth c.
5) sturdy beggars were ordered "to be grievously whipped, and burnt
through the right ear," moreover " to be punished capitally" for the third
offence. By the Vagrant Act, 1S24 (5 George IV. c. 83), all public
beggars are liable to one month's imprisonment. There are about S0!000
tramps and beggars in England and Wales at the present time.

Salisbury to Highworth. 107
including my little intended deviations, was more than fifty
miles ; and, not liking to attempt it in one day, I set off in
the middle of the day, and got here in the evening, just before
a pretty heavy rain came on.
Before I speak of my ride from Warminster to this place,
I must once more observe, that Warminster is a very nice
town : every thing belonging to it is solid and good. There
are no villanous gingerbread houses running up, and no nasty,
shabby-genteel people ; no women trapesing about with showy
gowns and dirty necks ; no jew-looking fellows with dandy
coats, dirty shirts and half-heels to their shoes. A really nice
and good town. It is a great corn-market : one of the greatest
in this part of England ; and here things are still conducted
in the good, old, honest fashion. The corn is brought and
pitched in the market before it is sold ; and, when sold it is
paid for on the nail; and all is over, and the farmers and
millers gone home by day-light Almost every where else the
corn is sold by sample ; it is sold by juggling in a corner ; the
parties meet and drink first; it is night work; there is no fair
and open market ; the mass of the people do not know what
the prices are ; and all this favours that monopoly which makes
the com change hands many times, perhaps, before it reaches
the mouth, leaving a profit in each pair of hands, and which
monopoly is, for the greater part, carried on by the villanous
tribe of Quakers, none of whom ever work, and all of whom
prey upon the rest of the community, as those infernal devils,
the wasps, prey upon the bees. Talking of the Devil, puts
one in mind of his imps ; and, talking of Quakers, puts one in
mind of Jemmy Cropper of Liverpool. I should like to know
precisely (I know pretty nearly) what effect "late panic" has
had, and is having, on Jemmy ! Perhaps the reader will
recollect that Jemmy told the public, through the columns of
base Bott Smith, that " Cobbett's prophecies were falsified as
soon as spawned." Jemmy, canting Jemmy, has now had
time to ruminate on that ! But, does the reader remember
James's project for "making Ireland as happy as England?"
It was simply by introducing cotton-factories, steam-engines,

1 08 Rural Ride from
and power-looms ! That was all ; and there was Jemmy in
Ireland, speech-making before such Lords and such Bishops
and such 'Squires as God never suffered to exist in the world
before : there was Jemmy, showing, proving, demonstrating,
that to make the Irish cotton-workers, would infallibly make
them happy : If it had been now, instead of being two years
ago, he might have produced the reports of the starvation-
committees of Manchester to confirm his opinions. One
would think, that this instance of the folly and impudence of
this canting son of the monopolizing sect, would cure this
public of its proneness to listen to cant; but, nothing will cure
it : the very existence of this sect, none of whom ever work,
and the whole of whom live like fighting-cocks upon the
labour of the rest of the community ; the very existence of
such a sect shows, that the nation is, almost in its nature, a
dupe. There has been a great deal of railing against the
King of Spain ; not to becall the King of Spain is looked
upon as a proof of want of "liberality," and what must it be,
then, to applaud any of the acts of the King of Spain ! This
I am about to do, however, think Dr. Black of it what he may.
In the first place, the mass of the people of Spain are better
off, better fed, better clothed, than the people of any other
country in Europe, and much better than the people of
England are. That is one thing ; and that is almost enough
of itself. In the next place, the King of Spain has refused to
mortgage the land and labour of his people for the benefit of
an infamous set of Jews and Jobbers. Next, the King of
Spain has most essentially thwarted the Six-Acts people, the
Manchester 16th of August, the Parson Hay, the Sidmouth's
Circular, the Dungeoning, the Ogden's rupture people; he
has thwarted, and most cuttingly annoyed, these people, who
are also the poacher-transporting people, and the new trespass
law, and the apple-felony and the horse-police (or gendarmerie)
and the Sunday-toll people : the King of Spain has thwarted
all these, and he has materially assisted in blowing up the
brutal big fellows of Manchester; and therefore, I applaud
the King of Spain.

Salisbury to Highworth. 109
I do not much like weasels ; but I hate rats ; and, there
fore, I say, success to the weasels. But, there is one act of
the King of Spain, which is worthy of the imitation of every
King, aye, and of every republic too ; his edict for taxing
traffickers, which edict was published about eight months ago.
It imposes a pretty heavy annual tax on every one, who is a
mere buyer and seller, and who neither produces nor consumes,
nor makes, nor changes the state of, the article, or articles,
that he buys and sells. Those who bring things into the
kingdom, are deemed producers, and those who send things
out of the kingdom, are deemed changers of the state of
things. These two classes embrace all legitimate merchants.
Thus, then, the farmer, who produces corn and meat and
wool and wood, is not taxed; nor is the coach-master, who
buys the corn to give to his horses, nor the miller, who buys
it to change the state of it, nor the baker, who buys the
flour to change its state ; nor is the manufacturer, who buys
the wool to change its state ; and so on : but, the Jew, or
Quaker, the mere dealer, who buys the corn of the producer,
to sell it to the miller, and to deduct a profit, which must, at
last, fall upon the consumer; this Jew or Quaker, or self-
styled Christian, who acts the part of Jew or Quaker, is taxed
by the King of Spain ; and for this I applaud the King of
Spain. If we had a law like this, the pestiferous sect of non-
labouring, sleek and fat hypocrites could not exist in England.
But, ours is, altogether, a system of monopolies, created by
taxation and paper-money, from which monopolies are insepar
able. It is notorious, that the brewer's monopoly is the
master even of the Government ; it is well known to all who
examine and reflect, that a very large part of our bread comes
to our mouths loaded with the profit of nine or ten, or more,
different dealers ; and, I shall, as soon as I have leisure, prove
as clearly as any thing ever was proved, that the people pay
two millions of pounds a year in consequence of the Monopoly
in tea ! that is to say, they pay two millions a year more than
they would pay were it not for the monopoly ; and, mind, I

1 1 o Rural Ride from
tio not mean the monopoly of the East India Company; but,
the monopoly of the Quaker, and other Tea Dealers, who
buy the tea of that Company ! The people of this country
are eaten up by monopolies. These compel those who
labour to maintain those who do not labour ; and hence the
success of the crafty crew of Quakers, the very existence of
which sect is a disgrace to the country.
Besides the corn market at Warminster, I was delighted,
and greatly surprised, to see the meat. Not only the very
finest veal and lamb that I had ever seen in my life, but so
exceedingly beautiful, that I could hardly believe my eyes.
I am a great connoisseur in joints of meat ; a great judge, if
five-and-thirty years of experience can give sound judgment.
I verily believe that I have bought and have roasted more
whole sirloins of beef than any man in England ; I know all
about the matter ; a very great visitor of Newgate market ; in
short, though a little eater, I am a very great provider. It is
a fancy, I like the subject, and therefore, I understand it; and
with all this knowledge of the matter, I say, I never saw veal
and lamb half so fine as what I saw at Warminster. The
town is famed for fine meat ; and I knew it, and, therefore, I
went out'in the morning to look at the meat It was, too, 2d.
a pound cheaper than I left it at Kensington.
My road from Warminster to Devizes lay through West-
bury, a nasty odious rotten-borough, a really rotten place. It
has cloth factories in it, and they seem to be ready to tumble
down, as well as many of the houses. God's curse seems to
be upon most of these rotten-boroughs. After coming through
this miserable hole, I came along, on the north side of the
famous hill, called Bratton Castle, so renowned in the annals
of the Romans and of Alfred the Great Westbury is a place
of great ancient grandeur ; and, it is easy to perceive, that it
was once ten or twenty times its present size. My road was
now the line of separation between what they call South Wilts
and North Wilts, the former consisting of high and broad
downs, and narrow valleys, with meadows, and rivers, running
down them ; the latter consisting of a rather flat, enclosed

Salisbury to Highworth. 1 1 1
country : the former having a chalk bottom ; the latter a
bottom of marl, clay, or flat stone : the former a country for
lean sheep and corn ; and the latter a country for cattle, fat
sheep, cheese, and bacon : the former, by far, to my taste, the
most beautiful ; and I am by no means sure, that it is not, all
things considered, the most rich. All my way along, till I
came very near to Devizes, I had the steep and naked downs
up to my right, and the flat and enclosed country to my
left. Very near to Bratton Castle (which is only a hill with deep
ditches on it) is the village of Eddington, so famed for the
battle fought here by Alfred and the Danes. The church, in
this village, would contain several thousands of persons; and
the village is reduced to a few straggling houses. The land
here is very good ; better than almost any I ever saw ; as
black, and, apparently, as rich, as the land in the market-
gardens at Fulham. The turnips are very good all along here
for several miles ; but, this is, indeed, singularly fine and rich
land. The orchards very fine ; finely sheltered, and the crops
of apples and pears and walnuts very abundant. Walnuts
ripe now, a month earlier than usual. After Eddington I
came to a hamlet called Earl's Stoke, the houses of which
stand at a few yards from each other, on the two sides of the
road; every house is white; and the front of every one is
covered with some sort or other of clematis, or with rose-trees,
or jasmines. It was easy to guess, that the whole belonged
to one owner ; and that owner I found to be a Mr. Watson
Taylor, whose very pretty seat is close by the hamlet, and in
whose park-pond, I saw, what I never saw before; namely
some black swans. They are not nearly so large as the white,
nor are they so stately in their movements. They are a
meaner bird. Highworth ( Wilts,)
Monday, qth Sept.
I got here yesterday, after a ride, including my deviations,
of about thirty-four miles, and that, too, without breaking my
past. Before I got into the rotten-borough of Calne, I had

1 1 2 Rural Ride from
two tributes to pay to the Aristocracy ; namely, two Sunday
tolls ; and, I was resolved, that the country, in which these
tolls were extorted, should have not a farthing of my money,
that I could, by any means, keep from it Therefore, I
fasted, until I got into the free-quarters in which I am now.
I would have made my horse fast too, if I could have done it
without the risk of making him unable to carry me.

RID2 FROM HIGHWORTH TO CRICKLADE AND THENCE TO
MALMSBURV. Highworth (Wills)
Monaay, 4th Sept. 1826.
When I got to Devizes, on Saturday evening, and came to
look out of the inn-window into the street, I perceived, that
I had seen that place before, and, always having thought, that
I should like to see Devizes, of which I had heard so much
talk as a famous corn-market, I was very much surprised to
find, that it was not new to me. Presently a stage-coach came
up to the door, with " Bath and London " upon its panels ;
and then I recollected, that I hi d been at this place, on my
way to Bristol, last year. Devizes is, as nearly as possible, in
the centre of the county, and the canal, that passes close by
it, is the great channel through which the produce of the
country is carried away to be devoured by the idlers, the
thieves, and the prostitutes, who are all tax-eaters, in the
Wens of Bath and London. Pottern, which I passed through
in my way from Warminstet to Devizes, was once a place
much larger than Devizes ; and, it is now a mere ragged
village, with a church large, very ancient, and of most costly
structure. The whole of the people, here, might, as in most
other cases, be placed in the bef/y, or the church-porches.
All the way along, the mansion-houses are nearly all gone.
There is now and then a great place, belonging to a borough-
monger, or some one connected with borough-mongers ; but,

Highworth to Malmsbury.

all the little gentlemen are gone ; and, hence it is, that parsons
are now made justices of the peace ! There are few other
persons left, who are at all capable of filling the office in a
way to suit the system ! The monopolising brewers and rag-
rooks are, in some places, the "magistrates;" and thus is
the whole thing changed, and England, is no more what it was.
Very near to the sides of my road from Warminster to Devizes,
there were formerly (within a hundred years), 22 mansion-
houses of sufficient note to be marked as such in the county-
map, then made. There are now only seven of them remain
ing. There were five parish-churches nearly close to my
road ; and, in one parish but of the five, the parsonage-house
is, in the parliamentary return, said to be "too small " for the
parson to live in, though the church would contain two or
three thousand people, and though the living is a Rectory,
and a rich one too ! Thus has the church-property, or rather,
that public property, which is called church property, been
dilapidated ! The parsons have swallowed the tithes and the
rent of the glebes ; and have, successively, suffered the
patsonage-houses to fall into decay. But these- parsonage-
houses were, indeed, not intended for large families. They
were intended for a priest, a main part of whose business it
was to distribute the tithes amongst the poor and the strangers !
The parson, in this case, at Corsley, says, " too small for an
incumbent with a family." Ah ! there is the mischief. It
was never intended to give men tithes, as a premium for breed
ing ! Malthus does not seem to see any harm in this sort of
increase of population. It is 'the working population, those
who raise the food and the clothing, that he and Scarlett want
to put a stop to the breeding of ! 1

1 William Pitt and William Cobbett seem to have been in sympathy
with regard to their condemnation of the views of Malthus, for William Pitt
proposed (or at all events acceded to a proposal) in 1796, to give pre
miums to agricultural labourers with large families. It is, however, fair to
state, that at the time he did so, the condition of labourers was exceedingly
disastrous, the gallon barley loaf being at izjd., while wages were only
Is. per day. Mr. Scarlett (to whom reference is here made) was a bitter
VOL. II. H

1 1 4 Rural Ride from
I saw, on my way through the down -countries, hundreds of
acres of ploughed land in shelves. What I mean is, the side
of a steep hill, made into the shape of a stairs, only the
rising parts more sloping than those of a stairs, and deeper in
proportion. The side of the hill, in its original form, was
too steep to be ploughed, or, even to be worked with a spade.
The earth, as soon as moved, would have rolled down the
hill; and, besides, the rains would have soon washed down
all the surface earth, and have left nothing for plants of any
sort to grow in. Therefore the sides of hills, where the land
was sufficiently good, and where it was wanted for the grow
ing of corn, were thus made into a sort of steps or shelves,
and the horizontal parts (representing the parts of the stairs
that we put our feet upon,) were ploughed and sowed, as they
generally are, indeed, to this day. Now, no man, not even
the hireling Chalmers, will have the impudence to say, that
these shelves, amounting to thousands and thousands of acres
in Wiltshire alone, were not made by the hand of man. It
would be as impudent to contend, that the churches were
formed by the flood, as to contend, that these shelves were
formed by that cause. Yet, thus the Scotch scribes must
contend ; or, they must give up all their assertions about the
ancient beggary and want of population in England ; for, as
in the case of the churches, what were these shelves made
for 1 And could they be made at all, without a great abund
ance of hands? These shelves are everywhere to be seen
throughout the down-countries of Sussex, Hampshire, Wilt
shire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire and Cornwall; and, besides
this, large tracts of land, amounting to millions of acres, per
haps, which are now downs, heaths, or woodlands, still, if you
examine closely, bear the marks of the plough. The fact is,
I dare say, that the country has never varied much in the
gross amount of its population ; but, formerly the people were

political opponent of the Author. He was a leading counsel at the Bar,
and also an M. P., and had spoken of Cobbett in the House, "as a contempt'
ible scribblei ."

Highworth to Malmsbury. 1 1 5
pretty evenly spread over the country, instead of being, as the
greater part of them now are, collected together in great
masses, where, for the greater part, the idlers live on the
labour of the industrious.
In quitting Devizes yesterday morning, I saw, just on the
outside of the town, a monstrous building, which I took for a
barrack ; but, upon asking what it was, I found it was one of
those other marks of the Jubilee Reign ; namely a most
magnificent gaol ! It seemed to me sufficient to hold one-half
of the able-bodied men in the county ! And it would do it
too, and do it well ! Such a system must come to an end,,
and the end must be dreadful. As I came on the road, for
the first three or four miles, I saw great numbers of labourers
either digging potatoes for their Sunday's dinner, or coming
home with them, or going out to dig them. The land-owners,
or occupiers, let small pieces of land to the labourers, and
these they cultivate with the spade for their own use. They
pay, in all cases, a high rent, and, in most cases, an enormous
one. The practice prevails all the way from Warminster to
Devizes, and from Devizes to nearly this place (Highworth).
The rent is, in some places, a shilling a rod, which is, mind,
i6oj. or 8/. an acre ! Still the poor creatures like to have the
land : they work in it at their spare hours ; and on Sunday
mornings early : and the overseers, sharp as they may be,
cannot ascertain precisely how much they get out of their
plat of ground. But, good God ! what a life to live ;
what a life to see people live ; to see this sight in our own
country, and to have the base vanity to boast of that country,
and to talk of our " constitution " and our " liberties," and to
affect to pity the Spaniards, whose working people, live like
gentlemen, compared with our miserable creatures. Again I
say, give me the Inquisition and well-healed cheeks and ribs,
rather than " civil and religious liberty," and skin and bone.
But, the fact is, that, where honest and laborious men can be
compelled to starve quietly, whether all at once or by inches,
with old wheat ricks and fat cattle under their eye, it is a
mockery to talk of their "liberty," of any sort; for the sum

1 1 6 Rural Ride from

total of their state is this, they have " liberty " to choose
between death by starvation (quick or slow) and death by
the halter !
Between Warminster and Westbury I saw thirty or more
men digging a great field of I dare say, twelve acres. I
thought, "surely, that 'humane,' half-mad fellow, Owen, is
" not got at work here ; that Owen, who, the feelosofers tell
" us, went to the Continent, to find out how to prevent the
" increase of the labourers' children." 1 No : it was not
Owen : it was the overseer of the parish, who had set these
men to dig up this field, previously to its being sown with
wheat. In short, it was a digging instead of a ploughing.
The men, I found upon inquiry, got 9d. a day for their work.
Plain digging, in the market gardens near London, is, I believe,
3d. or 4d. a rod. If these poor men, who were chiefly
weavers or spinners from Westbury, or had come home to
their parish from Bradford or Trowbridge ; if they digged six
rods each in a day, and fairly did it, they must work well.
This would be i\d. a rod, or 20s. an acre; and that is as
cheap as ploughing and four times as good. But, how much
better to give the men higher wages, and let them do more
work ? If married, how are their miserable families to live on
4s. 6d. a week ? And, if single, they must and will have
more, either by poaching, or by taking without leave At
any rate, this is better than the road work : I mean better for
those who pay the rates ; for here is something which they

1 Mr. Robert Owen was a social theorist, but whose practical efforts,
for bringing about a social reform, were one long absuidity. He set
about proving that the world, in all its institutions, was in as wretched a
condition as any dirty demoralised manufacturing village. In 1816 he
puhlished his new views of society, or essays on the formation of the
human character, and this was followed by many other pamphlets. He
started three limited communities (founded on his own principles), one at
Romney in America, a second at Orbiston in Lanarkshire, and a third at
Harmony Hall, near Stockbridge, Hants. They proved, of course, all
fnilures ; but Owen attributed their failures to their not being sufficiently per
fected on his principles. In the French Revolution of 1848 he went to
Paris, but his voice was not loud enough to be heard, in that turmoil.
He died in 1858.

Highworth to Malmsbury. 1 1 7
get for the money that they give to the poor ; whereas, in the
case of the roadwork, the money given in relief is generally
wholly so much lost to the rate-payer. What a curious
spectacle this is : the manufactories throwing the people back
again upon the land ! It is not above eighteen months ago,
that the Scotch feelosofers, and especially Dr. Black, were
calling upon the farm labourers to become manufacturers t I
remonstrated with the Doctor at the time ; but, he still insisted,
that such a transfer of hands, was the only remedy for the
distress in the farming districts. However, (and I thank God
for it) the feelosofers have enough to do at home now ; for the
poor are crying for food in dear, cleanly, warm, fruitful
Scotland herself, in spite of a' the Hamiltons, and a' the
Wallaces, and a' the Maxwells, and a' the Hope Johnstones,
and a' the Dundases, and a' the Edinbro' Reviewers, and a' the
Broughams, and Birckbecks. In spite of all these, the poor
of Scotland are now helping themselves, or about to do it, for
want of the means of purchasing food.
From Devizes I came to the vile rotten borough of Calne,
leaving the park and house of Lord Lansdowne to my left.
This man's name is Petty, and, doubtless, his ancestors
"came in with the Conqueror ; " for, Petty is, unquestionably,
a corruption of the French word Petit ; and, in this case
there appears to have been not the least degeneracy ; a thing
rather rare in these days. There is a man whose name was
Grimstone (that is, to a certainty, Grindstone), who is now
called Lord Verulam, and who according to his pedigree in
the Peerage, is descended from " a standard-bearer of the
" Conqueror ! " Now, the devil a bit is there the word Grind
stone, or Grimstone, in the Norman language. Well, let
them have all that their French descent can give them, since
they will insist upon it, that they are not of this country. So
help me God, I would, if I could, give them Normandy to live
in, and, if the people would let them, to possess.
This Petty family began, or, at least, made its first grand
1. push, in poor, unfortunate Ireland ! The history of that push
would amuse the . people of Wiltshire ! Talking of Normans

1 1 8 Rural Ride from
and high-blood, puts me in mind of , Beckford and his
" Abbey" The public knows, that the tower of this thing fell
down some time ago. It was built of Scotch-fir and cased
with stone ! In it there was a place which the owner had
named, "The Gallery of Edward III., the frieze of which,
" (says the account,) contains the achievements of seventy-
" eight Knights of the Garter, from whom the owner is
" lineally descended " ! Was there ever vanity and impudence
equal to these ! the negro-driver brag of his high-blood ! I
dare say, that the old powder-man Farquhar, had as good
pretension ; and I really should like to know whether he
took out Beckford's name, and put in his own, as the lineal
descendant of the seventy-eight Knights of the Garter.
I could not come through that villanous hole, Calne,
without cursing Corruption at every step; and, when I was
coming by an ill-looking, broken-windowed place, called the
town-hall, I suppose, I poured out a double dose of execra
tion upon it. "Out of the frying pan into the fire;" for,
in about ten miles more, I came to another rotten-hole, called
Wootton-Basset ! This also is a mean, vile place, though the
country all round it is very fine. On this side of Wootton-
Basset, I went out of my way to see the church at Great
Lyddiard, which, in the parliamentary return, is called
Lyddiard Tregoose. In my old map it is called Tregose; and,
to a certainty, the word was Tregrosse ; that is to say, ires
grosse, or, very big. Here is a good old mansion-house and
large walled-in garden and a park, belonging, they told me, to
Lord Bolingbroke. I went quite down to the house, close to
which stands the large and fine church. It appears to have
been a noble place ; the land is some of the finest in the whole
country; the trees show that the land is excellent; but, all,
except the church, is in a state of irrepair and apparent
neglect, if not abandonment The parish is large, the living
is a rich one, it is a Rectory ; but though the incumbent has
the great and small tithes, he, in his return tells the Parlia
ment, that the parsonage-house is " worn out and incapable of,
repair ! " And, observe, that Parliament lets him continue

Highworth to Malmsbury. 119
to sack the produce of the tithes and the glebe, while they
know the parsonage-house to be crumbling-down, and while he,
has the impudence to tell them that he does not reside in it,
though the law says that he shall 1 And, while this is suffered
to be, a poor man may be transported for being in pursuit of a
hare ! What coals, how hot, how red, is this flagitious, system
preparing for the backs of its supporters !
In coming from Wootton-Basset to Highworth, I left
Swindon a few miles away to my left, and came by the village
of Blunsdon. All along here I saw great quantities of hops
in the hedges, and very fine hops, and I saw at a village
called Stratton, I think it was, the finest campanula that I ever
saw in my life. The main stalk was more than four feet high,
and there were four stalks, none of which were less than three
feet high. All through the country, poor, as well as rich, are
very neat in their gardens, and very careful to raise a great
variety of flowers. At Blunsdon I saw a clump, or, rather, a
sort of orchard, of as fine walnut-trees as I ever beheld, and
loaded with walnuts. Indeed I have seen great crops of
walnuts all the way from London. From Blunsdon to this
place, is but a short distance, and I got here about two or
three o'clock. This is a cheese country ; some corn, but,
generally speaking, it is a country of dairies. The sheep
here are of the large kind ; a sort of Leicester sheep, and the
cattle chiefly for milking. The ground is a stiff loam at top,
and a yellowish stone under. The houses are almost all
built of stone. It is a tolerably rich, but by no means, a gay
and pretty country. Highworth has a situation corresponding
with its name. On every side you go up-hill to it, and from
it you see to a great distance all round, and into many
counties. Highworth, Wednesday, 6th Sept.
The great object of my visit to the Northern border of
Wiltshire, will be mentioned when I get to Malmsbury, whither
I intend to go to-morrow, or next day,, and thence, through
Gloucestershire, in my way to Herefordshire. But, an addi-

1 20 Rural Ride from
tional inducement, was to have a good long political gossipy
with some excellent friends, who detest the borough-ruffians
as cordially as I do, and who, I hope, wish as anxiously to
see their fall effected, and no matter by what means. There
was, however, arising incidentally, a third object, which had
I known of its existence, would, of itself, have brought me
from the South-West to the North-East corner of this county,
One of the parishes adjoining to Highworth is that of ColeshiU,
which is in Berkshire, and which is the property of Lord
Radnor, or Lord Folkestone, and is the seat of the latter. I
was at ColeshiU twenty-two or three years ago, and twice at
later periods. In 1824, Lord Folkestone bought some Locust
trees of me; and he has several times told me, that they were
growing very finely; but, I did not know, that they had been
planted at ColeshiU ; and, indeed, I always thought that they
had been planted somewhere in the South of Wiltshire. I
now found, however, that they were growing at Coleshill, and
yesterday I went to see them, and was, for many reasons,
more delighted with the sight, than with any that I have
beheld for a long while. These trees stand in clumps of 200
trees in each, and the trees being four feet apart each way.
These clumps make part of a plantation of 30 or 40 acres,
perhaps 50 acres. The rest of the ground ; that is to say, the
ground where the clumps of Locusts do not stand, was, at
the same time that the Locust clumps were, planted with
chestnuts, elms, ashes, oaks, beeches, and other trees. These
trees were stouter and taller than the Locust trees were,
when the plantation was made. Yet, if you were now to
place yourself at a mile's distance from the plantation, you
would not think that there was any plantation at all, except
the clumps. The fact is, that the other trees have, as they
generally do, made, as yet, but very little progress ; are not,
I should think, upon an average, more than t,\ feet, or 5 feet,
high; while the clumps of Locusts are from 12 to 20 feet
high ; and, I think, that I may safely say, that the average
height is sixteen feet. They are the most beautiful clumps of
trees that I ever saw in my life. They were, indeed, planted

Highworth to Malmsbury. 1 2 1
by a clever and most trusty servant, who, to say all that can
be said in his praise, is, that he is worthy of such a master as
he has. x
The trees are, indeed, in good land, and have been taken
good care of; but, the other trees are in the same land; and,
while they have been taken the same care of, since they were
planted, they had not, I am sure, worse treatment before
planting, than these Locust trees had. At the time when I
sold them to my Lord Folkestone, they were in a field at
Worth, near Crawley, in Sussex. The history of their trans
port is this. A Wiltshire waggon came to Worth for the trees,
on the 14th of March 1824. The waggon had been stopped
on the way by the snow ; and, though the snow was gone off
before the trees were put upon the waggon, it was very cold,
and there were sharp frosts and harsh winds'. I had the trees
taken up, and tied up in hundreds by withes, like so many
fagots. They were then put in, and upon the waggon, we
doing our best to keep the roots inwards in the loading, so as
to prevent them from being exposed, but as little as possible,
to the wind, sun and frost. We put some fern on the top,
and, where we could, on the sides ; and we tied on the load
with ropes, just as we should have done with a load of
fagots. In this way, they were several days upon the road ;
and I do not know how long it was before they got safe into
the ground again. All this shows how hardy these trees are,
and it ought to admonish gentlemen to make pretty strict
enquiries, when they have gardeners, or bailiffs, or stewards,
under whose hands Locust trees die, or do not thrive.
N.B. Dry as the late summer was, I never had my Locust
trees so fine as they are this year. I have some, they write
1 The American Locust tree (or Acacia) is here alluded to. It is a
valuable and beautiful tree, and sometimes grows to the height of seventy or
eighty feet. The wood is useful for all purposes, in which great strength, and
especially toughness, is required ; this latter quality makes it valuable for
" trenails " used in ship-building (about fifteen or eighteen inches in length,
and one inch in thickness). ^5000 worth of these " trenails " are imported
into Great Britain annually. Several of these trees are still to be seen in
the grounds at Bbtley, formerly occupied by Mr. Cobbett.

1 2 2 Rural Ride from
me, five feet high, from seed sown just before I went to
Preston the first time, that is to say, on the 13th of May. I
shall advertise my trees in the next Register. I never had
them so fine, though the great drought has made the number
comparatively small. Lord Folkestone bought of me 13,600
trees. They are, at this moment, worth the money they cost
him, and, in addition the cost of planting, and in addition to
that, they are worth the fee simple of the ground (very good
ground) on which they stand ; and this I am able to demon
strate to any man in his senses. What a difference in the
value of Wiltshire, if all its Elms were Locusts ! As fuel, a
foot of Locust-wood is worth four or five of any English
wood. It will burn better green, than almost any other wood
will dry. If men want woods, beautiful woods, and in a
hurry, let them go and see the clumps at ColeshilL Think
of a wood 16 feet high, and I may say 20 feet high, in twenty-
nine months from the day of planting ; and the plants, on an
average, not more than two feet high, when planted ! Think
of that : and any one may see it at ColeshilL See what
efforts gentlemen make to get a wood I How they look at the
poor slow-growing things for years ; when they might, if they
would, have it at once : really almost at a wish ; and, with due
attention, in almost any soil ; and the most valuable of woods
into the bargain. Mr. Palmer, the bailiff, showed me, near
the house at Colehill, a Locust tree, which was planted about
35 years ago, or perhaps 40. He had measured it before.
It is eight feet and an inch round at a foot from the ground.
It goes off afterwards into two principal limbs; which two
soon become six limbs, and each of these limbs is three feet
round. So that here are six everlasting gate-posts to begin
with. This tree is worth 20 pounds at the least farthing.
I saw also at ColeshiU, the most complete farm yard that
I ever saw, and that I believe there is in all England, many
and complete as English farm yards are. This was the con
trivance of Mr. Palmer, Lord Folkestone's bailiff and steward.
The master gives all the credit of plantation, and farm, to the
servant ; but the servant ascribes a good deal of it to the

Highworth to Malmsbury. 1 2

o

master. Between them, at any rate, here are some most
admirable objects in rural affairs. And here, too, there is no
misery amongst those who do the work ; those without whom
there could have been no Locust-plantations, and no farm
yard. Here all are comfortable ; gaunt hunger here stares no
man in the face. That same disposition which sent Lord
Folkestone to visit John Knight in the dungeons at Reading,
keeps pinching hunger away from ColeshiU. It is a very
pretty spot all taken together. It is chiefly grazing land ; and,
though the making of cheese and bacon is, I dare say, the
most profitable part of the farming here, Lord Folkestone fats
oxen, and has a stall for it, which ought to be shown to
foreigners, instead of the spinning jennies. A fat ox is a finer
thing than a cheese, however good. There is a dairy here
too, and beautifully kept When this stall is full of oxen, and
they all fat, how it would make a French farmer stare ! It
would make even a Yankee think, that " Old England " was
a respectable " mother," after all. If I had to show this
village off to a Yankee, I would blindfold him all the way to,
and after I got him out of, the village, lest he should see the
scare-crows of paupers on the road.
For a week or ten days before I came to Highworth, I
had, owing to the uncertainty as to where I should be, no
newspaper sent me from London; so that, really, I began
to feel, -that I was in the "dark ages." Arrived here, how
ever, the light came bursting in upon me, flash after flash,
from the Wen, from Dublin, and from Modern Athens. I
had, too, for several days, nobody to enjoy the light with.
I had no shares in the " anteelactual" treat, and this sort of
enjoyment, unlike that of some other sorts, is augmented by
being divided.. Oh ! how happy we were, and how proud we
were to find (from the "instructor") that we had a king, that
we were the subjects of a sovereign, who had graciously sent
twenty-five pounds to Sir Richard Birnie's poor-box, there to
swell the amount of the munificence of fined delinquents !
Aye, and this, too, while (as the "instructor" told us) this
same sovereign had just bestowed, unasked for (oh ! the dear

1 24 Rural Ride from
good man !), an annuity of 500I. a year on Mrs. Fox, who,
observe, and whose daughters, had already a banging pension,
paid out of the taxes, raised, in part, and in the greatest part,
upon a people who are half-starved and half-naked. And our
admiration at the poor box affair was not at all lessened by
the reflection, that more money than sufficient to pay all the
poor-rates of Wiltshire and Berkshire will, this very year, have
been expended on new palaces, on pulling down and altera
tions of palaces before existing, and on ornaments and
decorations in, and about Hyde Park, where a bridge is
building, which, I am told, must cost a hundred thousand
pounds, though all the water, that has to pass under it, would
go through a sugar-hogshead ; and does, a little while before
it comes to this bridge, go through an arch which I believe to
be smaller than a sugar-hogshead ! besides, there was a bridge
here before, and a very good one too.
Now will Jerry Curteis, who complains so bitterly about
the poor-rates, and who talks of the poor working people a9
if their poverty were the worst of crimes; will Jerry say any
thing about this bridge, or about the enormous expenses at
Hyde Park Corner and in St James Park? Jerry knows, or
he ought to know, that this bridge alone will cost more money
than half the poor-rates of the county of Sussex. Jerry knows,
or he ought to know, that this bridge must be paid for out of
the taxes. He must know, or else he must be what I dare
not suppose him, that it is the taxes that make the paupers;
and yet I am afraid that Jerry will not open his lips on the
subject of this bridge. What they are going at, at Hyde Park
Corner, nobody that I talk with seems to know. The " great
Captain of the age," as that nasty palaverer, Brougham, called
him, lives close to this spot, where also the *' English ladies'"
naked Achilles stand, having, on the base of it, the word
Wellington in great staring letters, while all the other letters
are very, very small ; so that base tax-eaters and fund-gamblers
from the country, when they go to crouch before this image,
think it is the image of the Great Captain himself! The
reader will recollect, that after the battle of Waterloo, when

Highworth to Malmsbury. 125
we beat Napoleon with nearly a million of foreign bayonets in
our pay, pay that came out of that borrowed money, for which
we have now to wince and howl; the reader will recollect,
that at that "glorious" time, when the insolent wretches of
tax-eaters were ready to trample us under foot; that, at that
time, when the Yankees were defeated on the Serpentine
River, and before they had thrashed Blue and Buff so umerci-
fully on the ocean and on the lakes ; that, at that time, when
the creatures called " English ladies " were flocking, from all
parts of the country, to present rings, to " Old Blucher" ; that,
at that time cf exultation with the corrupt, and of mourning
with the virtuous, the Collective, in the hey-dey, in the delirium,
of its joy, resolved to expend three millions of money on
triumphal arches, or columns, or monuments of some sort or
other, to commemorate the glories of the war ! Soon after
this, however, low prices came, and they drove triumphal
arches out of the heads of the Ministers, until "prosperity,
unparalleled prosperity " came ! This set them to work upon
palaces and streets ; and, I am told, that the triumphal-arch
project is now going on at Hyde Park Corner ! Good God !
If this should be true, how apt will every thing be ! Just
about the time that the arch, or arches, will be completed ;
just about the time that the scaffolding will be knocked away,
down will come the whole of the horrid borough-mongering
system, for the upholding of which the vile tax-eating crew-
called for the war! All these palaces and other expensive
projects were hatched two years ago ; they were hatched in
the days of " prosperity," the plans and contracts were made,
I dare say, two or three years ago ! However, they will be
completed much about in the nick of time ! They will help
to exhibit the system in its true light
The " best possible public instructor " x tells us, that Can-
1 The journal, so satirically styled (the best possible public instructor)
was the Morning Chronicle. Its editor, Dr. Black, a Scotchman, though
not in direct antagonism to the Author, was only a half-hearted Reformer,
for the Chronicle was essentially a Government organ. On the occasion
of the Author's abrupt departure for America (in 1817), the Morning

1 2 6 Rural Ride from
ning is going to Paris. For what, I wonder? His brother
Huskisson, was there last year; and he did nothing. It is
supposed, that the "revered and ruptured Ogden" orator is
going to try the force of his oratory, in order to induce France
and her allies to let Portugal alone. He would do better to
arm some ships of war ! Oh ! no : never will that be done
again; or, at least, there never will again be war for three
months as long as this borough and paper system shall last !
This system has run itself out It has lasted a good while,
and has done tremendous mischief to the people of England;
but, it is over : it is done for ; it will live for a while, but it
will go about drooping its wings, and half shutting its eyes, like
a cock that has got the pip ; it will never crow again ; and for
that I most humbly and fervently thank God ! It has crowed
over us long enough : it has pecked us, and spurred us, and
slapped us about quite long enough. The nasty, insolent
creatures, that it has sheltered under its wings, have triumphed
long enough : they are now going to the workhouse ; and
thither let them go.
I know nothing of the politics of the Bourbons ; but, though
I can easily conceive that they would not like to see an end
of the paper system, and a consequent Reform, in England ;
though I can see very good reasons for believing this, I do
not believe, that Canning will induce them to sacrifice their
own obvious and immediate interests for the sake of preserving
our funding system. He will not get them out of Cadiz, and
he will not induce them to desist from interfering in the affairs
of Portugal, if they find it their interest to interfere. They
know, that we cannot go to war. They know this as well as
we do ; and every sane person in England seems to know it
well. No war for us without Reform I We are come to this
at last. No war with this Debt; and this Debt defies every
power but that of Reform. Foreign nations were, as to our
Chronicle, the great bulwark of Whiggism, informed its readers "that
Cobbett had gone off to America because the circulation of the Register
had fallen so low, through the operation of Sidmouth's Acts," which, of
course, was a malignant satire.

Highworth to Malmsbury. 127
Teal state, a good deal enlightened by "late panic." They
had hardly any notion of our state before that. That opened
their eyes, and led them to conclusions, that they never before
dreamed of. It made them see, that that, which they had
always taken for a mountain of solid gold, was only a great
heap of rubbishy, rotten paper] And they now, of course,
estimate us accordingly. But, it signifies not what they think,
or what they do : unless they will subscribe and pay off this
Debt for the people at Whitehall. The foreign governments
(not excepting the American) all hate the English Reformers ;
those of Europe, because our example would be so dangerous
to despots ; and that of America, because we should not suffer
it to build fleets and to add to its territories at pleasure. So
that, we have not only our own borough-mongers and tax-
eaters against us; but also all foreign governments. Not a
straw, however, do we care for them all, so long as we have
for us the ever-living, ever-watchful, ever-efficient, and all-
subduing Debt I Let our foes subscribe, I say, and pay oft*
that Debt ; for until they do that, we snap our fingers at
them. Highworth, Friday, Sth Sept,
"The best public instructor" of yesterday (arrived to-day)
informs us, that "A number of official gentlemen conected
" with finance have waited upon Lord Liverpool " ! Con
nected with finance ! And " a number " of them too ! Bless
their numerous and united noddles ! Good God ! what a state
of things it is altogether ! There never was the like of it seen
in this world before. Certainly never ; and the end must be
what the far greater part of the people anticipate. It was
this very Lord Liverpool that ascribed the sufferings of the
country to a surplus of food ; and that, too, at the very time
when he was advising the King to put forth a begging pro
clamation, to raise money to prevent, or, rather, put a stop to,
starvation in Ireland; and when, at the same time, public money
was granted for the causing of English people to emigrate to
Africa!. Ah,! Good God! who is to record or recount the

1 2 8 Rural Ride from
endless blessings of a Jubilee-Government ! The "instructor"
gives us a sad account of the state of the working classes in
Scotland. I am not glad that these poor people suffer : I am
very sorry for it ; and, if I could relieve them, out of my own
means, without doing good to and removing danger from, the
insolent borough-mongers and tax-eaters of Scotland, I would
share my last shilling with the poor fellows. But, I must be
glad that something has happened to silence the impudent
Scotch quacks, who have been, for six years past, crying up
the doctrine of Malthus, and railing against the English poor-
laws. Let us now see what they will do with their poor. Let
us see whether they will have the impudence to call upon us
to maintain their poor ! Well, amidst all this suffering, there
is one good thing ; the Scotch political economy is blown to
the devil, and the Edinburgh Review and Adam Smith along
with it Malmsbury ( Wills),
Monday, I Uh Sept.
I was detained at Highworth partly by the rain, and partly
by company that I liked very much. I left it at six o'clock
yesterday morning, and got to this town about three or four
o'clock in the afternoon, after a ride, including my deviations,
of 34 miles ; and as pleasant a ride as man ever had I got to
a farm-house in the neighbourhood of Cricklade, to breakfast,
at which house I was very near to the source of the river Isis,
which is, they say, the first branch of the Thames. They call
it the " Old Thames," and I rode through it here, it not being
above four or five yards wide, and not deeper than die knees
of my horse.
The land here, and all round Cricklade, is very fine. Here
are some of the very finest pastures in all England, and some
of the finest dairies of cows, from 40 to 60 in a dairy, grazing
in them. Was not this always so ? Was it created by the
union with Scotland ; or was it begotten by Pitt and his crew?
Aye, it was always so ; and there were formerly two churches
here, where there is now only one, and five, six or ten times
as many people. I saw in one single farmyard here, more

Highworth to Malmsbury. 129
food than enough for four times the inhabitants of the parish;
and this yard did not contain a tenth, perhaps, of the produce
of the parish ; but, while the poor creatures that raise the
wheat, and the barley, and cheese, and the mutton, and the
beef, are living upon potatoes, an accursed Canal comes
kindly through the parish to convey away the wheat, and all
the good food to the tax-eaters and their attendants in the
Wen ! What, then, is this " an improvement ? " is a nation
richer for the carrying away of the food from those who raise
it, and giving it to bayonet men and others, who are assembled
in great masses ? I could broom-stick the fellow who would
look me in the face, and call this " an improvement." What I
was it not better for the consumers of the food to live near to
the places where it was grown ? We have very nearly come to
the system of Hindostan, where the farmer is allowed by the
Aumil, or tax-contractor, only so much of the produce of his
farm to eat in the year ! The thing is not done in so undis
guised a manner here : here are assessor, collector, exciseman,
supervisor, informer, constable, justice, sheriff, jailor, judge,
jury, jack-ketch, barrack-man. Here is a great deal of cere
mony about it; all is done according to law; it is the free-est
country in the world : but, some how or other, the produce is,
at last, carried away ; and it is eaten, for the main part, by
those who do not work.
I observed, some pages back, that, when I got to Malms
bury, I should have to explain my main object in coming to
the North of Wiltshire. In the year 1818, the Parliament, by
an Act, ordered the bishops to cause the beneficed clergy to
give in an account of their livings, which account was to con
tain the following particulars, relating to each parish :
1. Whether a Rectory, Vicarage, or what.
2. In what rural Deanery.
3. Population.
4. Number of Churches and Chapels.
5. Number of persons they (the churches and chapels) can
contain: vol. 11. 1

1 30 Rural Ride from
In looking into this account, as it was finally made up and
printed by the parliamentary officers, I saw, that it was impos
sible for it to be true. I have always asserted, and, indeed, I
have clearly proved, that one of the two last population returns
is false, barefacedly false ; and, I was sure, that the account,
of which I am now speaking, was equally false. The false
hood, consisted, I saw principally, in the account of the
capacity of the church to contain people ; that is, under the
head No. 5, as above stated. I saw, that, in almost every
instance, this account must of necessity be false, though
coming from under the pen of a beneficed clergyman. I saw,
that there was a constant desire to make it appear, that the
church was now become too small ! And thus to help along
the opinion of a great recent increase of population, an opinion
so sedulously inculcated by all the tax-eaters of every sort, and
by the most brutal and best public instructor. In some cases
the falsehood of this account was impudent almost beyond
conception; and yet, it required going to the spot, to get
unquestionable proof of the falsehood. In many of the
parishes, in hundreds of them, the population is next to
nothing, far fewer persons than the church porch would con
tain. Even in these cases, the parsons have seldom said, that
the church would contain more than the population ! In such
cases, they have generally said, that the church can contain
" the population ! " So it can ; but, it can contain ten times
the number ! And thus it was, that, in words of truth, a lie
in meaning was told to the Parliament, and not one word of
notice was ever taken, of it Little Langford, or Landford, for
instance, between Salisbury and Warminster, is returned as
having a population under twenty, and a church that "can
contain the population." This church, which I went and
looked at, can contain, very conveniendy, two hundred people !
But, there was one instance, in which the parson had been
singularly impudent ; for, he had stated the population at eight
persons, and had stated that the church could contain eight
persons ! This was the account of the parish of Sharncut, in
this county of Wilts. It lies on the very northernmost edge of

Highworth to Malmsbury. 131
the county, and its boundary, on one side, divides Wiltshire
from Gloucestershire. To this Sharncut, therefore, I was
resolved to go, and to try the fact with my own eyes. When,
therefore, I got through Cricklade I was compelled to quit
the Malmsbury road, and go away to my right I had to go
through a village, called Ashton Keines, with which place I
was very much struck. It is now a straggling village ; but,
to a certainty, it has been a large market town. There is a
market-cross still standing in an open place in it ; and, there
are such numerous lanes, crossing each other, and cutting the
land up into such little bits, that it must, at one time, have
been a large town. It is a very curious place, and I should
have stopped in it for some time, but I was now within a few
miles of the famous Sharncut, the church of which, according
to the parson's account, could contain eight persons !
At the end of about three miles more of road, rather diffi
cult to find, but very pleasant, I got to Sharncut, which I
found to consist of a church, two farm-houses, and a parsonage-
house, one part of the buildings of which had become a
labourer's house. The church has no tower, but a sort of
crowning-piece (very ancient) on the transept. The church
is sixty feet long, and, on an average, twenty-eight feet wide ;
so that the area of it contains one thousand six hundred and
eighty square feet; or, one hundred and eighty-eight square
yards ! I found in the church eleven pews that would contain,
that were made to contain, eighty-two people ; and, these do
not occupy a third part of the area of the church ; and thus,
more than two hundred persons, at the least, might be accom
modated, with perfect convenience, in this church, which the
parson says "can contain eight!" Nay, the church porch,
on its two benches, would hold twenty people, taking little
and big promiscuously. I have been thus particular, in this
instance, because I would leave no doubt as to the barefaced-
ness of the lie. A strict inquiry would show, that the far
greater part of the account is a most impudent lie, or, rather,
string of lies. For, as to the subterfuge, that this account was
true, because the church " can contain eight" it is an addition

132 Rural Ride from
to the crime of lying. What the Parliament meant was, what
" is the greatest number of persons that the church can contain
"at worship;" and, therefore to put the figure of 8 against
the church of Sharncut was to tell the Parliament a wilful lie.
This parish is a rectory ; it has great and small tithes ; it has
a glebe, and a good solid house, though the parson says it is
unfit for him to live in ! In short, he is not here ; a curate
that serves, perhaps, three or four other churches, comes here
at five o'clock in the afternoon.
The motive for making out the returns in this way is clear
enough. The parsons see, that they are getting what they
get in a declining, and a mouldering, country. The size of
the church tells them, everything tells them, that the country
is a mean and miserable thing, compared with what it was in
former times. They feel the facts ; but they wish to disguise
them, because they know that they have been one great cause
of the country being in its present impoverished and dilapi
dated state. They know, that the people look at them with
an accusing eye : and they wish to put as fair a face as they
can upon the state of things. If you talk to them, they will
never acknowledge that there is any misery in the country ;
because they well know how large a share they have had in
the cause of it. They were always haughty and insolent ; but,
the anti-jacobin times made them ten thousand times more so
than ever. The cry of Atheism, as of the French, gave these
fellows of ours a fine time of it : they became identified with
loyalty, and what was more, with property ; and, at one time,
to say, or hint, a word against a parson, do what he would,
was to be an enemy of God and of all property ! Those were
the glorious times for them. They urged on the war : they
were the loudest of all the trumpeters. They saw their tithes
in danger. If they did not get the Bourbons restored, there
was no chance of re-establishing tithes in France; and then
the example might be fatal. But, they forgot, that, to restore
the Bourbons, a debt must be contracted ; and that, when the
nation could not pay the interest of that debt, it would, as it
now does, begin to look hard at the tithes ! In short, they

Highworth to Malmsbury.

over-reached themselves ; and those of them who have common
sense, now see it : each hopes that the thing will last out his
time; but, they have, unless they be half-idiots, a constant
dread upon their minds : this makes them a great deal less
brazen than they used to be; and, I daresay, that, if the
parliamentary return had to be made out again, the parson
of Sharncut would not state that the church "can contain
eight persons"
From Sharncut I came through a very long and straggling
village, called Somerford, another called Ocksey, and another
called Crudwell. Between Somerford and Ocksey, I saw, on
the side of the road, more goldfinches than I had ever seen
together; I think, fifty times as many as I had ever seen at
one time in my life. The favourite food of the goldfinch is
the seed of the thistle. This seed is just now dead ripe.
The thisdes are all cut and carried away from the fields by
the harvest ; but, they grow alongside the roads ; and, in this
place, in great quantities. So that the goldfinches were
here in flocks, and, as they continued to fly along before me,
for nearly half a mile, and still sticking to the road and the
banks, I do believe I had, at last, a flock of ten thousand
flying before me. Birds of every kind, including partridges
and pheasants and all sorts of poultry, are most abundant this
year. The fine, long summer has been singularly favourable
to them; and you see the effect of it in the great broods of
chickens and ducks and geese and turkeys in and about every
farm-yard. The churches of the last-mentioned villages are all large,
particularly the latter, which is capable of containing, very con
veniently, 3,000 or 4,000 people. It is a very large church ;
it has a triple roof, and is nearly 100 feet long; and master
parson says, in his return, that it " can contain three hundred
people!" At Ocksey the people were in church as I came
by. I heard the singers singing; and, as the church-yard
was close by the road-side, I got off my horse and went in,1
giving my horse to a boy to hold The fellow says that his
church " can contain two hundred people." I counted pews

1 3 4 Rurttl Ride from
for about 450 ; the singing gallery would hold 40 or 50 ; two-
thirds of the area of the church have no pews in them. On
benches these two-thirds would hold 2,000 persons, taking one
with another ! But this is nothing rare ; the same sort of
statement has been made, the same kind of falsehoods, relative
to the whole of the parishes, throughout the country, with here
and there an exception. Everywhere you see the indubitable
marks of decay in mansions, in parsonage-houses and in people.
Nothing can so strongly depict the great decay of the villages
as the state of the parsonage-houses, which are so many parcels
of public property, and to prevent the dilapidation of which
there are laws so strict. Since I left Devizes, I have passed
close by, or very near to, thirty-two parish churches ; and, in
fifteen, out of these thirty-two parishes, the parsonage-houses
are stated, in the parliamentary return, either as being unlit
for a parson to live in, or, as being wholly tumbled down and
pone ! What then, are there Scotch vagabonds ; are there
Chalmerses and Colquhouns, to swear, "mon," that Pitt and
Jubilee George begat all us Englishmen ; and, that there were
only a few stragglers of us in the world before ! And that our
dark and ignorant fathers, who built Winchester and Salisbury
Cathedrals, had neither hands nor money 1
When I got in here yesterday, I went, at first, to an inn ;
but I very soon changed my quarters for the house of a friend,
who and whose family, though I had never seen them before,
and had never heard of them until I was at Highworth, gave
me a hearty reception, and precisely in the style that I like.
This town, though it has nothing particularly engaging in
itself, stands upon one of the prettiest spots that can be ima
gined. Besides the river Avon, which I went down in the
South-East part of the country, here is another river Avon,
which runs down to Bath, and two branches, or sources, of
which meet here. There is a pretty ridge of ground, the base
of which is a mile, or a mile and a half wide. On each side
of this ridge a branch of the river runs down, through a flat of
very fine meadows. The town and the beautiful remains ot
the famous old Abbey, stand on the rounded spot, which

Highworth to Malmsbury. 135
terminates this ridge; and, just below, nearly close to the
town, the two branches of the river meet ; and then they begin
to be called the Avon. The land round about is excellent,
and of a great variety of forms. The trees are lofty and fine :
so that what with the water, the meadows, the fine cattle and
sheep, and, as I hear, the absence of ^/--"-pinching poverty,'
this is a very pleasant place. There remains more of the
Abbey than, I believe, of any of our monastic buildings, except
that of Westminster, and those that have become Cathedrals.
The church-service is performed in the part of the Abbey that
is left standing. The parish church has fallen down and is
gone ; but the tower remains, which is made use of for the
bells ; but the Abbey is used as the church, though the church-
tower is at a considerable distance from it It was once a
most magnificent building; and there is now a door-way^
which is the most beautiful thing I ever saw, and which was,
nevertheless, built in Saxon times, in "the dark ages," and
was built by men, who were not begotten by Pitt nor by
Jubilee-George. — What fools, as well as ungrateful creatures,
we have been and are ! There is a broken arch, standing off
from the sound part of the building, at which one cannot
look up without feeling shame at the thought of ever having
abused the men who made it. No one need tell any man of
sense ; he feels our inferiority to our fathers, upon merely
beholding the remains of their efforts to ornament their
country and elevate the minds of the people. We talk of
our skill and learning, indeed! How do we know how skil
ful, how learned they were ? If, in all that they have left us,
we see that they surpassed us, why are we to conclude, that
they did not surpass us in all other things worthy of admira
tion ?
This famous Abbey was founded, in about the year 600, by
Maidulf, a Scotch Monk, who upon the suppression of a
Nunnery here at that time selected the spot for this great
establishment. For the great magnificence, however, to which
it was soon after brought, it was indebted to Aldhelm, a Monk
educated within its first walls, by the founder himself; and to

1 3 6 Rural Ride from
St. Aldhelm, who by his great virtues became very famous,:
the Church was dedicated in the time of King Edgar. This
Monastery continued flourishing during those dark ages, until
it was sacked by the great enlightener, at which time it was
found to be endowed to the amount of 16,077/. us. 8d., of
the money of the present day ! Amongst other, many other,
great men produced by this Abbey of Malmsbury, was that
famous scholar and historian, William de Malmsbury.
There is a market-cross, in this town, the sight of which is
worth a journey of hundreds of miles. Time, with his scythe,
and "enlightened Protestant piety," with its pick-axes and
crow-bars ; these united have done much to efface the beau
ties of this monument of ancient skill and taste, and proof of
ancient wealth; but, in spite of all their destructive efforts,
this Cross still remains a most beautiful thing, though possibly,
and even probably, nearly, or quite, a thousand years old.
There is a market-cross lately erected at Devizes, and intended
to imitate the ancient ones. Compare that with this, and,
then you have, pretty fairly, a view of the difference between
us and our forefathers of the " dark ages."
To-morrow I start for Bollitree, near Ross, Herefordshire,
my road being across the county, and tlirough the city of
Gloucester.

RIDE, FROM MALMSBURY, IN WILTSHIRE, THROUGH GLOU
CESTERSHIRE, HEREFORDSHIRE, AND WORCESTERSHIRE.
Stroud (Gloucestershire),
Tuesday Forenoon, 12th Sept., 1826.
I set off from Malmsbury this morning at 6 o'clock, in as
sweet and bright a morning, as ever came out of the heavens,
and leaving behind me as pleasant a house and as kind hosts
as I ever met with in the whole course of my life, either in
England or America ; and that is saying a great deal indeed.
This circumstance was the more pleasant, as I had never
before either seen or heard of, these kind, unaffected, sensible,

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 137
sans-facons, and most agreeable friends. From Malmsbury I
first came, at the end of five miles, to Tutbury, which is in
Gloucestershire, there being here, a sort of dell, or ravine,
which, in this place, is the. boundary line of the two counties,
and over which you go on a bridge, one-half of which belongs 1
to each county. And now, before I take my leave of Wilt
shire, I must observe, that, in the whole course of my life
(days of courtship excepted, of course), I never passed seven
teen pleasanter days than those which I have just spent in
Wiltshire. It is, especially in the Southern half, just the sort
of country that I like ; the weather has been pleasant ; I have
been in good houses and amongst good and beautiful gardens ;
and, in every case, I have not only been most kindly enter
tained, but my entertainers have been of just the stamp that
I like. I saw again, this morning, large flocks of goldfinches, feed
ing on the thistle-seed, on the roadside. The French call
this bird by a name derived from the thistle, so notorious
has it always been, that they live upon this seed. Thistle is,
in French, Chardon; and the French call this beautiful little
bird Chardonarei. I never could have supposed, that such
flocks of these birds would ever be seen in England. But, it
is a great year for all the feathered race, whether wild or tame :
naturally so, indeed ; for every one knows, that it is the wet
and not the cold, that is injurious to the breeding of birds of
all sorts, whether land-birds or water-birds. They say, that
there are, this year, double the usual quantity of ducks, and
geese : and, really, they do seem to swarm in the farmyards,
wherever I go. It is a great mistake to suppose, that ducks
and geese need water, except to drink. There is, perhaps, no
spot in the world, in proportion to its size and population,
where so many of these birds are reared and fatted, as in
Long Island; and, it is not in one case out of ten, that Jbey
have any ponds to go to, or, that they ever see any water
other than water that is drawn up out of a well.
A little way before I got to Tutbury I saw a woman digging
some potatoes, in' a strip of ground, making part of a field

138 Rural Ride from
nearly an oblong square, and which field appeared to be laid
out in strips. She told me, that the field was part of a farm
(to the homestead of which she pointed) ; that it was, by the
farmer, let out in strips to labouring people ; that each strip
contained a rood (or quarter of a statute acre) ; that each
married labourer rented one strip ; and that the annual rent
was a pound for the strip. Now, the taxes being all paid by
the farmer ; the fences being kept in repair by him ; and, as
appeared to me, the land being exceedingly good ; all these
things considered, the rent does not appear to be too high. —
This fashion is certainly a growing one ; it is a little step
towards a coming back to the ancient small life and lease
holds and common-fields ! This field of strips was, in fact, a
sort of common-field; and the "agriculturists," as the con
ceited asses of landlords call themselves, at their clubs and
meetings, might, and they would if their skulls could admit
any thoughts except such as relate to high prices and low
wages ; they might, and they would, begin to suspect, that
the "dark age" people were not so very foolish, when they
had so many common-fields, and when almost every man that
had a family had also a bit of land, either large or small. It
is a very curious thing, that the enclosing of commons, that
the shutting out of the labourers from all share in the land j
that the prohibiting of them to look at a wild animal, almost
at a lark or a frog ; it is curious that this hard-hearted sys
tem should have gone on, until, at last, it has produced effects
so injurious and so dangerous to the grinders themselves,
that they have, of their own accord, and for their own safety,
begun to make a step towards the ancient system, and have,
in the manner I have observed, made the labourers sharers,
in some degree, in the uses, at any rate, of the soil. The
far greater part of these strips of land have potatoes growing
in them ; but, in some cases, they have borne wheat, and, in
others, barley, this year ; and these have now turnips ; very
young, most of them, but, in some places, very fine, and
in every instance, nicely hoed out The land that will bear
400 bushels of potatoes to the acre, will bear 40 bushels of

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 139

wheat ; and, the ten bushels of wheat, to the quarter of an
acre, would be a crop far more valuable than a hundred
bushels of potatoes, as I have proved many times, in the
Register. Just before I got into Tutbury, I was met by a good many
people, in twos, threes, or fives, some running, and some
walking fast, one of the first of whom asked me, if I had met
an "old man" some distance back. I asked, what sort of a
man: "A poor man." "I don't recollect, indeed; but,
"what are you all pursuing him for?" "He has been
"stealing:' "What has he been stealing?" "Cabbages."
"Where?" "Out of Mr. Glover, the hatter's, garden."
" What ! do you call that stealing ! and would you punish a
"man, a poor man, and, therefore, in all likelihood, a hungry
" man too, and, moreover an old man ; do you set up a hue-
" and-cry after, and would you punish, such a man for taking a
" few cabbages, when that Holy Bible, which, I dare say, you
" profess to believe in, and perhaps, assist to circulate, teacher
"you that the hungry man may, without committing any
" offence at all, go into his neighbour's vineyard and eat his
"fill of grapes, one bunch of which is worth a sack-full of
"cabbages?" "Yes; but he is a very bad character."
" Why, my friend, very poor and almost starved people are
"apt to be 'bad characters;' but the Bible, in both Testa-
" ments, commands us to be merciful to the poor, to feed the
"hungry, to have compassion on the aged; and it makes no
"exception as to the 'character' of the parties." Another
group or two of the pursuers had come up by this time; and
I, bearing in mind the fate of Don Quixote, when he inter
fered in somewhat similar cases, gave my horse the hint, and
soon got away ; but, though, doubtless, I made no converts, I,
upon looking back, perceived, that I had slackened the pur
suit ! The pursuers went more slowly ; I could see that they
got to talking ; it was now the step of deliberation rather than
that of decision ; and, though I did not like to call upon Mr.
Glover, I hope he was merciful. It is impossible for me to
witness scenes like this ; to hear a man called a thief for such

140 Rural Ride from
a cause ; to see him thus eagerly and vindictively pursued for
having taken some cabbages in a garden : it is impossible for
me to behold such a scene, without calling to mind the
practice in the United States of America, where, if a man were
even to talk of prosecuting another (especially if that other
were poor, or old) for taking from the land, or from the trees,
any part of a growing crop, for his own personal and imme
diate use ; if any man were even to talk of prosecuting another
for such an act, such talker would be held in universal
abhorrence : people would hate him ; and, in short, if rich as
Ricardo or Baring, he might live by himself; for no man
would look upon him as a neighbour.
Tutbury is a very pretty town, and has a beautiful ancient
church. The country is high along here for a mile or two
toward Avening, which begins a long and deep and narrow
valley, that comes all the way down to Stroud. When I got
to the end of the high country, and the lower country opened
to my view, I was at about three miles from Tutbury, on the
road to Avening, leaving the Minching-hampton road to my
right. Here I was upon the edge of the high land, looking
right down upon the village of Avening, and seeing, just close
to it, a large and fine mansion-house, a beautiful park, and,
making part of the park, one of the finest, most magnificent
woods (of 200 acres, I dare say), lying facing me, going from
a valley up a gently-rising hill. While I was sitting on my
horse, admiring this spot, a man came along with some tools
in his hand, as if going somewhere to work as plumber.
"Whose beautiful place is that?" said I. "One 'Squire
Ricardo, I think they call him, but  " — You might
have " knocked me down with a feather," as the old women say,
 " but " (continued the plumber) " the Old Gentle
man's dead, and "  '  the old gentleman
and the young gentleman too ! " said I ; and, giving my horse
a blow, instead of a word, on I went down the hill. Before I
got to the bottom, my reflections on the present state of the
" market "and on the probable results of " watching the turn of
it," had made me better humoured ; and, as one of the first

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 141
objects that struck my eye, in the village, was the sign of the
Cross, and of the Red, or Bloody, Cross too, I asked the landlord
some questions, which began a series of joking and bantering
that I had with the people, from one end of the village to the
other. I set them all laughing ; and, though they could not
know my name, they will remember me for a long while.—
This estate of Gatcomb belonged, I am told, to a Mr. Shep-
perd, and to his fathers before him. I asked where this
Shepperd was now ? A tradesman-looking man told me, that
he did not know where he was ; but, that he had heard, that
he was living somewhere near to Bath ! Thus they go ! Thus
they are squeezed out of existence. The little ones are gone ;
and the big ones have nothing- left for it, but to resort- to the
bands of holy matrimony, with the turn of the market watchers
.and their breed. This the big ones are now doing apace ; and
there is this comfort at any rate ; namely, that the connection,
cannot make them baser than they are, a boroughmonger
being, of all God's creatures, the very basest.
From Avening I came on through Nailsworth, Woodchester,
and Rodborough, to this place. These villages lie on the
sides of a narrow and deep valley, with a narrow stream of
.water running down the middle of it, and this stream turns the
wheels of a great many mills and sets of machinery for the
.making of woollen-cloth. The factories begin at Avening, and
are scattered all the way down the valley. There are steam-
engines as well as water powers. The work and the trade is
so flat, that, in, I should think, much more than a hundred
acres of ground, which I have seen to-day, covered with rails
or racks, for the drying of cloth, I do not think that I have
.seen one single acre, where the racks had cloth upon them.
•The workmen do not get half wages ; great numbers are thrown
on the parish; but, overseers and magistrates, in this part of
.England do not presume that they are to leave anybody to
-starve to. death ; there is law here; this is in England, and not
'in " the North," where those who ought to see that the poor do
not suffer, talk of their dying with hunger as Irish 'Squires do;
^aye, and applaud them for their patient resignation 1

1 4 2 Rural Ride from
The Gloucestershire people .lave no notion of dying with
hunger ; and it is with great pleasure that I remark, that I
have seen no woe-worn creature this day. The sub-soil here
is a yellowish ugly stone. The houses are all built with this ;
and, it being ugly, the stone is made white by a wash of some
sort or other. The land on both sides of the valley, and all
down the bottom of it, has plenty of trees on it ; it is chiefly
pasture land, so that the green and the white colours, and the
form and great variety of the ground, and the water, and alto
gether make this a very pretty ride. Here are a series of
spots, every one of which a lover of landscapes would like to
have painted. Even the buildings of the factories are not
ugly. The people seem to have been constantly well off. A
pig in almost every cottage sty ; and that is the infallible mark
of a happy people. At present, indeed, this valley suffers ;
and, though cloth will always be wanted, there will yet be
much suffering even here, while at Uly and other places, they
say that the suffering is great indeed.
Huntley, bet-.veen Gloucester and Ross.
From Stroud I came up to Pitchcomb, leaving Painswick
on my right. From the lofty hill at Pitchcomb, I looked down
into that great flat and almost circular vale, of which the city
of Gloucester is in the centre. To the left I saw the Severn,
become a sort of arm of the sea ; and before me I saw the
hills that divide this county from Herefordshire and Wor
cestershire. The hill is a mile down. When down, you are
amongst dairy-farms and orchards all the way to Gloucester,
and, this year, the orchards, particularly those of pears, are
greatly productive. I intended to sleep at Gloucester, as I
had, when there, already come twenty-five miles, and, as the
fourteen, which remained for me to go, in order to reach
Bollitree, in Herefordshire, would make about nine more than
either I or my horse had a taste for. But, when I came to
Gloucester, I found, that I should run a risk of having no
bed, if I did not bow very low, and pay very high ; for, what
should there be here, but one of those scandalous and beastly

Malmsbury int<> Worcestershire. 1 43
fruits of the system, called a " Music-Meeting 1 " Those who
founded the Cathedrals, never dreamed, I dare say, that they
would have been put to such uses as this ! They are, upon
these occasions, made use of as Opera-Houses ; and, I am
told, that the money, which is collected, goes, in some shape
or another, to the Clergy of the Church, or their widows, or
children, or something. These assemblages of player-folks,
half-rogues and half-fools, began with the small paper-money ;
and with it they will go. They are amongst the profligate
pranks which idleness plays, when fed by the sweat of a starv
ing people. From this scene of prostitution and of pocket-
picking, I moved off with all convenient speed, but not before
the ostler made me pay gd. for merely letting my horse stand
about ten minutes, and not before he had begun to abuse me
for declining, though in a very polite manner, to make him a
present in addition to the gd. How he ended I do not know ;
for, I soon set the noise of the shoes of my horse to answer
him. I got to this village, about eight miles from Gloucester,
by five o'clock : it is now half past seven, and I am going to
bed with an intention of getting to Bollitree (six miles only)
early enough in the morning, to catch my sons in bed, if they
play the sluggard. Bollitree, Wednesday, 13th Sept.
This morning was most beautiful. There has been rain
here now, and the grass begins (but only begins) to grow.
When I got within two hundred yards of Mr. Palmer's I had
the happiness to meet my son Richard, who said that he had
been up an hour. As I came along I saw one of the prettiest
sights in the flower way that I ever saw in my life. It was a
little orchard ; the grass in it had just taken a start, and was
beautifully fresh ; and, very thickly growing amongst the grass,
was the purple flowered Colchicum, in full bloom. They say,
that the leaves of this plant which come out in the spring,
and die away in the summer, are poisonous to cattle if they
eat much of them in the spring. The flower, if standing by
itself, would be no great beauty; but, contrasted thus, with

144 Rural Ride from
the fresh grass, which was a little shorter than itself, it was
very beautiful.1 Bollitree, Saturday, 231/ Sept.
Upon my arrival here, which, as the reader has seen, was
ten days ago, I had a parcel of letters to open, amongst which
were a large lot from correspondents, who had been good
enough to set me right with regard to that conceited and
impudent plagiarist, or literary thief, "Sir James Graham,
Baronet of Netherby." One correspondent says, that I have
reversed the rule of the Decalogue by visiting the sins of the
son upon the father. Another tells me anecdotes, about the
" Magnus Apollo." I hereby do the father justice by saying
that, from what I have now heard of him, I am induced to
believe, that he would have been ashamed to commit flagrant
acts of plagiarism, which the son has been guilty of. The
whole of this plagiarist's pamphlet, is bad enough. Every part
of it is contemptible ; but the passage, in which he says, that
there was " no man, of any authority, who did not under-
"rate the distress that would arise out of Peel's Bill;" this
passage merits a broom-stick, at the hands of any Englishman
that chooses to lay it on, and particularly from me.2
1 The only British species of the colchicum is commonly known as the
" meadow saffron," and is sometimes called incorrectly the Autumn crocus.
The leaves, which are large and broad, appear in spring, when the stalk,
which bears the ripening fruit, arises amongst them. The flowers which
appear in autumn, are pale purple, unaccompanied by any leaves. It
is a valuable medicinal plant, and is administered, in small doses, for gout
and rheumatism. The parts used for medicinal purposes, are the root and
the seeds : the latter are round, brown, and rather larger than mustard
Seed ; they are very poisonous. Cattle have been known to have been
poisoned by having eaten colchicum leaves in the spring.
3 Sir James Robert George Graham, to whom the Author here refers,
was born in 1792. In 1818 he was returned for Hull on Whig principles;
in 1826 he represented Carlisle, at which period he was a warm advocate
of Roman Catholic emancipation. In 1836 he obtained a seat in the
Cabinet, under Earl Grey, as the First Lord of the Admiralty, and he was
appointed on the Committee to discuss and settle the provisions of the
first Reform Bill. He was the author of a work on " Currency and Corn,"
in which he maintains "that every notion of Free Trade, is worse than
visionary, unless accompanied by a large reduction of taxes and duties."
Graham afterwards became a standi Conservative under Sir Robert Peel,

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 145
As to crops in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, they have
been very bad. Even the wheat here has been only a two-
third part crop. The barley and oats, really next to nothing.
Fed off by cattle and sheep in many places, partly for want of
grass, and partly from their worthlessness. The cattle have
been nearly starved in many places ; and we hear the same
from Worcestershire. In some places one of these beautiful
calves (last spring calves) will be given for the wintering of
another. Hay at Stroud, was six pounds a ton : last year it
was 3/. a ton : and yet meat and cheese are lower in price
than they were last year. Mutton (I mean alive) was, last
year at this time 7 \d. ; it is now 6d. There has been in. North
Wilts, and in Gloucestershire, half the quantity of cheese
made this year, and yet the price is lower than it was last year.
Wool is half the last year's price. There has, within these
three weeks, or a month, been a prodigious increase in the
quantity of cattle food ; the grass looks like the grass late in
May ; and the late and stubble-turnips (of which immense
quantities have been sown) have grown very much, and
promise large crops generally ; yet lean sheep have, at the
recent fairs, fallen in price ; they have been lessening in price,
while the facility of keeping them has been augmenting !
Aye; but the paper-money has not been augmenting, notwith
standing the Branch- Bank at Gloucester ! This bank is quite
ready, they say, to take deposits ; that is to say, to keep
people's spare money for them ; but, to lend them none,
without such security, as would get money, even from the
claws of a miser. This trick is, then, what the French call a
coup manque ; or a missing of the mark, In spite of every
thing, as to the season, calculated to cause lean sheep to rise
in price, they fell, I hear, at Wilton fair (near Salisbury) on
•the 12th instant, from 2s. to 3s, a head. And yesterday, 22nd
Sept., at Newent fair, there was a fall since the last fair in this

and subsequently gaye a warm support to the Corn Law Repeal Bill.
Thus his changes from Whiggism to Conservatism, and finally to Radi
calism, exposed him to well-founded charges of political inconsistency.

VOL. II.

E

146 Rural Ride from
neighbourhood. Mr. Palmer sold, at this fair, sheep for 23s.
a head, rather better than some which he sold at the same
fair last year for 34s. a head : so that here is a falling off of a
third I Think of the dreadful ruin, then, which must fall
upon the renting farmers, whether they rent the land, or rent
the money, which enables them to call the land their own !
The recent Order in Council has ruined many. I was, a few
days after that Order reached us, in Wiltshire, in a rick yard,
looking at the ricks, amongst which were two of beans. I
asked the farmer how much the Order would take out of his
pocket; and he said it had already taken out more than a
hundred pounds ! This is a pretty state of things for a man
to live in ! The winds are less uncertain, than this calling of
a farmer is now become, though it is a calling the affairs of
which, have always been deemed, as little liable to accident,
as any thing human.
The "best public instructor" tells us, that the Ministers
are about to give the Militia Clothing to the poor Manufac
turers ! Coats, waistcoats, trousers, shoes and stockings !
Oh, what a kind as well as wise " envy of surrounding nations "
this is ! Dear good souls ! But what are the women to do ?
No smocks, pretty gentlemen ! No royal commission to be
appointed to distribute smocks to the suffering " females " of
the " disturbed districts ! " How fine our " manufacturing
population " will look all dressed in red ! Then indeed, will
the farming fellows have to repent, that they did not follow
the advice of Dr. Black, and fly to the " happy manufacturing
districts " where employment, as the Doctor affirmed, was so
abundant and so permanent, and where wages were so high !
Out of evil comes good ; and this state of things has blown
the Scotch poleeteecal ecoonoomy to the devil, at any rate. In
spite of all their plausibility and persevering brass, the Scotch
writers are now generally looked upon, as so many tricky
humbugs. Mr. Sedgwick's affair is enough, one would think,
to open men's eyes to the character of this greedy band of
invaders ; for invaders they are, and of the very worst sort :
they come only to live on the labour of others ; never to work

Malmsbury into Worcestershii-g. 147
themselves; and, while they do this, they are everlastingly
publishing essays, the object of which is, to keep the Irish out
of England ! Dr. Black has, within these four years, published
more than a hundred articles, in which he has represented
the invasion of the Irish as being ruinous to England !
What monstrous impudence ! The Irish, come to help do the
work ; the Scotch, to help eat the taxes ; or, to tramp " aboot
mon " with a pack and a licence'; or, in other words, to cheat
upon a small scale, as their superiors do upon a large one.1
This tricky and greedy set have, however, at last, over-reached
themselves, after having so long over-reached all the rest of
mankind that have had the misfortune to come in contact with
them. They are now smarting under the scourge, the tor
ments of which they have long made others feel. They have
been the principal inventors and executors, of all that has
been damnable to England. They are now bothered ; and I
thank God for it. It may, and it must, finally deliver us from
their baleful influence.
To return to the kind and pretty gentlemen of Whitehall,
and their Militia-Clothing: if they refuse to supply the women
with smocks, perhaps they would have no objection to hand
them over some petticoats ; or at any rate, to give their
husbands a musket a piece, and a little powder and ball; just
to amuse themselves with, instead of the employment of
"digging holes one day and filling them up the next," as
suggested by " the great statesman, now no more," who was
one of that "noble, honourable, and venerable body" the
Privy Council (to which Sturges Bourne belongs), and who
cut his own throat at North Cray, in Kent, just about three
years after he had brought in the bill, which compelled me to
make the Register contain two sheets and a quarter, and to
1 The last Editor mentions, that in the Northern Counties, the popular
name for a hawker or pedlar, is "Scotchman." Hawkers and pedlars were
first licensed in 1698. Licensing Commissioners were appointed in 1810.
Since January 1872, a foot hawker or pedlar (of good character) can obtain
from the chief officer of the Police District where he resides, a license for
a year for 5s. But if he use any beast of burden, the license is ifd. (34
& 35 Vic. c. 96 & 29-30 Vic. c. 64.)

148 Rural Ride from
compel printers to give, before they began to print, bail to
pay any fines, that might be inflicted on them, for any thing
that they might print. Let me see : where was I ? Oh ! the
muskets and powder and ball ought, certainly, to go with the
red clothes ; but how strange it is, that the real relief never
seems to occur, even for one single moment, to the minds of
these pretty gentlemen ; namely, taking off the taxes. What a
thing it is to behold, poor people receiving rates, or alms, to pre
vent them from starving ; and to behold one half, at least, of
what they receive, taken from them in taxes ! What a sight to
behold soldiers, horse and foot, employed to prevent a dis
tressed people from committing acts of violence, when the
cost of the horse and foot would, probably, if applied in the
way of relief to the sufferers, prevent the existence of the
distress ! A cavalry horse has, I think, ten pounds of oats a day
and tiventy pounds of hay. These at present prices, cost i6i-.
a week. Then there is stable room, barracks, straw, saddle,
and all the trappings. Then there is the wear of the horse.
Then the pay of them. So that one single horseman, with
his horse, does not cost so little as 365. a week ; and that is
more than the parish allowance to five labourers' or manufac
turers' families, at five to a family ; so that one horseman with
his horse, costs what would feed twenty-five of the distressed
creatures. If there be ten thousand of these horsemen, they
cost as much as would keep, at the parish rate, two hundred
and fifty thousand of the distressed persons. Aye ; it is even
so, parson Hay, stare at it as long as you like.1 But, suppose
it to be, only half as much : then it would maintain a hundred
and twenty-five thousand persons. However, to get rid of all
dispute, and to state one staring and undeniable fact, let me
first observe, that it is notorious, that the poor-rates are looked
upon as enormous; that they are deemed an insupportable
1 Mr. Hay was Vicar of Rochdale (one of the great manufacturing
towns of Lancashire) and Chnirman of the Lancashire Sessions at Salfoid,
By the allusion here made to him, he was doubtless a " political parson "
as well as a magistrate, and probably took an active part in the Preston
election when Cobbett was a candidate for that town.

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 1 49
burden;1 that Scarlett and Nolan have asserted, that they
threaten to swallow up the land ; that it is equally notorious
that a large part of the poor-rates ought to be called wages ;
all this is undeniable, and now comes the damning fact,
namely, that the whole amount of these poor-rates falls far
short of the cost of the standing army in time of peace ! So
that, take away this army, which is to keep the distressed
people from committing acts of violence, and you have, at
once, ample means of removing all the distress, and all the
danger, of acts of violence ! When will this be done 1 Do
not say, " Never" reader : if you do, you are not only a slave,
but you ought to be one.
I cannot dismiss this militia^clothing affair, without remark
ing, that I do not agree with those who blame the Ministers
for having let in the foreign corn, out of fear. Why not do it
from that motive ? " The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom." And what is meaned by " fear of the Lord," but
the fear of doing wrong, or of persevering in doing wrong ?
And whence is this fear to arise ? From thinking of the con
sequences, to be sure : and, therefore if the Ministers did let
in the foreign corn, for fear of popular commotion, they acted
rightly, and their motive was as good and reasonable, as the
act was wise and just. It would have been lucky for them if

1 The Author had good reason for speaking of the poor-rates (at the
time) "as an insupportable burden." The Poor Law Amendment Bill of
1834, forming Unions, effected an immense reduction in the poor-rates as
shown by the following Table (see MulhaU's statistics) : —
Poor-Rates in England and Wales.

Period.

Rental Valuation.

Poor-rate per;-.

Poor-rate per
Inhabitant.

1816 to 1820 . . .
1830 to 1835 . • .
1842 to 1850 . . .
1880 

58,200,000
75,900,000 90,400,000
191,150,000

3°d.22d. I4H.lod.

I52d.
Il6d. 74d.74d.

The above shows "only the rates expended on the poor" but the poor-rate
has often risen 50 per cent, higher, as it includes police, highway, sanitary
and other rates.

1 5 o Rural Ride from
the same sort of motive had prevailed, when the Corn-Bill
was passed ; but that game-cock statesman, who at last, sent a
spur into his own throat, was then in high feather, and he, while
soldiers were drawn up round the Honourable, Honourable,
Honourable House, said, that he did not, for his part, care
much about the Bill ; but, since the mob had clamoured
against it, he was resolved to support it ! Alas ! that such a
cock statesman, should have come to such an end ! All the
towns and cities in England, petitioned against that odious
Bill. Their petitions were rejected, and that rejection is
amongst the causes of the present embarrassments. There
fore I am not for blaming the Ministers for acting from fear.
They did the same, in the case of the poor Queea Fear
taught them wisely, then, also. What ! would you never have
people act from fearl What but fear of the law, restrains
many men from committing crimes ? What but fear of ex
posure, prevents thousands upon thousands of offences, moral
as well as legal ? Nonsense about " acting from fear." I
always hear with great suspicion your eulogists of " vigorous "
government ; I do not like your vigorous governments ; your
game-cock governments. We saw enough of these, and felt
enough of them too, under Pitt, Dundas, Perceval, Gibbs,
Ellenborough, Sidmouth and Castlereagh. I prefer govern
ments like those of Edward I. of England and St Louis of
France ; cocks, as towards their enemies and rivals, and
chickens, as towards their own people : precisely the reverse of
our modern " country gentlemen,'' as they call themselves; very
lions, as towards their poor, robbed, famishing labourers, but
more than lambs, as towards tax-eaters, and especially and
towards the fierce and whiskered dead-weight, in the presence
of any of whom, they dare not say that their souls are their
own. This base race of men, called "country gentlemen"
must be speedily changed by almost a miracle ; or they, big
as well as little, must be swept away ; and if it should be
desirable for posterity to have a just idea of them, let posterity
take this one fact ; that the tithes are now, in part, received by
men, who are Rectors and Vicars, and who, at the same time

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 151
receive half-pay as naval or military officers ; and that not one
English " country gentleman " has had the courage even to
complain of this, though many gallant half-pay officers have
been dismissed, and beggared, upon the ground, that the half-
pay is not a reward for past services, but a retaining fee for
future services ; so that, put the two together, they amount to
this : that the half-pay is given to church parsons, that they
may be, when war comes, ready to serve as officers, in the
army or navy ? 1 Let the world match that if it can ! And
yet there are scoundrels to say, that we do not want a radical
reform I Why there must be such a reform, in order to pre
vent us from becoming a mass of wretches, too corrupt and
profligate, and base, even to carry on the common transactions
of life. Ryall, near Upton on Severn ( Worcestershire),
Monday, 25th Sept.
I set off from Mr. Palmer's yesterday, after breakfast, having
his son (about 13 years old) as my travelling companion. We
came across the country, a distance of about 22 miles, and,
having crossed the Severn at Upton, arrived here, at Mr. John
Price's, about two o'clock. On our road we passed by the
estate and park of another Ricardo ! This is Osmond ; the
other is David. This one has ousted two families of Normans,
the Honeywood Yateses, and the Scudamores. They sup
pose him to have ten thousand pounds a year in rent here !
Famous " watching the turn of the market " ! The Barings
are at work down in this country too. They are every where
indeed, depositing their eggs about, like cunning old guinea-
hens, in sly places, besides the great, open showy nests that
they have. The " instructor " tells us, that the Ricardos have
received sixty-four thousand pounds Commission, on ¦ the
"Greek Loans," or, rather, " Loans to the Greeks." Oh, brave
1 A legal decision has recently been given, establishing the right of
retired officers in the army and navy (who have taken Holy Orders) to
receive their pensions. If, however, the Author's statement be correct, that
the half-pay, is not a reward for "past services" but _ retaining fee for
"future services" it places these gentlemen in rather an anomalous position.

1 5 2 Rural Ride from
Greeks, to have such patriots, to aid you with their financial
skill ; such patriots as Mr. Galloway, to make engines of war
for you, while his son, is making them for the Turks ; and such
patriots as Burdett, and Hobhouse, to talk of your political
relations ! Happy Greeks ! Happy Mexicans, too, it seems ;
for the " best instructor " tells us, that the Barings, whose
progenitors came from Dutchland about the same time as, and
perhaps in company with, the Ricardos; happy Mexicans too;
for, the "instructor" as good as swears, that the Barings will
see, that the dividends on your loans are paid in future ! Now,
therefore, the riches, the loads, the shiploads of silver and gold,
are now to pour in upon us ! Never was there a nation so
foolish as this ! But, and this ought to be well understood, it
is not mere foolishness ; not mere harmless folly; it is foolish
ness the offspring of greediness and of a gambling, which is
little short of a roguish disposition ; and this disposition pre
vails to an enormous extent in the country, as I am told, more
than in the monstrous Wen itself. Most delightfully, however,
have the greedy, mercenary, selfish, unfeeling wretches, been
bit by the loans and shares ! The King of Spain gave the
wretches a sharp bite, for which I always most cordially thank
his Majesty. I dare say, that his sponging off of the roguish
Bonds, has reduced to beggary, or caused to cut their throats,
many thousands of the greedy, fund-loving, stock -jobbing devils,
who, if they regard it likely to raise their "securities" one per
cent, would applaud the murder of half the human race.
These vermin all, without a single exception, approved of,
and rejoiced at, Sidmouth's Power-of-Imprisonment-Bill, and
they applauded his Letter of Thanks to the Manchester Yeomanry
Cavalry. No matter what it is, that puts an end to a system
which engenders and breeds up vermin like these.1

1 The previous Editor draws attention to the calamitous losses which
have attended English loans to foreign nations. The Author himself sup
plies us here with an instance in point. It is to be hoped that foreign loans
are more secure, in the present day, than they were at the time to which
reference is here made ; since the amount of foreign loans (quoted on the
London Stock Exchange) has increased twenty-two fold the amount quoted

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 153
Mr. Hanford, of this county, and Mr. Canning of Gloucester^
shire, having dined at Mr. Price's yesterday, I went, to-day,
with Mr. Price to see Mr. Hanford at his house and estate
at Bredon Hill, which is, I believe, one of the highest in Eng
land. The ridge, or, rather, the edge of it, divides, in this part,
Worcestershire from Gloucestershire. At the very highest
part of it, there are the remains of an encampment, or rather,
I should think, citadel. In many instances, in Wiltshire, these
marks of fortifications are called castles still ; and, doubtless,
there were once castles on these spots. From Bredon Hill
you see into nine or ten counties; and those curious bub-
blings-up, the Malvern Hills, are right before you, and only at
about ten miles' distance, in a straight line. As this hill looks
over the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford and part
of Warwick, and the rich part of Stafford ; and, as it looks
over the vales of Esham, Worcester, and Gloucester, having
the Avon and the Severn, winding down them, you certainly
see from this Bredon Hill one of the very richest spots of
England, and I am fully convinced, a richer spot, than is to
be seen in any other country in the world ; I mean Scotland
excepted, of course, for fear Sawney should cut my throat, or,
which is much the same thing, squeeze me by the hand, from
which last I pray thee to deliver me, O Lord !
The Avon (this is the third Avon that I have crossed in this
Ride) falls into the Severn just below Tewkesbury, through
which town we went in our way to Mr. Hanford's. These
rivers, particularly the Severn, go through, and sometimes over
flow, the finest meadows of which it is possible to form an
idea. Some of them contain more than a hundred acres
each; and the number of cattle and sheep, feeding in them,
is prodigious. Nine-tenths of the land, in these extensive
vales, appears to me to be pasture, and it is pasture of the
richest kind. The sheep are chiefly of the Leicestershire breed,

in 1825. Thus the total amount of foreign loans in 1825 was £105,000,000
sterling. In 1881, the total amount of British capital in foreign loans
and railways was £1,058, 000,000 sterling.

1 5 4 Rural Ride from
and the cattle of the Hereford, white face and dark red body,
certainly the finest and most beautiful of all horn-cattle. The
grass, after the fine rains that we have had, is in its finest
possible dress ; but, here, as in the parts of Gloucestershire
and Herefordshire that I have seen, there are no turnips,
except those which have been recently sown; and, though
amidst all these thousands upon thousands of acres of the
the finest meadows and grass land in the world, hay is, I hear,
seven pounds a ton at Worcester. However, unless we should
have very early and even hard frosts, the grass will be so
abundant, that the cattle and sheep will do better than people
are apt to think. But, be this as it may, this summer has
taught us, that our climate is the best for produce, after all ; and
that we cannot have Italian sun and English meat and cheese.
We complain of the drip ; but, it is the drip, that makes the
beef and the mutton.
Mr. Hanford's house is on the side of Bredon Hill ; about
a third part up it, and is a very delightful place. The house
is of ancient date, and it appears to have been always inhabited
by and the property of Roman Catholics ; for there is, in one
corner of the very top of the building, up in the very roof of
it, a Catholic chapel, as ancient as the roof itself. It is about
twenty-five feet long and ten wide. It has arch-work, to
imitate the roof of a church. At the back of the altar there
is a little room, which you enter through a door going out of
the chapel ; and, adjoining this litde room, there is a closet,
in which is a trap-door made to let the priest down into
one of those hiding places, which were contrived for the pur
pose of evading the grasp of those greedy Scotch minions, to
whom that pious and tolerant Protestant, James I., delivered
over those English gentlemen, who remained faithful to the
religion of their fathers, and, to set his country free, from which
greedy and cruel grasp, that honest Englishman, Guy Fawkes,
wished, as he bravely told the King and his Scotch council,
"to blow the Scotch beggars back to their mountains again."
Even this King has, in his works (for James was an author),
had the justice to call him "the English Saevola;" and we

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 155
Englishmen, fools set on by knaves, have the folly, or the
baseness, to burn him in effigy on the 5th November, the
anniversary of his intended exploit ! In the hall of this house,
there is the portrait of Sir Thomas Winter, who was one of the
accomplices of Fawkes, and who was killed in the fight with
the sheriff and his party. There is also the portrait of his
lady, who must have spent half her life-time in the working
of some very curious sacerdotal vestments, which are preserved
here with great care, and are as fresh and as beautiful as they
were the day they were finished.
A parson said to me, once, by letter : " your religion, Mr.
"Cobbett, seems to me to be altogether political." "Very
" much so, indeed," answered I, " and well it may, since I have
" been furnished with a creed which makes part of an Act of
"Parliament" And, the fact is, I am no Doctor of Divinity,
and like a religion, any religion, that tends to make men
innocent and benevolent and happy, by taking the best
possible means of furnishing them with plenty to eat and drink
and wear. I am a Protestant of the Church of England, and,
as such, blush to see, that more than half the parsonage-houses
are wholly gone, or are become mere hovels. What I have
written on the " Protestant Reformation," has proceeded
entirely from a sense of justice towards our calumniated
Catholic forefathers, to whom we owe all those of our institu
tions that are worthy of our admiration and gratitude. I have
not written as a Catholic, but as an Englishman ; yet, a sincere
Catholic must feel some little gratitude towards me ; and, if
there was an ungrateful reptile in the neighbourhood of Preston,
to give, as a toast, " success to Stanley and Wood," the conduct
of those Catholics that I have seen here has, as far as I am
concerned, amply compensated for his baseness.
This neighbourhood has witnessed some pretty thumping
transfers from the Normans. Holland, one of Baring's
partners, or clerks, has recently bought an estate of Lord
Somers, called Dumbleton, for, it is said, about eighty thou
sand pounds. Another estate of the same Lord, called
Strensham, has been bought by a Brummigeham Banker of

1 5 6 Rural Ride from
the name of Taylor, for, it is said, seventy thousand pounds.
"Eastnor Castle," just over the Malvern Hills, is still building,
and Lord Eastnor lives at that pretty little warm and snug
place, the priory of Reigate, in Surrey, and close by the not
less snug little borough of the same name. Memorandum.
When we were petitioning./^- reform, in 181 7, my Lord Somers
wrote and published a pamphlet, under his own name, con
demning our conduct and our principles, and insisting that
we, if let alone, should produce " a revolution, and endanger all
property I"1 The Barings are adding field to field and tract
to tract in Herefordshire ; and, as to the Ricardos, they seem
to be animated with the same laudable spirit. This Osmond
Ricardo has a park at one of his estates, called Broomsborough,
and that park has a new porter's lodge, upon which there is a
span new cross as large as life ! Aye, big enough and long
enough to crucify a man upon ! I had never seen such an
one before ; and I know not what sort of thought it was,
that seized me at the moment ; but, though my horse is but
a clumsy goer, I verily believe I got away from it at the
rate of ten or twelve miles an hour. My companion, who
is always upon the look-out tor cross-ditches, or pieces of
timber, on the road-side, to fill up the time of which my jog
trot gives him so wearisome a surplus, seemed delighted at
this my new pace ; and, I daresay he has wondered ever since,
what should have given me wings, just for that once, and that
once only.
1 The previous Editor mentions the fact that the Reformers (at the time
to which the Author is here alluding) were publicly denounced as "bawling,
ignorant, and mischievous quacks, whose doctrines and views were exposed
to universal derision and abhorrence. " To every impartial observer of the
history of those times, a great National Reform was absolutely and
imperatively demanded, if England were to be spared the horrors of a
revolution resembling that of France in 1789. And every true English
patriot must rejoice, that a great National Political Reform has taken
place, even a bloodless revolution. There are political zealots in the
present day who would overthrow all existing institutions, in order to
establish at once a "perfect Commonwealth." But those who have
watched the progress of Political Reform know that it is a plant of
"gradual gimvth," and is attended with least danger when it expands in
equal ratio with the intelligence and self-respect of the community at large.

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 157

Worcester, Tuesday, 26th Sept.
Mr. Price rode with us to this city, which is one of the
cleanest, neatest, and handsomest towns I ever saw : indeed,
I do not recollect to have seen any one equal to it The
cathedral is, indeed, a poor thing, compared with any of the
others, except that of Hereford ; and I have seen them all, but
those of Carlisle, Durham, York, Lincoln, Chester, and Peter
borough ; but the town is, I think, the very best I ever saw ;
and which is, indeed, the greatest of all recommendations,
the people are, upon the whole, the most suitably dressed and
most decent looking people. The town is precisely in character
with the beautiful and rich country, in the midst of which it
lies. Everything you see gives you the idea of real, solid
wealth ; aye ! and thus it was, too, before, long before, Pitt,
and even long before " good Queen Bess " and her military
law, and her Protestant racks, were ever heard or dreamed of.
At Worcester, as everywhere else, I find a group of cordial
and sensible friends, at the house of one of whom, Mr. George
Brooke, I have just spent a most pleasant evening, in company
with several gentlemen, whom he had had the goodness to
invite to meet me. I here learned a fact, which I must put
upon record before it escape my memory. Some few years
ago (about seven, perhaps), at the public sale by auction of the
goods of a then recently deceased Attorney of the name of
Hyde, in this city, there were, amongst the goods to be sold,
the portraits of Pitt, Burdett, and Paine, all framed and
glazed. Pitt, with hard driving and very lofty praises, fetched
fifteen shillings ; Burdett fetched twenty-seven shillings. Paine
was, in great haste, knocked down at five pounds; and my
informant was convinced, that the lucky purchaser might have
had fifteen pounds for it. I hear Colonel Davies spoken of
here, with great approbation : he will soon have an opportunity
of showing us whether he deserve it
The hop-picking and bagging is over here. The crop, as
in the other hop-countries, has been very great, and the quality
as good as ever was known. The average price appears to be

1 5 8 Rural Ride from
about 75$. the hundred weight. The reader (if he do not
belong to a hop-country) should be told, that hop-planters,
and even all their neighbours, are, as hop-ward, mad, though
the most sane and reasonable people as to all other matteri.
They are ten times more jealous upon this score than men
ever are of their wives ; aye, and than they are of their mis
tresses, which is going a great deal farther. I, who am a
Farnham man, was well aware of this foible; and therefore,
when a gentleman told me, that he would not brew with
Farnham hops, if he could have them as a gift, I took special
care not to ask him how it came to pass, that the Farnham
hops always sold at about double the price of the Worcester ;
but, if he had said the same thing to any other Farnham man
that I ever saw, I should have preferred being absent from the
spot : the hops are bitter, but nothing is their bitterness, com
pared to the language that my townsman would have put
forth. This city, or this neighbourhood, at least, being the birth
place of what I have called, the " Little-Shilling project,"1 and
Messrs. Atwood and Spooner being the originators of the
project, and the project having been adopted by Mr. Western,
and having been by him now again recently urged upon the
Ministers, in a Letter to Lord Liverpool, and it being possible
that some worthy persons may be misled, and even ruined, by
the confident assertions and the pertinacity of the projectors ;
this being the case, and I having half an hour to spare, will
here endeavour to show, in as few words as I can, that this
project, if put into execution, would produce injustice the
most crying that the world ever heard of, and would, in the
present state of things, infallibly lead to a violent revolution.
The project is to "lower the standard," as they call it; that is
to say, to make a sovereign pass for more than 20s. In what
degree they would reduce the standard they do not say ; but, a
1 This sobriquet probably refers to a new silver coinage which was
issued in 1817, in which the intrinsic value of the coin was somewhat
lessened, for the sake of guarding against all temptation to melt it down
for its value as metal.

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 159
vile pamphlet writer, whose name is Crutwell, and who is a -
beneficed parson, and who has most foully abused me, because
I laugh at the project, says that he would reduce it one half;
that is to say, that he would make a sovereign pass for two
pounds. Well, then, let us, for plainness' sake, suppose that
the present sovereign is, all at once, to pass for two pounds.
What will the consequences be? Why, here is a parson, who
receives his tithes in kind and whose tithes are, we will sup
pose, a thousand bushels of wheat in a year, on an average ;
and he owes a thousand pounds to somebody. He will pay
his debt with 500 sovereigns, and he will still receive his
thousand bushels of wheat a year ! I let a farm for 100/. a
year, by the year; and I have a mortgage of 2000/. upon it,
the interest just taking away the rent. Pass the project, and
then I, of course, raise my rent to 200/. a year, and I still pay
the mortgagee 100/. a year! What can be plainer than this?
But, the Banker's is the fine case. I deposit with a banker a
thousand whole sovereigns to-day. Pass the project to
morrow, and the banker pays me my deposit with a thousand
half sovereigns ! If, indeed, you could double the quantity of
corn and meat and all goods by the same act of Parliament,
then, all would be right ; but that quantity will remain what
it was before you passed the project ; and, of course, the
money being doubled in nominal amount, the price of the
goods would be doubled. There needs not another word
upon the subject; and whatever may be the national infer
ence respecting the intellects of Messrs. Atwoori and Spooner,
I must say, that I do most sincerely believe, that there is not
one of my readers, who will not feel astonishment, that any
men, having the reputation of men of sound mind, should not
clearly see, that such a project must almost instantly produce
a revolution, of the most dreadful character. 1

1 Among the disputed points in political economy, there is none pro
ductive of more controversy, than the proper regulation of the currency.
The leading question is, how far should it be restrained, and what is the
most effectual method of restraining it ?
The currency can most effectually be restrained by confining k to

1 60 Rural Ride from

Stanford Park,
Wednesday, 21th Sept. (Morning).
In a letter which I received from Sir Thomas Winnington
(one of the Members for this county), last year, he was good
enough to request that I would call upon him, if I ever came
into Worcestershire, which I told him I would do; and
accordingly here we are in his house, situated, certainly, in
one of the finest spots in all England. We left Worcester
yesterday about ten o'clock, crossed the Severn, which runs
close by the town, and came on to this place, which lies in a
north-western direction from Worcester, at 14 miles' distance
from that city, and at about six from the borders of Shropshire,
About four miles back we passed by the park and through the
estate of Lord Foley, to whom is due the praise of being a
most indefatigable and successful planter of trees. He seems
to have taken uncommon pains in the execution of this work ;
and he has the merit of disinterestedness, the trees being
chiefly oaks, which he is sure he can never see grow to timber.
We crossed the Teme River just before we got here. Sir
Thomas was out shooting ; but he soon came home, and gave
us a very polite reception. I had time, yesterday, to see the
place, to look at trees, and the like, and I wished to get away
early this morning ; but, being prevailed on to stay to break
fast, here I am, at six o'clock in the morning, in one of the
best and best-stocked private libraries that I ever saw; and,
what is more, the owner, from what passed )-esterday, when
he brought me hither, convinced me that he was acquainted
with the insides of the books. I asked, and shall ask, no

the precious metals, but this of course is impracticable. Before the re
sumption of cash payments, 1819, the notes of the Bank of England were
only worth 16s. in the pound, as compared with gold. In the silver
currency of this country, a £ is worth little more than four-fifths of a sove
reign, i.e., if a person could pay a debt of £100 in silver, he would get
off with a dividend of from 16s. to 18s. in the pound ; but, by law, silver
is not a legal tender for more than 40s. Banks are allowed to issue their
notes, beyond a certain amount, only on condition of having bullion in
their coffers to pay the additional notes issued by them.

Malmsbury into Worcestershire. 161
questions about who got these books together; but the
collection is such as, I am sure, I never saw before in a
private house.
The house and stables and courts are such as they ought to
be for the great estate that surrounds them ; and the park is
everything that is beautiful. On one side of the house, looking
over a fine piece of water, you see a distant valley, opening
between lofty hills : on another side the ground descends a
little at first, then goes gently rising for a while, and then
rapidly, to the distance of a mile perhaps, where it is crowned
with trees in irregular patches, or groups, single and most
magnificent trees being scattered all over the whole of the
park ; on another side, there rise up beautiful little hills, some
in the form of barrows on the downs, only forty or a hundred
times as large, one or two with no trees on them, and others
topped with trees ; but, on one of these little hills, and some
yards higher than the lofty trees which are on this little hill,
you see rising up the tower of the parish church, which hill is,
I think, taken all together, amongst the most delightful object-
that I ever beheld.
" Well then," says the devil of laziness, " and could you not
"be contented to live here all the rest of your life; and never
" again pester yourself with the cursed politics ? " " Why, I
" think I have laboured enough. Let others work now. And
" such a pretty place for coursing and for hare-hunting and
" woodcock shooting, I dare say ; and then those pretty wild-
" ducks in the water, and the flowers and the grass and the
" trees and all the birds in spring and the fresh air, and never,
"never again to be stifled with the smoke that from the
" infernal Wen ascendeth for ever more, and that every easterly
"wind brings to choke me at Kensington !" The last word
of this soliloquy carried me back, slap, to my own study (very
much unlike that which I am in), and bade me think of the
Gridiron ; bade me think of the complete triumph, that I
have yet to enjoy : promised me the pleasure of seeing a
million of trees of my own, and sown by my own hands this
very year. Ah ! but the hares and the pheasants and the
VOL. II. -

1 6 2 Rural Ride from
wild ducks ! Yes, but the delight of seeing Prosperity Robin
son hang his head for shame : the delight of beholding the
tormenting embarrassments of those who have so long retained
crowds of base miscreants to revile me ; the delight of ousting
spitten-upon Stanely and bound-over Wood ! Yes, bit, then,
the flowers and the birds and the sweet air! What, then,
shall Canning never again hear of the " revered and ruptured
Ogden ! " Shall he go into his grave, without being again
reminded of " driving at the whole herd, in order to get at
"the ignoble animal I " Shall he never again be told of Six-
Acts and of his wish " to extinguish that accursed torch of
" discord for evert" Oh! God forbid! farewell hares and
dogs and birds ! what, shall Sidmouth, then, never again
hear of his Power of Imprisonment Bill, of his Circular, of his
Letter of Thanks to the Manchester Yeomanry.' I really
jumped up when this thought came athwart my mind, and,
without thinking of the breakfast, said to George who was
sitting by me, "Go, George, and tell them to saddle the
horses ; " for, it seemed to me, that I had been meditating
some crime. Upon George asking me, whether I would not
stop to breakfast ? I bade him not order the horses out yet ;
and here we are, waiting for breakfast Ryall, Wednesday Night, ZJth Sept.
After breakfast we took our leave of Sir Thomas Winning-
ton, and of Stanford, very much pleased with our visit We
wished to reach Ryall as early as possible in the day, and we
did not, therefore, stop at Worcester. We got here about
three o'clock, and we intend to set off, in another direction,
early in the morning.

Ryall to Burghclere.. 1 63

RIDE FROM RYALL, IN WORCESTERSHIRE, TO BURGHCLERE,
IN HAMPSHIRE.
"Alas, the country ! How shall tongue or pen
Bewail her now, «»country gentlemen !
The last to bid the cry of warfare cease,
The first to make a malady of peace 1
For what were all these country patriots born ? J)
To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn,
But corn, like ev'ry mortal thing, must fall ;
Kings, conquerors, and, markets most of all." Lord Byron.
Ryall,
Friday Morning, 2<jth September, 1826.
I have observed, in this country, and especially near Wor
cester, that the working people seem to be better off than in
many other parts, one cause of which is, I dare say, that
glove manufacturing, which cannot be carried on by fire or by
wind or by water, and which is, therefore, carried on by the
hands of human beings. It gives work to women and
children, as well as to men ; and that work is, by a great
part of the women and children, done in their cottages, and
amidst the fields and hop-gardens, where the husbands and
sons must live, in order to raise the food, and the drink, and
the wool. This is a great thing for the land. If this glove-
making were to cease, many of these women and children,
now, not upon the parish, must instantly be upon the parish.
The glove-trade is, like all others, slack, from this last change
in the value of money ; but, there is no horrible misery here,
as at Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Paisley, and other Holes
of 84 degrees of heat. There misery walks abroad in skin,
bone and nakedness. There are no subscriptions wanted for
Worcester; no militia-clothing. The working people suffer,
trades'-people suffer, and who is to escape, except the mono
polisers, the Jews, and the tax-eaters, when the Government
chooses, to raise the value of money, and lower the price of

164 Rural Ride from
goods ? The whole of the industrious part of the country,
must suffer in such a case ; but, where manufacturing, is mixed
with agriculture, where the wife and daughters, are at the
needle, or the wheel, while the men and the boys, are at
plough, and where the manufacturing, of which one or two
towns are the centres, is spread over the whole country round
about, and particularly where it is, in very great part, per
formed by females at their own homes, and where the earn
ings come in aid of the maris wages ; in such case, the misery
cannot be so great; and accordingly, while there is an
absolute destruction of life going on in the holes, there is
no visible misery at, or near, Worcester ; and I cannot take
my leave of this county without observing, that I do not
recollect to have seen, one miserable object in it The
working people, all seem to have good large gardens, and
pigs in their styes ; and this last, say the feelosofers what they
will about her " antallectual enjoyments," is the only security
for happiness, in a labourer's family.
Then, this glove-manufacturing, is not like that of cottons^
a mere gambling concern, making Baronets to-day and Bank
rupts to-morrow, and making those who do the work slaves.
Here are no masses of people, called together by a bell, and
"kept to it" by a driver; here are no "patriots," who, while
they keep Englishmen to it by fines, and almost by the
scourge, in a heat of 84 degrees, are petitioning the Parlia
ment to "give freedom" to the South Americans, who, as
these " patriots " have been informed, use a great quantity of
cottons I
The dilapidation of parsonage-houses and the depopula
tion of villages, appears not to have been so great just round
about Worcester, as in some other parts; but, they have
made great progress even here. No man appears to fat an
ox, or hardly a sheep, except with a view of sending it to
London, or to some other infernal resort of monopolisers and
tax-eaters. Here, as in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and
Herefordshire, you find plenty of large churches, without
scarcely any people. I dare say, that, even in this county,

Ryall to Burghclere. 165
more than one half of the parishes have either no parsonage-
houses at all; or, have not one, that a parson thinks fit for
him to live in ; and, I venture to assert, that one or the other
of these, is the case in four parishes out of every five, in
Herefordshire ! Is not this a monstrous shame ? Is this " a
church?" Is this "law?" The, parsons get the tithes, and
the rent of the glebe-lands, and the parsonage-houses are left
to tumble down, and nettles, and brambles, to hide the spot
where they stood. But, the fact is, the Jew-system has swept
all the little gentry, the small farmers, and the domestic manu
facturers away. The land is now used to raise food and
drink for the monopolisers, and the tax-eaters, and their
purveyors, and lackeys, and harlots ; and they get together
in Wens.
Of all the mean, all the cowardly reptiles, that ever crawled
on the face of the earth, the English land-owners are the most
mean, and the most cowardly : for, while they support the
churches, in their several parishes, while they see the popula
tion drawn away from their parishes, to the Wens, while they
are taxed to keep the people in the Wens, and while they see
their own Parsons pocket the tithes, and the glebe-rents, and
suffer the parsonage-houses to fall down ; while they see all
this, they, without uttering a word in the way of complaint,
suffer themselves and their neighbours to be taxed, to build
new churches for the monopolizers and tax-eaters in those
Wens ! Never was there in this world, a set of reptiles so base
as this. Stupid as many of them are, they must clearly see
the flagrant injustice of making the depopulated parishes, pay
for the aggrandizement of those who have caused the de
population, aye, actually pay taxes, to add to the Wens, and,
of course, to cause a further depopulation of the taxed villages ;
stupid beasts as many of them are, they must see the flagrant
injustice of this, and mean and cowardly as many of them are,
some of them would remonstrate against it ; but, alas ! the far
greater part of them are, themselves, getting, or expecting,
loaves and fishes, either in their own persons, or in those of
their family. They smouch, or want to smouch, some of the

1 66 Rural Ride from
taxes ; and, therefore, they must not complain. And, thus the
thing goes on. These land-owners see, too, the churches fall
ing down, and the parsonage-houses, either tumbled down or
dilapidated. But, then, mind, they have, amongst them, the
giving away of the benefices ! Of course, all they want is the
income, and, the less the parsonage-house costs, the larger the
spending income. But, in the meanwhile, here is a destruc
tion of public property ; and also, from a diversion of the
income of the livings, a great injury, great injustice, to the
middle and the working classes.
Is this, then, is this "church" a thing to remain untouched?
Shall the widow and the orphan, whose money has been bor
rowed by the land-owners (including the Parsons) to purchase
" victories " with ; shall they be stripped of their interest, of
their very bread, and shall the Parsons, who have let half the
parsonage-houses fall down, or become unfit to live in, still
keep all the tithes and the glebe-lands and the immense landed
estates, called Church Lands ? Oh, no ! Sir James Graham
" of Netherby," though you are a descendant of the Earls of
Monteith, of John of the bright sword, and of the Seventh
Earl of Galloway, K.T. (taking care, for God's sake, not to
omit the K.T.) ; though you may be the Magnus Apollo ; and,
in short, be you what you may, you shall never execute your
project of sponging the fund-holders and of leaving Messieurs
the Parsons untouched ! In many parishes, where the livings
are good too, there is neither parsonage-house nor church !
This is the case at Draycot Foliot, in Wiltshire. The living
is a Rectory ; the Parson has, of course, both great and small
tithes ; these tithes and the glebe-land are worth, I am told,
more than three hundred pounds a year; and yet there is
neither church nor parsonage-house; both have been suffered
to fall down and disappear ; and, when a new Parson comes
to take possession of the living, there is, I am told, a tempo
rary tent, or booth, erected, upon the spot where the church
ought to be, for the performance of the ceremony of induction I
What, then! — Ought not this church to be repealed? An
Act of Parliament made this church ; an Act of Parliament

Ryall to Burghclere. 167
can unmake it ; x and, is there any but a monster who would
suffer this Parson to retain this income, while that of the
widow and the orphan was taken away ? Oh, no ? Sir James
Graham of Netherby, who, with the gridiron before you, say,
that there was " n6 man, of any authority, who foresaw the
effects of Peel's Bill ; " oh, no ! thou stupid, thou empty-
headed, thou insolent aristocratic pamphleteer, the widow and
the orphan shall not be robbed of their bread, while this
Parson of Draycot Foliot keeps the income of his living !
On my return from Worcester to this place, yesterday, I
noticed, at a village called Severn Stoke, a very curioifsly-con-
structed grape house ; that is to say, a hot-house for the raising
of grapes. Upon inquiry, I found, that it belonged to a
Parson, of the name of St. John, whose parsonage-house is
very near to it, and who, being sure of having the benefice,
when the then Rector should die, bought a piece of land, and
erected his grapery on it, just facing, and only about 50 yards
from the windows, out of which the old parson had to look,
until the day of his death, with a view, doubtless, of piously
furnishing his aged brother with a momento mori (remember
death), quite as significant as a death's head and cross bones,
and yet done in a manner expressive, of that fellow-feeling,
that delicacy, that abstinence from self-gratification, which
are well known to be characteristics almost peculiar to " the
cloth ! " To those, if there be such, who may be disposed to
suspect that the grapery arose, upon the spot where it stands,
merely from the desire to have the vines in bearing state,
against the time that the old parson should die, or, as I heard
the Botley Parson once call it, " kick the bucket ; " to such
persons, I would just put this one question ; did they ever

1 It has already been pointed out, in a previous note, that this state
ment of the Author (which has been more than once repeated), viz., that the
Church has been established "by Act of Parliament," is entirely erroneous.
The Church never was established. It is as much a part of the original
constitution of the country as the monarchy, which, in point of fact, it
long preceded. "Its position is of course defined and regulated bylaw;
but it does not owe its origin to any Act of the Legislature, or to other
iovereign authority."

1 6 8 Rural Ride from
cither ' from Scripture or tradition, learn that any of the
Apostles or their disciples, erected graperies from motives
such as this 1 They may, indeed, say, that they never heard
of the Apostles, erecting any graperies at all, much less of
their having erected them from such a motive. Nor, to say
the truth, did I ever hear of any such erections on the part of
those Apostles and those whom they commissioned to preach
the word of God ; and, Sir Wiliiam Scott (now a lord of some
sort) 1 never convinced me, by his parson-praising speech of
1802, that to give the church-clergy a due degree of influence
over the minds of the people, to make the people revere them,
it was necessary that the parsons and their wives should shine
at balls and in pump-rooms. On the contrary, these and the
like, have taken away almost the whole of their spiritual
influence. They never had much ; but, lately, and especially,
since 1793, they have had hardly any at all ; and, wherever I
go, I find them much better known as Justices of the Peace,
than as Clergymen. What they would come to, if this system
could go on for only a few years longer, I know not : but go
on, as it is now going, it cannot much longer; there must be
a settlement of some sort: and that settlement never can leave
that mass, that immense mass, of public property, called.
" church property," to be used as it now is.
I halve seen, in this county, and in Herefordshire, several
pieces of Mangel Wurzel ; and, I hear, that it has nowhere
failed, as the turnips have. Even the Lucerne has, in some
places, failed to a certain extent ; but, Mr. Walter Palmer, at
Pencoyd, in Herefordshire, has cut a piece of Lucerne four
times this last summer, and, when I saw it, on the 17th Sept.
(12 days ago), it was got a foot high towards another cut.
But, with one exception (too trifling to mention), Mr. Walter

1 Sir William Scott, afterwards made Lord Stowell. He was the son of
a shipbroker in the north. He possessed an extensive estate near Ciren
cester. He seems to have been a champion of the clergy at that time.
It is, however, melancholy to read, here and elsewhere in these Rides,
"that wherever the Author went, he found the clergy better known as
Justices of the Peace, than as clergymen."

Ryall to Burghclere. 1 69
Palmer's Lucerne is on the Tullian plan, that is, it is in rows,
at four feet distance from each other; so that you plough
between, as often as you please, and thus, together with a little
hand weeding between the plants, keep the ground, at ail
times, clear of weeds and grass. Mr. Palmer says, that his
acre (he has no more) has kept two horses all the summer ;,
and he seems to complain, that it has done no more. Indeed !
A stout horse will eat much more than a fatting ox. This
grass will fat any ox, or sheep ; and would not Mr. Palmer
like to have ten acres of land, that would fat a score of oxen ?
They would do this, if they were managed well. . But, is it
nothing to keep a team of four horses, for five months in the
year, on the produce of two acres of land ? If a man say that,
he must, of course, be eagerly looking forward to another
world ; for nothing will satisfy him in this. A good crop of
early cabbages, may be had between the rows of Lucerne.
Cabbages have, generally, wholly failed. Those that I see
are almost all too backward to make much of heads; though
it is surprising how fast they will grow and come to perfection,
as soon as there is twelve hours of night. I am here, however,
speaking of the large sorts of cabbage ; for, the smaller sorts
will loave in summer. Mr. Walter Palmer has now a piece of
these, of which I think there are from 17 to 20 tons to the
acre ; and this, too, observe, after a season which, on the
same farm, has not suffered a turnip of any sort to come. If
he had had 20 acres of these, he might have almost laughed
at the failure of his turnips, and at the short crop of hay.
And, this is a crop of which a man may always be sure, if he
take proper pains. These cabbages (Early Yorks, or some
such sort) should, if you want them in June or July, be sown
early in the previous August. If you want them in winter,
sown in April, and treated as pointed out in my Cottage
Economy. These small sorts stand the winter better than the
large ; they are more nutritious ; and they occupy the ground
little more than half the time. Dwarf Savoys are the finest
and richest and most nutritious of cabbages. Sown early in
April, and planted out early in July, they will, at 18 inches

1 70 Rural Ride from
apart each way, yield a crop of 30 to 40 tons by Christmas.
But, all this supposes land very good, or, very well manured,
and plants of a good sort, and well raised and planted, and
the ground well tilled after planting ; and a crop of 30 tons is
worth all these, and all the care, and all the pains, that a man
can possibly take.
I am here amongst the finest of cattle, and the finest sheep
of the Leicester kind, that I ever saw. My host, Mr. Price,
is famed as a breeder of cattle and sheep. The cattle are of
the Hereford kind, and the sheep surpassing any animals of
the kind that I ever saw. The animals seem to be made for
the soil, and the soil for them.
In taking leave of this county, I repeat, with great satisfac
tion, what I before said about the apparent comparatively
happy state of the labouring people ; and I have been very
much pleased, with the tone and manner in which they are
spoken to, and spoken of, by their superiors. I hear of no
hard treatment of them here, such as I have but too often
heard of, in some counties, and too often witnessed in others ;
and I quit Worcestershire, and particularly the house in which
I am, with all those feelings which are naturally produced,
by the kindest of receptions, from frank and sensible people.
Fairford (Gloucestershire),
Saturday Morning, 30M Sep!.
Though we came about 45 miles yesterday, we are up by
day-light, and just about to set off to sleep at Hayden, near
Swindon, in Wiltshire. Hayden, Saturday Night,
30M Sept.
From Ryall, in Worcestershire, we came yesterday (Friday)
morning, first to Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. This is a
good, substantial town, which, for many years, sent to Parlia
ment that sensible and honest and constant hater of Pitt and
his infernal politics, James Martin, and which now sends to
the same place his son, Mr. John Martin, who, when the
memorable Kentish Petition was presented, in June 1822,

Ryall to Burghclere. 1 7 1
proposed that it should not be received, or that, if it were
received, "the House should not separate, until it had
resolved, that the interest of the Debt should never be
reduced ! " Castlereagh abused the petition ; but was
for receiving it, in order to fix on it a mark of the House's
reprobation. I said, in the next Register, that this fellow was
mad : and, in six or seven weeks from that day, he cut his
own throat, and was declared to have been mad, at the time
when this petition was presented! The mess that "the
House," will be in will be bad enough as it is; but, what
would have been its mess, if it had, in its strong fit of
"good faith," been furious enough, to adopt Mr. Martin's
" resolution ! "
The Warwickshire Avon falls into the Severn here, and on
the sides of both, for many miles back, there are the finest
meadows that ever were seen. In looking over them, and
beholding the endless flocks and herds, one wonders what
can become of all the meat ! By riding on about eight or
nine miles farther, however, this wonder is a little diminished ;
for here we come to one of the devouring Wens ; namely,
Cheltenham, which is what they call a " watering place ; "
that is to say, a place, to which East India plunderers, West
India floggers, English tax-gorgers, together with gluttons,
drunkards, and debauchees of all descriptions, female as well
as male, resort, at the suggestion of silently laughing quacks,
in the hope of getting rid of the bodily consequences of their
manifold sins and iniquities. When I enter a place like this,
I always feel disposed to squeeze up my nose with my fingers.
It is nonsense, to be sure; but I conceive that every two-
legged creature, that I see coming near me, is about to cover
me with the poisonous proceeds of its impurities. To places
like this, come all that is knavish, and all that is foolish, and
all that is base ; gamesters, pickpockets, and harlots ; young
wife-hunters, in search of rich and ugly old women, and
young husband-hunters in search of rich and wrinkled or half-
rotten men, the formerly resolutely bent, be the means what
they may, to give the latter, heirs to their lands and tene-

i 7 2 Rural Ride from
ments. These things are notorious ; and, Sir William Scott,
in his speech of 1802, in favour of the non-residence of the
Clergy, expressly said, that they and their families ought to
appear at watering places, and that this, was amongst the
means, of making them respected by their flocks! Memo
randum : he was a member for Oxford, when he said this !
Before we got into Cheltenham, I learned from a coal-
carter, which way we had to go, in order to see " The New
Buildings," which are now nearly at a stand. We rode up
the main street of the town, for some distance, and then
turned off to the left, which soon brought us to the "desola
tion of abomination." I have seldom seen anything, with
more heartfelt satisfaction. " Oh ! " said I to myself, " the
accursed thing has certainly got a bloiv, then, in every part
of its corrupt and corrupting carcass ! " The whole town (and
it was now ten o'clock) looked delightfully dulL I did not
see more than four or five carriages, and, perhaps, twenty
people on horse-back ; and these seemed, by their hook-noses
and round eyes, and by the long, and sooty necks of the
women, to be, for the greater part, Jews, and Jewesses. The
place really appears to be sinking very fast ; and I have been
told, and believe the fact, that houses, in Cheltenham, will
now sell for only just about one-third as much, as the same
would have sold for, only in last October. It is curious to
see the names which the vermin owners have put upon the
houses here. There is a new row of most gaudy and fantasti
cal dwelling places, called " Colombia Place," given it, doubt
less, by some dealer in Bonds. There is what a boy told us
was the "New Spa;" there is " Waterloo-house J '" Oh! how
I rejoice at the ruin of the base creatures ! There is "Liver
pool-Cottage," "Canning-Cottage," " Peel- Cottage;" and, the
good of it is, that the ridiculous beasts have put this word
cottage upon scores of houses, and some very mean and
shabby houses, standing along, and making part of an
unbroken street ! What a figure this place will cut in another
year or two ! I should not wonder to see it nearly wholly
deserted. It is situated in a nasty, flat, stupid spot, without

Ryall to Burghclere. i J$
anything pleasant near it A putting down of the one-pound
notes, will soon take away its ^-people. Those of the notes,
that have already been cut off, have, it seems, lessened the
quantity of ailments very considerably; another brush will
cure all the complaints !
They have had some rains in the summer not far from this
place ; for we saw in the streets very fine turnips, for sale, as
vegetables, and broccoli, with heads six or eight inches over !
But, as to the meat, it was nothing to be compared with that
of Warminster, in Wiltshire ; that is to say, the veal and
lamb. I have paid particular attention to this matter, at
Worcester, and Tewkesbury, as well as at Cheltenham ; and I
have seen no veal, and no lamb, to be compared'with those
of Warminster. I have been thinking, but cannot imagine
how it is, that the Wen-Devils, either at Bath or London, do
not get this meat away from Warminster. I hope that my
observations on it, will not set them to work : for, if it do,
the people of Warminster, will never have a bit of good meat
again. After Cheltenham, we had to reach this pretty little town
of Fairford, the regular turnpike road to which, lay through
Cirencester; but I had from a fine map, at Sir Thomas
Winnington's, traced out a line for us, along through a chain
of villages, leaving Cirencester away to our right, and never
coming nearer than seven or eight miles to it. We came
through Dodeswell, Withington, Chedworth, Winston, and the
two Colnes. At Dodeswell we came up a long and steep
hill, which brought us out of the great vale of Gloucester, and
up upon the Cotswold Hills, which name is tautological, I
believe ; for I think that wold meaned high lands of great extent.
Such is the Cotswold, at any rate, for it is a tract of country
stretching across, in a south-eastern direction, from Dodeswellj
to near Fairford, and in a north-easterly direction, from Pitch
comb Hill, in Gloucestershire (which, remember, I descended
on the 1 2th September) to near Witney in Oxfordshire. Here
we were, then, when we got fairly up upon the Wold, with the
vale of Gloucester at our back, Oxford and its vale to our

1 74 Rural Ride from
left, the vale of Wiltshire to our right, and the vale of Berk
shire in our front : and from one particular point, I could see
a part of each of them. This Wold is, in itself, an ugly
country. The soil is what is called a stone brash below, with
a reddish earth mixed with little bits of this brash at top, and,
for the greater part of the Wold, even this soil is very shallow ;
and, as fields are divided by walls made of this brash, and, as
there are, for a mile or two together, no trees to be seen, and,
as the surface is not smooth and green like the downs, this is
a sort of country, having less to please the eye than any other
that I have ever seen, always save and except the heaths like
those of Bagshot and Hindhead. Yet, even this Wold has
many fertile dells in it, and sends out, from its highest parts,
several streams, each of which has its pretty valley and its
meadows. And here has come down to us, from a distance
of many centuries, a particular race of sheep, called the Cots
wold breed, which are, of course, the best suited to the
country. They are short and stocky, and appear to me to be
about half way, in point of size, between the Rylands and the
South Downs. When crossed with the Leicester, as they are
pretty generally in the North of Wiltshire, they make very
beautiful and even large sheep ; quite large enough, and,
people say, very profitable.1
A route, when it lies through villages, is one thing on a map,

1 The Cotswold breed of sheep, has long been famous for its wool.
In 1464 Edward IV. sent a present of Cotswold rams to Henry of Castile,
and in 1468 a similar present was sent to John of Aragon.
As the Author tells us here, the Cotswold breed, by crossing with the
Leicester, has been greatly improved in value, producing shorter wool,
but better mutton. The Leicester breed was greatly improved, alter the
middle of the last century, by the skill and care of Mr. Bakewell ; the new
Leicester breed being very broad on the back, with finely arched ribs.
It is large limbed and is easily rendered very fat. The Ryeland, or Here
ford breed, is small, short limbed, white and hornless, and produces
excellent mutton. The South Down breed is generally white, and the
face and legs are dun, black, or speckled. It is hornless, the wool is
short, but thick and close, and curled ; the mutton is far famed.
The original Forest breed of sheep, so called from being pastured in
the Royal Forests, is still to be found on the barren grounds, between the
English and the Bristol Channels. It is small, with face and legs russet

Ryall to Burghclere. 175
and quite another thing on the ground. Our line of villages,
from Cheltenham, to Fairford, was very nearly straight upon
the map ; but, upon the ground, it took us round about a great
many miles, besides now and then a little going back, to get
into the right road ; and, which was a great inconvenience,
not a public-house was there on our road, until we got within
eight miles of Fairford. Resolved, that not one single farthing
of my money should be spent in the Wen of Cheltenham, we
came through that place, expecting to find a public-house in
the first or second of the villages ; but not one was there, over
the whole of the Wold ; and though I had, by pocketing some
slices of meat and bread at Ryall, provided against this con
tingency, as far as related to ourselves, I could make no such
provision for our horses, and they went a great deal too far,
without baiting. Plenty of farm-houses, and, if they had been
in America, we need have looked for no other. Very likely ¦
(I hope it at any rate) almost any farmer on the Cotswold,
would have given us what we wanted, if we had asked for it ;
but the fashion, the good old fashion, was, by the hellish system
of funding and taxing and monopolizing, driven across the
Atlantic. And is England never to see it return? Is the
hellish system to last for ever?
Doctor Black, in remarking upon my Ride down the vale
of the Salisbury Avon, says, that there has, doubtless, been
a falling off in the population of the villages, " lying amongst
the chalk-hills ; " aye, and lying everywhere else too ; or, how
comes it, that four-fifths of the parishes of Herefordshire,
abounding in rich land, in meadows, orchards, and pastures,
have either no parsonage-houses at all, or have none, that a

brown, or grey ; it is wild, restless, and difficult to fatten, but produces
fine wool, and excellent mutton.
The Dorset breed is one of the best of the old English Upland breeds,
and is especially valuable, because it supplies early lamb for the London
market. The previous Editor mentions, that a quarter of a Cotswold
sheep, weighing 63 lbs., was exhibited in January 185 1, as a curiosity in the
market of New York. It had been sent from Devizes, Wilts ; but that
some of the same breed weighed from 75 lbs. to 80 lbs. the quarter, and
that the Lincolnshire breed produced still heavier sheep.

I y 6 Rural Ride from
Parson thinks fit for him to live in ? I vouch for the fact ;
I will, whether in Parliament or not, prove the fact to the
Parliament : and, if the fact be such, the conclusion is inevi
table. But how melancholy is the sight of these decayed, and
still decaying villages, in the dells of the Cotswold, where the
building materials, being stone, the ruins do not totally dis
appear for ages ! The village of Withington (mentioned above)
has a church like a small cathedral, and the whole of the
population is now only 603 persons, men, women, and children.
So that, according to the Scotch fellows, this immense and fine
church, which is as sound as it was 7 or 800 years ago, was
built by, and for a population, containing, at most, only about
120 grown-up and able-bodied men ! But here, in this once
populous village, or I think town, you see all the indubitable
marks of most melancholy decay. There are several lanes,
crossing each other, which must have been streets formerly.
There is a large open space where the principal streets meet.
There are, against this open place, two large, old, roomy
houses, with gateways into back parts of them, and with large
stone upping-blocks1 against the walls of them in the street
These were manifestly considerable inns, and, in this open
place, markets or fairs, or both used to be held. I asked two
men, who were threshing in a barn, how long it was since
their public-house was put down, or dropped ? They told me
about sixteen years. One of these men, who was about fifty
years of age, could remember three public-houses, one of which
was what was called an inn I The place stands by the side of
a little brook, which here rises, or rather issues, from a high
.hill, and which, when it has winded down for some miles, and
through several villages, begins to be called the River Colne,
and continues on, under this name, through Fairford and
along, I suppose, till it falls into the Thames. Withington is
very prettily situated; it was, and not very long ago, a gay

1 These upping blocks, or horse blocks (but little known in some parts
of the country) were three or four steps of bricks, or stone, to assist in
muunling, on horseback.

Ryall to Burglulere. 177
and happy place ; but it now presents a picture of dilapidation,
and shabbiness, scarcely to be equalled. Here are the yet
visible remains of two gentlemen's houses. Great farmers
have supplied their place, as to inhabiting; and, I daresay,
that some tax-eater, or some blaspheming Jew, or some still
more base and wicked loan-mongering robber1 is now the
, owner of the land ; aye, and all these people are his slaves as
completely, and more to their wrong, than the blacks are the
slaves of the planters in Jamaica, the farmers here, acting, in
fact, in a capacity corresponding with that of the negro-
drivers there.
A part, and, perhaps, a considerable part, of the decay and
misery of this place, is owing to the use of machinery, and to
the monopolizing, in the manufacture of Blankets, of which
fabric the town of Witney (above mentioned) was the centre,
and from which town the wool used to be sent round to, and
the yarn, or warp, come back from, all these Cotswold villages,
arid quite into a part of Wiltshire. This work is all now gone,
and so the women, and the girls, are a " surplus popalashon,
mon," and are, of course, to be dealt with by the " Emigration
Committee " of the " Collective Wisdom " ! There were,
only a few years ago, above thirty blanket-manufacturers at
Witney : twenty-five of these have been swallowed up by the
1 The Jews, until modern and more enlightened times, have been treated
with universal hatred and cruelty, because they easily acquired wealth by
money-lending. Human nature revolts at exorbitant interest. A strong
prejudice, however, existed in early times against exacting interest at all,
from a mistaken view of the Mosaic law on usury.* In 1262 A.D. 700
Jews were massacred in London, a Jew having forced a Christian to pay more
than 2s. per week on a loan of 20s. ; and every Jew lending money on
interest was compelled to wear a badge, signifying that he was a usurer.
If that law were in force at the present day, a vast proportion of others
besides Jews would have to wear the badge. It was not until 1723 that
Jews acquired the right to possess land in England. In 1835 the first
Jewish Sheriff was elected in London, and an Act was passed to enable him
to act. In 1837, Sir Moses Montefiore was the first Jew who was knighted.
In 1858 an Act was passed to enable Jews to sit in Parliament.

* The Mosaic law (Exod. xxii. 25, Levit xxv. 39) forbade usury on money lent for
.-(he relief of distress ; but its restrictions' did not apply to money borrowed for purposes
of trade. VOL. II. M

•i 7 8 Rural Ride from
five, that now have all the manufacture in their hands ! And
all this has been done by that system of gambling, and of
fictitious money, which has conveyed property from the hands
of the many, into the hands of the few. But, wise Burdett
likes this ! He wants the land to be cultivated by few hands,
and he wants machinery, and all those things, which draw
money into large masses ; that make a nation consist of a few
of very rich, and of millions of very poor ! Burdett must look
sharp; or this system, will play him a trick, before it come
to an end.
The crops on the Cotswold have been pretty good ; and I
was very much surprised to see a scattering of early turnips,
and, in some places, decent crops. Upon this Wold I saw
more early turnips in a mile or two, than I saw in all Here
fordshire, and Worcestershire, and in all the rich and low part
of Gloucestershire. The high lands always, during the year,
and especially during the summer, receive much more of rain
than the low lands. The clouds hang about the hills, and the
dews, when they rise, go, most frequentlv, and cap the
hills. Wheat-sowing is yet going on, on the Wold ; but, the greater
part of it is sown, and not only sown, but up, and in some
places, high enough to "hide a hare." What a difference!
In some parts of England, no man thinks of sowing wheat
till November, and it is often done in March. If the latter
were done on this Wold, there would not be a bushel on an
acre. The ploughing and other work, on the Wold, is done,
in great part, by oxen, and here, are some of the finest ox-
teams, that I ever saw.
All the villages down to Fairford are pretty much in the
same dismal condition as that of Withington. Fairford, which
is quite on the border of Gloucestershire, is a very pretty little
market-town, and has one of the prettiest churches in the
kingdom. It was, they say, built in the reign of Henry VII. ;
and one is naturally surprised to see, that its windows of beau
tiful stained glass had the luck to escape, not only the fangs of
the ferocious "good Queen Bess;" not only the unsparing

Ryall to Burghclere. 1 79
plundering minions of James I. ; but, even the devastating
ruffians of Cromwell.
We got in here, about four o'clock, and at the house of Mr.
lies, where we slept, passed, amongst several friends, a very
pleasant evening. This morning, Mr. lies was so good, as to
ride with us, as far as the house of another friend at Kemps-
ford, which is the last Gloucestershire parish in our route. At
this friend's, Mr. Arkall, we saw a fine dairy of about 60 or
80 cows, and a cheese loft with, perhaps, more than two
thousand cheeses in it; at least there were many hundreds.
This village contains, what are said to be the remnants and
ruins of a mansion of John of Gaunt. The church is very
ancient and very capacious. What tales these churches do
tell upon us ! What fools, what lazy dogs, what presumptuous
asses, what lying braggarts, they make us appear ! No people
here, "mon, teel the Scots cam to seevelize" us! Impudent,
lying beggars ! Their stinking " kelts" ought to be taken up,
and the brazen and insolent vagabonds whipped back to their
heaths and their rocks. Let them go and thrive by their
"cash-credits," and let their paper-money poet, Walter Scott,
immortalize their deeds. That conceited, dunderheaded fellow,
George Chalmers, estimated the whole of the population of
England and Wales at a few persons more than two millions,
when England was just at the highest point of her power and
glory, and when all these churches had long been built and
were resounding with the voice of priests, who resided in their
parishes, and who relieved all the poor out of their tithes !
But, this same Chalmers, signed his solemn conviction, that
Vortigern and the other Ireland-manuscripts, which were
written by a lad of sixteen, were written by Shakspeare.
In coming to Kempsford we got wet, and nearly to the
skin. But, our friends, gave us coats to put on, while ours
were dried, and while we ate our breakfast. In our way to
this house, where we now are (Mr. Tucky's, at Heydon), we
called at Mr. James Crowdy's, at Highworth, where I was,
from the 4th, to the 9th of September inclusive ; but it looked
rainy, and, therefore, we did not alight. We .got wet again,

1 80 Rural Ride from
before we reached this place ; but, our journey being short,
we soon got our clothes dry again.

Burghclere (Hampshire,) Monday, 2d October,
Yesterday was a really unfortunate day. The morning pro
mised fair; but, its promises were like those of Burdett!
There was a little snivelling, wet, treacherous frost We had
to come through Swindon, and Mr. Tucky had the kindness
to come with us, until we got three or four miles on this side
(the Hungerford side) of that very neat, and plain, and solid,
and respectable market town. Swindon is in Wiltshire, and
is in the real fat of the land, all being wheat, beans, cheese,
or fat meat In our way to Swindon, Mr. Tucky's farm
exhibited to me, what I never saw before, four score oxen, all
grazing upon one farm, and all nearly fat ! They were, some
Devonshire and some Herefordshire. They were fatting on
the grass only ; and, I should suppose, that they are worth,
or shortly will be, thirty pounds each. But, the great pleasure,
with which the contemplation of this fine sight, was naturally
calculated to inspire me, was more than counterbalanced by
the thought, that these fine oxen, this primest of human food,
was, aye, every mouthful of it, destined to be devoured in the
Wen, and that, too, for the far greater part, by the Jews, loan-
jobbers, tax-eaters, and their base and prostituted followers,
dependents, purveyors, parasites and pimps, literary as well as
other wretches, who, if suffered to live at all, ought to partake
of nothing but the offal, and ought to come, but one cut,
before the dogs and cats !
Mind you, there is, in my opinion, no land in England that
surpasses this. There is, I suppose, as good in the three last
counties, that I have come through ; but, better than this is,
I should think, impossible. There is a pasture-field, of about
a hundred acres, close to Swindon, belonging to a Mr.
Goddard, which, with its cattle and sheep, was a most beauti
ful sight. But, every thing is full of riches ; and, as fast as
skill, and care, and industry, can extract these riches from the

Ryall to Burghclere. 1 8 1
land, the unseen grasp of taxation, loan-jobbing, and mono
polizing takes them away, leaving the labourers not half a belly-
full, compelling the farmer to pinch them, or to be ruined
himself, and making even the landowner, little better than a
steward, or bailiff, for the tax-eaters, Jews and jobbers !
Just before we got to Swindon, we crossed a canal at a
place where there is a wharf and a coal-yard, and close by
these a gentleman's house, with coach-house, stables, walled-
in garden, paddock ornt, and the rest of those things, which,
all together, make up a villa, surpassing the second, and ap
proaching towards the first class. Seeing a man in the coal-
yard, I asked him to what gentleman, the house belonged :
"to the head un o' the canal," said he. And, when, upon
further inquiry of him, I found that it was the villa of the chief
manager, I could not help congratulating the proprietors of
this aquatic concern ; for, though I did not ask the name of
the canal, I could readily suppose, that the profits must be
prodigious, when the residence of the manager, would imply
no disparagement of dignity, if occupied by a Secretary of
State for the Home, or even for the Foreign, department. I
mean an English Secretary of State ; for as to an American
one, his salary would be wholly inadequate, to a residence in
a mansion like this.
From Swindon we came up into the down-country ; and these
downs, rise higher even than the Cotswold. We left Marl
borough away to our right, and came along the turnpike road
towards Hungerford, but with a view of leaving that town to
our left, further on, and going away, through Ramsbury,
towards the northernmost Hampshire hills, under which
Burghclere (where we now are) lies. We passed some fine
farms, upon these downs, the houses and homesteads of
which were near the road. My companion, though he had
been to London, and even to France, had never seen downs
before ; and it was amusing to me to witness his surprise, at
seeing the immense flocks of sheep, which were now (ten
o'clock) just going out from their several folds, to the downs
for the day, each having its shepherd, and each shepherd his

1 8 2 Rural Ride from
dog. We passed the homestead of a farmer Woodman, with
sixteen banging wheat-ricks in the rick-yard, two of which
were old ones; and rick-yard, farm-yard, waste-yard, horse-
paddock, and all round about, seemed to be swarming with
fowls, ducks, and turkeys, and on the whole of them, not one
feather, but what was white 1 Turning our eyes from this
sight, we saw, just going out from the folds of this same farm,
three separate and numerous flocks of sheep, one of which
(the lamb-Hock) we passed close by the side o_ The shepherd
told us, that his flock consisted of thirteen score and five ;
but, apparently, he could not, if it had been to save his soul,
tell us how many hundreds he had : and, if you reflect a little,
you will find, that his way of counting is much the easiest and
best. This was a most beautiful flock of lambs ; short legged,
and, in every respect, what they ought to be. George,1 though
born and bred amongst sheep-farms, had never before seen
sheep with dark-coloured faces and legs ; but his surprise, at
this sight, was not nearly so great as the surprise of both of
us, at seeing numerous and very large pieces (sometimes 50
acres together) of very good early turnips, Swedish as well
as White ! All the three counties of Worcester, Hereford, and
Gloucester (except on the Cotswold) do not, I am convinced,
contain as great a weight of turnip bulbs, as we here saw in
one single piece ; for here there are, for miles and miles, no
hedges, and no fences of any sort
Doubtless they must have had rain here, in the months of
June and July ; but, as I once before observed (though I
forget when) a chalk bottom does not suffer the surface to
burn, however shallow the top soil may be. It seems to me
to absorb and to retain the water, and to keep it ready to be
drawn up by the heat of the sun. At any rate the fact is,
that the surface above it does not burn ; for, there never yet

1 The Author's companion throughout this Rural Ride (which com
menced on 29th Sept. 1826, and terminated on the 26th Oct.) was a youth
(referred to frequently by his Christian name George). He was a son of
Mr. William Palmer of Bollitree, near Ross, in Hereford, who was one of
Mr. Cobbett's intimate friends.

Ryall to Burghclere. 183

0

Was a summer, not even this last, when the downs did not
retain their greenness to a certain degree, while the rich pastures,
and even the meadows (except actually watered) were burnt so
as to be as brown as the bare earth.
This is a most pleasing circumstance, attending the
down countries ; and, there are no downs without a chalk
bottom. Along here, the country is rather too bare : here, until you
come to Auborne, or Aldbourne, there are no meadows in the
valleys, and no trees, even round the homesteads. This,
therefore, is too naked to please me ; but I love the downs so
much, that, if I had to choose, I would live even here, and
especially I would farm here rather than on the banks of the
Wye in Herefordshire, in the vale of Gloucester, of Worcester,
or of Evesham, or, even in what the Kentish men call their
"garden of Eden." I have now seen (for I have, years back,
seen the vales of Taunton, Glastonbury, Honiton, Dorchester
and Sherburne) what are deemed the richest and most beauti
ful parts of England ; and, if called upon to name the spot,
which I deem the brightest and most beautiful and, of its
extent, best of all, I should say, the villages of North Bovant
and Bishopstrow, between Heytesbury and Warminster in Wilt
shire ; for there is, as appertaining to rural objects, every thing
that / delight in. Smooth and verdant downs in hills and
valleys of endless variety as to height arid depth and shape ;
rich corn-land, unencumbered by fences; meadows in due
proportion, and those watered at pleasure ; and, lastly, the
homesteads, and villages, sheltered in winter, and shaded in
summer, by lofty and beautiful trees ; to which may be added,
roads never dirty and a stream never dry.
When we came to Auborne, we got amongst trees again.
This is a town, and was, manifestly, once a large town. Its
church is as big, as three of that of Kensington. It has a
market now, I believe ; but, I suppose, it is, like many others,
become merely nominal, the produce being nearly all carried
to Hungerford, in order to be forwarded to the Jew-devils and
the tax-eaters and monopolizers in the Wen, and in small

184 Rural Ride from
Wens on the way. It is a decaying place ; and, I dare say,
that it would be nearly depopulated, in twenty years' time if
this hellish jobbing system were to last so long.
A little after we came through Auborne, we turned off to
our right to go through Ramsbury, to Shallburn, where Tull,
the father of the drill-husbandry1 began and practised that
husbandry at a farm called " Prosperous." Our object was to
reach this place (Burghclere) to sleep, and to stay for a day
or two; and as I knew Mr. Blandy of Prosperous, I deter-
minded upon this route, which, besides, took us out of the
turnpike-road. We stopped at Ramsbury, to bait our horses.
It is a large, and, apparently, miserable village, or " town " as
the people call it It was in remote times a Bis/wp's See. Its
church is very large and very ancient. Parts of it were
evidently built, long, and long before, the Norman Conquest.
Burdett owns a great many of the houses in the village (which
contains nearly two thousand people), and will, if he live
many years, own nearly the whole ; for, as his eulogist, William
Friend the Actuary, told the public, in a pamphlet, in 18 17,
he has resolved, that his numerous life-holds shall run out, and
that those who were life-holders under his Aunt, from whom
he got the estate, shall become rack-renters to him, or quit the
occupations. Besides this, he is condnually purchasing lands
and houses round about, and in, this place. He has, now let
his house to a Mr. Acres ; and, as the Morning Herald says,
is safe landed at Bordeaux, with his family, for the winter !
When here, he did not occupy a square inch of his land!
He let it all, park and all ; and only reserved " a right of road "
from the highway to his door. " He had, and has a right, to
do all this." Ariglit? Who denies that ? But, is this giving
us a specimen of that " liberality and generosity and hospi
tality" of those "English Country Gentlemen," whose praises
he so loudly sang last winter? His name is Francis Burdett
Jones, which last name, he was obliged to take by his Aunt's

1 Mr. Jethro Tull, to whom reference has been already made, intro»
duced "drill husbandry about the year 1732."

Ryall to Burghclere. 185
will ; and he actually used it for some time, after the estate
came to him ! " Jones " was too common a name for him, I
suppose ! Sounded too much of the vulgar I
However, what I have principally to do with, is, hisabsence
from the country at a time like this, and, if the newspapers be
correct, his intended absence during the whole of next winter ;
and such a winter, too, as it is likely to be ! He, for many
years, complained, and justly, of the sinecure placemen ; and
are we to suffer him to be, thus, a sinecure Member of
Parliament ! This is, in my opinion, a great deal worse than
a sinecure placemen ; for this is shutting an active Member
out. It is a dog-in-manger offence ; and, to the people of a
place such as Westminster, it is not only an injury, but a
most outrageous insult. If it be true, that he intends to stay
away, during the coming session of Parliament, I trust, not
only, that he never will be elected again; but, that the
people of Westminster, will call upon him to resign ; and this,
I am sure they will do too. The next session of Parliament,
must be a most important one, and that, he knows well.
Every member will be put to the test, in the next session of
Parliament. On the question of Corn-Bills every man must
declare, for, or against, the people. He would declare against,
if he dared ; and, therefore, he gets out of the way ! Or, this
is what we shall have a clear right to presume, if he be absent
from the next session of Parliament. He knows, that there
must be something like a struggle, between the land owners,
and the fund-holders. His interest lies with the former ; he
wishes to support the law-church, and the army, and all
sources of aristocratical profit; but, he knows, that the people
of Westminster would be on the other side. It is better,
therefore, to hear at Bordeaux, about this struggle, than to be
engaged in it ! He must know of the great embarrassments,
distress, and of the great bodily suffering, now experienced by
a large part of the people ; and has he a right, after having
got himself returned a member for such a place as West
minster, to go out of the country, at such a time and leave
his seat vacant? He must know that, during the ensuing

1 8 6 Rural Ride from
winter, there must be great distress in Westminster itself ; for
there will be a greater mass of the working people out of
employ than there ever was in any winter before ; and this
calamity will, too, be owing to that infernal system, which he
has been supporting, to those paper-money Rooks, with whom
he is closely connected, and the existence of whose destructive
rags he expressed his wish to prolong : he knows all this very
well : he knows that, in every quarter the distress and danger
are great ; and is it not, then, his duty to be here ? Is he,
who, at his own request, has been intrusted with the repre
senting of a great city, to get out of the way at a time like
this, and under circumstances like these ? If this be so, then
is this great, and once public-spirited city, become more con
temptible, and infinitely more mischievous, than the "accursed
hill" of Wiltshire: but, this is not so: the people of West
minster, are what they always were, full of good sense and
public spirit : they have been cheated by a set of bribed
intriguers ; and how this has been done, I will explain to them,
when I punish Sir Francis Burdett Jones for the sins, committed
for him, by a hired Scotch writer. I shall dismiss him for the
present, with observing, that, if I had in me, a millionth part
of that malignity and vindictiveness, which he so basely
showed towards me, I have learned anecdotes, sufficient to
enable me to take ample vengeance on him for the stabs
which he, in 1817, knew that he W3S sending to the hearts of
the defenceless part of my family ! 1

1 What the particular circumstances were to which the Author here
alludes, it is difficult to discover, except that they occurred during his
second visit to America ; but it is quite evident that the warm friendship,
which previously existed between him and Sir Francis Burdett, had con
siderably cooled down. In the first place, Sir Francis, who had called
upon the people, for years past, " to rally round the standard of reform,"
and " to come forward," when the critical times of 1816 and 1817 arrived,
seemed half-hearted, and shrank from the battle, leaving the forefront to
Cobbett, and Lord Cochrane, and Cartwright. Indeed when, at the
opening of Parliament, Lord Cochrane moved an amendment to the
Address, Sir Francis allowed the motion to drop, without a seconder.
The Author had therefore good reason to twit him with his former sobri-
quels, "England's Glory," "Sir Glory," "Westminster Pride," Sea.

Ryall to Burghclere. 187
While our horses were baiting at Ramsbury, it began to
rain, and by the time that they had done, it rained pretty hard,
with every appearance of continuing to rain for the day ; and
it was now about eleven o'clock, we having 18 or 19 miles
to go, before we got to the intended end of our journey.
Having, however, for several reasons, a very great desire to get
to Burghclere that night, we set off in the rain ; and, as we
carry no great coats, we were wet to the skin pretty soon.
Immediately upon quitting Ramsbury, we crossed the River
Kennet, and, mounting a highish hill, we looked back over
friend Sir Glory's park, the sight of which brought into my
mind the visit of Thimble and Cowhide, as described in the
" intense comedy," and, when I thought of the " baker's being
starved to death," and of the " heavy fall of snow," I could
not help bursting out a laughing, though it poured of rain and
though I already felt the water on my skin. — Mem. To ask,
when I get to London, what is become of the intense
" Counsellor Brie " ; and whether he have yet had the justice
to put the K to the end of his name.1 I saw a lovely female
shoy-hoy, engaged in keeping the rooks from a newly-sown
wheat field on the Cotswold Hills, that would be a very
suitable match for him ; and, as his manners appear to be
mended ; as he now praises to the skies those 40s. freeholders,
whom, in my hearing, he asserted to be "beneath brute beasts ;"
as he does, in short, appear to be rather less offensive than he
was, I should have no objection to promote the union ; and,
I am sure, the farmer would like it, of all things ; for, if
Miss Stuffed 0' straw can, when single, keep the devourers at
a distance, say, you who know him, whether the sight of the
husband's head would leave a rook in the country !
Another reason for this estrangement appears to have been on account of
some money transactions between them. For some purpose, Cobbett
seems to have given Sir Francis a bond for ^3000. After Cobbett's death,
when a committee was formed for the purpose of raising a memorial to'
him, Sir Francis sent this bond to them, telling them to take his subscrip
tion out of that.
1 The allusion here, is to Mr. John Brie, who was a partisan of Daniel
O'Connell, and who was subsequently killed in a duel in Ireland.

1 8 8 Rural Ride from
Turning from viewing the scene of Thimble and Cowhide's
cruel disappointment, we pushed through coppices and across
fields, to a little village, called Froxfield, which we found to
be on the great Bath-Road. Here, crossing the road and
also a run of water, we, under the guidance of a man, who
was good enough to go about a mile with us, and to whom we
gave a shilling and the price of a pot of beer, mounted
another hill, from which, after twisting about for awhile, I saw,
and recognised the out-buildings of Prosperous farm, towards
which we pushed on as fast as we could, in order to keep our
selves in motion so as to prevent our catching cold ; for it
rained, incessantly, every step of the way. I had been at
Prosperous before ; so that I knew Mr. Blandy, the owner,
and his family, who received us with great hospitality. They
took care of our horses, gave us what we wanted, in the
eating and drinking way, and clothed us, shirts and all, while
they dried all our clothes; for, not only the things on our
bodies were soaked, but those also which we carried in little
thin leather rolls, fastened on upon the saddles before us.
Notwithstanding all that could be done in the way of dispatch,
it took more than three hours to get our clothes dry. At last,
about three quarters of an hour before sunset, we got on our
clothes again and set off: for, as an instance of real bad luck,
it ceased to rain the moment we got to Mr. Blandy's. In
cluding the numerous angles and windings, we had nine or ten
miles yet to go ; but, I was so anxious to get to Burghclere,
that, contrary to my practice as well as my principle, I deter
mined to encounter the darkness for once, though in cross
country roads, presenting us, at every mile, with ways crossing
each other ; or forming a Y ; or kindly giving us the choice
of three, forming the upper part of a Y and a half. Add to
this, we were in an enclosed country, the lanes very narrow,
deep-worn, and banks and hedges high. There was no moon ;
but, it was starlight, and, as I could see the Hampshire Hills
all along to my right, and knew that I must not get above a
mile or so from them, I had a guide that could not deceive
me ; for, as to asking the road, in a case like this, it is of little

Ryall to Burghclere. 1 89
use, unless you meet some one at every half mile : for the
answer is, keep right on ; aye, but in ten minutes, perhaps, you
come to a Y, or a T, or to a + .
A fellow told me once, in my way from Chertsey to Guild
ford, " keep right on, you can't miss your way." I was in the
perpendicular part of the T, and the top part was only a few
yards from me. " Right on" said I, " what, over that bank into
" the wheat ? " " No, no," said he, " I mean that road, to be
"sure," pointing to the road that went off to the left. In
down-countries, the direction of shepherds and pig and bird
boys, is always in precisely the same words ; namely, " right
over the down ?" laying great stress upon the word right.
" But," said I, to a boy, at the edge of the down at King's
Worthy (near Winchester), who gave me this direction to Stoke
Charity ; " but, what do you mean by right over the down ? "
" Why,''" said he, "right on to Stoke, to be sure, Zur." " Aye,"
said I, " but how am I, who was never here before, to know
" what is right, my boy ? " That posed him. It set him to
thinking : and, after a bit he proceeded to tell me, that, when
I got up the hill, I should see some trees ; that I should go
along by them ; that I should then see a barn right before me ;
that I should go down to that barA ; and that I should then
see a wagon track that would lead me all down to Stoke.
" Aye ! " said I, " now indeed you are a real clever fellow."
And I gave him a shilling, being part of my savings of the
morning. Whoever tries it, will find, that the less they eat and
drink, when travelling, the better they will be. I act accord
ingly. Many days I have no breakfast and no dinner. I
went from Devizes to Highworth without breaking my fast, a
distance, including my deviations, of more than thirty miles.
I sometimes take, from a friend's house, a little bit of meat
between two bits of bread, which I eat as I ride along ; but,
whatever I save from this fasting work, I think I have a clear
right to give away; and, accordingly, I generally put the
amount, in copper, into my waistcoat pocket, and dispose of
it during the day. I know well, that I a?n the better for not
stuffing and blowing myself out, and with the savings I make

1 90 Rural Ride from
many and many a happy boy ; and, now-and-then, I give a whole
family a good meal with the cost of a breakfast, or a dinner, that
would have done me mischief. I do not do this, because I
grudge innkeepers, what they charge ; for, my surprise is, how
they can live, without charging more than they do in general.
It was dark by the time that we got to a village, called East
Woodhay. Sunday evening is the time for courting, in the
country. It is not convenient to carry this on before faces,
and, at farm-houses and cottages, there are no spare apart
ments ; so that the pairs turn out, and pitch up, to carry on
their negociations, by the side of stile, or a gate. The even
ing was auspicious ; it was pretty dark, the weather mild, and
Old Michaelmas (when yearly services end) was fast approach
ing ; and accordingly, I do not recollect ever having before
seen, so many negociations going on, within so short a
distance. At West Woodhay my horse cast a shoe, and, as
the road was abominably flinty, we were compelled to go at a
snail's pace : and I should have gone crazy with impatience,
had it not been for these ambassadors and ambassadresses of
Cupid, to every pair of whom, I said something or other. I
began by asking the fellow my road ; and, from the tone and
manner of his answer, I could tell pretty nearly, what prospect
he had of success, and knew what to say, to draw something
from him. I had some famous sport with them, saying to
them, more than I should have said by daylight, and a great deal
less than I should have said, if my horse had been in a con
dition to carry me away as swiftly as he did, from Osmond
Ricardo's terrific cross ! " There ! " exclaims Mrs. Scrip, the
stock-jobber's young wife, to her old hobbling wittol of a
spouse, "You see, my love, that this mischievous man could not
" let even these poor peasants alone." "Peasants I you dirty-
" necked  , and where got you that word ? You, who, but a
" few years ago, came, perhaps, up from the country in a waggon;
"who made the bed you now sleep in; and who got the
" husband, by helping him to get his wife out of the world, as
" some young party-coloured blade, is to get you, and the old
" rogue's money by a similar process ! "

Ryall to Burghclere. 191
We got to Burghclere about eight o'clock, after a very
disagreeable day ; but we found ample compensation in the
house, and all within it, that we were now arrived at.
Burghclere,
Sunday, &th Sept.
It rained steadily this morning, or else, at the end of these
six days of hunting for George, and two for me, we should have
set off. The rain gives me time to give an account of Mr.
Budd's crop of Tullian Wheat. It was sown in rows, and on
ridges, with very wide intervals, ploughed all summer. If he
reckon that ground only which the wheat grew upon, he had
one hundred and thirty bushels to the acre ; and even if he
reckoned the whole of the ground, he had 28 bushels, all but
two gallons to the acre ! But, the best wheat he grew this
year, was dibbled in, between rows of Swedish Turnips, in
November, four rows upon a ridge, with an eighteen inch
interval between each two rows, and a five feet interval
between the outside rows on each ridge. It is the white cone
that Mr. Budd sows. He had ears with 130 grains in each.
This would be the farming for labourers in their little plots.
They might grow thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, and
have crops of cabbages, in the intervals, at the same time ; or,
of potatoes, if they liked them better.
Before my arrival here, Mr. Budd had seen my description
of the state of the labourers in Wiltshire, and had, in conse
quence, written to my son James (not knowing where I was)
as follows : — " In order to see how the labourers are now
" scretved down, look at the following facts : Arthur Young, in
" I71l (55 years ago) allowed for a man, his wife and three
" children 13s. id. a week, according to present money-prices.
" By the Berkshire Magistrates ' table, made in 1795, the allow-
" ance was, for such family, according to the present money-
*' prices, us. afl. Now it is, according to the same standard,
" 8s. According to your father's proposal, the sum would be
" (supposing there to be no malt tax) 18s. a week ; and little
" enough too." Is not that enough to convince any one of

192 Rural Ride from
the hellishness of this system ! Yet Sir Glory applauds it. Is
it not horrible to contemplate millions in this half-starving
state ; and, is it not the duty of " England's Glory," who has
said that his estate is " a retaining fee for defending the rights
" of the people ; " is it not his duty to stay in England and
endeavour to restore the people, the millions, to what their
fathers were, instead of going abroad ; selling off his carriage
horses, and going abroad, there to spend some part, at least,
of the fruits of English labour ? I do not say, that he has
no right, generally speaking, to go and spend his money
abroad : but, I do say, that having got himself elected for
such a city as Westminster, he had no right, at a time like this,
to be absent from Parliament However, what cares he ! His
"retaining fee" indeed! He takes special care to augment
that fee ; but, I challenge all his shoe-lickers, all the base
worshippers of twenty thousand acres, to show me one single
thing, that he has ever done, or, within the last twelve years,
attempted to do, for his clients. In short, this is a man that
must now be brought to book : he must not be suffered to insult
Westminster any longer : he must turn-to or turn out : he is a
sore to Westminster ; a set-fast on its back ; a cholic in its
belly ; a cramp in its limbs ; a gag in its mouth : he is a
nuisance, a monstrous nuisance, in Westminster, and he must
be abated.

RIDE FROM BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST, IN THE NEW
FOREST.
" The reformers have yet many and powerful foes ; we have to contend
against a host, such as never existed before in the world. Nine-tenths of
the press ; all the channels of speedy communication of sentiment ; all
the pulpits ; all the associations of rich people ; all the taxing-people ;
all the military and naval establishments ; all the yeomanry cavalry tribes.
Your allies are endless in number, and mighty in influence. But, we
have one ally worth the whole of them put together, namely, the DEBT !
This is an ally, whom no honours ot rewards can seduce from us. She is
a steady, unrelaxing, persevering, incorruptible ally. An ally that is proof

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 193
against all blandishments, all intrigues, all temptations, and all open attacks.
She sets at defiance all ' military,' all 'yeomanry cavalry.' They may as
well fire at a ghost. She cares no more for the sabres of the yeomanry,
or the Life Guards, than Milton's angels did for the swords of Satan's
myrmidons. This ally cares not a straw about spies, and informers. She
laughs at the employment of secret-service money. She is always erect, day
and night, and is always firmly moving on in our cause, in spite of all the
terrors of gaols, dungeons, halters and axes. Therefore, Mr. Jabet, be
not so pert. The combat is not so unequal as you seem to imagine ; and,
confident and insolent as you now are, the day of your humiliation may
not be far distant." — Letter to Mr. Jabet, of Birmingham, Register,
v. 31, p. 477. (Nov. 1816.)

Hurstbourn Tarrant,
(commonly called Uphusband,)
Wednesday, nth October, 1826.
When quarters are good, you are apt to lurk in them ; but,
really it was so wet, that we could not get away from
Burghclere till Monday evening. Being here, there were many
reasons for our going to the great fair at Weyhill, which began
yesterday, and, indeed, the day before, at Appleshaw. These
two days are allotted for the selling of sheep only, though the
horse-fair begins on the 10th. To Appleshaw they bring
nothing but those fine curled-horned and long-tailed ewes,
which bring the house-lambs and the early Easter-lambs ; and
these, which, to my taste, are the finest and most beautiful
animals of the sheep kind, come exclusively out of Dorset
shire and out of the part of Somersetshire, bordering on
that county.
To Weyhill, which is a village of half a dozen houses on a
•down, just above Appleshaw, they bring, from the down-farms
in Wiltshire and Hampshire, where they are bred, the South
Down sheep ; ewes to go away into the pasture and turnip
countries, to have lambs, wethers to be fatted and killed, and
lambs (nine months old) to be kept to be sheep. At both
fairs, there is supposed to be about two hundred thousand sheep.
It was of some consequence, to ascertain how the price of these
had been affected by "late panic," which ended the "respite"
VOL. 11. n

1 94 Rural Ride from
of 1822; or by the " plethora of money" as loan-man Baring
called it I can assure this political Doctor, that there was
no such " plethora " at Weyhill, yesterday, where, while I
viewed the long faces of the farmers, while I saw consciousness
of ruin, painted on their countenances, I could not help saying
to myself, "the loan-mongers think they are cunning ; but by
"  , they will never escape the ultimate consequences of
" this horrible ruin ! " The prices, take them on a fair average,
were, at both fairs, just about one-half what they were last
year. So that my friend Mr. Thwaites of the Herald, who
had a lying Irish reporter at Preston, was rather hasty, about
three months ago, when he told his well-informed readers, that
" those politicians were deceived, who had supposed that
prices of farm produce would fall in consequence of ' late
panic ' and the subsequent measures " ! There were Dorset
shire ewes that sold last year, for 50s. a head. We could
hear of none this year that exceeded 25s. And only think of
25s. for one of these fine, large ewes, nearly fit to kill, and
having two lambs in her, ready to be brought forth in, on an
average, six weeks' time ! The average is three lambs to two of
these ewes. In 181 2 these ewes were from 55s. to 72s. each, at
this same Appleshaw fair ; and in that year, I bought South
Down ewes at 45s. each, just such as were, yesterday, sold
for 1 8s. Yet, the sheep and grass and all things are the same,
in real value. What a false, what a deceptious, what an in
famous thing, this paper-money system is !
However, it is a pleasure, it is a great delight, it is boundless
joy to me, to contemplate this infernal system in its hour of
wreck : swag here : crack there : scroop this way : souse that
way : and such a rattling, and such a squalling : and the
parsons and their wives looking so frightened, beginning,
apparently, to think that the day of judgment is at hand! I
wonder what master parson of Sharncut, whose church can con
tain eight persons, and master parson of Draycot Foliot, who
is, for want of a church, inducted under a tent, or temporary
booth; I wonder what they think of South Down lambs (9
months old) selling for 6 or 7 shillings each ! I wonder what

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. i$5
the Barings and the Ricardos think of it. I wonder what
those master parsons think of it, who are half-pay naval,
or military officers, as well as master parsons of the church
made by law. I wonder what the Gaffer Gooches, with
their parsonships and military offices, think of it. I wonder
what Daddy Coke and Suffield think of it; and when,
I wonder, do they mean to get into their holes and barns
again to cry aloud against the " roguery of reducing the interest
of the Debt " ; when, I wonder, do these manly, these modest,
these fair, these candid, these open, and, above all things,
these sensible, fellows intend to assemble again, and to call
all " the House of Quidenham " and the " House of Kilmain-
ham," or Kinsaleham, or whatever it is (for I really have for
gotten) ; to call, I say, all these about them, in the holes and
the barns, and then and there, again make a formal and solemn
protest against Cobbett and against his roguish proposition
for reducing the interest of the Debt ! Now I have these
fellows on the hip; and brave sport will I have with them
before I have done.
Mr. Blount, at whose house (7 miles from Weyhill) I am,
went with me to the fair ; and we took particular pains to
ascertain the prices. We saw, and spoke to, Mr. John
Herbert, of Stoke (near Uphusband) who was asking 20s., and
who did not expect to get it, for South Down ewes, just such
as he sold, last year (at this fair), for 36.?. Mr. Jolliff of Crux-
Easton, was asking 1 6s. for just such ewes as he sold,. last year
(at this fair) for 32s. Farmer Holdway had sold "for less
than half" his last year's price. A farmer that I did not know,
told us, that he had sold to a great sheep-dealer of the name
of Smallpiece, at the latter's own price ! I asked him what
that " own price " was : and he said that he was ashamed to
say. The horse-fair appeared to have no business at all going
on ; for, indeed, how were people to purchase horses, who had
got only half-price for their sheep ?
The sales of sheep, at this one fair (including Appleshaw),
must have amounted, this year, to a hundred and twenty or
thirty thousand pounds, less than last year ! Stick a pin there,

1 9 6 Rural Ride from
master "Prosperity Robinson," and turn back to it, again
anon ! Then came the horses ; not equal in amount to the
sheep, but of great amount. Then comes the cheese, a very
great article ; and it will have a falling off, if you take quantity
into view, in a still greater proportion. The hops being a
monstrous crop, their price is nothing to judge by. But, all
is fallen. Even corn, though, in many parts, all but the wheat
and rye have totally failed, is, taking a quarter of each of the
six sorts (wheat, rye, barley, oats, peas, and beans), us. gd.
cheaper, upon the whole ; that is to say, i is. gd. upon 258^.
And, if the " late panic " had not come, it must, and it would
have been, and according to the small bulk of the crop, it
ought to have been, 150.. dearer, instead of iu. gd. cheaper.
Yet, it is too dear, and far too dear, for the working people to
eat ! The masses, the assembled masses, must starve, if the
price of bread be not reduced ; that is to say, in Scotland and
Ireland ; for, in England, I hope that the people will "demand
and insist" (to use the language of the Bill of Rights) on a
just and suitable provision, agreeably to the law ; and, if they
do not get it, I trust that law and justice will, in due course,
be done, and strictly done, upon those who refuse to make
such provision. Though, in time, the price of corn will come
down without any repeal of the Corn Bill; and though it
would have come down now, if we had had a good crop, or
an average crop ; still the Corn Bill ought now to be repealed,
because people must not be starved in waiting for the next
crop; and the "landowners' monopoly," as the son of "John
with the bright sword" calls it, ought to be swept away; and
the sooner it is done, the better for the country. I know very
well that the landowners must lose their estates, if such prices
continue, and if the present taxes continue; I know this very
well ; and I like it well ; for, the landowners may cause the
taxes to be taken off if they will. " Ah ! wicked dog ! " say
they, " what, then, you would have us lose the half-pay and
" the pensions and sinecures which our children and other
" relations, or that we ourselves, are pocketing out of the
" taxes, which are squeezed, in great part, out of the labourer's

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 197
" skin and bone ! " Yes, upon my word, I would ; but, if you
prefer losing your estates, I have no great objection ; for it is
hard that, " in a free country," people should not have their
choice of the different roads to the poor-house. Here is the rub :
the vote-owners, the seat-owners, the big borough-mongers, have,
directly and indirectly, so large a share of the loaves and fishes,
that the share is, in point of clear income, equal to, and, in some
cases, greater than, that from their estates ; and, though this
is not the case with the small fry of jolterheads, they are so
linked in with, and overawed by, the big ones, that they have
all the same feeling ; and that is, that to cut off half-pay,
pensions, sinecures, commissionerships (such as that of Hob-
house's father), army, and the rest of the "good things," would
be nearly as bad as to take away the estates, which, besides,
are, in fact, in many instances, nearly gone (at least from the
present holder) already, by the means of mortgage, annuity,
rent-charge, settlement, jointure, or something or other. Then
there are the parsons, who with their keen noses, have smelled
out long enough ago, that if, any serious settlement should
take place, they go to a certainty. In short, they know well
how the whole nation (the interested excepted) feel towards
them. They know well, that were it not for their allies, it
would soon be queer times with them.
Here, then, is the rub. Here are the reasons why the taxes
are not taken off! Some of these jolterheaded beasts were
ready to cry, and I know one that did actually cry to a farmer
(his tenant) in 1822. The tenant told him, that " Mr. Cobbett
" had been right about this matter." " What ! " exclaimed he,
" I hope you do not read Cobbett ! He will ruin you, and
" he would ruin us all. He would introduce anarchy, con-
" fusion, and destruction of property ! " Oh, no, Jolterhead !
There is no destruction of property. Matter, the philosophers
say, is indestructible. But, it is all easily transferable, as is
well-known, to the base Jolterheads and the blaspheming Jews.
The former of these will, however, soon have the faint sweat
upon them again. Their tenants will be rvi\r\ed first: and, here
what a foul robbery these landowners have committed, or at

198 Rural Ride from
least, enjoyed and pocketed the gain of! They have given
their silent assent, to the one-pound note abolition Bill. They
knew well that this must reduce the price of farm produce
one-half, or thereabouts ; and yet, they were prepared to take
and to insist on, and they do take and insist on, as high rents,
as if that Bill had never been passed ! What dreadful ruin
will ensue ! How many, many farmers' families are now
just preparing the way for their entrance into the poor-house !
How many ? certainly many a score farmers did I see at Wey
hill, yesterday, who came there as it were to know their fate !
and who are gone home thoroughly convinced, that they shall,
as farmers, never see Weyhill fair again !
When such a man, his mind impressed with such convic
tion, returns home and there beholds a family of children,
half bred up, and in the notion that they were not to be
mere working people, what must be his feelings ! Why, if he
have been a bawler against Jacobins and Radicals ; if he have
approved of the Power-of-Imprisonment Bill and of Six-Acts;
aye, if he did not rejoice at Castlereagh's cutting his own
throat ; if he have been a cruel screwer down of the labourers,
reducing them to skeletons; if he have been an officious
detector of what are called " poachers," and have assisted in,
or approved of, the hard punishments, inflicted on them ; then,
in either of these cases, I say, that his feelings, though they
put the suicidal knife into his own hand, are short of what he
deserves ! I say this, and this I repeat with all the serious
ness and solemnity with which a man can make a declaration ;
for, had it not been for these base and selfish and unfeeling
wretches, the deeds of 1817 and 1819 and 1S20 would never
have been attempted. These hard and dastardly dogs, armed
up to the teeth, were always ready to come forth to destroy,
not only to revile, to decry, to belie, to calumniate in all sorts
of ways, but, if necessary, absolutely to cut the throats of,
those who had no object, and who could have no object,
other than that of preventing a continuance in that course of
measures, which have finally produced the ruin, and threaten
to produce the absolute destruction, of these base, selfish, hard

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 199
and dastardly dogs themselves. Pity them ! Let them go for
pity to those whom they have applauded and abetted.1
The farmers, I mean the renters, will not now, as they did
in 18 1 9, stand a good long emptying out. They had, in
1822, lost nearly all. The present stock of the farms is not,
in one half of the cases, the property of the farmer. It is
borrowed stock ; and the sweeping out will be very rapid.
The notion, that the Ministers will do " something " is clung
on to, by all those who are deeply in debt, and all who have
leases, or other engagements for time. These believe (because
they anxiously wish) that the paper-money, by means of some
sort or other, will be put out again ; while the Ministers
believe (because they anxiously wish) that the thing can go on,
that they can continue to pay the interest of the debt, and
meet all the rest of their spendings, without one-pound notes,
and without bank-restriction. Both parties will be deceived,
and in the midst of the strife, that the dissipation of the
delusion will infallibly lead to, the whole Thing is very likely
to go to pieces ; and that, too, mind, tumbling into the hands
and placed at the mercy of a people, the millions of whom
have been fed upon less, to four persons, than what goes down
the throat of one single common soldier ! Please to mind
that, Messieurs the admirers of select vestries ! You have not
done it, Messieurs Sturges Bourne and the Hampshire Parsons !
You thought you had ! You meaned well ; but it was a coup-
manqu'e, a missing of the mark, and that, too, as is frequently
the case, by over-shooting it. The attempt will, however,
produce its just consequences in the end ; and those conse
quences will be of vast importance.
From Weyhill I was shown, yesterday, the wood, in which
took place the battle, in which was concerned poor Turner,

1 The present agricultural depression, seems to emphasise the graphic
description of the lamentable times to which reference is here made ; and
would make one almost desire that the powerful appeal of the Author
to "The Journeymen and Labourers of England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland" which appeared in his Register, No. 16, November 2, 1816, and
of which 44,000 copies were sold in one month, could be again republished.

2 oo Rural Ride from
one of the young men, who was hanged at Winchester, in the
year 1822. There was another young man, named Smith,
who was, on account of another game-battle, hanged on the
same gallows ! And this for the preservation of the game, you
will observe ! This for the preservation of the sports of that
aristocracy for whose sake, and solely for whose sake, " Sir
" James Graham, of Netherby, descendant of the Earls of
" Monteith and of the seventh Earl of Galloway, KT."
(being sure not to omit the KT.) ; this hanging of us, is foi
the preservation of the sports of that aristocracy, for the sake
of whom this Graham, this bare-faced plagiarist, this bungling
and yet impudent pamphleteer, would sacrifice, would reduce
to beggary, according to his pamphlet, three hundred thousand
families (making, doubtless, two millions of persons), in the
middle rank of life ! It is for the preservation, for upholding
what he insolently calls the " dignity " of this sporting aris
tocracy, that he proposes to rob all mortgagees, all who have
claims upon land ! The feudal lords in France had, as Mr.
Young tells us, a right, when they came in, fatigued, from
hunting or shooting, to cause the belly of one of their vassals
to be ripped up, in order for the lord to soak his feet in the
bowels ! Sir James Graham of the bright sword does not pro
pose to cany us back so far as this ; he is willing to stop at
taking away the money and the victuals of a very large part
of the community ; and, monstrous as it may seem, I will
venture to say, that there are scores of the Lord-Charles tribe
who think him moderate to a fault !
But to return to the above-mentioned hanging at Winchester
(a thing never to be forgotten by me), James Turner, aged 28
years, was accused of assisting to kill Robert Baker, game
keeper to Thomas Asheton Smith, Esq., in the parish of
South Tidworth ; and Charles Smith, aged 27 years, was
accused of shooting at (not killing) Robert Snelgrove, assis
tant game-keeper to Lord Palmerston (Secretary at War), at
Broad-lands in the Parish of Romsey. Poor Charles Smith
had better have been hunting after sliares than after hares!
Mines, however deep, he would have found less perilous than

Burghclere to Lyndhursl. 201
the pleasure grounds of Lord Palmerston ! I deem this
hanging at Winchester worthy of general attention, and par
ticularly at this time when the aristocracy near Andover,
and the members for that town, (of whom this very Thomas
Asheton Smith, until lately, was one,) were, if the report
in the Morning Chronicle (copied into the Register of the
7 th instant) be correct, endeavouring, at the late Meeting at
Andover, to persuade people, that they (these aristocrats)
wished to keep up the price of corn for the sake of the
labourers, whom Sir John Pollen (Thomas Asheton Smith's
son's present colleague as member for Andover) called " poor
devils," and who, he said, had " hardly a rag to cover them ! "
Oh ! wished to keep up the price of corn for the good of the
"poor devils of labourers who have hardly a rag to cover
them ! " Amiable feeling, tender-hearted souls ! Cared not a
straw about rents I Did not ; oh, oh ! did not care even about
the farmers ! It was only for the sake of the poor, naked
devils of labourers, that the colleague of young Thomas
Asheton Smith cared ; it was only for those who were in the
same rank of life as James Turner and Charles Smith were,
that these kind Andover aristocrats cared ! This was the
only reason in the world for their wanting corn to sell at a
high price ? We often say, " that beats every thing ; " but
really, I think, that these professions of the Andover aristo
crats do " beat everything." Ah! but Sir John Pollen, these
professions come too late in the day : the people are no longer
to be deceived by such stupid attempts at disguising hypocrisy.
However, the attempt shall do this : it shall make me repeat
here that which I published on the Winchester hanging, in the
Register of the 6th of April 1822. It made part of a " Letter
to Landlords." Many boys have, since this article was pub
lished, grown up to the age of thought. Let them now read
it : and I hope, that they will remember it well.

2 o 2 Rural Ride from
I, last fall, addressed ten letters to you on the subject of
the Agricultural Report. My object was to convince you, that
you would be ruined ; and, when I think of your general con
duct towards the rest of the nation, and especially towards the
labourers, I must say that I have great pleasure in seeing that
my opinions are in a fair way of being verified to the full
extent. I dislike the Jews ; but, the Jews are not so inimical
to the industrious classes of the country, as you are. We
should do a great deal better with the 'Squires from 'Change
Alley, who, at any rate, have nothing of the ferocious and
bloody in their characters. Engrafted upon your narive want
of feeling, is the sort of military spirit of command, that you
have acquired during the late war. You appeared, at the
close of that war, to think that you had made a conquest of the
rest of the nation for ever; and, if it had not been for the
burden which the war left behind it, there would have been
no such thing as air, in England, for any one but a slave to
breathe. The Bey of Tunis never talked to his subjects in
language more insolent than you talked to the people of
England. The debt, the blessed Debt, stood our friend,
made you soften your tone, and will finally place you, where
you ought to be placed.
This is the last Letter that I shall ever take the trouble to
address to you. In a short time, you will become much too
insignificant to merit any particular notice ; but just in the
way of farewell, and that there may be something on record
to show what care has been taken of the partridges, pheasants,
and hares, while the estates themselves have been suffered to
slide away, I have resolved to address this one more Letter to
you, which resolution has been occasioned by the recent
putting to death, at Winchester, of two men denominated
Poachers. This is a thing, which, whatever you may think of
it, has not been passed over, and is not to be passed over,
without full notice and ample record. The account of the
matter, as it appeared in the public prints, was very short, but
the fact is such as never ought to be forgotten. And while
you are complaining of your " distress," I will endeavour to

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 20

_

lay before the public that which will show, that the law has'
not been unmindful of even your sports. The time is ap
proaching, when the people will have an opportunity of exer
cising their judgment as to what are called " game-laws ; "
when they will look back a little, at what has been done, for'
the sake of insuring sport to landlords. In short, landlords as
well as labourers will pass under review. But, I must proceed
to ray subject, reserving reflections for a subsequent part of
my letter.
The account, to which I have alluded, is this :
" Hampshire. The Lent Assizes for this county concluded
"on Saturday morning. The Criminal Calendar contained 58
"prisoners for trial, 16 of whom have been sentenced to suffer
"death, but two only of that number (poachers) were left by
" the Judges for execution, viz. : James Turner, aged 28, foi
" aiding and assisting in killing Robert Baker, gamekeeper to
"Thomas Asheton Smith, Esq., in the parish of South Tid-
" worth, and Charles Smith, aged 27, for having wilfully and
" maliciously shot at Robert Snellgrove, assistant gamekeeper
" to Lord Palmerston, at Broadlands, in the parish of Romsey,
"with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. The Judge
" (Burrough) observed, it became necessary in these cases, that
"the extreme sentence of the law should be inflicted, to deter
"others, as resistance to gamekeepers, had now arrived at an
" alarming height, and many lives had been lost."
The first thing to observe here is, that there were sixteen
persons sentenced to suffer death ; and that, the only persons
actually put to death, were those who had been endeavouring
to get at the hares, pheasants or partridges of Thomas Asheton
Smith, and of bur Secretary at War, Lord Palmerston.
Whether the Judge Burrough (who was long Chairman of the
Quarter Sessions in Hampshire), uttered the words ascribed
to him, or not, I cannot say; but, the words have gone forth
in print, and the impression they are calculated to make is
this : that it was necessary to put these two men to death, in
order to deter others from resisting gamekeepers. The putting
of these men to death has excited a very deep feeling through-

204 Rural Ride from
out the County of Hants ; a feeling, very honourable to the
people of that County, and very natural to the breast of every
human being.
In this case there appears to have been a killing, in which
Turner assisted; and Turner might, by possibility, have given
the fatal blow ; but in the case of Smith, there was no killing
at all. There was a mere shooting at, with intention to do him
bodily harm. This latter offence was not a crime for which
men were put to death, even when there was no assault, or
attempt at assault, on the part of the person shot at ; this was
not a crime punished with death, until that terrible act, brought
in by the late Lord Ellenborough, was passed, and formed a
part of our matchless Code, that Code which there is such a
talk about softening; but which softening does not appear to
have in view this Act, or any portion of the Game-Laws.
In order to form a just opinion with regard to the offence
of these two men that have been hanged at Winchester, we
must first consider the motives by which they were actuated,
in committing the acts of violence laid to their charge. For,
it is the intention, and not the mere act, that constitutes the
crime. To make an act murder, there must be malice afore
thought. The question, therefore, is, did these men attack, or
were they the attacked ? It seems to be clear that they were
the attacked parties : for they are executed, according to this
publication, to deter others from resisting gamekeepers !
I know very well that there is Law for this ; but what I shall
endeavour to show is, that die Law ought to be altered ; that
the people of Hampshire ought to petition for such alteration;
and that if you, the Landlords, were wise, you would petition
also, for an alteration, if not a total annihilation of that terrible
Code, called the Game-Laws, which has been growing harder
and harder all the time that it ought to have been wearing
away. It should never be forgotten, that, in order to make
punishments efficient in the way of example, they must be
thought just by the Community at large ; and they will never
be thought just if they aim at the protection of things belong
ing to one particular class of the Community, and, especially,

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 205
if those very things be grudged to this class by the Community
in general. When punishments of this sort take place, they
are looked upon as unnecessary, the sufferers are objects of
pity, the common feeling of the Community is in their favour,
instead of being against them ; and it is those who cause the
punishment, and not those who suffer it, who become objects
of abhorrence.
Upon seeing two of our countrymen hanging upon a gallows,
we naturally, and instantly, run back to the cause. First we
find the fighting with gamekeepers ; next we find that the men
would have been transported if caught in or near a cover with
guns, after dark ; next we find that these trespassers are
exposed to transportation because they are in pursuit, or sup
posed to be in pursuit, of partridges, pheasants or hares ; and
then, we ask, where is the foundation of a law to punish a man
with transportation for being in pursuit of these animals ? And
where, indeed, is the foundation of the Law, to take from any
man, be he who he may, the right of catching and using these
animals? We know very well; we are instructed by mere
feeling, that we have a right to live, to see and to move.
Common sense tells us that there are some things which no
man can reasonably call his property; and though poachers
(as they are called) do not read Blackstone's Commentaries,
they know that such animals as are of a wild and untamable
disposition, any man may seize upon and keep for his own
use and pleasure. " All these things, so long as they remain
"in possession, every man has a right to enjoy without dis-
" turbance ; but if once they escape from his custody, or he
"voluntarily abandons the use of them, they return to the
" common stock, and any man else has an equal right to seize
"and enjoy them afterwards." (Book 2, Chapter 1.)
In the Second Book and Twenty-sixth Chapter of Blackslone,
the poacher might read as follows : " With regard likewise to
" wild animals, all mankind had by the original grant of the
" Creator a right to pursue and take away any fowl or insect
"of the air, any fish or inhabitant of the waters, and any beast
" or reptile of the field : and this natural right still continues

206 Rural Ride from
" in every individual, unless where it is restrained by the civil
" laws of the country. And when a man has once so seized
" them, they become, while living, his qualified property, or, if
" dead, are absolutely his own : so that to steal them, or other
wise invade this property, is, according to the respective
" values, sometimes a criminal offence, sometimes only a civil
" injury." Poachers do not read this; but that reason, which is
common to all mankind, tells them, that this is true, and tells
them, also, what to think of any positive law, that is made to
restrain them, from this right granted by the Creator. Before
I proceed further in commenting upon the case immediately
before me, let me once more quote this English Judge, who
wrote fifty years ago, when the Game Code was mild indeed,
compared to the one of the present day. " Another violent
" alteration," says he, " of the English Constitution consisted
" in the depopulation of whole countries, for the purposes of
" the King's royal diversion ; and subjecting both them, and
" all the ancient forests of the kingdom, to the unreasonable
" severities of forest laws imported from the continent, whereby
" the slaughter of a beast was made, almost as penal as the
" death of a man. In the Saxon times, though no man was
" allowed to kill or chase the King's deer, yet he might start
"any game, pursue and kill it upon his own estate. But the
" rigour of these new constitutions vested the sole property of
" all the game in England in the King alone; and no man
" was entitled to disturb any fowl of the air, or any beast of
" the field, of such kinds as were specially reserved for the
" royal amusement of the Sovereign, without express license
" from the King, by a grant of a chase or free warren : and
" those franchises were granted as much with a view to preserve
" the breed of animals, as to indulge the subject. From a
" similar principle to which, though the forest laws are now
" mitigated, and by degrees grown entirely obsolete, yet from
" this root has sprung up a bastard slip, known by the name
" of the game-law, now arrived to and wantoning in its highest
'' vigour : both founded upon the same unreasonable notions

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 207
" of permanent property in wild creatures ; and both produc-
" tive of the same tyranny to the commons : but with this
" difference ; that the forest laws established only one mighty
"hunter throughout the land, the game-laws have raised a
" little Nimrod in every manor." (Book 4, Chapter 33.)
VVhen this was written nothing was known of the present
severity of the law. Judge Blackstone says that the Game
Law was then wantoning in its highest vigour ; what, then,
would he have said, if any one had proposed to make it felony
to resist a Gamekeeper ? He calls it tyranny to the commons,
as it existed in his time; what would he have said of the
present Code ; which so far from being thought a thing to be
softened, is never so much as mentioned by those humane and
gentle creatures, who are absolutely supporting a sort of repu
tation, and aiming at distinction in Society, in consequence of
their incessant talk about softening the Criminal Code ?
The law may say what it will, but the feelings of mankind
will never be in favour of this Code ; and whenever it pro
duces putting to death, it will, necessarily, excite horror. It
is impossible to make men believe that any particular set of
individuals should have a permanent property in wild creatures.
That the owner of land should have a quiet possession of it
is reasonable and right' and necessary ; it is also necessary that
he should have the power of inflicting pecuniary punishment,
in a moderate degree, upon such as trespass on his lands; but,
his right can go no further according to reason. If the law give
him ample compensation for every damage that he sustains,
in consequence of a trespass on his lands, what right has he
to complain ?
The law authorises the King, in case of invasion, or appre
hended invasion, to call upon all his people to take up arms
in defence of the country. The Militia Law compels every
man, in his turn, to become a soldier. And upon what
ground is this ? There must be some reason for it, or else
the law would be tyranny. The reason is, that every man
has rights in the country to which he belongs ; and that, there
fore,, jt is his duty to defend the country. Some rights, too,

208 nural Ride from
beyond that of merely living, that of merely breathing the air.
And then, I should be glad to know, what rights an English
man has, if the pursuit of even wild animals is to be the ground
of transporting him from his country ? There is a sufficient
punishment provided by the law of trespass; quite sufficient
means to keep men off your land altogether ! how can it be
necessary, then, to have a law to transport them for coming
upon your land ? No, it is not for coming upon the land, it
is for coming after the wild animals, which nature and reason
tells them, are as much theirs as they are yours.
It is impossible for the people not to contrast the treatment
of these two young men at Winchester with the treatment of
some game-keepers that have killed or maimed the persons
they call poachers ; and it is equally impossible for the people
when they see these two men hanging on a gallows, after
being recommended to mercy, not to remember the almost
instant pardon, given to the exciseman, who was not recom
mended to mercy, and who was found guilty of wilful murder
in the County of Sussex !
It is said, and, I believe truly, that there are more persons
imprisoned in England for offences against the game-laws,
than there are persons imprisoned in France (with more than
twice the population) for all sorts of offences put together.
When there was a loud outcry against the cruelties committed
on the priests and the seigneurs, by the people of France,
Arthur Young bade them remember the cruelties committed
on the people by the game-laws, and to bear in mind how
many had been made galley-slaves for having killed, or tried
to kill, partridges, pheasants, and hares !
However, I am aware that it is quite useless to address
observations of this sort to you. I am quite aware of that ;
and yet, there are circumstances, in your present situation,
which, one would think, ought to make you not very gay upon
the hanging of the two men at Winchester. It delights me,
I assure you, to see the situation that you are in ; and I shall,
therefore, now, once more, and for the last time, address you
upon that subject. We all remember how haughty, how

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 209
insolent you have been. We all bear in mind your conduct
for the last thirty-five years; and the feeling of pleasure at
your present state is as general as it is just. In my ten
Letters to you, I told you that you would lose your estates.
Those of you who have any capacity, except that which is
necessary to enable you to kill wild animals, see this now,
as clearly as I do ; and yet you evince no intention to change
your courses. You hang on with unrelenting grasp ; and
cry "pauper" and "poacher" and "radical" and "lower
orders " with as much insolence as ever ! It is always thus :
men like you may be convinced of error, but they never
change their conduct. They never become just because they
are convinced that they have been unjust : they must have a
great deal more than that conviction to make them just1

Such was what I then addressed to the Landlords. How
well it fits the present time ! They are just in the same sort
oimess, now, that they were in 1822. But, there is this most
important difference, that the paper-money cannot now be
1 Although the Game Laws, since the Author's day, have been consider
ably modified, they are still oppressive, as their very existence is an incentive
to poaching. They have, however, been already referred to, in the notes
to this work. On the one hand, the Game Laws are severe against
poachers, inasmuch as the Justices, who administer them, are generally
game-preservers ; on the other hand, it is argued that poaching is in
reality stealing, and that game is as much the fruit of the soil, as apples or
turnips ; and that the transition from poaching to stealing is not only easy,
but inevitable. The Author, who makes the Game Laws a special point
of severe criticism, addressed a letter on the subject, in 1828, to the Duke
of Wellington, who was at that time First Minister of the Crown, which
has already been noticed in the biography of Cobbett. Notwithstanding,
however, the Author's censure of the Game Laws, he himself, while
living at Botleyj was a strict preserver of game. Although he was no
shot, he kept sometimes from thirty to forty dogs, consisting of greyhounds,
pointers, setters and spaniels. Moreover, he had a large number of live
liares, brought from Berkshire, to turn down on his farms. In the yea?
1816, he prosecuted a poacher, at Winchester, by suing him as "lor a
trespass," in the Court of Pie Powder (called also the Court of Dustyfoot),
which was an ancient court held in fairs and markets, to administer justice,
in a rough-and-ready way, to all comers.
VOL. II. O

2 i o Ku ral Ride from
put out, in a quantity sufficient to save them, without produc
ing not only a "late panic," worse than the last, but, in all
probability, a total blowing up of the whole system, game-laws,
new trespass laws, tread-mill, Sunday-tolls, six-acts, sun-set
and sun-rise laws, apple-felony laws, select-vestry laws, and
all the whole Thing, root and trunk and branch ! Aye, not
sparing, perhaps, even the tent, or booth of induction, at
Draycot Foliot ! Good Lord ! How should we be able to
live without game-laws ! And tread-mills, then ? And Sunday-
tolls? How should we get on without pensions, sinecures,
tithes, and the other "glorious institutions" of this "mighty
empire?" Let us turn, however, from the thought; but,
bearing this in mind, if you please, Messieurs the game-people ;
that if, no matter in what shape and under what pretence;
if, I tell you, paper be put out again, sufficient to raise the
price of a South Down ewe to the last year's mark, the
whole system goes to atoms. I tell you that ; mind it ; and
look sharp about you, O ye fat parsons ; for tithes and half-
pay will, be you assured, never, from that day, again go in
company into parson's pocket.
In this North of Hampshire, as every where else, the
churches and all other things exhibit indubitable marks of
decay. There are along under the North side of that chain
of hills, which divide Hampshire from Berkshire, in this part,
taking into Hampshire about two or three miles wide of the
low ground under the chain, eleven churches in a string, in
about fifteen miles, the chancels of which would contain a
great many more than all the inhabitants, men, women, and
children, sitting at their ease with plenty of room. How
should this be otherwise, when, in the parish of Burghclere,
one single farmer holds by lease, under Lord Carnarvon, as
one farm, the lands that men, now living, can remember to
have formed fourteen farms, bringing up, in a respectable
way, fourteen fimilies? In some instances these small farm
houses and homesteads are completely gone ; in others, the
buildings remain, but in a tumble-down state ; in others the
house is gone, leaving the barn for use as a barn, or as a

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 2 1 1
catde-shed ; in, others the out-buildings are gone, and the
house, with rotten thatch, broken windows, rotten door-sills,
and all threatening to fall, remains as the dwelling of a half-
starved, and ragged family of labourers, the grandchildren,
perhaps, of the decent family of small farmers, that formerly
lived happily in this very house.
This, with few exceptions, is the case all over England ;
and, if we duly consider the nature and tendency of the
hellish system of taxing, of funding, and of paper-money, it
must be so. Then, in this very parish of Burghclere, there
was, until a few months ago, a famous cock-parson, the
" Honourable and Reverend " George Herbert, who had
grafted the parson upon the soldier and the justice upon the
parson ; for, he died, a little while ago, a half-pay officer in
the army, rector of two parishes, and chairman of the quarter
sessions of the county of Hants ! ! Mr. Hone gave us, in his
memorable " House that Jack built," a portrait of the " Clerical
Magistrate." l Could not he, or somebody else, give us a
portrait of the military and of the naval parson 1 For, such
are to be found all over the kingdom. Wherever I go, I
hear of them. And yet, there sits Burdett, and even Sir
Bobby of the Borough, and say not a word upon the subject ! 3
This is the case : the King dismissed Sir Bobby from the
half-pay list, scratched his name out, turned him off, stopped
his pay. Sir Bobby complained, alleging that the half-pay
was a reward for past, services. No, no, said the Ministers :
it is a retaining fee for future services. Now, the law. is, and

1 " The House that Jack Built " was supposed to be one of the many
clever political satires which were published by Mr. William Hone. This
pamphlet was an attack upon George IV., and his Ministers, at the
time of Queen Caroline coming to England in 1820. No less than
twenty-eight editions, and 140,000 copies, were said to have been sold in
six weeks.
2 " Sir Bobby,'' was General Sir Robert Wilson, who served under Sir
Ralph Abercromby in Egypt. He subsequently espoused the cause of
Queen Caroline, and was dismissed the army in consequence. His gallant
conduct in the matter is frequently the subject of the Author's praise. In
18 18 he was returned to Parliament, in the Liberal interest, for Southwark,
and retained his seat until 1S31. ¦

212

Rural Ride from

the Parliament declared, in the case of parson Home Tooke,1
that once a parson always a parson, and that a parson cannot,
of course, again serve as an officer under the crown. Yet
these military and naval parsons have " a retaining fee for
future military and naval services ! " Never was so barefaced
a thing before heard of in the world. And yet there sits Sir
Bobby, stripped of his " retaining fee," and says not a word
about the matter ; and there sit the big Whigs, who gave Sir
Bobby the subscription, having sons, brothers, and other
relations, military and naval parsons, and the big Whigs
of course, bid Sir Bobby (albeit given enough to twattle)
hold his tongue upon the subject ; and there sit Mr. Wether-
spoon (I think it is), and the rest of Sir Bobby's Rump,
toasting " the independence of the Borough and its member ! "
" That's our case," as the lawyers say : match it if you
can, D  , in all your roamings up and down throughout
the earth ! I have often been thinking, and, indeed, expect
ing, to see Sir Bobby turn parson himself, as the likeliest way
to get back his half-pay. If he should have " a call," I do
hope we shall have him for parson at Kensington ; and, as
an inducement, I promise him, that I will give him a good
thumping Easter-offering.
In former Rides, and especially in 1821 and 1822, I
described very fully this part of Hampshire. The land is a
chalk bottom, with a bed of reddish, stiff loam, full of flints, at

1 John Home Tooke was a celebrated etymologist and political adven
turer, who, to please his father, and strongly against his own inclination,
took holy orders in 1760. But the disgust which he entertained for his
profession, led him to indulge in a licence of speech and life, which
fatally affected his honesty of character. In 1773 he relinquished his pro
fession, and studied law, but he was never admitted to the Bar. In 1775,
he was fined and imprisoned in the King's Bench for publishing a state
ment accusing the King's troops of having barbarously murdered the
Americans at Lexington. In 1790, and again in 1796, he stood as a
candidate for Westminster, but was unsuccessful on both occasions. At
length, in 1801, this great declaimer against "rotten boroughs" was
returned to Parliament lor the most rotten borough in England, viz., " Old
Sarum," but by a vote it was declared that he could not take his seat
because he was in holy orders.

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 2 r 3
top. In those parts, where the bed of loam and flints is deep,
the land is arable or woods : where the bed of loam and flints
is so shallow as to let the plough down to the chalk, the
surface is downs. In the deep and long valleys, where there
is constantly, or occasionally, a stream of water, the top soil is
blackish, and the surface meadows. This has been the distri
bution from all antiquity, except that, in ancient times, part of
that which is now downs and woods was corn-land, as we know
from the marks of the plough. And yet the Scotch fellows
would persuade us, that there were scarcely any inhabitants in
England before it had the unspeakable happiness to be united
to that fertile, warm, and hospitable country, where the people
are so well off, that they are above having poor-rates !
The tops of the hills here, are as good corn-land as any
other part ; and it is all excellent corn-land, and the fields and
woods singularly beautiful. Never was there what may be
called a more hilly country, and all in use. Coming from
Burghclere, you come up nearly a mile of steep hill, from the
top of which you can see all over the country, even to the
Isle of Wight ; to your right, * a great part of Wiltshire ; into
Surrey, on your left ; and, turning round, you see, lying below
you, the whole of Berkshire, great part of Oxfordshire, and
part of Gloucestershire. This chain of lofty hills was a great
favourite with Kings and rulers in ancient times. At High-
clere, at Combe, and at other places, there are remains of
great encampments, or fortifications ; and, Kingsclere was a
residence of the Saxon Kings, and continued to be a royal
residence long after the Norman Kings came. King John,
when residing at Kingsclere, founded one of the charities'
which still exists in the town of Newbury, which is but a few
miles from Kingsclere.
From the top of this lofty chain, you come to Uphusband
(or the Upper Hurstbourn) over two miles or more of ground,
descending in the way that the body of a snake descends
(when he is going fast) from the high part, near the head,
down to the tail ; that is to say, over a series of hill and dell,
but the dell part going constantly on increasing upon the hilly

2 1 4 Rttral Ride from
part, till you come down to this village ; and then you, con
tinuing on (southward) towards Andover, go up, directly, half
a mile of hill so steep, as to make it very difficult, for an
ordinary team with a load, to take- that load up it So this
__>-hurstbourn (called so because higher up the valley than the
other Hurstbourns) the flat part of the road to which, from
the north, comes in between two side-hills, is in as narrow and
deep a dell, as any place that I ever saw.
The houses of the village are, in great part, scattered about,
and are amongst very lofty and fine trees ; and, from many,
many points round about, from the hilly fields, now covered
with the young wheat, or with scarcely less beautiful sainfoin,
the village is a sight worth going many miles to see. The
lands, too, are pretty beyond description. These chains of
hills make, below them, an endless number of lower hills, of
varying shapes and sizes and aspects and of relative state as
to each other ; while the surface presents, in the size and form
of the fields, in the woods, the hedge-rows, the sainfoin, the
young wheat, the turnips, the tares, the fallows, the sheep-folds
and the flocks, and, at every turn of your head, a fresh and
different set of these ; this surface all together presents that,
which I, at any rate, could look at with pleasure for ever.
Not a sort of country that I like so well, as when there are
downs, and a broader valley, and more of meadow ; but, a sort
of country that I like next to that ; for, here, as there, there
are no ditches, no water-furrows, no dirt, and never any
drought to cause inconvenience. The chalk is at bottom, and
it takes care of alL The crops of wheat have been very good
here this year, and those of barley not very bad. The sain
foin has given a fine crop of the finest sort of hay in the world,
and, this year, without a drop of wet.
I wish, that, in speaking of this pretty village (which I
always return to with additional pleasure), I could give a good
account of the state of those, without whose labour, tliere would
be neitlier corn, nor sainfoin, nor sheep. I regret to say, that
my account of this matter, if I gave it truly, must be a dismal
account indeed 1 For, I have, in no part of England, seen the

Burghclere to Lyndhurst, 215
!_¦_ .—¦¦ J.-.i.nl .- lmir ¦  - , 1 i t , ..¦¦„.,    ¦ 
labouring people so badly off as they are here. This has
made so much impression on me, that I shall enter fully into
the matter, with names, dates, and all the particulars in the
IVth Number of the "Poor Man's Friend." This is one of
the great purposes for which I take these " Rides.'' I am
persuaded, that, before the day shall come when my labours
must cease, / shall have mended the meals of millions. I may
over-rale the effects of my endeavours ; but, this being my
persuasion, I should be guilty of a great neglect of duty, were
I not to use those endeavours. Andover, Sunday, \t,th October,
I went to Weyhill, yesterday, to see the close of the hop
and of the cheese fair ; for, after the sheep, these are the
principal articles. The crop of hops has been, in parts where
they are grown, unusually large, and of super-excellent quality.
The average price of the Farnham hops has been, as nearly as
I can ascertain, seven pounds for a hundred weight ; that of
Kentish hops, five pounds, and that of the Hampshire and
Surrey hops (other than those of Farnham), about five pounds
also. The prices are, considering the great weight of the crop,
very good ; but, if it had not been for the effects of " late
panic" (proceeding, as Baring said, from a "plethora of
money,") these prices would have been a full third, if not
nearly one half, higher; for, though the crop has been so
large and so good, there was hardly any stock on hand ; the
country was almost wholly without hops.
As to cheese, the price, considering the quantity, has been
not one half so high, as it was last year. The fall in the
positive price has been about 20 per cent, and the quantity
made in 1826 has not been above two-thirds as great as that
made in 1825. So that, here is a fall of one-half in real rela
tive price ; that is to say, the farmer, while he has the same
rent to pay that he paid last year, has only half as much money
to receive for cheese, as he received for cheese last year; and
observe, on some farms, cheese is almost the only saleable
produce.

2 1 6 Rural Ride from
After the fair was over, yesterday, I came down from the
Hill (3 miles) to this town of Andover ; which has, within the
last 20 days, been more talked of, in other parts of the king
dom, than it ever was before from the creation of the world
to the beginning of those 20 days. The Thomas Asheton
Smiths and the Sir John Pollens, famous as they have been
under the banners of the Old Navy Purser, George Rose, and
his successors, have never, ever since the death of poor
Turner, been half so famous, they and this Corporation, whom
they represent, as they have been since the Meeting which
they held here, which ended in their defeat and confusion,
pointing them out, as worthy of that appellation of " Poor
Devils," which Pollen thought proper to give to those
labourers, without whose toil, his estate would not be worth a
single farthing.
Having laid my plan to sleep at Andover last night, I went
with two Farnham friends, Messrs. Knowles and West, to dine
at the ordinary at the George Inn, which is kept by one
Sutton, a rich old fellow, who wore a round-skirted sleeved
fustian waistcoat, with a dirty white apron tied round his
middle, and with no coat on ; having a look the eageresl and
the sharpest, that I ever saw in any set of features, in my
whole life-time ; having an air of authority and of mastership,
which, to a stranger, as I was, seemed quite incompatible with
the meanness of his dress and the vulgarity of his manners :
and there being, visible to every beholder, constantly going
on in him, a pretty even contest between the servility of
avarice, and the insolence of wealth. A great part of the
farmers, and other fair-people having gone off home, we
found preparations made for dining only about ten people.
But, after we sat down, and it was seen that we designed to
dine, guests came in apace, the preparations were augmented,
and as many as could dine, came and dined with us.
After the dinner was over, the room became fuller and
fuller; guests came in from the other inns, where they had
been dining, till, at last, the room became as full as possible
in every part, the door being opened, the door-way blocked

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 2 1 7
up, and the stairs, leading to the room, crammed from bottom
to top. In this state of things, Mr. Knowles, who was our
chairman", gave my health, which, of course, was followed by
a speech ; and, as the reader will readily suppose, to have an
opportunity of making a speech was the main motive for my
going to dine at an inn, at any hour, and especially at seven
o'clock at night. In this speech, I, after descanting on the
present devastating ruin, and on those successive acts of the
Ministers and the parliament by which such ruin had been
produced; after remarking on the shuffling, the tricks, the
contrivances from 1797 up to last March, I proceeded to offer
to the company my reasons for believing, that no attempt would
be made to relieve the farmers and others, by putting out the
paper-money again, as in 1822, or by a bank-restriction. Just
as I was stating these my reasons, on a prospective matter
of such deep interest to my hearers, amongst whom were
land-owners, land-renters, cattle and sheep dealers, hop and
cheese producers and merchants, and even one, two or more,
country bankers ; just as I was engaged in stating my reasons
for my opinion on a matter of such vital importance to the
parties present, who were all listening to me with the greatest
attention ; just at this time, a noise was heard, and a sort of
row was taking place in the passage, the cause of which was,
upon inquiry, found to be no less a personage than our land
lord, our host Sutton, who, it appeared, finding that my
speech-making had cut off, or, at least, suspended, all inter
course between the dining, now become a drinking, room
and the bar ; who, finding that I had been the cause of a
great "restriction in the exchange" of our money for his
"neat" "genuine" commodities down stairs, and being,
apparently, an ardent admirer of the " liberal " system of
"free trade"; who, finding, in short, or, rather, supposing,
that, if my tongue were not stopped from running, his taps
would be, had, though an old man, fought, or, at least,
forced his way up the thronged stairs and through the passage
and door-way, into the room, and was (with what breath the
struggle had left him) beginning to bawl out to me, when

2 1 8 Rural Ride from
some one called to him, and told him that he was causing
an interruption, to which he answered, that that was what
he had come to do ! And then he went on to say, in so
many words, that my speech injured his sale of liquor !
Tne disgust and abhorrence, which such conduct could not
fail to excite, produced, at first, a desire to quit the room and
the house, and even a proposition to that effect But, after a
minute or so, to reflect, the company resolved not to quit the
room, but to turn him out of it, who had caused the interrup
tion ; and the old fellow, finding himself tackled, saved the
labour of shoving, or kicking, him out of the room, by retreat
ing out of the door-way, with all the activity of which he was
master. After this, I proceeded with my speech-making ; and,
this being ended, the great business of the evening, namely,
drinking, smoking, and singing, was about to be proceeded in,
by a company, who had just closed an arduous and anxious
week, who had before them a Sunday morning to sleep in,
and whose wives were, for the far greater par^ at a convenient
distance. An assemblage of circumstances, more auspicious
to " free-trade " in the " neat " and " genuine," has seldom
occurred ! But, now behold, the old fustian-jacketed fellow,
whose head was, I think, pmvdered, took it into that head, not
only to lay " restrictions " upon trade, but to impose an abso
lute embargo; cut off entirely all supplies whatever from his
bar to the room, as long as T remained in that room. A
message to this effect, from the old fustian man, having been,
through the waiter, communicated to Mr. Knowles, and he
having communicated it to the company, I addressed the
company in nearly these words: "Gentlemen, born and
" bred, as you know I was, on the borders of this county, and
"fond, as I am of bacon, Hampshire hogs have, with me,
"always been objects of admiration rather than of contempt;
"but that which has just happened here, induces me to ob-
" serve, that this feeling of mine has been confined to hogs of
"four legs. For my part, I like your company too well to
" quit it. I have paid this fellow six shillings for the wing of
"a fowl, a bit of bread, and a pint of small beer. I have a

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 219
" right to sit here ; I want no drink, and those who do, being
" refused it here, have a right to send to other houses for it,
" and to drink it here."
However, Mammon soon got the upper hand down stairs,
all the fondness for " free trade " returned, and up came the
old fustian-jacketed fellow, bringing pipes, tobacco, wine,
grog, sling, and seeming to be as pleased as if he had just
sprung a mine of gold ! Nay, he, soon after this, came into
the room with two gentlemen, who had come to him to ask
where I was. He actually came up to me, making me a bow,
and, telling me that those gentlemen wished to be introduced
to me, he, with a fawning look, laid his hand upon my knee !
" Take away your paw" said I, and, shaking the gentlemen
by the hand, I said, "I am happy to see you, gentlemen,
" even though introduced by this fellow." Things now pro
ceeded without interruption ; songs, toasts, and speeches filled
up the time, until half-past two o'clock this morning, though
in the house of a landlord who receives the sacrament, but
who, from his manifestly ardent attachment to the "liberal
principles" of "free trade," would, I have no doubt, have
suffered us, if we could have found money and throats and
stomachs, to sit and sing and talk and drink until two o'clock
of a Sunday afternoon instead of two o'clock of a Sunday
morning. It was not politics ; it was not personal dislike to
me; for the fellow knew nothing of me. It was, as I told the
company, just this : he looked upon their bodies as so many
gutters to drain off the contents of his taps, and upon their
purses, as so many small heaps from which to take the means
of augmenting his great one ; and, finding that I had been,
no matter how, the cause of suspending this work of " reci
procity," he wanted, and no matter how, to restore the reci
procal system to motion. All that I have to add is this : that
the next time this old sharp-looking fellow gets six shillings
from me, for a dinner, he shall, if he choose, cook me, in any
manner that he likes, and season me with hand so unsparing
as to produce in the feeders thirst unquenchable.
To-morrow morning we set off for the New Forest ; and,

2 20 Rural Ride from
indeed, we have lounged about here long enough. But, as
some apology, I have to state, that, while I have been in a
sort of waiting upon this great fair, where one hears, sees, and
learns so much, I have been writing No. IV. of the "Poor
Man's Friend" which, price twopence, is pubhshed once a
month. I see, in the London newspapers, accounts of dispatches
from Canning! I thought, that he went solely "on a party
of pleasure!" So, the "dispatches" come to tell the King
how the pleasure party gets on ! No : what he is gone to
Paris for, is, to endeavour to prevent the "Holy Allies" from
doing any thing which shall sink the English Government in
the eyes of the world, and thereby favour the radicals, who are
enemies of all " regular Government," and whose success in
England would revive republicanism in France. This is my
opinion. The subject, if I be right in my opinion, was too
ticklish to be committed to paper : Granville Levison Gower
(for that is the man that is now Lord Granville) was, perhaps,
not thought quite a match for the French as a talker ; and,
therefore, the Captain of Eton, who, in 1817, said, that the
"ever living luminary of British prosperity was only hidden
behind a cloud;" and who, in 1819, said, that "Peel's Bill
had set the currency question at rest for ever;" therefore
the profound Captain is gone over to see what he can do.
But, Captain, a word in your ear : we do not care for the
Bourbons any more than we do for you ! My real opinion is,
that there is nothing that can put England to rights, that will
not shake the Bourbon Government This is my opinion;
but I defy the Bourbons to save, or to assist in saving, the
present system in England, unless they and their friends will
subscribe and pay off your debt for you, Captain of toad-
eating and nonsensical and shoe-licking Eton ! Let them pay
off your debt for you, Captain ; let the Bourbons and their
allies do that; or they cannot save you; no, nor can they
help you, even in the smallest degree.

Burghclere to Lyndhurst. 221

Romsey (Hampshire),
Monday, Noon, ibth Oct.
Like a very great fool, I, out of senseless complaisance,
waited, this morning, to breakfast with the friends, at whose
house we slept last night, at Andover. We thus lost two
hours of dry weather, and have been justly punished by about
an hour's ride in the rain. I settled on Lyndhurst as the
place to lodge at to-night ; so we are here, feeding our horses,
drying our clothes, and writing the account of our journey.
We came, as much as possible, all the way through the
villages, and, almost all the way, avoided the turnpike-roads.
From Andover to Stockbridge (about seven or eight miles) is,
for the greater part, an open corn and sheep country, a con
siderable portion of the lands being downs. The wheat and
rye and vetch and sainfoin fields look beautiful here; and,
during the whole of the way from Andover to Romsey, the
early turnips of both kinds are not bad, and the stubble
turnips very promising. The downs are green as meadows
usually are in April. The grass is most abundant in all situa
tions, where grass grows. From Stockbridge to Romsey we
came nearly by the river side, and had to cross the river
several times. This, the River Teste, which, as I described,
in my Ride of last November, begins at Uphusband, by
springs, bubbling up, in March, out of the bed of that deep
valley. It is at first a bourn, that is to say, a stream that
runs only a part of the year, and is the rest of the year as dry
as a road. About 5 miles from this periodical source, it
becomes a stream all the year round. After winding about
between the chalk hills, for many miles, first in a general
direction towards the south-east, and then in a similar direc
tion towards the south-west and south, it is joined by the
little stream that rises just above and that passes through
the town of Andover. It is, after this, joined by several other
little streams, with names ; and here, at Romsey, it is a large
and very fine river, famous, all the way down, for trout and
eels, and both of the finest quality.

222 Rural Ride from

Lyndhurst (New Forest),
Monday Evening, i6lh October.
I have just time, before I go to bed, to observe that we
arrived here, about 4 o'clock, over about 10 or n miles of
the best road in the world, having a choice too, for the great
part of the way, between these smooth roads and green
sward. Just as we came out of Romsey, and crossed our
River Teste once more, we saw to our left, the sort of park,
called Broad-Lands, where poor Charles Smith, who (as
mentioned above) was hanged for shooting at (not killing) one
Snelgrove, an assistant game-keeper of Lord Palmerston, who
was then our Secretary at War, and who is in that office, I
believe, now, though he is now better known as a Director of
the grand Mining Joint-Stock Company, which shows the
great industry of this Noble and " Right Honourable person,"
and also the great scope and the various nature and tendency
of his talents. What would our old fathers of the "dark
ages " have said, if they had been told, that their descendants
would, at last, become so enlightened as to enable Jews and
loan-jobbers to take away noblemen's estates by mere "watch
ing the turn of the market," and to cause members, or, at
least, one Member, of that "most Honourable, Noble, and
Reverend Assembly," the King's Privy Council, in which he
himself sits : so enlightened, I say, as to cause one of this
" most Honourable and Reverend body" to become a Director
in a mining speculation ! How one pities our poor, " dark-
age, bigoted " ancestors, who would, I dare say, have been as
ready to hang a man for proposing such a " liberal " system as
this, as they would have been to hang him for shooting at (not
killing) an assistant game-keeper ! Poor old fellows ! How
much they lost by not living in our enlightened times ! I am
here close by the Old Purser's son George Rose's !

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 223

RIDE : FROM LYNDHURST (NEW FOREST) TO BEAULIEU ABBEY ;
THENCE TO SOUTHAMPTON AND WESTON ; THENCE TO
BOTLEY, ALLINGTON, WEST END, NEAR HAMBLEDON; AND
THENCE TO PETERSFIELD, THURSLEY, GODALMING.
But where is now the goodly audit ale ?
The purse-proud tenant, never known to fail?
The farm which never yet was left on hand ?
The marsh reclaim'd to most improving land ?
The impatient hope of the expiring lease ?
The doubling rental ? What an evil's peace !
In vain the prize excites the ploughman's skill,
In vain the Commons pass their patriot Bill ;
The Landed Interest — (you may understand
The phrase much better leaving out the Land) —
The land self-interest groans from shore to shore,
For fear that plenty should attain the poor.
Up, up again, ye rents ! exalt your notes,
Or else the Ministry will lose their votes,
And patriotism, so delicately nice,
Her loaves will lower to the market price.
Lord Byron, Age of Bronze.
Weston Grove, Wednesday, 18 Oct., 1826.
Yesterday, from Lyndhurst to this place, was a ride, includ
ing our round-abouts, of more than forty miles ; but the roads
the best in the world, one half of the way green turf; and the
day as fine an one as ever came out of the heavens. We took
in a breakfast, calculated for a long day's work, and for no
more eating till night. We had slept in a room, the access to
which was only through another sleeping room, which was also
occupied; and, as I had got up abdut two. o'clock at Andover,
we went to bed, at Lyndhurst, about half-past seven o'clock.
I was, of course, awake by three or four ; I had eaten little over
night; so that here lay I, not liking (even after day-light
began to glimmer) to go through a chamber, where, by possi
bility, there might be " a lady " actually in bed; here lay I,
my bones aching with lying in bed, my stomach growling for
victuals, imprisoned by my modesty. But, at last, I grew
impatient ; for, modesty here or modesty there, I was not to

224 Rural Ride from
be penned up and starved : so, after having shaved and dressed
and got ready to go down, I thrusted George out a little
before me into the other room ; and, through we pushed, pre
viously resolving, of course, not to look towards the bed that
was there. But, as the devil would have it, just as I was
about the middle of the room, I, like Lot's wife, turned my
head ! All that I shall say is, first, that the consequences that
befell her, did not befall me, and, second, that I advise those,
who are likely to be hungry in the morning, not to sleep in
inner rooms ; or, if they do, to take some bread and cheese in
their pockets. Having got safe down stairs, I lost no time in
inquiry after the means of obtaining a breakfast to make up
for the bad fare of the previous day; and finding ray land
lady rather tardy in the work, and not, seemingly, having a
proper notion of the affair, I went myself, and, having found
a butcher's shop, bought a loin of small, fat, wether mutton,
ivhich I saw cut out of the sheep and cut into chops. These
were brought to the inn ; George and I ate about 2 lb. out of
the 5 lb., and, while I was writing a letter, and making up my
packet, to be ready to send from Southampton, George went
out and found a poor woman to come and take away the rest
of the loin of mutton ; for, our fastings of the day before
enabled us to do this ; and though we had about forty miles
to go, to get to this place (through the route that we intended
to take), I had resolved, that we would go without any more
purchase of victuals and drink this day also. I beg leave to
suggest to my well-fed readers ; I mean, those who have at
their command more victuals and drink than they can possibly
swallow ; I beg to suggest to such, whether this would not be
a good way for them all to find the means of bestowing
charity? Some poet has said, that that which is given in
charity gives a blessing on both sides ; to the giver as well as
the receiver.1 But, I really think, that, if, in general, the food
1 The quotation is from "The Merchant of Venice," act iv., scene I s—
Portia, addressing the Court, says,
" The quality of mercy is not strain'd ;
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 225
and drink given, came out of food and drink deducted from the
usual quantity swallowed by the giver, the blessing would be
still greater, and much more certain. I can speak for myself,
at any rate. I hardly ever eat more than twice a day ; when
at home, never; and I never, if I can well avoid it, eat any
meat later than about one or two o'clock in the day. I drink
a little tea, or milk and water, at the usual tea-time (about 7
o'clock) ; I go to bed at eight, if I can ; I write or read, from
about four to about eight, and then, hungry as a hunter, I go
to breakfast eating as small a parcel of cold meat and bread,
as I can prevail upon my teeth to be satisfied with. I do just
the same at dinner time. I very rarely taste garden-stuff of
any sort. If any man can show me, that he has done, or can
do more work, bodily and mentally united ; I say nothing
about good health, for of that, the public can know nothing ;
but, I refer to the work : the public know, they see, what I
can do, and what I actually have done, and what I do ; and,
when any one has shown the public, that he has done, or can
do more, then I will advise my readers attend to him, on the
subject of diet, and not to me. As to drink, the less the
better ; and mine is milk and water, or, not-sour small beer,
if I can get the latter ; for the former I always can. I like
the milk and water best ; but I do not like much water ; and,
if I drink much milk, it loads, and stupifies, and makes me
fat. Having made all preparations for a day's ride, we set off,
as our first point, for a station, in the Forest called New Park,
there to see something about plantations and other matters
connected with the affairs of our prime cocks, the Surveyors
of Woods and Forests and Crown Lands and Estates. But,
before I go forward any further, I must just step back again
to Romsey, which we passed rather too hastily through on the
1 6th, as noticed in the Ride that was published last week.
This town was, in ancient times, a very grand place, though

Upon the place beneath ; it is twice bless'd ;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.'
VOL. II.

226 Rural Ride from
it is now nothing more than a decent market-town, without
any thing to entitle it to particular notice, except its church,
which was the church of an Abbey Nunnery (founded more,
I think, than a thousand years ago), and which church was
the burial place of several of the Saxon Kings, and of
Viscountess Palmerston, who, a few years ago (in 1769),
"died in child-birth!" What a mixture! But, there was
another personage buried here, and who was, it would
seem, a native of the place ; namely, Sir William Petty,
the ancestor of the present Marquis of Lansdowne. He
was the son of a cloth-weaver, and was, doubtless, him
self, a weaver when young. He became a surgeon,
was first in the service of Charles I. ; then went into that
of Cromwell, whom he served as physician-general to his
army in. Ireland (alas ! poor Ireland), and in this capacity, he
resided at Dublin till Charles II. came, when he came over to
London (having become very rich), was knighted by that pro
fligate and ungrateful King, and he died in 1687, leaving a
fortune of 15,000/. a year! This is what his biographers say.
He must have made pretty good use of his time, while
physician-general to Cromwell's army, in poor Ireland ! Petty
by nature, as well as by name, he got, from Cromwell, a
" patent for double-writing, invented by him ; '' and he invented
a "double-bottomed ship io sail against wind and tide, a model
" of which is still preserved in the library of the Royal
" Society," of which he was a most worthy member. His great
art was, however, the amassing of money, and the getting of
grants of lands in poor Ireland, in which he was one of the
most successful of the English adventurers. I had, the other
day, occasion to observe, that the word Petty manifestly is
the French word Petit, which means little ; and that it is, in
these days of degeneracy, pleasing to reflect that there is one
family, at any rate, that " Old England " still boasts one family,
which retains the character designated by its pristine name ;
a reflection that rushed with great force into my mind, when,
in the year 1822, I heard the present noble head of the family
say, in the House of Lords, that he thought, that a currency

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 227
of paper, convertible into gold, was the best and most solid
and safe, especially since Platina had been discovered I " Oh,
God 1 " exclaimed I to myself, as I stood listening and admir
ing " below the bar ; " " Oh, great God ! there it is, there it
" is, still running in the blood, that genius which discovered
" the art of double-writing, and of making ships with double-
" bottoms to sail against wind and tide ! " This noble and
profound descendant of Cromwell's army-physician has now
seen, that "paper, convertible into gold," is not quite so
" solid and safe " as he thought it was ! He has now seen
what a " late panic " is ! And he might, if he were not so
very well worthy of his family name, openly confess, that he
was deceived, when, in 18 19, he, as one of the Committee,
who reported in favour of Peel's Bill, said that the country
could pay the interest of the debt in gold ! Talk of a change of
Ministry, indeed ! What is to be gained by putting this man
in the place of any of those who are in power now ?
To come back now to Lyndhurst, we had to go about three
miles to New Park, which is a farm in the New Forest, and
nearly in the centre of it. We got to this place about nine
o'clock. There is a good and large mansion-house here, in
which the "Commissioners" of Woods and Forests reside,
when they come into the Forest. There is a garden, a farm
yard, a farm, and a nursery. The place looks like a consider
able gentleman's seat ; the house stands in a sort of park, and
you can see that a great deal of expense has been incurred in
levelling the ground, and making it pleasing to the eye of my
lords "the Commissioners." My business here was to see,
whether any thing had been done towards the making of
Locust plantations. I went first to Lyndhurst to make inquiries,
but, I was there told, that New Park was the place, and the
only place, at which to get information on the subject; and I
was told, further, that the Commissioners were now at New
Park ; that is to say those experienced tree-planters, Messrs.
Arbuthnot, Dawkins, and Company. Gad ! thought I, I am
here coming in close contact with a branch, or at least, a twig
of the great Thing itself ! When I heard this, I was at break-

228 Rural Ride from
fast, and, of course, dressed for the day. I could not, out of
my extremely limited wardrobe, afford a clean shirt for the
occasion ; and so, off we set, just as we were, hoping that
their worships, the nation's tree-planters, would, if they met
with us, excuse our dress, when they considered the nature
of our circumstances. When we came to the house, we
were stopped by a little fence and fastened gate. I got off my
horse, gave him to George to hold, went up to the door, and
rang the bell. Having told my business to a person, who
appeared to be a foreman, or bailiff, he, with great civility, took
me into a nursery which is at the back of the house ; and, I
soon drew from him the disappointing fact, that my lords, the
tree-planters, had departed the day before ! I found; as to
Locusts, that a patch were sowed last spring, which I saw,
which are from one foot to four feet high, and very fine
and strong, and are, in number, about enough to plant two
acres of ground, the plants at four feet apart each way. I
found, that, last fall, some few Locusts had been put out into
plantations of other trees already made ; but that they had not
thriven, and had been barked by the hares ! But, a litde bunch
of these trees (same age), which were planted in the nursery,
ought to convince my lords, the tree-planters, that if they were
to do what they ought to do, the public would very soon be
owners of fine plantations of Locusts, for the use of the navy.
And what are the hares kept for here ? JVJio eats them ?
What right have these Commissioners to keep hares here, to
eat up the trees ? Lord Folkestone killed his hares before he
made his plantation of Locusts ; and, why not kill the hares
in the people's forest ; for, the people's it is, and that these
Commissioners ought always to remember. And, then, again,
why this farm ? What is it fori Why, the pretence for it is
this: that it is necessary to give the deer hay, in winter,
because the lopping down of limbs of trees for them to browse,
(as used to be the practice) is injurious to the growth of timber.
That will be a very good reason for having a hay-farm,
when my lords shall have proved two things ; first, that hay
in quantity equal to what is raised here, could not be bought

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 229
for a twentieth part of the money, that this farm and all its.
trappings cost ; and, second, that there ought to be any deer
kept ! What are these deer fori Who are to eat them ? Are
they for the Royal Family ? Why, there are more deer bred
in Richmond Park alone, to say nothing of Bushy Park, Hyde
Park, and Windsor Park ; there are more deer bred in
Richmond Park alone, than would feed all the branches- of
the Royal Family and a'll their households all the year round,
if every soul of them ate as hearty as ploughmen, and if they
never touched a morsel of any kind of meat but venison !
For what, and for whom, then, are deer kept, in the New
Forest ; and why an expense of hay-farm, of sheds, of racks,
of keepers, of lodges, and other things attending the deer
and the game; an expense, amounting to more money
annually than would have given relief to all the starving
manufactures in the North ! And, again I say, who is all this
venison and game for 1 There is more game even in Kew
Gardens than the Royal Family can want ! And, in short, do
they ever taste, or even hear of, any game, or any venison,
from the New Forest ?
What a pretty thing here is, then ! Here is another deep
bite into us by the long and sharp-fanged Aristocracy, who so
love Old Sarum ! Is there a man who will say that this is
right? And that the game should be kept, too, to eat up
trees, to destroy plantations, to destroy what is first paid for
the planting of ! And that the public should pay keepers to
preserve this game ! And that the people should be transported
if they go out by night, to catch the game that they pay for
feeding ! Blessed state of an Aristocracy ! It is pity that it
has got a nasty, ugly, obstinate debt to deal with ! It might
possibly go on for ages, deer and all, were it not for this debt.
This New Forest is a piece of property, as much belonging to
the public as the Custom-House at London is. There is no
man, however poor, who has not a right in it. Every man
is owner of a part of the deer, the game, and of the money
that goes to the keepers ; and yet, any man may be transported,
if he go out by night, to catch any part of this game ! We are

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compelled to pay keepers for preserving game, to eat up the
trees, that we are compelled to pay people to plant ! Still
however there is comfort ; we might be worse off; for the
Turks made the Tartars pay a tax called tooth-money; that
is to say, they eat up the victuals of the Tartars, and then
made them pay for the use of their teeth. No man can say
that we are come quite to that yet : and, besides, the poor
Tartars had no debt, no blessed Debt to hold out hope to
them. The same person (a very civil and intelligent man) that
showed me the nursery, took me, in my way, back, through
some plantations of oaks, which have been made amongst fir-
trees. It was, indeed, a plantation of Scotch firs, about twelve
years old, in rows, at six feet apart Every third row of firs
was left, and oaks were (about six years ago) planted instead
of the firs that were grubbed up ; and the winter shelter, that
the oaks have received from the remaining firs, has made
them grow very finely, though the land is poor. Other oaks
planted in the open, twenty years ago, and in land deemed
better, are not nearly so good. However, these oaks, between
the firs, will take fifty or sixty good years to make them
timber, and, until they be timber, they are of very little use ;
whereas, the same ground, planted with Locusts (and the hares
of " my lords " kept down), would, at this moment, have been
worth fifty pounds an acre. What do " my lords " care about
this? For them, for "my lords," the New Forest would be
no better than it is now ; no, nor so good, as it is now ; for
there would be no hares for them.
From New Park, I was bound to Beaulieu Abbey, and I
ought to have gone in a south-easterly direction, instead of
going back to Lyndhurst, which lay in precisely the opposite
direction. My guide through the plantations was not apprised
of my intended route, and, therefore, did not instruct me.
Just before we parted, he asked me my name : I thought it
lucky that he had not asked it before ! When we got nearly
back to Lyndhurst, we found that we had come three miles
out of our way ; indeed, it made six miles altogether ; for,

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 231
we were, when we got to Lyndhurst, three miles further from
Beaulieu Abbey than we were when we were at New Park.
We wanted, very much, to go to the site of this ancient and
famous Abbey, of which the people of the New Forest seemed
to know very little. They call the place Bewley, and even
in the maps, it is called Bauley; Ley, in the Saxon language,
means place, or rather, open place; so that they put ley in
place of lieu, thus beating the Normans out of some part
of the name at any rate. I wished, besides, to see a good
deal of this New Forest. I had been, before, from South
ampton to Lyndhurst, from Lyndhurst to Lymington, from
Lymington to Sway, I had now come in on the north of
Minstead from Romsey, so that I had seen the north of the
Forest and all the west side of it, down to the sea. I had
now been to New Park and had got back to Lyndhurst ; so
that, if I rode across the Forest down to Beaulieu, I went
right across the middle of it, from north-west to south-east.
Then, if I turned towards Southampton, and went to Dipten,
and on to Eling, I should see, in fact, the whole of this
Forest, or nearly the whole of it.
We therefore started, or, rather, turned away from Lynd
hurst, as soon as we got back to it, and went about six miles
over a heath, even worse than Bagshot-Heath ; as barren as it
is possible for land to be. A little before we came to the
village of Beaulieu (which, observe, the people call Beusley),
we went through a wood, chiefly of beech, and that beech
seemingly destined to grow food for pigs, of which we saw>
during this day, many, many thousand. I should think that
we saw at least a hundred hogs, to one deer. I stopped, at
one time, and counted the hogs and pigs just round about me,
and they amounted to 140, all within 50 or 60 yards of my
horse. After a very pleasant ride, on land without a stone in
it, we came down to the Beaulieu river, the highest branch of
which rises at the foot of a hill, about a mile and a half to the
north-east of Lyndhurst. For a great part of the way down to
Beaulieu, it is a very insignificant stream. At last, however,
augmented by springs from the different sand-hills, it becomes

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a little river, and has, on the sides of it, lands which were,
formerly, very • beautiful meadows. When it comes to the
village of Beaulieu, it forms a large pond of a great many
acres ; and on the east side of this pond is the spot, where
this famous Abbey formerly stood, and where the external
walls of which, or a large part of them, are now actually
standing. We went down on the western side of the river.
The Abbey stood, and the ruins stand, on the eastern side.
Happening to meet a man, before I got into the village, I,
pointing with my whip, across towards the Abbey, said to the
man, "I suppose there is a bridge down here, to get across
" to the Abbey." " That's not the Abbey, Sir," says he : " the
" Abbey is about four miles further on." I was astonished to
hear this ; but he was very positive ; said that some people,
called it the Abbey ; but that the Abbey was further on ; and
was at a farm occupied by farmer John BieL Having chapter
and verse for it, as the saying is, I believed the man; and
pushed on towards farmer John Biel's, which I found, as he
had told me, at the end of about four miles. When I got
there (not having, observe, gone over the water to ascertain
that the other was the spot where the Abbey stood) I really
thought, at first, that this must have been the site of the
Abbey of Beaulieu ; because, the name meaning fine place,
this was a thousand times finer place than that where the
Abbey, as I afterwards found, really stood. After looking
about it for some time, I was satisfied that it had not been an
Abbey ; but the place is one of the finest, that ever was seen
in this world. It stands at about half a mile's distance from
the water's edge at high-water mark, and at about the middle
of the space along the coast, from Calshot castle, to
Lymington haven. It stands, of course, upon a rising ground ;
it has a gentle slope down to the water. To the right, you
see Hurst castle, and that narrow passage called the Needles,
I believe ; and, to the left, you see Spithead, and all the ships
that are sailing, or lie anywhere opposite Portsmouth. The
Isle of Wight is right before you, and you have in view, at
one, and the same time, the towns of Yarmouth, Newtown,

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 233
Cowes and Newport, with all the beautiful fields of the island,
lying upon the side of a great bank before, and going up the
ridge of hills in the middle of the island. Here are two little
streams, nearly close to the ruin, which filled ponds for fresh
water fish ; while there was the Beaulieu river, at about half
a mile or three quarters of a mile to the left, "to bring up the
salt-water fish. The ruins consist of part of the walls of a
building about 200 feet long, and about 40 feet wide. It has
been turned into a barn, in part, and the rest into cattle-sheds,
cow-pens, and inclosures and walls to inclose a small yard.
But there is another ruin, which was a church or chapel, and
which stands now very near to the farm-house of Mr. John
Biel, who rents the farm of the Duchess of Buccleugh, who is
now the owner of the abbey-lands and of the lands belonging
to this place. The little church or chapel, of which I have
just been speaking, appears to have been a very beautiful
building. A part only of its walls are standing ; but you see,'
by what remains of the arches, that it was finished in a manner
the most elegant and expensive of the day in which it was
built. Part of the outside of the building is now surrounded
by the farmer's garden ; the interior is partly a pig-stye, and
partly a goose-pen. Under that arch which had once seen so
many rich men bow their heads, we entered into the goose-pen,
which is by no means one of the nicest concerns in the world.-
Beyond the goose-pen was the pig-stye, and in it a hog, which,
when fat, will weigh about 30 score, actually rubbing his
shoulders, against a little sort of column which had supported-
the font and its holy water. The farmer told us that there
was a hole, which, indeed, we saw, going down into the wall,
or rather, into the column where the font had stood. And he
told us that many attempts had been made to bring water to
fill that hole, but that it never had been done.
Mr. Biel was very civil to us. As far as related to us, he
performed the office of hospitality, which was the main
business of those who formerly inhabited the spot. He asked
us to dine with him, which we declined, for want of time ; but
being exceedingly hungry, we had some bread and cheese-

234 Rural Ride from
and some very good beer. The farmer told me that a great
number of gentlemen, had come there to look at that place ;
but that he never could find out what the place had been, or
what the place at Beuley had been. I told him that I would,
when I got to London, give him an account of it; that I
would write the account down, and send it down to him. He
seemed surprised that I should make such a promise, and ex
pressed his wish not to give me so much trouble. I told him
not to say a word about the matter, for that his bread and
cheese and beer were so good that they deserved a full history,
to be written of the place, where they had been eaten and
drunk. "God bless me, Sir, no, no!" I said, I will, upon
my soul, farmer. I now left him, very grateful on our part
for his hospitable reception, and he, I dare say, hardly being
able to believe his own ears, at the generous promise that I
had made him, which promise, however, I am now about to
about to fulfil. I told the farmer a little, upon the spot, to
begin with. I told him that the name was all wrong : that it
was not Beuley but Beaulieu; and that Beaulieu meant fine
place ; and I proved this to him, in this manner. You know,
said I, farmer, that when a girl has a sweet-heart, people call
him her beau ? Yes, said he, so they do. Very well. You
know, also, that we say, sometimes, you shall have this in
lieu of that ; and that when we say lieu, we mean in place of
that. Now the beau means fine, as applied to the young
man, and the lieu means place ; and thus it is, that the name
of this place is Beaulieu, as it is so fine as you see it is. He
seemed to be wonderfully pleased with the discovery ; and we
parted, I believe, with hearty good wishes on his part, and, I
am sure, with very sincere thanks on my part
The Abbey of Beaulieu was founded in the year 1 204, by
King John, for thirty monks of the reformed Benedictine
Order. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary; it
flourished until the year 1540, when it was suppressed, and
the lands confiscated, in the reign of Henry VIII. Its reve
nues were, at that time, four hundred and twenty-eight pounds,
six shillings and eight pence a year, making in money of the

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 235
present day, upwards of eight thousand five hundred pounds a
year. The lands and the abbey, and all belonging to it,
were granted by the king, to one Thomas Wriothesley, who
was a court-pander of that day. From him it passed by sale,
by will, by marriage or by something or another, till, at last,
it has got, after passing through various hands, into the
hands of the Duchess of Buccleugh. So much for the abbey ;
and now, as for the ruins on the farm of Mr. John Biel :
they were the dwelling-place of Knights' Templars, or
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The building they in
habited was called an Hospital, and their business was, to
relieve travellers, strangers, and persons in distress : and, if
called upon, to accompany the king in his wars to uphold
Christianity. Their estate was also confiscated by Henry
VIII. It was worth at the time of being confiscated, up
wards of two thousand pounds a year, money of the present
day. This establishment was founded a little before the
Abbey of Beaulieu was founded ; and it was this foundation,
and not the other, that gave the name of Beaulieu to both
establishments. The Abbey is not situated in a very fine
place. The situation is low; the lands above it rather a
swamp than otherwise ; pretty enough, altogether ; but, by
no means a fine place. The Templars had all the reason in
the world to give the name of Beaulieu to their place. And
it is by no means surprising, that the monks were willing to
apply it to their Abbey.
Now, farmer John Biel, I dare say, that you are a very
good Protestant ; and I am a monstrous good Protestant too.
We cannot bear the Pope, nor " they their priests that make
"men confess their sins and go down upon their marrow-
" bones before them." But, Master Biel, let us give the
devil his due : and, let us not act worse by those Roman Ca
tholics (who, by-the-bye, were our forefathers) than we are
willing to act by the d  himself. Now, then, here were a
set of monks, and also, a set of Knights' Templars. Neither
of them could marry ; of course, neither of them could have
wives and families. They could possess no private property ;

236 Rural Ride from
they could bequeath nothing; they could own nothing; but
that which they owned in common with the rest of their
body. They could hoard no money; they could save no
thing. Whatever they received, as rent for their lands, they
must necessarily spend upon the spot, for, they never could
quit that spot. They did spend it all upon the spot ; they
kept all the poor; Beuley, and all round about Beuley, saw
no misery, and had never heard the d  name of pauper
pronounced, as long as those monks and Templars continued !
You and I are excellent Protestants, farmer John Biel; you
and I have often assisted on the 5th of November to burn
Guy Fawkes, the Pope and the Devil. But, you and I,
farmer John Biel, would much rather be life holders under
monks and Templars, than rack-renters under Duchesses.
The monks and the knights were the lords of their manors ;
but, the farmers under them were not rack-renters; the
farmers under them held by lease of lives, continued in the
same farms from father to son for hundreds of years; they
were real yeomen, and not miserable rack-renters, such as
now till the land of this once happy country, and who are
little better than the drivers of the labourers, for the profit of
the landlords. Farmer John Biel, what the Duchess of
Buccleugh does, you know, and I do not. She may, for
any thing that I know to the contrary, lease her farms on
lease of lives, with rent so very moderate and easy, as for
the farm, to be half as good, as the farmer's own, at any rate.
The Duchess may, for any thing that I know to the contrary,
feed all the hungry, clothe all the naked, comfort all the
sick, and prevent the hated name of pauper from being pro
nounced in the district of Beuley ; her Grace may, for any
thing that I know to the contrary, make poor-rates to be
wholly unnecessary and unknown in your country ; she may
receive, lodge, and feed, the stranger; she may, in short,
employ the rents of this fine estate of Beuley, to make the
whole district happy ; she may not carry a farthing of die
rents away from the spot ; and she may consume, by herself,
and her own family and servants, only just as much as is

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 237
necessary to the preservation of their life and health. Her
¦Grace may do all this ; I do not say or insinuate that she
does not do it all ; but, Protestant here or Protestant there,
farmer John Biel, this I do say, that unless her Grace do
all this, the monks and the Templars, were better for Beuley,
•than her Grace.
From the former station of the Templars, from real Beau
lieu of the New Forest, we came back to the village of Beau
lieu, and there crossed the water to come on towards
Southampton. Here we passed close along under the old
abbey walls, a great part of which are still standing. There
is a mill here which appears to be turned by the fresh water,
but, the fresh water falls, here, into the salt water, as at the
village of Botiey. We did not stop to go about the ruins of
the abbey ; for you seldom make much out, by minute inquiry.
It is the political history of these places ; or, at least, their
connexion with political events, that is interesting. Just
about the banks of this little river, there are some woods and
coppices, and some corn-land ; but, at the distance of half a
mile from the water-side, we came out again upon the intoler
able heath, and went on for seven or eight miles over that
heath, from the village of Beaulieu to that of Marchwood.
Having a list of trees and inclosed lands away to our rjght
all the way along, which list of trees extends from the south
west side of that arm of the sea, which goes from Calshot
castle to Redbridge, passing by Southampton, which lies on
the north-east side. Never was a more barren tract of land
than these seven or eight miles. We had come seven miles
across the forest in another direction in the morning; so
that a poorer spot than this New Forest, there is not in all
England; nor, I believe in the whole world. It is more
barren and miserable than Bagshot heath. There are less
fertile spots in it, in proportion to the extent of each. Still,
it is so large, it is of such great extent, being, if moulded
into a circle, not so little, I believe, as 60 or 70 miles in
circumference, that it must contain some good spots of land,
and, if properly and honestly managed, those spots must

238 Rural Ride from
produce a prodigious quantity of timber. It is a pretty
curious thing, that, while the admirers of the paper-system
are boasting of our "waust improvements Ma'am" there
should have been such a visible, and such an enormous dila
pidation in all the solid things of the country. I have, in
former parts of this ride, stated, that, in some counties, while
the parsons have been pocketing the amount of the tithes and
of the glebe, they have suffered the parsonage-houses either
to fall down and to be lost, brick by brick, and stone by
stone, or to become such miserable places as to be unfit, for
any thing bearing the name of a gentleman to live in; I have
stated, and I am at any time ready to prove, that, in
some counties, this is the case, in more than one half of the
parishes 1
And, now, amidst all these "waust improvements," let us
see how the account of timber, stands in the New Forest !
In the year 1608, a survey of the timber, in the New Forest,
was made, when there were loads of oak timber fit for the
navy, 315,477. Mark that, reader. Another survey was
taken in the year 1783; that is to say, in the glorious
Jubilee reign. And, when there were, in this same New
Forest, loads of oak timber fit for the navy, 20,830. "Waust
improvements, Ma'am," under " the Pilot that weathered the
storm," and in the reign of Jubilee ! What the d  , some
one would say, could have become of all this timber? Does
the reader observe, that there were three hundred and fifteen
thousand, four hundred and seventy-seven loads ? and does
he observe that a load is fifty-two cubic feet? Does the
reader know, what is the price of this load of timber ? I
suppose it is now, taking in lop, top and bark, and bought
upon the spot, (timber fit for the navy, mind !) ten pounds
a load at the least. But, let us suppose, that it has been,
upon an average, since the year 1608, just the time that the
Stuarts were mounting the throne; let us suppose, that it
has been, on an average, four pounds a load. Here is a
pretty tough sum of money. This must have gone into the
pockets of somebody. At any rate, if we had the same

Lyndhurst to Godalming. 239
quantity of timber now, that we had when the Protestant
Reformation took place, or even when Old Betsy turned up
her toes, we should be now three millions of money richer
than we are; not in bills; not in notes payable to bearer on
demand ; not in Scotch " cash credits ; " not, in short, in lies,
falseness, impudence, downright blackguard cheatery and
mining shares and "Greek cause" and the d  knows
what. I shall have occasion to return to this New Forest, which
is, in reality, though, in general, a very barren district,
a much more interesting object to Englishmen than are
the services of my Lord Palmerston, and the warlike under
takings of Burdett, Galloway and Company ; but, I cannot
quit this spot, even for the present, without asking the
Scotch population-mongers, and Malthus and his crew, and
especially George Chalmers, if he should yet be creeping about
upon the face of the earth, what becomes of all their notions
of the scantiness of the ancient population of England ; what
becomes of all these notions, of all their bundles of ridiculous
lies, about the fewness of the people in former times ; what
becomes of them all, if historians have told us one word
of truth, with regard to the formation of the New Forest, by
William the Conqueror. All the historians say, every one
of them says, that this King destroyed several populous towns
and villages in order to make this New Forest1
1 Some historians assert the fact — which, however, has been doubted by
others — that the Conqueror, for the purpose of gratifying his love for the
chase, destroyed thirty-six churches and a great number of villages, hamlets,
and scattered dwellings, and laid waste upwards of 60,000 acres of land
which constitute the present site of the New Forest. It now comprises
66,000 acres of crown land and about 28,000 acres of freehold land. An
Act was passed (9 William III.), to enclose 6000 acres as a nursery for
timber. These 6000 nursery acres are not all in one spot, but are scattered
over the Forest. Deer abound in the Forest, and are often captured by
poachers, who bait a hook with an apple and hang it to the bough of a
tree. Charles I. introduced a breed of the wild boar from Germany. A
few cross-breds still remain in a wild state. Their colour is dark brindled,
or black ; their ears are short, firm, and erect, and there is a fiery glare in
their eyes. Many droves of ponies, almost wild, are also to be seen.
They are supposed to be descended from the Spanish jennets, which

240 Rural Ride from

RIDE: FROM WESTON, NEAR SOUTHAMPTON, TO
KENSINGTON. Western Grove, iZth Oct. 1826.
I broke off abruptly, under this same date, in my last Re
gister, when speaking of William the Conqueror's demolish
ing of towns and villages to make the New Forest; and, I
was about to show, that all the historians have told us lies
the most abominable about this affair of the New Forest;
or, that the Scotch writers on population, and particularly
Chalmers, have been the greatest of fools, or the most impu
dent of impostors. I, therefore, now resume this matter, it
being, in my opinion, a matter of great interest, at a time,
when, in order to account for the present notoriously bad
living of the people of England, it is asserted, that they are
become greatly more numerous than they formerly were.
This would be no defence of the Government, even if the fact
were so ; but, as I have over and over again, proved, the fact
is false; and, to this I challenge denial, that, either churches,
and great mansions, and castles, were formerly made, without
hands; or, England was, seven hundred years ago, much
more populous than it is now. But, what has the formation
of the New Forest to do with this ? A great deal ; for the
historians tell us, that, in order to make this Forest, William
the Conqueror destroyed "many populous towns and vil-
" lages, and thirty-six parish churches !" The d  he did !
How populous, then, must England have been at that time,
which was about the year 1090 ; that is to say, 736 years ago !
For, the Scotch will hardly contend, that the nature of the soil
has been changed for the worse, since that time, especially
as it has not been cultivated. No, no ; brassey as they are,

escaped from the vessels comprising the Spanish Armada, sunk off the
the coast in 1588. There are a great number of cabins of the rudest con
struction, inhabited by woodmen and charcoal-burners, many of whom, it
it said, supplement their livelihood by poaching.

Weston to Kensington. 241
they will not do that. Come, then, let us see how this
matter stands.
This forest has been crawled upon, by favourites, and is
now much smaller than it used to be. A time may, and will
come, for inquiring how George Rose, and others, became
owners of some of the very best parts of this once-public pro
perty; a time for such inquiry must come, before the people
of England will ever give their consent to a reduction of the
interest of the debt! But this we know that the New Forest
formerly extended, westward, from the Southampton Water
and the River Oux, to the River Avon, and northward, from
Lymington Haven to the borders of Wiltshire. We know,
that this was its utmost extent ; and we know, also, that the
towns of Christchurch, Lymington, Ringwood, and Fording-
bridge, and the villages of Bolder, Fawley, Lyndhurst, Dipden,
Eling, Minsted, and all the other villages that now have
churches ; we know, I say (and, pray mark it), that all these
towns, and villages, existed before the Norman Conquest :
because the Roman names of several of them (all the towns)
are in print, and because an account of them all, is to be
found in Domesday Book, which was made, by this very
William the Conqueror. Well, then, now Scotch population-
liars, and you Malthusian blasphemers, who contend that God
has implanted in man a principle, that leads him to starva
tion ; come, now, and face this history of the New Forest.
Cooke, in his geography of Hampshire, says, that the Con
queror destroyed here " many populous towns and villages
'• and thirty-six parish churches." The same writer says, that,
in the time of Edward the Confessor (just before the Con
queror came), " two-thirds of the Forest was inhabited and
" cultivated." Guthrie says nearly the same thing. But, let us
hear the two historians, who are now pitted against each other,
Hume and Lingard. The former (vol. II. p. 277) says
"There was one pleasure to which William, as well as all
" the Normans, and ancient Saxons, was extremely addicted,
" and that was hunting : but this pleasure he indulged more
" at the expense of his unhappy subjects, whose interests he
VOL. II. Q

242 Rural Ride from
"always disregarded, than to the loss or diminution of his
" own revenue. Not content with those large forests, which
" former Kings possessed, in all parts of England, he resolved
" to make a new Forest, near Winchester, the usual place
"of his residence: and, for that purpose he laid waste
" the county of Hampshire, for an extent of thirty miles, ex-
" pelted the inhabitants from their houses, seized their pro-
" perty, even demolished churches and convents, and made the
" sufferers no compensation for the injury." Pretty well for
a pensioned Scotchman : and, now let us hear Dr. Lingard,
to prevent his Society from presenting whose work to me, the
sincere and pious Samuel Butler was ready to go down upon
his marrow bones ; let us hear the good Doctor upon this
subject He says (vol. I. p. 452 and 453), "Though the
" King possessed sixty-eight forests, besides parks and
" chases, in different parts of England, he was not yet satis-
" fied, but for the occasional accommodation of his court,
" afforested an extensive tract of country lying between the
" city of Winchester and the sea coast. The inhabitants were
"expelled: the cottages and the churches were burnt: and
" more than thirty square miles, of a rich and populous district
" were withdrawn from cultivation and converted into a wit-
"derness, to afford sufficient range for the deer, and ample
"space for the royal diversion. The memory of this act of
" despotism, has been perpetuated in the name of the New
" Forest, which it retains at the present day, after the lapse
" of seven hundred and fifty years."
" Historians " should be careful how they make statements
relative to places, which are within the scope of the reader's
inspection. It is next to impossible not to believe, that the
Doctor has, in this case (a very interesting one), merely copied
from Hume. Hume says, that the King "expelled the in-
" habitants ; " and Lingard says " the inhabitants were ex-
" pelted:" Hume says, that the King "demolished the
" churches ; '' and Lingard says that " the churches were
"burnt;" but, Hume says, churches "and convents," and
Lingard knew that to be a lie. The Doctor was too learned

Weston to Kensington. 243

upon the subject of " convents," to follow the Scotchman
here. Hume says, that the King laid "waste the country
" for an extent of thirty miles." The Doctor says, " that a
" district of thirty square miles was withdrawn from cultiva
tion, and converted into a wilderness." Now, what Hume
meaned by the loose phrase, "an extent of thirty miles," I
cannot say; but this I know, that Dr. Lingard's "thirty
" square miles," is a piece of ground only five and a half miles
each way ! So that the Doctor has got here a curious " dis-
" trict," and a not less curious "wilderness;" and, what
number of churches could William find to burn in a space
five miles and a half each way ? If the doctor meaned thirty
miles square, instead of square miles, the falsehood is so mon
strous as to destroy his credit for ever; for here we have
Nine Hundred Square Miles, containing five hundred and
seventy-six thousand acres of land ; that is to say, 56,960 acres
more than are contained in the whole of the county of Surrey,
and 99,840 acres more than are contained in the whole of the
county of Berks 1 This is " history" is it ! And these are
" historians." The true statement is this : the New Forest, according to
its ancient state, was bounded thus : by the line, going from
the River Oux, to the River Avon, and which line there sepa
rates Wiltshire from Hampshire ; by the river Avon ; by the
sea from Christchurch to Calshot Castle : by the Southamp
ton Water ; and by the River Oux. These are the bounda
ries ; and (as any one may, by scale and compass, ascertain),
there are, within these boundaries, about 224 square miles,
containing 143,360 acres of land. Within these limits there
are now remaining eleven parish churches, all of which were
in existence before the time of William the Conqueror; so
that if he destroyed thirty-six parish churches, what a popu
lous country this must have been ! There must have been
forty-seven parish churches ; so that there was, over this whoie
district, one parish church to every, four and three quarters
square miles ! Thus, then, the churches must have stood, on
an average, at within one mile and about two hundred yards

! 44 Rural Ride from

of each other ! And observe, the parishes could, on an ave
rage, contain no more, each, than 2,966 acres of land ! Not
a very large farm j so that here was a parish church to every
large farm, unless these historians are all fools and liars.
I defy any one to say that I make hazardous assertions : I
have plainly described the ancient boundaries: there axe the
maps : any one can, with scale and compass, measure the area
as well as I can. I have taken the statements of historians,
as they call themselves : I have shown that their histories, as
they call them, are fabulous ; or (and mind this or) that Eng
land was, at one time, and that too, eight hundred years ago,
beyond all measure, more populous than it is now. For, observe,
notwithstanding what Dr. Lingard asserts ; notwithstanding
that he describes this district as " rich," it is the very poorest in
the whole kingdom. Dr. Lingard was, I believe, bom and
bred at Winchester; and how, then, could he be so careless;
or, indeed, so regardless of truth (and I do not see why I am
to mince the matter with him), as to describe this as a rich
district? Innumerable persons have seen Bagshot-Heath ;
great numbers have seen the barren heaths between London
and Brighton ; great numbers, also, have seen that wide sweep
of barrenness which exhibits itself between the Golden Farmer
Hill, and Black-water. Nine-tenths of each of these are less
barren than four-fifths of the land in the New Forest Sup
posing it to be credible, that a man so prudent and so wise
as William the Conqueror ; supposing that such a man should
have pitched upon a rich and populous district, wherewith to
make a chase ; supposing, in short, these historians to have
spoken the truth, and supposing this barren land to have been all
inhabited and cultivated, and the people so numerous and so
rich, as to be able to build and endow a parish church, upon every
four and three quarters square miles upon this extensive district ;
supposing them to have been so rich in the produce of the
soil as to want a priest to be stationed at every mile, and 200
yards, in order to help them to eat it ; supposing, in a word,
these historians not to be the most farcical liars that ever put
pen upon paper, this country must, at the time of the Norman

Weston to Kensington.

245

conquest, have literally sivarmed with people ; for, there is the
land now, and all the land, too : neither Hume nor Dr.
Lingard can change the nature of that. There it is, an acre
of it not having, upon an average, so much of productive
capacity in it as one single square rod, taking the average, of
Worcestershire ; and, if I were to say, one single square yard,
I should be right ; there is the land ; and if that land were, as
these historians say it was, covered with people and with
churches, what the d  must Worcestershire have been ! To
this, then, we come at last : having made out, what I under
took to show ; namely, that the historians, as they call them
selves, are either the greatest fools or the greatest liars that ever
existed, or that England was beyond all measure, more populous
eight hundred years ago than it is now.1
Poor, however, as this district is, and culled about as it
has been, for the best spots of land, by those favourites who
have got grants of land, or leases, or something or other, still
there are some spots, here and there, which would grow trees ;
but, never will it grow trees, or anything else to the profit of
this nation, until it become private property. Public property
must, in some cases, be in the hands of public officers ; but,
this is not an affair of that nature. This is too loose a c'on-

1 1 am afraid that the Author's well-argued theory respecting the decrease
of the population of the United Kingdom, since the time of the Conquest,
is not borne out by the opinions of trustworthy statisticians. Mr. Mulhall,
for instance, supplies us with the following table : —

1066 . . .

Thousands Omitted.

Inhabitants per Sq. Mile.

England.

Scotland.

Ireland.

England.

Scotland.

Ireland.

2,15°

350

I.OOO

37 '

II

32

1381 . . .

2,360

400

I,IOO

41

13

35

1672 . . .

5,500

900

1,320

96

29

4«

1754 ¦ . .

7,020

1,265

2.373

120

40

74

1821 . . .

12,090

2,092

6,802

207

68

212

1841 . . .

16,038

2,620

8,195

275

86

256

1861 . , .

20,202

3,062

5,800

347

100

181

1881 . . .

26,110

3-734

5,160

443

122

161

246 Rural Ride from
cern ; too little controllable by superiors. It is a thing calcu
lated for jobbing, above all others ; calculated to promote the
success of favouritism. Who can imagine that the persons
employed about plantations and farms for the public, are em
ployed because they are fit for the employment ? Supposing
the commissioners to hold in abhorrence, the idea of paying
for services to themselves, under the name of paying for
services to the public ; supposing them never to have heard
of such a thing in their lives, can they imagine that nothing
of this sort takes place, while they are in London eleven
months out of twelve in the year ? I never feel disposed to
cast much censure, upon any of the persons engaged in such
concerns. The temptation is too great to be resisted. The
public must pay for everything d pot's (tor. Therefore, no
such thing should be in the hands of the public, or, rather, of
the government ; and I hope to live, to see this thing com
pletely taken out of the hands of this government.
It was night-fall when we arrived at Eling, that is to say,
at the head of the Southampton Water. Our horses were
very hungry. We stopped to bait them, and set off just about
dusk to come to this place (Weston Grove), stopping at
Southampton on our way, and leaving a letter to come to
London. Between Southampton and this place, we cross a
bridge over the Itchen river, and, coming up a hill into a
common, which is called Town-hill Common, we passed,
lying on our right, a little park and house, occupied by the
Irish Bible-man, Lord Ashdown, I think they call him, whose
real name is French, and whose family are so very well known
in the most unfortunate sister-kingdom. Just at the back of
his house, in another sort of paddock-place, lives a man, whose
name I forget, who was, I believe, a coachmaker in the East
Indies, and whose father, or uncle, kept a turnpike gate at
Chelsea, a few years ago. See the effects of "industry and
"enterprise!" But even these would be nothing, were it not
for this wondrous system by which money can be snatched
away from the labourer in this very parish, for instance, sent
off to the East Indies, there help to make a mass, to put into

Weston to Kensington. 247
the hands of an adventurer, and then the mass may be brought
back in the pockets of the adventurer, and cause him to be
called a 'Squire by the labourer, whose earnings were so
snatched away ! Wondrous system ! Pity it cannot last for
ever ! Pity that it has got a Debt of a thousand millions to
pay ! Pity that it cannot turn paper into gold ! Pity that
it will make such fools of Prosperity Robinson and his
colleagues !
The moon shone very bright by the time that we mounted
the hill ; and now, skirting the enclosures upon the edge of
the common, we passed several of those cottages which I so
well recollected, and in which I had the satisfaction to believe
that the inhabitants were sitting comfortably with bellies full,
by a good fire. It was eight o'clock before we arrived at Mr.
Chamberlayne's, whom I had not seen since, I think, the
year 1816; for, in the fall of that year I came to London,
and I never returned to Botley (which is only about three
miles and a half from Weston) to stay there for any length of
time. To those who like water-scenes (as nineteen-twentieths
of people do) it is the prettiest spot, I believe, in all England.
Mr. Chamberlayne built the house about twenty years ago.
He has been bringing the place to greater and greater perfec
tion from that time to this. All round about the house is
in the neatest possible order. I should think, that, altogether,
there cannot be so little as ten acres of short grass ; and,
when I say that, those who know anything about Gardens
will form a pretty correct general notion as to the scale on
which the thing is carried on. Until of late, Mr. Chamber
layne was owner of only a small part, comparatively, of the
lands hereabouts. He is now the owner, I believe, of the
whole of the lands that come down to the water's edge and that
lie between the ferry over the Itchen at Southampton, and the
river which goes out from the Southampton Water at Hamble.
And, now let me describe, as well as I can, what this land
and its situation are.
The Southampton Water begins at Portsmouth, and goes
up by Southampton, to Redbridge, being, upon an average,

248 Rural Ride from
about two miles wide, having, on the one side, the New
Forest, and on the other side, for a great part of the way,
this fine and beautiful estate of Mr. Chamberlayne. Both
sides of this water have rising lands divided into hill and
dale, and very beautifully clothed with trees, the woods
and lawns and fields being most advantageously intermixed.
It is very curious that, at the back of each of these tracts
of land, there are extensive heaths, on this side as well
as on the New Forest side. To stand here and look across
the water at the New Forest, you would imagine that it
was really a country of woods ; for you can see nothing of
the heaths from here ; those heaths over which we rode,
and from which we could see a windmill down among the
trees, which windmill is now to be seen just opposite this
place. So that, the views from this place are the most
beautiful that can be imagined. You see up the water and
down the water, to Redbridge one way, and out to Spithead,
the other way. Through the trees, to the right, you see the
spires of Southampton, and you have only to walk a mile,
over a beautiful lawn and through a not less beautiful wood,
to find, in a little dell, surrounded with lofty woods, the
venerable ruins of Netley Abbey, which make part of Mr.
Chamberlayne's estate.1
The woods here are chiefly of oak; the ground consists
of a series of hill and dale, as you go long-wise from one
1 Netley Abbey is reckoned to be the finest monastic ruin in the south
of England. It was founded by Henry III., its first monks coming from
the neighbouring abbey of Beaulieu. In 1537, Henry VIII., having plun
dered its revenues,, granted the site to Sir William Faulet, afterwards
Marquis of Winchester. From his family, it passed to the Seymours,
Earls of Hertford, and after many other changes, at the beginning of the
present century, it passed into the hands of the Chamberlayne family. The
ruins of the Abbey Church, from their extent and magnificence, suggest the
question which the Author so often asks with respect to other churches
which he visited, viz., Where did the population come from to require so
large an edifice? The length of the church is 200 feet, and its width 120
feet. It is situated in the parish of Hound, which also possesses an ancient
church, built about the same time as the Abbey, A.D. 1230, and yet the
whole parish of Hound, consisting of 2638 acres, had, in l8o'l, a popula
tion of only 274, which increased, in 1831, to 417, and in 1861, to 2039.

Weston to Kensington. 249
end of the estate to the other, about six miles in length.
Down almost every little valley, that divides these hills or
hillocks, there is more or less of water, making the under
wood, in those parts, very thick, and dark to go through ;
and these form the most delightful contrast, with the fields,
and lawns. There are innumerable vessels of various sizes
continually upon the water ; and, to those that delight in
water-scenes, this is certainly the very prettiest place that I
ever saw in my life. I had seen it many years ago ; and,
as I intended to come here on my way home, I told George,
before we set out, that I would show him another Weston,
before we got to London. The parish in which his father's
house is, is also called Weston, and a very beautiful spot it
certainly is ; but I told him I questioned whether I could
not show him, a still prettier Weston, than that. We let
him alone for the first day. He sat in the house, and saw
great multitudes of pheasants, and partridges upon the lawn
before the window; he went down to the water-side by
himself, and put his foot upon the ground to see the tide
rise. He seemed very much delighted. The second morn
ing, at breakfast, we put it to him, which he would rather
have ; this Weston, or the Weston he had left in Hereford
shire; but, though I introduced the question in a way
almost to extort a decision in favour of the Hampshire
Weston, he decided instantly and plump for the other, in a
manner very much to the delight of Mr. Chamberlayne and
his sister. So true it is, that, when people are uncorrupted,
they always like home best, be it, in itself, what it may.
Every thing that nature can do, has been done here ; and
money most judiciously employed, has come to her assist
ance. Here are a thousand things to give pleasure to any
rational mind ; but there is one thing, which, in my estima
tion, surpasses, in pleasure, to contemplate, all the lawns,
and all the groves, and all the gardens, and all the game, and
every thing else ; and that is, the real, unaffected goodness
of the owner of this estate. He is a member for South
ampton ; he has other fine estates ; he has great talents ;

250 Rural Ride from
he is much admired by all who know him ; but, he has done
more by his justice, by his just way of thinking with regard
to the labouring people, than in all other ways put together.
This was nothing new to me ; for I was well informed of it
several years ago, though I had never heard him speak of
it in my life. When he came to this place, the common
wages of day-labouring men were thirteen shillings a week,
and the wages of carpenters, bricklayers, and other trades
men, were in proportion. Those wages he has given, from
that time to this, without any abatement whatever. With
these wages, a man can live, having, at the same time, other
advantages attending the working for such a man as Mr.
Chamberlayne. He has got less money in his bags than he
would have had, if he had ground men down in their wages ;
but, if his sleep be not sounder than that of the hard-fisted
wretch, that can walk over grass and gravel, kept in order
by a poor creature that is half-starved ; if his sleep be not
sounder than the sleep of such a wretch, then all that we
have been taught is false, and there is no difference between
the man who feeds, and the man who starves the poor : all
the Scripture is a bundle of lies, and instead of being pro
pagated it ought to be flung into the fire.1
It is curious enough, that those who are the least disposed
to give good wages to the labouring people, should be the
most disposed to discover for them schemes for saving their
1 The present average of wages for farm labourers throughout Hampshire,
is 13s. per week, frequently in addition to a comfortable cottage ; but very
recently a reduction of is. per week has been made in many parishes, in
consequence of the existing agricultural depression. The previous Editor,
in a note on this subject, alludes to meetings of farmers, at the time he
wrote (1852-1853), at which it was resolved that it was expedient to pay
their labourers better wages ; he also alludes to the following pleasing
incident, viz., that the oldest farmers remembered the time when their
labourers were not pleased if their masters did not at Whitsuntide go to
their cottages, to smoke a pipe with them, and to tell them which of them
had brewed the best ale. It would be in vain to search for a farm labourer
in the present day, who could afford to brew his own beer ; but it would
materially strengthen the bonds of society, if employers of labour were occa
sionally to be seen in the cottages of those whom they employ, making them
feel that the labourer's welfare and the employer's interests were identical.

Weston to Kensington. 251
money ! I have lately seen, I saw it at Uphusband, a pro
spectus, or scheme, for establishing what they call a County
Friendly Society. This is a scheme for getting from the poor
a part of the wages that they receive. Just as if a poor
fellow could put anything by out of eight shillings a week !
If, indeed, the schemers were to pay the labourers twelve
or thirteen shillings a week ; then these might have some
thing to lay by at some times of the year ; but, then indeed,
there would be no poor-rates wanted ; and, it is to get rid of
the poor-rates that these schemers have invented their society.
What wretched drivellers they must be : to think that they
should be able to make the pauper, keep the pauper ; to
think that they shall be able to make the man that is half-
starved, lay by part of his loaf! I know of no county,
where the poor are worse treated than in many parts of this
county of Hants. It is happy to know of one instance in
which they are well treated ; and I deem it a real honour to
be under the roof of him, who has uniformly set so laudable
an example in this most important concern. What are all
his riches to me? They form no title to my respect. 'Tis
not for me to set myself up in judgment as to his taste, his
learning, his various qualities and endowments ; but, of these
his unequivocal works, I am a competent judge. I know how
much good he must do ; and there is a great satisfaction, in
reflecting on the great happiness that he must feel, when, in
laying his head upon his pillow of a cold and dreary winter
night he reflects that there are scores, aye scores upon scores,
of his country-people, of his poor neighbours, of those whom the
Scripture denominates his brethren, who have been enabled,
through him, to retire to a warm bed after spending a cheerful
evening and taking a full meal by the side of their own fire.
People may talk what they will about happiness ; but I can
figure to myself no happiness surpassing that of the man who
falls to sleep with reflections like these in his mind.
Now observe, it is a duty, on my part, to relate what I have
here related as to the conduct of Mr. Chamberlayne ; not a
duty towards him ; for, I can do him no good by it, and I do

252 Rural Ride from
most sincerely believe, that both he and his equally benevolent
sister, would rather that their goodness remained unproclaimed ;
but, it is a duty towards my country, and particularly towards
my readers. Here is a striking and a most valuable practical
example. Here is a whole neighbourhood of labourers living
as they ought to live ; enjoying that happiness which is the
just reward of their toil. And shall I suppress facts so
honourable to those who are the cause of this happiness, facts
so interesting in themselves, and so likely to be useful in the
way of example ; shall I do this, aye, and, besides this, tacitly
give a false account of Weston Grove, and this, too, from the
stupid and cowardly fear, of being accused of flattering a
rich man?
Netley Abbey ought, it seems, to be called Letley Abbey,
the Latin name being La^tus Locus, or Pleasant Place. Letley
was made up of an abbreviation of the Lxtus and of the Saxon
word ley, which meaned place, field, or piece of ground. This
Abbey was founded by Henry III. in 1239, for 12 monks of
the Benedictine order; and, when suppressed, by the wife-
killer, its revenues amounted to 3,200/. a year of our present
money. The possessions of these monks were by the wife-
killing founder of the Church of England, given away (though
they belonged to the public) to one of his court sycophants,
Sir William Paulet, a man the most famous in the whole
world for sycophancy, time-serving, and for all those qualities,
which usually distinguish the favourites of kings like the wife-
killer. This Paulet changed from the Popish to Henry the
Eighth's religion, and was a great actor in punishing the
papists : when Edward VI. came to the throne, this Paulet
turned protestant, and was a great actor in punishing those
who adhered to Henry VHIth's religion : when Queen Mary
came to the throne, this Paulet turned back to papist, and was
one of the great actors in sending protestants to be burnt in
Smithfield : when Old Bess came to the throne, this Paulet
turned back to protestant again, and was, until the day of his
death, one of the great actors in persecuting, in fining, in
mulcting, and in putting to death those who still had the

TVeslon to Kensington. 253
virtue, and the courage, to adhere to the religion, in which
they, and he, had been born and bred. The head of this
family got, at last, to be Earl of Wiltshire, Marquis of Win
chester, and Duke of Bolton. This last title is now gone ; or,
rather, it is changed to that of "Lord Bolton," which is now
borne by a man of the name of Orde, who is the son of a
man of that name, who died some years ago, and who married
a daughter (I think it was) of the last " Duke of Bolton.''
Pretty curious, and not a little interesting, to look back at
the origin of this Dukedom of Bolton, and, then, to look at
the person now bearing the title of Bolton ; and, then, to go
to Abbotston, near Winchester, and survey the ruins of the
proud palace, once inhabited by the Duke of Bolton, which
ruins, and the estate on which they stand, are now the property
of the Loan-maker, Alexander Baring ! Curious turn of things !
Henry the wife-killer and his confiscating successors granted
the estates of Netley, and of many other monasteries, to the
head of these Paulets : to maintain these and other similar
grants, a thing called a " Reformation " was made : to main
tain the " Reformation " a " Glorious Revolution " was made :
to maintain the " Glorious Revolution/' a Debt was made : to
maintain the Debt, a large part of the rents must go to the
Debt-Dealers, or Loan-makers : and thus, at last, the Barings,
only in this one neighbourhood, have become the successors
of the Wriothesleys, the Paulets, and the Russells, who,
throughout all the reigns of confiscation, were constantly in the
way, when a distribution of good things was taking place !
Curious enough all this; but, the thing will not stop here.
The Loan-makers think that they shall out-wit the old grantee-
fellows ; and, so they might, and the people too, and the devil
himself; but, they cannot out-wit events. Those events will
have a thorough rummaging ; and of this fact the " turn-of-the-
market" gentlemen may be assured. Can it be law (I put
the question to lawyers), can it be law (I leave reason and
justice out of the inquiry), can it be law, that, if I, to-day, see
dressed in good clothes, and with a full purse, a man who
was notoriously pennyless yesterday; can it be law, that I

254 Rural Ride from
(being a justice of the peace) have a right to demand of that
man how he came by his clothes and his purse? And, can it be
law, that I, seeing with an estate a man who was notoriously
not worth a crown piece a few years ago, and who is notoriously
related to nothing more than one degree above beggary ; can
it be law, that I, a magistrate, seeing this, have not a right to
demand of this man how he came by his estate ? No matter,
however ; for, if both these be law now, they will not, I trust,
be law in a few years from this time.
Mr. Chamberlayne has caused the ancient fish-ponds, at
Netley Abbey, to be "reclaimed," as they call it. What a
loss, what a national loss, there has been in this way, and in
the article of water fowl ! I am quite satisfied, that, in these
two articles and in that of rabbits, the nation has lost, has had
annihilated (within the last 250 years) food sufficient for two
days in the week, on an average, taking the year throughout.
These are things, too, which cost so little labour ! You can
see the marks of old fish-ponds in thousands and thousands
of places. I have noticed, I dare say, five hundred, since I
left home. A trifling expense would, in most cases, restore
them ; but, now-a-days, all is looked for at shops : all is to
be had by trafficking : scarcely any one thinks of providing
for his own wants out of his own land and other his own
domestic means. To buy the thing ready made, is the taste
of the day; thousands, who are housekeepers, buy their
dinners ready cooked : nothing is so common as to rent
breasts for children to suck : a man actually advertised, in
the London papers, about two months ago, to supply childless
husbands with heirs. In this case, the articles were of
course, to be ready made; for, to make them "to order"
would be the d-  of a business ; though, in desperate cases,
even this is, I believe, sometimes resorted to. Hambledon, Sunday,
22nd Oct. 1826.
We left Weston Grove on Friday morning, and came
across to Botley, where we remained during the rest of the

Weston to Kensington. 255
day, and until after breakfast yesterday. I had not seen " the
" Botley Parson " for severa lyears, and I wished to have a
look at him now, but could not get a sight of him, though
we rode close before his house, at much about his breakfast
time, and though we gave him the strongest of invitation,
that could be expressed by hallooing, and by cracking of
whips ! The fox was too cunning for us, and, do all we
could, we could not provoke him to put even his nose out
of kennel. From Mr. James Warner's at Botley,1 we went
to Mr. Hallett's, at Allington, and had the very great
pleasure of seeing him in excellent health. We intended
to go back to Botley, and then to go to Titchfield, and, in
our way to this place, over Portsdown Hill, whence I in
tended to show George the harbour and the fleet, and (of
still more importance), the spot on which we signed the
"Hampshire Petition," in 1817; that petition which fore
told that which the " Norfolk Petition " confirmed ; that
petition which will be finally acted upon, or  !
That petition was the very last thing I wrote at Botley. I
came to London in November 1816; the Power-of-Imprison-
ment Bill was passed in February, 181 7; just before it was
passed, the meeting took place on Portsdown Hill ; and I,
in my way to the hill from London, stopped at Botley and
wrote the petition. We had one meeting afterwards at
Winchester, when I heard parsons swear like troopers, and
saw one of them hawk up his spittle, and spit it into Lord
Cochrane's poll ! Ah ! my bucks, we have you now I You
are got nearly to the end of your tether ; and what is more,
you know it. Pay off the Debt, parsons ! It is useless to
swear and spit, and to present addresses applauding Power-
of-Imprisonment Bills, unless you can pay off the Debt !
1 Mr. James Warner and the Author were closely related ; having
married two sisters. The Warner family have been extensive proprietoi s
of land, and lords of the manor of Botley, for many years. Mr. James
Warner founded the Botley and South Hants Farmers' Club, in 1844;
which is still in existence.
There is an excellent portrait of Mr. Warner in the Market House of
the town of Botley.

256 Rural Ride from
Pay off the Debt, parsons ! They say you can lay the d-

Lay this d  , then ; or, confess that he is too many for
you ; aye, and for Sturges Bourne, or Bourne Sturges (I
forget which), at your backs ! x
From Allington, we, fearing that it would rain before we
could get round by Titchfield, came across the country over
Waltham Chase and Soberton Down. The chase was very
green and fine; but the down was the very greenest thing
that I have seen in the whole country. It is not a large
down ; perhaps not more than five or six hundred acres ; but
the land is good, the chalk is at a foot from the surface, or
more ; the mould is a hazel mould ; and when I was upon
the opposite hill, I could, though I knew the spot very well,
hardly believe that it was a down. The green was darker
than that of any pasture, or even any sainfoin or clover, that
I had seen throughout the whole of my ride ; and I should
suppose, that there could not have been many less than a
thousand sheep, in the three flocks, that were feeding upon
the down when I came across it I do not speak with any
thing like positiveness as to the measurement of this down;
but I do not believe that it exceeds six hundred and fifty
acres. They must have had more rain in this part of the
country, than in most other parts of it Indeed, no part of
Hampshire seems to have suffered very much from the drought.
I found the turnips pretty good, of both sorts, all the way
from Andover to Rumsey. Through the New Forest, you
may as well expect to find loaves of bread growing in fields as
turnips, where there are any fields for them to grow in. From
Redbridge to Weston, we had not light enough to see much
about us ; but when we came down to Botley, we there found
1 It is greatly to be regretted that such apparently unceasing animosity
embittered the mind of the Author against the clergy of his day. The state
of religion at the time, however, was one of supreme deadness and
supineness, and the clergy were, to a great extent, rather dependents of
political parties than spiritual directors of their flocks. Happily such a
state of reproach has long since passed away, and a political parson, in its
true sense, at the present time is as much a "rata avis" as a hunting
parson.

Weston lo Kensington. 257
'.the -turnips as good as-I-had ever-seen -them in my life, as far
as 1 .could judge from the time I had to look at them.. Mr.
Warner has as fine • turnip fields, as I ever saw him have,
Swedish turnips and white also ; and pretty nearly the same
may be said of the whole of that neighbourhood for many
miles round.
After quitting; Soberton Down, we ¦ came up a hill lead
ing to Hambledon, and turned off to our left to bring us
down to Mr. Goldsmith's at West End, where we now are, at
about a mile from the village of Hambledon. A village it
now is ; but it was formerly a considerable market-town, and
it had three fairs in the year. There is now not even the
name of market left, I believe; and the fairs amount to little
more than a couple, or .three gingerbread-stalls, with dolls and
whistles for children. If you go through the place, you see
that it has been a considerable town. . The church tells the
same story ; it is now a tumble-down rubbishy place ; it is
partaking in the fate of all those places which were formerly
a sort of rendezvous for persons who had things to buy
and things to sell. Wens have devoured market-towns and
villages; and shops have devoured markets and fairs ; and
this, too, to the infinite injury of the most numerous classes
of the people. Shop-keeping, merely as shopTkeeping, is
injurious to any -community. What are the shop and the
shop-keeper for ? To receive and distribute the produce of
the land. There are other articles, certainly; but the main
part is the produce of the land. The shop must be paid for ;
the shop-keeper must be kept ; and the one must be paid for
and the other must be kept by the consumer of the prpduce;
or, perhaps, partly by the consumer and partly by the
producer. When fairs were very frequent, shops were not needed. A
manufacturer of shoes, of stockings, of hats; of almost any
thing that man wants, could manufacture at home in an.
obscure hamlet, with cheap house-rent, good air, and plenty
of room. He need pay no heavy rent for shop ; and no dis
advantages from, confined situation; and, then, by attending
VOL. II. / R

2 58 Rural Ride from
three or four or five or six fairs in a year, he sold the work of
his hands, unloaded with a heavy expense attending the keep
ing of a shop. He would get more for ten shillings in a booth
at a fair or market, than he would get in a shop for ten or
twenty pounds. Of course he could afford to sell the work of
his hands for less ; and thus a greater portion of their earnings,
remained with those who raised the food, and the clothing
from the land. I had an instance of this in what occurred to
myself at Weyhill fair. When I was at Salisbury, in September,
I wanted to buy a whip. It was a common hunting-whip,
with a hook to it, to pull open gates with, and I could not get
it for less than seven shillings and sixpence. This was more
than I had made up my mind to give, and I went on with my
switch. When we got to Weyhill fair, George had made shift
to lose his whip some time before, and I had made him go
without one, by way of punishment But now, having come
to the fair, and seeing plenty of whips, I bought him one, just
such a one as had been offered me at Salisbury for seven and
sixpence, for four and sixpence ; and, seeing the man with his
whips afterwards, I thought I would have one myself; and he
let me have it for three shillings. So that, here were two
whips, precisely of the same kind and quality as the whip at
Salisbury, bought for the money which the man at Salisbury
asked me for one whip. And yet, far be it from me to accuse
the man at Salisbury of an attempt at extortion : he had an
expensive shop, and a family in a town to support, while my
Weyhill fellow had been making his whips in some house in
the country, which he rented, probably for five or sue pounds
a year, with a good garden to it Does not every one see,
in a minute, how this exchanging of fairs, and markets for
shops creates idlers and traffickers; creates those locusts,
called middle-men, who create nothing, who add to the value
of nothing, who improve nothing, but who live in idleness, and
who live well, too, out of the labour of the producer and the
consumer. The fair and the market, those wise institutions
of our forefathers, and with regard to the management of
which they were so scrupulously careful; the fair, and the

Weston to Kensington. 259
market, bring the producer, and the consumer, in contact with
each other. Whatever is gained is, at any rate, gained by one
or the other of these. The fair and the market bring them
together, and enable them to act for their mutual interest and
convenience. The shop and the trafficker keep them apart ;
the shop hides from both producer and consumer, the real
state of matters. The fair and the market lay every" thing
open :• going to either, you see the state of things at once ;
and the transactions are fair and just, not disfigured, too, by
falsehood, and by those attempts at deception, which disgrace
traffickings in general.
Very wise, too, and very just, were the laws against fore
stalling and regrating. They were laws to prevent the pro
ducer and the consumer from being cheated by the trafficker.
There are whole bodies of men ; indeed, a very large part of
the community, who live in idleness in this country, in conse
quence of the whole current of the laws, now running in favour
of the trafficking monopoly. It has been a great object with
all wise governments, in all ages, from the days of Moses to
the present day, to confine trafficking, mere trafficking, to as
few hands as possible. It seems to be the main object of
this government to give all possible encouragement to traf
fickers of every description, and to make them swarm like
the lice of Egypt. There is that numerous sect, the Quakers.
This sect arose in England : they were engendered by, -the-
Jewish system of usury. Till excises and loanmongering began,,
these vermin were never heard of in England. They seem
to have been hatched by that fraudulent system, as maggots
are bred by putrid meat, or as the flounders come in the livers
of rotten sheep. The base vermin do not pretend to work :
all they talk about is dealing ; and the government, in place
of making laws that would put them in the stocks, Or cause
them to be whipped at the cart's tail, really seem anxious to
encourage them and to increase their numbers ; nay, it is
not long since Mr. Brougham had the effrontery to move , for
leave to bring in a bill to make men liable to be hanged upon

2 60 Rural Ride from
the bare word of these vagabonds.1 This is, with me, some
thing never to be forgotten. But, every thing tends the same
way : all the regulations, all the laws that have been adopted
of late years, have a tendency to give encouragement to the
trickster and the trafficker, and to take from the labouring
classes, all the honour and a great part of the food, that fairly
belonged to them.
In coming along yesterday, from Waltham Chase to So-
berton Down, we passed by a big white house upon a hill
that was, when I lived at Botley, occupied by one Goodlad,
who was a cock justice of the peace, and who had been a
chap, of some sort or other, in India. There was a man of
the name of Singleton, who lived in Waltham Chase, and who
was deemed to be a great poacher. This man, having been
forcibly ousted by the order of this Goodlad, and some others,
from an encroachment that he had made in the forest,
threatened revenge. Soon after this, a horse (I forget to
whom it belonged) was stabbed or shot in the night-time in
a field. Singleton was taken up, tried at Winchester, con
victed and transported. I cannot relate exactly what took
place. I remember that there were some curious circum
stances attending the conviction of this man. The people in
that neighbourhood were deeply impressed with these circum
stances. Singleton was transported; but Goodlad and his
wife, were both dead and buried, in less, I believe, than three
months after the departure of poor Singleton. I do not know
that any injustice really was done ; but I do know that a great
1 Reference is here made to the enactments which enabled Quakers to
make an "affirmation," instead of taking an oath, in a court of justice.
The Author is always very severe upon the Quakers, but he distinguishes,
as has been already noted, between Quakers engaged in trade, and Quakers
engaged in farming pursuits. He had some Quaker friends in Philadelphia
who were farmers, and whom he highly respected. It was Justice Bennett
of Derby who gave the Society of Friends the name of Quakers in 1650;
because George Fox, their founder, admonished him, "to quake at the
word of the Lord." The Quakers, in times past, have suffered terrible
persecutions. It was not until 1833 that a Quaker was admitted to Parlia
ment on his affirmation.

Weston to Kensington. 261
impression was produced, and a very sorrowful impression,:
too, on the minds of the people in that neighbourhood.
I cannot quit Waltham Chase without observing, that I
heard, last year, that a Bill was about to be petitioned for, to
enclose that Chase ! Never was so monstrous a proposition
in this world. The Bishop of Winchester, is Lord of the
Manor over this Chase. If the Chase be enclosed, the timber
must be cut down, young and old ; and here are a couple of
hundred acres of land, worth ten thousand acres of land in
the New Forest. This .is as fine timber land as any in the
wealds of Surrey, Sussex or Kent. There are two enclosures
of about 40 acres each, perhaps, that were simply surrounded
by a bank being thrown up about twenty years ago, only
twenty years ago, and on the poorest part of the Chase, too ;
and these are now as beautiful plantations of young oak trees
as man ever set his eyes on ; many of them as big or bigger
round than my thigh ! Therefore, besides the sweeping
away of two or three hundred cottages ; besides plunging
into ruin and misery all these numerous families, here is one
of the finest pieces of timber land in the whole kingdom,
going to be cut up into miserable clay fields, for no earthly
purpose but that of gratifying the stupid greediness of those
who think that they must gain, if they add to the breadth of
their private fields. But, if a thing like this be permitted, we
must be prettily furnished with Commissioners of woods and,
forests ! I do not believe that they will sit in Parliament, and
see a Bill like this passed, and hold their tongues ; but if
they were to do it, there is no measure of reproach which
they would not merit. Let them go and look at the two
plantations of oaks, of which I have just spoken ; and then
let them give their consent to such a Bill if they can.
Thursley, Monday Evening,
23rd October,
When I left Weston, my intention was, to go from Ham
bledon to Up Park, thence to Arundel, thence to Brighton,
thence to East-boUrne, thence to Wittersham in Kent, and

262 Rural Ride from
then by Cranbrook, Tunbridge, Godstone and Reigate to
London ; but, when I got to Botley, and particularly when
I got to Hambledon, I found my horse's back so much hurt
by the saddle, that I was afraid to take so long a stretch, and
therefore resolved to come away straight to this place, to go
hence to Reigate, and so to London. Our way, therefore, this
morning, was over Butser-hill to Petersfield, in the first place;
then to Liphook and then to this place, in all about twenty-
four miles. Butser-hill belongs to the back chain of the South-
downs ; and, indeed, it terminates that chain to the westward.
It is the highest hill in the whole country. Some think that-
Hindhead, which is the famous sand-hill over which the Ports
mouth road goes at sixteen miles to the north of this great
chalk-hill; some think that Hindhead is the higher hill of
the two. Be this as it may, Butser-hill, which is the right-
hand hill of the two between which you go at three miles from
Petersfield going towards Portsmouth; this Butser-hill is, I
say, quite high enough ; and was more than high enough for
us, for it took us up amongst clouds, that wet us very nearly
to the skin. In going from Mr. Goldsmith's to the hill, it is
all up hill for five miles. Now and then a little stoop ; not
much ; but regularly, with these little exceptions, up hill for
these five miles. The hill appears, at a distance, to be a sharp
ridge on its top. It is, however, not so. It is, in some parts,
half a mile wide or more. The road lies right along the
middle of it, from west to east, and, just when you are at
the highest part of the hill, it is very narrow from north to
south ; not more, I think, than about a hundred or a hundred
and thirty yards.
This is as interesting a spot, I think, as the foot of man
ever was placed upon. Here are two valleys, one to your
right and the other to your left, very little less than half a
mile down to the bottom of them, and much steeper than a
tiled roof of a house. These valleys may be, where they join
the hill, three or four hundred yards broad. They get wider
as they get farther from the hill. Of a clear day you see all
the north of Hampshire; nay, the whole county, together

Weston lo Kensington. 263
with a great part of Surrey and of Sussex. You see the whole
of the South-Downs to the eastward as far as your eye can
carry you; and, lastly, you see over Portsdown Hill, which
lies before you to the south ; and there are spread open to
your view the isle of Portsea, Porchester, Wimmering, Fare-
ham, Gosport, Portsmouth, the harbour, Spithead, the Isle
of Wight, and the ocean.
But something still more interesting occurred to me here. in
the year 1808, when I was coming on horseback over the
same hill from Botley to London. It was a very beautiful
day and in summer. Before I got upon the hill (on which
I had never been before), a shepherd told me to keep on in
the road in which I was, till I came to the London turnpike
road. When I got to within a quarter of a mile of this par
ticular point of the hill, I saw, at this point, what I thought
was a cloud of dust ; and, speaking to my servant about it,
I found that he thought so too ; but this cloud of dust disap-'
peared all at once. Soon after, there appeared to arise another
cloud of dust at the same place, and then that disappeared,:
and the spot was clear again. As we were trotting along, a
pretty smart pace, we soon came to this narrow place, having1
one valley to our right and the other valley1 to our left, and,-
there, to my great astonishment, I saw the clouds come one'
after another, each appearing to be about as big as two or
three acres of land, skimming along in the valley on the north-
side, a great deal below the tops of the hills; and successively,
as they arrived at our end of the valley, rising up, crossing the
narrow pass, and then descending down into the other valley
and going off to the south ; so that we who sat there upon
our horses, were alternately in clouds and in sunshine. It is
an universal rule, that if there be a fog in the morning, and
that fog go from the valleys to the tops of the hills, there will
be rain that day ; and if it disappear by sinking in the valley,
there will be no rain that day. The truth is, that fogs are
clouds, and clouds are fogs. They are more or less, full of
water ; but, they are all water ; sometimes a sort of steam, and
sometimes water, that falls in drops. Yesterday morning the.

264 Rural Ride, from
fogs had ascended to the tops of the hills ; and it was raining
on all the hills round about us, before it began to rain in the
valleys. We, as I observed before, got pretty nearly wet to the
skin upon the top of Butser-hill ; but, we had the pluck to
come on, and let the clothes dry upon our backs.
I must here relate something that appears very interesting
to me, and something, which, though it must have been seen
by every man that has lived in the country, or, at least, in any
hilly country, has never been particularly mentioned by any-'
body as far as I can recollect We frequently talk of clouds
coming from dews ; and we actually see the heavy fogs become
clouds. We see them go up to the tops of hills, and, taking
a swim round, actually come, and drop down upon us, and-
wet us through. But, I am now going to speak of clouds,
coming out of the sides of hills in exactly the same manner
that you see smoke come out of a tobacco pipe, and, rising
up, with a wider and wider head, like the smoke from a
tobacco-pipe, go to the top of the hill or over the hill, or very
much above it, and then come over the valleys in rain. At
about a mile's distance from Mr. Palmer's house at Bollitree,
in Herefordshire, there is a large, long beautiful wood, cover
ing the side of a lofty hill, winding round in the form of a
crescent, the bend of the crescent being towards Mr. Palmer's:
house. It was here, that I first observed this mode of forming
clouds. The first time I noticed it, I pointed it out to Mr.'
Palmer. We stood and observed cloud after cloud, come out
from different parts of the side of the hill, and tower up and
go over the hill out of sight He told me that that was a-
certain sign that it would rain that day, for that these clouds*
would come back again, and would fall in rain. It rained
sure enough ; and I found that the country people, all round
about, had this mode of die forming of the clouds as a sign of
rain. The hill is called Penyard, and this forming of the
clouds, they call Old Penyard's smoking his pipe ; and it is a
rule that it is sure to rain during the day, if Old Penyard
smokes. his pipe in the morning. These appearances take
place, especially in warm and sultry weather. It .was very.

Weston to Kensington. 265

warm yesterday morning: it had thundered- violently the
evening before: we felt it hot even while the. rain fell upon
us at Butser-hill. Petersfield lies in a pretty broad and very
beautiful valley. On three sides' of it are very lofty hills, partly
downs and partly covered with trees : andr as we proceeded
on our way from the bottom, of Butser-hill to Petersfield, we
saw thousands upon thousands of clouds, continually coming
puffing out from different parts- of these -hills- and towering up
to the top of them.. I stopped George several times to make
him look at them ; to see them come puffing out of the chalk
downs as well as out of the woodland hills; and bade him
remember to tell his- father of it, when he should get home, to
convince him that the hills of Hampshire, could smoke their
pipes, as well as those of Herefordshire. This is a really
curious matter. I have never read, in any book, anything- to
lead me to suppose that the observation has ever found its
ways into print before. Sometimes you will see only one or
two clouds during a whole morning, come out of the side of a'
hill ; but we saw thousands upon thousands, bursting out, one
after another, in all parts of these immense hills. The first
time that I have leisure, when I am in the high • countries
again, I will, have a conversation with some old shepherd
about this matter : if he cannot enlighten me upon the subject,
I am- sure- that no philosopher can.
We came through Petersfield without stopping; and baited
our horses at Liphook, where we stayed about half an hour.
In coming from Liphook to this place, we overtook a man
who asked for relief. He told me he was a weaver, and, as
his accent was northern,, I was about to give him the balance
that I had in hand arising from our savings in- the fasting way,.
amounting to about three shillings and sixpence ; but, unfortu
nately for him,- 1 asked him what place he had lived at as a
weaver; and he told me he was a Spitalfields weaver. I
instantly put on my glove and returned my purse into my
pocket, saying, go, then, to Sidmouth and Peel and the rest of
them "and get relief; for, I have this minute, while I was
«. stopping at. Liphook, read iri the- Evening Mail, newspaper,*

266 Rural Ride from
"an address to the King from the Spitalfields* weavers, for
" which address they ought to suffer death and starvation. In
"that address those base wretches tell the King, that they
" were loyal men : that they detested the designing men who
"were guilty of seditious practices in 1817; they, in short,
" express their approbation of the Power-of-imprisonment Bill,
"of all the deeds committed against the Reformers in 181 7
"and 1819 ; they, by fair inference, express their approbation
" of the thanks given to the Manchester Yeomanry. You are
" one of them ; my name is William Cobbett, and I would
" sooner relieve a dog than relieve you." Just as I was closing
my harangue, we overtook a country-man and woman that
were going the same way. The weaver attempted expla
nations. He said, that they only said it, in order to get relief;
but that they did not mean it in their hearts. "Oh, base
" dogs 1 " said I : "it is precisely by such men that ruin is
" brought upon nations ; it is precisely by such baseness and
" insincerity, such scandalous cowardice, that ruin has been
" brought upon them. I had two or three shillings to give
" you ; I had them in my hand : I have put them back into
" my purse : I trust I shall find somebody more worthy of them :
" rather than give them to you, I would fling them into that
" sand-pit and bury them for ever."
How curiously things happen ! It was by mere accident
that I took up a newspaper to read : it was merely because I
was compelled to stay a quarter of an hour in the room with
out doing any thing, and above all things it was miraculous
that I should take up the Evening Mail, into which, I believe,
I never before looked, in my whole life. I saw the royal arms
at the top of the paper ; took it for the Old Times, and, in a
sort of a lounging mood, said to George, " Give me hold of
that paper, and let us see what that foolish d  Anna Brodie
says." Seeing the word " Spitalfields," I read on till I got to the
base and scoundrelly part of the address. I then turned over,
and looked at the title of the paper and the date of it, resolving,
in my mind, to have satisfaction, of some sort or other, upon
these base vagabonds. Little did I think that an opportunity

Weston to Kensington. 267
would so soon occur, of showing my resentment against them,
and that, too, in so striking, so appropriate, and so efficient a
manner. I dare say, that it was some tax-eating scoundrel
who drew up this address (which I will insert in the Register,
as soon as I can find it) ; but, that is nothing to me and my
fellow-sufferers of 18 17 and 1819. This infamous libel upon us,
is published under the name of the Spitalfields weavers ; and,
if I am asked what the poor creatures were to do, being with
out bread as they were, I answer by asking, whether they could
find no knives to cut their throats with ; seeing that they ought
to have cut their throats ten thousand times over, if they could
have done it, rather than sanction the publication of so infam
ous a paper as this.
It is not thus that the weavers in. the north have acted.
Some scoundrel wanted to inveigle them into an applauding
of the Ministers ; but they, though nothing so infamous as
this address was proposed to them, rejected the proposition,
though they were ten times more in want, than the weavers, of
Spitalfields have ever been. They were only called upon to
applaud the Ministers for the recent Orders in Council ; but
they justly said that the Ministers had a great deal more to do,
before they would merit their applause. What would these
brave and sensible men have said to a tax-eating scoundrel,
who should have called upon them to present an address to the
King, and in that address to applaud the terrible deeds com
mitted against the people in 1817 and 1819 ! I have great
happiness in reflecting that this baseness of the Spitalfields
weavers will not bring them one single mouthful of bread.
This will be their lot ; this will be the fruit of their baseness :
and the nation, the working classes of the nation, will learn,
from this, that the way to get redress of their grievances, the
way to get food and raiment in exchange for their labour, the
way to ensure good treatment from the Government, is not to
crawl to that Government, to lick its hands, and seem to deem
it an honour to be its slaves.
Before we got to Thursley, I saw three poor fellows getting
in turf for their winter fuel, and, I gave them a shilling apiece.

26S Rural Ride from
To a boy at the bottom of Hindhead, I gave the other six
pence, towards buying him a pair of gloves ; and thus I dis
posed of the money which was, at one time, actually out of
my purse, and going into the hand of the loyal Spitalfields'
weaver. We got to this place (Mr. Knowles's of Thursley)' about 5
o'clock in the evening, very much delighted with our ride.
Kensington, '
Thursday, 26th Oct. <
We left Mr. Knowles's on Thursday morning, came through
Godalming, stopped at Mr. Rowland's at Chilworth, and then
came on through Dorking to Colley Farm, near Reigate, where
we slept I have so often described the country from Hind
head to the foot of Reigate Hill* and from the top of Reigate
Hill to the Thames, that I shall not attempt to do it again
here. When we got to the river Wey, we crossed it from
Godalming Pismarsh, to come up to Chilworth. I desired
George to look round the country, and asked him if he did
not think it was very pretty. I put the same question to him,
when we got into the beautiful neighbourhood of Dorking,
and when we got to Reigate, and especially when we got to
the tip-top of Reigate Hill, from which there is one of the
finest views in the whole world ; but ever after our quitting
Mr. Knowles's, George insisted that, that was the prettiest
"country that we had seen in the course of our whole ride, and
that he liked Mr. Knowles's place better, than any other place
that he had seen. I reminded him of Weston Grove ; and I
reminded him of the beautiful ponds and grass and planta
tions at Mr. Leach's ; but he still persisted in his judgment in
favour of Mr. Knowles's place, in which decision, however,
the grey hounds and the beagles, had manifestly a great deal
to do.
From Thursley to Reigate inclusive, on the chalk-side as
well as on the sand-side, the crops of turnips, of both kinds,
were pretty nearly as good as I ever saw them in my life. On
a farm of Mr. Drumrhbnd's at Aldbury, rented by a farmer

Weston to Kensington. 269
Peto, I saw a piece Of cabbages, of the large kind, which will
produce, I should think, not much short of -five and twenty
tons to the acre j and here I must mention (I do not know
why I must, by the bye) an instance of my own skill in
measuring land by the eye. The cabbages stand upon half a
field, and on that part of it farthest from the road, where we
were. We took the liberty to open the gate and ride into the
field, in order to get closer to the cabbages to look at them.
I intended to notice this piece of cabbages, and I asked
George how much ground he thought there was in the piece.
He said, two acres; and asked me how much I thought. I
said there were above four acres, and that I should not wonder
if there were- four acres and a half. Thus divided in judgment,
we turned . away from the cabbages to go out of the field at
another gate, which pointed towards our road. Near this
gate we found a man turning a heap of manure. This man,
as it happened, had hoed the cabbages by the acre, or had
had a hand in it We asked him how much ground there was
in that piece of cabbages, and he told us, four acres and a
half! I suppose it wiil not be difficult to convince the
reader, that George looked upon me, as a sort of conjuror.
At Mr. Pym's, at Colley farm, we found one of the very finest
pieces of mangel wurzel that I had ever seen in my life. We
calculated that there would be little short of forty tons to the
acre; and, there being three acres to the piece, Mr. .Pym
calculates that this mangel wurzel, the produce of these three
acres of land, will carry his ten or twelve milch-cows nearly,
if not wholly, through the winter. There did not appear to
be a spurious plant, and there was not one plant that had
gone to seed in the whole piece. I have never seen a more
beautiful mass of vegetation, and I had the satisfaction to
learn, after having admired the crop, that the seed came from
my own shop, and that it had been saved by myself.
Talking of the shop, I came to it in a very few hours after
looking at this mangel wurzel ; and I soon found that it was
high time for me to get home again ; for here had been pretty
d  works going on. Here I found the " Greek cause," and

270 Rural Ride from
all its appendages, figuring away in grand style. But, I must
make this matter of separate observation.1
I have put an end to my Ride of August, September, and
October, 1826, during which I have travelled five hundred
and sixty-eight miles, and have slept in thirty different beds,
having written three monthly pamphlets, called the "Poor
Man's Friend," and have also written (including the present
one) eleven Registers. I have been, in three cities, in about
twenty market towns, in perhaps five hundred villages ; and
I have seen the people, no where so well off as in the neigh
bourhood of Weston Grove, and no where so badly off, as in
the dominions of the Select Vestry of Hurstbourn Tarrant,
commonly called Uphusband. During the whole of this ride,
I have very rarely been a-bed after day-light ; I have drunk,
neither wine nor spirits. I have eaten no vegetables, and
only a very moderate quantity of meat ; and, it may be useful
to my readers to know, that the riding of twenty miles, was
not so fatiguing to me at the end of my tour, as the riding of
ten miles was, at the beginning of it Some ill-natured fools
will call this "egotism." Why is it egotism ? Getting upon a
good strong horse, and riding about the country, has no merit
in it ; there is no conjuration in it ; it requires neither talents
nor virtues of any sort ; but health is a very valuable thing ;
and when a man has had the experience which I have had, in
this instance, it is his duty to state to the world, and to his
own countrymen, and neighbours in particular, the happy
effects of early rising, sobriety, abstinence, and a resolution to
be active. It is his duty to do this ; and it becomes impera
tively his duty, when he has seen, in the course of his life, so
many men ; so many men of excellent hearts and of good
talents, rendered prematurely old, cut off ten or twenty years
1 The Kingdom of Greece had been trodden down by the tyranny, cruelty,
and avarice of the Turks since A.D. 1453. In 1820, the Greeks rebelled
against their conquerors ; and, by the assistance of Britain, France, and
Russia, Greece, in 1829, was declared an independent kingdom. In 1826,
the date of the Author's remarks upon the " Greek cause," a loan of
^70,000 was being raised, to assist the Greeks, who were at the time in a
mate of actual warfare with the Turks.

Weston to Kensington. 271
before their time, by a want of that early rising, sobriety,
abstinence and activity, from which he himself has derived so
much benefit, and such inexpressible pleasure. During this
ride, I have been several times wet to the skin. At some
times of my life, after having indulged for a long while in
coddling myself up in the house, these soakings would have
frightened me half out of my senses; but I care very little
about them : I avoid getting wet if I can ; but, it is very
seldom that rain, come when it would, has prevented me from
performing the day's journey that I had laid out beforehand.
And, this is a very good rule : stick to your intention, whether
it be attended with inconveniences or not; to look upon
yourself as bound to do it In the whole of this ride, I have
met with no one untoward circumstance, properly so called,
except the wounding of the back of my horse, which grieved
me much more on his account, than on my own. I have a
friend, who, when he is disappointed in accomplishing anything
that he has laid out, says that he has been beaten, which is a
very good expression for the thing. I was beaten in my
intention to go through Sussex and Kent ; but I will retrieve
the affair in a very few months' time, or, perhaps few weeks';
The Collective will be here now in a few days ; and, as
soon as I have got the Preston Petition fairly before them,
and find (as I daresay I shall) that the petition will not be
tried until February,1 1 shall take my horse and set off again
to that very spot, in the London turnpike road, at the foot of
1 The General Election of 1826 was a severe struggle for popular
candidates. A great effort was made by Cobbett's supporters, headed by
Sir Thomas Beevor, to bring him forward as a candidate for Preston. A
famous contest ensued. Two members were to be elected. Four
candidates appeared on the field. Mr. Cobbett was on that occasion un
successful His supporters believed, that there had been sufficient
impediment to fair voting to upset the election. A petition against the
election was thereupon prepared ; but whether it was actually presented
to the House or not, we have no means of knowing. The Author appears,
however, to have taken his defeat with very good humour, for on his return
from the election through Blackburn, Bolton and Manchester, he met with
a perfect ovation, attended with bands of music, banners and flags, resem
bling those remarkable political. tours in the north, recently made, by the
"grand.old man."

272 Rural Ride to

Butser-hill, whence I turned off to go to Petersfield, instead
of turning the other way to go to Up Park : I shall take my
horse and go to this spot, and, with a resolution not to be
beaten, next time, go along through the whole length of Sus
sex, and sweep round through Kent and Surrey till I come to
Reigate again, and then home to Kensington ; for I do not
like to be beaten by a horse's sore back, or by any thing else ;
and besides that, there are several things in Sussex and Kent
that I want to see and give an account of. For the present,
however, farewell to the country, and now for the Wen and its
villanous corruptions.

RURAL RIDE: TO TRING, IN HERTFORDSHIRE.
Barn- Elm Farm, 2yd Sept. 1829.
As if to prove the truth of all that has been said in The
Woodlands about the impolicy of cheap planting, as it is
called, Mr. Elliman has planted another, and larger field, with
a mixture of ash, locusts, and larches; not upon trenched
ground, but upon ground moved with the plough. The larches
made great haste to depart this life, bequeathing to Mr. Elli
man a very salutary lesson. The ash appeared to be alive,
and that is all : the locusts, though they had to share in all
the disadvantages of their neighbours, appeared, it seems, to
be doing pretty well, and had made decent shoots, when a
neighbour's sheep invaded the plantation, and, being fond of
the locust leaves and shoots, as all cattle are, reduced them to
mere stumps, as it were to put them upon a level, with the
ash. In The Woodlands, I have strongly pressed the neces
sity of effectual fences : without these, you plant and sow in
vain : you plant and sow the plants and seeds of disappoint
ment and mortification ; and the earth, being always grateful,
is sure to reward you with a plentiful crop. One half acre of
Mr. Elliman's plantation of locusts before mentioned, time

Tring, in Hertfordshire. 273
will tell him, is wortb more than the whole of the six or seven
acres, of this cheaply planted field.
Besides the 25,000 trees which Mr. Elliman had from me,
he had some (and a part of them fine plants) which he himself
had raised from seed, in the manner described in The Wood
lands under the head "Locust." This seed he bought from
me ; and, as I shall sell but a very few more locust plants,
I recommend gentlemen to sow the seed for themselves,
according to the directions given in The Woodlands (in para-
graphs383 to 386 inclusive). In that part of The Woodlands
will be found the most minute directions for the sowing of
this seed, and particularly in the preparing of it for sowing ;
for, unless the proper precautions are taken here, one seed out
of one hundred will not come up ; and, with the proper pre
cautions, one seed in one hundred will not fail to come up,
I beg the reader, who intends to sow locusts, to read -with
great care-the latter part of paragraph 368 of The Woodlands..
- At this' town of Tring, which is a very pretty and respectr
able place, I saw what reminded me of another of my endea
vours to introduce useful things into this country. At. the
door of a shop I saw a large case, with the lid taken off, con
taining bundles of straw for platting. It was straw of spring
wheat, tied up in small bundles, with the ear on ; just such as
I myself have grown in England many times, and bleached
for platting, according to the instructions so elaborately given
in the last edition of my Cottage Economy ; and which instruc
tions I was enabled to give from the information collected, by
my son in America. I asked the shopkeeper where he. got
this straw: he said, that it came from Tuscany; and that.it
was manufactured there at Tring, and other places, for, as I
understood, some single individual master-manufacturer. I
told the shopkeeper, that I wondered that -they should send to
Tuscany for the straw, seeing that it might be grown, har
vested, and equally well bleached at Tring ; that it was now,
at this time, grown, bleached, and manufactured into bonnets
in Kent; and. I showed .to. several persons, at Tring a
bonnet, made: in Kent, from -the -straw of -wheat' grown in
vol. 11. s

2 74 Rural Ride to
Kent, and presented by that most public-spirited, and excel
lent man, Mr. John Wood, of Wettersham, who died, to the
great sorrow of the whole country round about him, three or
four years ago. He had taken infinite pains with this matter,
had brought a young woman from Suffolk at his own expense,
to teach the children at Wettersham the whole of this manu
facture, from beginning to end ; and, before he died, he saw
as handsome bonnets made, as ever came from Tuscany. At
Benenden, the parish in which Mr. Hodges resides, there is
now a manufactory of the same sort, begun, in the first place,
under the benevolent auspices of that gentleman's daughters,
who began by teaching a poor fellow who had been a cripple
from his infancy, who was living with a poor widowed mother,
and who is now the master of a school of this description, in
the beautiful villages of Benenden and Rolvenden, in Kent.
My wife, wishing to have her bonnet cleaned some time ago,
applied to a person who performs such work, at Brighton, and
got into a conversation with her about the English Leghorn
bonnets. The woman told her that they looked very well
at first, but that they would not retain their colour, and added,
" They will not clean, ma'am, like this bonnet that you have."
She was left with a request to clean that ; and the result being
the same as with all Leghorn bonnets, she was surprised upon
being told that that was an "English Leghorn." In short,
there is no difference at all in the two ; and if these people at
Tring choose to grow the straw, instead of importing it from
Leghorn ; and if they choose to make plat, and to make
bonnets just as beautiful and as lasting, as those which come
from Leghorn, they have nothing to do but to read my Cottage
Economy (paragraph 224 to paragraph 234, inclusive), where
they will find, as plain as words can make it, the whole mass
of directions for taking the seed of the wheat, and converting
the produce into bonnets. There they will find directions,
first, as to the sort of wheat ; second, as to the proper land for
growing the wheat ; third, season for sowing ; fourth, quantity
of seed to the acre, and manner of sowing ; fifth, season for
cutting the wheat; sixth, manner of cutting it; seventh,

Tring, in Hertfordshire. 275
manner of bleaching; eighth, manner of housing the straw;
ninth, platting ; tenth, manner of knitting ; eleventh, manner
of pressing.
I request my correspondents to inform me, if any one can,
where I can get some spring wheat. The botanical name of
it is, Triticum sEstivum.1 It is sown in the spring, at the
same time that barley is; these Latin words mean summer
wheat. It is a small-grained, bearded wheat I know, from
experience, that the little brown-grained winter wheat is just
as good for the purpose : but that must be sown earlier ; and
there is danger of its being thinned on the ground, by worms
and other enemies. I should like to sow some this next
spring, in order to convince the people of Tring, and other
places, that they need not go to Tuscany for the straw.
Of " Cobbetfs Corn" there is no considerable piece in the
neighbourhood of Tring ; but I saw some plants, even upon
the high hill where the locusts are growing, -and which is very
backward land, which appeared to be about as forward as my
own is at this time.2 If Mr. Elliman were to have a patch of
good corn by the side of his locust trees, and a piece of spring
wheat by the side of the corn, people might then _o and see
specimens of the three great undertakings, or rather, great
additions to the wealth of the nation, introduced under the
name of Cobbett.
I am the more desirous of introducing this manufacture at
Tring on account of the very marked civility which I met

1 Some botanists have attempted to distinguish species among the
numerous varieties of wheat, assigning the term "Triticum seslivum," or
summer wheat, to the awnless or beardless varieties, and "Triticum
hibernum," or winter wheat, to the awned or bearded varieties ; but tha
length or shortness of the awn depends upon accidental circumstances.
Neither do the awnless or beardless varieties perfectly correspond with the
varieties of summer wheat (preferred for sowing in spring), nor do the
awned or bearded varieties correspond with the winter wheat (sown in
autumn), as some of the hardy varieties of winter wheat are awnless, while
some of ihe spring varieties are bearded.
2 The previous Editor reminds us, in his note on " Cobbett's Indian com,"
that although its utility for human food has been questioned, "it appears to
be eaten by the wealthier classes" in all countries "where it grows.*'

276 Rural Ride to
with at that place. A very excellent friend of mine, who is
professionally connected with that town, was, some time ago,
apprised of my intention of going thither to see Mr. Elliman's
plantation. He had mentioned this intention to some gentle
men of that town and neighbourhood; and I, to my great
surprise, found that a dinner had been organized, to which I
was to be invited. I never like to disappoint any body; and,
therefore, to this dinner I went. The company consisted of
about forty-five gentlemen of the town and neighbourhood;
and, certainly, though I have been at dinners in several parts
of England, I never found, even in Sussex, where I have
frequently been so delighted, a more sensible, hearty, enter
taining, and hospitable company, than this. From me, some
thing in the way of speech was expected, as a matter of
course ; and though I was, from a cold, so hoarse as not to be
capable of making myself heard in a large place, I was so
pleased with the company, and with my reception, that, first
and last, I dare say I addressed the company for an hour and
a half. We dined at two, and separated at nine; and, as I
declared at parting, for many, many years, I had not spent a
happier day. There was present the editor, or some other
gentleman, from the newspaper called The Bucks Gazette and
General Advertiser, who has published in his paper the follow-
ing account of what passed at the dinner. As far as the
report goes, it is substantially correct ; and, though this gende-
man went away at a very early hour, that which he has given
of my speech (which he has given very judiciously) contains
matter, which can hardly fail to be useful, to great numbers
of his readers. MR. COBBETT AT TRING.
" Mr. Elliman, a draper of Tring, has lately formed a con.
siderable plantation of the locust tree, which Mr. Cobbett
claims the merit of having introduced into this country. The
pumber he has planted is about 30,000, on five acres and a
half of very indifferent land, and they have thrived sb Un-

Tring, in Hertfordshire. 277
commonly well, that not more than 500 of the whole number
have failed. The success of the plantation being made known
to Mr. Cobbett, induced him to pay a visit to Tring to inspect
it, and during his sojourn, it was determined upon by his
friends, to give him a dinner, at the Rose and Crown Inn.
Thursday was fixed for the purpose ; when about forty
persons, agriculturists and tradesmen of Tring and the
neighbouring towns, assembled, and sat down to a dinner
served up in very excellent style, by Mr. Northwood, the
landlord: Mr. Faithful, solicitor, of Tring, in the chair,
" The usual routine toasts having been given,
" The Chairman said, he was sure the company would drink
the toast, with which he should conclude what he was about
to say, with every mark of respect. In addressing the company,
he rose under feelings of no ordinary kind, for he was about
to give the health of a gentleman who had the talent of com
municating to his writings, an energy, and perspicuity, which
he had never met with elsewhere ; who conveyed knowledge
in a way so clear, that all who read, could understand. He
(the Chairman) had read the Political Register, from the first
of them to the last, with pleasure and benefit to himself, and
he would defy any man to put his finger upon a single line,
which was not in direct support of a kingly government. He
advocated the rights of the people, but he always expressed
himself favourable to our ancient form of government; he
certainly had strongly, but not too strongly,, attacked the
corruption of the government ; but had never attacked its form
or its just powers. As a public writer, he considered him the
most impartial, that he knew. He well recollected — he knew
not if Mr. Cobbett himself recollected it — a remarkable passage
in his writings : he was speaking of the pleasure of passing from.
censure to praise, and thus expressed himself. ' It is turning
from the frowns of a surly winter, to welcome a smiling spring
come dancing over the daisied lawn, crowned with garlands,
and surrounded with melody.' Nature had been bountiful to
him ; it had blessed him with a constitution capable of endur
ing the. greatest fatigues; and a mind of superior order.

27S Rural Ride to

Brilliancy, it was .aid, was a mere meteor ; it was so : it was
the solidity, and depth of understanding, such as he possessed,
that were really valuable. He had visited this place in con
sequence of a gentleman having been wise, and bold enough,
to listen to his advice, and to plant a large number of locust
trees ; and he trusted he would enjoy prosperity and happiness,
in duration equal to that of the never-decaying wood of those
trees. He concluded by giving Mr. Cobbett's health."
" Mr. Cobbett returned thanks for the manner in which his
health had been drunk, and was certain that the trees which
had been the occasion of their meeting, would be a benefit to
the children of the planter. Though it might appear like pre
sumption to suppose that those who were assembled that day,
came solely in compliment to him, yet it would be affectation
not to believe that it was expected he should say something on
the subject of politics. Every one who heard him, was con
vinced that there was something wrong, and that a change of
some sort must take place, or ruin to the country would ensue.
Though there was a diversity of opinions as to the cause of the
distress, and as to the means by which a change might be effected,
and though some were not so deeply affected by it as others, all
now felt that a change must take place before long, whether
they were manufacturers, brewers, butchers, bakers, or of any
other description of persons, they had all arrived at the
conviction, that there must be a change. It would be pre
sumptuous to suppose that many of those assembled, did not
understand the cause of the present distress, yet there were'
many who did not : and those gentlemen who did, he begged
to have the goodness to excuse him, if he repeated what they
already knew. Politics was a science which they ought not to
have the trouble of studying ; they had sufficient to do in their
respective avocations without troubling themselves with such
matters. For what were the ministers, and a whole tribe of
persons under them, paid large sums of money from the
coUntry, but for the purpose of governing its political affairs.
Their fitness for their stations was another thing. He had
been told that Mr. Huskisson was so ignorant of the cause of the-

Tring, in Hertfordshire, 279,
distress, that he had openly said, he: should be glad if any
practical man, would tell him what it all meant. If any man
present were to profess his ignorance of the cause of the distress
it would be no disgrace to him ; he might ,be a very good
butcher; a very good farmer, or a very good baker : he might
well understand the business by which he gained his Hying ;
and if any one should say to him, hecausche did not under-r
stand politics, 'You are a very stupid fellow!' he might
fairly reply, 'What is that to you?' But it was another
thing in those who were sq well paid to manage the affairs of
the country to plead ignorance of the cause of the prevailing
distress. * * * * * *
" Mr. Goulburn,-with a string of figures as long. as his arrn,
had endeavoured to prove in the House of Commons,:, that
the withdrawal of the one-pound notes, being altogether sq
small an amount, little more than two million-, would be
of no injury to the country, and that its only effect would be?
to make bankers more liberal in discounting with their: fives.-
He would appeal to the company, if they had found this. to be
the case. Mr. Goulburn had forgotten that the one-pound
notes, were the legs upon which the fives walked. He had
heard the Duke of Wellington use the same language in the
other House. Taught as they now were, by experience, it
would scarcely be believed, fifty years hence, that a set of
men could have been found with so little foresight as to have
devised measures so fraught with injury.
" He felt convinced that if he looked tp the present com
pany, or any other, accidentally assembled, that he would
find thirteen gentlemen more fit to manage the affairs of the
kingdom than were those who now presided at the head of
Government ; not that he imputed to them any desire to do
wrong, or. that they were more corrupt than others ; it was
clear, that with the eyes of the public upon them they, must
wish to do right ; it was owing to their sheer ignorance, their
entire unfitness to carry on the Government, that they did no
better. Ignorance and unfitness were, however, pleas which

280 Rural Ride to
they had no business to make. It was nothing to him if a
man Was ignorant and stupid, under ordinary circumstances ;
but if he entrusted a man with his money, thinking that he
was intelligent, and was deceived, then it was something; he
had a right to say, ' You are not what I took you for, you
are an ignorant fellow ; you have deceived me, you are an
impostor.' Such was the language proper to all under such
circumstances: never mind their titles 1
" A friend had that morning taken him to view the beauti
ful vale of Aylesbury, which he had never before seen; and
the first thought that struck him, on seeing the rich pasture
was this, ' Good God ! is a country like this to be ruined by
the folly of those who govern it ? ' When he was a naughty
boy, he used to say that if he wanted to select Members for
our Houses of Parliament, he would put a string across any
road leading into London, and that the first iooo men that ran
against his string, he would choose for Members, and he would
bet a wager, that they would be better qualified, than those
who now filled those Houses. That was when he was a
naughty boy ; but since that time a bill has been passed,
which made it banishment for life, to use language that
brought the Houses of Parliament into contempt, and there
fore he did not say so now. The Government, it should be
recollected, had passed all these acts with the hearty concur
rence of both houses of Parliament ; they were thus backed
by these Houses, and they were backed by ninety-nine out of
one hundred of the papers, which affected to see all their acts
in rose-colour, for no one who was in the habit of reading the
papers, could have anticipated, from what they there saw, the
ruin which had fallen on the country. Thus we had an igno
rant Government, an ignorant Parliament, and something
worse than an ignorant press ; the latter being employed
(some of them with considerable talent) to assail and turn into
ridicule those who had the boldness and honesty to declare
their dissent from the opinion of the wisdom of the measures
of Government. It was no easy task to stand, unmoved,
their ridicule and sarcasms, and many were thus deterred from

Tring, in Hertfordshire. 28 1
expressing the sentiments of their minds. In this country we
had all the elements of prosperity; an industrious people*
such as were nowhere else to be found ; a country too,-which
was once called the finest and greatest on the earth (for. what
ever might be said of the country in comparison with others,
the turnips of England were worth more, this year, than all
the vines of France.) It was a glorious and a great country
until the government had made it otherwise ; and it- ought
still to be what it was once, and to be capable of driving the
Russians back from- the country of our old and best ally, — >¦
the Turks.1 During the time of war, we were told that it was
necessary to make great' sacrifices to save us from disgrace.
The people made those sacrifices; they gave up their all:
But had the Government done its part; had it saved us from
disgrace? No: we were now the laughing-stock of all other
countries. The French and all Other nations derided us ; and
by and by it would be seen that they would make a partition
of Turkey with- the Russians, and make a fresh subject for
laughter. Never since the time of Charles had such disgrace
been brought upon the country; and why was this? When
were we again to see the labourer receiving his wages from the
fanner, instead of being sent on the road to break stones?
Some people, under this state of things,, consoled themselves
1 The opinions of the Author seern to have been substantiated by recent
events. At the peace which followed the memorable Crimean War (1854
to 1856), "by the Treaty of Paris," Russia renounced her claims on the
Principalities of Moldavia and Wal'achia, agreed to dismantle the forti
fications of Sebastopol, guaranteed not to keep ships of war in the Black
Sea, and ceded a portion of territory to form a new frontier. The Russian
Government, however, taking the opportunity of the Franco-German War,
declared, in 1871, that it felt itself no longer bound by the Paris Treaty,
which forbade Russia to have a fleet in the Black Sea; and a London
Conference sanctioned! this stroke of Russian diplomacy. Afterwards
occurred the war between Russia and Turkey (1877-1878), in which Russia
was the victor. By the Treaty of Berlin, which followed the peacer the
provinces of Roumania, Servia, Montenegro and Bulgaria were declared
"independent" Bessarabia was added to Russia, Herzegovina and
Bosnia were added to Austro-Hunga'ry ; and in Asia a portion of Armenia
was also ceded to Russia. The English Government undertook to defend
'the; Porte's dominions in Asia, and to receive in return the right to occupy
the isjtand of Cyprus.

282 Rural Rifle to
by saying things would come about again ; they had come
about before, and would come about again. They deceived
themselves, things did not come about; the seasons came
about, it was true ; but something must be done to bring
things about Instead of the neuter verb (to speak as a gram
marian) they should use the active ; they should not say things
will come about, but things must be ////about He thought
that the distress would shortly become so great, perhaps,
about Christmas, that the Parliamentary gentlemen, finding
they received but a small part of their rents, without which
they could not do, any more than the farmer, without his
crops, would endeavour to bring them about ; and the mea
sures they would propose for that purpose, as far as he could
judge, would be Bank restriction, and the re-issue of one-pound
notes, and what the effect of that would be they would soon
see. One of those persons who were so profoundly ignorant
would come down to the House, prepared to propose a return
to Bank restriction, and the issue of small notes, and that a
bill to that effect should be passed.1 If such a bill did pass,
he would advise all persons to be cautious in their dealings ;
it would be perilous to make bargains under such a state of
things.- Money was the measure of value; but if this mea
sure was liable to be three times as large at one time as at
another, who could know what to do ? how was any one to
know how to purchase wheat, if the bushel was to be altered
at the pleasure of the Government to three times its present
size ? The remedy for the evils of the country, was not to be
found in palliatives ; it was not to be found in strong measures.
The first step must be taken in the House of Commons, but
that was almost hopeless ; for although many persons possessed
the right of voting, it was of little use to them ; whilst a few
great men could render their votes of no avail. If we had
possessed a House of Commons that represented the feelings
and wishes of the people, they would not have submitted to
1 The previous Editor alludes to the fact, that both these measures were
afterwards proposed in Parliament during a similar state of depression
which existed in 1847.

Tring, in Hertfordshire. 283
much of what had taken place ; and until we had a reform we
should never, he believed, see measures, emanating from that
House, which would conduce to the glory and safety of the
country. He feared that there would be no improvement,.
until a dreadful convulsion took place, and that was an event
which he prayed God to avert from the country."
" The Chairman proposed ' Prosperity to Agriculture,' when.
"Mr. Cobbett again rose, and said the chairman had told
him, he was entitled to give a sentiment. He would give
prosperity to the towns of Aylesbury and Tring ; but he would
again advise those who calculated upon the return of pro
sperity, to be careful. Until there was an equitable adjust
ment, or Government took off part of the taxes, which was the
same thing, there could be no return of prosperity."
After the reporter went away, we had a great number of
toasts, most of which were followed by more or less of speech;
and, before we separated, I think that the seeds of common
sense, on the subject of our distresses, were pretty well planted
in the lower part of Hertfordshire, and in Buckinghamshire.
The gentlemen present were men of information, well able
to communicate to others that which they themselves had
heard; and I endeavoured to leave no doubt in the mind of
any man that heard me, that the cause of the distress was the
work of the Government and House of Commons, and that it
was nonsense to hope for a cure, until the people had a real
voice, in the choosing of that House. I think that these
truths were well implanted ; and I further think that if I could
go to the capital of every county in the kingdom, I should
leave no doubt in the minds of any part of the people. I
must not omit to mention, in conclusion, that though I am no
eater or drinker, and though I tasted nothing but the breast
of a little chicken, and drank nothing but water, the dinner
was the best that ever I saw called a public dinner, and
certainly unreasonably cheap. There were excellent points of
meat of the finest description, fowls and geese in abundance ;
and, finally, a very fine haunch of venison, with a bottle of
wine for each person ; and all for seven shillings and sixpenct

2S4 Rural Ride.

per head. Good waiting upon; civil landlord and landlady;
and; in short, every thing at this very pretty town pleased me
exceedingly. Yet, what is Tring but a fair specimen of Eng
lish towns and English people ? And is it right, and is it to
be suffered, that such a people should be plunged into misery
by the acts of those whom they pay so generously, and whom
they so loyally and cheerfully obey ?
As far as I had an opportunity of ascertaining the facts, the
farmers feel all the pinchings of distress, and the still harsher
pinchings of anxiety for the future ; and the labouring people
are suffering in a degree not to be described. The shutting of
the male paupers up in pounds, is common through Bedford-.
shire and Buckinghamshire. Left at large during the day, they
roam about and maraud. What are the farmers to do with
them ? God knows how long the peace is to be kept, if this state
of things be not put a stop to. The natural course of things is,
that an attempt to impound the paupers in cold weather, will
produce resistance in some place ; that those of one parish
will be joined by those of another ; that a formidable band
will soon be assembled ; then will ensue the rummaging of
pantries and cellars ; that this will spread from parish to
parish ; and that, finally, mobs of immense magnitude will set
the law at open defiance.1 Jails are next to useless in such a

1 The subject of Pauper Relief has already been touched upon. The
previous Editor reminds us, in this place, that the Poor Law Amendment
Bill, which was passed August 14, 1834, was intended as a sop to the land,
in its distressed condition, and to reduce those ^e.ooo.ooo or ;£7,coo,oo&
of rates (mentioned in these Rides), and also to induce the rural population
to migrate to the manufacturing towns. -The Author asserted, in the
House of Commons, when this Bill was being debated* that a document
existed, showing that the projectors of the Bill, contemplated bringing the
labouring people " to live on coarser food." The thirteenth Poor. Law
Report, 1847, states that the sums actually paid in relief, were as follows :—
In 1843 . . . £5,208,027
..1844 • • . • 4.976.093
.. '845 . . . . 4.°39.7°3
i. 1846 . . . 4,902,026
For the year ending Lady-day 1S83, the Poor-rates amounted to £15,338*1 ' '
— rbut more than one third of this amount was expended for other pur
poses than the relief of the poor.

Northern Tour, 28 =

case : theft want of room must leave the greater part of the
offenders at large : the agonizing distress of the farmers will
make them comparatively indifferent with regard to these
violences ; and, at last, general confusion will come. This is
by no means an unlikely progress, or an unlikely result It
therefore becomes those who have much at stake, to join
heartily in their applications to Government, for a timely
remedy for these astounding evils.

NORTHERN TOUR.

Sheffield, 31st January, 1830.
On the 26th instant I gave my third lecture at Leeds. . 1
should in vain endeavour to give an adequate description of
the pleasure which I felt at my reception, and at the effect
which I produced in that fine and opulent capital of this great
county of York; for the capital it is in fact, though not in
name. On the first evening, the play-house, which is pretty
spacious, was not completely filled in all its parts ; but on the
second and the third, it was filled brim full, boxes, pit and
gallery; besides a dozen or two of gentlemen who were
accommodated with seats on the stage. Owing to a cold
which I took at Huddersfield, and which I spoke of before, I
was, as the players call it, not in very good voice ; but the
audience made allowance for that, and very wisely preferred
sense, to sound. I never was more delighted than with my
audience at Leeds ; and what I set the highest value on, is,
that I find I produced a prodigious, effect in that important
town. There had been a meeting at Doncaster, a few days before
Great opposition was raised to the Poor Law Bill of 1834, and especially
to the separation of the sexes in the unions and to the restrictions of out
door relief ; but these provisions have been fully justified ; and the working
of tiie Bill has not only reduced the poor rates, but raised the labouring
class inindustry and virtue.

286 Northern Tour.
I went to Leeds from Ripley, where one of the speakers, a
Mr. Becket Denison had said, speaking of the taxes, that there
must be an application of the pruning hook or of the sponge.
This gentleman is a banker, I believe : he is one of the
Beckets connected with the Lowthers ; and he is a brother,
or very near relation of that Sir John Becket who is the Judge-
Advocate General. So that, at last, others can talk of the
pruning hook and the sponge, as well as I. <
From Leeds, I proceeded on to this place, not being able
to stop at either Wakefield or Barnsley, except merely to
change horses. The people in those towns were apprised of
the time that I should pass through them ; and, at each place,
great numbers assembled to see me, to shake me by the hand,
and to request me to stop. I was so hoarse as not to be able
to make the post-boy hear me, when I called to him ; and,
therefore, it would have been useless to stop ; yet I promisedi
to go back if my time and my voice would allow me. They
do not; and I have written to the gentlemen of those places
to inform them, that when I go to Scotland in the spring, I
will not fail to stop in those towns, in order to express my
gratitude to them. All the way along, from Leeds to Sheffield,
it is coal and iron, and iron and coal. It was dark before we
reached Sheffield ; so that we saw the iron furnaces, in all the
horrible splendour of their everlasting blaze. Nothing can be'
conceived more grand or more terrific than the yellow waves
of fire, that incessantly issue from the top of these furnaces,
some of which are close by the way-side. Nature has placed
the beds of iron and the beds of coal alongside of each other,
and art has taught man to make one, to operate upon the
other so as to turn the iron-stone into liquid matter, which is
drained off from the bottom of the furnace, and afterwards
moulded into blocks and bars, and all sorts of things. The
combustibles are put into the top of the furnace, which stands
thirty, forty, or fifty feet up in the air, and the ever-blazing
mouth of which is kept supplied with coal and coke and iron
stone, from little iron waggons forced up by steam, and brought
down again to be re-filled. It is a surprising thing to behold;,

Northern Tour. 287
*nd it is impossible to behold it without being convinced that,
whatever other nations may do with cotton and with wool,
they will never equal England, with regard to things made of
iron and steel. This Sheffield, and the land all about it, is
one bed of iron and coal. They call it Black Sheffield, and
black enough it is ; but from this one town and its environs
go nine-tenths of the knives that are used in the whole world;
there being, I understand, no knives made at Birmingham ;
the manufacture of which place consists of the larger sorts of
implements, of locks of all sorts, and guns and swords, and of
all the endless articles of hardware which go to the furnishing
of a house. As to the land, viewed in the way of agriculture,
it really does appear to be very little worth. I have not seen,
except at Harewood and Ripley, a stack of wheat since I came
•into Yorkshire ; and even there, the whole I saw, and all that
I saw during a ride of six miles that I took into Derbyshire
the day before yesterday, all put together would not make the
one-half of what I have many times seen in one single rick-
yard of the vales of Wiltshire. But this is all very proper :
these coal-diggers, and iron-smelters, and knife-makers, compel
us to send the food to them, which, indeed, we do very cheer
fully, in exchange for the produce of their rocks, and the
wondrous works of their hands.
The trade of Sheffield has fallen off, less in proportion than
that of the other manufacturing districts. North America, and
particularly the United States, where the people have so much
victuals to cut, form a great branch of the custom of this town.
If the people of Sheffield could only receive a tenth part of
what their knives sell for by retail in America, Sheffield might
pave its streets with silver. A gross of knives and forks is sold
to the Americans, for less than three knives and forks, can be
bought at retail in a country store in America.1 No fear of
1 Probably the Author had in his recollection, when he was making this
statement, what had actually occurred in America, shortly after he left it
for, England in 1819, viz., that English goods were almost "given away"
at the auction sales there. Indeed, it was the common saying, not only in
America but in all the English Colonies, that commerce oscillated between

288 Northern Toiir.
rivalship in this trade. The Americans may lay on their tariff,
and double it, and triple it ; but as long as they continue to
cut their victuals, from Sheffield, they must have the things
to cut it with.
The ragged hills all round about this town, are bespangled
with groups of houses inhabited by the working cutlers. They
have not suffered like the working weavers ; for, to make
knives, there must be the hand of man. Therefore, machinery
cannot come to destroy the wages of the labourer. The home
demand, has been very much diminished; but still the
depression has here, not been what it has been, and what it is,
where the machinery can be brought into play. We are here
just upon the borders of Derbyshire, a nook of which runs up,
and separates, Yorkshire from Nottinghamshire. I went to a
village, the day before yesterday, called Mosborough, the whole
of the people of which are employed in the making of sickles
and scythes'; -and where, as Twas told, they are very well off
even ' in these times. A prodigious -quantity of these things,
go to the United States of America. In short, there are
about twelve millions of people there, continually consuming
these things ; and the hardware merchants here, have their
agents, and their stores, in the great towns of America; which
country, as far as relates to this branch of business, is still a
part of old England.
Upon my arriving here on Wednesday night, the 27th
instant, I by no means intended to lecture, until I should have
a little recovered from my cold ; but to my great mortification,
I found that the lecture had been advertised, and that great
numbers of persons had actually assembled. To send them
out again, and give back the money, was a thing not to be
attempted. I, therefore, went to the Music Hall, the place
which had- been taken for the purpose, gave them a specimen
of the state of my voice, asked them whether I should proceed,
scarcity and glut. Happily, at the present time the telegraphic" cable,.
equalizes supply and demand, and prevents the ruinous losses which were
previously made by shippers. Sheffield at the present time has coifrjfetUdr£
in' the cutlery and steel trade, in France, Belgium, and" Canada,

Northern Tour. "289
and they answering in the affirmative, on I went. I then
rested until yesterday, and shall conclude my labours here to
morrow, and then proceed to "fair Nottingham" as we used
to sing when I was a boy, in celebrating the glorious' exploits
•of "Robin Hood and Little John." By the ; by, as we went
from Huddersfield to Dewsbury, we passed by a hill which is
celebrated as being the burial-place of the famed Robin Hood,
of whom the people in this country talk to this day.
At Nottingham, they have advertised for my lecturing at the
play-house, for the 3rd, 4th, and 6th of February, and for a
public breakfast to be given vto me on the first of those days, I
having declined a dinner agreeably to my original notification,
and my friends insisting upon something or other in that sort
of way. It is very curious that I have always had a very great
desire to see Nottingham. This desire certainly originated in
the great interest that I used to take, and that all country boys
took, in the history of Robin Hood, in the record of whose
achievements, which were so well calculated to excite admiration
in the country boys, this Nottingham, with the word "fair"
always before it, was so often mentioned. The word fair, as
used by our forefathers, meant fine ; for we frequently read in
old descriptions of parts of the country of such a district or such
a parish, containing a. fair mansion, and the like ; so that this
town appears to have been celebrated as a very fine place, even
in ancient times; but within the last thirtyyears, Nottingham has
stood high in my estimation, from the conduct of its people;
from their public spirit ; from their excellent sense as to public
matters; from the noble struggle, which they have made from the
beginning of the French war, to the present hour ; if only forty
towns in England equal in size to Nottingham, had followed
its bright example, there would have been no French war
against liberty ; the Debt would have, been now nearly paid off,
and we should have known nothing of those manifold miseries,
which now afflict, and those greater miseries, which now menace,
the country. The French would not have been in Cadiz ; the
Russians would not have been at Constantinople ; the Ameri
can's would not have been in the Floridas ; we should not have
VOL. II. T

290 Eastern Tour.

had to dread the combined fleets of America, France and
Russia ; and, which is the worst of all, we should not have
seen the jails four times as big as they were ; and should not
have seen Englishmen reduced to such a state of misery, as
for the honest labouring man to be fed, worse than the felons
in the jails.

EASTERN TOUR.

" You permit the Jews openly to preach in their synagogues, and call
"Jesus Christ an impostor ; and you send women to jail (to be brought
" to bed there, too), for declaring their unbelief in Christianity." — King
of Bohemia's Letter to Canning, published in the Register, 4th of Janu
ary, 1823. Hargham, 22nd March, 1830.
I set off from London on the 8th of March, got to Bury
St. Edmund's that evening; and, to my great mortification,
saw the county-election, and the assizes both going on, at
Chelmsford, where, of course, a great part of the people of
Essex were met. If I had been aware of that, I should
certainly have stopped at Chelmsford, in order to address a
few words of sense to the unfortunate constituents of Mr.
Western. At Bury St Edmund's I gave a lecture on the
ninth, and another on the tenth of March, in the playhouse,
to very crowded audiences. I went to Norwich on the 12th,
and gave a lecture there on that evening, and on the evening
of the 13th. The audience here was more numerous than at
Bury St. Edmund's, but not so numerous in proportion to the
size of the place; and, contrary to what has happened in
most other places, it consisted more of town's people than of
country people.
During the 14th and 15th, I was at a friend's house at
Yelverton, half way between Norwich and Bungay, which last
is in Suffolk, and at which place I lectured on the 16th to an
audience consisting chiefly of farmers, and was entertained

Eastern Tour. 291

there in a most hospitable and kind manner, at the house of
a friend. The next day, being the 17th, I went to Eye, and there
lectured in the evening in the neat little playhouse of the
place, which was crowded in every part, stage and all. The
audience consisted almost entirely of farmers, who had come
in from Diss, from Harleston, and from all the villages round
about, in this fertile and thickly-settled neighbourhood. I
staid at Eye all the day of the 18th, having appointed to be
at Ipswich on the 19th. Eye is a beautiful little place, though
an exceedingly rotten borough.
All was harmony and good humour : everybody appeared
to be of one mind ; and as these friends observed to me, so
I thought, that more effect had been produced by this one
lecture in that neighbourhood, than could have been produced
in a whole year, if the Register had been put into the hands
of every one of the hearers, during that space of time ; for
though I never attempt to put forth that sort of stuff which
the "intense " people on the other side of St. George's Channel
call "eloquence," I bring out strings of very interesting facts;
I use pretty powerful arguments ; and I hammer them down
so closely upon the mind, that they seldom fail to produce a
lasting impression.
On the 19th I proceeded to Ipswich, not imagining it to
be the fine, populous and beautiful place that I found it to be.
On that night, and on the night of the 20th, I lectured to
boxes and pit, crowded principally with opulent farmers, and to
a gallery filled, apparently, with journeymen tradesmen and their
wives. On the Sunday before I came away, I heard, from all
quarters, that my audiences had retired deeply impressed with
the truths which I had endeavoured to inculcate. One thing,
however, occurred towards the close of the lecture of Saturday,
the 20th, that I deem worthy of particular attention. In
general it would be useless for me to attempt to give anything
like a report of these speeches of mine, consisting as they do
of words uttered pretty nearly as fast as I can utter them,
during a space of never less than two, and sometimes of nearly

292 Eastern Tour.

three hours. But there occurred here, something that I must
notice. I was speaking of the degrees by which the established
church had been losing its legal influence since the peace.
First, the Unitarian Bill, removing the penal act which for
bade an impugning of the doctrine of the Trinity ; second, the
repeal of the Test Act, which declared, in effect, that the reli
gion of any of the Dissenters was as good as that of the Church
of England ; third, the repeal of the penal and excluding laws
with regard to the Catholics ; and this last act, said I, does in
effect declare that the thing called "the Reformation" was
unnecessary. " No," said one gentleman, in a very loud voice,
and he was followed by fouT or five more, who said " No, No."
" Then," said I, '' we will, if you like, put it to the vote. Under-
" stand, gentlemen, that I do not say, whatever I may think, that
"the Reformation was unnecessary; but I say that this act
" amounts to a declaration, that it was unnecessary ; and, without
"losing our good humour, we will, if that gentleman choose,
"put this question to the vote." I paused a little while,
receiving no answer, and perceiving that the company were
with me, I proceeded with my speech, concluding with the
complete demolishing blow which the church would receive,
by the bill for giving civil and political power for training to
the bar, and seating on the bench, for placing in the commons
and amongst the peers, and for placing in the council, along
with the King himself, those who deny that there ever existed a
Redeemer ; who give the name of impostor to Him whom we
worship as God, and who boast of having hanged Him upon
the cross. "Judge you, gentlemen," said I, "of the figure
"which England will make, when its laws will seat on the
"bench, from which people have been sentenced to suffer
"most severely for denying the truth of Christianity; from
" which "-bench it has been held that Christianity is part and
"parcel of the law of the land; judge you of the figure which
"England will make amongst Christian nations, when a Jew,
" a blasphemer of Christ, a professor of the doctrines of those
" who murdered him, shall be sitting upon that bench ; and
"judge, gentlemen, what we must think of t/ie clergy of this

Eastern Tour. 293

"church of ours, if they remain silent while such a law shall
"be passed."
We were entertained at Ipswich by a very kind and excel
lent friend, whom, as is generally the case, I had never seen
or heard of before. The morning of the day of the last lecture,
I walked about five miles, then went to his house to breakfast,
and staid with him and dined. On the Sunday morning,
before I came away, I walked about six miles, and repeated
the good cheer at breakfast at the same place. Here I heard
the first singing of the birds this year ; and I here observed
an instance of that petticoat government, which, apparently,
pervades the whole of animated nature. A lark, very near to
me in a ploughed field, rose from the ground, and was saluting
the sun with his delightful song. He was got about as high
as the dome of St. Paul's, having me for a motionless and
admiring auditor, when the hen started up from nearly the
same spot whence the cock had risen, flew up and passed close
by him. I could not hear what she said; but supposed that
she must have given him a pretty smart reprimand ; for down
she came upon the ground, and he, ceasing to sing, took a
twirl in the air, and came down after her. Others have, I
daresay, seen this a thousand times over ; but I never observed
it before. About twelve o'clock, my son and I set off for this place
(Hargham), coming through Needham Market, Stow-market,
Bury St Edmund's, and Thetford, at which latter place I
intended to have lectured to-day and to-morrow, where the
theatre was to have been the scene, but the mayor of the town
thought it best not to give his permission until the. assizes
(which commence to-day the 22nd) should be over, lest the
judge should take offence, seeing that it is the custom, while
his Lordship is in the town, to give up the civil jurisdiction to
him. Bless his worship ! what in all the world should he think
would take me to Thetford, except it being a time for holding the
assizes I At no other time should I have dreamed of finding
an audience in so small a place, and in a country so thinly
inhabited. I was attracted, too, by the desire of meeting some of

294 Eastern Tour.

my " learned friends" from the Wen; for I deal in arguments,
founded on the law of the land, and on Acts of Parliament.
The deuce take this Mayor for disappointing me ; and, now,
I am afraid that I shall not fall in with this learned body
during the whole of my spring tour.
Finding Thetford to be forbidden ground, I came hither to
Sir Thomas Beevor*s, where I had left my two daughters,
having, since the 12th inclusive, travelled 120 miles, and deli
vered six lectures. These 1 20 miles have been through a fine
farming country, and without my seeing, until I came to Thet
ford, but one spot of waste or common land, and that not
exceeding, I should think, from fifty to eighty acres. From
this place to Norwich, and through Attleborough and Wymond-
ham, the land is all good, and the farming excellent It is
pretty nearly the same from Norwich to Bungay, where we
enter Suffolk. Bungay is a large and fine town, with three
churches, lying on the side of some very fine meadows.
v Harleston, on the road to Eye, is a very pretty market-town :
of Eye, I have spoken before. From Eye to Ipswich, we pass
through a series of villages, and at Ipswich, to my great sur
prise, we found a most beautiful town, with a population of
about twelve thousand persons ; and here our profound Prime
Minister might have seen most abundant evidence of pros
perity ; for the new houses are, indeed, very numerous. But if
our famed and profound Prime Minister, having Mr. Wilmot
Horton by the arm, and standing upon one of the hills that
surround this town, and which, each hill seeming to surpass the
other hill in beauty, command a complete view of every house,
or, at least, of the top of every house, in this opulent town ; if
he, thus standing, and thus accompanied, were to hold up his
hands, clap them together, and bless God for the. proofs of
prosperity contained in the new and red bricks, and were to
cast his eye southward of the town, and see the numerous little
vessels, upon the little arm of the sea, which comes up from
Harwich, and which here finds its termination ; and were, in
those vessels, to discover an additional proof of prosperity ; if
he were to be thus situated, and to be thus feeling, would not

Eastern Tour. 295

some doubts be awakened in his mind, if I, standing behind
him, were to whisper in his ear, " Do you not think that the
greater part of these new houses have been created by taxes
which went to pay the, about, 20,000 troops that were stationed
here for pretty nearly 20 years during the war, and some of
which are stationed here still ? Look at that immense building,
my Lord Duke : it is fresh and new and fine and splendid, and
contains indubitable marks of opulence ; but it is a BAR
RACK; aye, and the money to build that barrack, and to
maintain the 20,000 troops, has assisted to beggar, to dilapi
date, to plunge into ruin and decay, hundreds upon hundreds
of villages and hamlets in Wiltshire, in Dorsetshire, in Somer
setshire, and in other counties who shared not in the ruthless
squanderings of the war. But," leaning my arm upon the
Duke's shoulder, and giving Wilmot a poke in the poll, to
make him listen and look, and pointing with my fore-finger to
the twelve large, lofty, and magnificent churches, each of them
at least 760 years old, and saying, " Do you think Ipswich was
"not larger and far more populous 700 years ago than it is at
"this hour?" Putting this question to him, would it not
check his exultation, and would it not make even Wilmot
begin to reflect ?
Even at this hour, with all the unnatural swellings of the
war, there are not two thousand people, including the bedridden
and the babies, to each of the magnificent churches. Of adults,
there cannot be more than about 1400 to a church; and there
is one of the churches which, being well filled, as in ancient
times, would contain from four to seven thousand persons, for
the nave of it appears to me to be larger than St. Andrew's
Hall at Norwich, which Hall was formerly the church of the
Benedictine Priory. And, perhaps, the great church here,
might have belonged to some monastery ; for here were three
Augustine priories, one of them founded in the reign of William
the Conqueror, another founded in the reign of Henry the
Second, another in the reign of King John, with an Augustine
friary, a Carmelite friary, an hospital founded in the reign of
King John; and here, too, was the College founded by

296 Eastern Tour.

Cardinal Wolsey, the gateway of which, though built in brick,
is still preserved, being the same sort of architecture as that
of Hampton Court, and St James's Palace.
There is no doubt, but that this was a much greater place
than it is now. It is the great outlet for the immense
quantities of corn grown in this most productive county, and
by farmers the most clever that ever lived. I am told that
wheat is worth six shillings a quarter more, at some times, at
Ipswich than at Norwich, the navigation to London being so
much more speedy and safe. Immense quantities of flour are
sent from this town. The windmills on the hills in the
vicinage are so numerous that I counted, whilst standing in
one place, no less than seventeen. They are all painted or
washed white ; the sails are black; it was a fine morning, the
wind was brisk, and their twirling altogether, added greatly to
the beauty of the scene, which, having the broad and beautiful
arm of the sea on the one hand, and the fields and meadows,
studded with farmhouses, on the other, appeared to me the
most beautiful sight of the kind that I had ever beheld. The
town and its churches were down in.the dell before me, and
the only object that came to disfigure the scene was THE
BARRACK, and made me utter involuntarily the words of
Blackstone : " The laws of England recognise no distinction
" between the citizen and the soldier ; they know of no stand
ing soldier; no inland fortresses ; no barracks." "Ah! "said,
I to myself, but loud enough for any one to have heard me a
hundred yards, "such ivere the laws of England when mass
" was said in those magnificent churches, and such they con-
" tinued until a septennial parliament came and deprived the
" people of England of their rights."
I know of no town to be compared with Ipswich, except
it be Nottingham ; and there is this difference in the two ;
that Nottingham stands high, and, on one side, looks over
a very fine country ; whereas Ipswich is in a dell, meadows
running up above it, and a beautiful arm of the sea below it.
The town itself is substantially built, well paved, everything
good and solid, and no wretched dwellings to be seen on its

Eastern Tour. 297

outskirts. From the town itself, you can see nothing; but
you can, in no direction, go from it a quarter of a mile without
finding views, that a painter might crave, and then, the country
round about it, so well cultivated ; the land in such a beautiful
state, the farm-houses all white, and all so much alike ; the
barns, and every thing about the homesteads so snug; the
stocks of turnips so abundant every where ; the sheep and
cattle in such fine order ; the wheat all drilled ; the plough
man so expert ; the furrows, if a quarter of a mile long, as
straight as a line, and laid as truly as if with a level : in short,
here is every thing to delight the eye, and to make the people
proud of their country ; and this is the case throughout the
whole of this county. I have always found Suffolk farmers
great boasters of their superiority over others; and I must say
that it is not without reason.
But, observe, this has been a very highly-favoured county:
it has had poured into it millions upon millions of money,
drawn from Wiltshire, and other inland counties. I should
suppose that Wiltshire alone has, within the last forty years,
had two or three millions of money drawn from it, to be given
to Essex and Suffolk. At one time there were not less than
sixty thousand men kept on foot in these counties. The
increase of London, too, the swellings of the immortal Wen,
have assisted to heap wealth upon these counties ; but, in spite
of all this, the distress pervades all ranks and degrees, except
those who live on the taxes. At Eye, butter used to sell for
eighteen-pence a pound : it now sells for nine-pence half
penny, though the grass has not yet begun to spring; and
eggs were sold at thirty for a shilling. Fine times for me,
whose principal food is eggs, and whose sole drink is milk,
but very bad times for those who sell me the food and the
drink. Coming from Ipswich to Bury St. Edmund's, you pass
through Needham-market and Stowmarket, two very pretty
market towns; and, like all the other towns in Suffolk, free
from the drawback of shabby and beggarly houses on the out
skirts. I remarked that I did not see in the whole county

298 Eastern Tour.

one single instance of paper or rags supplying the place of
glass in any window, and did not see one miserable hovel in
which a labourer resided. The county, however, is flat: with
the exception of the environs of Ipswich, there is none of that
beautiful variety of hill and dale, and hanging woods, that you
see at every town in Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent It is
curious, too, that though the people, I mean the poorer classes
of people, are extremely neat in their houses, and though I
found all their gardens dug up and prepared for cropping, you
do not see about their cottages (and it is just the same in
Norfolk) that ornamental gardening ; the walks, and the flower
borders, and the honey-suckles, and roses, trained over the
doors, or over arched sticks, that you see in Hampshire,
Sussex, and Kent, that I have many a time sat upon my
horse to look at so long and so often, as greatly to retard me
on my journey. Nor is this done for show or ostentation.
If you find a cottage in those counties, by the side of a by
lane, or in the midst of a forest, you find just the same care
about the garden and the flowers. In those counties, too,
there is great taste with regard to trees of every description,
from the hazel to the oak. In Suffolk it appears to be just
the contrary : here is the great disfigurement of all these three
eastern counties. Almost every bank of every field is studded
with pollards, that is to say, trees that have been beheaded, at
from six to twelve feet from the ground, than which nothing
in nature can be more ugly. They send out shoots from the
head, which are lopped off once in ten or a dozen years for
fuel, or other purposes. To add to the deformity, the ivy is
suffered to grow on them, which, at the same time, checks the
growth of the shoots. These pollards become hollow very
soon, and, as timber, are fit for nothing but gate-posts, even
before they are hollow. Upon a farm of a hundred acres these
pollards, by root and shade, spoil at least six acres of the
ground, besides being most destructive to the fences. Why
not plant six acres of the ground with timber and underwood ?
Half an acre a year would most amply supply the farm with
poles and brush, and with every thing wanted in the way of

Easteim Tour. 299

fuel; and why not plant hedges to be unbroken by these
pollards ? I have scarcely seen a single farm of a hundred
acres without pollards, sufficient to find the farm-house in fuel,
without any assistance from coals, for several years.
However, the great number of farm-houses in Suffolk, the
neatness of those houses, the moderation in point of extent
which you generally see, and the great store of the food in
the turnips, and the admirable management of the whole, form
a pretty good compensation for the want of beauties. The
land is generally as clean as a garden ought to be ; and,
though it varies a good deal as to lightness and stiffness, they
make it all bear prodigious quantities of Swedish turnips ; and
on them pigs, sheep, and cattle, all equally thrive. I did not
observe a single poor miserable animal in the whole county.
To conclude an account of Suffolk, and not to sing the
praises of Bury St. Edmund's, would offend every creature of
Suffolk birth ; even at Ipswich, when I was praising that place,
the very people of that town asked me if I did not think Bury
St Edmund's the nicest town in the world. Meet them
wherever you will, they have all the same boast ; and indeed,
as a town in itself, it is the neatest place that ever was seen.
It is airy, it has several fine open places in it, and it has the
remains of the famous abbey walls and the abbey gate entire ;
and it is so clean and so neat that nothing can equal it in
that respect It was a favourite spot in ancient times ; greatly
endowed with monasteries and hospitals. Besides the famous
Benedictine Abbey, there was once a college and a friary ;
and as to the abbey itself, it was one of the greatest in the
kingdom ; and was so ancient as to have been founded only
about forty years after the landing of Saint Austin in Kent
The land all round about it is good ; and the soil is of that
nature as not to produce much dirt at any time of the year ;
but the country about it is flat, and not of that beautiful variety
that we find at Ipswich.
After all, what is the reflection now called for ? It is that
this fine county, for which nature has done all that she can do,
soil, climate, sea-ports, people ; every thing that can be done,

?oo Eastern Tour.

and an internal government, civil and ecclesiastical, the most
complete in the world, wanting nothing but to be let alone, to
make every soul in it as happy as people can be upon earth ;
the peace provided for by the county rates ; property pro
tected by the law of the land ; the poor provided for by the
poor-rates ; religion provided for by the tithes and the church-
rates ; easy and safe conveyance provided for by the highway-
rates ; extraordinary danger provided against by the militia-
rates ; a complete government in itself ; but having to pay a
portion of sixty millions a year in taxes over and above all this ;
and that, too, on account of wars carried on, not for the defence
of England ; not for the upholding of English liberty and
happiness, but for the purpose of crushing liberty and happU
ness in other countries ; and all this because, and only because,
a septennial parliament has deprived the people of their rights.
That which we admire most, is not always that, which
would be our choice. One might imagine, that after all that
I have said about this fine county, I should certainly prefer
it as a place of residence. I should not, however : my choice
has been always very much divided between the woods of
Sussex, and the downs of Wiltshire. I should not like to be
compelled to decide : but if I were compelled I do believe
that I should fix on some vale in Wiltshire. Water meadows
at the bottom, corn-land going up towards the hills, those
hills being down land, and a farm-house, in a clump of trees,
in some little cross vale between the hills, sheltered on every
side but the south. In short, if Mr. Bennet would give me a
farm, the house of which lies on the right-hand side of the
road going from Salisbury to Warminster, in the parish of
Norton Bovant, just before you enter that village; if he would
but be so good as to do that, I would freely give up all the
rest of the world to the possession of whoever may get hold of
it. I have hinted this to him once or twice before, but I am
sorry to say that he turns a deaf ear to my hinting.
Cambridge, 2%th March, 1 830.
I went from Hargham to Lynn on Tuesday, the 23rd; but

Eastern Tour. 301

owing to the disappointment at Thetford, every thing was
deranged. It was market-day at Lynn, but no preparations of
any sort had been made, and no notification given. I therefore
resolved, after staying at Lynn on Wednesday, to make a short
tour, and to come back to it again. This tour was to take in
Ely, Cambridge, St. Ives, Stamford, Peterborough, Wisbeach,
and was to bring me back to Lynn, after a very busy ten days.
I was particularly desirous to have a little political preaching
at Ely, the place where the flogging of the English local
militia under a guard of German bayonets cost me so dear.
I got there about noon on Thursday, the 25 th, being
market-day ; but I had been apprised even before I left Lynn
that no place had been provided for my accommodation. A
gentleman at Lynn gave me the name of one at Ely, who, as
he thought, would be glad of an opportunity of pointing out a
proper place, and of speaking about it ; but just before I set
off from Lynn I received a notification from this gentleman,
that he could do nothing in the matter. I knew that Ely was
a small place, but I was determined to go and see the spot
where the militia-men were flogged, and also determined to
find some opportunity or other of relating that story as publicly
as I could at Ely, and of describing the tail of the story ; of
which I will speak presently. Arrived at Ely, I first walked
round the beautiful cathedral, that honour to our Catholic
forefathers, and that standing disgrace to our Protestant selves.
It is impossible to look at that magnificent pile without _/&//»£¦
that we are a fallen race of men. The cathedral would, leaving-
out the palace of the bishop, and the houses of the dean,
canons, and prebendaries, weigh more, if it were put into a
scale, than all the houses in the town, and all the houses for a
mile round the neighbourhood if you exclude the remains of
the ancient monasteries. You have only to open yoiir eyes to
be convinced that England must have been a far greater, and
more wealthy country, in those days than it is in these days.
The hundreds of thousands of loads of stone, of which this
cathedral and the monasteries in the neighbourhood were built,
must all. have been brought by sea from distant parts of the,

362 Eastern Tour.

kingdom. These foundations were laid more than a thousand
years ago ; and yet there are vagabonds who have the impu
dence to say that it is the Protestant religion, that has made
England a great country.1
Ely is what one may call a miserable little town: very
prettily situated, but poor and mean. Everything seems to be
on the decline, as, indeed, is the case every where, where the
clergy are the masters. They say that this bishop has an
income of ^18,000 a year. He and the dean and chapter
are the owners of all the land and tithes, for a great distance
round about, in this beautiful and most productive part of the
country ; and yet this famous building, the cathedral, is in a
state of disgraceful irrepair and disfigurement The great and
magnificent windows to the east have been shortened at the
bottom, and the space plastered up with brick and mortar, in
a very slovenly manner, for the purpose of saving the expense
of keeping the glass in repair. Great numbers of the windows
in the upper part of the building, have been partly closed up in
the same manner, and others quite closed up. One door-way,
which apparently had stood in need of repair, has been rebuilt
in modern style, because it was cheaper ; and the churchyard
contained a flock of sheep, acting as vergers for those, who
live upon the immense income, not a penny of which ought to
be expended upon themselves, while any part of this beautiful
building is in a state of irrepair. This cathedral was erected
" to the honour of God and the Holy Church." My daughters
went to the service in the afternoon, in the choir of which they

1 What has already been observed, with respect to Salisbury and
Winchester Cathedrals, may be repeated with respect to Ely Cathedral, viz.,
that it was built and endowed before England could have been called, in
any sense, " a Roman Catholic country." A monastery was founded on
the site of Ely Cathedral, as early as A.D. 673, by Ethelreda, wife of
Oswy, king of Northumberland. The monastery was destroyed by the
Danes ; but it was rebuilt by Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, A.D. 970.
In 1081, a new Church was begun. This Church was converted into a
Cathedral ; and the Abbey erected into a See in 1109. The possessions
of the Abbey were divided between the Bishop and the town. Among
the noted abbots, of which it can boast, was Abbot Thurstan, who
defended the Isle of Ely, against William the Conqueror, for seven years.

Eastern Tour. 303

saw God honoured by the presence of two old men, forming
the whole of the congregation. I dare say, that in Catholic
times, five thousand people at a time have been assembled
in this church. The cathedral and town stand upon a little
hill, about three miles in circumference, raised up, as it were,
for the purpose, amidst the rich fen land, by which the hill is
surrounded, and I dare say that the town formerly consisted of
houses built over a great part of this hill, and of, probably,
from fifty to a hundred thousand people. The people do not
now exceed above four thousand, including the bed-ridden
and the babies.
Having no place provided for lecturing, and knowing no
single soul in the place, I was thrown upon my own resources.
The first thing I did was to walk up through the market, which
contained much more than an audience sufficient for me ; but,
leaving the market people to carry on their affairs, I picked
up a sort of labouring man, asked him if he recollected when
the local militia-men were flogged under the guard of the
Germans; and, receiving an answer in the affirmative, I asked
him to go and show me the spot, which he did ; he showed
me a little common along which the men had been marched,
and into a piece of pasture-land, where he put his foot upon
the identical spot, where the flogging had been executed. On
that spot, I told him what I had suffered, for expressing my
indignation at that flogging.1 I told him that a large sum of
English money was now every year sent abroad to furnish half-
pay and allowances to the Officers of those German troops,
and to maintain the widows and children of such of them as
were dead ; and I added, " You have to work to help to pay
that money ; part of the taxes which you pay on your malt,
hops, beer, leather, soap, candles, tobacco, tea, sugar, and
1 This disgraceful proceeding has already been commented on, viz., that
in 1810, the Author was sentenced to imprisonment for two years in
Newgate and fined ^iooo, for having, in his Political Register, made some
deservedly severe remarks upon the Government for permitting the flogging
of five militia-men at Ely for a trifling offence, under a guard of German
soldiers. A more infamous instance of political tyranny, in gagging the
freedom of the press, can scarcely be found in English history.

304 Eastern Tour.

every thing else, goes abroad every year to pay these people :
it has thus been going abroad ever since the peace ; and it
will thus go abroad for the rest of your life, if this system of
managing the nation's affairs continue ; and I told him that
about one million seven hundred thousand pounds had been
sent abroad on this account, since the peace.
When I opened, I found that this man was willing to open
too ; and he uttered sentiments that would have convinced
me, if I had not before been convinced of the fact, that there
are very few, even amongst the labourers, who do not clearly
understand the cause of their ruin. I discovered that there
were two Ely men flogged upon that occasion, and that one
of them was still alive and residing near the town. I sent for
this man, who came to me in the evening when he had done
his work, and who told me, that he had lived seven years with
the same master when he was flogged, and was bailiff or head
man to his master. He has now a wife and several children,
is a very nice-looking, and appears to be a hard-working, man,
and to bear an excellent character.
But how was I to harangue ? For I was determined not to
quit Ely, without something of that sort I told this labour
ing man, who showed me the flogging spot, my name, which
seemed to surprise him very much, for he had heard of me
before. After I had returned to my inn, I walked back again
through the market among the farmers ; then went to an inn
that looked out upon the market-place, went into an up-stairs
room, threw up the sash, and sat down at the window, and
looked out upon the market Little groups soon collected to
survey me, while I sat in a very unconcerned attitude. The
farmers had dined, or I should have found out the most
numerous assemblage, and have dined with them. The next
best thing was, to go and sit down in the room where they
usually dropped in to drink after dinner; and, as they nearly
all smoke, to take a pipe with them. This, therefore, I did j
and, after a time, we began to talk.
The room was too small, to contain a twentieth part of the
people, that would have come in if they could. It was hot to

Eastern Tour. 305

suffocation ; but, nevertheless, I related to them the account
of the flogging, and of my persecution on that account ; and I
related to them the account above stated with regard to the
English money now sent to the Germans, at which they
appeared to be utterly astonished. I had not time sufficient
for a lecture, but I explained to them briefly the real cause of
the distress which prevailed ; I warned the farmers particularly
against the consequences of hoping that this distress would
remove itself. I portrayed to them the effects of the taxes ;
arid showed them that we owe this enormous burden, to the
want of being fairly represented in the Parliament. Above all
things, I did that which I never fail to do, showed them the
absurdity of grumbling at the six millions a year given in relief
to the poor, while they were silent, and seemed to think
nothing of the sixty millions of taxes collected by the Govern
ment at London, and I asked them how any man of property
could have the impudence to call upon the labouring man
to serve in the militia, and to deny that that labouring man
had, in case of need, a clear right to a share of the produce
of the land. I explained to them, how the poor were origin
ally relieved ; I told them that the revenues of the livings, which
had their foundation in charity, were divided for the benefit of
the poor, for the repair of the churches, and for the benefit of
the clergy themselves; I explained to them how church-rates
and poor-rates came to be introduced ; how the burden of
maintaining the poor came to be thrown upon the people at
large ; how the nation had sunk by degrees ever since the event,
called the Reformation ; and, pointing towards the cathedral,
I said, " Can you believe, gentlemen, that when that magni
ficent pile was reared, and when all the fine monasteries,
hospitals, schools, and other resorts of piety and charity,
existed in this town and neighbourhood; can you believe,
that Ely was the miserable little place that it now is; and
that England which had never heard of the name of pauper,
contained the crowds of miserable creatures that it now con
tains, some starving at stone-cracking by the wayside, and
others drawing loaded waggons-on that way?"
vol. 11. U

306 Eastern Tour.

A young man in the room (I having come to a pause)
said ; " But, Sir, were there no poor in Catholic times ? "
" Yes," said I, " to be sure there were. The Scripture says,
that the poor shall never cease out of the land ; and there
are five hundred texts of Scripture, enjoining on all men,
to be good and kind to the poor. It is necessary to the
existence of civil society, that there should be poor. Men
have two motives to industry and care in all the walks of
life : one, to acquire wealth ; but the other and stronger, to
avoid poverty. If there were no poverty, there would be no
industry, no enterprise. But this poverty is not to be made
a punishment unjustly severe. Idleness, extravagance, are
offences against morality ; but they are not offences of that
heinous nature to justify the infliction of starvation by way
of punishment It is, therefore, the duty of every man that
is able ; it is particularly the duty of every government, and
it was a duty faithfully executed by the Catholic church, to
take care that no human being should perish for want in
a land of plenty ; and to take care, too, that no one should
be deficient of a sufficiency of food and raiment, not only
to sustain life, but also to sustain health." The young man
said : " I thank you, Sir ; I am answered."
I strongly advised the farmers to be well with their
work-people ; for that, unless their flocks were as safe in
their fields, as their bodies were in their beds, their lives
must be lives of misery ; that if their stacks and barns were
not places of as safe deposit for their corn, as their drawers
were for their money, the life of the farmer was the most
wretched upon earth, in place of being the most pleasant,
as it ought to be. Boston, Friday, <jth April, 183a
Quitting Cambridge and Dr. Chafy and Serjeant Frere,1
1 Dr. Chafy was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, and Serjeant Frere was
Master of Downing. The former had refused the Author permission to
hold any meeting in Cambridge of a political character.

Eastern Tour. 307

on Monday, the 29th of March, I arrived at St. Ives, in
Huntingdonshire, about one o'clock in the day. In the
evening I harangued about 200 persons, principally farmers,
in a wheelwright's shop, that being the only safe place in
the town, of sufficient dimensions and sufficiently strong.
It was market-day ; and this is a great cattle-market As I
was not to be at Stamford in Lincolnshire till the 31st, I
went from St Ives to my friend Mr. Wells's, near Huntingdon,
and remained there till the 31st in the morning, employing
the evening of the 30th in going to Chatteris, in the Isle
of Ely, and there addressing a good large company of
farmers. On the 31st, I went to Stamford, and, in the evening,
spoke to about 200 farmers and others, in a large room in
a very fine and excellent inn, called Standwell's Hotel, which
is, with few exceptions, the nicest inn that I have ever been
in. On the ist of April, I harangued here again, and had
amongst my auditors some most agreeable, intelligent, and
public-spirited yeomen, from the little county of Rutland, who
made, respecting the seat in Parliament, the proposition, the
details of the purport of which, I communicated to my
readers in the last Register.
On the 2d of April, I met my audience in the play-house
at Peterborough ; and though it had snowed all day, and was
very wet and sloppy, I had a good large audience ; and I did
not let this opportunity pass without telling my hearers of the
part that their good neighbour, Lord Fitzwilliam, had acted
with regard to the French war, with regard to Burke and his
pension ; with regard to the dungeoning law, which drove me
across the Atlantic in 18 17, and with regard to the putting
into the present Parliament, aye, and for that very town, that
very Lawyer Scarlett, whose state prosecutions are now become
so famous. " Never," said I, " did I say that, behind a man's
" back, that I would not say to his face. I wish I had his
"face before me : but I am here as near to it, as I can get :
" I am before the face of his friends : here, therefore, I will
"say what I think of him." When I had described his con-

308 Eastern Tour.

duct, and given my opinion on it, many applauded, and not
one expressed disapprobation.
On the 3d, I speechified at Wisbeach, in the play-house, to
about 220 people, I think it was; and that same night, went
to sleep at a friend's (a total stranger to me, however) at St.
Edmund's, in the heart of the Fens. I stayed there on the
4th (Sunday), the morning of which brought a hard frost : ice
an inch thick, and the total destruction of the apricot blossoms.
After passing Sunday and the greater part of Monday (the
5th) at St. Edmunds, where my daughters and myself received
the greatest kindness and attention, we went on Monday
afternoon to Crowland, where we were most kindly lodged and
entertained at the houses of two gentlemen, to whom also we
were personally perfect strangers ; and in the evening I ad
dressed a very large assemblage of most respectable farmers
and others, in this once famous town. There was another
hard frost on the Monday morning; just, as it were, to finish
the apricot bloom.
On the 6th I went to Lynn, and on that evening and on
the evening of the 7th, I spoke to about 300 people in the
playhouse. And here there was more interruption, than I
have ever met with, at any other place. This town, though
containing as good and kind friends as I have met with in
any other ; and though the people are generally as good, con
tains also, apparently, a large proportion of dead weight, the
offspring, most likely, of the rottenness of the borough. Two
or three, or even one man, may, if not tossed out at once, dis
turb and interrupt every thing in a case, where constant
attention to fact and argument is requisite, to insure utility to
the meeting. There were but three here ; and though they
were finally silenced, it was not without great loss of time,
great noise and hubbub. Two, I was told, were dead-weight
men, and one a sort of higgling merchant.
On the 8th, I went to Holbeach, in this noble county of
Lincoln ; and good gracious ! what a contrast with the scene
at Lynn ? I knew not a soul in the place. Mr. Fields, a
bookseller and printer, had invited me by letter, and had, in

Eastern Tour. 309

the nicest and most unostentatious manner, made all the pre
parations. Holbeach lies in the midst of some of the richest
land in the world; a small market-town, but a parish more
than twenty miles across,, larger, I believe, than the county of
Rutland, produced an audience (in a very nice room, with seats
prepared) of 178, apparently all wealthy farmers, and men in
that rank of life ; and an audience so deeply attentive to the
dry matters on which I had to address it, I have very seldom
met with. I was delighted with Holbeach; a neat little
town ; a most beautiful church with a spire, like that of " the
" man of Ross, pointing to the skies ; " gardens very pretty ;
fruit-trees in abundance, with blossom-buds ready to burst ;
and land, dark in colour, and as fine in substance as flour,
as fine as if sifted through one of the sieves, with which we
get the dust out of the clover seed ; and when cut deep down
into with a spade, precisely, as to substance, like a piece of
hard butter; yet no where is the distress greater than here.
I walked on from Holbeach, six miles, towards Boston ; and
seeing the fatness of the land, and the fine grass and the
never-ending sheep lying about like fat hogs, stretched in the
sun, and seeing the abject state of the labouring people, I
could not help exclaiming, " God has given us the best country
in the world; our brave and wise and virtuous fathers, who
built all these magnificent churches, gave us the best govern
ment in the world, and we, their cowardly and foolish and
profligate sons have made this once-paradise what we now
behold!" I arrived at Boston (where I am now writing) to-day,
(Friday, 9th April) about ten o'clock. I must arrive at
Louth before I can say precisely what my future route will
be. There is an immense fair at Lincoln next week ; and
a friend has been here to point out the proper days to be
there; as, however, this Register will not come from the
press until after. I shall have had an opportunity of writing
something at Louth, time enough to be inserted in it, I will
here go back, and speak of the country that I have travelled
oyer, since I left Cambridge on the 29th of March.

310 Eastern Tour.

From Cambridge to St. Ives, the land is generally in open,
unfenced fields, and some common fields; generally stiff
land, and some of it not very good, and wheat, in many
places, looking rather thin. From St Ives to Chatteris
(which last is in the Isle of Ely), the land is better, particu
larly as you approach the latter place. From Chatteris I
came back to Huntingdon, and once more saw its beautiful
meadows, of which I spoke when I went thither in 1823.
From Huntingdon, through Stilton, to Stamford (the two
last in Lincolnshire), is a country of rich arable land and
grass fields, and of beautiful meadows. The enclosures are
very large, the soil red, with whitish stone below ; very
much like the soil at, or near, Ross in Herefordshire, and
like that near Coventry and Warwick. Here, as all over
this country, everlasting fine sheep. The houses all along
here are built of the stone of the country ; you seldom see
brick. The churches are large, lofty, and fine, and give
proof that the country was formerly much more populous than
it is now, and that the people had a vast deal more of wealth in
their hands and at their own disposal There are three beauti
ful churches at Stamford, not less, I dare say, than three
hundred years old ; but two of them (I did not go to the
other) are as perfect as when just finished, except as to the
images, most of which have been destroyed by the ungrateful
Protestant barbarians, of different sorts, but some of which
(out of the reach of their ruthless hands) are still in the
niches. From Stamford to Peterborough is a country of the same
description, with the additional beauty of woods here and
there, and with meadows just like those at Huntingdon, and
not surpassed by those on the Severn near Worcester, nor
by those on the Avon at Tewkesbury. The cathedral at
Peterborough is exquisitely beautiful, and I have great plea-'
sure in saying, that, contrary to the more magnificent pile at
Ely, it is kept in good order; the Bishop (Herbert Marsh)
residing a good deal on the spot; and though he did write
a pamphlet to justify and urge on the war, the ruinous war,

Eastern Tour. 3 1 1

and though he did get a pension for it, he is, they told me, very
good to the poor people. My daughters had a great desire to
see, and I had a great desire they should see, the burial-place
of that ill-used, that savagely-treated, woman, and that honour
to woman-kind, Catherine, queen of the ferocious tyrant,
Henry the Eighth. To the infamy of that ruffian, and the
shame of after ages, there is no monument to record her
virtues and her sufferings ; and the remains of this daughter
of the wise Ferdinand and of the generous Isabella, who sold
her jewels to enable Columbus to discover the new world, lie
under the floor of the cathedral, commemorated by a short
inscription on a plate of brass. All men, Protestants or not
Protestants, feel as I feel upon this subject ; search the hearts
of the bishop and of his dean and chapter, and these feelings
are there ; but to do justice to the memory of this illustrious
victim of tyranny, would be to cast a reflection on that event
to which they owe their rich possessions, and, at the same time,
to suggest ideas, not very favourable to the descendants of
those, who divided amongst them the plunder of the people
arising out of that event, and which descendants are their
patrons, and give them what they possess. From this cause,
and no other, it is, that the memory of the virtuous Catherine
is unblazoned, while that of the tyrannical, the cruel, and the
immoral Elizabeth, is recorded with all possible veneration,
and all possible varnishing-over of her disgusting amours and
endless crimes.
They relate at Peterborough, that the same Sexton who
buried Queen Catherine, also buried here Mary Queen of
Scots. The remains of the latter, of very questionable virtue,
or, rather, of unquestionable vice, were removed to Westminster
Abbey by her son, James the First ; but those of the virtuous
Queen were suffered to remain unhonoured ! Good God !
what injustice, what a want of principle, what hostility to all
virtuous feeling, has not been the fruit of this Protestant
Reformation; what plunder, what disgrace to England, what
shame, what misery, has that event not produced ! There is
nothing that I address to my hearers with more visible effect

312 Eastern Tour.

than a statement of the manner in which the poor-rates and,
the church-rates came. This, of course, includes an account of
how the poor were relieved in Catholic times. To the far
greater part of people this is information, wliolly new ; they
are deeply interested in it ; and the impression is very great
Always before we part, Tom Cranmer's church received a
considerable blow.
There is in the cathedral a very ancient monument, made
to commemorate, they say, the murder of the abbot and his
monks by the Danes. Its date is the year 870. Almost all
the cathedrals, were, it appears, originally churches of monas
teries. That of Winchester and several others, certainly were.
There has lately died, in the garden of the bishop's palace, a
tortoise that had been there more, they say, than two hundred
years ; a fact very likely to be known ; because, at the end of
thirty or forty, people would begin to talk about it as some
thing remarkable ; and thus the record would be handed down
from father to son.
From Peterborough to Wisbeach, the road, for the most
part, lies through the Fens, and here we passed through the
village of Thorney, where there was a famous abbey, which,
together with its valuable domain, was given by the savage
tyrant, Henry VIII., to John Lord Russell (made a lord by
that tyrant), the founder of the family of that name. This man
got also the abbey and estate at Woburn ; the priory and its
estate at Tavistock ; and in the next reign, he got Covent
Garden and other parts adjoining ; together with other things,
all then public property. A history, a true history of this
family (which I hope I shall find time to write) would be a
most valuable thing. It would be a nice litde specimen of the
way in which these families became possessed of a great part
of their estates. It would show how the poor-rates and the
church-rates came. It would set the whole nation right
at once. Some years ago I had a set of the Encyclopcedia
Britannica (Scotch), which contained an account of every
other great family in the kingdom ; but I could find in it no
account of this family, either under the word Russell or the

Eastern Tour. 31;

word Bedford. I got into a passion with the book, because it
contained no account of the mode of raising the birch tree ;
and it was sold to a son (as I was told) of Mr. Alderman
Heygate ; and if that gentleman look into the book, he will''
find what I say to be true ; but if I should be in error about
this, perhaps he will have the goodness to let me know it.
I shall be obliged to any one to point me out any printed
account of this family; and particularly to tell me where I can
get an old folio, containing (amongst other things) Bulstrode?s
argument and narrative in justification of the sentence and
execution of Lord William Russell, in the reign of Charles the
Second. It is impossible to look at the now-miserable village
of Thorney, and to think of its once-splendid abbey; it is
impossible to look at the twenty thousand acres of land around,
covered with fat sheep, or bearing six quarters of wheat or ten ,
of oats to the acre, without any manure ; it is impossible to
think of these without feeling a desire that the whole nation
should know all about the surprising merits of the possessors.
Wisbeach, lying further up the arm of the sea than Lynn, is,
like the latter, a little town of commerce, chiefly engaged in
exporting to the south, the corn that grows in this productive
country. It is a good solid town, though not handsome, and
has a large market, particularly for corn.
To Crowland, I went, as before stated, from Wisbeach,
staying two nights at St. Edmund's. Here I was in the heart
of the Fens. The whole country as level as the table on
which I am now writing. The horizon like the sea in a dead
calm : you see the morning sun come up, just as at sea ; and see
it go down over the rim, in just the same way as at sea in a calm.
The land covered with beautiful grass, with sheep lying about
upon it, as fat as hogs stretched out sleeping in a stye. The
kind and polite friends, with whom we were lodged, had a
very neat garden, and fine young orchard. Every thing grows
well here : earth without a stone so big as a pin's head ; grass
as thick as it can grow on the ground; immense bowling-
greens separated by ditches; and not the sign, of dock or
thistle or other weed to be seen. What, a contrast between

14 Eastern Tour.

these and the heath-covered sand-hills of Surrey, amongst
which I was born 1 Yet the labourers, who spuddle about
the ground in the little dips between those sand-hills, are
better off than those that exist in this fat of the land. Here
the grasping system takes all away, because it has the
means of coming at the value of all : there, the poor man
enjoys something, because he is thought too poor to have any
thing : he is there allowed to have what is deemed worth
nothing ; but here, where every inch is valuable, not one inch
is he permitted to enjoy.
At Crowland also (still in the Fens) was a great and rich
abbey, a good part of the magnificent ruins of the church of
which are still standing, one corner or part of it being used as
the parish church, by the worms, which have crept out of the
dead bodies of those who lived in the days of the founders ;
"And wond'ring man could want the larger pile,
" Exult, and claim the corner with a smile."
They tell you, that all the country at and near Crowland
was a mere swamp, a mere bog, bearing nothing, bearing
nothing worth naming, until the modern drainings took place !
The thing called the " Reformation," has lied common sense
out of men's minds. So likely a thing to choose a barren
swamp whereon, or wherein, to make the site of an abbey,
and of a benedictine abbey too 1 It has been always observed,
that the monks took care to choose for their places of abode*
pleasant spots, surrounded by productive land. The likeliest
thing in the world for these monks, to choose a swamp for
their dwelling-place, surrounded by land that produced nothing
good 1 The thing gives the lie to itself : and it is impossible
to reject the belief, that these Fens were as productive of
corn and meat a thousand years ago, and more so, than they
are at this hour. There is a curious triangular bridge here,
on one part of which, stands the statue of one of the ancient
kings. It is all of great age; and every thing shows that
Crowland was a place of importance in the earliest times.
From Crowland to Lynn, through Thorney and Wisbeach,

Eastern Tour. 315

is all Fens, well besprinkled, formerly, with monasteries of
various descriptions, and still well set with magnificent
churches. From Lynn to Holbeach you get out of the real
Fens, and into the land that I attempted to describe, when,
a few pages back, I was speaking of Holbeach. I say
attempted ; for I defy tongue or pen to make the description
adequate to the matter : to know what the thing is, you must
see it The same land continues all the way on to Boston :
endless grass and endless fat sheep : not a stone, not a weed.
Boston, Sunday, nth April, 1830.
Last night, I made a speech at the playhouse to an
audience, whose appearance was sufficient to fill me with
pride. I had given notice that I should perform on Friday,
overlooking the circumstance that it was Good Friday. In
apologising for this inadvertence, I took occasion to observe,
that even if I had persevered, the clergy of the church could
have nothing to object, seeing that they were now silent,
while a bill was passing in Parliament to -put Jews on a level
with Christians ; to enable Jews, the blasphemers of the
Redeemer, to sit on the bench, to sit in both Houses of
Parliament, to sit in council with the King, and to be kings
of England, if entitled to the Crown, which, by possibility,
they might become, if this bill were to pass ; that to this bill,
the clergy had offered no opposition ; and that, therefore, how
could they hold sacred, the anniversary appointed, to com
memorate the crucifixion of Christ, by the hands of the
blaspheming and bloody Jews ? That, at any rate, if this bill
passed; if those who called Jesus Christ an impostor were
thus declared to be as good as those who adored him, there
was not, I hoped, a man in the kingdom who would pretend,
that it would be just to compel the people to pay tithes, and
fees, and offerings, to men for teaching Christianity. This was
a clincher; and as such it was received.
This morning I went out at six, looked at the town, walked
three miles on the road. to Spilsby, and back to breakfast at

316 Eastern Tour.

nine. Boston (bos is Latin for ox) though not above a fourth
or fifth part of the size of its daughter in New England, which
got its name, I dare say, from some persecuted native of this
place, who had quitted England and all her wealth and all
her glories, to preserve that freedom, which was still more
dear to him ; though not a town like New Boston, and though
little, to what it formerly was, when agricultural produce was
the great staple of the kingdom, and the great subject of
foreign exchange, is, nevertheless, a very fine town ; good
houses, good shops, pretty gardens about it, a fine open place,
nearly equal to that of Nottingham, in the middle of it a river
and a canal passing through it, each crossed by a handsome
and substantial bridge, a fine market for sheep, cattle, and
pigs, and another for meat, butter, and fish ; and being, like
Lynn, a great place for the export of corn and flour, and
having many fine mills, it is altogether a town of very con
siderable importance ; and, which is not to be overlooked,
inhabited by people, none of whom appear to be in misery.
The great pride and glory of the Bostonians is their church,
which is, I think, 400 feet long, 90 feet wide, and has a tower
(or steeple, as they call it) 300 feet high, which is both a land
mark and a sea-mark. To describe the richness, the magni
ficence, the symmetry, the exquisite beauty of this pile, is
wholly out of my power. It is impossible to look at it without
feeling, first, admiration and reverence and gratitude to the
memory of our fathers who reared it ; and next, indignation
at those who affect to believe, and contempt for those who da
believe, that, when this pile was reared, the age was dark, the
people rude and ignorant, and the country destitute of wealth
and thinly peopled Look at this church, then; look at the
heaps of white rubbish that the parsons have lately stuck up
under the "New-church Act," and which, after having been
built with money forced from the nation by odious taxes, they
have stuffed full of locked-up pens, called pews, which they let
for money, as cattle and sheep and pig-pens are let at fairs and
markets; nay, after having looked at this work of the "dark
ages," look at that great, heavy, ugly, unmeaning mass of stone

Eastern Tour. 317

called St. Paul's, which an American friend of mine, who
came to London from Falmouth and had seen the cathedrals
at Exeter and Salisbury, swore to me, that when he first saw
it, he was at a loss to guess whether it were a court-house
or a jail: after looking at Boston church, go and look at
that great, gloomy lump, created by a Protestant Parlia
ment, and by taxes wrung by force from the whole nation ;
and then say which is the age really meriting the epithet
dark. St Botolph, to whom this church is dedicated, while he (if
saints see and hear what is passing on earth) must lament that
the piety-inspiring mass has been, in this noble edifice, sup
planted by the monotonous hummings of an oaken hutch, has
not the mortification to see his church treated in a manner as
if the new possessors sighed for the hour of its destruction.
It is taken great care of; and though it has cruelly suffered
from Protestant repairs ; though the images are gone and the
stained glass ; and though the glazing is now in squares, instead
of lozenges ; though the nave is stuffed with pens called pews ;
and though other changes have taken place, detracting from
the beauty of the edifice, great care is taken of it as it now is;
and the inside is not disfigured and disgraced by a gallery,
that great and characteristic mark of Protestant taste, which,
as nearly as may be, makes a church like a playhouse. Saint
Botolph (on the supposition before mentioned) has the satis
faction to see, that the base of his celebrated church is
surrounded by an iron fence, to keep from it all offensive and
corroding matter, which is so disgusting to the sight, round
the magnificent piles at Norwick, Ely and other places;
that the churchyard, and all appertaining to it, are kept
in the neatest and most respectable state; that no money
has been spared for these purposes ; that here the eye tells the
heart, that gratitude towards the fathers of the Bostonians is
not extinguished in the breasts of their sons; and this the
Saint will know that he owes to the circumstances, that the
parish is a poor vicarage, and that the care of his church is in
the hands of the industrious people, and not in those of a fat

3 18 Eastern Tour.

and luxurious dean and chapter, wallowing in wealth derived
from the people's labour. Homcastie, 1 2th April.
A fine, soft, showery morning saw us out of Boston, carrying
with us the most pleasing reflections as to our reception and
treatment there by numerous persons, none of whom we had
ever seen before. The face of tiie country, for about half the
way, the soil, the grass, the endless sheep, the thickly-scattered
and magnificent churches, continue as on the other side of
Boston ; but, after that, we got out of the low and level land.
At Sibsey, a pretty village five miles from Boston, we saw, for
the first time since we left Peterborough, land rising above the
level of the horizon ; and, not having seen such a thing for so
long, it had struck my daughters, who overtook me on the
road (I having walked on from Boston), that the sight had an
effect like that produced by the first sight of land, after a
voyage across the Atlantic.
We now soon got into a country of hedges and dry land and
gravel and clay and stones ; the land not bad, however ; pretty
much like that of Sussex, lying between the forest part and
the South Downs. A good proportion of woodland also;
and just before we got to Homcastie, we passed the park of
that Mr. Dymock who is called " the Champion of England,"
and to whom, it is said hereabouts, that we pay out of the
taxes, eight thousand pounds a year ! This never can be, to
be sure ; but if we pay him only a hundred a year, I will lay
down my glove against that of the " Champion," that we do
not pay him even that, for five years longer.
It is curious, that the moment you get out of the rick
land, the churches become smaller, mean, and with scarcely
any thing in the way of tojuer or steeple. This town is seated
in the middle of a large valley, not, however, remarkable for
any thing of peculiar value or beauty ; a purely agricultural
town ; well built, and not mean in any part of it It is a great
rendezvous for horses and cattle, and sheep-dealers, and for

Eastern Tour. 319

those who sell these ; and accordingly, it suffers severely from
the loss of the small paper-money.

Homcastie, l$th April, morning.
I made a speech last evening to from 130 to 150, almost all
farmers, and most men of apparent wealth, to a certain extent.
I have seldom been better pleased with my audience. It is
not the clapping and huzzaing that I value so much as the
silent attention, the earnest look at me from all eyes at once,
and then when the point is concluded, the look and nod at each
other, as if the parties were saying, " Think of that" I And of
these, I had a great deal at Homcastie. They say that there
are a hundred parish churches within six miles of this town. I
dare say that there was one farmer, from almost every one of
these parishes. This is sowing the seeds of truth, in a very
sure manner : it is not scattering broad-cast ; it is really drilling
the country.
There is one deficiency, and that, with me, a great one,
throughout this country of corn and grass and oxen and sheep,
that I have come over, during the last three weeks ; namely, the
want of singing birds. We are now just in that season when they
sing most. Here, in all this country, I have seen and heard
only about four sky-larks, and not one other singing bird of
any description, and, of the small birds that do not sing, I
have seen only one yellow-hammer, and it was perched on the rail
of a pound between Boston and Sibsey. Oh ! the thousands of
linnets all singing together on one tree, in the sand-hills of
Surrey ! Oh ! the carolling in the coppices and the dingles of
Hampshire and Sussex and Kent ! At this moment (5 o'clock
in the morning) the groves at Barn-Elm are echoing with the
warblings of thousands upon thousands of birds. The thrush
begins a little before it is light ; next the black bird; next the
larks begin to rise ; all the rest begin the moment the sun gives
the signal ; and, from the hedges, the bushes, from the middle
and the topmost twigs of the trees, comes the singing of endless
variety; from the long dead grass comes the sound of the

320 Eastern Tour.

sweet and soft voice of the white-throat or nettle-torn, while the
loud and merry song of the lark (the songster himself out of
sight) seems to descend from the skies. Milton, in his descrip
tion of paradise, has not omitted the " song of earliest birds."
However, every thing taken together, here, in Lincolnshire,
are more good things than man could have had the conscience
to ask of God.
And now, if I had time and room to describe the state of
men's affairs, in the country through which I have passed, I
should show, that the people at Westminster would have known
how to turn paradise itself into h — . I must, however, defer
this until my next, when I shall have been at Hull and Lincoln,
and have had a view of the whole of this rich and fine country.
In the mean while, however, I cannot help congratulating that
sensible fellow, Wilmot Horton, and his co-operator, Burdett,
that Emigration is going on at a swimming rate. Thousands
are going, and that, too, without mortgaging the poor rates.
But, sensible fellows ! it is not the aged, the halt, the ailing ; it
is not the paupers that are going ; but men with from 200/. to
2,000/. in their pocket ! This very year, from two to five
millions of pounds sterling will actually be carried from
England to the United States. The Scotch, who have money
to pay their passages, go to New York ; those who have none
get carried to Canada, that they may thence, get into the
United States. I will inquire, one of these days, what right
Burdett has to live in England, more than those whom he
proposes to send away. Spittal, near Lincoln, 19th April, 183a
Here we are, at the end of a pretty decent trip, since we left
Boston. The next place, on our way to Hull, was Homcastie,
where I preached politics, in the playhouse, to a most respect
able body of farmers, who had come in the wet to meet me.
Mr. John Peniston, who had invited me to stop there, behaved
in a very obliging manner, and made all things very pleasant
The country from Boston continued, as I said before, flat for
about half the way to Homcastie, and we then began to see

Eastern Tour. 321

the high land. From Homcastie I set off two hours before the
carriage, and going through a very pretty village called Ashby,
got to another at the foot of a hill, which, they say, forms part
of the Wolds ; that is, a ridge of hills. This second village is
called Scamblesby. The vale in which it lies is very fine land.
A hazel mould, rich and light too. I saw a man here ploughing
for barley, after turnips, with one horse: the horse did not seem
to work hard, and the man was singing: I need not say that
he was young; and I dare say he had the good sense to keep
his legs under another man's table, and to stretch his body on
another man's bed.
This is a very fine corn country : chalk at bottom : stony near
the surface, in some places : here and there a chalk pit in the
hills : the shape of the ground somewhat like that of the
broadest valleys in Wiltshire ; but the fields not without fences
as they are there: fields from fifteen to forty acres: the hills
not downs, as in Wiltshire; but cultivated all over. The
houses white and thatched, as they are in all chalk-countries.
The valley at Scamblesby has a little rivulet running down it,
just as in all the chalk countries. The land continues nearly
the same to Louth, which lies in a deep dell, with beautiful
pastures on the surrounding hills, like those that I once admired
at Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire, and like that near St. Austle,
in Cornwall, which I described in 1808.
At Louth the wise corporation had refused to let us have
the playhouse ; but my friends had prepared a very good
place; and I had an opportunity of addressing crowded
audiences, two nights running. At no place have I been
better pleased, than at Louth. Mr. Paddison, solicitor, a
young gentleman whom I had the honour to know slightly
before, and to know whom, whether I estimate by character
or by talent, would be an honour to any man, was particularly
attentive to. us. Mr. Naull, ironmonger, who had had the
battle to fight for me, for twenty years, expressed his exulta
tion at my triumph, in a manner that showed that he justly
participated it with me. I breakfasted, at Mr. Naull's with a
gentleman 88 or 89 years of age, whose joy, at shaking me by
vol. 11. x

322 Eastern Tour.
the hand, was excessive. "Ah!" said he, "where are now
" those savages who, at Hull, threatened to kill me for raising
" my voice against this system ? " This is a very fine town, and
has a beautiful church, nearly equal to that at Boston.
We left Louth on the morning of Thursday the 15th, and
got to Barton on the Humber by about noon, over a very
fine country, large fields, fine pastures, flocks of those great
sheep, of from 200 to 1000 in a flock; and here at Barton,
we arrived at the northern point of this noble county, having
never seen one single acre of waste land, and not one acre
that would be called bad land, in the south of England. The
Wolds, or highlands, lie away to our right, from Homcastie
to near Barton ; and, on the other side of the Wolds, lie the
Marshes of Lincolnshire, which extend along the coast, from
Boston to the mouth of the Humber, on the bank of which
we were at Barton, Hull being on the opposite side of the
river, which is here about five miles wide, and which we had
to cross in a steam-boat
But let me not forget Great Grimsby, at which we changed
horses, and breakfasted, on our way from Louth to Barton.
"What the d  !" the reader will say, " should you want to
"recollect that place for ? Why do you want not to forget
" that sink of corruption ? What could you find there to be
"snatched from everlasting oblivion, except for the purpose
" of being execrated ? " I did, however, find something there
worthy of being made known, not only to every man in
England but to every man in the world ; and not to mention
it here, would be to be guilty of the greatest injustice.
To my surprise, I found a good many people assembled at
the inn-door, evidently expecting my arrival. While breakfast
was preparing, I wished to speak to the bookseller of the
place, if there were one, and to give him a list of my books
and writings, that he might place it in his shop. When he
came, I was surprised to find that he had it already, and that
he, occasionally, sold my books. Upon my asking him how
he got it, he said that it was brought down from London and
given to him by a Mr. Plaskitt, who, he said, had all my

Eastern Tour. 323

writings, and who, he said, he was sure, would be very glad
to see me ; but that he lived above a mile from the town. A
messenger, however, had gone off to carry the news, and Mr.
Plaskitt arrived, before we had done breakfast, bringing with
him a son, and a daughter. And from the lips of this gentle
man, a man of as kind and benevolent appearance and manners
as I ever beheld in my life, I had the following facts ; namely,
" that one of his sons sailed for New York some years ago ;
that the ship was cast away on the shores of Long Island ;
that the captain, crew, and passengers, all perished ; that the
wrecked vessel was taken possession of by people on the coast ;
that his son had a watch in his trunk, or chest, a purse with
fourteen shillings in it, and divers articles of wearing apparel ;
that the Americans, who searched the wreck, " sent all these
articles safely io England to him ; and, " said he, " I keep the
purse and the money at home, and here is the watch in my
pocket /"
It would have been worth the expense of coming from
London to Grimsby, if for nothing but to learn this fact,
which I record, not only in justice to the free people of
America, and particularly in justice to my late neighbours in
Long Island, but in justice to the character of mankind. I
publish it as something to counterbalance the conduct of the
atrocious monsters, who plunder the wrecks on the coast of
Cornwall, and, as I am told, on the coasts here in the east of
the island.
Away go, then, all the accusations upon the character of the
Yankees. People may call them sharp, cunning, over-reaching;
and when they have exhausted the vocabulary of their abuse,
the answer is found in this one fact, stated by Mr. Joshua
Plaskitt, of Great Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, Old England.
The person who sent the things to Mr. Plaskitt, was named
Jones. It did not occur to me to ask his christian name, nor
to inquire what was the particular place where he lived in
Long Island. I request Mr. Plaskitt to contrive to let me
know these particulars ; as I should like to communicate
them to friends that I have on the north side of that island.

324 Eastern Tour.

However, it would excite no surprise there, that one of their
countrymen had acted this part ; for every man of them, hav
ing the same opportunity, would do the same. Their fore
fathers carried to New England the nature and character of
the people of Old England, before national debts, paper-money,
septennial bills, standing armies, dead-weights, and jubilees,
had beggared and corrupted the people.
At Hull I lectured (I laugh at the word) to about seven
hundred persons, on the same evening that I arrived from
Louth, which was on Thursday the 15th. We had what they
call the summer theatre, which was crowded in every part
except on the stage; and the next evening, the stage was
crowded too. The third evening was merely accidental, no
previous notice having been given of it On the Saturday,
I went in the middle of the day to Beverley; saw there the
beautiful minster, and some of the fine horses which they
show there at this season of the year ; dined with about fifty
farmers ; made a speech to them and about a hundred more,
perhaps; and got back to Hull time enough to go to the
theatre there.
The country round Hull appears to exceed even that of
Lincolnshire. The three mornings that I was at Hull, I
walked out in three different directions, and found the country
everywhere fine. To the east lies the Holderness country.
I used to wonder that Yorkshire, to which I, from some false
impression in my youth, had always attached the idea of
sterility, should send us of the south those beautiful cattle with
short horns and straight and deep bodies. You have only to
see the country, to cease to wonder at this. It lies on the
north side of the mouth of the Humber; is as flat and fat as
the land between Holbeach and Boston, without, as they tell
me, the necessity of such numerous ditches. The appellation
"Yorkshire bite;" the acute sayings ascribed to Yorkshiremen ;
and their quick manner, I remember, in the army. When
speaking of what country a man was, one used to say, in
defence of the party, "York, but honest." Another saying
was, that it was a bare common that a Yorkshireman would

Eastern Tour. 325

go over without taking a bite. Every one knows the story
of the gentleman, who, upon finding that a boot-cleaner, in
the south, was a Yorkshireman, and expressing his surprise
that he was not become master of the inn, received for answer,
"Ah, sir, but master is York too 1" And that of the York
shire boy, who, seeing a gentleman eating some eggs, asked
the cook to give him a little salt ; and upon being asked what
he could want with salt, he said, "perhaps that gentleman
may give me an egg presently."
It is surprising what effect sayings like these produce upon
the mind. From one end to the other of the kingdom, York
shiremen are looked upon as being keener than other people ;
more eager in pursuit of their own interests; more sharp and
more selfish. For my part, I was cured with regard to the
people long before I saw Yorkshire. In the army, where we
see men of all counties, I always found Yorkshiremen, dis
tinguished for their frank manners, and generous disposition.
In the United States, my kind and generous friends of
Pennsylvania were the children and descendants of Yorkshire
parents1 and, in truth, I long ago made up my mind, that
this hardness and sharpness ascribed to Yorkshiremen, arose
from the sort of envy excited by that quickness, that activity,
that buoyancy of spirits, which bears them up through adverse
circumstances, and their consequent success in all the situa
tions of life. They, like the people of Lancashire, are just
the very reverse of being cunning and selfish ; be they farmers,
or be they what they may, you get at the bottom of their
hearts in a minute. Every thing they think soon gets to the
tongue, and out it comes, heads and tails, as fast as they can
pour it Fine materials for Oliver to work on ! If he had
been sent to the west, instead of the north, he would have
found people there, on whom he would have exercised his
1 These friends were two brothers, James and Thomas Paull, Quaker
farmers, with whom the Author stayed, at their residence at Bustleton, near
Philadelphia, in 1798, and with whom he was on intimate terms. He
makes these gentlemen an exception, to the sweeping charges which he
pronounces generally against the Society of Friends.

Eastern Tour.

powers in vain. You are not to have every valuable quality
in the same man and the same people : you are not to have
prudent caution, united with quickness, and volubility.
But though, as to the character of the people, I, having
known so many hundreds of Yorkshiremen, was perfectly
enlightened, and had quite got the better of all prejudices
many years ago, I still, in spite of the matchless horses and
matchless cattle, had a general impression that Yorkshire was
a sterile county, compared with the counties in the south and
the west ; and this notion was confirmed in some measure, by
my seeing the moory and rocky parts in the West Riding, last
winter. It was necessary for me to come and see the country
on the banks of the Humber. I have seen the vale of
Honiton, in Devonshire, that of Taunton and of Glastonbury,
in Somersetshire : I have seen the vales of Gloucester and
Worcester, and the banks of the Severn and the Avon ; I
have seen the vale of Berkshire, that of Aylesbury, in
Buckinghamshire : I have seen the beautiful vales of Wiltshire ;
and the banks of the Medway, from Tunbridge to Maidstone,
called the Garden of Eden ; I was born at one end of Arthur
Young's "finest ten miles in England:" I have ridden my
horse across the Thames at its two sources ; and I have been
along every inch of its banks, from its sources, to Gravesend,
whence I have sailed out of it into the channel ; and, having
seen and had ability to judge of the goodness of the land in
all these places, I declare that I have never seen any to be
compared with the land on the banks of the Humber, from
the Holdemess country included, and with the exception of
the land from Wisbeach to Holbeach, and Holbeach to Boston.
Really, the single parish of Holbeach, or a patch of the same
size in the Holdemess country, seems to be equal in value to
the whole of the county of Surrey, if we leave out the little
plot of hop-garden, at Farnham.
Nor is the town of Hull itself to be overlooked. It is a
little city of London : streets, shops, everything like it ; clean
as the best parts of London, and the people as bustling and
attentive. The town of Hull is surrounded with commodious

Eastern Tour. 337

docks for shipping. These docks are separated, in three or
four places, by draw-bridges ; so that, as you walk round the
town, you walk by the side of the docks and the ships. The
town on the outside of the docks is pretty considerable, and
the walks from it into the country beautiful. I went about a
good deal, and I nowhere saw marks of beggary or filth, even
in the outskirts; none of those nasty, shabby, thief-looking
sheds that you see in the approaches to London : none of
those off-scourings of pernicious and insolent luxury. I hate
commercial towns in general : there is generally something so
loathsome in the look, and so stern and unfeeling in the
manners of sea-faring people, that I have always, from my
very youth, disliked sea-ports; but really, the sight of this
nice town, the manners of its people, the civil, and kind and
cordial reception that I met with, and the clean streets, and
especially the pretty gardens in every direction, as you walk
into the country, has made Hull, though a sea-port, a place
that I shall always look back to with delight.
Beverley, which was formerly a very considerable city,
with three or four gates, one of which is yet standing, had
a great college, built in the year 700, by the Archbishop of
York. It had three famous hospitals and two friaries. There
is one church, a very fine one, and the minster still left ; of
which a bookseller in the town, was so good as to give me
copper-plate representations. It is still a very pretty town ;
the market large ; the land all round the country, good ; and
it is particularly famous for horses ; those for speed being
shown off here, on the market-days at this time of the year.
The farmers and gentlemen assemble in a very wide street,
on the outside of the western gate of the town; and at a
certain time of the day, the grooms come from their different
stables to show off their beautiful horses ; blood horses, coach
horses, hunters, and cart . horses ; sometimes, they tell me,
forty or fifty in number. The day that I was there (being late
in the season), there were only seven or eight, or ten, at the
most When I was asked at the inn to go and see "the
horses" I had no curiosity, thinking it was such a parcel of

328 Eastern Tour.

horses as we see at a market in the south ; but I found it a
sight worth going to see ; for, besides the beauty of the horses,
there were the adroitness, the agility, and the boldness of the
grooms, each running alongside of his horse, with the latter
trotting at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, and then
swinging him round, and showing him off to the best advantage..
In short, I was exceedingly gratified by the trip to Beverley :
the day was fair and mild ; we went by one road and came
back by another, and I have very seldom passed a pleasanter
day in my life.
I found, very much to my surprise, that at Hull, I was very
nearly as far north as at Leeds, and, at Beverley, a little
farther north. Of all things in the world, I wanted to speak
to Mr. Foster, of the Leeds Patriot ; but was not aware of the
relative situation, till it was too late to write to him. Boats
go up the Humber, and the Ouse, to within a few miles of
Leeds. The Holdemess country is that piece of land, which
lies between Hull and the sea : it appears to be a perfect flat ;
and is said to be, and I dare say is, one of the very finest
spots in the whole kingdom. I had a very kind invitation to
go into it; but I could not stay longer on that side of the
Humber, without neglecting some duty or other. In quitting
Hull, I left behind me but one thing, the sight of which had
not pleased me; namely, a fine gilded equestrian statue of the
Dutch "Deliverer" who gave to England the national debt,
that fruitful mother of mischief and miser}-. Until this statue,
be replaced by that of Andrew Marvell, that real honour of
this town, England will never be what it ought to be.
We came back to Barton, by the steam boat, on Sunday, in
the afternoon of the 18th, and in the evening reached this
place, which is an inn, with three or four houses near it, at
the distance of ten miles from Lincoln, to which we are going
on Wednesday, the 21st Between this place and Barton, we
passed through a delightfully pretty town, called Brigg. The
land in this, which is called the high part of Lincolnshire, has
generally stone, a solid bed of stone of great depth, at dif
ferent distances from the surface. In some parts, this stone

Eastern Tour. 329

is of a yellowish colour, and in the form of very thick slate ;
and in these parts the soil is not so good;, but, generally
speaking, the land is excellent ; easily tilled ; no surface
water; the fields very large; not many trees; but what there
are, particularly the ash, very fine, and of free growth; and
innumerable flocks of those big, long-woolled sheep, from one
hundred to a thousand in a flock, each having from eight to
ten pounds of wool upon his body. One of the finest sights
in the world is one of these thirty or forty-acre fields; with
four or five or six hundred ewes, each with her one or two
lambs skipping about upon grass, the most beautiful that can
be conceived, and on lands as level as a bowling-green. I do
not recollect having seen a mole-hill or an ant-hill since I
came into the country ; and not one acre of waste land,
though I have gone the whole length of the country one way,
and am now got nearly half way back another way.
Having seen this country, and having had a glimpse at the
Holdemess country, which lies on the banks of the sea, and
to the east and north-east of Hull, can I cease to wonder that
those devils, the Danes, found their way hither so often.
There were the fat sheep then, just as there are now, depend
upon it ; and these numbers of noble churches, and these
magnificent minsters, were reared, because the wealth of the
country remained in the country, and was not carried away to
the south, to keep swarms of devouring tax-eaters, to cram the
maws of wasteful idlers, and to be transferred to the grasp of
luxurious and blaspheming Jews.
You always perceive that the churches are large and fine
and lofty, in proportion to the richness of the soil and the
extent of the parish.. In many places, where there are now.
but a very few houses, and those comparatively miserable,
there are churches that look like cathedrals. It is quite
curious to observe the difference in the style of the churches
of Suffolk, and Norfolk, and those of Lincolnshire, and of the
other bank of the Humber. In the former two counties the
churches are good, large, and with a good, plain, and pretty
lofty tower. And, in a few instances, particularly at Ipswich

330 Eastern Tour.

and Long Melford, you find magnificence in these buildings ;
but in Lincolnshire the magnificence of the churches is sur
prising. These churches are the indubitable proof of great
and solid wealth, and formerly of great population. From
every thing that I have heard, the Netherlands is a country
very much resembling Lincolnshire ; and they say, that the
church at Antwerp is like that at Boston ; but my opinion is,
that Lincolnshire alone, contains more of these fine buildings
than the whole of the continent of Europe.
Still, however, there is the almost total want of the singing
birds. There had been a shower a little while before we
arrived at this place ; it was about six o'clock in the evening ;
and there is a thick wood, together with the orchards and
gardens, very near to the inn. We heard a little twittering
from one thrush ; but, at that very moment, if we had been
as near to just such a wood in Surrey, or Hampshire, or
Sussex, or Kent, we should have heard ten thousand birds
singing altogether ; and the thrushes continuing their song till
twenty minutes after sunset When I was at Ipswich, the
gardens and plantations round that beautiful town began in
the morning to ring with the voices of the different birds.
The nightingale is, I believe, never heard any where on the
eastern side of Lincolnshire ; though it is sometimes heard in
the same latitude in the dells of Yorkshire.1 How ridiculous
it is to suppose, that these frail birds, with their slender wings
and proportionately heavy bodies, cross the sea, and come
back again ! I have not yet heard, more than half a dozen
skylarks ; and I have, only last year, heard ten at a time make
the air ring, over one of my fields at Barn-Elm. This is a
great drawback from the pleasure of viewing this fine country.
It is time for me now, withdrawing myself from these objects
visible to the eye, to speak of the state of the people, and of the
manner in which their affairs are affected by the workings of
1 Some birds known as "night warblers " are sometimes mistaken for
the nightingale. In Lancashire and Cheshire a bird commonly called the
" pitsparrow " is heard warbling at night, but its note is very inferior to
that of the nightingale.

Eastern Tour.

the system. With regard to the labourers, they are, every
where, miserable. The wages for those who are employed on
the land are, through all the counties that I have come, twelve
shillings a week for married men, and less for single ones ; but
a large part of them are not even at this season employed on the
land. The farmers, for want of means of profitable employment,
suffer the men to fall upon the parish ; and they are employed
in digging and breaking stone for the roads; so that the roads
are nice, and smooth, for the sheep and cattle to walk on, in
their way to the all-devouring jaws of the Jews and other tax-
eaters in London and its vicinity. None of the best meat,
.except by mere accident, is consumed here. To-day (the 20th
of April), we have seen hundreds upon hundreds of sheep, as
fat as hogs, go by this inn door, their toes, like those of the
foot-marks at the entrance of the lion's den, all pointing
towards the Wen ; and the landlord gave us for dinner a little
skinny, hard leg of old ewe mutton ! Where the man got it, I
cannot imagine. Thus it is : every good thing is literally
driven or carried away out of the country. In walking out
yesterday, I saw three poor fellows digging stone for the roads,
who told me that they never had anything, but bread to eat,
and water to wash it down. One of them was a widower, with
three children ; and his pay was eighteen-pence a-day ; that is
to say, about three pounds of bread a day each, for six days in
the week; nothing for Sunday, and nothing for lodging,
washing, clothing, candle-light, or fuel ! Just such was the
state of things in France, at the eve of the revolution ! Pre
cisely such ; and precisely the same were the causes. Whether
the effect will be the same, I do not take upon myself positively
to determine. Just on the other side of the hedge, while I
was talking to these men, I saw about two hundred fat sheep
in a rich pasture. I did not tell them what I might have told
them ; but I explained to them why the farmers were unable
to give them a sufficiency of wages. They listened with great
attention ; and said that they did believe, that the farmers were
in great distress themselves.
With regard to the farmers, it is said here, that the far

332 Eastern Tour.

greater part, if sold up, would be found to be insolvent. The
tradesmen in country towns are, and must be, in but little
better state. They all tell you, they do not sell half so many
goods as they used to sell ; and, of course, the manufacturers
must suffer in the like degree. There is a diminution and
deterioration, every one says, in the stocks upon the farms.
Sheep-washing is a sort of business in this country ; and I heard
at Boston, that the sheep-washers say, that there is a gradual
falling off, in point of the numbers, of sheep washed.
The fanners are all gradually sinking in point of property.
The very rich ones, do not feel that ruin is absolutely approach
ing ; but they are all alarmed ; and, as to the poorer ones, they
are fast falling into the rank of paupers. When I was at Ely,
a gentleman who appeared to be a great farmer, told me in
presence of fifty farmers, at the White Hart inn, that he had
seen that morning, three men cracking stones on the road, as
paupers of the parish of Wilbarton ; and that all these men
had been overseers of l/ie poor of tliat same parish within the
last seven years. Wheat keeps up in price to about an average
of seven shillings a bushel; which is owing to our two successive
bad harvests ; but fat beef, and pork are at a very low price,
and mutton not much better. The beef was selling at Lynn,
for five shillings the stone of fourteen pounds, and the pork at
four and sixpence. The wool (one of the great articles of
produce in these countries) selling for less than half of its
former price.
And here let me stop to observe, that I was well informed
before I left London, that merchants were exporting our long
wool to France, where it paid thirty per cent. duty. Well, say
the landowners, but we have to thank Huskisson for this, at
any rate ; and that is true enough ; for the law was most rigid
against the export of wool ; but what will the manufacturers
say? Thus the collective goes on, smashing one class and
then another ; and, resolved to adhere to the taxes, it knocks
away, one after another, the props of the system itself. By
every measure that it adopts for the sake of obtaining security,
or of affording relief to the people, it does some act of crying

Eastern Tour. $«$

injustice. To save itself from the natural effects of its own
measures, it knocked down the country bankers, in direct
violation of the law in 1822. It is now about to lay its heavy
hand on the big brewers and the publicans, in order to pacify
the call for a reduction of taxes, and with the hope of pre
venting such reduction in reality. It is making a trifling
attempt to save the West Indians from total ruin, and the
West India colonies from revolt ; but by that same attempt, it
reflects injury on the British distillers, and on the growers of
barley. Thus it cannot do justice without doing injustice ; it
cannot do good without doing evil; and thus it must continue
to do, until it take off, in reality, more than one half of the
taxes. One of the great signs of the poverty of people in the middle
rank of life, is the falling off of the audiences at the playhouses.
There is a playhouse in almost every country town, where the
players used to act occasionally ; and in large towns almost
always. In some places they have of late abandoned acting
altogether. In others they have acted, very frequently, to not
more than ten or twelve persons. At Norwich, the playhouse
had been shut up for a long time. I heard of one manager
who has become a porter to a warehouse, and his company
dispersed. In most places, the insides of the buildings seem
to be tumbling to pieces ; and the curtains and scenes that
they let down, seem to be abandoned to the damp and the
cobwebs. My appearance on the boards seemed to give new
life to the drama. I was, until the birth of my third son, a
constant haunter of the playhouse, in which I took great
delight; but when he came into the world, I said, "Now,
Nancy, it is time for us to leave off going to the play." It
is really melancholy to look at things now, and to think of
things then. I feel great sorrow on account of these poor
players; for, though they are made the tools of the Government
and the corporations and the parsons, it is not their fault, and
they have uniformly, whenever I have come in contact with
them, been very civil to me. I am not sorry that they are left
out of the list of vagrants in the new act ; but, in this case, as

334 Eastern Tour.

in so many others, the men have to be grateful to the women ;
for who believes that this merciful omission would have taken
place, if so many of the peers had not contracted matrimonial
alliances with players ; if so many playeresses had not be
come peeresses. We may thank God for disposing the hearts
of our law-makers, to be guilty of the same sins, and foibles
as ourselves; for when a lord had been sentenced to the
pillory, the use of that ancient mode of punishing offences
was abolished : when a lord (Castlereagh), who was also a
minister of state, had cut his own throat, the degrading punish
ment of burial in cross-roads was abolished ; and now, when
so many peers, and great men have taken to wife play-
actresses, which the law termed vagrants, that term, as applied
to the children of Melpomene and Thalia, is abolished ! Laud
we the Gods, that our rulers cannot, after all, divest themselves
of flesh and blood ! For the Lord have mercy upon us, if
their great souls were once to soar above that tenement !
Lord Stanhope cautioned his brother peers, a little while
ago, against the angry feeling which was rising up in the poor
against the rich. His Lordship is a wise and humane man,
and this is evident from all his conduct Nor is this angry
feeling confined to the counties in the south, where the rage
of the people, from the very nature of the local circumstances,
is more formidable ; woods and coppices and dingles and bye-
lanes and sticks and stones ever at hand, being resources
unknown in counties like this. When I was at St Ives, in
Huntingdonshire, an open country," I sat with the farmers,
and smoked a pipe by way of preparation for evening service,
which I performed on a carpenter's bench in a wheelwright's
shop ; my friends, the players, never having gained any regular
settlement in that grand mart for four-legged fat meat, coming
from the Fens, and bound to the Wen. While we were sitting,
a hand-bill was handed round the table, advertising farming
stock for sale ; and amongst the implements of husbandry,
" an excellent fire-engine, several steel traps, and spring guns " I
And that is the life, is it, of an English farmer ? I walked on
about six miles of the road from Holbeach to Boston. I have

-Eastern Tour. 335
before observed upon the inexhaustible riches of this land.
At the end of about five miles and three quarters, I came to
a public-house, and thought I would get some breakfast ; but
the poor woman, with a tribe of children about her, had not
a morsel of either meat or bread ! At a house called an inn,
a little further on, the landlord had no meat except a little bit
of chine of bacon ; and though there were a good many
houses near the spot, the landlord told me that the people
were become so poor, that the butchers had left off killing
meat in the neighbourhood. Just the state of things that
existed in France on the eve of the Revolution. On that
very spot I looked round me, and counted more than two
thousand fat sheep in the pastures ! How long ; how long,
'good God! is this state of things to last? How long will
these people starve in the midst of plenty ? How long will
fire-engines, steel traps, and spring guns be, in such a state of
things, a protection to property ? When I was at Beverley, a
gentleman told me (it was Mr. Dawson of that place) that
some time before a farmer had been sold up by his landlord ;
and that, in a few weeks afterwards, the farm-house was on
fire, and that when the servants of the landlord arrived to put
it out, they found the handle of the pump taken away, and
that the homestead was totally destroyed. This was told me
in the presence of several gentlemen, who all spoke of it as a
fact of perfect notoriety.
Another respect in which our situation so exactly resembles
that of France on the eve of the Revolution, is, the fleeing
from the country in every direction. When I was in Norfolk,
there were four hundred persons, generally young men,
labourers, carpenters, wheelwrights, millwrights, smiths, and
bricklayers ; most of them with some money, and some farmers
and others with good round sums. These people were going'
to Quebec, in timber-ships, and from Quebec, by land, into
the United States. They had been told that they would not
be suffered to land in the United States from board ship.
The roguish villains had deceived them : but no matter; they
will get into the United States ; and going through Canada

336 Eastern Tour.

will do them good, for it will teach them to detest every thing
belonging to it From Boston, two great barge loads had
just gone off by canal, to Liverpool, most of them farmers ;
all carrying some money, and some as much as two thousand
pounds each. From the North and West Riding of Yorkshire,
numerous waggons have gone carrying people to the canals,
leading to Liverpool; and a gentleman, whom I saw at
Peterboro', told me that he saw some of them ; and that the
men all appeared to be respectable farmers. At Hull, the
scene would delight the eyes of the wise Burdett ; for here
the emigration is going on in the " Old Roman Plan." Ten
large ships have gone this spring, laden with these fugitives,
from the fangs of taxation ; some bound direct to the ports
of the United States ; others, like those at Yarmouth, for
Quebec. Those that have most money, go direct to the
United States. The single men, who are taken for a mere
trifle in the Canada ships, go that way, have nothing but their
carcasses to carry over the rocks and swamps, and through
the myriads of place-men and pensioners in that miserable
region ; there are about fifteen more ships going from this
one port this spring. The ships are fitted up with berths as
transports for the carrying of troops. I went on board one
morning, and saw the people putting their things on board
and stowing them away. Seeing a nice young woman, with
a little baby in her arms, I told her that she was going to a
country where she would be sure that her children would
never want victuals ; where she might make her own malt,
soap, and candles, without being half put to death for it, and
where the blaspheming Jews, would not have a mortgage on
the life's labour of her children.
There is at Hull one farmer going who is seventy years of
age ; but who takes out five sons and fifteen hundred pounds !
Brave and sensible old man ! and good and affectionate
father ! He is performing a truly parental and sacred duty ;
and he will die with the blessing of his sons on his head, for
having rescued them from this scene of slavery, misery,
Cruelty, and crime. Come, then, Wilmot Hortori, with vour

Eastern Tour. 337

sensible associates, Burdett and Poulett Thomson ; come into
Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Yorkshire ; come and bring Parson
Malthus along with you ; regale your sight with this delightful
"stream of emigration " ; congratulate the "greatest captain
of the age," and your brethren of the Collective : congratulate
the " noblest assembly of free men," on these the happy effects
of their measures. Oh! no, Wilmot ! Oh! no, generous and
sensible Burdett, it is not the aged, the infirm, the halt, the'
blind, and the idiots, that go : it is the youth, the strength, the
wealth, and the spirit, that will no longer brook hunger and
thirst, in order that the maws of tax-eaters and Jews may be
crammed. You want the Irish to go, and so they will at our
expense, and all the best of them, to be kept at our expense on the
rocks and swamps of Nova Scotia and Canada. You have no
money to send them away with : the tax-eaters want-it all ; andj
thanks to the " improvements of the age," the steam-boats will
continue to bring them in shoals in pursuit of the orts of the
food, that their task-masters have taken away from them.
After evening lecture, at Homcastie, a very decent farmer
came to me, and asked me about America, telling me that he
was resolved to go, for that, if he staid much longer, he should'
not have a shilling to go with. I promised to send him 3.
letter from Louth, to a friend at New York, who might be
useful to him there, and give him good advice, I forgot it at
Louth; but I will do it before I go to bed. From the
Thames, and from the several ports down the Channel, about
two thousand have gone this spring. All the flower of the
labourers of the east of Sussex, and west of Kent, will be
culled out and sent off in a short time. From Glasgow, the
sensible Scotch are pouring put amain. Those that are poo*
and cannot pay their passages, or can rake together only a
trifle, are going to a rascally heap of sand and rock and
swamp, -called Prince Edward's Island, in the horrible Guff
of St. Lawrence ; but when the American vessels come over
with Indian corn, and flour, and pork, and beef, and poultry,
»nd eggsi. and butter; and cabbages, and green peas, and
asparagus, for the soldier-officers, a&d other t_x-eaters, that
vol. ii. v

338 Eastern Tour.

t
we support upon that lump of worthlessness ; for the lump
itself bears nothing but potatoes ; when these vessels come,
which they are continually doing, winter and summer ;
towards the fall, with apples and pears and melons and
cucumbers; and, in short, everlastingly coming and taking
away the amount of taxes raised in England; when these
vessels return, the sensible Scotch will go back in them for a
dollar a head, till at last, not a man of them will be left, but
the bed-ridden. Those villanous colonies are held for no
earthly purpose but that of furnishing a pretence of giving
money to the relations and dependents of the aristocracy ;
and they are the nicest channels in the world through which
to send English taxes, to enrich, and strengthen, the United
States. Withdraw the English taxes, and, except in a small
part in Canada, the whole of those horrible regions would
be left to the bears and the savages in the course of a year.
This emigration is a famous blow given to the borough-
mongers. The way to New York is now as well known and
as easy, and as little expensive as from old York to London.
First, the Sussex parishes sent their paupers : they invited
over others that were not paupers : they invited over people
of some property ; then persons of greater property ; now
substantial farmers are going; men of considerable fortune
will follow. It is the letters written across the Atlantic that
do the business. Men of fortune will soon discover, that to
secure to their families their fortunes, and to take these out of
the grasp of the inexorable tax-gatherer, they must get away.
Every one that goes will take twenty after him ; and thus it
will go on. There can be no interruption but war; and war,
the Thing dare not have. As to France or the Netherlands,
or any part of that h — called Germany, Englishmen can
never settle there. The United States form another England
without its unbearable taxes, its insolent game-laws, its intoler
able dead-weight, and its tread-mills.1

1 The number of Immigrants into the United States, from 1820 to 1880,
with their nationality, has been computed as follows : —

Midland Tour. 339

EASTERN TOUR ENDED, MIDLAND TOUR BEGUN.
Lincoln, 2yd April, 1830.
From the inn at Spittal, we came to this famous ancient
Roman station, and afterwards, grand scene of Saxon and
Gothic splendour, on the 21st It was the third or fourth
day of the Spring fair, which is one of the greatest in the
kingdom, and which lasts for a whole week. Horses begin
the fair ; then come sheep ; and to-day, the horned-cattle.
It is supposed that there were about 50,000 sheep, and I
think the whole of the space in the various roads and streets,
covered by the cattle, must have amounted to ten acres of
ground, or more. Some say that they were as numerous as
the sheep. The number of horses I did not hear ; but they
say that there were 1,500 fewer in number than last year.
The sheep sold 5s. a head, on an average, lower than last
year; and the cattle in the same proportion. High-priced
horses sold well ; but the horses, which are called tradesmen's
horses, were very low. This is the natural march of the
Thing : those who live on the taxes have money to throw
away, but those who pay them are ruined, and have, of course,
no money to lay out on horses.
The country from Spittal to Lincoln continued to be much
about the same as from Barton to Spittal. Large fields,
rather light loam at top, stone under, about half corn-land
and the rest grass. Not so many sheep as in the richer lands,

From Ireland . . . 3,538,000

„ England .

1,105,000

„ Scotland .

195,000
„ Germany -
3,212,000
„ Canada
826,000
„ Scandinavia
427,000
„ France
345.000
„ China
231,000
„ Various Countri
es
402,000
Total 10,281,000
540 Midland Tour.

but a great many still. As you get on towards Lincoln, the
ground gradually rises, and you go on the road made by the
Romans. When you come to the city, you find the ancient
castle, and the magnificent cathedral, on the brow of a sort of
ridge which ends here ; for you look all of a sudden down
into a deep valley, where the greater part of the remaining
city lies. It once had fifty-two churches ; it has now only
eight, and only about 9,000 inhabitants ! The cathedral is, I
believe, the finest building in the whole world. All the others
that I have seen (and I have seen all in England except
Chester, York, Carlisle, and Durham), are little things com
pared with this. To the task of describing a thousandth-part
of its striking beauties I am inadequate ; it surpasses greatly
all that I had anticipated ; and oh ! how loudly it gives the
lie to those brazen Scotch historians who would have us
believe that England was formerly a poor country ! The
whole revenue raised from Lincolnshire, even by this present
system of taxation, would not rear such another pile in two
hundred years. Some of the city gates are down ; but there
is one standing, the arch of which is said to be two thousand
years old ; and a most curious thing it is. The sight of the
cathedral fills the mind alternately with wonder, admiration,
melancholy, and rage : wonder at its grandeur and magni
ficence ; admiration of the zeal and disinterestedness of those
who here devoted to the honour of God, those immense means
which they might have applied to their own enjoyments ;
melancholy at its present neglected state ; and indignation
against those who now enjoy the revenues belonging to it, and
who creep about it, merely as a pretext, for devouring a part
of the fruit of the people's labour. There are no men in
England who ought to wish for reform so anxiously as the work
ing clergy of the church of England ; we are all oppressed ;
but they are oppressed and insulted, more than any men that
ever lived in the world. The clergy in America ; I mean in
free America, not in our beggarly colonies, where clerical
insolence and partiality prevail still more than here ; I mean
in the United States, where every man gives what he pleases,

Midland Tour.

J4i

and no more : the clergy of the episcopal church, are a
hundred times better off than the working clergy are here.
They are, also, much more respected, because their order has
not to bear the blame of enormous exactions ; which exactions
here are swallowed up by the aristocracy and their depen
dents ; but which swallowings, are imputed to every one bear
ing the name of parson. Throughout the whole country, I
have maintained the necessity and the justice of resuming the
church property ; but I have never failed to say, that I know
of no more meritorious, and ill-used men, than the working
clergy of the established church,1 Leicester, 26th April, 1830.
At the famous ancient city- of Lincoln I had crowded

1 No greater scandal exists in the Church of England (except the sale of
livings, and the frequently erratic manner in which patronage is exercised)
than the frightful disparity in Church incomes. The prizes of the Church
have hitherto unfortunately but rarely fallen to the lot of the working
clergy, who, however, in the present day are rapidly increasing in humber
and influence. Mr. Mulhall, in his statistics, furnishes the following
statement of the incomes of the clergy : —

Clergy-

No.

Income.

Per Head.

Bishops ....
Canons ....
Rectors and Vicars
Curates .... Total

33
166
11,780 5,050

,£l68,O0O 240,000
4,830,000 565,000

^5.100 1,440 408 112

17,029

5,803,000

The average income of a bishop of the Roman Church (in the United Kingdom) il
C400 per annum, and .£80 for a priest. Number of
Patrons. Livings.
Crown ...... 967
Noblemen . . . . . 5>357
Bishops  2,088
Various  4>476
Total 12,888

;42 Midland Tour.

audiences, principally consisting of farmers, on the 21st and
22nd; exceedingly well-behaved audiences; and great im
pression produced. One of the evenings, in pointing out to
them the wisdom of explaining to their labourers the cause
of their distress, in order to ward off the effects of the resent
ment, which the labourers now feel every where against the
farmers, I related to them, what my labourers at Barn-Elm,
had been doing since I left home : and I repeated to them
the complaints that my labourers made, stating to them, from
memory, the following parts of that spirited petition :
" That your petitioners have recently observed, that many
great sums of the money, part of which we pay, have been
voted to be given to persons who render no services to the
country ; some of which sums we will mention here ; that
the sum of 94,900/. has been voted for disbanded foreign
officers, their widows and children ; that your petitioners know
that ever since the peace, this charge has been annually made ;
that it has been on an average, 110,000/. a-year, and that, of
course, this band of foreigners have actually taken away out
of England, since the peace, one million and seven hundred
thousand pounds ; partly taken from the fruit of our labour ;
and if our dinners were actually taken from our table, and
carried over to Hanover, the process could not be, to our eyes,
more visible than it is now ; and we are astonished, that those
who fear that we, who make the land bring forth crops, and
who make the clothing and the houses, shall swallow up the
rental, appear to think nothing at all, of the swallowings of
these Hanoverian men, women, and children, who may con
tinue thus to swallow, for half a century to come.
" That the advocates of the project for sending us out of
our country to the rocks and snows of Nova Scotia, and the
swamps and wilds of Canada, have insisted on the necessity
of checking marriages amongst us, in order to cause a decrease
in our numbers ; that, however, while this is insisted on in
your honourable House, we perceive a part of our own earn
ings voted away to encourage marriage amongst those who do
no work, and who live at our expense; and that to your

Midland Tour. 343

petitioners it does seem most wonderful, that there should be
persons to fear that we, the labourers, shall, on account of our
numbers, swallow up the rental, while they actually vote away
our food and raiment to increase the numbers of those, who
never have produced, and who never will produce, any thing
useful to man.
"That your petitioners know that more than one-half of
' the whole of their wages is taken from them by the taxes ;
that these taxes go chiefly into the hands of idlers ; that your
petitioners are the bees, and that the tax-receivers are the
drones; and they know, further, that while there is a project
for sending the bees out of the country, no one proposes to
send away the drones ; but that your petitioners hope to see
the day when the checking of the increase of the drones, and
and not of the bees, will be the object of an English Parlia
ment. " That, in consequence of taxes, your petitioners pay six
pence for a pot of worse beer than they could make for one
penny ; x that they pay ten shillings for a pair of shoes that

1 The last Editor remarks on this subject, that " the importance to farm
labourers, of naving beer to drink, can be fully known, to those only who
are aware of the amount of work done by these men, which is perhaps
greater than is performed by any other class in the world." This remark
naturally touches upon one of the burning questions of the day. On the one
hand there are many of the most courageous and self-denying leaders of
society, who press total abstinence upon the labouring classes, as the
panacea for all evils (moral and social), but this is done by some of them so
intemperately and unwisely, that it may be feared that a terrible reaction
will one day take place. On the other hand, it is not denied that drinking
is closely connected with (or that it greatly exasperates) the misery under
gone by the labouring classes, but it is denied that it is " the cause " of the
misery. It is maintained that drinking must be regarded as an effect of the
bad conditions inherited by the labouring classes and under which they live.
It is affirmed that the fluctuations of crime (properly so called) do not
depend upon the amount of drinking, but that it is destitution, not
drunkenness, that contributes most largely to the increase of crime. In
short, that the drunkenness, the crime, and the pauperism cannot be
permanently reduced, except through a material and moral improvement
of the labouring classes. May not the summing up of these conflicting
opinions, lead us to regard total abstinence as of little value, except it
become a sign of moral improvement, and that by far the safest plan is to
help the labouring classes to face the temptations of their several callings,

344

Midland Tour,

they could have for five shillings ; that they pay seven-pence
for a pound of soap or candles that they could have for
three-pence ; that they pay seven-pence for a pound of sugar
that they could have for three-pence; that they pay six
shillings for a pound of tea that they could have for two
shillings ; that they pay double for their bread and meat, of
what they would have to pay, if there were no idlers to be
kept out of the taxes ; that, therefore, it is the taxes that
make their wages insufficient for their support, and that com
pel them to apply for aid to the poor-rates; that, knowing
these things, they feel indignant at bearing themselves de
scribed as paupers, while so many thousands of idlers, for
whose support they pay taxes, are called noble Lords and
Ladies, honourable Gentlemen, Masters, and Misses ; that they
feel indignant at hearing themselves described as a nuisance

trying to fortify them against those temptations, by education and by moral
and religious teaching, at the same time holding up to them, the happiness
and freedom of being "temperate in all things," and the debasing effects
of intemperance, in morals, as well as in beer.
With regard to the beer consumed by the farm labourer, it is to be
feared that he suffers more frequently from the infamous "quality" of the
beer than from the "quantity." In poor agricultural districts, the beer
is "doctored," if not "drugged," by many beer-house sellers. The
attention of the excisemen ought to be most keenly directed to this matter.
Much of the beer which finds its way into the hay and harvest field is
rather "poison" than pure malt and hops, and produces disease and
engenders drunkenness. It were much to be wished that employers of labour
would encourage their men to substitute some other wholesome beverage
for beer, in hay and harvest time. The following comparative statement
shows that a great reduction might be made throughout the United
Kingdom in the consumption of beer : —

Number of
Breweries.

Millions of
Gallons.

Gallons per
Inhabitant.

United Kingdom . .
Italy 
United States . . .

16,114 3,ICO
23.940 2,297 2O0
2,5003.293

1,025 190
880 245 20
170
340

29.O 5-2
I9.4 6.4
0.7
3J-5 6.6

Midland Tour. 345
to be got rid of, while the idlers who live upon their earnings
are upheld, caressed and cherished, as if they were the sole
support of the country."
Having repeated to them these passages, I proceeded :
" My workmen were induced thus to petition, in consequence
of the information which I, their master, had communicated
tb them; and, Gentlemen, why should not your labourers
petition in the same strain ? Why should you suffer them to
remain in a state of ignorance, relative to the cause of their
misery ? The eye sweeps over in this county more riches, in
one moment, than are contained in the whole county in which
I was born, and in which the petitioners live. Between
Holbeach and Boston, even at a public-house, neither bread
nor meat was to be found ; and while the landlord was telling
me that the people were become so poor, that the butchers
killed no meat in the neighbourhood, I counted more than
two thousand fat sheep lying about in the pastures of that
richest spot in the whole world. Starvation in the midst of
plenty; the land covered with food, and the working people
without victuals : every thing taken away by the tax-eaters
of various descriptions : and yet you take no measures for
redress; and your miserable labourers seem to be doomed
to expire with hunger, without an effort to obtain relief. What 1
cannot you point out to them the real cause of their sufferings ?
cannot you take a piece of paper and write out a petition for
them ? cannot your labourers petition as well as mine ? are
God's blessings bestowed on you without any spirit to preserve
them? is the fatness of the land, is the earth teeming with
food for the body, and raiment for the back, to be an apology
for the want of that courage, for which your fathers were so
famous? is the abundance which God has put into your
hands, to be the excuse for your resigning yourselves to starva
tion ? My God ! is there no spirit left in England except in
the miserable sand-hills of Surrey ? " These words were not
uttered without effect, I can assure the reader. The assem
blage was of that stamp, in which thought goes before expres
sion ; but the effect of this example of my men in Surrey, will

346 Midland Tour.

I am sure, be greater than anything that has been done in the
petitioning way for a long time past
We left Lincoln on the 23rd, about noon, and got to
Newark, in Nottinghamshire, in the evening, where I gave
a lecture at the theatre, to about three hundred persons.
Newark is a very fine town, and the Castle Inn, where we
stopped, extraordinarily good and pleasantly situated. Here I
was met by a parcel of the printed petitions of the labourers at
Barn- Elm.
I shall continue to sow these, as I proceed on my way. It
should have been stated at the head of the printed petition,
that it was presented to the House of Lords, by his Grace
the Duke of Richmond, and by Mr. Pallmer to the House of
Commons. The country from Lincoln to Newark (sixteen miles), is
by no means so fine as that which we have been in for so
many weeks. The land is clayey in many parts. A pleasant
country; a variety of hill and valley; but not that richness
which we had so long had, under our eye : fields smaller ;
fewer sheep, and those not so large, and so manifestly loaded
with flesh. The roads always good. Newark is a town very
much like Nottingham, having a very fine and spacious
market-place ; the buildings every where good ; but it is in
the villages that you find the depth of misery.
Having appointed positively to be at Leicester in the
evening of Saturday, the 24th, we could not stop either at
Grantham or at Melton Mowbray, not even long enough to
view their fine old magnificent churches. In going from
Newark to Grantham, we got again into Lincolnshire, in
which last county Grantham is. From Newark nearly to
Melton Mowbray, the country is about the same as between
Lincoln and Newark ; by no means bad land, but not so rich
as that of Lincolnshire, in the middle and eastern parts; not
approaching to the Holdemess country, in point of riches; a
large part arable land, well tilled ; but not such large home
steads, such numerous great stacks of wheat, and such endless
flocks of lazy sheep.

Midland Tour. 347
Before we got to Melton Mowbray, the beautiful pastures
of this litde verdant county of Leicester began to appear.
Meadows and green fields, with here and there a corn field,
all of smaller dimensions than those of Lincolnshire, but all
very beautiful ; with gentle hills and woods too ; not beautiful
woods, like those of Hampshire and of the wilds of Surrey,
Sussex and Kent ; but very pretty, all the country around
being so rich. At Mowbray we began to get amongst the
Leicestershire sheep, those fat creatures which we see the
butchers' boys battering about so unmercifully, in the streets
and the outskirts of the Wen. The land is warmer here than
in Lincolnshire ; the grass more forward, and the wheat be
tween Mowbray and Leicester, six inches high, and generally
looking exceedingly well. In Lincolnshire and Nottingham
shire, I found the wheat in general rather thin, and frequently
sickly ; nothing like so promising as in Suffolk and Norfolk.
We got to Leicester on the 24th, at about half-past five
o'clock; and the time appointed for the lecture was six.
Leicester is a very fine town ; spacious streets, fine inns, fine
shops, and containing, they say, thirty or forty thousand
people. It is well stocked with jails, of which a new one,
in addition to the rest, has just been built, covering three
acres of ground ! And, as if proud of it, the grand portal
has little turrets, in the castle style, with embrasures in miniature
on the caps of the turrets. Nothing speaks the want of
reflection in the people so much, as the self-gratulation which
they appear to feel in these edifices in their several towns.
Instead of expressing shame at these indubitable proofs of
the horrible increase of misery and of crime, they really boast
of these " improvements," as they call them. Our forefathers
built abbeys and priories and churches, and they made such
use of them that jails were nearly unnecessary. We, their
sons, have knocked down the abbeys and priories ; suffered
half the parsonage-houses and churches to pretty nearly tumble
down, and make such uses of the remainder, that jails and
tread-mills and dungeons, have now become the most striking
edifices in every county in the kingdom.

348 Midland Tour.

Yesterday morning (Sunday the 25th), I walked out to the
village of Knighton, two miles on the Bosworth road, where
I breakfasted, and then walked back. This morning I walked
out to Hailstone, nearly three miles on the Lutterworth road,
and got my breakfast there. You have nothing to do but to
walk through these villages, to see the cause of the increase
of the jails. Standing on the hill at Knighton, you see the
three ancient and lofty and beautiful spires rising up at
Leicester : you see the river winding down through a broad
bed of the most beautiful meadows that man ever set his eyes
on ; you see the bright verdure covering all the land, even to
the tops of the hills, with here and there a little wood, as if
made by God to give variety to the beauty of the scene, for
the river brings the coal in abundance, for fuel, and the earth
gives the brick and the tile in abundance. But go down into
the villages; invited by the spires, rising up amongst the
trees in the dells, at scarcely ever more than a mile or two
apart ; invited by these spires, go down into these villages,
view the large, and once the most beautiful, churches : see
the parson's house, large, and in the midst of pleasure-gardens ;
and then look at the miserable sheds in which the labourers
reside I Look at these hovels, made of mud and of straw ;
bits of glass, or of old off-cast windows, without frames or
hinges, frequently, but merely stuck in the mud wall. Enter
them, and look at the bits of chairs or stools ; the wretched
boards tacked together, to serve for a table; the floor of
pebble, broken brick, or of the bare ground ; look at the thing
called a bed ; and survey the rags on the backs of the wretched
inhabitants ; and then wonder if you can, that the jails and
dungeons and tread*mills increase, and that a standing army
and barracks are become the favourite establishments of
England !
At the village of Hailstone, I got into the purlieu, as they
call it in Hampshire, of a person well known in the Wen ;
namely, the Reverend Beresford, rector of that fat affair, St.
Andrew's, Holborn ! In walking through the village, and
surveying its deplorable dwellings, so much worse than the

Midland Tour. 349

cow-sheds of the cottagers on the skirts of the forests in Hamp
shire, my attention was attracted by the surprising contrast
between them and the house of their religious teacher. I met
a labouring man. Country people know everything. If you
have ever made a faux-pas, of any sort of description ; if you
have anything about you, of which you do not want all the
world to know, never retire to a village, keep in some great
town ; but the Wen, for your life, for there the next-door
neighbour will not know even your name ; and the vicinage,
will judge of you solely by the quantity of money, that you
have to spend. This labourer seemed not to be in a very
great hurry. He was digging in his garden ; and I, looking
over a low hedge, pitched him up for a gossip, commencing by
asking whether that was the parson's house. Having answered
in the affirmative, and I, having asked the parson's name, he
proceeded thus : " His name is Beresford ; but though he lives
there, he has not this living now, he has got the living of St.
Andrew's, Holborn ; and they say it is worth a great many
thousands a year. He could not, they say, keep this living
and have that too, because they were so far apart And so
this living was given to Mr. Brown, who is the rector of Hobey,
about seven miles off." " Well," said I, " but how comes
Beresford to live here now, if the living be given to another
man?" "Why, Sir," said he, "this Beresford married a
daughter of Brown ; and so, you know (smiling and looking
very archly), Brown comes, and takes the payment for the
tithes, and pays a curate that lives in that house there in the
field; and Beresford lives at that fine house still, just as he
used to do." I asked him what the living was worth, and he
answered twelve hundred pounds a year. It is a rectory, I
find, and of course the parson has great tithes, as well as
small. The people of this village know a great deal more about
Beresford, than the people of St. Andrew's, Holborn, know
about him. In short, the country people know all about the
whole thing. They will be long before they act; but they
will make no noise as a signal for action. They will be

350 Midland Tour.

moved by nothing but actual want of food. This the Thing
seems to be aware of; and hence, all the innumerable schemes
for keeping them quiet : hence, the endless jails and all the
terrors of hardened law : hence, the schemes for coaxing them,
by letting them have bits of land : hence the everlasting bills
and discussions of committees about the state of the poor,
and the state of the poor-laws : all of which will fail : and at
last, unless reduction of taxation speedily take place, the
schemers will find what the consequences are of reducing
millions to the verge of starvation.
The labourers here, who are in need of parochial relief, are
formed into what are called roundsmen; that is to say, they
are sent round from one farmer to another, each maintaining
a certain number for a certain length of time; and thus they
go round from one to the other. If the farmers did not pay
three shillings in taxes out of every six shillings that they give
in the shape of wages, they could afford to give the men four
and sixpence in wages, which would be better to the men
than the six. But as long as this burden of taxes shall con
tinue, so long the misery will last, and it will go on increas
ing with accelerated pace. The march of circumstances is
precisely what it was in France, just previous to the French
revolution. If the aristocracy were wise, they would put a
stop to that march. The middle class are fast sinking down
to the state of the lower class. A community of feeling be
tween these classes ; and that feeling an angry one, is what
the aristocracy has to dread. As far as the higher clergy are
concerned, this community of feeling is already complete. A
short time will extend the feeling to every other branch ; and
then, the hideous consequences make their appearance. Re
form ; a radical reform of the Parliament ; this reform in time;
this reform, which would reconcile the middle class to the
aristocracy, and give renovation to that which has now be
come a mass of decay and disgust ; this reform, given with a
good grace, and not taken by force, is the only refuge for the
aristocracy of this kingdom. Just as it was in France. All
the tricks of financiers have been tried in vain ; and by-and-by

Midland Tour. 351
some trick more pompous and foolish than the rest; Sir
Henry ParnelPs trick, perhaps, or something equally foolish,
would blow the whole concern into the air.1
Worcester, iSth May, 1830.
In tracing myself from Leicester to this place, I begin at
Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, one of the prettiest country
towns that I ever saw ; that is to say, prettiest situated. At
this place they have, in the church (they say), the identical
pulpit from which Wickliffe preached ! This was not his birth
place ; but he was, it seems, priest of this parish.
I set off from Lutterworth early on the 29th of April,
stopped to breakfast at Birmingham, got to Wolverhampton
by two o'clock (a distance altogether of about 50 miles), arid
lectured at six in the evening. I repeated, or rather con
tinued, the lecturing, on the 30th, and on the 3rd of May.
On the 6th of May went to Dudley, and lectured there : on
the 10th of May, at Birmingham; on the 12th and 13th, at
Shrewsbury ; and on the 14th, came here.
Thus have I come through countries of corn, and meat, and
iron, and coal ; and from the banks of the Humber to those
of the Severn, I find all the people, who do not share in the
taxes, in a state of distress, greater or less, Mortgagers all
frightened out of their wits ; fathers trembling for the fate
of their children ; and working people in the most miserable
state, and, as they ought to be, in the worst of temper. These
will, I am afraid, be the state-doctors at last I The farmers
are cowed down : the poorer they get, the more cowardly
they are. Every one of them, sees the cause of his suffering,
1 The " triek " referred to was the scheme for "Joint-Stock Banks." Since
the Act of 1826, a number of joint-stock banks have been established.
Sir Henry Parnell (afterwards Lord Congleton) was a promoter of them.
At the present time, there are about 120 of these banks in England and
Wales, but the number is increasing. A large proportion of these joint-stock
banks (in the provinces) are entitled to issue notes to the extent of nearly
£3,000,000 "without its being compulsory to hold any gold in reserve
against them." Several severe failures however have occurred even among
joint-stock banks.

352 Midland Tour.

and sees general ruin at hand ; but every one hopes, that by
some trick, some act of meanness, some contrivance, he shall
escape. So that there is no hope of any change for the better,
but from the working people. The farmers will sink to a very
low state ; and thus the Thing (barring accidents) may go on,
until neither farmer nor tradesman will see a joint of meat on
his table once in a quarter of a year. It appears likely to be
precisely, as it was in France : it is now just what France was
at the close of the reign of Louis XV. It has been the
fashion to ascribe the French Revolution to the writings of
Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and others. These writings had
nothing at all to do with the matter: no, nothing at all. The
Revolution was produced by taxes, which at last became un
bearable ; by debts of the State ; but, in fact, by the despair
of the people, produced by the weigbt of the taxes.
It is curious to observe how ready the supporters of tyranny
and taxation are to ascribe rebellions and revolutions to dis
affected leaders ; and particularly to writers ; and, as these
supporters of tyranny and taxation have had the press at their
command ; have had generally the absolute command of it,
they have caused this belief to go down from generation to
generation. It will not do for them to ascribe revolutions,
and rebellions, to the true cause ; because then the rebellions,
and revolutions, would be justified ; and it is their object to
cause them to be condemned. Infinite delusion has prevailed
in this country, in consequence of the efforts of which I am
now speaking. Voltaire was just as much a cause of the
French Revolution, as I have been the cause of imposing
these sixty millions of taxes. The French Revolution was
produced by the grindings of taxation ; and this I will take an
opportunity very soon of proving, to the conviction of every
man in the kingdom who chooses to read.
In the iron country, of which Wolverhampton seems to be
a sort of central point, and where thousands, and perhaps two
or three hundred thousand people, are assembled together,
the truck or tommy system generally prevails; and this is a
very remarkable feature in the state of this country. I have

Midland Tour. 35;

made inquiries with regard to the origin, or etymology, of this
word tommy, and could find no one to furnish me with the
information. It is certainly, like so many other good things,
to be ascribed to the army ; for, when I was a recruit at Cha
tham barracks, in the year 1783, we had brown bread served
out to us twice in the week. And, for what reason God
knows, we used to call it tommy. And the sergeants, when
they called us out to get our bread, used to tell us to come
and get our tommy. Even the officers used to call it tommy.
Any one that could get white bread, called it bread ; but the
brown stuff that we got in lieu of part of our pay, was called
tommy ; and so we used to call it when we got abroad. When
the soldiers came to have bread served out to them in the
several towns in England, the name of " tommy " went down
by tradition ; and, doubtless, it was taken up and adapted to
the truck system in Staffordshire and elsewhere.
Now, there is nothing wrong, nothing essentially wrong, in
this system of barter. Barter is in practice in some of the
happiest communities in the world. In the new settled parts
of the United States of America, to which money has scarcely
found its way, to which articles of wearing apparel are brought
from a great distance, where the great and almost sole
occupations are, the rearing of food, the building of houses,
and the making of clothes, barter is the rule and money pay
ment the exception. And this is attended with no injury and
with very little inconvenience. The bargains are made, and
the accounts kept in money ; but the payments are made in
produce or in goods, the price of these being previously settled
on. The store-keeper (which we call shop-keeper) receives
the produce in exchange for his goods, and exchanges that
produce for more goods ; and thus the concerns of the com-
tnunity go on, every one living in abundance, and the sound
of misery never heard.
But when this tommy system ; this system of barter ; when
this makes its appearance where money has for ages been the
medium of exchange, and of payments for labour ; when this
system makes its appearance in such a state of society, there is
vol. n. z

354 Midland Tour.

something wrong; things are out of joint; and it becomes us
to inquire into the real cause of its being resorted to ; and it
does not become us to join in an outcry against the employers
who resort to it, until we are perfectly satisfied that those
employers are guilty of oppression.
The manner of carrying on the tommy system is this:
suppose there to be a master who employs a hundred men.
That hundred men, let us suppose, to eam a pound a week
each. This is not tiie case in the iron-works ; but no matter,
we can illustrate qur meaning by one sum as well as by
another. These men lay out weekly the whole of the hundred
pounds in victuals, drink, clothing, bedding, fuel, and house-rent
Now, the master finding the profits of his trade fall off very
much, and being at the same time in want of money to pay
the hundred pounds weekly, and perceiving that these hundred
pounds are carried away at once, and given to shopkeepers of
various descriptions; to butchers, bakers, drapers, hatters,
shoemakers, and the rest; ani knowing that, on an average,
these shopkeepers must all have a profit of thirty per cent., or
more, he determines to keep this thirty per cent, to himself; and
this is thirty pounds a week gained as a shop-keeper, which
amounts to 1,560/. a year. He, therefore, sets up a tommy
shop : a long place containing every commodity that the work
man can want, liquor and house-room excepted. Here the
workman takes out his pound's worth ; and his house-rent he
pays in truck, if he does not rent of his master ; and if he will
have liquor, beer, or gin, or any thing else, he must get it by
trucking with the goods that he has got at the tommy shop.1
1 The Truck system, "of payincr workmen's wages in goods (sold at
tommy shops) instead of iu money," was prohibited by the Truck Act of
1831 (1 and 2 William. IV. c 37). By a more recent Act, not only must
wages not be fa id in kind, but it is prohibited to pay wages "in a public-
house." Mm ever, the workman who is now paid upon the Track system, has
still an action lor wages, and all wages paid him by Truck are regarded as
nil. Notwithstanding, however, the stringency of the law, the Truck
system still prevails greatly in the iron and mining districts, under different
forms. For instance, a very simple form is this : — Wages are paid monthly in
cash. The men are always requiring advances, which are also paid in
cash. There is a large neighbouring store indirectly connected with the

Midland Tour. 355
•¦^  —  ¦ ¦ - —
Now, there is nothing essentially unjust in this. There is a
little inconvenience as far as the house-rent goes ; but not
much. The tommy is easily turned into money ; and if the
single saving man does experience some trouble in the sale of
his goods, that is compensated for in the more important case
of the married man, whose wife and children generally experi
ence the benefit of this payment in kind. It is, to be sure, a
sorrowful reflection, that such a check upon the drinking pro
pensities of the fathers should be necessary; but the necessity
exists ; and, however sorrowful the fact, the fact, I am assured,
is, that thousands upon thousands of mothers have to bless
this system, though it arises from a loss of trade and the
poverty of the masters. ,
I have often had to observe on the cruel effects of the
suppression of markets and fairs, and on the consequent power
of extortion possessed by the country shop-keepers. And
what a thing it is to reflect on, that these shop-keepers have
the whole of the labouring men of England constantly in their
debt; have, on an average, a mortgage on their wages to the
amount of five or six weeks, and make them pay any price that
they choose to extort. So that, in fact, there is a tommy
system, in every village, the difference being, that the shop
keeper, is the tommy man, instead of the farmer.
The only question is in this case of the manufacturing
tommy work, whether the master charges a higher price than
the shop-keepers would charge ; and, while I have not heard
that the masters do this, I think it improbable that they should.
They must desire to avoid the charge of such extortion ; and
they have little temptation to it; because they buy at best
hand and in large quantities ; because they are sure of their
customers, and know to a certainty the quantity that they want ;
iron works, or mine ; all purchases are made here in cash. The books of
this store, however, show how much each man spends there, andif that
amount does not reach _ certain proportion of his wages, his next
application for an advance is refused, for reasons known to both parties
but not explained : indeed, the rate of wages is adjusted on the profits of
purchases at the store.

356 Midland Tour.

and because the distribution of the goods is a matter of such
perfect regularity, and attended with so little expense, compared
with the expenses of the shop-keeper. Any farmer who has a
parcel of married men working for him, might supply them
with meat for four-pence the pound, when the butcher must
charge them seven-pence, or lose by his trade ; and to me, it
has always appeared astonishing, that farmers (where they
happen to have the power completely in their hands) do not
compel their married labourers, to have a sufficiency of bread
and meat, for their wives and children. What would be more
easy than to reckon what would be necessary for house-rent,
fuel, and clothing ; to pay that in money once a month, or
something of that sort, and to pay the rest in meat, flour, and
malt? I may never occupy a farm again; but if I were to
do it, to any extent, the East and West Indies, nor big brewer,
nor distiller, should ever have one farthing out of the produce
of my farm, except he got it through the throats of those who
made the wearing apparel. If I had a village at my command,
not a tea-kettle should sing in that village : there should be
no extortioner under the name of country shop-keeper, and
no straight-backed, bloated fellow, with red eyes, unshaven
face, and slip-shod till noon, called a publican, and generally
worthy of the name of sinner. Well-covered backs and well-
lined bellies would be my delight; and as to talking about
controlling, and compelling, what a controlling, and compelling
are there now ! It is everlasting control and compulsion. My
bargain should be so much in money, and so much in bread,
meat, and malt.
And what is the bargain, I want to know, with yearly ser
vants ? Why, so much in money and the rest in bread; meat,
beer, lodging and fuel. And does any one affect to say that
this is wrong ? Does any one say, that it is wrong to exercise
control, and compulsion, over these servants ; such control,
and compulsion, is not only the master's right, but they are
included in his bounden duties. It is his duty to make them
rise early, keep good hours, be industrious and careful, be
cleanly in their persons and habits, be civil in their language.

Midland Tour. 357
These are amongst the uses of the means which God has put
into his hands ; and are these means to be neglected towards
married servants, any more than towards single ones ?
Even in the well- cultivated and thickly-settled parts of the
United States of America, it is the general custom, and a
very good custom it is, to pay the wages of labour partly in
money and partly in kind; and this practice is extended to
carpenters, bricklayers, and other workmen about buildings,
and even to tailors, shoemakers, and weavers, who go (a most
excellent custom) to farm-houses to work. The bargain is,
so much money and found ; that is to say, found in food, and
drink, and sometimes in lodging. The money then used to
be, for a common labourer, in Long Island, at common work
(not haying or harvesting), three York shillings a day, and
found ; that is to say, three times seven-pence halfpenny of
our money ; and three times seven-pence halfpenny a day,
which is eleven shillings, and three-pence a week, and found.
This was the wages of the commonest labourer at the com
monest work. And the wages of a good labourer now, in
Worcestershire, is eight shillings a week, and not found. Accord
ingly they are miserably poor and degraded.
Therefore, there is in this mode of payment, nothing essen
tially degrading ; but the tommy system of Staffordshire, and
elsewhere, though not unjust in itself, indirectly inflicts great
injustice on the whole race of shop-keepers, who are neces
sary for the distribution of commodities in great towns, and
whose property is taken away from them by this species of
monopoly, which the employers, of great numbers of men,
have been compelled to adopt for their own safety. It is not
the fault of the masters, who can have no pleasure in making
profit in this way : it is the fault of the taxes, which, by lower
ing the price of their goods, have compelled them to resort to
this means of diminishing their expenses, or to quit their
business altogether, which a great part of them cannot do,
without being left without a penny ; and if a law could be
passed and enforced (which it cannot), to put an end to the
tommy system, the consequence would be, that instead of a

358 Midland Tour.

fourth part of the furnaces being let out of blast in this neigh
bourhood, one-half would be let out of blast, and additional
thousands of poor creatures would be left solely dependent
on parochial relief.
A view of the situation of things at Shrewsbury, will lead
us in a minute to the real cause of the tommy system.
Shrewsbury is one of the most interesting spots that man
ever beheld. It is the capital of the county of Salop, and
Salop appears to have been the original name of the town
itself. It is curiously enclosed by the river Severn, which is
here large and fine, and which, in the form of a horse-shoe,
completely surrounds it, leaving, of the whole of the two
miles round, only one little place whereon to pass in and
out on land. There are two bridges, one on the east, and
the other on the west; the former called the English, and the
other, the Welsh bridge. The environs of this town, especially
on the Welsh side, are the most beautiful that can be con
ceived. The town lies in the midst of a fine agricultural
country, of which it is the great and almost only mart.
Hither come the farmers to sell their produce, and hence they
take, in exchange, their groceries, their clothing, and all the
materials for their implements and the domestic conveniences.
It was fair-day when I arrived at Shrewsbury. Every thing
was on the decline. Cheese, which four years ago sold at
sixty shillings the six-score pounds, would not bring forty.
I took particular pains to ascertain the fact with regard to
the cheese, which is a great article here. I was assured that
shop-keepers in general did not now sell half the quantity of
goods in a month, that they did in that space of time, four or
five years ago. The ironmotigers were not selling a fourth-
part of what they used to sell five years ago.
Now, it is impossible to believe that a somewhat similar
falling off in the sale of iron, must not have taken place all
over the kingdom ; and need we then wonder that the iron in
Staffordshire has fallen, within these five years, from thirteen
pounds to five pounds a ton, or perhaps a great deal more ;
and need we wonder that the iron -masters, who have the same

Midland Tour. 359
rent and taxes to pay that they had to pay before, have re
sorted to the tommy system ; in order to assist in saving
themselves from ruin ! Here is the real cause of the tommy
system ; and if Mr. Littleton really wishes to put an end to it,
let him prevail upon the Parliament to take off taxes to the
amount of forty millions a year.
Another article had experienced a still greater falling off at
Shrewsbury ; I mean the article of corn-sacks, of which there
has been a falling off of five-sixths. The sacks are made by
weavers in the North ; and need we wonder, then, at the low
wages of those industrious people, whom I used to see weaving
sacks in the miserable cellars at Preston !
Here is the true cause of the tommy system, and of all the
other evils which disturb and afflict the country. It is a great
country; an immense mass of industry and resources of all
sorts, breaking up ; a prodigious mass of enterprise and capital
diminishing and dispersing. The enormous taxes co-operat
ing with the Corn-bill, which those taxes have engendered, are
driving skill and wealth out of the country in all directions ;
are causing iron-masters, to make France, and particularly
Belgium, blaze with furnaces, in the lieu of those which have
been extinguished here; and that have established furnaces
and cotton mills in abundance. These same taxes and this
same Corn-bill are sending the long wool from Lincolnshire to
France, there to be made into those blankets, which for ages,
were to be obtained nowhere but in England.
This is the true state of the country, and here are the true
causes of that state ; and all that the corrupt writers and
speakers say about over-population and poor-laws, and about
all the rest of their shuffling excuses, is a heap of nonsense
and of lies.
I cannot quit Shrewsbury without expressing the great
satisfaction that I derived from my visit to that place. It is
the only town into which I have gone in all England, without
knowing, beforehand, something of some person in it. I
could find out no person, that took the Register ; and could
discover but one person who took the Advice lo young Men*

360 Tour in the West.
The number of my auditors was expected to be so small,
that I doubled the price of admission, in order to pay the
expense of the room. To my great surprise, I had a room
full of gentlemen, at the request of some of whom, I repeated
the dose, the next night ; and if my audience were as well
pleased with me as I was with them, their pleasure must have
been great indeed. I saw not one single person in the place
that I had ever seen before ; yet I never had more cordial
shakes by the hand ; in proportion to their numbers not more
at Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Halifax, Leeds, or Not
tingham or even Hull. I was particularly pleased with the
conduct of the young gentlemen at Shrewsbury, and especially
when I asked them, whether they were prepared to act upon
the insolent doctrine of Huskisson, and quietly submit to this
state of things " during the present generation " I

TOUR IN THE WEST. yd July, 183a
Just as I was closing my third Lecture (on Saturday night),
at Bristol, to a numerous and most respectable audience, the
news of the death of George IV. arrived. I had advertised
and made all the preparations for lecturing at Bath on Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday; but, under the circumstances, I
thought it would not be proper to proceed thither, for that
purpose, until after the burial of the King. When that has
taken place, I shall, as soon as may be, return to Bath, taking
Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in my way ; from Bath,
through Somerset, Devon, and into Cornwall; and back
through Dorset, South Wilts, Hants, Sussex, Kent, and then
go into Essex, and, last of all, into my native county of Surrey.
I shall then have seen all England with my own eyes, except
Rutland, Westmoreland, Durham, Cumberland, and Northum
berland ; and these, if I have life and health till next spring,
I shall see, in my way to Scotland. But never shall I see

Progress in the North. 361
another place to interest me, and so pleasing to me, as Bristol
and its environs, taking the whole together. A good and
solid and wealthy city : a people of plain and good manners ;
private virtue and public spirit united; no empty noise, no
insolence, no flattery ; men very much like the Yorkers and
Lancastrians. And, as to the seat of the city and its environs,
it surpasses all that I ever saw. A great commercial city in
the midst of corn-fields, meadows and woods, and the ships
coming into the centre of it, miles from any thing like sea, up
a narrow river, and passing between two clefts of a rock pro
bably a hundred feet high; so that from the top of these
clefts you look down upon the main-top gallant masts of lofty
ships, that are gliding along !

PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
Neuicastle-upon-Tyne, 23 September, 1832.
From Bolton, in Lancashire, I came, through Bury and
Rochdale, to Todmorden, on the evening of Tuesday, the 18th
September. I have formerly described the valley of Todmor
den as the most curious and romantic that was ever seen, and
where the water and the coal seemed to be engaged in a
struggle for getting foremost in point of utility to man. On
the 19th I staid all day at Todmorden to write and to sleep.
On the 20th I set off for Leeds by the stage coach, through
Halifax and Bradford; and as to agriculture, certainly the
poorest country that I have ever set my eyes on, except that
miserable Nova Scotia, where there are the townships of
Horton and of Wilmot, and whither the sensible suckling
statesman, Lord Howick, is wanting to send English country
girls, lest they should breed if they stay in England ! This
country, from Todmorden to Leeds, is, however, covered over
with population/ and the two towns of Halifax and Bradford
are exceedingly populous. There appears to be nothing pro
duced by the earth but the natural grass of the country, which,
however, is- not bad. The soil is a sort of yellow-looking,.

J

62 Progress in the North.

stiffish stuff, lying about a foot thick, upon a bed of rocky
stone, lying upon solid rock beneath. The grass does not
seem to burn here ; nor is it bad in quality ; and all the grass
appears to be wanted to rear milk for this immense population,
that absolutely covers the whole face of the country. The
only grain crops that I saw were those of very miserable oats ;
some of which were cut and carried ; some standing in shock,
the sheaves not being more than about a foot and a half long ;
some still standing, and some yet nearly green. The land is
very high from Halifax to Bradford, and proportionably cold.
Here are some of those " Yorkshire Hills" that they see from
Lancashire and Cheshire.
I got to Leeds about four o'clock, and went to bed at
eight precisely. At five in the morning of the 21st, I came
off by the coach to Newcastle, through Harrowgate, Ripon,
Darlington, and Durham. As I never was in this part of the
country before, and can, therefore, never have described it
upon any former occasion, I shall say rather more about it
now than I otherwise should do. Having heard and read so
much about the " Northern Harvest," about the " Durham
ploughs," and the '• Northumberland system of husbandry,"
what was my surprise at finding, which I verily believe to be
the fact, that there is not as much corn grown in the North-
Riding of Yorkshire, which begins at Ripon, and in the whole
county of Durham, as is grown in the Isle of Wight alone. A
very small part, comparatively speaking, is arable land; and
all the outward appearances show, that that which is arable
was formerly pasture. Between Durham and Newcastle there
is a pretty general division of the land into grass fields and
corn fields; but, even here, the absence of homesteads, the
absence of barns, and of labourers' cottages, clearly show, that
agriculture is a sort of novelty ; and that nearly all was
pasturage not many years ago, or at any rate, only so much of
the land was cultivated as was necessary to furnish straw for
the horses kept for other purposes than those of agriculture,
and oats for those horses, and bread corn sufficient for the
graziers and their people. All along the road from Leeds to

Progress in the North. 363
1 Durham I saw hardly any wheat at all, or any wheat stubble,
no barley, the chief crops being oats and beans mixed with
peas. These everywhere appeared to be what we should
deem most miserable crops. The oats, tied up in sheaves, or
yet uncut, were scarcely ever more than two feet and a half
long, the beans were about the same height, and in both cases
the land so full of grass, as to appear to be a pasture, after
the oats and the beans were cut.
The land appears to be divided into very extensive farms.
The corn, when cut, you see put up into little stacks, of a
circular form, each containing about three of our southern
waggon-loads of sheaves, which stacks are put up round about
the stone house and the buildings of the farmer. How they
thrash them out I do not know, for I could see nothing
resembling a barn, or a barn's door. By the corn being put
into such small stacks, I should suppose the thrashing places
to be very small, and capable of holding only one stack at a
time. I have many times seen one single rick containing a
greater quantity of sheaves than fifteen or twenty of these
stacks; and I have seen more than twenty stacks, each con
taining a number of sheaves equal to, at least, fifteen of these
stacks ; I have seen more than twenty of these large stacks,
standing at one and the same time, in one single homestead
in Wiltshire. I should not at all wonder if Tom Baring's
farmers at Micheldever had a greater bulk of wheat-stacks
standing now than any one would be able to find of that
grain, especially, in the whole of the North Riding of York
shire, and in one half of Durham.
But this by no means implies that these are beggarly
counties, even exclusive of their waters, coals, and mines.
They are not agricultural counties ; they are not counties for
the producing of bread, but they are counties made for the
express purpose of producing meat ; in which respect they
excel the southern counties, in a degree beyond all com
parison. I have just spoken of the beds of grass that are
everywhere seen after the oats and the beans have been cut.
Grass is the natural produce of this land, which seems to have

364 Progress in the North.
been made on purpose to produce it ; and we are not to
call land poor because it will produce nothing but meat.
The size and shape of the fields, the sort of fences, the
absence of all homesteads and labourers' cottages, the thin
ness of the country churches, every thing shows that this was
always a country purely of pasturage. It is curious, that,
belonging to every farm, there appears to be a large quantity
of turnips. They are sowed in drills, cultivated between,
beautifully clean, very large in the bulb, even now, and
apparently having been sowed early in June, if not in May.
They are generally the white globe turnip, here and there
a field of the Swedish kind. These turnips are not fed oft
by sheep and followed by crops of barley and clover, as in
the South, but are raised, I suppose, for the purpose of being
carried in and used in the feeding of oxen, which have come
off the grass lands in October and November. These turnip
lands seem to take all the manure of the farm ; and, as the
reader will perceive, they are merely an adjunct to the pastur
age, serving, during the winter, instead of hay, wherewith to
feed the cattle of various descriptions.
This, then, is not a country of fanners, but a country of
graziers ; a country of pasture, and not a country of the
plough ; and those who formerly managed the land here
were not husbandmen, but herdsmen. Fortescue was, I dare
say, a native of this country ; for he describes England as
a country of shepherds and of herdsmen, not working so very
hard as the people of France did, having more leisure for
contemplation, and, therefore, more likely to form a just
estimate of their rights and duties : and he describes them
as having, at all times, in their houses, plenty of flesh to eat
and plenty of woollen to wear. St Augustine, in writing to
the Pope an account of the character and conduct of his
converts in England, told him that he found the English an
exceedingly good and generous people ; but they had one
fault, their fondness for flesh-meat was so great, and their
resolution to bave it so determined, that he could not get
them to abstain from it, even on the fast-days ; and that he

Progress in the North. 365
was greatly afraid that they would return to their state of
horrible heathenism, rather than submit to the discipline of
the church in this respect The Pope, who had more sense
than the greater part of bishops have ever had, wrote for
answer : " Keep them within the pale of the church at any
' rate, even if they slaughter their oxen in the churchyards :
"let them make shambles of the churches, rather than suffer
"the devil to carry away their souls." The taste of our
fathers was by no means for the potato ; for the " nice mealy
"potato." The Pope himself would not have been able to
induce them to carry " cold potatoes in their bags " to the
ploughfield, as was, in evidence before the special commis
sions, proved to have been the common practice in Hamp
shire and Wiltshire, and which had been before proved by
evidence taken by unfeeling committees of the boroughmonger
House of Commons. Faith ! these old papas of ours would
have burnt up, not only the stacks, but the ground itself.
rather than have lived upon miserable roots, while those who
raised none of the food were eating up all the bread and the
meat Brougham and Birkbeck, and the rest of the Malthusian
crew, are constantly at work preaching content to the hungry
and naked. To be sure, they themselves, however, are not
content to be hungry and naked. Amongst other things,
they tell the working-people that the working-folks, especially
in the North, used to have no bread, except such as was
made of oats and of barley. That was better than potatoes,
even the "nice mealy ones;" especially when carried cold to
the field in a bag. But these literary impostors, these deluders,
as far as they are able to delude ; these vagabond authors,
who thus write and publish for the purpose of persuading the
working-people to be quiet, while they suck luxuries and riches
out of the fruit of their toil ; these literary impostors take care
not to tell the people, that these oat-cakes and this barley-
bread were always associated with great lumps of flesh-meat ;
they forget to tell them this, or rather these half-mad, perverse,

0

66 Progress in the North.

and perverting literary impostors suppress the facts, for reasons
far too manifest to need stating.1
The cattle here are the most beautiful by far that I ever
saw. The sheep are very handsome ; but the horned cattle
are the prettiest creatures that my eyes ever beheld. My sons
will recollect that when they were little boys I took them to
see the " Durham Ox," of which they drew the picture, I dare
say, a hundred times. That was upon a large scale, to be
sure, the model of all these beautiful cattle : short horns,
straight back, a taper neck, very small in proportion where it
joints on the small and handsome head, deep dewlap, small-
boned in the legs, hoop-ribbed, square hipped, tail slender.
A great part of them are white, or approaching very nearly to
white : they all appear to be half fat, cows and oxen and all ;
and the meat from them is said to be, and I believe it is, as
fine as that from Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, Romney Marsh,
or Pevensey Level ; and I am ready, at any time, to swear,
if need be, that one pound of it fed upon this grass is worth
more, to me at least, than any ten pounds or twenty pounds
fed upon oil-cake, or the stinking stuff of distilleries ; aye, or
even upon turnips. This is all grass-land, even from Stafford
shire to this point. In its very nature it produces grass
that fattens. The little producing-land that there is even in
Lancashire and the West-Riding of Yorkshire, produces grass
that would fatten an ox, though the land be upon the tops of
hills. Everywhere, where there is a sufficiency of grass,
it will fatten an ox ; and well do we Southern people know,

1 Lord Brougham was frequently the object of the Author's keenest satire,
being styled " the shallow and noisy man," " bawler," " barker," " ramper,"
and "swamper," the two latter sobriquets applying to the circumstance of
Brougham, after thrusting himself into office, shortly afterwards (by his
fierce crusade against the pauper) bringing his party into a great dilemma.
The strong dislike which Cobbett entertained for Brougham, arose from
reasons of a personal nature. Brougham charged Cobbett ' ' with direct
incitements to the invasion of private property," to plunder, and to
incendiarism, and indeed he appeared to take every opportunity for speaking
vindictively of him. At the same time, no one had a greater dread of the
Author's lash in the Register than Brougham.

Progress in the North. 367
that, except in mere vales and meadows, we have no land
that will do this; we know that we might put an ox up to his
eyes in our grass, and that it would only just keep him from
growing worse : we know that we are obliged to have turnips,
and meal, and cabbages, and parsnips, and potatoes, and then,
with some of our hungry hay for them to pick their teeth with,
we make shift to put fat upon an ox.
Yet, so much are we like the beasts which, in the fable,
came before Jupiter to ask him to endow them with faculties
incompatible with their divers frames, and divers degrees of
strength, that we, in this age of " waust improvements, Ma'am,"
are always hankering after laying fields down in pasture, in
the South, while these fellows in the North, as if resolved to
rival us in " improvement " and perverseness, must needs
break up their pasture-lands, and proclaim defiance to the
will of Providence, and, instead of rich pasture, present to the
eye of the traveller half green starveling oats and peas, some
of them in blossom in the last week of September. The land,
itself, the earth, of its own accord, as if resolved to vindicate
the decrees of its Maker, sends up grass under these miserable
crops, as if to punish them for their intrusion ; and, when the
crops are off, there comes a pasture, at any rate, in which the
grass, like that of Herefordshire and Lincolnshire, is not (as
it is in our Southern countries), mixed with weeds ; but,
standing upon the ground as thick as the earth can bear it,
and fattening everything that eats of it, it forbids the perverse
occupier to tear it to pieces. Such is the land of this country ;
all to the North of Cheshire, at any rate, leaving out the
East-Riding of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, which are adapted
for corn in some spots and for cattle in others.
These Yorkshire and Durham cows are to be seen in great
numbers in and about London, where they are used for the
purpose of giving milk, of which I suppose they give great
•quantities ; but it is always an observation that, if you have
these cows, you must keep them exceedingly well: and this is
very true ; for, upon the food which does very well for the
common cows of Hampshire and Surrey, they would dwindle

368 Progress in the North.
away directly and be good for nothing at all ; and these sheep,
which are as beautiful as even imagination could make them,
so round and so loaded with flesh, would actually perish
upon those downs and in those folds where our innumerable
flocks not only live but fatten so well, and with such facility
are made to produce us such quantities of fine mutton and
such bales of fine wool. There seems to be something in
the soil and climate, and particularly in the soil, to create
everywhere a sort of cattle and of sheep fitted to it ; Dorset
shire, and Somersetshire, have sheep different from all others,
and the nature of which, it is to have their lambs in the fall,
instead of having them in the spring. I remember when I
was amongst the villages on the Cotswold-hills, in Gloucester
shire, they showed me their sheep in several places, which
are a stout big-boned sheep. They told me that many
attempts had been made to cross them, with the small-
boned Leicester breed, but that it had never succeeded,
and that the race always got back to the Cotswold breed
immediately. Before closing these rural remarks, I cannot help calling to
the mind of the reader an observation of Lord John Scott
Eldon, who, at a time when there was a great complaint
about " agricultural distress " and about the fearful increase of
the poor-rates, said, " that there was no such distress in
"Northumberland, and no such increase of the poor-rates:"
and so said my dignitary, Dr. Black, at the same time : and
this, this wise lord, and this not less wise dignitary of mine,
ascribed to "the bad practice of the farmers o' the Sooth
"paying the labourers their wages out of the poor-rates, which
"was not the practice in the North." I thought that they
were telling what the children call stories ; but I now find that
these observations of theirs arose purely from that want of
knowledge of the country, which was, and is, common to them
both. Why, Lord John, there are no such persons here as
we call farmers, and no such persons as we call farm-labourers.
From Cheshire to Newcastle, I have never seen one single
labourer's cottage by the side of the road! Oh, Lord ! if the

Progress in the North. 369
good people of this country could but see the endless strings
of vine-covered cottages and flower-gardens of the labourers of
Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and Hampshire ;' if they could go down
the vale of the Avon in Wiltshire, from Marlborough Forest
to the city of Salisbury, and there see thirty parish churches
in a distance of thirty miles ; if they could go up from that
city of Salisbury up the valley of Wylly to Warminster, and
there see one-and-thirty churches in the space of twenty-seven
miles ; if they could go upon the top of the down, as I did,
not far (I think it was) from St. Mary Cotford, and there have
under the eye, in the valley below, ten parish churches within
the distance of eight miles, see the downs covered with innumer
able flocks of sheep, water meadows running down the middle
of the valley, while the sides rising from it were covered with
corn, sometimes a hundred acres of wheat in one single piece,
while the stack-yards were still well stored from the previous
harvest; if John Scott Eldon's countrymen could behold these
things, their quick-sightedness would soon discover why poor-
rates should have increased in the South and not in the North ;
and, though their liberality would suggest an apology for my
dignitary, Dr. Black, who was freighted to London in a smack ;
and has ever since been impounded in the Strand, relieved
now and then by an excursion to Blackheath or Clapham
Common; to find an apology, for their countryman, Lord John,
would be putting their liberality to an uncommonly severe
test; for he, be it known to them, has chosen his country
abode, not in the Strand, like my less-informed dignitary, Dr.
Black, nor in his native regions in the North ; but has, in the
beautiful county of Dorset, amidst valleys arid downs precisely
like those of Wiltshire, got as near to the sun as he could
possibly get, and there, from the top of his mansion, he can
see a score of churches, and from his lofty and ever-green
downs, and from his fat valleys beneath, he annually sends
bis flocks of long-tailed ewes to Appleshaw fair, thence to be
sold to all the southern parts of the kingdom, having L. E.
marked upon their beautiful wool ; and, like the two factions
atMaidstone,.all tarred with the same brush.' It is curious,
vor,. 11. 2 A

Progress in the North.

too, notwithstanding the old maxim, that we all try to get as
nearly as possible in our old age, to the spot whence we first
sprang. Lord John's brother William (who has some title that
I have forgotten) has taken up his quarters on the healthy and
I say beautiful Cotswold of Gloucestershire, where, in going in
a postchaise from Stowe-in-the-Wold to Cirencester, I thought
I should never get by the wall of his park ; and I exclaimed
to Mr. Dean, who was along with me, "Curse this Northum
brian ship-broker's son, he has got one half of the county;''
and then all the way to Cirencester I was explaining to Mr.
Dean how the man had got his money, at which Dean, who is a
Roman Catholic, seemed to me to be ready to cross himself
several times.
No, there is no apology for Lord John's observations on
the difference between the poor-rates of the South and the
North. To go from London to his country-houses he must
go across Surrey and Hampshire, along one of the vales of
Wiltshire, and one of the vales of Dorsetshire, in which
latter county he has many a time seen in one single large
field a hundred wind-rows (stacks made in the field in order
that the corn may get quite dry before it be put into great
stacks) ; he has many a time seen, on one farm, two or three
hundred of these, each of which was very nearly as big as
the stacks which you see in the stack-yards of the North
Riding of Yorkshire and of Durham, where a large farm seldom
produces more than ten or a dozen of these stacks, and where
the farmer's property consists of his cattle and sheep, and
where little, very little, agricultural labour is wanted. Lord
John ought to have known the cause of the great difference,
and not to have suffered such nonsense to come out of a
head covered with so very large a wig.
I looked with particular care on the sides of the road all
the way through Yorkshire and Durham. The distance,
altogether, from Oldham in Lancashire, to Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, is about a hundred and fifty miles ; and, leaving out
the great towns, I did not see so many churches, as are to be
seen in any twenty miles, of any of the valleys of Wiltshire.

Progress in the North. 371
All these things prove that these are by nature counties of
pasturage, and that they were formerly used solely for that
purpose. It is curious that there are none of those lands
here which we call " meadows." The rivers run in deep beds,
and have generally very steep sides ; no little rivulets and
occasional overflowings that make the meadows in the South,
which are so very beautiful, but the grass in which is not of
the rich nature that the grass is in these counties in the
North : it will produce milk enough, but it will not produce
beef. It is hard to say which part of the country is the most
valuable gift of God ; but every one must see how perverse
and injurious it is, to endeavour to produce in the one, that
which nature has intended to confine to the other. After all
the unnatural efforts that have been made here to ape the
farming of Norfolk and Suffolk, it is only playing at farming,
as stupid and "loyal" parents used to set their children to
play ai soldiers during the last war.
If any of these sensible men of Newcastle were to see the
farming in the South Downs, and to see, as I saw in the
month of July last, four teams of large oxen, six in a team,
all ploughing in one field in preparation for wheat, and several
pairs of horses, in the same field, dragging, harrowing, and
rolling, and had seen on the other side of the road from five
to six quarters of wheat, standing upon the acre, and from
nine to ten quarters of oats, standing along side of it, each
of the two fields from fifty to a hundred statute acres ; if any
of Ihese sensible men of Newcastle could see these things,
they would laugh at the childish work that they see going on
here under the name of farming ; the very sight would make
them feel how imperious is the duty on the lawgiver to
prevent distress from visiting the fields, and to take care that
those whose labour produced all the food and all the raiment,
shall not be fed upon potatoes and covered with rags ; con
templating the important effects of their labour, each man of
them could say, as I said when this mean and savage faction
had me at my trial, " I would see all these labourers hanged,

37 2 Progress in the North.
" and be hanged along with them, rather than see them live
" upon potatoes." l Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 24 September, 1832.
Since writing the above I have had an opportunity of
receiving information from a very intelligent gentleman of
this county, who tells me, that in Northumberland there are
some lands which bear very heavy crops of wheat; that the
agriculture in this county is a great deal better than it is
farther south ; that, however, it was a most lamentable thing,
that the paper-money price of corn tempted so many men to
break up these fine pastures ; that the turf thus destroyed,
cannot be restored probably in a whole century ; that the land
does not now, with present prices, yield a clear profit, any
thing like what it would have yielded in the pasture ; and
that thus was destroyed the goose with the golden eggs. Just so
was it with regard to the downs in the south and the west of
England, where there are hundreds of thousands of acres,
where the turf was the finest in the world, broken up for the
sake of the paper-money prices, but now left to be downs
again ; and which will not be downs for more than a century
to come. Thus did this accursed paper-money cause even
the fruitful qualities of the earth to be anticipated, and thus
was the soil made worth less than it was before the accursed
1 The Author refers here to his last prosecution, by the Whig Government
in 1831, for libel. Although in his seventieth year, he defended himself
with marvellous ability. His speech occupied several hours. No one was
spared. Even the Cabinet Ministers (who were seated before him) were
severely taken to task for their perfidy towards the people ; and he wound
up his address in these words : — " The Whigs know that my intention is not
bad. This is a mere pretence to indict pecuniary ruin on me, or to cause
me to die in jail, so that they may get rid of me, for they can neither buy,
nor silence me. In that object they will be defeated ; for (thank Heaven)
you stand between me and destruction. If, however, your verdict should
be (which I do not anticipate) one that will consign me to death by con.
signing me to a loathsome dungeon, I will, with my last breath, pray to
God, to bless my country and to curse the Whigs, and I bequeath my
revenge to my children and the labourers of England." The result of the
trial was that he was acquitted ; and from that day (31 July 1831) the press
of England has been free from political persecution.

Progress in the North. 373
invention appeared : This gentleman told me, that, this break
ing up of the pasture-land in this country had made the land,
though covered again with artificial grasses, unhealthy for
sheep ; and he gave as an instance the facts, that three
farmers purchased a hundred and fifty sheep each, out of the
same flock ; that two of them, who put their sheep upon
these recently broken-up lands, lost their whole flocks by the
rot, with the exception of four, in the one case, and four, in
the other, out of the three hundred : and that the third farmer,
who put his sheep upon the old pastures, and kept them
there, lost not a single sheep out of the hundred and fifty I
These, ever accursed paper-money, are amongst thy destruc
tive effects !
I shall now, laying aside for the present these rural affairs,
turn to the politics of this fine, opulent, solid, beautiful, and
important town; but as this would compel me to speak of
particular transactions and particular persons, and as this
Register will come back to Newcastle before I am likely to
quit it, the reader will see reasons quite sufficient for my
refraining to go into matters of this sort, until the next
Register, which will in all probability be dated from Edinburgh.
While at Manchester, I received an invitation to lodge
while here, at the house of a friend, of whom I shall have to
speak more fully hereafter ; but every demonstration of respect
and kindness met me at the door of the coach in which I
came from Leeds, on Friday, the 21st September. In the
early part of Saturday, the 22d, a deputation waited upon me
with an address. Let the readers, in my native county and
parish, remember, that I am now at the end of thirty years of
calumnies, poured out incessantly upon me from the poisonous
mouths and pens, of three hundred mercenary villains, called
newspaper editors and reporters ; that 1 have written and pub
lished more than three hundred volumes in those thirty years ;
and that more than a thousand volumes (chiefly paid for out
of the taxes) have been written and published for the sole
purpose of impeding the progress of these truths that dropped
from my pen ; that my whole life has been a life of sobriety

;74 Progress in tiie North.

and labour; that I have invariably shown that I loved and
honoured my country, and that I preferred its greatness and
happiness far beyond my own ; that, at four distinct periods, I
might have rolled in wealth derived from the public money,
which I always refused in any way to touch; that, for
having thwarted this Government in its wastefulness of the
public resources, and particularly for my endeavours to pro
duce that Reform of the Parliament which the Government
itself has at last been compelled to resort to ; that, for having
acted this zealous and virtuous part, I have been twice stripped
of all my earnings by the acts of this Government; once
lodged in a felon's jail for two years, and once driven into
exile for two years and a half; and that, after all, here I am
on a spot within a hundred miles of which I never was before
in my life ; and here I am receiving the unsolicited applause
of men amongst the most intelligent in the whole kingdom,
and the names of some of whom have been pronounced
accompanied with admiration, even to the southernmost edge
of the kingdom. Hexham, I Oct., 1832.
I left Morpeth this morning pretty early, to come to this
town, which lies on the banks of the Tyne, at thirty-four miles
distant from Morpeth, and at twenty distant from Newcastle.
Morpeth is a great market-town, for cattle especially. It is a
solid old town ; but it has the disgrace of seeing an enormous
new jail rising up in it. From cathedrals and monasteries we
are come to be proud of our jails, which are built in the
grandest style, and seemingly as if to imitate the Gothic
architecture. From Morpeth to within about four miles of Hexham, the
land is but very indifferent ; the farms of an enormous extent.
I saw in one place more than a hundred corn-stacks in one
yard, each having from six to seven Surrey waggon-loads of
sheaves in a stack ; and not another house to be seen within
a mile or two of the farm-house. There appears to be no
such thing as barns, but merely a place to take in a stack at

Progress in the North. 375
a time, and thrash it out by a machine. The country seems
to be almost wholly destitute of people. Immense tracks of
corn-land, but neither cottages nor churches. There is here
and there a spot of good land, just as in the deep valleys that I
crossed ; but, generally speaking, the country is poor ; and its
bleakness is proved by the almost total absence of the oak
tree, of which we see scarcely one, all the way from Morpeth
to Hexham. Very few trees of any sort, except in the bottom
of the warm valleys ; what there are, are chiefly the ash, which
is a very hardy tree, and will live and thrive where the oak
will not grow at all, which is very curious, seeing that it comes
out into leaf so late in the spring, and sheds its foliage so
early in the fall. The trees, which stand next in point of
hardiness, are the sycamore, the beech, and the birch, which are
all seen here ; but none of them fine. The ash is the most
common tree, and even it flinches upon the hills, which it
never does in the South. It has generally become yellow in
the leaf already ; and many of the trees are now bare of leaf
before any frost has made its appearance.
The cattle all along here are of a coarse kind; the cows
swag-backed and badly shaped ; Kiloe oxen, except in the
dips of good land by the sides of the bourns which I crossed.
Nevertheless, even here, the fields of turnips, of both sorts,
are very fine. Great pains seem to be taken in raising the
crops of these turnips : they are all cultivated in rows, are
kept exceedingly clean, and they are carried in, as winter
food, for all the animals of a farm, the horses excepted.
As I approached Hexham, which, as the reader knows,
was formerly the seat of a famous abbey, and the scene of a
not less famous battle, and was, indeed, at one time, the see
of a bishop, and which has now churches of great antiquity
and cathedral-like architecture 1 as I approached this town,
1 At the time the See of Newcastle was erected (1882) the question was
raised Whether the seat of the new Bishopric, should be Hexham, or
Newcastle. The claim of the former town, rested upon the fact, that it
had already been the seat of an ancient see, which was founded A.D. 678,
and that ten bishops successively had occupied it (the last prelate having

376 Progress in the North.
along a valley down which runs a small river that soon after
empties itself into the Tyne, the land became good, the ash
trees more lofty, and green as in June ; the other trees pro-
portionably large and fine ; and when I got down into the
vale of Hexham itself, there I found the oak tree, certain
proof of a milder atmosphere ; for the oak, though amongst
the hardest woods, is amongst the tenderest of plants known
as natives of our country. Here everything assumes a different
appearance. The Tyne, the southern and northern branches
of which, meet a few miles above Hexham, runs close by this
ancient and celebrated town, all round which, the ground rises
gradually away towards the hills, crowned here and there,
with the remains of those castles, which were formerly found
necessary for the defence of this rich and valuable valley,
which, from tip of hill to tip of hill, varies, perhaps, from four
to seven miles wide, and which contains as fine corn-fields as
those of Wiltshire, and fields of turnips, of both kinds, the
largest, finest, and best cultivated, that my eyes ever beheld.
As a proof of the goodness of the land and the mildness of
the climate here, there is, in the grounds of the gentleman who
had the kindness to receive and to entertain me (and that in
a manner which will prevent me from ever forgetting either
him or his most amiable wife) ; there is, standing in his ground,
about an acre of my corn, which will ripen perfectly well ; and,
in the same grounds, which, together with the kitchen-garden,
and all the appurtenances belonging to a house, and the house
itself, are laid out, arranged, and contrived, in a manner so
judicious, and to me so original, as to render them objects of
great interest, though, in general, I set very little value on the
things which appertain merely to the enjoyments of the rich.
In these same grounds (to come back again to the climate),
been consecrated to it a.d. 810). The western end of its old Priory Church,
still exhibits the remains of the magnificent monastery erected in the seventh
century by S. Wilfred. The population of the town, however, is small.
Notwithstanding these circumstances, the claims of Newcastle predominated,
with its population of 200,000, and its world-renowned trade in coal, iron,
steel, and lead. A worthy son of the great Bishop Wilberforcc, has been
consecrated the first Bishop of Newcastle.

Progress in the North. $77
I perceived that the rather tender evergreens not only lived,
but throve perfectly well, and (a criterion infallible), the
biennial stocks stand the winter without any covering, or any
pains taken to shelter them ; which, as every one knows, is
by no means always the case, even at Kensington and
Fulham. At night I gave a lecture at' an inn, at Hexham, in the
midst of the domains of that impudent and stupid man, Mr.
Beaumont, who, not many days before, in what he called a
speech, I suppose, made at Newcastle, thought proper, as
was reported in the newspapers, to utter the following words
with regard to me, never having, in his life, received the
slightest provocation for so doing. "The liberty of the
"press had nothing to fear from the Government. It was
"the duty of the administration to be upon their guard to
" prevent extremes. There was a crouching servility on the
"one hand, and an excitement to disorganization and to
" licentiousness on the other, which ought to be discounten
anced. The company, he believed, as much disapproved
"of that political traveller, who was now going through the
"country — he meant Cobbett— as they detested the servile
"effusions of the Tories." Beaumont, in addition to his
native stupidity and imbecility, might have been drunk when
he said this, but the servile wretch who published it, was not
drunk; and, at any rate, Beaumont was my mark, it not
being my custom to snap at the stick, but at the cowardly
hand that wields it.
Such a fellow cannot be an object of what is properly called
vengeance with any man who is worth a straw ; but, I say, with
Swift, "If a. flea or a bug bite me, I will kill it if I can;"
and, acting upon that principle, I, being at Hexham, put my
foot, upon this contemptible creeping thing, who is offering
himself as a canditate for the southern division of the county,
being so eminently fitted to be a maker of the laws !
The newspapers have told the whole country that Mr. John
Ridley, who is a tradesman at Hexham, and occupies some
land close by, has made a stand against the demand for tithes;

378 Progress in the North.
— — — ~— ""—^ — ,
and that the tithe-owner recently broke open, in the night,
the gate of his field, and carried away what he deemed to be
the tithe ; that Mr. Ridley applied to the magistrates, who
could only refer him to a court of law to recover damages for
the trespass. When I arrived at Hexham, I found this to be
the case. I further found that Beaumont, that impudent, silly
and slanderous Beaumont, is" the lay-owner of the tithes in,
and round about, Hexham ; he being, in a right line, doubt
less, the heir or successor of the abbot and monks of the
Abbey of Hexham ; or, the heir of the donor, Egfrid, king of
Northumberland. I found that Beaumont had leased out his
tithes to middle men, as is the laudable custom with the pious
bishops and clergy of the law-church in Ireland.

North Shields, 2d Oct., 1832.
These sides of the Tyne are very fine : corn-fields, woods,
pastures, villages ; a church every four miles, or thereabouts ;
cows and sheep beautiful; oak trees, though none very large;
and, in short, a fertile and beautiful country, wanting only the
gardens and the vine-covered cottages, that so beautify the
counties in the South and the West. All the buildings are of
stone. Here are coal-works and railways every now and then.
The working people seem to be very well off; their dwellings
solid and clean, and their furniture good ; but the little
gardens and orchards are wanting. The farms are all large ;
and the people who work on them, either live in the farm
house, or in buildings appertaining to the farm-house ; and
they are all well fed, and have no temptation to acts like
those which sprang up out of the ill-treatment of the labourers
in the South. Besides, the mere country people are so few
in number, the state of society is altogether so different, that
a man who has lived here, all his life-time, can form no judg
ment at all, with regard to the situation, the wants, and the
treatment of the working people in the counties of the South.
They have begun to make a rail-way from Carlisle to New
castle ; and I saw them at work at it as I came along. There

Progress in the North. 379
are great lead mines not far from Hexham ; and I saw a great
number of little one-horse carts, bringing down the pigs of lead
to the point where the Tyne becomes navigable to Newcastle ;
and sometimes I saw loads of these pigs lying by the road?
side, as you see parcels of timber lying in Kent and Sussex,
and other timber counties. No fear of their being stolen :
their weight is their security, together with their value, com
pared with that of the labour of carrying. Hearing that
Beaumont was, somehow or other, connected with this lead-
work, I had got it into my head that he was a pig of lead
himself, and half expected to meet with him, amongst these
groups of his fellow-creatures ; but, upon inquiry, I found
that some of the lead-mines belonged to him ; descending;
probably, in that same right line in which the tithes descended
to him ; and, as the Bishop of Durham is said to be the owner
of great lead-mines, Beaumont, and the bishop, may possibly
be in the same boat with regard to the subterranean estate as
well as that upon the surface ; and, if this should be the case,
it will, I verily believe, require all the piety of the bishop, and
all the wisdom of Beaumont, to keep the boat above water,
for another five years. North Shields, %d Oct., 1832.
I lectured at South Shields last evening, and here this
evening. I came over the river from South Shields about
eleven o'clock last night, and made a very firm bargain with
myself, never to do the like again. This evening, after my
lecture was over, some gentlemen presented an address to me
upon the stage, before the audience, accompanied with the
valuable and honourable present, of the late Mr. Eneas
Mackenzie's History of the County of Northumberland ; a very
interesting work, worthy of every library in the kingdom.
From Newcastle to Morpeth ; from Morpeth to Hexham ;
and then all the way down the Tyne; though, everywhere
such abundance of fine turnips, and, in some cases of mangel-
wurzel, you see scarcely any potatoes ; a certain sign that the
working people, do not live like hogs. This root is raised in

i8o

Progress in the North.

Northumberland and Durham, to be used merely as garden
stuff; and, used in that way, it is very good; the contrary
of which, I never thought, much less did I ever say it. It is
the using of it, as a substitute for bread and for meat, that I
have deprecated it ; and when the Irish poet, Dr. Drennen,
called it " the lazy root, and the root of misery," he gave it its
true character. Sir Charles Wolseley, who has travelled a great
deal in France, Germany, and Italy, and who, though Scott
Eldon scratched him out of the commission of the peace, and
though the sincere patriot Brougham, will not put him in
again, is a very great and accurate observer as to these in
teresting matters, has assured me, that, in whatever proportion
the cultivation of potatoes prevails in those countries, in that
same proportion the working-people are wretched.1
From this degrading curse ; from sitting round a dirty board,
with potatoes trundled out upon it, as the Irish do ; from going

1 Notice has already been taken respecting "potatoes (as a staple of
food) affecting the population." It may, however, be well to supply here
a short statement (from Mulhall's statistics) showing the quantity of potatoes
grown in different countries. : —

Italy and Spain . . .
Holland and Belgium
United States ....

Thousands Omitted.

lb*, per
Inhabitant.

Acres.

Tons.

400 189
854
3,2O0 6,8003,5°°3,100 4S° 75° 560
1,900

I.4O0 665
2,9709.SOO
21,300 8.IOO 9,2O0 1,120
2,80O 1.75°
3.50O

120
390
1,320 55°
1,060 5IO250 55
580
460 150

The potato was brought to Ireland from Virginia by Sir John Hawkins
AD. 1565; to England by Sir Francis Drake A.D. 1585, but without
attracting much notice. It was for the third time imported from America
by Sir Walter Raleigh about 1610.

Progress in the North. 38 1
to the field with cold potatoes in their bags, as the working-
people of Hampshire and Wiltshire did, but which they have
not done since the appearance of certain coruscations, which,
to spare the feelings of the "Lambs, the Broughams, the
Greys, and the Russells," and their dirty bill-of-indictment-
drawer Denman, I will not describe, much less will I eulogise ;
from this degrading curse, the county of Northumberland is
yet happily free ! Sunderland, 4th Oct. 1 832.
This morning I left North Shields in a post-chaise, in order
to come hither through Newcastle and Gateshead, this affording
me the only opportunity that I was likely to have of seeing a
plantation of Mr. Annorer Donkin, close in the neighbourhood
of Newcastle ; which plantation had been made according to
the method prescribed in my book, called the " Woodlands ; "
and to see which plantation I previously communicated a
request to Mr. Donkin. That gentleman received me in a
manner which will want no describing to those who have had
the good luck to visit Newcastle. The plantation is most
advantageously circumstanced to furnish proof of the excel
lence of my instructions as to planting. The predecessor of
Mr. Donkin also made plantations upon the same spot, and
consisting precisely of the same sort of trees. The two plan
tations are separated from each other merely by a road going
through them. Those of the predecessor have been made six-
and-twenty years ; those of Mr. Donkin six years ; and, incred
ible as it may appear, the trees in the latter are full as lofty as
those in the former; and besides the equal loftiness, are vastly
superior in point of shape, and, which is very curious, retain
all their freshness at this season of the year, while the old
plantations are brownish, and many of the leaves falling off the
trees, though the sort of trees is precisely the same. As a
sort of reward for having thus contributed to this very rational
source of his pleasure, Mr. Donkin was good enough to give
me an elegant copy of the Fables of the celebrated Bewick,
who was once a native of Newcastle and an honour to the

382 Progress in the North.
town, and whose books I had had, from the time that my
children began to look at books, until taken from me by that
sort of rapine, which I had to experience, at the time of my
memorable flight across the Atlantic, in order to secure the
use of that long arm which I caused to reach them from Long*"
Island, to London.
In Mr. Donkin's kitchen-garden (my eyes being never
closed in such a scene), I saw what I had never seen before
in any kitchen-garden, and which it may be very useful to
some of my readers to have described to them. Wall-fruit
is, when destroyed in the spring, never destroyed by dry-cold;
but ninety-nine times out of a hundred, by wet-frosts, which
descend always perpendicularly, and which are generally fatal
if they come between the expansion of the blossom and the
setting of the fruit ; that is to say, if they come after the bloom
is quite open, and before it has disentangled itself from the
fruit. The great thing, therefore, in getting wall-fruit, is to
keep off these frosts. The French make use of boards, in the
neighbourhood of Paris, projecting from the tops of the walls
and supported by poles ; and some persons contrive to have
curtains to come over the whole tree at night and to be drawn
up in the morning. Mr. Donkin's walls have a top of stone;
and this top, or cap, projects about eight inches beyond the
face of the wall, which is quite sufficient to guard against the
wet-frosts which always fall perpendicularly. This is a country
of stone to be sure ; but those who can afford to build walls
for the purpose of having wall-fruit, can afford to cap them in
this manner : to rear the wall, plant the trees, and then to
save the expense of the cap, is really like the old proverbial
absurdity, " of losing the ship for the sake of saving a penny
worth of tar."
At Mr. Donkin's I saw a portrait of Bewick, which is said
to be a great likeness, and which, though imagination goes a
great way in such a case, really bespeaks that simplicity,
accompanied with that genius, which distinguished the man.
Mr. Wm. Armstrong was kind enough to make me a present
of a copy of the last performance of this so justly celebrated

Progress in the North. 383
man. It is entitled " Waits for Death" exhibiting a poor old
horse just about to die, and preceded by an explanatory
writing, which does as much honour to the heart of Bewick as
the whole of his designs put together do to his genius. The
sight of the picture, the reading of the preface to it, and the
fact that it was the last effort of the man ; altogether make it
difficult to prevent tears from starting from the eyes of any
one not uncommonly steeled with insensibility.1
You see nothing here that is pretty ; but everything seems
to be abundant in value ; and one great thing is, the working
people live well. Theirs is not a life of ease to be sure, but
it is not a life of hunger. The pitmen have twenty-four shil
lings a week ; they live rent-free, their fuel costs them nothing,
and their doctor costs them nothing. Their work is terrible, to
be sure ; and, perhaps, they do not have what they ought to
have ; but, at any rate, they live well, their houses are good
and their furniture good ; and though they live not in a beauti
ful scene, they are in the scene where they were born, and
their lives seem to be as good as that of the working part of
mankind can reasonably expect. Almost the whole of the
•country hereabouts is owned by that curious thing, called the
Dean and Chapter of Durham. Almost the whole of South
Shields is theirs, granted upon leases with fines at stated
periods. This Dean and Chapter are the lords of the Lords,
Londonderry, with all his huffing and strutting, is but a tenant
of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, who souse him so often
with their fines that it is said that he has had to pay them,
more than a hundred thousand pounds, within the last ten or
twelve years. What will Londonderry bet that he is not the
tenant of the public before this day five years ? 1'here would
be no difficulty in these cases, but on the contrary a very great
1 Thomas Bewick, a native of Cherryburn, near Newcastle, was an
engraver of great art. He illustrated Gay's Fables (probably the work to
which reference is here made), and obtained for one of the cuts — " The Old
Hound" — the prize of the Society of Arts (a.d. 1775). Subsequently he
published " A History of British Birds." His last work (as an engraver) was
called " Waiting for Death," and represents an old worn-out horse, which is
an universal favourite. He died in 1828.

384 Progress in the North.
convenience; because all these tenants of the Dean ard
Chapter might then purchase out-and-out, and make that
property freehold, which they now hold by a tenure so uncer
tain and so capricious. Alnwick, Jlh Oct., 1832.
From Sunderland I came, early in the morning of the 5th
of October, once more (and I hope not for the last time) to
Newcastle, there to lecture on the paper-money, which I did,
in the evening. But before I proceed further, I must record
something that I heard at Sunderland respecting that babbling
fellow Trevor ! My readers will recollect the part which this
fellow acted with regard to the " liberal Whig prosecution ; "
they will recollect that it was he who first mentioned the thing
in the House of Commons, and suggested to the wise Ministers
the propriety of prosecuting me ; that Lord Althorp and
Denham hummed and ha'd about it; that the latter had not
read it, and that the former would offer no opinion upon it ;
that Trevor came on again, encouraged by the works of the
curate of Crowhurst,1 and by the old Times, whose former
editor and now printer, is actually a candidate for Berkshire 3

1 The last prosecution of Mr. Cobbett by the Whig Government, for
political libel, was brought about by Mr. Trevor, M.P. for New Romney,
Kent. He drew the attention of the House to the Register of nth
December 1830, which, he said, "contained a malicious libel on the
authorities of the State, and _ gross and unwarrantable attack on the
members of the Church by law established." Mr. Trevor moved a motion
on the subject, and a discussion ensued, but it was ultimately agreed to
leave the matter to the discretion of the Ministers. The curate of Crowhurst,
to whom reference is here made, was reported, by the Times newspaper, to
have received the confession of Thomas Goodman, a Sussex labourer, who
was sentenced to death tor arson, but was afterwards respited. The
confession (which was a clumsy forgery) attributed the commission of his
crime to Cobbett's teaching.
* Mr. John Walter, the original founder of The Times newspaper, was a
London printer, and the publisher, in 1785, of the Daily Universal Register,
which he continued to publish until 1788. Then he changed the name of
his paper to The Times. His son, Mr. John Walter, junior, became sole
manager in 1803. It is this latter gentleman, to whom the Author is here
referring. The representation of Berks, still remains in the same family.
In 1814, steam was first used for working the printing press in the

Progress in the. North. 385
supported by that unprincipled political prattler, Jepthah
Marsh, whom I will call to an account as soon as I get back
to the South. My readers will further recollect that the old
Times then put forth another document as a confession of
Goodman, made to Burrell, Tredcroft, and Scawen Blunt,
while the culprit was in Horsham jail with a halter actually
about his neck. My readers know the result of this affair ; but
they have yet to learn some circumstances belonging to its
progress, which circumstances are not to be stated here. They
recollect, however, that from the very first I treated this
Trevor with the utmost disdain; and that at the head of
the articles which I wrote about him, I put these words,
"TREVOR AND POTATOES ; " meaning that he hated me
because I was resolved, fire or not fire, that working men
should not live upon potatoes in my country. Now, mark ;
now, chopsticks of the South, mark the sagacity, the justice,
¦the promptitude, and the excellent taste of these lads of the
North ! At the last general election, which took place after
the " liberal Whig prosecution " had been begun, Trevor was
a candidate for the city of Durham, which is about fourteen
miles from this busy town of Sunderland. The freemen of
Durham are the voters in that city, and some of these freemen
reside at Sunderland. Therefore, this fellow (I wish to G 
you could see him !) went to Sunderland to canvass these free
men residing there ; and they pelted him out of the town ; and
(oh appropriate missiles !) pelted him out with the "accursed
root," hallooing and shouting after him — " Trevor and
potatoes I" Ah! stupid coxcomb ! little did he imagine, when
he was playing his game with Althorp and Denman, what
would be the ultimate effect of that game !
From Newcastle to Morpeth (the country is what I before

publication, of The Times. The Times has always boasted of its being able,
by means of its wonderful organisation, to give to the public the earliest
" foreign " news. On two occasions recently, however, it has been the victim
of a cruel hoax. Perhaps in the matter referred to — viz., the publication of
the dying confession of Thomas Goodman — The Times was equally " unfor
tunate" in its "home news."
VOL. II, 2 B

386 Progress in the North.
-- .— 1 1 - - ¦¦¦¦¦ — 1
described it to be). From Morpeth to this place (Alnwick)
the country, generally speaking, is very poor as to land,
scarcely any trees at all ; the farms enormously extensive ; only
two churches, I think, in the whole of the twenty miles;
scarcely anything worthy the name of a tree, and not one
single dwelling having the appearance of a labourer's house.
Here appears neither hedging nor ditching ; no such thing as
a sheep-fold or a hurdle to be seen ; the cattle and sheep very
few in number; the farm servants living in the farm-houses,
and very few of them ; the thrashing done by machinery and
horses ; a country without people. This is a pretty country
to take a minister from, to govern the South of England ! A
pretty country to take a Lord Chancellor from, to prattle about
Poor Laws and about surplus population I My Lord Grey
has, in fact, spent his life here, and Brougham has spent his
life in the Inns of Court, or in the botheration of speculative
books. How should either of them know anything about the
eastern, southern, or western counties ? I wish I had my dig
nitary Dr. Black here ; I would soon make him see that he
has all these number of years been talking about the bull's
horns, instead of his tail and his buttocks. Besides the inde-
scrible pleasure of having seen Newcastle, the Shields, Sunder
land, Durham, and Hexham, I have now discovered the true
ground of all the errors of the Scotch feelosofers with regard to
population, and with regard to poor-laws. The two countries
are as different as any two things of the same nature can
possibly be; that which applies to the one, does not at all
apply to the other. The agricultural counties are covered all
over with parish churches, and with people thinly distributed
here and there.
Only look at the two counties of Dorset and Durham.
Dorset contains 1,005 square miles; Durham contains 1,061
square miles. Dorset has 271 parishes; Durham has 75
parishes. The population of Dorset is scattered over the whole
of the county, there being no town of any magnitude in it.
The population of Durham, though larger than that of Dorset,
is almost all gathered together, at the mouths of the Tyne, the

Progress in the North. 387
Wear, and the Tees. Northumberland has 1,871 square
miles; and Suffolk has 1,512 square miles. Northumberland
has eighty-eight parishes ; and Suffolk has five hundred and ten
parishes. So that here is a county one third part smaller than
that of Northumberland, with six times as many villages in it !
What comparison is there to be made between states of society
so essentially different ? What rule is there, with regard to
population and poor-laws, which can apply to both cases?
And how is my Lord Howick, born and bred up in North
umberland, to know how to judge of a population suitable to
Suffolk ? Suffolk is a county teeming with production, as well
as with people ; and, how brutal must that man be, who would
attempt to reduce the agricultural population of Suffolk to that
of the number of Northumberland ! The population of North- ,
umberland, larger than Suffolk as it is, does not equal it in
total population by nearly one-third, notwithstanding that one
half of its whole population have got together on the banks of
the Tyne. And are we to get rid of our people in the South,
and supply the places of them by horses and machines? Why
not have the people in the fertile counties of the South, where
their very existence causes their food and their raiment to
come? Blind and thoughtless must that man be, who
imagines that all, but farms in the South, are unproductive.
I much question whether, taking a strip three miles each' way
from the road, coming from Newcastle to Alnwick, an equal
quantity of what is called waste ground, together with the
cottages that skirt it, do not exceed such strip of ground in
point of produce. Yes, the cows, pigs, geese, poultry, gardens,
bees and fuel that arise from those wastes, far exceed, even in
the capacity of sustaining people, similar breadths of ground,
distributed into these large farms in the poorer parts of North
umberland. I have seen not less than ten thousand geese in
one tract of common, in about six miles, going from Chobham
towards Farnham in Surrey. I believe these geese alone,
raised entirely by care and by the common, to be worth more
than the clear profit that can be drawn from any similar
breadth of land between Morpeth and Alnwick. What folly

388 Progress in the North.
is it to talk, then, of applying to the counties of the South,
principles and rules applicable to a country like this !
To-morrow morning I start for "Modern Athens"! My
readers will, I dare say, perceive how much my "antalluct"
has been improved since I crossed the Tyne. What it will
get to when I shall have crossed the Tweed, God only knows.
I wish very triuch that I could stop a day at Berwick, in order
to find some feelosofer to ascertain, by some chemical process,
the exact degree of the improvement of the "antalluct." I
am alraid, however, that I shall not be able to manage this ;
for I must get along ; beginning to feel devilishly home-sick
since I have left Newcastle.

They tell me that Lord Howick, who is just married by-
the-by, made a speech here the other day, during which he
said, " that the Reform was only the means to an end ; and
" that the end was cheap government" Good ! stand to that,
my Lord, and, as you are now married, pray let the country
fellows and girls marry too : let us have cheap government, and
I warrant you, that there will be room for us all, and plenty
for us to eat and drink. It is the drones, and not the bees,
that are too numerous; it is the vermin who live upon the
taxes, and not those who work to raise them, that we want to
get rid of. We are keeping fifty thousand tax-eaters to breed
gentlemen and ladies for the industrious and laborious to
keep. These are the opinions which I promulgate ; and what
ever your flatterers may say to the contrary, and whatever
feelosofical stuff Brougham and his rabble of writers may put
forth, these opinions of mine will finally prevail. I repeat my
anxious wish (I would call it a hope if 1 could), that your
father's resolution may be equal to his sense, and that he will
do that, which is demanded by the right which the people
have, to insist upon measures necessary, to restore the great
ness and happiness of the country ; and, if he show a disposi
tion to do this, I should deem myself the most criminal of all

Progress in the North. 389
mankind, if I were to make use of any influence that I pos
sess, to render his undertaking more difficult than it naturally
must be; but, if he show not that disposition, it will be my
bounden duty to endeavour to drive him from the possession
of power ; for, be the consequences to individuals what they
may, the greatness, the freedom, and the happiness of England
must be restored.

INDEX.

Abbotson, i. 169, 396
Abergavenny, Lord, i. 285, 286
Abingdon, i. 24, 41, 42
Acacia (or Locust tree), ii. 121
Acres, Mr., ii. 184
Addington, Dr. A., i. 186
Addington, Mr. H., i. 182, 222
Address to journeymen andlabourers,
ii. 199
Address to Prince Regent, 1. 372
Admiralty, i. 361
Agricultural distress, i. 9 ; ii. 6, 199
Agricultural interests, i. 148
Agricultural, report of committee, i.
264 ; ii. 202
Albans, S., i. 103, 105, 108, 328
Albourne, ii. 183, 184
Albury, i. 193, 194, 198, 3°9> 359.
395 ; ii. 268
Alderbridge, i. 157
Alderminster, i. 164
Alfred, King, i. 212, 375, 377 ; ii.
IO, IIO, III
Aldhelm, S., ii. 135, 136
Allies, Holy, i. 4 ; ii. 220
Allington, ii. 223, 256
Alnwick, ii. 384, 386, 387
Althaea frutex, i. 329
Althorp, Lord, ii. 384, 385
Alresford, i. 83, 128, t66, 169, 170.
171, 173, 244, 246, 252, 253, 254,
33'. 372. 396
Alton, i. 124, 128, 236, 253, 255,
257. 259, 33°. 331. 372, 378
America, arbitrations with, 1. 398
American stoves, i. 360 ; ii. 32
Amesbury, i. 153 ; ii. 60

Andover, i. 15, 132, 148, 150, 152,
331. 377 ; ii- 4. 49> 5°. 20I> 214.
216, 221, 223
Anne de Boleyne, i. 59
Amies Hill, i. 114
Antwerp, ii. 330
Appledore, i. 302, 303, 306
Apples, i. 56
Appleshaw, i. 14, 15, 16 ; ii. 193,
, 1.94, 195. 369
AifbnthuQt, ii. 227
Arkalt;^iVtr.^ii. 179
Aniistohg, .Wm., ii. 382.
Arundel, ii., 2S1
Aran River,' i! 219, 224, 225, 257;
ii. 18
Ashburton, Lord; i. 33, 74, 96
Ashby, ii,~3?l '
Ashdown' Forest, i. 303
AshdownicEbr.,' ii. 246
Ashe, i.,36-. '
AshendS», i. 24<>
Ashm^worth, i. 180, 255, 310, 326,.
327. 33*
Ash trees, 11. 272 t
Ashurst Forest, i. 83, 281, 283
Assignats, French, i. 141, I43i l^
Astley, Sir John, ii. 55
Atheism, ii. 132
Atlantic, the, i. 225
Attleborough, ii. 53, 294
Atwood, Mr. W., ii. 75, 158, 159
Augustine, priories, ii. 295
Augustine, S., ii. 364
Aumil, ii. 129
Austin, S., ii. 299
Austle, S., ii. 321

39-

Index.

Australia, ii. 43
Avening, ii. 140, 141
Avington, i. 244, 245, 246, 247 ; ii.
6, 8
Avon, river, ii. 54, 87, 1 34, 135, 153,
'7'. '75. 24L 243. 3io, 320
Avon, valley r>f, ii. 54, 55, 56, 57.
62, 64, 69, 71, 73. 75. ~(>- 79. «5.
96
Aylesbury, ii. 280, 283, 326
Aylesbury, Loul, i. 20
Aylsham, i. 59
Bagshot, i. 23, 176, 207 ; ii. 174,
237. 244
Bagshot Heath, i. 304
Bailey, Judge, i. 3, 241, 242
Bailey, Mr. Hinton, i. 380, 381, 391,
392
Baines, Parson, i. 172
Baker, Rev. R., i. 65 ; ii. 200
Baltimore, ii. 59
Bank bill, Peel's, i. 142, 143
Bankhead, Dr., i. 166
Bank holidays, ii. 77
Bank notes, i. 9, 18, 194, 394
Bank restriction, ii. 282
Banks, i. 189
Banstead Downs, i. 274
Baring, Mr., ii. 140, 151, 152, 155,
194. 2I5.363
Baring, Sir T., i. 33, 64, in, 129,
130, 131, 167, 168, 169, 249, 251,
397
Bam Elm, ii. 272, 319, 330, 342,
346
Barnes, i. 113
Barn orator, ii. 12
Barnsley, ii. 286
Barracks, the, ii. 296
Barretto, Mr., i. 328
Barrie, Capt., ii. 53
Barton, ii. 322, 328, 339
BaKham, Lord, i. 328
Basingstoke, ii. 4
Bath, i. 40; ii. 97, 112, 134, 173,
360
Bnthurst, Lord, ii. 92
Battle, i. 68, 71, 72, 74, 78, 86, 87,
94. 95. 96. 331
Baughton Hill, i. 32$

Baxter, Mr., i. 91
Bayside, i. 25
Beach, Mr., i. 153, 154 ; ii. 83
Beacon Hill, i. 172, 379, 392; ii. 1
Beaconsfield, i. in
Beaulieu, ii. 223, 230, 231, 232, 233
234, 235. 236, 237
Beaumont, Mr., ii. 377, 378, 379
Beau worth, i. 170, 171
Beccles, i. 66
Beckenham, i. 332
Becket, Sir John, ii. 286
Beckford, Mr., ii. 118
Bedford, Duke of, i. 129, 168; ii.
3'3
Bedwin, Great, i. 19, 35, 229
Bedhampton, i. 233, 234
Beer-drinking, statistics of, ii. 343,
344
Beevor, Sir Thomas, ii. 53, 271, 294
Beggars, ii. 106
Belgium, ii. 288
Bell's Weekly Messenger, i. 276, 278
Benedictine Order, ii. 234, 252, 295
Benendin, i. 285, 293, 294, 296, 297 ;
ii. 274
Bennet, Justice, ii. 260
Bennet, Mr. John, i. 21 ; ii. 55, 74,
98, 300
Bentham, i. 44, 53
Bere, i. 72
Beresford, Rev., ii. 348, 349
Bergh Apton, i. 23, 57, 64, 68
Berghclere, i. 1, 6, 23, 24, 41, 43,
45, 46, 60, 152, 156, 164, 377,'
379. 380, 382 ; ii. 1, 10, 47, 57,
163, 180, 183, 1 87, 191, 193, 210
Berkshire, Vale of, 1. 42
Berwick, ii. 88, 388
Beichworth, i. 199, 273, 359, 395
Beverley, ii. 324, 327, 328, 335
Bewick, Mr., ii. 382, 383
Bey of Tunis, ii. 202
Biel, Mr., ii. 232, 233, 234, 236,
237
Big upon little, i. 2S2
Billinghurst, i. 216, 219, 273
Binfield, i. 162, 164
Binley, ii. 1
Binstead, i. 1.79
Bird, Mr., i. 247

Index.

39;

Bird singing, ii. 319
Birkbeck, Mr., i. 53, 119, 304, 368 ;
ii- 59. 6°, 365
Birket, Mr., i. 353
Birnie, Sir R., ii. 123
Birmingham, ii. 351
Bishops Sutton, i. 253 ; ii. 9
Bishopstrow,, ii. 98, 99, 183
Bishops Waltham, i. 243 ; ii. 10
Black, Dr., i. 368, 375, 376, 390,
399; ii. 108, 125, 146, 147, 175,
368. 369
Blackburn, ii. 271
Blackmail, i. 86
Blackdown, i. 215, 218, 221, 225,
243. 257. 271, 272, 378
Blackheath, ii. 369
Black Sea, ii. 281
Biackstone, ii. 205, 207, 296
Blackwater, i. 157 ; ii. 244
Blandy, Mr., i. 45 ; ii. 184, 188
Blanketteers, i. 222
Blechingley, i. 83, 191
Blenheim, i. 7
Mount, Mr., i. 22, 47 ; ii. 195
Blucher, ii. 125
Blunsdon, ii. 119
Blunt Scawen, ii. 385
Boar, wild, ii. 239
Bobadil, i. n
Bognor, i. 40
Bolder, ii. 241
Bolingbroke, Lord, ii. 118
Bollitree, i. 24, 31, 34, 37, 39 ; ii.
136, 142, 143, 144, 264
Boiton, Duke of, ii. 253
Bolton, ii. 271, 361
Boniface, Mr., i. 234
Bootle,. L 316
Bordeaux, ii. 184, 185
Boston, ii. 59, 306, 309, 315, 316,
317. 319, 320, 324, 326, 33°. 334'
336. 345
Boston, New, ii. 316
Botley, i. 14, 23, 65, 136, 204, 237,
238, 239, 240, 273, 374 ; ii. 3, 121,
209, 223, 237, 247, 254, 260, 262,
263
Bough Beach, i. 329, 330
Boulogne, i. 307, 317
Bourbons, i. 192, 315, 400

Bourne, ii. 4, 56, 87
Bourne, Mr. Sturges, ii. 147, 199,
256
Bourn, the, i. 124, 125, 126, 165
Bovant, north, ii. 183
Bower, i. 177, 178 '
Bradford, ii. 79, 95, 105, 1 16, 361
362
Bralton Castle, ii. no, in
Brazier, Mr., i. 23, 84
Bredon Hill, ii. 153, 154
Brenzett, i. 303
Brewing, ii. 250
Brie, Counsellor, ii. 187
Brigg, ii. 328
Brighton, i. 40, 81, 91, 92, 206, 215
282 ; ii. 244, 261, 274
Brighton Chronicle, i. 95
Brimton, i. 157 .
Bristol, ii. 41, 112, 360, 361
Bristol riots, i. 201
Broadlands, ii. 203, 222
Brodie and Dowding, ii. 93, 94
Brodie, Anna, ii. 266
Brook, ii. 13
Brooke, Mr., ii. 157
Broomsborough, ii. 156
Bromley, i. 71, 72, 82
Brougham, Lord, i. 8, 49, 107, 236,
387 ; ii. n, 47. 78, 80, 92, 124
Brown, i. 367
Brown-Candover, i, 128
Brown, Miss, ii. 17
Brown, Sir A., ii. 17
Buccleughj Duchess of, ii. 233, 236,
237.
Buckingham, Duke of, 11. 8
Buckland, i. 199, 359
Buckle, History of Civilization, 1.
108, 131
Bucks Gazette, ii. 276
Budd, Mr., ii. 34, 1 91
Buenos Ayres, i. 213
Bullington, ii. 4
Bulstrode, ii. 313
Bumpers, ii. 22
Bungay, ii. 290, 294
Buonaparte, Joseph, i. 338
Burdett, Sir F., i. 158, 163, 189,190,
^94
Burford, i. 39

394

Index.

Burke, i. 168, 313 ; ii. 307
Burlip Hill, i. 23, 41
Burnet, Bishop, i. 260
Burrough, Judge, i. 279; ii. 84, 203
Bury, i. 241 ; ii. 361
Bury S. Edmunds, i. 58 ; ii. 290,
293. 297. 299, 308, 313
Bimhey Park, ii. 229
Bustleton, ii. 325
Butler, Dr. S., i. 44, 45 ; ii. 243
Butser Hill, ii. 262, 264, 265, 272
Butterworth, Mr., i. 316, 392
Buxton, Mr., i. 383, 385 ; ii. 14
Byron, Lord, ii. 163, 223
Cabbage, ii. 139, 169, 269
Cadiz, L 176 ; ii. 126, 289
Calais, i. 307, 315
Calshot Castle, ii. 232, 237, 243
Cambridge, ii. 300, 301, 306, 309, 310
Camden, Marquis, i. 286, 287, 288
Camelford, Lord, i. 328
Canada, ii. 288
Canadian corn, i. 333
Candovers, i. 165
Canning, Mr., i. 63, 67, 126, 161,
176, 183, 186, 193, 199, 200, 204,
205, 222, 317, 339, 340, 400
Canterbury, i. 56, 72, 102, 308, 311
317, 319. 323, 325
Canute, i. 378
Captain of the age, greatest, i. 158
Carlisle, Mr., i. 280
Carmelite Friary, ii. 295
Carnarvon, Lord, i. 6, 8, 47, 60, 398
Caroline, Queen, i. 8, 56, 60, 65,
342, 357 ; ii- '5°
Cartwright, Major, i. 60 ; ii. 186
Castlereagh, Lord, i. 49, 59, 63, 66,
69, 120, 121, 163, 183, 199, 307
Catharine, Queen, ii. 311
Catholic Emancipation, i. 12
Cathedrals, i. 5
Cato Street conspiracy, i. 151
Cawston, i. 64, 65
Caxton, i. 101
Chafy, Dr., ii. 306
Chalmers, Mr. ii. 99, 144, 179, 239,
240
Chamberlayne, Mr., ii. 247, 248, 249,
250, 251, 252, 253, 254

Change Alley, ii. 202
Channel, The, i. 225
Chapels, ii. 129
Charles I., ii. 226-239
Charles II., ii. 19, 226, 313
Charrington, i. 344, 345, 346
Chatfield, i. 86
Chatham, i. 49, 50, 51, 53; ii. 353
Chatteris, ii. 310
Ched worth, ii. 173
Cheer, Mr., i. 101
Cheese, ii. 358
Chelsea, ii. 246
Cheltenham, i. 24, 39, 40 ; ii. 82, 171
172, 173, 175
Cheriton, i. 171
Chertsey, i. 113, 114, 331 ; ii. 189
Chesham, i. 103, 105, 107, 108, 109,
III
Cheshire, ii. 362
Chichester, i. 97, 227, 231, 232, 268,
271, 360
Chichester, Bishop of, i. 231
Chichester, Lord, i. 85
Chiddingfoid, ii. 13, 22, 23, 24, 25,
33
Chilton-Candover, i. 128
Chilworth, i. 113, 117, no, 193, 198,
3°9. 33'. 3S9. 360, 3^9. 395 ; "¦
6, 268
Chisenbury Priory, ii. 62
Chittingstone, i. 329
Chorley, ii. 50
Christchurch, ii. 87, 241, 243
Christ's Hospital, i. 343
Christian Knowledge Society, i. 291,
292
Church and Poor, i. 349
Churches, ii. 54, 55, 56, 65, 69, 100,
112; highest use of, i. 299
CKvrfch-going and Labouring Class,
i- 298
Church Property, i. 133, 388
Church Revival, i. 169
Churchyards, ii. 100
Churt, i. 262, 263
Chute, ii. 50
Cinque Ports, i. 307, $6&
Cirencester, ii. 173, 370
Clergy, ii. 102, 12$
Clergy, Cobbett's call upon, i. 134

Index.

595

Cobbett, James P., i. 166

Covent Garden, ii. 312

Cobbett, Mr., i. 197, 266, 271,

275-

Coventry, i. 243

276, 277, 278, 279, 281, 283,

3°4.

Cowdry House, ii. 3, 17

366, 372, 377. 384 1 *>¦ 41, 53.

"3.

Cowes, ii, 233-367

121, 148, 155, 1S6, 187, 367,

368,

Cracow, i. 320

37°

Cranberry, American, i. 198

Cobbett's Indian Corn, ii. 275,

376

Cranbrook, ii. 262

Cobbold, Rev., i. 259

Cranmer, Archbishop, i. 59; ii. 312

Cobden, Mr., i. 64

Crawley, i. 207, 215, 216, 272, 273
Cobham, ii. 3S7
Cray, North, ii. 88, 147
Cochrane, Lord, i. 116, 172 ; ii.
186,
Crevey, i. 114
255
Cricklade, i. 20, 22, 35, 229 ; ii. 1 28,
Cockbain, John, i. 256
131
Codford, ii. 97, loo
Crimean War, i. 3 ; ii. 281
'Coke, ii. n, 195
Criminal Code, i. 154, 391
j. Colchicum, ii. 143, 144
Cromwell, O., ii. 179, 226, 227
ColeshiU, ii. 120, 122, 123
Cromwell, Thomas, ii. 17
Collective Wisdom, i. 69, in,
185,
Crookham, i. 157, 164
1 1 199, 204, 235, 236, 284 ; ii. 74,
125,
Crooksbury Hill, i. 263
177. 271, 332
Cropper, Benson & Co., i. 264, 265
Colley Farm, ii. 268, 269
Cropper, Mr. J., ii. 107, 108
Collingwood, Admiral, i. 4, 8
Crowdy, Mr. J., ii. 179
Colrie, ii. 173, 176
Crowhurst, Curate of, ii. 384
Colossus, i. 4
Crowland, ii. 308, 313, 314
Commons Acts, i. 35
Crown Lands, i. 35, 121
Commons, House of, i. 9
Croydon, i. 81, 82, 93, 209, 211
Commonwealth, ii. 76
Crucifixes, i. 5
.' Congleton, Lord, ii. 351
Crudwell, ii. 133, 159
.Constantinople, ii. 289
Crux, Easton, ii. 195
Cooke, Mr., ii. 241
Cuckfield, i. 81, 93
Coombe, i 33 1
Currency Question, ii. 159
:, Cooper, Mr. Thomas, i. 16
Curties, Mr. J., ii. 81, 82, 124
' CorhamptoH, i. 172
Curwen, i. 68
Corn Bill, Mr. Cobbett's speech on,
Custom House, ii. 229
& i- 75. 76. 77
Customs Returns, i. 402
Corn Exchange, i, 235
Cyprus Island, ii. 281
Corn Laws, i. 405, 406 ; repeal
jf, ii.
6, 12, 91, 145, 185, 359
Dampier, Mr., ii. 89, 90
Corsley, ii. 113
Danube, i. 306, 315
Corunna, i. 213
Danes, ii. 10
Cosham, i. 232
Darlington, ii. 362
Cotford, St. Mary, it 369
Davidson, Rev., i. 230
Cotswold sheep, i. 303
Davis, Col.,ii. 157
Cotswold Hill, ii. 173, 175, 176,
178,
Dawkins, ii. 227
181, 182, 187, 367, 370
Dawson, Mr., ii. 335
Cottage Economy, i. 363
Deadweight, i. 121, 138, 188, 223,
Courier, The, i. 96, 241, 318, 332
,336
268, 269, 401 ; ii. 102
Coursing, ii. 97
Deal, i. 318, 319
Court Martial, i. 241
Deanery, ii. 129
Court of Pie Powder and Dustyfoot,
Dean, Forest of, i. 25, 34, 37 ; «•
ii. 209
3°
596

Index.

Deer, ii. 239

Dundas, i. 151, 156, 305, 312,

313.

Debt, National, ii. 192,

193.

195.

318, 320, 323; ii. 150

202, 229, 241, 247, 253,

255.

328

Durham, ii. 362, 363, 385, 386

Deller, Mr., i. 245, 246,
247.
248,
Durham, Bishop of, ii. 379
265
Durham, Dean and Chapter
af, ii.
Denison, Mr. Becket, ii. 286
383. 3»4
Denman, Lord Chief Justice, i.
1,8;
Durham Ox, ii. 366
ii. 385
Durham Ploughs, ii. 362
Deptlord, i. 49
Duthy, i. 240, 241
Devizes, i. 18, 186 ; ii. 77, 85,
106,
Dutch Deliverer, ii. 328
no, in, 112, 113, 115,
"7.
134.
Dutley, Mr., i. 255
136, 189
Dymock, Mr., ii. 318
Dewsbury, ii. 289
Dickens, C, i. 376
Ealing, i. in
Dickenson, ii. 55
Earls Court, i. 275
Dick, Mr., i. 120, 199
Earl's Stoke, ii. in
Diet, ii. 225
Eastbourne, ii. 260
Dimchurch, i. 305
Eastdean, i. 227, 229, 231
Dippinghall, i. 331
Easter lambs, ii. 193
Dipten, ii. 231, 241
East Grinstead, i. 81, 123, 191,
271.
Dissenters, i. 350
281, 282, 297
Doddington, i. 326
Eastmeon, i. 175, 177
Dodeswell, ii. 173
Eastnor Castle, ii. 156
Dog, American, i. 367
Eastnor, Lord, i. 353 ; ii. 156
Domesday Book, i. n8; ii. 241
Easton, i. 236, 239, 246, 273,
372,
Domingo, S., i. 299, 398, 400, 404
396 ; ii. 3, 8, 56, 58
Doncaster, ii. 285
East -Woody, i. 44, 45
Donkin, Mr. A., ii. 381
Economist, ii. 7 1
Donnington Hill, i. 224,
226,
227,
Eddington, it 1 1 1
230, 231, 272
Eden, Garden of, ii. 183, 326
Donovan, Mr., i. 86
Edgar, King, ii. 136
Donton, i. 225, 226
Edgeware, i. 103
Dorchester, ii. 183
Edinburgh, ii. 373, 3S8
Dorking, ii. 268
Edinburgh Review, i. 36, 270,
3°o;
Dorset, Duchess of, i. 72
ii. 128
Dorset, county of, ii. 386
Education, National, i. 292,
386,
Dover, i. 56, 279, 297, 305,
308,
309,
387. 391
310,311, 314, 316, 317
.321.
325.
Edward I., ii. 150
330
Edward III., ii. 118, 241
Down Hurstbourn, i. 165,
166;
ii.4
Edward VI., il 106, 252
Drake, Admiral, i. 176
Egham, i. 160, 161, 102
Draycot Foliot, ii. 166, 194, 210
Egremont, Lord, L 88, 221,
22S,
Diennen, Dr., ii. 380
246, 272 ; ii. 19, 24
Droxford, i. 172
Eldon, Lord, ii. 368, 369, 380
Drummond, Mr., i. 194,
»9S.
196,
Elementary Education Act, i. 1
3<>
197. 198, 395
Eling, ii. 231, 241, 246
Dublin, ii. 123
Elizabeth, Queen, ii. 157, 178,
239.
Duchy, Cornwall, i. 262
252, 3"
Duchy, Lancaster, i. 262
Ellenborough's Act, ii. 102
Dudley,- ii. 351
Ellenborough, Lord, i. 241, 289 ; ii.
Dumbleton, ii. 155
15°. 204
Index.

397

Elliman, Mr., ii. 272, 273, 275, 276
Ellman, Mr., i. 84, 85, 90, 91, 161
Elm Trees, ii. 122
Elverton, i. 49, 324
Ely, i. 241 ; ii. 301, 302, 303, 304,
305, 332
Ely Cathedral, ii. 302, 317
Ely, Isle of, ii. 302
Emigration, i. 384, 385 ; ii. 60, 70, 71,
81, 100, 127, 177
Emigration Scheme, ii. 60
Enclosure Acts, i. 35
Endowments, Church, ii. 86, 87
Enford, ii. 60, 74
England, Church of, and elementary
education, i. 292
English Leghorn, ii. 274
Envy of surrounding Nations, i. 333
Epping Forest, i. 35,
Epsom, i. 82, 120
Equitable Adjustment, ii. n
Erskine, Lord, i. 215, 278, 288, 303
Esher, i. 116
Established Church, i. 139
Etwall, i. 153
Evelyn, i. 195
Evening Mail, ii. 265, 266, 267
Everley, ii. 51, 58, 89
Eversham, ii. 183
Eversley, i. 157
Ewhurst, i. 272
Ewing, i. 366, 367
Excise, i. 17
Exeter, i. 102
Exton, i. 170, 172
Eye, ii. 291, 294, 297
Fairford, ii. 170, 173, 175, 178
Faithful, ii. 277
Falmouth, ii. 317
Fareham, i. 204, 232, 233, 235, 236,
237; ii. 263
Farmer's Journal, i. 27, 28
Farnham, i. 18, 23, 82, 102, 118, 123,
124, 125, 151, 173, 236, 244. 259,
261, 309, 331, 362 ; ii. 88, 158, 215,
326, 387
Farquhar, il 118
Faversham, i. 49, 54, 55, 98, 308, 325
jFawkes, Guy, ii. 154
"Fawley, ii. 241

Featherstone, Sir H., ii. Io
Fellbridge, i. 191
Fellowes, i. 357, 358, 395
Fens, the, ii. 312, 313, 314, 315,
334
Ferdinand, King, ii. 311
Fields, Mr., ii. 308
Fifield, ii. 58, 60, 72
Figheldean, ii. 62
Fire Shovels, i. 406
Firs, Scotch, ii. 230
Fisherton, ii. 69, 98, 99
Fitzwilliam, Lord, ii. 307
Flaying, i. 73
Fleet Street, i. 208, 232, 332 ; ii. 29
Flemming, i. 250, 372
Flogging of Militia Men, ii. 303
Florida, ii. 289
Flower, Mr., ii. 60
Flukes, i. 356
Foley, Lord, ii. 160
Folkstone, i. 297, 302, 305, 307, 308,
309, 311, 317, 326, 330, 331
Folkstone, Lord, ii. 120, 121, 122,
128
Fonthill, i. 7
Fordingbridge, ii. 241
Fordyce, i. 114
Foreign Loans, ii. 152
Forest Lands, ii 35
Forest Row, i. 83
Fortescue, i. 400
Fortescue, Sir J., ii. 100, 101, 364
Foster, Mr., ii. 328
Fountain Abbey, i. 129
Four Elms, i. 329
Fox, George, ii. 260
Fox, Mr., i. 114, 314
Foxe's Book of Martyrs, i. 59 >
Fox, Mrs., ii. 124
France, ii. 43, 288
Franco-German War, ii. 281
Frant, i. 285, 286, 288
Fredericton,. ii. 7
Free Trade, i. 314, 402
French Farmer, i. 333
French, the, ii. 281
French wine, i. 40 1
French Revolution, i. 9
Frensham, i. 179
Frere, Sergeant, ii. 306

398

Index.

Friend, Mr. W., ii. 184

Golden Farmer Hill, ii. 244

Friends, Society of, ii. 260

Goldfinches, ii. 133, 137

Frome, ii. 85, 103, 104, 105

Goldsmith, Mr., ii. 262

Froyle, i. 259

Gooch, GafTer, i. 66, 335
Fry, Mrs., ii. 14.
Goodlad, ii. 260
Fulham, i. 113, 256; ii. 77, in
377
Goodman, Thos., ii. 384, 385
Fuller, Mr., i. 74, 96
Goose Green, i. 272
Funtington, i. 227, 232, 233
Goulbnm, Mr., ii. 279
Gouldhurst, i. 285, 2S9, 291, 298
Gadbrook Common, 273
Gourlay, ii. 92, 93, 94
Gallon Loaf Man, i. 21
Gosport, i. 243, 255, 304; ii. 263
Galloway, Mr., ii. 152, 239
Graeme, Squire, ii. 10
Gamblet, Mr. i. 101
Graham, Sir James, ii. 102, 104,
Game, i, 363
144, 166, 200
Gamekeepers, i. 295
Grain, i. 333
Game laws, i. 154 ; ii. 204,
206,
Grange Park, i. 167, 169
207, 209, 210
Grantham, ii. 346
Gardening, Ornamental, ii, 298
Gravesend, i. 50
Garden of Eden, i. 327, 379
Greame, i. 373
Gatcomb, ii. 141
Great Britain, ii. 43
Gateshead, ii. 381
Great Council of Nations, i. 42
Gatton, i. 161, 199, 206, 214
Greatham, i. 175, 178, 1 79, 180,
George, Mr., i. 85
181, 185
George III., ii. 9, 90
Greek Cause, ii. 269
George IV., ii. 21 1; death of, ii
360
Greek Loan, ii. 151, 239
German Legion, i. 241
Greene, Mr., i. 253
German Ocean, i. 225
Green Street, i. 326
German Troops, ii. 303, 305
Greenwich, i. 361
Gibbs, ii. 150
Grenvill, Lord, i. 286
Giddy, Mr. D., i. 85, 86, 189
Grey, Lord, i. 314; ii. 386
Giles, S., i. 113
Gridiron, prophecy of, i. 66 ; ii. 161
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., i.
388
Grimbald, St., i. 375
Glanville, Lord, ii. 220
Grimshaw, ii. 53
Glasgow, ii. 163, 337
Grimsby, Great, ii. 322, 323
Glastonbury, ii. 183, 326
Grinstead, i. 83, 93
Glebe land, ii. 165
Grose, Judge, i. 241, 371
Gloucester, i. 22, 24, 39, 40,
101,
Grosvenor, Lord, i. 1S7
102, 118 ; ii. 89, 136, 142,
143.
Grove, near Holt, i. 59
153. 173. 182, 183,326
Guilford, i. 82, 102, 113, 115, 1 16,
Glove manufacture, ii. 163, 164
l'9. "3. 193.272, 231, 359.30O,
Glover, Mr., ii. 139
362
Goal, a magnificent, il 115
Gunner, ii. 10
Goddard, i. 44
Gunpowder, i. 194
Godalming, i. 268, 271, 331,
»9.
Gunter, ii. 27
120, 123, 164, 190, 191, 193,
225.
Gurney, ii. 11
257. 359. 360. 377 ; »• 25, 26
.32.
Guthrie, ii. 241
33. 36, 223, 268
Guy Fawkes, ii. 236
Godmanchester, i. 102
Gocl-chall, i. 395
Godstone, i. 81, 82, 83, 93,
Habeas Corpus Act, i. 314
191.
Hadlow, i. 329
271, 272 j ii. 262
Halifax, ii. 360, 361, 362
Index.

399

Hallett, Mr., ii. 255
Hambledon, i. 170, 173, 174, 175,
177, 204, 261, 268, 271, 360; ii.
10, 223, 254, 257, 262
Hamble River, ii. 247
Hamlin, i. 120
Hammersmith, i. 8, 161
Hampshire, ii. 40, 51
Hampshire Down, i. 2
Hampshire Hills, i. I
Hampshire Journal, i. 1 6
Hampshire Petition, ii. 255
Hampton, i. 1 13
Hampton Court, ii. 296
Hampton Court Park. i. 129
Hanford, Mr., it 153, 154
Hannington, i. 20
Hanoverians, ii. 102
Hanson, Mr., i. 394
Harbord, Mr., i. 60
Hardwicke, Lord, i. 99, 100, 288
Hardy, Mr., i. 60, 61
Harewood, ii. 287
Hargham, it 53, 290, 293, 300
Harlow, ii. 60
Harleston, ii. 291, 294
Harmony Hall, ii. 1 16
Harold, King, i. 378
Harrowgate, ii. 362
Harrisburgh, i. 217
Hartley Row, i. 48
Hartswood, i. 343
Harwich, ii. 294, 361
Hascombe, i. 271, 272, 360
Haselmere, i. 23, 120 ; ii. 25
Hastings, i. 74, 306
Havant, i. 215, 227, 232, 275
Hawkers' licenses, ii. 147
Hawkley, i. 175, 178, 179, 180, 185,
193, 256, 257
Hayden, ii. 170
Hay, Rev., ii. 108
Headley, i. 175, 179, 181, 183, 185,
261, 262, 263
-Heckfield Heath, i. 157
Hector, i. 145
Hedingham, i. 281
Hempstead, i. 103, 105, 106, 107,
108, 109, no, ill
Henry II., ii. 295
Henry III., ii. 248, 252

Henry VII., ii. 178
Henry VIIL, ii. 17, 87, 106, 234,
235, 248, 252, 253, 311, 312
Herbert, Mr. John, ii. 195
Herbert, Rev. G., ii. 21 1
Hereford, i. 24, 29, 102
Hertford, i. 69
Hexham ii. 374, 37s, 377, 379,
386
Heygate, ii. 313
Heytesbury, ii. 85, 87, 95, 96, 99,
105, 183
Hibiscus, i. 329
Highclere, i. 6, 8, 43, 60, 157, 164,
172, 175, 331, 379
Highworth, i. 22
High Wycombe, i. 105, 109, 1 10
Hindhead, i. 120, 123, 164, 174,
177, 178, 179, 181, 183, 184, 185,
215, 218, 220, 225, 257, 262, 309,
360, 378 ; ii. 10, 174, 268
Hoare, Sir Richard, i. 15
Hobart, Mr., i. 59
Hobey, ii. 349
Hobhouse, i. 189, 294; ii. 152
Hodges, Mr., i. 293
Hodgson, i. 265
Hoggart, Mr., i. 324
Hogsback, i. 82, 331, 362
Holbeach, ii. 308, 309, 315, 324,
326, 334, 345
Holdemess country, ii. 324, 326,
328, 346
Holland, ii. 155
Holiest, Mr. George, ii. 5
Hollingbourne, i. 326, 327, 331
Hollis, George, i. 249, 250, 251,
252
Holloway, Mr., i. 74
Hollyhock, i. 329
Holmwood, i. 272, 273
Holt, i. 60, 61, 64, 65, 125
Holt Forest, i. 178, 179 ; ii. 30
Holthigh Common, i. 281
Home Dale, i. 198
Hone, Mr. William, ii. 211
Honey wood, Mr., i. 55
Honiton, i. 297; ii. 183, 326
Hopkins, i. 280
Hops, i. 258; 259, 260, 293, 326,
330; ii. 158

400

Index.

Horley, i. 211, 271

Isle of Wight, i. 157, 165, 192,

193.

Homcastie, ii. 318, 319, 321, 337

226,244; ii- 213, 263, 362

Horsham, i. 215, 216, 217, 257, 272,

Islington, i. 238

273. 360 ; i'- «3, 23. 385

Itchen Abas, i. 252

Horton, Mr. Wilmot, ii. 294, 320,

Itchen, river, i. 247, 252, 253,

454,

336, 36l

262, 275, 372 ; ii. 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 56,

Hoseason, Mr., i. 384

247

Hounslow, i. 395
Itchen Stoke, i. 252
Hounslow Heath, i. 157, 1 6 1, 162,
176
Howards, i. 195, 395
Howick, Lord, ii. 387, 388
Ives, S., ii. 301, 307, 310, 334
Jabet, Mr., ii. 193
Jacob and Johnson, ii. 93, 94
Huddersfield, ii. 285, 289
Jacobins, i. 115, 121, 198, 223,
3°6,
Huguenots, i. 352
307, 308
Hulbert, i. 46
James I., ii. 154, 179, 311
Hull, ii. 320, 322, 324, 326, 327,
Jefferson, i. 10
328, 329, 336, 360
Jeukinson, i. 318, 322, 339
Hume, Mr., i. 55, 228
Jennets, Spanish, ii. 239
Hungerford, i. 164 ; ii. 181, 183
Jesse's " Gleanings," i. 129
Hunter, Orby, i. 371
Jews, the, i. 318, 401 ; ii. 45,
177,
Hunting, ii. 97
183, 197, 202, 315, 331, 336
Huntingdon, i. 97, 98, 101, 102, 103 ;
Jews and jobbers, ii. 108, 109,
180,
ii. 13, 310
181, 222
Huntley, ii. 142
Jobbers, i. 401
Hurstbourne, i. 1, 6, 149, 165, 398
John, King, ii. 213, 234, 295
Hurstbourne Tarrant, ii. 1, 193
John of Gaunt, ii. 179
Hurst Castle, ii. 232
Johnson, Mr., i. 48
Huskisson, Mr., i. 144, 182, 203, 261,
Johnstone, Mr., i. 87
339. 340, 4°o. 401 ; ii. 126, 278,
loint Stock Banks, ii. 351
332i3°°
joliff, Mr., ii. 195
Hyde, Mr., ii. 157
Joliffe, CoL, i. 210
Hyde Park, ii. 125, 229
Jones, Mr., ii 41, 42, 323
Hythe, L 297, 305, 306, 307
Jubilee reign, ii. 115, 128, 135,
Judges' wigs, i. 226, 262
23S
Iles, Mr., ii. 178
Judson, Mr., i. 360
Illinois, ii. 60
Justices of the Peace, ii. 113
Ilsley, i. 42
Immigration into United States, ii.
Keble, John, i. 170
338
Keines, Ashton, ii. 131
Imprisonment in Newgate, i. 241
Kemp, i. 87, 88
Incomes of Bishops and Clergy, ii.
Kempsford, ii. 178, 179
341
Kendrick, i. 395
Ingram, Mr., i. 88
Kennet River, ii. 187
Ipswick, ii. 291, 293, 294, 295, 296,
Kensington, i. 1 1, 24, 48, 49, 68
.7',
297, 298, 299, 330
78.93.103,105. "3. "6, 163,
206,
Irish Tithe Bill, i. 224
275.279, 325; ii- »3, 3*. 71,
103,
Iron Masters, ii. 358
no, 161, 212, 240
Isabella, Queen, ii. 311
Kent, ii. 51
Isis, river, ii. 128
Kenyou, i. 289
Isle of Thanet, i. 309, 319, 320, 321,
Kew Gardens, ii. 229
323, 324. 325
Kingsclere, \. 157, 331
Index.

401

Kildare Farming Society, i. 1 1
Kilmston, i. 170; 171, 172, 173
Kiloe Oxen, ii. 375
Kingston, i. 52
Kings Worthy, i. 377 ; ii. 4, 189
Kuatchbull, Sir E., i. 55, 57
Knaresborough, i. 280
Knight, ii. 123
Knighton, ii. 34S
Knightsbridge, i. 247
Knights Templars, ii. 235, 236, 237
Knowle, i. 72
Knowles, Mr., ii. 28, 32, 216, 217,
218, 268
Kremlin, The Brighton, i. 92, 93
Labourers, Agricultural, ii. 103,342
Labourers, English, ii. 7, 65, 66, 67,
68
Laing, i. 371, 396
Laxnbe, Mr., i. 74, 189
Lamberhurst, i. 285, 288, 2S9
Lancashire, ii. 362
Landlords' distress meeting, i. 69
Landlords, ii. 209
Langford, Little, ii. 130
Lansdowne, Lord, i. in, 120, 280
340,342; ii- 117, 226
Larches, ii. 272
Launceston, i. 73
Lavant, i. 224, 232, 253
Laversioke, i. 48 ; ii. 3, 6r, 83, 84
Law, New Game, i. 256, 280
Law, New Trespass, i. 256, 265
Le Blanc, Judge, i. 241
Lea, i. 119, 120, 123, 266; ii. 27
Leach, Mr., i. 266
Leech, ii. 27, 32, 268
Leeds, iL 163, 285, 286, 328, 362, 373
Leeds Patriot, ii. 328, 360, 362
Leghorn Plat, i. 220, 296
Leicester, i. 24; ii. 341, 346, 347,
348, 35«
Leigh, i. 329
Leinster, Duke of, i. 1 1
Leith Hill, i. 218, 257, 273, 309
Leonards, St., Forest, i. 303
Leopold, Prince, i. 324
Lethbndge, i. 235, 335, 336 ; ii. 55
Letter of the People of Kent, i. 401
Leveringsett, i. 60
VOI-. II.

Lewes, i. 81, 84, 85, 87, 91, 92, 96,
102, 272
Lewis Express, i. 95
Lexington, ii. 212
Libel, prosecution for, ii. 372, 384
Lincoln, il 308, 309, 320, 339, 341,
.346
Lincoln Cathedral, ii. 340
Lincoln sheep, i. 303
Lindfield, i. 282
Lingard, ii. 241, 242, 243, 244, 245
Liphook, i. 164, 174, 181, 184; ii.
262, 265
Liston, Mr. R., i. 169
Little Neck, i. 25
Little-Shilling project, ii. 158
Littleton, Mr., ii. 359
Liverpool, i. 340, 387, 400 ; ii. 82,
336
Liverpool, Lord, i. 8, 10, 38, 54, 62,
209, 224, 225, 233, 266; ii. 127,
.58
Local Militia, i. 241
Lock or Locky, i. 29, 30
Lockhart, ii. 5
Locust trees, ii. 120, 121, 128, 227,
228, 230, 272, 273
Locust pins for ships ; ii. 29, 31
London, i. 1, 40, 81, 82, S3, 156,
159, 160, 161, 206, 244, 245, 268,
271. 331. 377 5 ii- 3, 5. 74. 97, 181,
187, 226, 246, 247, 332, 367
Londonderry, Lord, ii. 383-.
London University, i. 368
Long Arm, i. 187
Long, Mr., i. 120, 172
Long Island, i. 1, 2, 25, 1 10, 112,
218, 219, 403; ii. 29, 30, 137,
323, 357 .
Long Parish, ii. 4
Longwood, i. 244
Lonsdale, Earl of, i. 256
Loom, Lords of the, i. 220, 230
Lopez, Sir M., i. 163, 167, 189, 190
Losely, ii. 33
Loudon, Mr., i.32, no, 118
Louis, St., of France, ii. 150
Louth, ii. 309, 321, 324, 337
Lowther, i. 120, 189; ii. 286
Loyal and Constitutional Associ.
ation, i. 1 15 2 C

402

Index.

Lucerne, ii., 169
Luddites, i. 337 ; ii. 79, 80
Ludgershall, ii. 49, 50, 58
Luke, Father, i. 86
Lushington, i. 8
Lyddiard, ii. 1 18
Lymington, ii. 231, 241
Lyndhursi, ii. 192, 221, 223, 227,
230, 231
Lynn, i. 97; ii. 300, 301,308,313,
3'4, 3'5, 3'6, 332
Mabbott, Mr., i. 86
Maberley, Mr. John, i. 42, 161 ; ii.
74,75
Macculloch, i. 368
Machinery and labour, ii. 80
Mackeen, Judge, i. 217
Maddock, Mr., i. 120, 199, 200
Magdalen Hill, i 244
Maidstone Gazette, i. 17
Maidstone, i. 72, 151, 288, 308, 325;
ii. 326, 369
Malmsbury, ii. 119, 120, 129, 131,
136, 137
Malvern Hills, ii. 153
Malthus, Rev., ii. 57, 77, 80, 113,
128, 239, 241
Manchester, i. 214, 220; ii. 8a, 91,
103, 108, 163, 271, 360
Mangel wurzel, ii. 269
Mansion-houses, ii. 54, 55, 56, 65,
69, 100
Manufacturing interests, i. 148
Margate, i. 40, 319, 321, 322, 325
Market Ilsley, i. 41
Mark Lane, i. 230, 302, 320
Marlborough, i. 1, 18, 20, 164 ; ii.
50, 58, 181
Marlborough Forest, ii. 369
Marriage Act, i. 200
Massena, i. 214
Martello towers, i, 303, 306. 307
3'5
Martyr's Worthy, i. 396 ; ii. 4
Mayhew, Mr., i. 255
Mears, i. 240, 242
Mearstam, i. 2 to
Medstead, i. 372
Medway River, i. 50, 327 ; ii. 326
Mcn working as hoise-, i. 91

Meon-Stoke, i. 172
Merchant of Venice, ii. 224
Merrow, i. 114, 116, 331
Merryworth, i. 325, 327, 328
Micheldever, ii. 363
Micheldever Wood, i. 167
Midhurst, i. 121, 227, 271, 368; H.
17, 18
Mildmay, Lady, i. 48, 49
Militia clothing, ii. 146, 147, 149
Militia law, ii. 207
Militiamen, flogging of, ii. 303, 304
Milston, ii. 54, 55, 56, 60, 64, 66,
68, 69, 72, 74
Mitcham, L 279
Mitchell, Judge, ii. 29
Modern Athens, ri. 123
Mole River, i. 199, 343
Molyneux, ii. 33
Monasteries, i. 349
Monckton, L 321
Montague, Lord, ii. 17, 18
Montefiore, Sir Moses, ii. 177
Moor Park, i. 125, 371, 372
Moore, Sir J., i. 213, 238
Morning Chronicle, i.75, 89, 120, 229,
230, 236, 376, 390, 399 ; ii. 125, 201
Morning Herald, i. 337
Morning Hill, i. 243, 244
Morning Post, i. 120
Morpeth, ii. 374, 379, 385, 386, 387
Morvan Hills, i. 23
Mosborough, ii. 288
Mosquito Cave, i. 25
Mother Ludlam's Hole, i. 371
Musgrave, Sir R., i. 352
Mulhall, ii. 43, 245
Xaas, i. 1 1
Nadder River, ii. 87
Xailsworth, ii. 141
Nantz, Edict of, i. 352
Napoleon, i. 314, 338, 397 ; ii. 125
Nash, i. 191
National debt, i. 3, 306, 320, 330
National independence, i. 316
National reform, ii. 156
National schools, i. 289, 290
Needham Market, ii. 293, 297
Needles, the, ii. 232
Nelson's Monument, i. 234

Index.

403

Nether Avon, i. 153 ; ii. 54, 61, 82, 83
Netley Abbey, ii. 248, 252, 253, 254
Newark, ii. 145, 346
New Brunswick, i. 302, 312, 313
Newbury, ii. 57, 213
Newcastle-on-Tyne, ii. 361, 370, 372,
374. 378, 381, 386, 3»7. 388
New Forest, i. 204 ; ii. 30, 217, 225,
229, 231, 237, 239, 241, 243, 248,
261
Newgate, i. 351, 352, 355 ; ii. 303
New Jersey, L 181, 266
Newnham, i. 326
New Park, ii. 225, 227, 230, 231
Newport, i. 129 ; ii. 233
New Trespass Act, ii. 102
New York, i. 187, 319 ; ii. 59, 323,
324.338
Nicholls, Mr., i. 58, 123
Nicholson, Peg, ii. 90
Night warblers, ii. 330
Norfolk, L 3
Norfolk petition, ii. n, 255
Normandy, i. 56
Northawton, i. 16
North Briton, L 286
North Chapel, ii. 13, 22
North Cray, i. 168
Northern harvest, ii. 362
Northing-ton Down, i. 129, 168
Northleach, i. 39
North, Lord, i. 59
North Riding, ii. 362
North Tyne, L 166
North wood, Mr. , ii. 277
Norrington, ii. 87
Norton Bovant, ii. 97, 98, 300
Norwich, i. 57, 59, 67, 69, 349 ; ii.
290, 295, 317, 333
Norwich Cathedral, ii. 317
Nott, Dr., i. 34
Nottingham, i. in, 337 ; ii. 289,
346, 296, 316
Nova Scotia, i. 84, 312, 313
Oaks, ii. 253
Ocksey, ii. 133
O'Connel, Daniel, ii. 187
Ogden, ii. 126, 162
Ogle, Sir Charles, i. 372 ; ii. 4, 5
Oldham, ii. 360, 370

Old Sarum, ii. 212, 229
Orbiston, ii. 116
Orde, ii. 253
Order in Council, ii. 146, 267
Ospringe, i. 326
Ouse, River, ii. 328
Oux, River, ii. 241, 243
Owen, Mr. Robert, i. 278 ; ii. 1 16
Oxford, ii. 173
Paddison, ii. 321
Paine, Tom, i. 61, 62 ; ii. 157
Painswick, ii. 142
Paisley, ii. 163
Palmer, Mr., i. 24, 26, 29, 31, 38 ;
ii. 122, 143, 146, 151, 169, 182,
264, 346
Palmerston, Lord, i. 215 ; ii. 84, 201,
203, 222, 239
Palmerston, Vicountess, ii. 226
Paper money, i. 80, 166, 260
Paris, i. 400
Parnell, Sir H., ii. 350
Parsons, i. 249 ; ii. 5, 256
Partridge, American, i. 266, 366
Patronage, Church, ii. 341
Paul, James and Thomas, i. 210 ; ii.
325
Paul's, Cathedral of S., ii. 317
Paulet, Sir William, ii. 248, 252, 253
Paupers, i. 346. 349; ii. 209, 284, 285
Peel, Sir Robert, i. 3, 63, 89, 188,
219, 278 ; iL 5, 6, 1 1, 91, 339, 377,
405
Peel's Bill, 1. 276, 279 ; 11. 43, 220
Penal Code, i. 280
Pencoyd, i. 30
Peniston, John, ii. 320
Pennsylvania, i. 287, 210, 217; ii.
325 , - e.
Penwood, 1. 156
Penyard Hill, i. 25, 26, 37 ; ii. 264
Percival, Mr., L 222, 305, 311, 314,
318, 320, 323; ii. 55, 150
Peterborough, i. 335; 11. 301, 307,
312, 3i8, 33°
Peterloo Massacre, 1. 187, 214; 11.
91, 92, 108
Peter Porcupine, i. 217
Petersfield, i. 1, 164 174. 175, 178;
ii. 1, 813, 223, 262, 265, 272-

404

Index.

Peto, ii. 269
Petty, Sir Wm., ii. 226
Petworth, i. 215, 217, 221, 225, 227,
232, 237, 271, 272; ii. 13, 18, 19,
25
Pevensey, i. 81, 87, 313 ; iL 366
Pewsey, ii. 56, 60, 62, 73
Philadelphia, i. 67, 86, 299 ; ii. 50,
325
Pitchcomb, ii. 142.
Pitsparrow, ii. 330
Pitt, William, i. 21, 59, 82, in, 1 14,
186, 222, 224, 305, 307, 312, 318,
320, 323; ii. 9, 55, 113, 128, 135,
15°. '57
Plaskitt, Mr. Joshua, ii. 322, 323
Ploughs, swing, ii. 94
Plymouth, i. 120, 129, 387 ; ii. 41
Poaching Act, i. 280; ii. 102, 206,
209
Pollen, Sir John, i. 152 ; iL 201, 216
Ponies, New Forest, ii. 239.
Ponsonby, Mr., M.P., i. 120.
Poor Laws, 1. 136, 137, 376 ; ii. 149,
285, 386
"Poor Man's Friend," ii. 215, 220,
269
Poor rates, ii. 149, 251
Pope, the, i. 38; ii. 235, 236, 364,
365
Population, statistics of, 1. 160; ii.
129, 240, 245, 386
Porchester, ii. 263
Portal, Mr., i. 48, 394
Portsdown Hill, i. 173, 224, 233,
234, 255, 264, 275, 304, 310, 313,
ii. 255, 263
Portsmouth, i. 174, 204, 237, 361 ;
ii. 232, 247, 262. 263
Portsmouth Harb-nir, i. 4, S, 51
Portsmouth, Loi\i, ii. 4
Portsea, i. 51, 52, 174, 319, ii. 265
Potatoes, i. 108; ii 571, 372, -,So,
385
Poulter, Rev. E., i. 135, 172, 247,
248
Power of Imprisonment Bill, ii. 55,
102, 152, 162
Poyntz, iMr., i. 121 ; ii. 17, 18
Pratt, Judge, i. 286, 288
Presto'u, ii. 98, 122, 148, 155, 194, 271

Price, Mr., iL 151, 153, 157, 17°. 271
Prince of Saxe Cobury, L 122.
Privy Council, ii. 147
Public credit, L 389
Putney, i. 113
Pym, Mr., i. 23
Quails, i. 266
Quakers, i. 210, 217, 230, 233, 264,
302, 317, 324, 342; ii. n, 107,
109, no, 258, 260
Quebec, ii. 335, 336
Radicals, i. 198, 307
Radnor, Lord, i. 319 ; ii. 1 20
Rag merchants, L 1 7
Raleigh, Sir Walter, ii. 62
Ramsbury, ii. 181, 187
Ramsgate, i. 40, 321
Raspberries, ii. 7
Rathbone Place, i. 352, 357
Rawlinson, L 252, 253, 374 ; ii. 16
Reading, L 162, 163, 164, 335; ii.
126
Redbridge, ii. 237, 247, 248, 256
Red bum, i. 103, 105, 106, 108, 109
Redhill, i. 81, 93
Reeves, i. 115
Reformation, History of, i. 376; ii.
15. 17.239. 253, 292, 3rs, 311
Reform Bill, i. 123, 127 ; ii. 126
Register, the, i. 203. 219, 241, 259,
j 1°. 332, 370 ; ii- 266, 269, 277,
503. 3°7. 359. 366, 373
Reigate, i. 23, 191, 198, 206, 209,
211, 213. 226, 234, 268, 272, 307,
310. 32<>, 330, 343, 348, 351, 354,
35s. 395 = ''• 34, 156. -°-- 2oS.
272
Republicans i. 116
Revenues, Royal, i. 262
Revolution, French, ii. 350, 352
Revolution Settlement, i. 3
Rhine, i. 306, 315
Ricardo, i. 64, 122; ii. 140, 151
156, 190, 194
Rich, Sir R., i. 371, 396
Richard II., ii. 99
Richmond, i. 103, 113
Richmond, Duke of, i. 228 ; ii. 346
Richmond Park, ii. 229

Index.

405

Ridge, Mr., i. 172; ii. 10
Ridley, ii. 377, 378
Ripley, i. 115 ; ii. 33, 34, 386, 387
Ripon, ii. 362
Ringwood, ii. 241
Robinson, Prosperity, ii. 162, 195,
247
Rochdale, ii. 360, 361
Rochester, i. 49, 50, 289, 327
Rodborough, ii. 141
Roe, ii. 103
Rogate, ii. 13, 15, 16
Rolvenden, i. 285, 296, 297 ; ii. 274
Roman Camp, ii. 98
Roman Catholic Emancipation, i.
314, 376
Romilly, Sir C, i. 154
Romney Marsh, i. 297, 302, 304,
313, 320, 321, 325 ; ii. 366
Romney, New, i. 304, 305
Romney, Old, i. 304, 305 ; ii. 1 16
Romsey, ii. 4, 221, 222, 225, 231,
256
Ropley Dean, i. 253, 254, 255, 264,
32°, 331
Rose, George, i. 225, 244, 249, 251,
373,374; iL 216, 222,241
Ross, i. 24, 29, 37, 282; iL 182,310
Rot, sheep, L 356
Rottendean, i. 88
Rouen, ii. 50
Rowland, ii. 268
Royston, L 97, 98, 99
Rufus, Wm., i. 228
Rural police, i. 295
Russell, Lord John, i. 163, 167, 189,
368; 1L253, 312, 313
Russians, ii. 281
Rustic harangue, L 132
Ryall, ii. 151, 162, 163, 170, 175
Rye, L 306
Ryland, i. 24
Salisbury, i. 10, 16, 18, 72, 73,
102, 152, 154; ii. 54, 58, 60, 69,
83, 85, 87, 93, 97, 13c 257, 300,
_309
Salisbury Cathedra], ii. 86, 87, 134,
3°2, 347
Salisbury, Countess of, ii. 17
Salford, ii. 148

Salt hill, ii. 57
Saltmines, i. 320
Salt tax, i. 153, 319, 320, 321
Sandgate, i. 305, 307
Sandhurst, L 49
Sandwich, i. 317, 319, 322, 325
Sarr, i. 322
Sarum, Old, ii. 3, 61
Saxthorpe, i. 64
Scamblesby, ii. 321
Scarlett, i. 49, 89, 284, 335 ; ii. 113,
149, 3°7
Scotch, i. 104
Scotch Reviewers, i. 107
Scot, Mr., i. 256, 322
Scott, i. 288; Sir Wm., ii. 168, 172
Scrips, Mrs., ii. 190
Sebastopol, ii. 281
Sebright, i. 189
Sedgwick, ii. 146
Selborne, i. 179, 185, 224, 247, 256,
261, 331
Selborne, Lord, i. 224
Selsey, Lord, i. 232
Semaphore, i. 268, 271, 361
Serpentine River, ii. 125
Seven-Oaks, i. 71, 72, 82, 309, 330,
331
Severne, River, i. 24; ii. 151, 153,
160,310, 326, 351
Severn Stoke, ii. 167
Seymours, ii. 248
Shaftesbury, ii. 321
Shakespeare, ii. 179
Shalborne, i. 43
Shalford, i. 198
Sharncut, ii. 130, 131, 132, 133, 194
Sheep, ii. 153, 170, 174, 175
Sheffield, ii. 285, 287, 288
Shepherd's Bush, i. m
Sheppey, Isle of, i. 54
Sherburne, ii. 183
Sherwood Forest, i. 129
Shields, The, ii. 378, 379, 381, 386
Shrewsbury, ii. 351, 358, 359, 361
Sibsey, ii. 318, 319
Sidmouth, Lord, 49, 67, 80, 186, 218,
328; ii. 5, 150, 162
Sinclair, Lord, i. 185
Singleton, i. 224, 226, 227, 232
Sittingbdurne, i. 53, 325

406

Index.

Six Acts, i. I, 88, 127, 132, 338; ii.
55, 102, 108, 126, 198.
Slaves, emancipation of, L 385
Small-note Bill, ii. 10, 40, 41, 45,
47, 282
Smith, i. in, 246, 401 ; ii. 128
Smith, Asheton, i. 152; ii. 84, 107,
200, 203, 216
Smith, Sidney, ii. 40
Soberton, i. I, 172 ; ii. 256, 257
Southampton, i. 72, 173, 204, 246,
253. 254 ; '•• 3. 223, 224, 231, 237,
240, 243, 246, 247, 248
Southampton Water, i. 378 ; ii. 243,
246, 247
South Downs, i. 236, 272, 275, 282,
328 ; ii. 18, 48, 56, 210, 263, 318,
371
South Sea Bubble, i. 12
Spithead, ii. 248, 263
Stanley, Hon. E G., ii. 53, 156,
162
Stewart, Lord H, i. 169, 367, 368
Stockbridge, i. 152, 392; iL 4, 221
Stocks, i. 294, 295, 342
Stoke, i. 72 ; ii. 4, 189
Stonehenge, ii. 3, 88
Straw plaiting, i. 220, 232, 240, 241,
. 296 ; ii. 273
SufEeld, Lord, i. 59, 60, 335, 383,
385 ; "• '95
Sunderland, ii. 381, 384, 385, 386
Sutton, i. 274, 275, 279, 377
Swift, Dean, i. 125, 371
Swindon, L 20, 164; ii. 119, 181
Swithin, S., i. 212, 216, 224, 234,
262, 267, 273. 324. 375 ; 11. 86
Tangley, ii. 50, 57
Tarrant, i. 1-6
Taunton, ii. 183, 326
Tavistock, ii. 212
Taxes, i. 17; ii. 103, 300, 33S, 344,
352
Taylor, i. 189; ii. Ill, 156
Tea, duty on, ii. 109, 1 10
Tees, River, ii. 387
Teme, River, ii. 160
Temple, Sir Wm., i. 125, 373, 396
Tenterden, i. 285, 296, 298, 301,
,i24. 328

Test Act, ii. 292
Teste, River, i. 48; ii. 4, 10, 56, 221,
222
Teston, i. 328
Tewkesbury, ii. 153, 170, 173, 310
Treaty of Berlin, iL 281
Treaty of Paris, ii. 281
Thames, the, L 332; ii. 128, 176
Thetford, ii. 293, 294, 301
Thimble and Cowhide, ii. 187, 18S
Thing, the, i. 22, 30, 301 ; ii. 227,
35°. 352
Thompson, Mr., i. 371, 396
Thomson, Poulett, ii. 337
Thomley, ii. 312, 313, 314
Thornton, L 368
Thursley, i. 174, 177, 180, 186, 216,
262, 268, 274, 359, 369 ; ii. 13, 19,
24, 26, 28, 31, 223, 261, 267, 268
Thurstan, Abbot, ii. 302
Thurtell, iL 35
Thwaites, ii. 48, 49, 194
Tidworth, i. 152; iL 200, 203
Tiemey, L 1 89
Tilford, i. 124, 330
Times, The, i. 89, 96 ; ii. 266, 384,
385
Tinkler, L 395
Tisted, East, L 255, 256
Titchbourae, L 170
Titchfield, i. 237, 275 ; ii. 255, 256
Tithes, i. 133, 144, 223 ; ii. 87, 97,
"3.165
Todmorden, iL 361
Tolls, L 200
Tomline, Bishop, i. 251, 371
Tooke, John Horne, ii. 212
Tooth money, ii. 230
Tooting, i. 206
Torrington, Lord, i. 32S
Touche, Robert de la, i. n
lownhill Common, ii. 246
Traveller, The, i. 89, 96, 97
Trevor and Potatoes, ii. 384, 3S5
Tring, ii. 372, 274, 276, 279, 281,
284
Trotten, ii. 16, 17
Trowbridge, ii. 79, 105, 1 16
Truck or Tommy system, ii. 352,
353. 354. 355. 356, 359
Tubb, Mr., i. 152

Index.

407

Tucky, Mr., ii. 179, 180
Tull, Mr., i. 32, 45, 106, 267; ii.
184
Tunbridge, i. 40, 71, 72, 308, 325,
. 329, 379 5 ii- 262, 326
Tunbridge Wells, i. 281, 283, 285
Turkeys, i. 348
Turks, ii. 230, 281
Turner, Jas., ii. 199, 200, 201, 203,
204, 216
Turner's Hill, i. 272, 282
Tumour, ii. 23
Turnpike Acts, i. 200
Tuscany, ii. 273, 275
Tweed, River, ii. 388
Twickenham, i. 1 1 3
Twopenny trash, i. 242, 301
Twyford, ii. 16, 17
Tyne Mercury, i. 16
Tyne, River, ii. 375, 376, 379, 386,
387, 388
UCKFIELD, i. Si, 83, 84, 93
Uly, ii. 142
Unitarians, i. 263, 350, 355, 358 ; ii.
292
United States, ii. 43, 46
Upavon, ii. 62, 73
Upham, i. 242, 243
Uphusband, i. 6, 8, 15, 47, 113, 132,
146, 149, I52. 154, 162; ii. 3, 4,
10, 49, 57, 213, 214, 221
Up Park, ii. 261, 272
Upping-blocks, ii. 176
Uppington, ii. 88
Upsheet, i. 322
Upton Gray, L 128
Upton Level, ii. 79, 105, 151
Upwaltham, i. 227, 229, 231, 232
Usury, ii. 177, 259
Uxbridge, i. m
Vansittart, Right Hon. H., i.
55 5 "- 16
.Vagrant Act, ii. 106
Verulam, Lord, ii. 117
Vicarages, Parliamentary returns re
specting, ii. 129
Victory, The line of battleship, i. 48
Vines, ii. 281
Virginia, ii. 60

Virginia Water, i. 161
Voltaire, i. 19
Vortigern, ii. 179
W addington, Mr., i. 289
Wages, Agricultural, ii. 68, 250, 251
Waithman, Sheriff, L 247
Wakefield, ii. 286
Walker, Mr., i. 56
Waller, Mr., i. 53, 325, 326
Walmer, i. 317, 318
Walter, Mr. Jno., ii. 384
Waltham, i. 72
Waltham Chase, ii. 256, 260, 26 1
Walton Heath, i. 279
Wansdike, i. 15
Ward, i. 120
Ware, i. 97, 98
Warminster, ii. 79, 85, 87, 89, 95,
96, 97, 99, 103, 105, 106, no, 113,
115, 116, 130, 173, 183, 300
Warner, Mr., ii. 255, 257
Warnford, i. 172
Warwick, ii. 153, 310
Washington, General, i. 317
Waterloo, Battle of, i. 104, 223, 269,
400; ii. 124
Watford, i. 103, 105
Watson, Mr. Joshua, i. 290, 291,
292
Waverley Abbey, i. 124, 371, 396
Wear River, ii. 387
Weavers, ii. 105, 265, 266, 267, 268
Webb Hallites, i. 54, 76, 77, 84,
88,91
Webster, i. 78
Well, i. 128
Wellington, Duke of, i. 158,. 338,
377 ; ". 55, I24, 209, 279
Wen, the, i. 52, 57, 71, 81, 92, 97,
103, 176, 180, 206, 209, 215, 228,
236, 245, 255, 261, 273, 279, 283,
295, -°8, 32', 33° i «• 34. 66, 67,
82, 83, 123, 129, 161, 165, 180,
183, 272, 297, 331, 334, 347, 349
Wendover,. i. no
West, Mr., ii. 216
Westborough Gieen, i. 219
Westbourn, i. 232, 233
Westbury, ii. 79, no, 116
West End, i. 175 ; ii. 223, 257

408

Index.

Westerham, i. 308, 329, 330, 331, 332
Western, Lord, i. 278; ii. 158
Westminster, ii. 212
Westminsier Abbey, i. 8, 324; ii. 135
Weston, i. 24, 25, 33, 37, 99 ; ii. 223,
240, 246, 249, 252, 254, 256, 261,
270, 369
Weston, Mr., i. 115, 184, 203; ii.
33. « 58
Westphalia, i. 33
Wetherspoon, Mr., ii. 212
W'eybridge, i. 225
Weyhill, i. 15, 118, 132, 150, 1 51 ;
ii. 49, 193, 194, 198, 199, 215, 257
Wey River, 1. 119, 125, 225, 257,
360 ; ii. 268
Wheat, i. 341, 345 ; iL 191, 275
Wherwell, i. 146
Whig oligarchy, i. 36
Whigs, iL 211,-385
Whitchurch, i. 24, 47, 48, 167, 377,
379. 393, 394, 395. 397. 398 ; iL 4
Whitbread, i. 156, 189
Whiteflood, i. 243
Whitehall, i. 224, 301, 316, 332, 333;
• ii. 105, 127
White, Rev. Gilbert, i. 3, 186, 224,
256, 257, 377
Whitlock, General, i. 213
Whitney, i. 39
Wickliffe, ii. 351
Wilbarton, ii. 332
Wilberforce, i. 189, 284, 2S7, 299
Wilbraham, i. 316
Wilkes, Judge, i. 286
William the Conqueror, i. 378 : iL
239, 240, 241, 243, 244, 205, 302
Willis, Under-Sheriff, L 250
Wilmot, ii. 295, 337, 361
Wilson, Sir R., i. 23, 297; ii. 211,
212
Wilton, ii. 145
Wiltshire, ii. 51
Wiltshire, Earl of, ii. 253
Wimmering, i. 234 ; ii. 263
Winchester, i. 102, 113, 125, 12S,
131, 136, 140, 154. 165, 107, 173,
178. 239. 243, 244, 246, 254; ii.
4, 9. 134, 201, 208, 299, 241, 244,
255. 3'2
Winchester, Bishop of, i. 212

Winchester Cathedral, ii. 302
Winchester, Marquis of, ii. 253
Windham, Mr., i. 82, 369
Windsor, L 207
Windsor Park, i. 129, 1 59, 161, 176,
289 ; ii. 229
Winnall, Mr., i. 31, 32
Winnington, Sir Thos., ii. 160, 162,
'73
Winstan, iL 173
Winterborne Stoke, ii. 88
Winter, Sir Thos., iL 155
Winterton, Lord, iL 22, 23, 24
Wisbeach, ii. 301, 308, 312, 313, 314,
326
Wishford, ii. 88
Witchcraft, i. 281
Withers, i. 59
Withington, ii. 173, 176
Witney, iL 173, 177
Wittersham, ii. 261, 274
Wobum, iL 312
Wodehouse, Colonel, L 384
Wodehouse, Mr. Edmund, iL 12
Wolseley, Sir Chas., ii. 380
Wolsey, Cardinal, ii. 296
Wolverhampton, ii. 351, 352
Wonston, ii. 4
W'oodchester, iL 141
Woodcote, ii. 1
Woodhay, East, iL 1 90
Woodhay, West, iL 190
Woodlands, The, L 6; ii. 272, 273, 381
Woodman, ii. 182
Wood, Mr. John, ii. 53, 155, 162, 274
Wood, O., ii. 98
Woods and Forests, L 262 ; ii. 227
Woodward, L 86
Wool, ii. 332, 359
Woolmer i-oresi, i. 175, 179, 181,
261, 262 ; ii. 29, 30
Wooton Basset, ii. 118, 1 19
Wooton Rivers, ii. 58, 69
Worcester, iL 153, 154, 157, 160,
162, 164, 167, 173, 182, 310, 326,
337
Worcester Cathedral, ii. 157
Worth, L 23, 81, 84, 93, 176, 199,
201, 206, 211, 213, 215, 272, 279
281, 282; ii. 13, 121
Worthing, i. 40, 360

Index.

409

Wrecklesham, i. 124, 126, 128

Yarmouth, Great, i. 67

Wright, Mrs., i. 280

Yarmouth, ii. 232, 336

Wright, Rev., i. 247, 248

Yelverton, ii. 290

Wriothesleys, ii. 253

Yeomanry troops, i. 1 50; ii. 90,

Wycombe, High, 1. no, in

152, 162, 266

Wye River, i. 25 ; ii. 183
Yew trees, i. 129, 257
Wykham, i. 383
York, ii. 285, 338
Wykham, William of, i. 372, 374, 375
York, Duke of, i. 114, 213
Wyly River, ii. 87, 89, 90, 93, 369
Yorke, i. 288
Wymondham, ii. 294
York Place, i. 49
Wyndham, Sir Wm., ii. 19, 21
Yorkshire hills, ii. 362
Wynn, Rt. Honble. C, i. 185
Yorkshire reformers, i. 335
Wysihicken, i. 2, 3
Young, i. 43, 242 ; ii. 191
THE END.
Printed by Ballaktvnk, Hanson &• Co.
JEdinburgh &• London
5245