Rural Rides

A key text for the understanding of Victorian politics and England's rural history

William Cobbett (1763-1835) spent his youth as a farm worker and gardener. He lived in revolutionary France and Philadelphia where, as 'Peter Porcupine', he rose to fame as a pro-British and anti-Jacobin journalist. Later, back in England, he became a Radical and promoted the cause of reform in politics and agriculture. Ian Dyck is Associate Professor of History at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. He is the author of 'William Cobbett and Rural Popular Culture' (CUP, 1992).

Travelling on horseback through southern England in the early 19th century, William Cobbett provides evocative and accurate descriptions of the countryside, colourful accounts of his encounters with labourers, and indignant outbursts at the encroaching cities and the sufferings of the exploited poor. Ian Dyck's new edition places these lively accounts of rural life in the context of Cobbett's political and social beliefs and reveals the volume as his platform for rural radical reform.

William Cobbett

Touring the southern counties of England by foot and on horseback from the white cliffs of Dover to the heart of the countryside, William Cobbett recorded a swiftly changing way of life with energy, wit, passion and principle. Here he juxtaposes lyrical evocations of oaken wealds, cornfields, rolling downs and shaded lanes with acerbic attacks on the poverty of starving agricultural workers and the corrupt establishment of his day. 
 
Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside - but it has profoundly shaped us too.It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians and people who live and work on the land - as well as those who are travelling through it.English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie and country churches, to man's relationship with nature and songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts and love-struck soldiers).

William Cobbett

Books by William Cobbett

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