Rural Rides

William Cobbett was an English journalist, agricultarlist and political reformer born on the 9th March 1763 in Farnham, Surrey. He was taught to read and write by his father and first worked as a farm labourer.

Cobbett enlisted in the British Army in 1784 and made good use of the soldier's spare time to educate himself in English grammar. He obtained discharge from the Army in 1791 and in 1792 he fled to France. He intended to stay a year to learn the French language but this was at the time of the French Revolution, and the French revolutionary wars were in progress, so he left for the US in 1792.

Cobbett became a controversial political writer and in 1802, started his own newpaper called the Weekly Political Register. At first he supported the Tories but soon became a radical. By 1806 he was a strong advocate of Parliamentary reform. After sucessfully publicising the radical movement, the Reform Bill of 1832 was introduced and Cobbett won the parliamentary seat of Oldham.

Cobbett wrote many polemics, arguing strongly on subjects from political reform to religion, but is most famous for his book called Rural Rides, which he published in 1830. Cobbett began writing the book in the early 1820's at the time when he was an anti-Corn Law campaigner, newly returned to England from the US. He disapproved of proposals for remedies for agricultural distress suggested in Parliament in 1821. He made up his mind to see conditions for himself, and to "enforce by actual observation of rural conditions", the statements he had made in answer to the arguments of the landlords before the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee.

Throughout his book, Cobbett describes a series of journeys he took by horseback accross the countryside, from Southeast England to the English Midlands. The book is set in the form of a diary, Cobbett wrote down what he saw from the point of view of both a farmer and a social reformer. Cobbett describes in detail the scenary of the early nineteenth century countryside and its people and community and expresses his own opinions.

Concern and passion for mostly the people is shown throughout his book. Cobbett descirbes his past memories of when he visited these same places when he was young. He seems to enjoy talking of his childhood yet at the same time, he feels anger because the system will ruin the many places he spent his childhood in.