Rural Rides

Rural Rides is a 1830 book published by the English writer William Cobbett.

Background and content

William Cobbett was one of the most remarkable characters of the 19th century. Born in Surrey and grew up as a plowman or human scarecrow in a little blue smock ( "human scarecrow in a little blue smock "), as he called it, was a soldier and later a political journalist, escaped the French Revolution and lived in Philadelphia later. After his return from the United States in 1821, he began a series of trips through southern England, to see how the local landscape had changed since his childhood.

The resulting therefrom book Rural Rides is a classic portrait of rural life just before the Industrial Revolution. Since its first publication in 1830, there will always be relaunched and appreciated by writers such as Matthew Arnold, or the historian Alan JP Taylor.

These trips brought Cobbett returned to his roots in a wonderfully intimate and leisurely pace. He traveled to Selborne in Hampshire, where a priest was short shot before and after Thursley in Surrey, where the entire community eagerly a fox hunt expected as happy as if all were young and they all went straight to their own wedding ("as happy as if all were young and all just going to be married ").

With the knowledge of a farmer, he noticed the seeds and the state of the arable land, and he has a passion for the poor and what he perceives as a constant gradient of rural life from the perspective of the growth of cities. Although much has long since disappeared from the enumerated by him, another is still relevant today as the statements made by the farmers losses, the corruption of politicians and the devaluation of the currency.

In a sturdy, comfortable and conspicuous language Cobbett scorn poured on the built to repulse of Napoleon Bonaparte Martello towers ( I dare to say that they cost MILLIONS ("I dare say They cost MILLIONS " ) ), over the bullfrog ( " bullfrog " ) or greedy landowner and "The Great Wen " or boil, as he referred disparagingly London. Eloquence he describes the beauty of the English countryside and the importance of the three B's for the ordinary worker: " Bacon, Bread and Beer" (bacon, bread and beer).

The journalist Richard Ingrams executes in a new edition of the book that Cobbett was possessed of a remarkably English mind, the radical faith with conservative instincts combined, a stubborn individuality and, above all, the ability to make his readers laugh ( " an attitude of mind distinctly English, combining radical beliefs with conservative individuality and, above all, the ability to make his readers laugh " ).

The book is a rich portrait of both an age and an outstanding personality.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton described the book as follows:

External links and sources

• Rural Rides (Google Books)
• William Cobbett: Rural Rides (Vision of Britain )
• New Books of 2010 ( Catalogue of the Folio Society )

• Literary work
• Literature (19th century)
• Literature ( English )