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  RURAL RIDES

  BY WILLIAM COBBETT

  T. Nelson & Sons




CONTENTS.


  Rural Ride from London, through Newbury, to Burghclere,
  Hurstbourn Tarrant, Marlborough, and Cirencester, to
  Gloucester                                                           5

  Rural Ride from Gloucester, to Bollitree in Herefordshire,
  Ross, Hereford, Abingdon, Oxford, Cheltenham, Burghclere,
  Whitchurch, Uphurstbourn, and thence to Kensington                  21

  Rural Ride from Kensington to Dartford, Rochester,
  Chatham, and Faversham                                              40

  Norfolk and Suffolk Journal                                         45

  Rural Ride from Kensington to Battle, through Bromley,
  Sevenoaks, and Tunbridge                                            54

  Rural Ride through Croydon, Godstone, East Grinstead,
  and Uckfield, to Lewes, and Brighton; returning by
  Cuckfield, Worth, and Red-hill                                      61

  Rural Ride from London, through Ware and Royston, to
  Huntingdon                                                          73

  Rural Ride from Kensington to St. Albans, through Edgware,
  Stanmore, and Watford, returning by Redbourn, Hempstead,
  and Chesham                                                         78

  Rural Ride from Kensington to Uphusband; including a Rustic
  Harangue at Winchester, at a Dinner with the Farmers                85

  Rural Ride through Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, and Sussex        107

  Rural Ride from Kensington to Worth, in Sussex                     148

  Rural Ride from the (London) Wen across Surrey, across the
  West of Sussex, and into the South-East of Hampshire               150

  Rural Ride through the South-East of Hampshire, back
  through the South-West of Surrey, along the Weald of
  Surrey, and then over the Surrey Hills down to the Wen             171

  Rural Ride through the North-East part of Sussex, and all
  across Kent, from the Weald of Sussex, to Dover                    200

  Rural Ride from Dover, through the Isle of Thanet, by
  Canterbury and Faversham, across to Maidstone, up to
  Tonbridge, through the Weald of Kent and over the Hills
  by Westerham and Hays, to the Wen                                  221

  Rural Ride from Kensington, across Surrey, and along that
  county                                                             245

  Rural Ride from Chilworth, in Surrey, to Winchester                256

  Rural Ride from Winchester to Burghclere                           269

  Rural Ride from Burghclere to Petersfield                          287

  Rural Ride from Petersfield to Kensington                          296

  Rural Ride down the Valley of the Avon in Wiltshire                327

  Rural Ride from Salisbury to Warminster, from Warminster
  to Frome, from Frome to Devizes, and from Devizes to
  Highworth                                                          348

  Rural Ride from Highworth to Cricklade, and thence to
  Malmsbury                                                          368

  Rural Ride from Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, through
  Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire                 386

  Rural Ride from Ryall, in Worcestershire, to Burghclere,
  in Hampshire                                                       405

  Rural Ride from Burghclere, to Lyndhurst, in the New Forest        426

  Rural Ride from Lyndhurst to Beaulieu Abbey; thence to
  Southampton, and Weston; thence to Botley, Allington, West
  End, near Hambledon; and thence to Petersfield, Thursley,
  and Godalming                                                      449

  Rural Ride from Weston, near Southampton, to Kensington            462

  Rural Ride to Tring, in Hertfordshire                              485

  Northern Tour                                                      494

  Eastern Tour                                                       498

  Midland Tour                                                       535

  Tour in the West                                                   550

  Progress in the North                                              551




RURAL RIDES, ETC.

JOURNAL: FROM LONDON, THROUGH NEWBURY, TO BERGHCLERE, HURSTBOURN
TARRANT, MARLBOROUGH, AND CIRENCESTER, TO GLOUCESTER.


_Berghclere, near Newbury, Hants, October 30, 1821, Tuesday (Evening)._

Fog that you might cut with a knife all the way from London to Newbury.
This fog does not _wet_ things. It is rather a _smoke_ than a fog. There
are no two things in _this world_; and, were it not for fear of
_Six-Acts_ (the "wholesome restraint" of which I continually feel) I
might be tempted to carry my comparison further; but, certainly, there
are no two things in _this world_ so dissimilar as an English and a Long
Island autumn.--These fogs are certainly the _white clouds_ that we
sometimes see aloft. I was once upon the Hampshire Hills, going from
Soberton Down to Petersfield, where the hills are high and steep, not
very wide at their base, very irregular in their form and direction, and
have, of course, deep and narrow valleys winding about between them. In
one place that I had to pass, two of these valleys were cut asunder by a
piece of hill that went across them and formed a sort of bridge from one
long hill to another. A little before I came to this sort of bridge I
saw a smoke flying across it; and, not knowing the way by experience, I
said to the person who was with me, "there is the turnpike road (which
we were expecting to come to); for, don't you see the dust?" The day was
very fine, the sun clear, and the weather dry. When we came to the pass,
however, we found ourselves, not in dust, but in a fog. After getting
over the pass, we looked down into the valleys, and there we saw the fog
going along the valleys to the North, in detached parcels, that is to
say, in clouds, and, as they came to the pass, they rose, went over it,
then descended again, keeping constantly along just above the ground.
And, to-day, the fog came by _spells_. It was sometimes thinner than at
other times; and these changes were very sudden too. So that I am
convinced that these fogs are _dry clouds_, such as those that I saw on
the Hampshire Downs. Those did not _wet_ me at all; nor do these fogs
wet any thing; and I do not think that they are by any means injurious
to health.--It is the fogs that rise out of swamps, and other places,
full of putrid vegetable matter, that kill people. These are the fogs
that sweep off the new settlers in the American Woods. I remember a
valley in Pennsylvania, in a part called _Wysihicken_. In looking from a
hill, over this valley, early in the morning, in November, it presented
one of the most beautiful sights that my eyes ever beheld. It was a sea
bordered with beautifully formed trees of endless variety of colours. As
the hills formed the outsides of the sea, some of the trees showed only
their tops; and, every now-and-then, a lofty tree growing in the sea
itself raised its head above the apparent waters. Except the setting-sun
sending his horizontal beams through all the variety of reds and yellows
of the branches of the trees in Long Island, and giving, at the same
time, a sort of silver cast to the verdure beneath them, I have never
seen anything so beautiful as the foggy valley of the Wysihicken. But I
was told that it was very fatal to the people; and that whole families
were frequently swept off by the "_fall-fever_."--Thus the _smell_ has a
great deal to do with health. There can be no doubt that Butchers and
their wives fatten upon the smell of meat. And this accounts for the
precept of my grandmother, who used to tell me to _bite my bread and
smell to my cheese_; talk, much more wise than that of certain _old
grannies_, who go about England crying up "the _blessings_" of
paper-money, taxes, and national debts.

The fog prevented me from seeing much of the fields as I came along
yesterday; but the fields of Swedish Turnips that I did see were good;
pretty good; though not clean and neat like those in Norfolk. The
farmers here, as every where else, complain most bitterly; but they hang
on, like sailors to the masts or hull of a wreck. They read, you will
observe, nothing but the country newspapers; they, of course, know
nothing of the _cause_ of their "bad times." They hope "the times will
mend." If they quit business, they must sell their stock; and, having
thought this worth so much money, they cannot endure the thought of
selling for a third of the sum. Thus they hang on; thus the landlords
will first turn the farmers' pockets inside out; and then their turn
comes. To finish the present farmers will not take long. There has been
stout fight going on all this morning (it is now 9 o'clock) between the
_sun_ and the _fog_. I have backed the former, and he appears to have
gained the day; for he is now shining most delightfully.

Came through a place called "a park" belonging to a Mr. MONTAGUE, who is
now _abroad_; for the purpose, I suppose, of generously assisting to
compensate the French people for what they lost by the entrance of the
Holy Alliance Armies into their country. Of all the ridiculous things I
ever saw in my life this place is the most ridiculous. The house looks
like a sort of church, in somewhat of a gothic style of building, with
_crosses_ on the tops of different parts of the pile. There is a sort of
swamp, at the foot of a wood, at no great distance from the front of the
house. This swamp has been dug out in the middle to show the water to
the eye; so that there is a sort of river, or chain of diminutive lakes,
going down a little valley, about 500 yards long, the water proceeding
from the _soak_ of the higher ground on both sides. By the sides of
these lakes there are little flower gardens, laid out in the Dutch
manner; that is to say, cut out into all manner of superficial
geometrical figures. Here is the _grand en petit_, or mock magnificence,
more complete than I ever beheld it before. Here is a _fountain_, the
basin of which is not four feet over, and the water spout not exceeding
the pour from a tea-pot. Here is a _bridge_ over a _river_ of which a
child four years old would clear the banks at a jump. I could not have
trusted myself on the bridge for fear of the consequences to Mr.
MONTAGUE;