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RURAL RIDES
IN THE COUNTIES OE
Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hants, Berks, Oxford, Bucks,
Wilts, Somerset, Gloucester, Hereford, Salop, Worcester,
Stafford, Leicester, Hertford, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk,
Cambridge, Huntingdon, Nottingham, Lincoln, York, Lan-
caster, Durham, and Northumberland, in the years
1821, 1822, 1823, 1825, 1826, 1829, 1830, and 1832:
WITH
Economical and Political Observations relative to
Matters Applicable to, and Illustrated by, the State
of those Counties respectively.
On the 27th inst., at the residence or his Bister. 32, Wigmore-street, '
William Oobbett, of Frimley, Surrey, after five days illness, of
pleuro-pneumonia, aged 70. Friends will kindly accept this intima-
tion.
BY
WILLIAM COBBETT.
A New Edition, with Notes,
By JAMES PAUL COBBETT, Babbisteb-at-Law.
LONDON
PUBLISHED BY A. COBBETT, 137, STRAND.
1853.
PREFACE.
The reader will perceive that there are, in the
course of these Rides," some instances in which the
Author has gone over the same part of the country
on more than one occasion : and it may, also, be con-
sidered, that there are certain repetitions in the
writing, of statements of fact, or of remarks, which
might with propriety have been omitted.
That omission, however, it was not easy to effect,
without such alterations as would perhaps seem ob-
jectionable ; and it has therefore been thought best
to reprint the several passages in their original form.
The Portrait accompanying this Edition is from a
model for a medallion, made by an eminent artist,
Mr. Peter Rouw, in 1824, when the Author was in
his 62nd year. The engraving has been made with
very great exactness, and is the most accurate like-
ness of Mr. Cobbbtt that has been published
hitherto.
Manchester, Jane, 1853.
CONTENTS.
Rural Ride, from London, through Newbury, to Berghclere, Hurst-
bourn Tarrant, Marlborough, and Cirencester, to Glou-
cester : page 1.
from Gloucester, to Bollitree in Herefordshire, Ross,
Hereford, Abingdon, Oxford, Cheltenham, Berghclere,
Whitchurch, Uphurstbourn, and thence to Kensington :
page 19.
from Kensington to Dartford, Rochester, Chatham, and
Faversham : page 40.
Norfolk and Suffolk Journal: page 46.
from Kensington to Battle, through Bromley, Sevenoaks,
and Tunbridge : page 56.
through Croydon, Godstone, East Grinstead, and Uck-
field, to Lewes, and Brighton ; returning by Cuckfield,
Worth, and Red-Hill: page 64.
from London, through Ware and Royston, to Hunting-
don : page 77.
from Kensington, to St. Albans, through Edgware,
Stanmore, and Watford, returning by Redbourn, Hemp-
stead, and Chesham : page 82.
from Kensington to Uphusband ; including a Rustic Ha-
rangue at Winchester, at a Dinner with the Farmers :
page 90.
through Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, and Sussex :
page 115.
from Kensington to Worth, in Sussex : page 161.
from the (London) Wen across Surrey, across the West
of Sussex, and into the South East of Hampshire : page
164.
— 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 : page 187-
through the North East part of Sussex, and all across
Kent, from the Weald of Sussex, to Dover : page 221.
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 Wester-
ham and Hays, to the Wen : page 244.
CONTENTS.
Rural Ride from Kensington, across Surrey, and along that county :
page 271.
from Chilworth, in Surrey, to Winchester: page 284.
from Winchester to Berghclere : page 298.
from Berghclere to Petersneld : page 319.
— — from Petersfield to Kensington : page 329.
down the Vale of the Avon in Wiltshire : page 363.
from Salisburyto Warminster, from Warminster to Frome,
from Frome to Devizes, and from Devizes to Highworth :
page 390.
from Highworth to Cricklade, and thence to Malmsbury :
page 411.
from Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, through Gloucestershire,
Herefordshire, and Worcestershire: page 431.
" from Ryall, in Worcestershire, to Berghclere, in Hamp-
shire : page 453.
from Berghclere, to Lyndhurst, in the New Forest:
page 480.
from Lyndhurst to Beaulieu Abbey ; thence to Southamp-
ton, and Weston ; thence to Botley, Allington, West
End, near Hambledon ; and thence to Petersneld, Thurs-
ley, and Godalming : page 504.
from Weston, near Southampton, to Kensington :
page 518.
to Tring, in Hertfordshire : page 545.
Northern Tour : page 555.
■ Eastern Tour : page 560.
Midland Tour : page 602.
— Progress in the North : page 619.
Notes: page 642.
" Woodland countries are interesting on many accounts. Not so much on ac-
count of their masses of green leaves, as on account of the variety of sights aud
sounds and iucidents that they afford. Even in winter the coppices are beautiful
to the eye, while they comfort the mind with the idea of shelter and warmth. In
spring they change their hue from day to day during two whole months, which
is about the time from the first appearance of the delicate leaves of the birch to
the full expansion of those of the ash ; and, even before the leaves come at
all to intercept the view, what in the vegetable creation is so delightful to behold
as the bed of a coppice bespangled with primroses and bluebells ? The opening
of the birch leaves is the signal for the pheasant to begin to crow, for the black-
bird to whistle, and the thrush to sing ; and, just when the oak-buds begin to
look reddish, and not a day before, the whole tribe of finches burst forth in songs
from every bough, while the lark, imitating them all, carries the joyous sounds to
the sky. These are amongst the means which Providence has benignantly ap-
pointed to sweeten the toils by which food and raiment are produced ; these the
English ploughman could once hear without the sorrowful reflection that he him-
self wa9 a pauper, and that the bounties of nature had, for him, been scattered
in vain !" — Paye 63.
RURAL RIDES, &c.
[The figures in the text, in parenthesis, refer to some Notes which
will be found at the end of the book.]
JOURNAL: FROM LONDON, THROUGH NEWBURY, TO BERGH-
CLERE, 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 fo£. There are no two things in this
world; and, were it not for fear of Six- Acts (1) (the
" wholesome restraint" of which I continually feel) I might
be tempted to carry my comparison further ; hut, certainly,
there are no two things in this world so dissimilar as an
English and a Long Island autumn. — These fogs are cer-
tainly the while 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 vou see the dust?" The dav was verv fine, the
B
2 journal: london to berghclere.
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 des-
cended 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 Hamp-
shire-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 IFys'ihicken. 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. Ex-
cept 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 5 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 bless-
ings" of paper-money, taxes, and national debts. (2)
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
JOURNAL: LONDON TO BERGHCLERE. d
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 land-
lords 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 Al-
liance 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 fogt 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 super-
ficial geometrical figures. Here is the grand en petit, or
mock magnificence, more complete than I ever beheld it
before. Here is a fountain, the bason 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 conse-
quences to Mr. Montague ; but I very conveniently stepped
over the river, in imitation of the Colossus. In another part
there was a lions mouth spouting out water into the lake,
which was so much like the vomiting of a dog, that I could
almost have pitied the poor Lion. In short, such fooleries
I never before beheld ; but, what I disliked most was the
apparent impiety of a part of these works of refined taste.
b 2
4 JOURNAL : LONDON TO BERGHCLERK.
I did not like the crosses on the dwelling house ; but, in
one of the gravel walks, we had to pass under a gothic arch,
-with a cross on the top of it, and, in the point of the arch a
niche for a saint or a virgin, the figure being gone through
the lapse of centuries, and the pedestal only remaining as we
so frequently see on the outsides of Cathedrals and of old
Churches and Chapels. But, the good of it was, this
gothic arch, disfigured by the hand of old Father Time,
was composed of Scotch fir wood, as rotten as a pear;
nailed together in such a way as to make the thing appear,
from a distance, like the remnant of a ruin ! I wonder how
long this sickly, this childish, taste is to remain ? I do not
know who this gentleman is. I suppose he is some honest
person from the 'Change or its neighbourhood ; and that
these gothic arches are to denote the antiquity of his origin!
Not a bad plan ; and, indeed, it is one that I once took the
liberty to recommend to those Fundlords who retire to be
country-'squires. But, I never recommended the Crucifixes !
To be sure the Roman Catholic religion may, in England, be
considered as a gentleman s religion, it being the most ancient
in the country ; and, therefore, it is fortunate for a Fundlord
when he happens (if he ever do happen) to be of that faith.
This gentleman may, for anything that I know, be a
Catholic ; in which case I applaud his piety and pity his
taste. At the end of this scene of mock grandeur and mock
antiquity I found something more rational ; namelv, some
hare hounds, and, in half an hour after, we found, and I had
the first hare-hunt that I had had since I wore a smock-frock I
We killed our hare, after good sport, and got to Berghclere
in the evening to a nice farm-house in a dell, sheltered from
every wind, and with plenty of good living ; though with no
gothic arches made of Scotch-fir !
October 31. Wednesday.
A fine day. Too many hares here ; but, our hunting
was not bad ; or, at least, it was a great treat to me, who
used, when a boy, to have my legs and thighs so often filled
with thorns in running after the hounds, anticipating with
pretty great certainty, a •• waling " of the back at night.
We had grey- hounds a part of the day ; but the ground on
the hills is so flinty, that I do not like the country for
coursing. The dogs' legs are presently cut to pieces.'
JOURNAL HURSTBOURN TARRANT. O
Nov. 1. Thursday.
Mr. Budd (3) has Swedish Turnips, Mangel- Wurzel, and
Cabbages of various kinds, transplanted. All are very fine
indeed. It is impossible to make more satisfactory experi-
ments in transplanting than have been made here. But,
this is not a proper place to give a particular account of
them. I went to see the best cultivated parts round New-
bury ; but I saw no spot with half the " feed " that I see
here, upon a spot of similar extent.
JIurstbourn Tarrant, Hants,
Nov. 2. Friday.
This place is commonly called Uphusband, which is, I
think, as decent a corruption of names as one would wish to
meet with. However, Uphusband the people will have it,
and Uphusband it shall be for me. I came from Berghclere
this morning, and through the park of Lord Caernarvon,
at Highclere. It is a fine season to look at woods. The
oaks are still covered, the beeches in their best dress, the
elms yet pretty green, and the beautiful ashes only begin-
ning to turn off. This is, according to my fancy, the pret-
tiest park that I have ever seen. A great variety of hill and
dell. A good deal of water, and this, in one part, only
wants the colours of American trees to make it look like a
"creek ;" for the water runs along at the foot of a steepish
hill, thickly covered with trees, and the branches of the
lowermost trees hang down into the water and hide the bank
completely. I like this place better than Fonthill, Blenheim,
Stowe, or any other gentleman's grounds that I have seen.
The house I did not care about, though it appears to be
large enough to hold half a village. The trees are very
good, and the woods would be handsomer if the larches and
firs were burnt, for which only they are fit. The great
beauty of the place is, the lofty downs, as steep, in some
places, as the roof of a house, which form a sort of
boundary, in the form of a part of a crescent, to about a
third part of the park, and then slope off and get more dis-
tant, for about half another third part. A part of these
downs is covered with trees, chiefly beech, the colour of
which, at this season, forms a most beautiful contrast with
that of the down itself, which is so green and so smooth !
From the vale in the park, along which we rode, we looked
apparently almost perpendicularly up at the downs, where
6 JOURNAL : HURSTBOURN TARRANT.
the trees have extended themselves by seed more in some
places than others, and thereby formed numerous salient
parts of various forms, and, of course, as many and as
variously formed glades. These, which are always so beau-
tiful in forests and parks, are peculiarly beautiful in this lofty
situation and with verdure so smooth as that of these chalky
downs. Our horses beat up a score or two of hares as we
crossed the park ; and, though we met with no gothic
arches made of Scotch-fir, we saw something a great deal
better ; namely, about forty cows, the most beautiful that I
ever saw, as lo colour at least. They appear to be of the
Galway-breed. They are called, in this country, Lord Caer-
narvon's breed. They have no horns, and their colour is a
ground of white with black or red spots, these spots being
from the size of a plate to that of a crown-piece ; and some
of them have no small spots. These cattle were lying down
together in the space of about an acre of ground : they
were in excellent condition, and so fine a sight of the kind
I never saw. Upon leaving the park, and coming over the
hills to this pretty vale of Uphusband, I could not help cal-
culating bow long it might be before some Jew would begin
to fix his eye upon Highclere, and talk of putting out the
present owner, who, though a Whig, is one of the best of
that set of politicians, and who acted a manly part in the
case of our deeply injured and deeply lamented Queen.
Perhaps his Lordship thinks, that there is no fear of the
Jews as to him. But, does be think, that his tenants can
sell fat hogs at 7s. 6d. a score, and pay him more than a
third of the rent that they have paid him while the debt was
contracting ? I know, that such a man does not lose his
estate at once ; but, without rents, what is the estate ?
And, that the Jews will receive the far greater part of his
rents is certain, unless the interest of the Debt be reduced.
Lord Caernarvon told a man, in 1820, that he did not
like my politics. But, what did he mean by my politics?
I have no politics but such as he ought to like. I want to
do away with that infernal system, which, after having
beggared and pauperized the Labouring Classes, has now,
according to the Report, made by the Ministers themselves
to the House of Commons, (4) plunged the owners of the
land themselves into a state of distress, for which those
Ministers themselves can hold out no remedy ! To be sure
I labour most assiduously to destroy a system of distress
and misery ; but, is that any reason why a Lord should dis-
journal: hurstbourn tarrant. 7
like my politics ? However, dislike, or like them, to them,
to those very politics, the Lords themselves must come at
last. And that I should exult in this thought, and take
little pains to disguise my exultation, can surprise nohody
who reflects on what has passed within these last twelve
years. If the Landlords be well ; if things be going right
with them ; if they have fair prospects of happy days ; then
what need they care about me and my politics ; but, if they
find themselves in " distress," and do not know bow to get
out of it ; and, if they have been plunged into this distress
by those who "dislike my politics;" is there not some rea-
son for men of sense to hesitate a little before they condemn
those politics ? If no great change be wanted ; if things
could remain even ; then, men may, with some show of rea-
son, say that I am disturbing that which ought to be let
alone. But, if things cannot remain as they are ; if there
must be a great change ,• is it not folly, and, indeed, is it
not a species of idiotic perverseness, for men to set their
faces, without rhyme or reason, against what is said as to
this change by me, who have, for nearly twenty years, been
warning the country of its danger, and foretelling that which
has now come to pass and is coming to pass ? However,
I make no complaint on this score. People disliking my
politics "neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg," as
Jefferson said by the writings of the Atheists. If they
be pleased in disliking my politics, I am pleased in liking
them ; and so we are both enjoying ourselves. If the
country want no assistance from me, I am quite sure that I
want none from it.
Nov. 3. Saturday.
Fat hogs have lately sold, in this village, at 7s. 6d. a
score (but would hardly bring that now), that is to say, at
4|d. a pound. The hog is weighed whole, when killed and
dressed. The head and feet are included; but, so is the
lard. Hogs fatted on peas or barley-meal may be called
the very best meat that England contains. At Salisbury
(only about 20 miles off) fat hogs sell for 5s. to 4s. 6d. a
score. But, then, observe, these are dairy hogs, which are
not nearly so good in quality as the corn-fed hogs. But, I
shall probably hear more about these prices as I get further
towards the West. Some wheat has been sold at New-
bury-market for 61. a load (40 bushels) ; that is at 3s. a
8 JOURNAL : HURSTBOURN TARRANT.
bushel. A considerable part of the crop is wholly unfit for
bread flour, and is not equal in value to good barley. In
not a few instances the wheat has been carried into the
gate, or yard, and thrown down to be made dung of. So
that, if we were to take the average, it would not exceed, I
am convinced, 5s. a bushel in this part of the country ; and
the average of all England would not, perhaps, exceed 4s.
or 3s. Gd. a bushel. However, Lord Liverpool has got a
bad harvest at last ! That remedy has been applied !
Somebody sent me sometime ago, that stupid newspaper,
called the Morning Herald, in which its readers were re-
minded of mv "false prophecies," I having (as this paper
said) foretold that wheat would be at two shillings a bushel
before Christmas. These gentlemen of the "respectable
part of the press " do not mind lying a little upon a pinch.
[See Walter's " Times " of Tuesday last, for the following :
" Mr. Cobbett has thrown open the front of his house at Ken-
sington, where he proposes to sell meat at a reduced price."
What I said was this : that, if the crop were good and the
harvest fine, and gold continued to be paid at the Bank,
we should see wheat at four, not two, shillings a bushel
before Christmas. Now, the crop was, in many parts, very
much blighted, and the harvest was very bad indeed; and
yet the average of England, including that which is de-
stroyed, or not brought to market at all, will not exceed 4s.
a bushel. A farmer told me, the other day, that he got so
little offered for some of his wheat, that he was resolved not
to take any more of it to market ; but to give it to hogs.
Therefore, in speaking of the price of wheat, you are to
take in the unsold as well as the sold ; that which fetches
nothing as well as that which is sold at high price. — I
see, in the Irish papers, which have overtaken me on my
way, that the system is working the Agriculturasses in " the
sister-kingdom " too ! The following paragraph will show
that the remedy of a bad harvest has not done our dear sister
much good. '' A very numerous meeting of the Kildare
"Farming Society met at Naas on the 24th inst. the Duke
"of Leinster in the Chair; Robert de la Touche, Esq.,
"M.P., Vice President. Nothing can more strongly prove
"[the BADNESS OF THE TIMES, and very unfortunate
" state of the country, than the necessity in which the
" Society finds itself of discontinuing its premiums, from its
"present icants of funds. The best members of the farming
"classes have got so much in arrear in their subscriptions
JOURNAL : HURSTBOURN TARRANT. y
" that they have declined to appear or to dine with their
" neighbours, and general depression damps the spirit of
" the most industrious and hitherto prosperous cultivators."
You are mistaken, Pat ; it is not the times any more than
it is the stars. Bobadil, you know, imputed his beating to
the planets: " planet-stricken, by the foot of Pharaoh!" —
"No, Captain," says Welldon, "indeed it was a stick."
It is not the times, dear Patrick : it is the government, who
having first contracted a great debt in depreciated money,
are now compelling you to pay the interest at the rate of
three for one. Whether this be right, or wrong, the Agri-
culturasses best know : it is much more their affair than it
is mine ; but, be you well assured, that they are only at the
besinnins: of their sorrows. Ah! Patrick, whoever shall
live only a few years will see a grand change in your state !
Something a little more rational than " Catholic Emancipa-
tion " will take place, or I am the most deceived of all
mankind. This Debt is your best, and, indeed, your only
friend. It must, at last, give the THING (5) a shake, such as
it never had before. — The accounts which my country news-
papers give of the failure of farmers are perfectly dismal.
In many, many instances they have put an end to their
existence, as the poor deluded creatures did who had been
ruined by the South Sea Bubble ! I cannot help feeling for
these people, for whom my birth, education, taste, and
habits give me so strong a partiality. Who can help feeling
for their wives and children, hurled down headlong from
affluence to misery in the space of a few months ! Become
all of a sudden the mockery of those whom they compelled,
perhaps, to cringe before them ! If the Labourers exult,
one cannot say that it is unnatural. If Reason have her fair
sway, I am exempted from all pain upon this occasion. I
have done my best to prevent these calamities. Those
farmers who have attended to me are safe while the storm
rages. My endeavours to stop the evil in time cost me the
earnings of twenty long years ! I did not sink, no, nor
bend, beneath the heavy and reiterated blows of the accursed
system, which I have dealt back blow for blow ; and, blessed
be God, I now see it reel! It is staggering about like a
sheep with water in the head : turning its pate up on one
side : seeming to listen, but has no hearing : seeming to
look, but has no sight : one day it capers and dances : the
next it mopes and seems ready to die.
b 3
10 JOURNAL : HURSTBOCRN TARRANT.
Nov. 4. Sunday.
This, to my fancy, is a very nice country. It is continual
hill and dell. Now and then a chain of hills higher than the
rest, and these are downs, or woods. To stand upon any
of the hills and look around you, you almost think you see
the ups and downs of sea in a heavy swell (as the sailors call
it) after what they call a gale of wind. The undulations are
endless, and the great variety in the height, breadth, length,
and form of the little hills, has a very delightful effect. —
The soil, which, to look on it, appears to be more than half
flint stones, is very good in quality, and, in general, better
on the tops of the lesser hills than in the valleys. It has
great tenacity ; does not wash aioay like sand, or light loam.
It is a stiff, tenacious loam, mixed with flint stones. Bears
Saint-foin well, and all sorts of grass, which make the fields
on the hills as green as meadows, even at this season ; and
the grass does not burn up in summer. — In a country so full
of hills one would expect endless runs of water and springs.
There are none : absolutely none. No water-furrow is
ever made in the land. No ditches round the fields. And,
even in the deep valleys, such as that in which this village is
situated, though it winds round for ten or fifteen miles, there
is no run of water even now. There is the bed of a brook,
which will run before spring, and it continues running with
more or less water for about half the year, though, some
years, it never runs at all. It rained all Friday night ;
pretty nearly all day yesterday ; and to-day the ground is
as dry as a bone, except just along the street of the village,
which has been kept in a sort of stabble by the flocks of
sheep passing along to and from Appleshaw fair. In the
deep and long and narrow valleys, such as this, there are
meadows with very fine herbage and very productive. The
grass very fine and excellent in its quality. It is very curious,
that the soil is much shallower in the vales than on the hills.
In the vales it is a sort of hazle-mould on a bed of some-
thing approaching to gravel; but, on the hills.it is stiff
loam, with apparently half flints, on a bed of something like
clay first (reddish, not yellow) and then comes the chalk,
which they often take up by digging a sort of wells ; and
then they spread it on the surface, as they do the clay in
some countries, where they sometimes fetch it many miles
and at an immense expence. It was very common, near
Botley, to chalk land at an expense of sixteen pounds an
acre. 'The land here is excellent in quality generally, un-
journal: hurstbourn tarrant. 11
less you get upon the highest chains of hills. They have fre-
quently 40 bushels of wheat to the acre. Their barley is very
fine ; and their Saint-foin abundant. The turnips are, in.
general, very good at this time ; and the land appears as
capable of carrying fine crops of them as any land that I
have seen. A fine country for sheep: always dry: they
never injure the land when feeding off turnips in wet
weather ; and they can lie down on the dry ; for the ground
is, in fact, never wet except while the rain is actually
falling. Sometimes, in spring-thaws and thunder-showers,
the rain runs down the hills in torrents ; but is gone directly.
The flocks of sheep, some in fold and some at large, feed-
ing on the sides of the hills, give great additional beauty to
the scenery. — The woods, which consist chiefly of oak
thinly intermixed with ash, and well set with underwood of
ash and hazle, but mostly the latter, are very beautiful.
They sometimes stretch along the top and sides of hills for
miles together; and, as their edges, or outsides, joining
the fields and the downs, go winding and twisting about,
and as the fields and downs are naked of trees, the sight
altogether is very pretty. — The trees in the deep and long
valleys, especially the Elm and the Ash, are very fine and
very lofty ; and, from distance to distance, the Rooks have
made them their habitation. — This sort cf country, which,
in irregular shape, is of great extent, has many and great
advantages. Dry under foot. Good roads, winter as well
as summer, and little, very little expence. Saint-foin
flourishes. Fences cost little. Wood, hurdles, and hedg-
ing-stuff cheap. No shade in wet harvests. The water in
the wells excellent. Good sporting country, except for
coursinjr, and too manv flints for that. — What becomes of
all the water ? There is a spring, in one of the cross
valleys that runs into this, having a bason about thirty feet
over, and about eight feet deep, which they say, sends up
water once in about 30 or 40 years ; and boils up so as to
make a large current of water. — Not far from Uphusband
the Wansdike (I think it is called) crosses the country. Sir
Richard Colt IIoare has written a great deal about this
ancient boundary, which is, indeed, something very curious.
In the ploughed fields the traces of it are quite gone ; but
they remain in the woods as well as on the downs.
Nor. 5. Monday.
A white frost this morning. The hills round about
beautiful at sun-rise, the rooks making that noise which
12 journal: hurstbourn tarrant.
they always make in winter mornings. The Starlings are
come in large flocks ; and, which is deemed a sign of a
hnrd winter, the Fieldfares are come at an early season.
The haws are very ahundant ; which, they say, is another
sign of a hard winter. The wheat is high enough here, in
some fields, "to hide a hare," which is, indeed, not saying
much for it, as a hare knows how to hide herself upon the
bare ground. But it is, in some fields, four inches high,
and is green and gay, the colour being finer than that of any
grass. — The fuel here is wood. Little coal is brought from
Andover. A load of fagots does not cost above 10s. So
that, in this respect, the labourers are pretty well off. The
wages here and in Berkshire, about 8s. a week ; but, the
farmers talk of lowering them. — The poor-rates heavy, and
heavy they must be, till taxes and rents come down greatly.
— Saturday and to-day Appleshaw sheep-fair. The sheep,
which had taken a rise at Weyhill-fair, have fallen again
even below the Norfolk and Sussex mark. Some South-
Down Lambs were sold at Appleshaw so low as 8s. and
some even lower. Some Dorsetshire Ewes brought no
more than a pound ; and, perhaps, the average did not
exceed 28s. I have seen a farmer here who can get (or
could a few days ago) 28s. round for a lot of fat South-
down Wethers, which cost him just that money, when they
were lambs, two years ago ! It is impossible that they can
have cost him less than 24s. each during the two years,
having to be fed on turnips or hay in winter, and to be
fatted on good grass. Here (upon one hundred sheep) is a
loss of 120/. and 14/. in addition at five per cent, interest on
the sum expended in the purchase ; even suppose not a
sheep has been lost by death or otherwise. — I mentioned
before, I believe, that fat hogs are sold at Salisbury at
from 5s. to 4s. Gd. the score pounds, dead weight. —
Cheese has come down in the same proportion. A cor-
respondent informs me that one hundred and fifty Welsh
Sheep were, on the 18th of October, offered for 4s. 6d. a
head, and that they went away unsold ! The skin was worth
a shilling of the money ! The following I take from the
Tyne Mercury of the 30th of October. "Last week, at
" Northawton fair, Mr. Thomas Cooper, of Bow, purchased
"three milch cows and forty sheep, for 18/. 16s. Gd. !"
The skins, four years ago, would have sold for more than
the money. "The Hampshire Journal says, that, on I
November (Thursday) at Newbury Market, wheat sold
journal: hurstbourn tarrant. 13
from SSs. to 24s. the Quarter. This would make an
average of 56s. But, very little indeed was sold at SSs.
only the prime of the old wheat. The best of the new for
about 48s. and, then, if we take into view the great pro-
portion that cannot go to market at all, we shall not find
the average, even in this rather dear part of England, to
exceed 32s., or 4s. a bushel. And, if we take all England
through, it does not come up to that, nor anything like it.
A farmer very sensibly observed to me yesterday, that, " if
*' we had had such a crop and such a harvest a few years
" ago, good wheat would have been 50/. a load ;" that is to
say, 25s. a bushel ! Nothing can be truer than this. And
nothing can be clearer than that the present race of farmers,
generally speaking, must be swept away by bankruptcy, if
they do not, in time, make their bow, and retire. There
are two descriptions of farmers, very distinct as to the effects
which this change must naturally have on them. The word
farmer comes from the French, fermier, and signifies renter.
Those onlv who rent, therefore, are, properly speaking,
farmers. Those who till their own land are yeomen ; and,
when I was a boy, it was the common practice to call the
former farmers and the latter yeoman-farmers. These yeo-
men have, for the greater part, been swallowed up by the
paper- svstem which has drawn such masses of money to-
gether. They have, by degree?, been bought out. Still
there are some few left ; and these, if not in debt, will stand
their ground. But all the present race of mere renters
must give way, in one manner or another. They must
break, or drop their style greatly ; even in the latter case,
their rent must, very shortly, be diminished more than two-
thirds. Then comes the Landlord's turn ; and, the sooner
the better. — In the Maidstone Gazette I find the following :
— "Prime beef was sold in Salisbury market, on Tuesday
"last, at 4d. per lb., and good joints of mutton at 3jd. ;
"butter lid. and 12d. per lb. — In the West of Cornwall,
" during the summer, pork has often been sold at 2|d. per
" lb." — This is very true ; and what can be better ? How
can Peel's Bill work in a more delightful manner ? What
nice " general working of events!" Trie country rag-mer-
chants have now very little to do. They have no discounts.
What they have out they owe : it is so much debt : and, of
course, they become poorer and poorer, because they must,
like a mortgager, have more and more to pay as prices fall.
This is very good ; for it will make them disgorge a part, at
14 JOURNAL : MARLBOROUGH.
least, of what they have swallowed, during the years of high
prices and depreciation. They are worked in this sort of
way : the Tax-Collectors, the Excise-fellows, for instance,
hold their sittings every six weeks, in certain towns about
the country. They will receive the country rags, if the rag
man can find, and will give, security for the due payment of
his rags, when they arrive in London. For want of such
securitv, or of some formality of the kind, there was a great
bustle in a town in this county not many days ago. The
Excise-fellow demanded sovereigns, or Bank of England
notes. Precisely how the matter was finally settled I know
not ; but, the reader will see, that the Exciseman was only
taking a proper precaution ; for, if the rags were not paid
in London, the loss was his !
Marlborough,
Tuesday noon, Nov. 6.
I left Uphusband this morning at D, and came across to
this place (20 miles) in a post-chaise. Came up the valley
of Uphusband, which ends at about 6 miles from the village,
and puts one out upon the Wiltshire downs, which stretch
away towards theWest and South-west, towards Devizes and
towards Salisbmy. After about half a mile of down we
came down into a level country ; the flints cease, and the
chalk comes nearer the top of the ground. The labourers
along here seem very poor indeed. Farm houses with
twenty ricks round each, besides those standing in the fields ;
pieces of wheat 50, 60, or 100 acres in a piece; but, a
group of women labourers, who were attending the mea-
surers to measure their reaping work, presented such an as-
semblage of rags as I never before saw even amongst
the hoppers at Farnham, many of whom are common beg-
gars. I never before saw country people, and reapers too,
observe, so miserable in appearance as these. There were
some very pretty girls, but ragged as colts and as pale as
ashes. The day was cold too, and frost hardly off the
ground ; and their blue arms and lips would have made any
heart ache but that of a seat-seller or a loan-jobber. A
little after passing by these poor things, whom I left,
cursing, as I went, those who had brought them to this
state, I came to a group of shabby houses upon a hill.
While the boy was watering his horses, I asked the ostler
the name of the place ; and, as the old women say, "you
JOURNAL: MARLBOROUGH. 15
" might have knocked me down with a feather," when he
said, " Great Bedwin." The whole of the houses are not
intrinsically worth a thousand pounds. There stood a thing
out in the middle of the place, about 25 feet long and 15
wide, being a room stuck up on unhewed stone pillars
about 10 feet high. It was the Town Hall, where the
ceremony of choosing the two Members is performed.
" This place sends Members to parliament, don't it V said
I to the ostler. " Yes, Sir." " Who are Members
now . ? " " I don't know, indeed, Sir." — I have not read the
Henriade of Voltaire for these 30 years ; but, in ruminating
upon the ostler's answer ; and in thinking how the world,
yes, the whole world, has been deceived as to this matter,
two lines of that poem came across my memory :
Representees du peuple, les Grands et le Roi :
Spectacle magnifique ! Source sacree des lois '.*
The Frenchman, for want of understanding the THING
as well as I do, left the eulogium incomplete. I therefore
here add four lines, which I request those who publish
future editions of the Henriade to insert in continuation of
the above eulogium of Voltaire.
Representans du peuple, que celui-ci ignore,
Sont fait a miracle pour garder son Or !
Peuple trop heureux, que le bonheur inonde !
L'envie de vos voisins, admire du monde ! f
The first line was suggested by the ostler ; the last by
the words which we so very often hear from the bar, the
bench, the seats, the pulpit, and the throne. Doubtless my
poetry is not equal to that of Voltaire ; but, my rhyme is
as good as his, and my reason is a great deal better. — In
quitting this villanous place we see the extensive and un-
commonly ugly park and domain of Lord Aylesbury, who
seems to have tacked park on to park, like so many out-
works of a fortified city. I suppose here are 50 or 100
farms of former days swallowed up. They have been
bought, I dare say, from time to time ; and it would be a
* I will not swear to the very words ; but this is the meaning of
Voltaire : " Representatives of the people, the Lords and the King :
" Magnificent spectacle ! Sacred source of the Laws !"
f " Representatives of the people, of whom the people know
" nothing, must be miraculously well calculated to have the care of
" their money ! Oh ! People too happy ! overwhelmed with blessings !
" The envy of your neighbours, and admired by the whole world !''
16 JOURNAL: MARLBOROUGH.
labour very well worthy of reward by the public, to trace
to its source, the money by which these immense domains,
in different parts of the country, have been formed ! —
Marlborough, which is an ill-looking place enough, is suc-
ceeded, on my road to Swindon, by an extensive and very
beautiful down about 4 miles over. Here nature has flung:
the earth ahout in a great variety of shapes. The fine short
smooth grass has about 9 inches of mould under it, and then
comes the chalk. The water that runs down the narrow
side-hill valleys is caught, in different parts of the down, in
basins made on purpose, and lined with clay apparently.
This is for watering the sheep in summer; sure sign of a
really dry soil ; and yet the grass never parches upon these
downs. The chalk holds the moisture, and the grass is fed
by the dews in hot and dry weather. — At the end of this
down the high-country ends. The hill is high and steep,
and from it you look immediately down into a level farm-
ing country ; a little further on into the dairv-country,
whence the North-Wilts cheese comes ; and, beyond that,
into the vale of Berkshire, and even to Oxford, which lies
away to the North-east from this hill. — The land continues
good, flat and rather wet to Swindon, which is a plain coun-
try town, built of the stone which is found at about 6 feet
under ground about here. — I come on now towards Ciren-
cester, thro' the dairy county of North Wilts.
Cirencester,
Wednesday {Noon), 7 Nov.
I slept at a Dairy-farm house at Hannington, about eight
miles from Swindon, and five on one side of my road. I
passed through that villanous hole, Cricklade, about two
hours ago ; and, certainly, a more rascally looking place I
never set my eyes on. I wished to avoid it, but could get
along no other way. All along here the land is a whitish
stiff loam upon a bed of soft stone, which is found at various
distances from the surface, sometimes two feet and some-
times ten. Here and there a field is fenced with this stone,
laid together in walls without mortar or earth. All the
houses and out-houses are made of it, and even covered
with the thinnest of it formed into tiles. The stiles in the
fields are made of large flags of this stone, and the gaps in
the hedges are stopped with them. — There is very little
wood all along here. The labourers seem miserably poor.
JOURNAL: CIRENCESTER. 17
Their dwellings are little better than pig-beds, and their
looks indicate that their food is not nearly equal to that of
a pig. Their wretched hovels are stuck upon little bits of
ground on the roadside, where the space has been wider than
the road demanded. In many places they have not two
rods to a hovel. It seems as if they had been swept off the
fields by a hurricane, and had dropped and found shelter
under the banks on the road side ! Yesterday morning was
a sharp frost; and this had set the poor creatures to digging
up their little plats of potatoes. In mv whole life I never
saw human wretchedness equal to this : no, not even
amongst the free negroes in America, who, on an average,
do not work one day out of four. And, this is "pros-'
perity," is it? These, Oh, Pitt ! are the fruits of thy hellish
system ! However, this Wiltshire is a horrible county.
This is the county that the Gallon-loaf man belongs to (6).
The land all along here is good. Fine fields and pastures
all around ; and yet the cultivators of those fields so miser-
able ! This is particularly the case on both sides of Crick-
lade, and in it too, where every thing had the air of the most
deplorable want. — They are sowing wheat all the way from
the Wiltshire downs to Cirencester , though there is some
wheat up. Winter- Vetches are up in some places, and look
very well. — The turnips of both kinds are good all along
here. — I met a farmer going with porkers to Highworth
market. They would weigh, he said, four score and a half,
and he expected to get 7s. 6d. a score. I expect he will
not. He said they had heen fed on barley-meal; but I did
not believe him. I put it to his honour, whether whey and
beans had not been their food. He looked surly, and
pushed on. — On this stiff ground, they grow a good many
beans, and give them to the pigs with whey ; which makes
excellent pork for the Londoners ; but which must meet
with a pretty hungry stomach to swallow it in Hampshire.
The hogs, all the way that I have come, from Buckingham-
shire, are without a single exception that I have seen, the
old-fashioned black-spotted hogs. Mr. Blount (7) at
Uphusband has one, which now weighs about thirty score,
and will possibly weigh forty, for she moves about very
easily yet. This is the weight of a good ox ; and yet, what
a little thing it is compared to an ox ! Between Cricklade
and this place (Cirencester) I met, in separate droves, about
two thousand Welsh Cattle, on their way from Pembroke-
shire to the fairs in Sussex. The greater part of them were
IS JOURNAL: CIRENCESTER.
heifers in calf. They were purchased in Wales at from 3/.
to 4/. IOs. each! None of them, the drovers told me,
reached hi. These heifers used to fetch, at home, from 61.
to 8/. and sometimes more. Many of the things that I saw
in these droves did not fetch, in Wales, 25s. And, they
go to no rising market ! Now, is there a man in his senses
who believes, that this THING can go on in the present
way ? However, a fine thing, indeed, is this fall of prices !
My "cottager" will easily get his cow, and a young cow
too, for less than the hi. that I talked of. These Welsh
heifers will calve about May ; and they are just the very
thing for a cottager.
Gloucester,
Thursday (niorning), Nov. 8.
In leaving Cirencester, which is a pretty large town, a
pretty nice town, and which the people call Cititer, I came
up hill into a country, apparently formerly a down or com-
mon, but now divided into large fields by stone walls. Any
thing so ugly I have never seen before. The stone, which,
on the other side of Cirencester, lay a good way under
ground, here lies very near to the surface. The plough is
continually bringing it up, and thus, in general, come the
means of making the walls that serve as fences. Any thing
quite so cheerless as this I do not recollect to have seen ;
for, the Bagshot country, and the commons between Farn-
ham and Haselemere, have heath at any rate; but these
stones are quite abominable. The turnips are not a fiftieth
of a crop like those of Mr. Clarke at Bergh-Apton in Nor-
folk, or Mr. Pym at Reygate in Surrey, or of Mr. Brazier
at Worth in Sussex. I see thirty acres here that have less
food upon them than I saw the other day, upon half an acre
at Mr. Budd's at Berghclere. Can it be good farming to
plough and sow and hoe thirty acres to get what may be
got upon half an acre ? Can that half acre cost more
than a tenth part as much as the thirty acres ? But,
if I were to go to this thirty-acre farmer, and tell him
what to do to the half acre, would he not exclaim with the
farmer at Botley : " What ! drow away ail that 'ere
" ground between the lains ! Jod's blood !" — With the ex-
ception of a little dell about eight miles from Cititer, this
miserable country continued to the distance of ten miles,
when, all of a sudden, I looked down from the top of a high
JOURNAL: GLOUCESTER. 19
hill into the vale of Gloucester ! Never was there, surely,
such a contrast in this world ! This hill is called Bwlip
Hill; it is much about a mile down it, and the descent so
steep as to require the wheel of the chaise to he locked ;
and, even with that precaution, I did not think it over and
above safe to sit in the chaise ; so, upon Sir Robert Wilson's
principle of taking care of Number One, I got out and
walked down. From this hill you see the Morvan Hills in
Wales. You look down into a sort of dish with a flat
bottom, the Hills are the sides of the dish, and the City of
Gloucester, which you plainly see, at seven miles distance
from Burlip Hill, appears to be not far from the centre of
the dish. All here is fine; fine farms; fine pastures ; all
inclosed fields ; all divided by hedges; orchards a plenty ;
and I had scarcely seen one apple since I left Berkshire. —
Gloucester is a fine, clean, beautiful place ; and, which is
of a vast deal more importance, the labourers' dwellings, as
I came along, looked good, and the labourers themselves
pretty well as to dress and healthiness. The girls at work
in the fields (always my standard) are not in rags, with bits
of shoes tied on their feet and rags tied round their ancles,
as they had in Wiltshire.
JOURNAL : FROM GLOUCESTER, TO BOLLITREE IN HERE-
FORDSHIRE, ROSS, HEREFORD, ABINGDON, OXFORD,
CHELTENHAM, BERGHCLERE, WHITCHURCH, UPHURST-
BOURN, AND THENCE TO KENSINGTON.
Bollitree Castle, Herefordshire,
Friday, 9 Nov. 1821.
I got to this beautiful place (Mr. William Palmer's)
yesterday, from Gloucester. This is in the parish of Weston,
two miles on the Gloucester side of Ross, and, if not the
first, nearly the first, parish in Herefordshire upon leaving
Gloucester to go on through Ross to Hereford. — On quitting
Gloucester I crossed the Severne, which had overflowed
its banks and covered the meadows with water. — The soil
good but stiff. The coppices and woods very much like
those upon the clays in the South of Hampshire and in
Sussex ; but the land better for corn and grass. The
20 JOURNAL : BOLLITREE.
goodness of the land is shown by the apple-trees, and by the
sort of sheep and cattle fed here. The sheep are a cross
between the Ryland and Leicester, and the cattle of the Here-
fordshire kind. These would starve in the pastures of any
part of Hampshire or Sussex that I have ever seen. — At
about seven miles from Gloucester I came to hills, and
the land changed from the whitish soil, which I had hitherto
seen, to a red brown, with layers of flat stone of a reddish
cast under it. Thus it continued to "Bollitree. The trees
of all kinds are very fine on the hills as well as in the
bottoms. — The spot where I now am is peculiarly well
situated in all respects. The land very rich, the pastures
the finest I ever saw, the trees of all kinds surpassing upon
an average any that I have before seen in England. From
the house, you see, in front and winding round to the left,
a lofty hill, called Penyard Hill, at about a mile and a half
distance, covered with oaks of the finest growth ; along at
the foot of this wood are fields and orchards continuing the
slope of the hill down for a considerable distance, and, as
the ground lies in a sort of ridges from the wood to the foot
of the slope, the hill-and-dell is very beautiful. One of
these dells with the two adjoining sides of hills is an
orchard belonging to Mr. Palmer, and the trees, the
ground, and every thing belonging to it, put me in mind of
the most beautiful of the spots in the North of Long Island.
Sheltered by a lofty wood ; the grass fine beneath the fruit
trees ; the soil dry under foot though the rain had scarcely
ceased to fall ; no moss on the trees ; the leaves of many of
them yet green ; every thing brought my mind to the
beautiful orchards near Bayside, Little Neck, Mosquito
Cove, and Oyster Bay, in Long Island. No wonder that
this is a country of cider and perry ; but, what a shame it
is, that here, at any rate, the owners and cultivators of the
soil, not content with these, should, for mere fashion's sake,
waste their substance on wine and spirits ! They really de-
serve the contempt of mankind and the curses of their
children. — The woody hill mentioned before, winds away to
the left, and carries the eye on to the Forest of Dean, from
which it is divided by a narrow and very deep valley.
Away to the right of Penyard Hill lies, in the bottom, at two
miles distance, and on the bank of the river Wye, the town of
Ross, over which we look down the vale to Monmouth and see
the Welsh hills bevond it. Beneath Penyard Hill, and on one
of the ridges before mentioned, is the parish church of Weston,
JOURNAL : BOLLITREE. 21
with some pretty white cottages near it, peeping through the
orchard and other trees ; and coming to the paddock before
the house, are some of the largest and loftiest trees in the
country, standing singly here and there, amongst which is
the very largest and loftiest walnut-tree that I believe I
ever saw, either in America or in England. In short, there
wants nothing but the autumnal colours of the American
trees to make this the most beautiful spot I ever beheld. — I
was much amused for an hour after daylight this morning in
looking at the clouds, rising, at intervals, from the dells on
the side of Penyard Hill, and flying to the top, and then over
the Hill. Some of the clouds went up in a roundish and.
compact form. Others rose in a sort of string or stream,
the tops of them going over the hill before the bottoms
were clear of the place whence they had arisen. Sometimes
the clouds gathered themselves together along the top of the
hill, and seemed to connect the topmost trees with the sky.
1 have been to-day to look at Mr. Palmer's fine crops
of Swedish 2'urnips, which are, in general, called " Szvedes."
These crops having been raised according to my plan, I feel,
of course, great interest in the matter. The Swedes occupy
two fields : one of thirteen, and one of seventeen acres^
The main part of the seventeen-acre field was drilled, on
ridges, four feet apart, a single row on a ridge, at different
times, between 16th April and 29th May. An acre and a
half of this piece was transplanted on four-feet ridges 30th
July. About half an acre across the middle of the field was
sown broad-cast 14th April. — In the thirteen-acre field
there is about half an acre sown broad-cast on the 1st of
June ; the rest of the field was transplanted ; part in the first
week of June, part in the last week of June, part from the
12th to 18th July, and the rest (about three acres) from
21st to 23rd July. The drilled Swedes in the seventeen-
acre field, contain full 23 tons to the acre ; the transplanted
ones in that field, 15 tons, and the broad-cast not exceeding 10
tons. Those in the thirteen-acre field which were transplanted
before the 21st July, contain 27 if not 30 tons ; and the rest
of that field about 1 7 tons to the acre. The broad-cast piece
here (half an acre) may contain 7 tons. The shortness of mv
time will prevent us from ascertaining the weight by actual
weighings ; but, such is the crop, according to the best of
m y judgment, after a very minute survey of it in every part
of each field.— Now, here is a little short of S00 tons of
food, about a fifth part of which consists of tops ; and, of
22 * journal: bollitkee.
course, there is about 640 tons of bulb. As to the value
and uses of this prodigious crop I need say nothing ; and, as
to the time and manner of sowing and raising the plants for
transplanting, the act of transplanting, and the after culti-
vation, Mr. Palmer has followed the directions contained
in my " Years Residence in America ;" and, indeed, he is
forward to acknowledge, that he had never thought of this
mode of culture, which he has followed now for three years,
and which he has found so advantageous, until he read that
work, a work which the Farmer s Journal thought proper to
treat as a romance. — Mr. Palmer has had some cabbages of
the large, drum-head, kind. He had about three acres, in
rows at four feet apart, and at little less than three feet
apart in the rows, making ten thousand cabbages on the three
acres. He kept ninety-five wethers and ninety-six ewes
(laro-e fatting sheep) upon them Sox five weeks all but two days,
ending in the first week of November. The sheep, which
are now feeding off yellow turnips in an adjoining part of
the same field, come back over the cabbage-ground and
scoop out the stumps almost to the ground in many cases.
This ground is going to be ploughed for wheat immedi-
.ately. Cabbages are a very fine autumn crop; but it is the
Swedes on which you must rely for the spring, and on
housed or stacked Swedes too ; for they will rot in many of
our winters, if left in the ground. I have had them rot
myself, and I saw, in March 1820, hundreds of acres rotten
in Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. Mr. Palmer
o-reatly prefers the transplanting to the drilling. It has
numerous advantages over the drilling ; greater regularity
of crop, greater certainty, the only sure way of avoiding the
fly, greater crop, admitting of two months later preparation
of land, can come after vetches cut up for horses (as, indeed,
a part of Mr. Palmer's transplanted Swedes did), and
requiring less labour and expence. I asserted this in
my "Year's Residence;" and Mr. Palmer, who has
been very particular in ascertaining the fact, state3 posi-
tively, that the expense of transplanting is not so great as
the hoeing and setting out of the drilled crops, and not so
great as the common hoeings of broad-cast. This, I think,
settles the question. But, the advantages of the wide-row
culture by no means confine themselves to the green and
root crop ; for, Mr. Palmer drills his wheat upon the same
ridges, without ploughing, after he has taken off the Swedes.
He drills it at eight inches, and puts in from eight to ten
JOURNAL : BOLLITREE. 23
gallons to the acre. His crop of 1820, drilled in this way,
averaged 40 bushels to the acre ; part drilled in November,
and part so late as February. It was the common Lammas
wheat. His last crop of wheat is not yet ascertained ; but,
it was better after the Swedes than in any other of his land.
His manner of taking off the crop is excellent. He first
cuts off and carries away the tops. Then he has an imple-
ment, drawn by two oxen, walking on each side of the ridge,
with which he cuts off the tap root of the Swedes without
disturbing the land of the ridge. A.ny child can then pull
up the bulb. Thus the ground, clean as a garden, and in
that compact state which the wheat is well known to like,
is readv, at once, for drilling with wheat. As to the uses to
which he applies the crop, tops as well as bulbs, I must
speak of these hereafter, and in a work of a description
different from this. I have been thus particular here, be-
cause the Farmer's Journal treated my book as a pack of
lies. I know that my (for it is mine) system of cattle-focd
husbandry will finally be that of all England, as it already is
that of America ; but, what I am doing here is merely in
self-defence against the slanders, the malignant slanders, of
the Farmer's Journal. Where is a Whig lord, who, some
years ago, wrote to a gentleman, that " he would have
nothing to do with any reform that Cobbett was engaged in ?"
But, in spite of the brutal Journal, farmers are not such
fools as this lord was : they will not reject a good crop, be-
cause they can have it only by acting upon my plan ; and
this lord will, I imagine, yet see the day when he will be
less averse from having to do with a reform in which " Cob-
bett" shall be engaged.
Old Hall,
Saturday night, Nov. 10.
Went to Hereford this morning. It was market-day.
My arrival became known, and, I am sure, I cannot tell
how. A sort of buz got about. I could perceive here, as I
always have elsewhere, very ardent friends and very bitter
enemies ; but all full of curiosity. One thing could not fail
to please me exceedingly : my friends were gay and my
enemies gloomy : the former smiled, and the latter, in en-
deavouring to screw their features into a sneer, could get
them no further than the half sour and half sad : the former
seemed, in their looks to say, " Here he is," and the latter
to respond, "Yes, G — d him!" — 1 went into the
24 JOURNAL : HEREFORD.
market-place, amongst the farmers, with whom, in general,
I was very much pleased. If I were to live in the county
two months, I should be acquainted with every man of them.
The country is very fine all the way from Ross to Hereford.
The soil is always a red loam upon a bed of stone. The
trees are very fine, and certainly winter comes later here
than in Middlesex. Some of the oak trees are still per-
fectly green, and many of the ashes as green as in Septem-
ber. — In coming from Hereford to this place, which is the
residence of Mrs. Palmer and that of her two younger sons,
Messrs. Philip and Walter Palmer, who, with their
brother, had accompanied me to Hereford; in coming to
this place, which lies at about two miles distance from
the gre;jit road, and at about an equal distance from Here-
ford and from Ross, we met with something, the sight of
which pleased me exceedingly : it was that of a very pretty
pleasant-looking lady (and young too) with two beautiful
children, riding in a little sort of chaise-cart, drawn by an
ass, which she was driving in reins. She appeared to be
well known to my friends, who drew up and spoke to her,
calling her Mrs. Lock, or Locky (I hope it was not Lockart)
or some such name. Her husband, who is, I suppose, some
voung farmer of the neighbourhood, may well call himself
Mr. Lucky ; for, to have such a wife, and for such a wife
to have the good sense to put up with an ass-cart, in order to
avoid, as much as possible, feeding those cormorants who
gorge on the taxes, is a blessing that falls, I am afraid, to
the lot of very few rich farmers. Mrs. Lock (if that be her
name) is a real practical radical. Others of us resort to
radical coffee and radical tea ; and she has a radical carriage.
This is a very effectual way of assailing the THING, and
peculiarly well suited for the practice of the female sex.
But, the self-denial ought not to be imposed on the wife
only : the husband ought to set the example : and, let me
hope, that Mr. Lock does not indulge in the use of wine
and spirits, while Mrs. Lock and her children ride in a jack-
ass gig ; for, if he do, he wastes, in this way, the means of
keeping her a chariot and pair. If there be to be any ex-
pense not absolutely necessary; if there be to be anything
bordering on extravagance, surely it ought to be for the
pleasure of that part of the family, who have the least num-
ber of objects of enjoyment ; and, for a husband to indulge
himself in the guzzling of expensive, unnecessary, and really
injurious drink, to the tune, perhaps, of 50 or 100 pounds a
JOURNAL : HEREFORD. 25
year, while he preaches economy to his wife, and, with i face
as long as my arm, talks of the low price of corn, and
wheedles her out of a curricle into a jack-ass cart, is not
only unjust but unmanly.
Old Hall,
Sunday night, 11 November.
We have ridden to-day, though in the rain for a great
part of the time, over the fine farm of Mr. Philip Palmer,
at this place, and that of Mr. Walter Palmer, in the ad-
joining parish of Pencoyd. Every thing here is good,
arable land, pastures, orchards, coppices, and timber trees,
especially the elms, many scores of which approach nearly
to a hundred feet in height. Mr. Philip Palmer has four
acres of Swedes on four-feet ridges, drilled on the 11th and
14th of May. The plants were very much injured bv thefl// ;
so much, that it was a question, whether the whole piece
ought not to be ploughed up. However, the gaps in the
rows were filled up by transplanting ; and the ground was
twice ploughed between the ridges. The crop here is very
fine; and, I should think that its weight could not be less
than 17 tons to the acre.— Of Mr. Walter Palmer's
Swedes, five acres were drilled, on ridges nearly four feet
apart, on the 3d of June ; four acres on the loth of June ;
and an acre and a half transplanted (after vetches) on the
fifteenth of August. The weight of the first is about twenty
tons to the acre ; that of the second not much less ; and
that of the last even, five or six tons. The first two pieces
were mauled to pieces by the fly ; but the gaps were filled
up by transplanting, the ground being digged on the tops of
the ridges to receive the plants. So that, perhaps, a third
part, or more of the crop is due to the transplanting. As to
the last piece, that transplanted on the loth of August, after
vetches, it is clear, that there could have been no crop with-
out transplanting; and, after all, the crop is by no means a
bad one. — It is clear enough to me, that this system will
finally prevail all over England. The " loyal," indeed,
may be afraid to adopt it, lest it should contain something
of "radicalism." Sap-headed fools ! They will find some-
thing to do, I believe, soon, besides railing against radicals.
We will din "radical" and '' national faith" in their ears,
till they shall dread the din as much as a dog does the sound
«f the bell that is tied to the whip.
c
26 JOURNAL : EOLLITREE.
Bollitree,
Monday, 12 Nov.
Returned this morning and rode about the farm, and also
about that of Mr. Winnal, where I saw, for the first time,
a plough going without being held. The man drove the
three horses that drew the plough, and carried the plough
round at the ends ; but left it to itself the rest of the time.
There was a skim coulter that turned the sward in under the
furrow ; and the work was done very neatly. This gentle-
man has six acres of cabbages, on ridges four feet apart,
with a distance of thirty inches between the plants on
the ridge. He has weighed one of what he deemed an
average weight, and found it to weigh fifteen pounds
without the stump. Now, as there are 4320 upon an
acre, the weight of the acres is thirty tons all but 400
pounds ! This is a prodigious crop, and it is peculiarly
well suited for food for sheep at this season of the year. In-
deed it is good for any farm-stock, oxen, cows, pigs : all
like these loaved cabbages. For hogs in yard, after the
stubbles are gone ; and before the tops of the Swedes come
in. What masses of manure may be created by this means!
But, above all things, for sheep to feed off upon the ground.
Common turnips have not half the substance in them weight
for weight. Then, they are in the ground ; they are dirty,
and, in wet weather, the sheep must starve, or eat a great
deal of dirt. This very day, for instance, what a sorry sight
is a flock of fatting sheep upon turnips ; what a mess of dirt
and stubhle ! The cabbage stands boldly up above the
ground, and the sheep eats it all up without treading a
morsel in the dirt. Mr. "Winnal has a large flock of sheep
feeding on his cabbages, which they will have finished, per-
haps, by January. This gentleman also has some " radical
Swedes," as they call them in Norfolk. A part of his crop
is on ridges Jive feet apart with two rows on the ridge, a
part on four feet ridges with one row on the ridge. I can-
not see that anything is gained in weight by the double rows.
I think, that there may be nearly twenty tons to the acre.
Another piece Mr. Winnal transplanted after vetches.
They are very fine ; and, altogether, he has a crop that any
one but a " loyal" farmer might envy him. — 'This is really
the radical system of husbandry. Radical means, belonging
to the root ; going to the root. And the main principle of
this system (first taught by TullJ (8) is, that the root of the
plant is to be fed by deep tillage, while it is growing ; and,
JOURNAL : BOLLITREE. 27
to do this we must have our wide distances. Our system of
husbandry is happily illustrative of our system of politics.
Our lines of movement are fair and straightforward. We
destroy all weeds, which, like tax-eaters, do nothing but
devour the sustenance that ought to feed the valuable plants.
Our plants are all well fed ; and our nations of Swedes and
of cabbages present a happy uniformity of enjoyments and of
bulk, and not, as in the broad-cast system of Corruption,
here and there one of enormous size, surrounded by thou-
sands of poor little starveling things, scarcely distinguish-
able by the keenest eye, or, if seen, seen only to inspire a
contempt of the husbandman. The Norfolk boys are,
therefore, right in calling their Swedes Radical Swedes.
Bollitree,
Tuesday, 13 Nov.
Rode to-day to see a grove belonging to Mrs. West-
phalin, which contains the very finest trees, oaks, chesnuts,
and ashes, that I ever saw in England. This grove is worth
going from London to Weston to see. The Lady, who is
very much beloved in her neighbourhood, is, apparently, of
the old school ; and her house and gardens, situated in a
beautiful dell, form, I think, the most comfortable looking
thing of the kind that I ever saw. If she had known that
I was in her grove, I dare say she would have expected it
to blaze up in flames ; or, at least, that I was come to view
the premises previous to confiscation ! I can forgive per-
sons like her ; but I cannot forgive the Parsons and others
who have misled them ! Mrs. Westphalin, if she live
many years, will find, that the best friends of the owners of
the land are those who have endeavoured to produce such «
reform of the Parliament as would have prevented the ruin
of tenants. (9) — This parish of Weston is remarkable for
having a Rector, who has constantly resided for twenty years!
I do not believe, that there is an instance to match this in the
whole kingdom. However, the "reverend" gentlemen may
be assured, that, before many years have passed over their
heads, they will be very glad to reside in their parsonage
houses. ^10)
Bollitree,
Wednesday, 14 Nov.
Rode to the Forest of Dean, up a very steep hill. The
lanes here are between high banks, and, on the sides of the
c 2
28 JOURNAL : BOLLITREE.
liills, the road is a rock, the water having, long ago, washed
all the earth away. Pretty works are, I find, carried on
here, as is the case in all the other public forests ! Are
these things always to be carried on in this way ?
Here is a domain of thirty thousand acres of the finest tim-
ber-land in the world, and with coal-mines endless ! Is this
worth nothing ? Cannot each acre yield ten trees a vear ?
Are not these trees worth a pound a piece ? Is not the es-
tate worth three or four hundred thousand pounds a year ?
And does it yield anything to the public, to whom it belongs ?
But, it is useless to waste one's breath in this way. We
must have a reform of the Parliament : without it the whole
thing will fall to pieces. — The only good purpose that these
forests answer is that of furnishing a place of being to
labourers' families on their skirts ; and here their cottages
are very neat, and the people look hearty and well, just as
they do round the forests in Hampshire. Every cottage has
a pig, or two. These graze in the forest, and, in the fall, eat
acorns and beech-nuts and the seed of the ash ; for, these
last, as well as the others, are very full of oil, and a pig
that is put to his shifts will pick the seed very nicely out
from the husks. Some of these foresters keep cows, and
all of them have bits of ground, cribbed, of course, at
different times, from the forest : (11) and, to what better
use can the ground be put ? I saw several wheat stubbles
from 40 rods to 10 rods. I asked one man how much wheat
he had from about 10 rods. He said more than two bushels.
Plere is bread for three weeks, or more, perhaps ; and a
winter's straw for the pig besides. Are these things nothing ?
The dead limbs and old roots of the forest give fuel ; and
how happy are these people, compared with the poor crea-
tures about Great Bedwin and Cricklade, where they have
neither land nor shelter, and where I saw the girls carrying
home bean and wheat stubble for fuel ! Those countries,
always but badly furnished with fuel, the desolating and
damnable system of paper-money, by sweeping away small
homesteads, and laying ten farms into one, has literally
stripped of all shelter for the labourer. A farmer, in such
cases, has a whole domain in his hands, and this, not only
to the manifest injury of the public at large, but in open
violation of positive law. The poor forger is hanged ; but,
where is the prosecutor of the monopolizing farmer, though
the law is as clear in the one case as in the other ? (12) But,
it required this infernal system to render every wholesome
JOURNAL : BOLLITREE. 09
regulation nugatory ; and to reduce to such abject misery
a people famed in all ages for the goodness of their food and
their dress. There is one farmer, in the North of Hamp-
shire, who has nearly eight thousand acres of land in his
hands ; who grows fourteen hundred acres of wheat and
two thousand acres of barley ! He occupies what was
formerly 40 farms ! Is it any wonder that paupers increase ?
And is there not here cause enough for the increase of poor,
without resorting to the doctrine of the barbarous and im-
pious Malthus and his assistants, the feelosofers of the
Edinburgh Review, those eulogists and understrappers of
the "Whig- Oligarchy ? "This farmer has done nothing
" unlawful," some one will say. I say he has ; for there is
a law to forbid him thus to monopolize land. But, no
matter; the laws, the management of the affairs of a
nation, ought to be such as to prevent the existence of the
temptation to such monopoly. And, even now, the evil
ought to be remedied, and could be remedied, in the space
of half a dozen years. The disappearance of the paper-
money would do the thing in time ; but this might be
assisted by legislative measures. — In returning from the
forest we were overtaken by my son, whom I had begged
to come from London to see this beautiful country. On the
road-side we saw two lazy-looking fellows, in long great
coats and bundles in their hands, going into a cottage.
" What do you deal in ?" said I, to one of them, who had
not yet entered the house. " In the medical way," said he.
And, I find, that vagabonds of this description are seen all
over the country with tea-licences in their pockets. They
vend tea, drugs, and religious tracts. The first to bring
the body into a debilitated state ; the second to finish
the corporeal part of the business ; and the third to
prepare the spirit for its separation from the clay !
Never was a system so well calculated as the present to
degrade, debase, and enslave a people ! Law, and, as if
that were not sufficient, enormous subscriptions are made ;
every thing that can be done is done to favour these peram-
bulatory impostors in their depredations on the ignorant.
While every thing that can be done is done, to prevent
them from reading, or from hearing of, any thing that has
a tendency to give them rational notions, or to better their
lot. However, all is not buried in ignorance. Down the
deep and beautiful valley between Penyard Hill and the
Hills on the side of the Forest of Dean, there runs a stream
30 JOURNAL : ROSS.
of water. On that stream of water there is a paper-mill. In
that paper-mill there is a set of workmen. That set of work-
men do, I am told, take the Register, and have taken it for
years ! It was to these good and sensible men, it is supposed,
that the ringing of the hells of Weston church, upon mv arrival,
was to be ascribed ; for, nobody that I visited had any
knowledge of the cause. What a subject for lamentation
with corrupt hypocrites ! That even on this secluded spot
there should be a leaven of common sense ! No : all is not
enveloped in brute ignorance yet, in spite of every artifice
that hellish Corruption has been able to employ ; in spite
of all her menaces and all her brutalities and cruelties.
Old Hall,
Thursday, 15 Nov.
We came this morning from Bollitree to Ross-Market,
and, thence, to this place. Ross is an old-fashioned town ;
but it is very beautifully situated, and, if there is little of
finery in the appearance of the inhabitants, there is also
little of misery. It is a good, plain country town, or settle-
ment of tradesmen, whose business is that of supplying the
wants of the cultivators of the soil. It presents to us
nothing of rascality and roguishness of look, which you
see on almost every visage in the borough-towns, not ex-
cepting the visages of the women. I can tell a borough-
town from another upon my entrance into it by the nasty,
cunning, leering, designing look of the people ; a look be-
tween that of a bad (for some are good) Methodist Parson
and that of a pickpocket. I remember, and I never shall
foreret, the horrid looks of the villains in Devonshire and
Cornwall. Some people say, " O, poor fellows ! It is not
*' their fault." No ? Whose fault is it, then ? The mis-
creants who bribe them ? True, that these deserve the
halter (and some of them may have it yet) ; but, are not
\he takers of the bribes equally guilty ? If we be so very
lenient here, pray let us ascribe to the Devil all the acts of
thieves and robbers : so we do ; but we hang the thieves
and robbers, nevertheless. It is no very unprovoking re-
flection, that from these sinks of atrocious villany come a
very considerable part of the men to fill places of emolument
and trust. What a clog upon a Minister to have people,
bred in such scenes, forced upon him ! And why does this
curse continue ? However, its natural consequences are be-
JOURNAL : ROSS.
31
fore us ; and are coming on pretty fast upon each other's
heels. There are the landlords and farmers in a state of
absolute ruin : there is the Debt, pulling the nation down
like as a stone pulls a dog under water. The system seems
to have fairly wound itself up ; to have tied itself hand and
foot with cords of its own spinning ! — This is the town to
which Pope has given an interest in our minds by his eulo-
gium on the " Man of Ross," a portrait of whom is hanging
up in the house in which I now am. — The market at Ross
was very dull. No wheat in demand. No buyers. It
must come down. Lord Liverpool's remedy, a bad harvest,
has assuredly failed. Fowls 2s. a couple ; a goose from
2s. 6d. to 3s. ; a turkey from 3s. to 3s. 6d. Let a turkey
come down to a shilling, as in France, and then we shall
soon be to rights.
Friday, 16 Nov.
A whole day most delightfully passed a hare-hunting,
with a pretty pack of hounds kept here by Messrs. Palmer.
They put me upon a horse that seemed to have been made
on purpose for me, strong, tall, gentle and bold ; and that
carried me either over or through every thing. I, who am
just the weight of a four-bushel sack of good wheat, actually
sat on his back from daylight in the morning to dusk (about
nine hours,) without once setting my foot on the ground.
Our ground was at Orcop, a place about four miles distance
from this place. We found a hare in a few minutes after
throwing off; and, in the course of the day, we had to find
four, and were never more than ten minutes in finding. A
steep and naked ridge, lying between two flat valleys,
having a mixture of pretty large fields and small woods,
formed our ground. The hares crossed the ridge forward and
backward, and gave us numerous views and very fine sport.
— I never rode on such steep ground before ; and, really, in
going up and down some of the craggy places, where the
rains had washed the earth from the rocks, I did think,
once or twice of my neck, and how Sidmouth would like to
see me. — As to the cruelty, as some pretend, of this sport,
that point I have, I think, settled, in one of the Chapters of
my " Year's Residence in America." As to the expense, a
pack, even a full pack of harriers, like this, costs less than
two bottles of wine a day with their inseparable con-
comitants. And, as to the time thus spent, hunting is in-
separable from early rising ; and, with habits of early rising,
who ever wanted time for any business ?
32 JOURNAL : OXFORD,
Oxford,
Saturday, 17 Nov.
We left Old Hall., (where we always breakfasted by
candle-light) this morning after breakfast ; returned to
Bollitree ; took the Hereford coach as it passed about noon ;
and came in it through Gloucester, Cheltenham, North-
leach, Burford, Whitney, and on to this city, where we
arrived about ten o'clock. I could not leave Herefordshire
without bringing with me the most pleasing impressions.
It is not for one to descend to particulars in characterising
one's personal friends; and, therefore, I will content my-
self with saying, that the treatment I met with in this
beautiful county, where I saw not one single face that I
had, to my knowledge, ever seen before, was much more
than sufficient to compensate to me, personally, for all the
atrocious calumnies, which, for twenty years, I have had to
endure ; but where is my country, a great part of the pre-
sent hideous sufferings of which, will, by every reflecting
mind, be easily traced to these calumnies, which have been
made the ground, or pretext, for rejecting that counsel by
listening to which those sufferings would have been pre-
vented : where is my country to find a compensation !
At Gloucester (as there were no meals on the road) we
furnished ourselves with nuts and apples, which, first a
handful of nuts and then an apple, are, I can assure the
reader, excellent and most wholesome fare. They say, that
nuts of all sorts are unwholesome ; if they had been, I
should never have written Registers, and if they were now, I
should have ceased to write ere this ; for, upon an average,
I have eaten a pint a day since I left home. In short, I
sould be very well content to live on nuts, milk, and home-
baked bread. From Gloucester to Cheltenham the country
is level, and the land rich and good. The fields along here
are ploughed in ridges about 20 feet wide, and the angle of
this species of roof is prettv nearlv as sharp as that of some
slated roofs of houses. There is no wet under; it is the top
wet only that they aim at keeping from doing mischief. —
Cheltenham is a nasty, ill-looking place, half clown and half
cockney. The town is one street about a mile long ; but,
then, at some distance from this street, there are rows of
white tenements, with green balconies, like those inhabited
by the tax-eaters round London. Indeed, this place ap-
pears to be the residence of an assemblage of tax-eaters.
These vermin shift about between London,Cheltenham, Bath,
JOURNAL : BURGHCLERE. 33
Bognor, Brighton, Tunbridge, Ramsgate, Margate, Wor-
thing, and other spots in England, while some oF them get
over to France and Italy : just like those body-vermin of
different sorts, that are found in different parts of the tor-
mented carcass at different hours of the day and night, and
in different degrees of heat and cold.
Cheltenham is at the foot of a part of that chain of hills,
which form the sides of that dish which I described as re-
sembling the vale of Gloucester. Soon after quitting this
resort of the lame and the lazy, the gormandizing and
guzzling, the bilious and the nervous, we proceeded on,
between stone walls, over a country little better than that
from Cirencester to Burlip-hill. A very poor, dull, and
uninteresting country all the way to Oxford.
Burghclere {Hants),
Sunday, 18 Nov.
We left Oxford early, and went on, through Abingdon
(Berks) to Market -Ilsley. It is a saving, hereabouts, that,
at Oxford, they make the living pay for the dead, which is
precisely according to the Pitt-System. Having smarted on
this account, we were afraid to eat again at an Inn ; so we
pushed on through Ilsley towards Newbury, breakfasting
upon the residue of the nuts, aided by a new supply of
apples bought from a poor man, who exhibited them in his
window. Inspired, like Don Quixote, by the sight of the
nuts, and recollecting the last night's bill, I exclaimed :
" Happy ! thrice happy and blessed, that golden age, when
" men lived on the simple fruits of the earth and slaked their
" thirst at the pure and limpid brook ! when the trees shed
" their leaves to form a couch for their repose, and cast
"their bark to furnish them with a canopy ! Happy age ;
" when no Oxford landlord charged two men, who had
" dropped into a common coach-passenger room, and who
" had swallowed three pennyworths of food, ' four shillings
" for teas,' and ■ eighteen pence for cold meat,' * two shillings
" for moulds and fire ' in this common coach-room, and ' five
"shillings for beds.'"' This was a sort of grace before
meat to the nuts and apples ; and, it had much more merit
than the harangue of Don Quixote ; for he, before he began
upon the nuts, had stuffed himself well with goat's flesh and
wine, whereas we had absolutely fled from 'the breakfas -
table and blazing fire at Oxford. — Uuon beholding tl
c 3
34 JOURNAL : BURGHCLERE.
masses of buildings, at Oxford, devoted to what they call
" learning," I could not help reflecting on the drones
that they contain and the wasps they send forth ! How-
ever, malignant as some are, the great and prevalent
characteristic is folly : emptiness of head ; want of talent ;
and one half of the fellows who are what they call educated
here, are unfit to be clerks in a grocer's or mercer's shop.
— As I looked up at what they call University Hall, I could
not help reflecting that what I had written, even since I left
Kensington on the 29th of October, would produce more
effect, and do more good in the world, than all that had, for
a hundred years, been written by all the members of this
University, who devour, perhaps, not less that a million
pounds a year, arising from property, completely at the dis-
posal of the " Great Council of the Nation ;" and I could not
help exclaiming to myself: " Stand forth, ye big-wigged,
" ye gloriously feeding Doctors ! Stand forth, ye rich of that
" church whose poor have had given them a hundred thousand
"pounds a year, not out of your riches, but out of the taxes,
" raised, in part, from the salt of the labouring man I
" Stand forth and face me, who have, from the pen of my
" leisure hours, sent, amongst your flocks, a hundred
"thousand sermons in ten months ! More than you have
" all done for the last half century !" (13) — I exclaimed in
vain. I dare say (for it was at peep of day) that not a man
of them had yet endeavoured to unclose his eyes. — In coming
thro' Abingdon (Berks) I could not help thinking of that
great financier, Mr. John Maberly, by whom this place
has, I believe, the honour to be represented in the Collective
Wisdom of the Nation. — In the way to Ilsley we came
across a part of that fine tract of land, called the Vale of
Berkshire, where they grow wheat and beans, one after an-
other, for many years together. About three miles before
we reached Ilsley we came to downs, with, as is always the
case, chalk under. Between Ilsley and Newbury the coun-
try is enclosed ; the land middling, a stony loam ; the
woods and coppices frequent, and neither very good, till we
came within a short distance of Newbury. In going along
we saw a piece of wheat with cabbage-leaves laid all over it
at the distance, perhaps, of eight or ten feet from each
other. It was to catch the slugs. The slugs, which com-
mit their depredations in the night, creep under the leaves
in the morning, and by turning up the leaves you come at
the slugs, and crush them, or carry them away. But, be-
JOURNAL : BURGHCLERE. 35
sides the immense daily labour attending this, the slug, in a
field sowed with wheat, has a clod to creep under at every
foot, and will not go five feet to get under a cabbage-leaf.
Then again, if the day be wet, the slug works by day as well
as by night. It is the sun and drought that he shuns,
and not the light. Therefore the only effectual way to de-
stroy slugs is, to sow lime, in dust, and not slaked. The
slug is wet, he has hardly any skin, his slime is his cover-
ing ; the smallest dust of hot lime kills him ; and a few
bushels to the acre are sufficient. You must sow the lime
at dusk; for then the slugs are sure to be out. Slugs come
after a crop that has long afforded a great deal of shelter
from the sun ; such as peas and vetches. In gardens they
are nursed up by strawberry beds, and by weeds; by
asparagus beds ; or by any thing that remains for a long
time to keep the summer-sun from the earth. We got
about three o'clock to this nice, snug little farm-house, and
fouud our host, Mr. Budd, at home.
Burghclere,
Monday, 19 Nov.
A thorough wet day, the only day the greater part of
which I have not spent out of doors, since I left home.
Burghclere,
Tuesday, 20 Nov.
With Mr. Budd, we rode to-day to see the Farm of Tull,
at Shalborne, in Berkshire. (14) Mr. Budd did the same
thing with Arthur Young twenty-seven years ago. It was
a sort of pilgrimage ; but, as the distance was ten miles, we
thought it best to perform it on horseback. — We passed
through the parish of Ilighclere, where they have enclosed
commons, worth, as tillage land, not one single farthing an
acre, and never will and never can be. As a common it
afforded a little picking for geese and asses, and, in the
moory parts of it, a little fuel for the labourers. But, now
it really can afford nothing. It will all fall to common again
by degrees. This madness, this blind eagerness to gain, is
now, I hope, pretty nearly over. (15) — At East Woody,
we passed the house of a Mr. Goddard, which is uninha-
bited, he residing at Bath. — At West Woody (Berks) is the
estate of Mr. Sloper, a very pretty place. A beautiful sport-
ng country. Large fields, small woods, dry soil. What
has taken place here is an instance of the workings of the
36 JOURNAL : BURGHCLERE.
system. Here is a large gentleman's house. But, the pro-
prietor lets it (it is, just now, empty,) and resides in a
farm house and farms his own estate. Happy is the land-
lord, who has the good sense to do this in time. This is a fine
farm, and here appears to be very judicious farming. Large
tracts of turnips ; clean land ; stubbles ploughed up early ;
ploughing with oxen ; and a very large and singularly fine
flock of sheep. Every thing that you see, land, stock, im-
plements, fences, buildings ; all do credit to the owner ;
bespeak his sound judgment, his industry and care. All
that is wanted here is, the radical husbandry ; because that
would enable the owner to keep three times the quantity of
stock. However, since I left home, I have seen but very
few farms that I should prefer to that of Mr. Sloper, whom
I have not the pleasure to know, and whom, indeed, I never
heard of till I saw his farm. At a village (certainly named
by some author) called Inkpen, we passed a neat little house
and paddock, the residence of a Mr. Butler, a nephew of
Dr. Butler, who died Bishop of Oxford, and whom I can
remember hearing preach at Farnham in Surrey, when I was
a very very little boy. I have his features and his wig
as clearly in mv recollection as if I had seen them but yester-
dav ; and, I dare sav I have not thought of Doctor Butler
for forty years before to-day. The "loyal" (oh, the pious
gang !) will say, that my memory is good as to the face and
wig, but bad as to the Doctor's Sermons. Why, I must
confess that I have no recollection of them ; but, then, do I
not make Sermons myself? At about two miles from
Inkpen we came to the end of our pilgrimage. The farm,
which was Mr. Tull's ; where he used the first drill that ever
was used ; where he practised his husbandry ; where he wrote
that book, which does so much honour to his memory, and
to which the cultivators of England owe so much ; this farm
is on an open and somewhat bleak spot, in Berkshire, on
the borders of Wiltshire, and within a very short distance
of a part of Hampshire. The ground is a loam, mixed with
flints, and has the chalk at no great distance beneath it. It
is, therefore, free from wet ; needs no water furrows ;
and is pretty good in its nature. The house, which
has been improved by Mr. Blandy the present pro-
prietor, is still but a plain farm-house. Mr. Blandy
has lived here thirty years, and has brought up ten
children to man's and woman's estate. Mr. Blandy was
from home, but Mrs. Blandy received and entertained us in
JOURNAL : BURGHCLERE. 37
a very hospitable manner. — We returned, not along the low
land, but along the top of the downs, and through Lord
Caernarvon's park, and got home after a very pleasant day.
BurgJielere,
Wednesday, 21 Nov.
We intended to have a hunt ; but the fox-hounds came
across and rendered it impracticable. As an instance of the
change which rural customs have undergone since the hellish
paper-system has been so furiously at work, I need only
mention the fact, that, forty years ago, there were _/?w packs
of fox -hounds and ten packs of harriers kept within ten miles
of Newbury ; and that now, there is oneoi the former (kept,
too, by subscription) and none of the latter, except the few
couple of dogs kept by Mr. Budd ! " So much the better,"
says the shallow fool, who cannot duly estimate the differ-
ence between a resident native gentry, attached to the soil,
known to every farmer and labourer from their childhood,
frequently mixing with them in those pursuits where all
artificial distinctions are lost, practising hospitality without
ceremony, from habit and not on calculation ; and a gentry,
only now-and-then residing at all, having no relish for
country-delights, foreign in their manners, distant and
haughty in their behaviour, looking to the soil only for its
rents, viewing it as a mere object of speculation, unac-
quainted with its cultivators, despising them and their pur-
suits, and relyiDg, for influence, not upon the good will of the
vicinage, but upon the dread of their power. The war and
paper-svstem has brought in nabobs, negro-drivers, gene-
rals, admirals, governors, commissaries, contractors, pen-
sioners, sinecurists, commissioners, loan-jobbers, lottery-
dealers, bankers, stock-jobbers; not to mention the long and
black list in gowns and three-tailed wigs. You can see but
few good houses not in possession of one or the other of
these. These, with the Parsons, are now the magistrates.
Some of the consequences are before us ; but they have not
all yet arrived, (lb') A taxation that sucks up fifty millions
a year must produce a new set of proprietors every twenty
years or less ; and the proprietors, while they last, can be
little better than tax-collectors to the government, and
scourgers of the people. — I must not quit Surghclere with-
out noticing Mr. Budd's radical Swedes and other things.
His is but miniature farming ; but it is very good, and very
3S JOURNAL : BURGHCLERE.
interesting. Some time in May, he drilled a piece of Swedes
on four feet ridges. The fly took them off. He had cab-
bage and mangel-wurzel plants to put in their stead. Un-
willing to turn back the ridges, and thereby bring the dung
to the top, he planted the cabbages and mangel-wurzel on
the ridges where the Swedes had been drilled. This was
done in June. Late in July, his neighbour, a farmer Hul-
bert, had a field of Swedes that he was hoeing. Mr. Budd
now put some manure in the furrows between the ridges,
and ploughed a furrow over it from each ridge. On this he
planted Swedes, taken from farmer Hulbert's field. Thus
his plantation consisted of rows of plants two feet apart.
The result is a prodigious crop. Of the mangel-wurzel
(greens and all) be has not less than twenty tons to the
acre. He can scarcely have less of the cabbages, some of
which are green savoys as fine as I ever saw. And of the
Swedes, many of which weigh from five to nine pounds, he
certainlv has more than twenty tons to the acre. So that
here is a crop of, at the very least, forty tons to the acre.
This piece is not much more than half an acre ; but, he will,
perhaps, not find so much cattle food upon any four acres in
the county. He is, and long has been, feeding four milch
cows, large, fine, and in fine condition, upon cabbages some-
times, and sometimes on mangel-wurzel leaves. The butter
is excellent. Not the smallest degree of bitterness or bad
taste of anv sort. Fine colour and fine taste. And here,
upon not three quarters of an acre of ground, he has, if he
manage the thing well, enough food for these four cows to
the month of May ! Can any system of husbandry equal
this ? What would he do with these cows, if he had not
this crop ? He could not keep one of them, except on hay.
And he owes all this crop to transplanting. He thinks, that
the transplanting, fetching the Swede plants and all, might
cost him ten or twelve shillings. It was done by women,
who had never done such a thing before. However, he
must get in his crop before the hard weather comes ; or my
Lord Caernarvon's hares will help him. They have begun
already ; and, it is curious, that they have begun on the
mangel-wurzel roots. So that, hares, at any rate, have set
the seal of merit upon this root.
Whitchurch,
Thursday {night,) 22 Nov.
We have come round here, instead of going by Newburv
JOURNAL : SANDHURST. 39
in consequence of a promise to Mr. Blount at Uphusband,
that 1 would call on him on my return. We left Uphus-
band by lamp-light, and, of course, we could see little on
our way.
Kensington,
Friday, 23 Nov.
Got home by the coach. At leaving Whitchurch we
soon passed the mill where the Mother-Bank paper is made !
Thank God, this mill is likely soon to want employment !
Hard by is a pretty park and house, belonging to
" 'Squire" Portal, the paper-maker. The country people,
who seldom want for sarcastic shrewdness, call it " Rag
Hall" ! — I perceive that they are planting oaks on the
"wastes," as the Agriculturasses call them, about Hartley
Row ; which is very good ; because the herbage, after the
first year, is rather increased than diminished by the opera-
tion ; while, in time, the oaks arrive at a timber state, and
add to the beauty and to the real wealth of the country, and
to the real and solid wealth of the descendants of the
planter, who, in every such case, merits unequivocal praise,
because he plants for his children's children. (17) — The
planter here is Lady Mildmat, who is, it seems, Lady of
the Manors about here. It is impossible to praise this act
of her's too much, especially when one considers her age.
I beg a thousand pardons ! I do not mean to say that her
Ladyship is old; but she has long had grand-children. If
her Ladyship had been a reader of old dread-death and
dread-devil Johnson, that teacher of moping and melan-
choly, she never would have planted an oak tree. If the
writings of this time-serving, mean, dastardly old pensioner
had got a firm hold of the minds of the people at large, the
people would have been bereft of their very souls. These
writings, aided by the charm of pompous sound, were fast
making their way, till light, reason, and the French revolu-
tion came to drive them into oblivion ; or, at least, to con-
fine them to the shelves of repentant, married old rakes, and
those of old stock-jobbers with young wives standing in
need of something to keep down the unruly ebullitions
which are apt to take place while the "dearies" are gone
hobbling to 'Change. " After pleasure comes pain,"
says Solomon ; and, after the sight of Lady Mildmay's
truly noble plantations, came that of the clouts of the
" gentlemen cadets" of the " Royal .Military College of
40 KENTISH JOURNAL : DARTFORD.
Sandhurst !" Here, close by the road side, is the drying-
ground. Sheets, shirts, and all sorts of things were here
spread upon lines, covering, perhaps, an acre of ground !
We soon afterwards came to " York Place" on " Osnaburg
Hill." And, is there never to be an end of these things ?
Away to the left, we see that immense building, which con-
tains children breeding up to be military commanders ! Has
this plan cost so little as two millions of pounds ? I never
see this place (and I have seen it forty times during the last
twenty years) without asking myself this question : Will
this thing be suffered to go on ; will this thing, created by
money raised by loan ; will this thing be upheld by means of
taxes, while the interest of the Debt is reduced, on the ground
that the nation is unable to pay the interest in full ?— Answer
that question, Castlereagh, Sidmouth, Brougham, or Scarlett.
KENTISH JOURNAL : FROM KENSINGTON TO DARTFORD,
ROCHESTER, CHATHAM, AND FAVERSHAM.
Tuesday, December 4, 1821.
Elverton Farm, near Faversham, Kent.
This is the first time, since I went to France, in 1792,
that I have been on this side of Shooters' Hill. The land,
generally speaking, from Deptford to Dartford is poor, and
the surface ugly by nature, to which ugliness there has been
made, just before we came to the latter place, a consider-
able addition by the inclosure of a common, and by the
sticking up of some shabby-genteel houses, surrounded
with dead fences and things called gardens, in all manner
of ridiculous forms, making, all together, the bricks, hurdle-
rods and earth say, as plainly as they can speak, " Here
dwell vanity and poverty:' This is a little excrescence that
has grown out of the immense sums, which have been
drawn from other parts of the kingdom to be expended on
Barracks, Magazines, Martello-Towers, Catamarans, and
all the excuses for lavish expenditure, which the war for the
Bourbons gave rise to. All things will return ; these rub-
bishy flimsy things, on this common, will first be deserted,
then crumble down, then be swept away, and the cattle,
sheep, pigs and geese will once more graze upon the com-
KENTISH JOURNAL : ROCHESTER. 41
mon, which will again furnish heath, furze and turf for the
labourers on the neighbouring lands. — After you leave Dart-
ford the land becomes excellent. You come to a bottom of
chalk, many feet from the surface, and when that is the case
the land is sure to be good ; no wet at bottom, no deep
ditches, no water furrows, necessary ; sufficiently moist in
dry weather, and no water lying about upon it in wet wea-
ther for any length of time. The chalk acts as a filtering-
stone, not as a sieve, like gravel, and not as a dish, like
clay. The chalk acts as the soft stone in Herefordshire does ;
but it is not so congenial to trees that have tap-roots. —
Along: through Gravesend towards Rochester the countrv
presents a sort of gardeuing scene. Rochester (the Bishop
of which is, or lately was, tax Collector for London and
Middlesex), is a small but crowded place, lying on the south
bank of the beautiful Medway, with a rising ground on the
other side of the city. Stroud, which you pass through
before you come to the bridge, over which you go to enter
Rochester ; Rochester itself, and Chatham, form, in fact, one
main street of about two miles and a half in length. — Here
I was got into the scenes of my cap-and-feather days !
Here, at between sixteen and seventeen, I enlisted for a
soldier. Upon looking up towards the fortifications and the
barracks, how many recollections crowded into my mind !
The girls in these towns do not seem to be so pretty as they
were thirty-eight years ago ; or, am I not so quick in dis-
covering beauties as I was then ? Have thirty-eight years
corrected my taste, or made me a hypercritic in these
matters ? Is it that I now look at them with the solemn-
ness of a " professional man," and not with the enthusiasm
and eagerness of an " amateur ?" I leave these questions
for philosophers to solve. One thing I will say for the
young women of these towns, and that is, that I always
found those of them that I had the great happiness to be
acquainted with, evince a sincere desire to do their best to
smooth the inequalities of life, and to give us, " brave fel-
lows," as often as they could, strong beer, when their churl-
ish masters or fathers or husbands would have drenched us
to death with small. This, at the out-set of life, gave me
a high opinion of the judgment and justice of the female
sex ; an opinion which has been confirmed by the observa-
tions of my whole life. — This Chatham has had some mon-
strous wens stuck on to it by the lavish expenditure of the
war. These will moulder away. It is curious enough that
42 KENTISH JOURNAL : CHATHAM.
I should meet with a gentleman in an inn at Chatham to
give me a picture of the house-distress in that enormous
wen, which, during the war, was stuck on to Portsmouth.
Not less than fifty~thousand people had been drawn together
there ! These are now dispersing. The coagulated blood
is diluting and flowing back through the veins. Whole
streets are deserted, and the eyes of the houses knocked out
by the boys that remain. The jack-daws, as much as to say,
" Our turn to be inspired and to teach is come," are begin-
ning to take possession of the Methodist chapels. The
gentleman told me, that he had been down to Portsea to sell
half a street of houses, left him by a relation ; and that no-
body would give him anything for them further than as
verv cheap fuel and rubbish ! Good God ! And is this
"prosperity?" Is this the "prosperity of the war?"
Have I not, for twenty long years, been regretting the exis-
tence of these unnatural embossments ; these white-swell-
ings, these odious wens, produced by Corruption and en-
gendering crime and misery and slavery ? We shall see
the whole of these wens abandoned by the inhabitants, and,
at last, the cannons on the fortifications may be of some use
in battering down the buildings. — But, what is to be the
fate of the great wen of all ? The monster, called, by the
silly coxcombs of the press, " the metropolis of the empire ?"
What is to become of that multitude of towns that has been
stuck up around it ? The village of Kingston was smothered
in the town of Portsea ; and why ? Because taxes, drained
from other parts of the kingdom, were brought thither.
The dispersion of the wen is the only real difficulty that
I see in settling the affairs of the nation and restoring it to
a happy state. But, dispersed it must be ; and, if there be
half a million, or more, of people to suffer, the consolation
is, that the suffering will be divided into half a million of
parts. As if the swelling out of London, naturally pro-
duced by the Funding System, were not sufficient ; as if
the evil were not sufficiently great from the inevitable ten-
dency of the system of loans and funds, our pretty gentle-
men must resort to positive institutions to augment the
population of the Wen. (18.) They found that the increase
of the Wen produced an increase of thieves and prostitutes,
an increase of all sorts of diseases, an increase of miseries of
all sorts ; they saw, that taxes drawn up to one point pro-
duced these effects; they must have a "penitentiary," (19)
for instance, to check the evil, and that they must needs
KENTISH JOURNAL : S1TTINGBOURNE. 43
have in the Wen ! So that here were a million of pounds,
drawn up in taxes, employed not only to keep the thieves and
prostitutes still in the Wen, but to bring up to the Wen
workmen to build the penitentiary, who and whose families,
amounting, perhaps to thousands, make an addition to the
cause of that crime and misery, to check which is the object
of the Penitentiary ! People would follow, they must fol-
low, the million of money. However, this is of a piece with
all the rest of their goings on. Thev and their predecessors,
Ministers and House, have been collecting together all the
materials for a dreadful explosion ; and, if the explosion be
not dreadful, other heads must point out the means of pre-
vention.
Wednesday, 5 Dec.
The land on quitting Chatham is chalk at bottom ; but,
before you reach Sittingbourne, there is a vein of gravel and
sand under, but a great depth of loam above. About
Sittingbourne the chalk bottom comes again, and continues
on to this place, where the land appears to me to be as good
as it can possibly be. Mr. William Waller, at whose
house I am, has grown, this year, Mangel- Wurzel, the roots
of which weigh, I think, on an average, twelve pounds, and
in rows, too, at only about thirty inches distant from each
other. In short, as far as soil goes, it is impossible to see a
finer country than this. You frequently see a field of fifty
acres, level as a die, clean as a garden and as rich. Mr.
Birkbeck need not have crossed the Atlantic, and Alleghany
into the bargain, to look for land too rich to bear wheat ; for
here is a plenty of it. In short, this is a country of hop-
gardens, cherry, apple, pear and filbert orchards, and quick-
set hedges. But, alas ! what, in point of beauty, is a country
without woods and lofty trees ! And here there are very
few indeed. I am now sitting in a room, from the window
of which I look, first, over a large and level field of rich land,
in which the drilled wheat is finely come up, and which is
surrounded by clipped quickset hedges with a row of apple
trees running by the sides of them ; next, over a long
succession of rich meadows, which are here called marshes,
the shortest grass upon which will fatten sheep or oxen ;
nrxt, over a little branch of the salt water which runs up to
Faversham ; beyond that, on the Isle of Shepry (or Shepway),
which rises a little into a sort of ridge that runs along it ;
44 KENTISH JOURNAL : FAVERSHAM.
rich fields, pastures and orchards lie all around me ; and yet,
I declare, that I a million times to one prefer, as a spot to
live on, the heaths, the miry coppices, the wild woods and
the forests of Sussex and Hampshire.
Thursday, 6 Dec.
"Agricultural distress" is the great topic of general con-
versation. The Webb Hallites seem to prevail here. The
fact is, farmers in general read nothing but the newspapers ;
these, in the Wen, are under the controul of the Corruption
of one or the other of the factions ; and, in the country, nine
times out of ten, under the controul of the parsons and land-
lords, who are the magistrates, as they are pompously called,
that is to say, Justices of the Peace. From such vehicles
what are farmers to learn ? They are, in general, thoughtful
and sensible men ; but, their natural good sense is per-
verted by these publications, had it not been for which we
never should have seen " a sudden transition from war to
peace" lasting seven years, and more sudden in its destruc-
tive effects at last than at first. (20) Sir Edward Knatch-
bull and Mr. Honeywood are the members of the " Collective
Wisdom" for this county. The former was, till of late, a
Tax- Collector, I hear, that he is a great advocate for corn-
bills / I suppose he does not wish to let people who have
leases see the bottom of the evil. He may get his rents
for this year ; but it will be his last year, if the interest of
the Debt be not very greatly reduced. (21) Some people
here think, that corn is smuggled in even now ! Perhaps it
is, upon the ichole, best that the delusion should continue
for a year longer ; as that would tend to make the destruc-
tion of the system more sure, or, at least, make the cure
more radical.
Friday, 7 Dec.
I went through Faversham. A very pretty little town,
and just ten minutes' walk from the market-place up to the
Dover turnpike-road. Here are the powder-affairs that Mr.
Hume so well exposed. An immensity of buildings and
expensive things. Why are not these premises let or sold ?
However, this will never be done, until there be a reformed
parliament. Pretty little Van, (22) that beauty of all beauties;
that orator of all orators ; that saint of all saints ; that financier
of all financiers, said that, if Mr. Hume were to pare down the
KENTISH JOURNAL : FAVERSHAM. 45
expences of government to Ms wish, there would be others
" the Hunts, Cobbetts, and Carliles, who would still want
the expence to be less." I do not know how low Mr.
Hume would wish to go ; but, for myself I say, that if 1
ever have the power to do it, I will reduce the expenditure,
and that in quick time too, down to what it was in the reign
of Queen Anne ; that is to say, to less than is now paid to
tax-gatherers for their labour in collecting the taxes ; and,
monstrous as Van may think the idea, I do not regard it as
impossible that I may have such power ; which I would
certainlv not employ to do an act of injustice to any human
being, and would, at the same time, maintain the throne in
more real splendour than that in which it is now main-
tained. But, I would have nothing to do with any' Vans,
except as door-keepers or porters.
Saturday, 8 Dec.
Came home very much pleased with my visit to Mr.
Walker, in whose house I saw no drinking of wine,
spirits, or even beer; where all, even to the little children,
were up by candle-light in the morning, and where the
most perfect sobriety was accompanied by constant cheer-
fulness. Kent is in a deplorable way. The farmers are
skilful and intelligent, generally speaking. But, there is
infinite corruption in Kent, owing partly to the swarms of
West Indians, Nabobs, Commissioners, and others of
nearly the same description, that have selected it for the
place of their residence ; but, owing still more to the
immense sums of public money that have, during the last
thirty years, been expended in it. And, when one thinks
of these, the conduct of the people of Dover, Canterbury,
and other places, in the case of the ever-lamented Queen,
does them everlasting honour. The fruit in Kent is more
select than in Herefordshire, where it is raised for cyder,
while, in Kent, it is raised for sale in its fruit state, a great
deal being sent to the Wen, and a great deal sent to the
North of England and to Scotland. The orchards are
beautiful indeed. Kept in the neatest order, and indeed,
all belonging to them excels anything of the kind to be
seen in Normandy (23) ; and, as to apples, I never saw any
so good in France as those of Kent. This county, so
blessed by Providence, has been cursed by the System in a
peculiar degree. It has been the receiver of immense sums,
raised on the other counties, This has puffed its rents to
46 NORFOLK JOURNAL : BERGH-APTON.
an unnatural height ; and now that the drain of other
counties is stopped, it feels like a pampered pony, turned
out in winter to live upon a common. It is in an extremely
"unsatisfactory state," and has certainly a greater mass of
suffering to endure than any other part of the kingdom,
the Wens only excepted. Sir Edward Knatchbull, who
is a child of the System, does appear to see no more of the
cause of these sufferings than if he were a haby. How
should he ? Not very bright by nature ; never listening
hut to one side of the question ; being a man who wants
high rents to be paid him ; not gifted with much light,
and that little having to strive against prejudice, false
shame, and self interest, what wonder is there that he
should not see things in their true light ?
NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK JOURNAL.
Bergh-Apton, near Norwich,
Monday, 10 Dec. 1821.
From the Wen to Norwich, from which I am now distant
seven miles, there is nothing in Essex, Suffolk, or this
county, that can be called a hill. Essex, when you get
beyond the immediate influence of the gorgings and dis-
gorgings of the Wen ; that is to say, beyond the demand
for crude vegetables and repayment in manure, is by no
means a fertile county. There appears generally to be a
bottom of clay ; not soft chalk, which they persist in calling
clay in Norfolk. I wish I had one of these Norfolk men
in a coppice in Hampshire or Sussex, and I would shew
him what clay is. Clay is what pots and pans and jugs and
tiles are made of; and not soft, whitish stuff that crumbles
to pieces in the sun, instead of baking as hard as a stone, and
which, in dry weather, is to be broken to pieces by nothing
short of a sledge-hammer. The narrow ridges on which
the wheat is sown ; the water furrows ; the water standing
in the dips of the pastures; the rustv iron-like colour of the
water coming out of some of the banks; the deep ditches;
the rusty look of the pastures ; all show, that here is a
b:ttom of clay. Yet there is gravel too ; for the oaks do
not grow well. It was not till I got nearly to Sudbury
that I saw much change for the better. Here the bottom
NORFOLK JOURNAL : BERGH-APTON. 47
of chalk, the soft dirty-looking chalk that the Norfolk
people call clay, begins to be the bottom, and this, with very
little exception (as far as I have been) is the bottom of all
the lands of these two fine counties of Suffolk and Norfolk.
— Sudbury has some fine meadows near it on the sides
of the river Stour. The land all along to Bury Saint
Edmund's is very fine ; but no trees worth looking at.
Bury, formerly the seat of an Abbot, the last of whom was,
I think, hanged, or somehow put to death, by that match-
less tyrant, Henry viii., is a very pretty place ; extremely
clean and neat ; no ragged or dirty people to be seen, and
women (young ones I mean) very pretty and very neatly
dressed. — On this side of Bury, a considerable distance
lower, I saw a field of Rape, transplanted very thick, for, I
suppose, sheep feed in the spring. The farming all along
to Norwich is very good. The land clean, and every thing
done in a masterly manner.
Tuesday, 11 Dec.
Mr. Samvel Clarke, my host, has about 30 acres of
Swedes in rows. Some at 4 feet distances, some at 30
inches ; and, about 4 acres of the 4-feet Swedes were trans-
planted. I have seen thousands of acres of Swedes in these
counties, and here are the largest crops that I have seen.
The widest rows are decidedly the largest crops here. And,
the transplanted, though under disadvantageous circumstan-
ces, amongst the best of the best. The wide rows amount to
at least 20 tons to the acre, exclusive of the greens taken off
two months ago, which weighed 5 tons to the acre. Then,
there is the inter tillage, so beneficial to the land, and the
small quantity of manure required in the broad rows, com-
pared to what is required when the seed is drilled or sown
upon the level. Mr. Nicholls, a neighbour of Mr.
Clarke, has a part of a field transplanted on seven turn
ridges, put in when in the other part of the field, drilled, the
plants were a fortnight old. He has a much larger crop in
the transplanted than in the drilled part. But, if it had
been a fly-year, he might have had none in the drilled part,
while, in all probability, the crop in the transplanted part
would have been better than it now is, seeing that a toet
summer, though favourable to the hitting of the Swedes, is
by no means favourable to their attaining a great size of
bulb. This is the case this year with all turnips. A great
deal of leaf and neck, but, not bulbs in proportion. The
48 NORFOLK JOURNAL : HOLT.
advantages of transplanting are, first, you make sure cf
a crop in spite of fly ; and, second, you have six weeks or
two months longer to prepare your ground. And the
advantages of wide rows are, first, that you want only
about half the quantity of manure ; and, second, that you
plough the ground two or three times during the summer.
Grove, near Holt,
Thursday, Y&th Dec.
Came to the Grove (Mr. Withers's), near Holt, along
with Mr. Clarke. Through Norwich to Aylsham and then
to Holt. On our road we passed the house of the late
Lord Suffield, who married Castlereagh's wife's sister, who is
a daughter of the late Earl of Buckinghamshire, who had
for so many years that thumping sinecure of eleven thousand
a year in Ireland, and who was the son of a man that,
under the name of Mr. Hobart, cut such a figure in sup-
porting Lord North and afterwards Pitt, and was made a
peer under the auspices of the latter of these two heaven-
born Ministers, This house, which is a very ancient one,
was, they say, the birth-place of Ann de Boleyne, the
mother of Queen Elizabeth. Not much matter ; for she
married the king while his real wife was alive. I could have
excused her, if there had been no marrying in the case ;
but, hypccrisv, always bad, becomes detestable when it re-
sorts to religious ceremony as its mask. She, no more than
Cranmer, seems, to her last moments, to have remembered
her sins against her lawful queen. Fox's " Boole of Martyrs,"
that ought to be called *' the Book of Liars," says that
Cranmer, the recanter and re-recanter, held out his offend-
ing hand in the flames, and cried out " that hand, that
hand !" If he had cried out Catherine ! Catherine ! I should
have thought better of him ; but, it is clear, that the whole
story is a lie, invented by the protestants, and particularly
by the sectarians, to white-wash the character of this per-
fidious hypocrite and double apostate, who, if bigotry had
something to do in bringing him to the stake, certainly
deserved his fate, if any offences committed by man can
deserve so horrible a punishment. — The present Lord
Suffield is that Mr. Edward Harbord, whose father-
in-law left him 500/. to buy a seat in parliament, and who
refused to carry an address to the late beloved and lamented
Queen, because Major Cartwright and myself were chosen
HOLT. 49
to accompany him ! Never mind, my Lord ; you will grow
less fastidious ! They say, however, that he is really good
to his tenants, and has told them, that he will take any thing
that they can give. There is some sense in this ! He is a
great Bible Man ; and, it is strange that he cannot see, that
things are out of order, when his interference in this way
can be at all necessary, while there is a Church that receives
a tenth part of the produce of the earth. — There are some
oak woods here, but very poor. Not like those, not near
like the worst of those, in Hampshire and Herefordshire.
All this eastern coast seems very unpropitious to trees of
all sorts. — We passed through the estate of a Mr. Marsin,
whose house is near the road, a very poor spot, and the first
really poor ground I have seen in Norfolk. A nasty spewy
black gravel on the top of a sour clay. It is worse than the
heaths between Godalming and Liphook ; for, while it is too
poor to grow any thing but heath, it is too cold to give you
the chirping of the grasshopper in summer. However, Mr.
Marsin has been too wise to enclose this wretched land,
which is just like that which Lord Caernarvon has enclosed
in the parishes of Highclere, and Burghclere, and which, for
tillage, really is not worth a single farthing an acre. — Holt
is a little, old-fashioned, substantially-built market-town.
The land just about it, or, at least, towards the east, is poor,
and has been lately enclosed.
Friday, Hih Dec.
Went to see the estate of MrHardy at Leveringsett, a
hamlet about two miles from Holt. This is the first time
that I have seen a valley in this part of England. From
Holt you look, to the distance of seven or eight miles, over
a verv fine valley, leaving a great deal of inferior hill and
dell within its boundaries. At the bottom of this general
valley, Mr. Hardy has a very beautiful estate of about four
hundred acres. His house is at one end of it near the high
road, where he has a malt-house and a brewery, the neat and
ingenious manner of managing which I would detail if my
total unacquaintance with machinery did not disqualify me
for the task. His estate forms a valley of itself, somewhat
longer than broad. The tops, and the sides of the tops of
the hills round it, and also several little hillocks in the
valley itself, are judiciously planted with trees of various
sorts, leaving good wide roads, so that it is easy to ride
round them in a carriage. The fields, the fences, the yards
D
50 NORFOLK JOURNAL : BERGH-APTON.
the stacks, the buildings, the cattle, all showed the greatest
judgment and industry. There was really nothing that the
most critical observer could say was out of order. How-
ever, the forest trees do not grow well here. The oaks are
mere scrubs, as they are about Brentwood in, Essex, and in
some parts of Cornwall ; and, for some unaccountable rea-
son, people seldom plant the ash, which no wind will shave,
as it does the oak.
Saturday, 15 Dec.
Spent the evening amongst the Farmers, at their Market
Room at Holt; and very much pleased at them I was. We
talked over the cause of the low prices, and I, as I have
done every where, endeavoured to convince them, that
prices must fall a great deal lower yet ; and, that no man,
who wishes not to be ruined, ought to keep or take a farm,
unless on a calculation of best wheat at 4s. a bushel and a
best South Down ewe at 15s. or even 12s. They heard
me patientlv, and, I believe, were well convinced of the
truth of what I said. I told them of the correctness of the
predictions of their great countryman, Mr. Paine, and ob-
served, how much better it would have been, to take his
advice, than to burn him in effigy. I endeavoured (but in
such a case all human powers must fail !) to describe to
them the sort and size of the talents of the Stern-path-of-
duty man, of the great hole-digger, of the jester, of the
Oxford-scholar, of the loan-jobber (who had just made an
enormous grasp), of the Oracle (24), and so on. Here, as
everv where else, I hear every creature speak loudly in
praise of Mr. Coke. It is well known to my readers, that
I think nothing of him as a. public man; that I think even
his good qualities an injury to his country, because they
serve the knaves whom he is duped by to dupe the people
more effectually ; but, it would be base in me not to say,
that I hear, from men of all parties, and sensible men too,
expressions made use of towards him that affectionate
children use towards the best of parents. I have not met
■with a single exception.
Bergh Apt on,
Sunday, 16 Dec.
Came from Holt through Saxthorpe and Cawston. At
the former village were on one end of a decent white house,
these words, " Queen Caroline ; for her Britons mourn," and
GREAT YARMOUTH. 51
a crown over all in black. I need not have looked to see :
1 might have been sure, that the owner of the house was a
shoe-maker, a trade which numbers more men of sense and
of public spirit than any other in the kingdom. — At Cawston
we stopped at a public house, the keeper of which had
taken and read the Register for years. I shall not attempt
to describe the pleasure I felt at the hearty welcome given
us by Mr. Pern and his wife and by a young miller of the
village, who, having learnt at Holt that we were to return
that way, had come to meet us, the house being on the side
of the great road, from which the village is at some distance.
This is the birth-place of the famous Botley Parson (25), all
the history of whom we now learned, and, if we could have
gone to the village, they were prepared to rbuj the bells, and
show us the old woman, who nursed the Botley Parson !
These Norfolk bates (26) never do things by halves. We
came away, verv much pleased with our reception at
Cawston, and with a promise, on my part, that, if I visited
the county again, I would write a Register there ; a promise
which I shall certainly keep.
Great Yarmoxdh,
Friday (morning), 2\st Dec.
The day before yesterday I set out for Bergh Apton with
Mr. Clarke, to come hither by the way of Beccles in Suf-
folk. We stopped at Mr. Charles Clarke's at Beccles,
where we saw some good and sensible men, who see clearly
into all the parts of the works of the "Thunderers," and
whose anticipations, as to the " general working of events,"
are such as they ought to be. They gave us a humorous
account of the "rabble" having recently crowned a Jack-
ass, and of a struggle between them and the " Yeomanry
Gavaltry." This was a place of most ardent and blazing
loyally, as the pretenders to it call it ; but, it seems, it now
blazes less furiously ; it is milder, more measured in its
effusions ; and, with the help of low prices, will become
bearable in time. This Beccles is a very pretty place, has
watered meadows near it, and is situated amidst fine lands.
What a system it must be to make people wretched in a
country like this ! Could he be heaven-bom that invented
such a system ? Gaffer Gooch's father, a very old man,
lives not far from here. We had a good deal of fun
about the Gaffer, who will certainly never lose the name,
d 2
52 NORFOLK JOURNAL: NORWICH.
unless lie should be made a Lord. — We slept at the house
of a friend of Mr. Clarke on our way, and got to this very
fine town of Great Yarmouth yesterday about noon. A
party of friends met us and conducted us about the town,
which is a very beautiful one indeed. What I liked best,
however, was, the hearty welcome that I met with, because
it showed, that the reign of calumny and delusion was
passed. A company of gentlemen gave me a dinner in the
evening, and, in all my life I never saw a set of men more
worthy of my respect and gratitude. Sensible, modest,
understanding the whole of our case, and clearly foreseeing
what is about to happen. One gentleman proposed, that,
as it would be impossible for all to go to London, there
should be a Provincial Feast of the Gridiron (27), a plan,
which, I hope, will be adopted. — I leave Great Yarmouth
with sentiments of the sincerest regard for all those whom
I there saw and conversed with, and with my best wishes
for the happiness of all its inhabitants ; nay, even the
parsons not excepted; for, if they did not come to welcome
me, they collected in a group to see me, and that was one
step towards doing justice to him whom their order have
so much, so foully, and, if they knew their own interest, so
foolishly slandered.
Bergh Apt on,
22nd Dec. {night).
After returning from Yarmouth yesterday, went to dine
at Stoke-Holy-Cross, about six miles off; got home at mid-
night, and came to Norwich this morning, this being
market-dav, and also the dav fixed on for a Radical Reform
Dinner at the. Swan Inn, to which I was invited. Norwich
is a very fine city, and the Castle, which stands in the
middle of it, on a hill, is truly majestic. The meat and
poultry and vegetable market is beautiful. It is kept in a
arge open square in the middle, or nearly so, of the City.
The ground is a pretty sharp slope, so that you see all at
once. It resembles one of the French markets, only there
the vendors are all standing and gabbling like parrots, and
the meat is lean and bloody and nasty, and the people
snuffy and grimy in hands and face, the contrary, precisely
the contrary of all which is the case in this beautiful market
at Norwich, where the women have a sort of uniform brown
great coats, with white aprons and bibs (I think they call
them) going from the apron up to the bosom. They equal
NORWICH. 53
in neatness (for nothing can surpass) the market women in
Philadelphia. — The cattle-market is held on the hill hy the
castle, and many fairs are smaller in bulk of stock. The
corn-market is held in a very magnificent place, called Saint
Andrew's Hall, which will contain two or three thousand
persons. They tell me, that this used to be a most delight-
ful scene ; a most joyous one; and, I think, it was this
scene that Mr. Curwen described in such glowing colours
when he was talking of the Norfolk farmers, each worth so
many thousands of pounds. Bear me witness, reader, that
/ never teas dazzled by such sights ; that the false glare
never put my eyes out ; and that, even then, twelve years
ago, I warned Mr. Curwen of the result ! Bear witness to
this, my Disciples, and justify the doctrines of him, for
whose sakes you have endured persecution. How different
would Mr. Curwen find the scene now ! What took place
at the dinner has been already recorded in the Register ;
and T have only to add with regard to it, that my reception
at Norfolk was such, that I have only to regret the total
want of power to make those hearty Norfolk and Norwich
friends any suitable return, whether by act or word.
Kensington,
Monday, 24 Dec.
Went from Bergh Apton to Norwich in the morning, and
from Norwich to London during the day, carrying with me
great admiration of and respect for this county of excellent
farmers, and hearty, open and spirited men. The Norfolk
people are quick and smart in their motions and in their
speaking. Very neat and trim in all their farming concerns,
and very skilful. Their land is good, their roads are level,
and the bottom of their soil is dry, to be sure ; and these
are great advantages; but, they are diligent, and make the
most of every thing. Their management of all sorts of
stock is most judicious ; they are careful about manure ;
their teams move quickly; and, in short, it is a county of
most excellent cultivators. — The churches in Norfolk are
generally large and the towers lofty. They have all been well
built at first. Many of them are of the Saxon architecture.
They are, almost all, (1 do not remember an exception)
placed on the highest spots to be found near where they
stand ; and, it is curious enough, that the contrary practice
should have prevailed in hilly countries, where they are
54 LANDLORD DISTRESS MEETINGS.
generally found in vaHeys and in low, sheltered dells, even
in those valleys ! These churches prove that the people of
Norfolk and Suffolk were always a superior people in point
of wealth, while the size of them proves, that the country
parts were, at one time, a great deal more populous than
they now are. The great drawbacks on the beauty of these
counties are, their flatness and their want of fine woods ;
but, to those who can dispense with these, Norfolk, under a
wise and just government, can have nothing to ask more
than Providence and the industry of man have given.
Landlord Distress Meetings.
For, in fact, it is not the farmer, but the Landlord and
Parson, who wants relief from the ,l Collective." The
tenant's remedy is, quitting his farm or bringing down his
rent to what he can afford to give, wheat being 3 or 4
shillings a bushel. This is his remedy. What should he
want high prices for ? They can do him no good ; and this
I proved to the farmers last year. The fact is, the Land-
lords and Parsons are urging the farmers on to get some-
thing done to give them high rents and high tithes.
At Hertford there has been a meeting at which some
sense was discovered, at any rate. The parties talked about
the fund- holder, the Debt, the taxes, and so on, and seemed
to be in a very warm temper. Pray, keep yourselves cool,
gentlemen ; for you have a great deal to endure yet. I
deeply regret that I have not room to insert the resolutions
of this meeting.
There is to be a meeting at Battle (East Sussex) on the
3rd instant, at which I mean to be. I want to see my friends
on the South-Downs. To see how they look now.
[At a public dinner given to Mr. Cobbett at Norwich, on
the market-day above mentioned, the company drank the
toast of Mr. Cobbett and his " Trash," the name " two-
penny trash," having being at one time applied by Lord
Castlereagh to the Register. In acknowledging this toast
Mr. Cobbett addressed the company in a speech, of which
the following is a passage :]
My thanks to you for having drunk my health, are great
and sincere ; but, much greater pleasure do I feel at the ap-
probation bestowed on that Trash, which has, for so many
years, been a mark for the finger of scorn to be pointed at
by ignorant selfishness and arrogant and insolent power.
LANDLORD DISTRESS MEETINGS. 55
To enumerate, barely to name, all, or a hundredth part of,
the endeavours that have been made to stifle this Trash,
would require a much longer space of time than that which
we have now before us. But, gentlemen, those endeavours
must have cost money ; money must have been expended in
the circulation of Anti-Cobbett, and the endless bale of
papers and pamphlets put forth to check the progress of the
Trash; and, when we take ir.io view the immense sums ex-
pended in keeping - down the spirit excited by the Trash,
who of us is to tell, whether these endeavours, taken alto-
gether, may not have added many millions to that debt, of
which (without any hint at a concomitant measure) some men
have now the audacity, the unprincipled, the profligate as-
surance to talk of reducing the interest. The Trash, Gen-
tlemen, is now triumphant ; its triumph we are now met to
celebrate ; proofs of its triumph I myself witnessed not
many hours ago, in that scene where the best possible evi-
dence was to be found. In walking through St. Andrew's
Hall, my mind was not so much engaged on the grandeur
of the place, or on the gratifying reception I met with;
those hearty shakes by the hand which I so much like, those
smiles of approbation, which not to see with pride would
argue an insensibility to honest fame : even these, I do
sincerely assure vou, engaged my mind much less than the
melancholy reflection, that, of the two thousand or fifteen
hundred farmers then in my view, there were probably
three-fourths who came to the Hall with aching hearts, and
who would leave it in a state of mental agony. What a thing
to contemplate, Gentlemen ! What a scene is here ! A
set of men, occupiers of the land ; producers of all that we
eat, drink, wear, and of all that forms the buildings that
shelter us ; a set of men industrious and careful by habit ;
cool, thoughtful, and sensible from the instructions of
nature ; a set of men provident above all others, and en-
gaged in pursuits in their nature stable as the very earth
they till : to see a set of men like this plunged into anxiety,
embarrassment, jeopardv, not to be described ; and when the
particular individuals before me were famed for their
superior skill in this great and solid pursuit, and were
blessed with soil and other circumstances to make them
prosperous and happv : to behold this sight would have
been more than sufficient to sink my heart within me, had I
not been upheld by the reflection, that I had done all in my
power to prevent these calamities, and that 1 still had in re-
56 SUSSEX JOURNAL : BATTLE.
serve that which, with the assistance of the sufferers them-
selves, would restore them and the nation to happiness.
SUSSEX JOURNAL : TO BATTLE, THROUGH BROMLEY, SEVEN-
OAKS, AND TUNBRIDGE.
Battle,
Wednesday, 2 Jan. 1822.
Came here to-day from Kensington, in order to see what
goes on at the Meeting to he held here to-morrow, of the
•' Gentry, Clergy, Freeholders, and Occupiers of Land in
" the llape of Hastings, to take into consideration the dis-
tressed state of the Agricultural interest." I shall, of
course, give an account of this meeting after it has taken
place. — You come through part of Kent to get to Battle
from the Great Wen on the Surrey side of the Thames.
The first town is Bromley, the next Seven-Oaks, the next
Tunbridge, and between Tunbridge and this place you cross
the boundaries of the two counties. — From the Surrev Wen
to Bromley the land is generally a deep loam on a gravel,
and you see few trees except elm. A very ugly country.
On quitting Bromley the land gets poorer ; clav at bottom ;
the wheat sown on five, or seven, turn lands ; the furrows
shining with wet ; rushes on the wastes on the sides of the
road. Here there is a common, part of which has been in-
closed and thrown out again, or, rather, the fences carried
away. — There is a frost this morning, some ice, and the
women look rosy-cheeked. — There is a very great variety
of soil along this road ; bottom of yellow clay ; then of
sand; then of sand-stone; then of solider stone ; then (for
about five miles) of chalk ; then of red clay ; then chalk
again ; here (before you come to Seven-Oaks) is a most
beautiful and rich valley, extending from East to West, with
rich corn-fields and fine trees ; then comes sand-stone
again; and the hop-gardens near Seven-Oaks, which is a
pretty little town with beautiful environs, part of which
consists of the park of Knoru/e, the seat of the Duchess of
Dorset. It is a very fine place. And there is another park,
on the other side of the town. So that this is a delightful
place, and the land appears to be very good. The gardens
and houses all look neat and nice. On quitting Seven-
SUSSEX JOURNAL : BATTLE. 57
Oaks vou come to a bottom of gravel for a short distance,
and to a clav for many miles. When I say, that I saw
teams carting gravel from this spot to a distance of nearly
ten miles along the road, the reader will be at no loss to
know what sort of bottom the land has all along here. The
bottom then becomes sand-stone again. This vein of land
runs all along through the county of Sussex, and the clay
runs into Hampshire, across the forests . of Bere and
Waltham, then across the parishes of Ouslebury, Stoke,
and passing between the sand hills of Southampton and
chalk hills of Winchester, goes westward till stopped by
the chalky downs between Romsey and Salisbury. —
Tunbridge is a small but very nice town, and has some
fine meadows and a navigable river. — The rest of the
wav to Battle presents, alternately, clay and sand-stone.
Of course the coppices and oak woods are very fre-
quent. There is now-and-then a hop-garden spot, and
now-and-then an orchard of apples or cherries ; but these
are poor indeed compared with what you see about Canter-
bury and Maidstone. The agricultural state of the country
or, rather, the quality of the land, from Bromley to Battle,
may be judged of from the fact, that I did not see, as I
came along, more than thirty acres of Swedes during the
fiftv-six miles ! In Norfolk 1 should, in the same distance,
have seen five hundred acres ! However, man was not the
maker the land ; and, as to human happiness, I am of
opinion, that as much, and even more, falls to the lot of the
leather-legged chaps that live in and rove about amongst
those clays and woods as to the more regularly disciplined
labourers of the rich and prime parts of England. As
" God has made the back to the burthen," so the clay and
coppice people make the dress to the stubs and bushes.
Under the sole of the shoe is iron ; from the sole six inches
upwards is a high-low ; then comes a leather bam to the
knee ; then comes a pair of leather breeches ; then comes a
stout doublet; over this comes a smock-frock f and the
wearer sets brush and stubs and thorns and mire at defiance.
I have always observed, that woodland and forest labourers
are best off in the main. The coppices give them pleasant
and profitable work in winter. If they have not so great a
corn-harvest, they have a three weeks harvest in April or
May; that is to say, in the season of barking, which in
Hampshire is called stripping, and in Sussex flaying, which
employs women and children as well as men. And, then
d 3
58 Sussex journal: battle.
in the great article of fuel ! They buy none. It is miser-
able work, where this is to be bought, and where, as at
Salisbury, the poor take by turns the making of fires at
their houses to boil four or five tea-kettles. What a winter-
life must those lead, whose turn it is not to make the fire !
At Launceston in Cornwall a man, a tradesman too, told
me, that the people in general could not afford to have fire
in ordinary, and that he himself paid 3d. for boiling a leg of
mutton at another man's fire ! The leather-legged-race
know none of these miseries, at any rate. They literally
get their fuel "by hook or by crook,'' whence, doubtless,
comes that old and very expressive saying, which is ap-
plied to those cases where people will have a thing by one
means or another.
Battle,
Thursday {night), 3 Jan. 1822.
To-day there has been a Meeting here of the landlords
and farmers in this part of Sussex, which is called the Rape
of Hastings. The object was to agree on a petition to
parliament praying for relief! Good God ! Where is
this to end? We now see the effects of those rags (28)
which I have been railing against for the last twenty
years. Here were collected together not less than 300
persons, principally landlords and farmers, brought from
their homes by their distresses and by their alarms for the
future ! Never were such things heard in any countrv
before ; and, it is useless to hope, for terrific must be the
consequences, if an effectual remedy be not speedily applied.
The town, which is small, was in a great bustle before noon ;
and the Meeting (in a large room in the principal inn) took
place about oneo'clock. Lord Ashburnham was called to
the chair, and there were present Mr. Curteis, one of the
county members, Mr. Fuller, who formerly used to cut such
a figure in the House of Commons, Mr. Lambe, and many
other gentlemen of landed property within the Rape, or
district, for which the Meeting was held. Mr. Curteis,
after Lord Ashburnham had opened the business, addressed
the Meeting.
Mr. Fuller thentendered some Resolutions, describing
the fallen state of the landed interest, and proposing to pray,
generally, for relief. Mr. Britton complained, that it was
not proposed to pray for some specific measure, and insisted,
EATTLE. 59
that the cause of the evil was the rise in the value of money
without a corresponding reduction in the taxes. — A Com-
mittee was appointed to draw up a petition, which was next
produced. It merely described the distress, and prayed
generally for relief. Mr. Holloway proposed an addition,
containing an imputation of the distress to restricted
currency and unabated taxation, and praying for a reduc-
tion of taxes. A discussion now arose upon two points :
first, whether the addition were admissible at all ! and,
second, whether Mr. Holloway was qualified to offer it to
the Meeting. Both the points having been, at last, de-
cided in the affirmative, the addition, or amendment, was
put, and lost j and then the original petition was adopted.
After the business of the day was ended, there was a
dinner in the inn, in the same room where the Meeting
had been held. I was at this dinner ; and Mr. Britton
having proposed my health, and Mr. Curteis, who was in
the Chair, having given it, T thought it would have looked
like mock-modesty, which is, in fact, only another term for
hypocrisv, to refrain from expressing my opinions upon a
point or two connected with the business of the day. I
shall now insert a substantially correct sketch of what the
company was indulgent enough to hear from me at the din-
ner ; which I take from the report, contained in the Morning
Chronicle of Saturday last. The report in the Chronicle has
all the pith of what I advanced relative to the inuiilitij of
Corn-Bills, and relative to the cause of further declining
prices ; two points of the greatest importance in themselves,
and which I was, and am, uncommonly anxious to press
upon the attention of the public.
The following is a part of the speech so reported : —
I am decidedly of opinion, Gentlemen, that a Corn Bill
of no description, no matter what its principles or provi-
sions, can do either tenant or landlord any good ; and I am
not less decidedly of opinion, that though prices are now
low, they must, all the present train of public msasures con-
tinuing, be yet lower, and continue lower upon an average of
years and of seasons. — As to a Corn Bill ; a law to prohibit
or check the importation of human food is a perfect
novelty in our history, and ought, therefore, independent of
the reason, and the recent experience of the case, to be
received and entertained with great suspicion. Heretofore,
/>/• have been given for the exportation, and at other
times, for the importation, of corn ; but, of laws to prevent
60 SUSSEX JOURNAL : BATTLE.
the importation of human food our ancestors knew no-
thing. (29) And what says recent experience ? When
the present Corn Bill was passed, I, then a farmer, unable
to get my brother farmers to join me, petitioned singly
against this Bill; and I stated to my brother farmers, that
such a Bill could do us no good, while it would not fail to
excite against us the ill-will of the other classes of the
community; a thought by no means pleasant. Thus has it
been. The distress of agriculture was considerable in
magnitude then ; but what is it now ? And yet the Bill
was passed ; that Bill which was to remunerate and pro-
tect is still in force ; the farmers got what they prayed to
have granted them ; and their distress, with a short interval
of tardy pace, has proceeded rapidly increasing from that
day to this. What, in the way of Corn Bill, can you have,
Gentlemen, beyond absolute prohibition ? And, have you
not, since about April, 1819, had absolute prohibition?
Since that time no corn has been imported, and then only
thirty millions of bushels, which, supposing it all to have
been wheat, was a quantity much too insignificant to
produce any sensible depression in the price of the immense
quantity of corn raised in this kingdom since the last bushel
was imported. If your produce had fallen in this manner,
if your prices had come down very low, immediately after
the importation had taken place, there might have been
some colour of reason to impute the fall to the importation ;
but it so happens, and as if for the express purpose of
contradicting the crude notions of Mr. Webb Hall, that
your produce has fallen in price at a greater rate, in propor-
tion as time has removed you from the point of importation ;
and, as to the circumstance, so ostentatiously put forward
by Mr. Hall and others, that there is still some of the im-
ported corn unsold, what does it prove but the converse of
what those Gentlemen aim at, that is to say, that the holders
cannot afford to sell it at present prices ; for, if they could
gain but ever so little by the sale, would they keep it wast-
ing and costing money in warehouse ? There appears with
some persons to be a notion, that the importation of corn is
a new thing. They seem to forget, that, during the last
war, when agriculture was so prosperous, the pojis were
always open; that prodigious quantities of corn were im-
ported during the war ; that, so far from importation being
prohibited, high premiums were given, paid out of the taxes,
partly raised upon English farmers, to induce men to import
BATTLE. 61
corn. All this seems to be forgotten as much as if it had
never taken place ; and now the distress of the English
farmer is imputed to a cause which was neverj before an
object of his attention, and a desire is expressed to put an
end to a branch of commerce whicli the nation has always
freely carried on. I think, Gentlemen, that here are reasons
quite sufficient to make any man but Mr. Webb Hall slow
to impute the present distress to the importation of corn ;
but, at any rate, what can you have beyond absolute efficient
prohibition ? No law, no duty, however high ; nothing
that the Parliament can do can go beyond this ; and this
you now have, in effect, as completely as if this were the only
country beneath the sky. For these reasons, Gentlemen,
(and to state more would be a waste of your time and an
affront to your understandings,) I am convinced, that, in the
wav of Corn Bill, it is impossible for the Parliament to
afford you any, even the smallest, portion of relief. As to
the other point, Gentlemen, the tendency which the present
measures and course of things have to carrv prices lower,
and considerably lower than they now are, and to keep them
for a permanency at that low rate, this is a matter worthv
of the serious attention of all connected with the land, and
particularly of that of the renting farmer. During the war
no importations distressed the farmer. It was not till peace
came that the cry of distress was heard. But, during the
war, there was a boundless issue of paper monev. Those
issues were instantly narrowed by the peace, the law being,
that the Bank should pay in cash six months after the peace
should take place. This was the cause of that distress
which led to the present Corn Bill. The disease occasioned
by the preparations for cash-payments has been brought to
a crisis by Mr. Peel's Bill, which has, in effect, doubled,
if not tripled, the real amount of the taxes, and violated all
contracts for time ; given triple gains to every lender, and
placed every borrower in jeopardy.
Kensington, Friday, 4 Jan. 1822.
Got home from Battle. I had no time to see the town,
having entered the Inn on Wednesday in the dusk of the
evening, having been engaged all day yesterday in the Inn,
and having come out of it only to get' into the coach this
morning. I had not time to go even to see Battle Abbey,
the seat of the Webster family, now occupied by a man of
the name of Alexander ! Thus they replace them ! It will
62 BATTLE.
take a much shorter time than most people imagine to put
out all the ancient families. I should think, that six years
•will turn out all those who receive nothing out of taxes.
The greatness of the estate is no protection to the owner ;
for, great or little, it will soon yield him no rents ; and, when
the produce is nothing in either case, the small estate is as
good as the large one. Mr. Curteis said, that the land was
immoveable ; yes ; but the rents are not. And, if freeholds
cannot be seized for common contract debts, the carcass
of the owner may. But, in fact, there will be no rents ;
and, without these, the ownership is an empty sound.
Thus, at last, the burthen will, as T always said it would,
fall upon the landowner ; (30) and, as the fault of support-
ing the system has been wholly his, the burthen will fall
upon the right back. Whether he will now call in the
people to help him to shake it off is more than I can say ;
but, if he do not, I am sure that he must sink under it.
And then, will revolution JVo. I. have been accomplished ;
but far, and very far indeed, will that be from being the close
of the drama ! — I cannot quit Battk without observing,
that the country is very pretty all abou* it. All hill, or
valley. A great deal of wood-land, in which the underwood
is generally very fine, though the oaks are not very fine, and
a ffood deal covered with moss. This shows, that the ciav
ends before the tap-root of the oak gets as deep as it would
go ; for, when the clay goes the full depth, the oaks are al-
ways fine. — The woods are too large and too near each other
for hare-hunting ; and, as to coursing it is out of the question
here. But, it is a fine country for shooting and for har-
bouring game of all sorts. — It was rainy as I came home ;
but the woodmen were at work. A great many hop-poles
are cut here, which makes the coppices more valuable than
in many other parts. The women work in the coppices,
shaving the bark of the hop-poles, and, indeed, at various
other parts of the business. These poles are shaved to
prevent maggots from breeding in the bark and accelerating
the destruction of the pole. It is curious that the bark of
trees should generate maggots ; but it has, as well as the
wood, a sugary matter in it. The hickory wood in America
sends out from the ends of the logs when these are burning,
great quantities of the finest syrup that can be imagined.
Accordingly, that wood breeds maggots, or worms as they
are usually called, surprisingly. Our ash breeds worms very
much. "When the tree or pole is cut, the moist matter be-
BATTLE. 63
tween the outer bark and the wood, putrifies. Thence come
the maggots, which soon begin to eat their way into the
wood. For this reason the bark is shaved off the hop-poles,
as it ought to be off all our timber trees, as soon as cut, es-
pecially the ash. — Little boys and girls shave hop- poles and
assist in other coppice work very nicely. And, it is pleasant
work when the weather is dry over head. The woods,
bedded with leaves as they are, are clean and dry underfoot.
They are warm too, even in the coldest weather. When
the ground is frozen several inches deep in the open fields,
it is scarcely frozen at all in a coppice where the underwood
is a good plant, and where it is nearly high enough to cut.
So that the woodman's is really a pleasant life. We are apt
to think that the birds have a hard time of it in winter.
But, we forget the warmth of the woods, which far exceeds
any thing to be found in farm yards. When Sidmouth
started me from my farm, in 1817, I had just planted my
farm yard round with a pretty coppice. But, never mind,
Sidmouth and I shall, I dare say, have plenty of time and
occasion to talk about that coppice, and many other things,
before we die. And, can I, when I think of these things
now, pity those to whom Sidmouth owed his power of start-
ing me ! — But let me forget the subject for this time at any
rate. — Woodland countries are interesting on many ac-
counts. Not so much on account of their masses of green
leaves, as on account of the variety of sights and sounds and
incidents that they afford. Even in winter the coppices are
beautiful to the eye, while they comfort the mind with the
idea of shelter and warmth. In spring they change their
hue from day to day during two whole months, which
is about the time from the first appearance of the delicate
leaves of the birch to the full expansion of those of the ash ;
and, even before the leaves come at all to intercept the view,
what in the vegetable creation is so delightful to behold as
the bed of a coppice bespangled with primroses and blue-
bells ? The opening of the birch leaves is the signal for the
pheasant to begin to crow, for the blackbird to whistle, and
the thrush to sing; and, just when the oak-buds begin to
look reddish, and not a day before, the whole tribe of finches
burst forth in songs from every bough, while the lark, imi-
tating them all, carries the joyous sounds to the skv. These
are amongst the means which Providence has benignantly
appointed to sweeten the toils by which food and raiment are
produced ; these the English Ploughman could once hear
64 SUSSEX JOURNAL : LEWES.
without the sorrowful reflection that he himself was a pau-
per, and that the bounties of nature had, for him, been
scattered in vain ! And, shall he never see an end to this
state of things ! Shall he never have the due reward of his
labour ! Shall unsparing taxation never cease to make him
a miserable dejected being, a creature famishing in the midst
of abundance, fainting, expiring with hunger's feeble moans,
surrounded by a carolling creation ! ! accursed paper-
money ! Has hell a torment surpassing the wickedness of
thv inventor !
SUSSEX JOURNAL : THROUGH CROYDON, GODSTONE, EAST-
GRINSTEAD, AND UCKFIELD, TO LEWES, AND BRIGHTON ;
RETURNING BY CUCKFIELD, WORTH, AND RED-HILL.
Lewes,
Tuesday, 8 Jan., 1822.
Came here to-day, from home, to see what passes to-
morrow at a Meeting to be held here of the Owners and
Occupiers of Land in the Rapes of Lewes and Pevensy. —
In quitting the great Wen we go through Surrey more than
half the way to Lewes. From Saint George's Fields, which
now are covered with houses, we go, towards Croydon,
between rows of houses, nearly half the way, and the whole
way is nine miles. There are, erected within these four
years, two entire miles of stock-jobbers' houses on this one
road, and the work goes on with accelerated force ! To be
sure ; for, the taxes being, in fact, tripled by Peel's Bill,
the fundlords increase in riches ; and their accommodations
increase of course. What an at once horrible and ridiculous
thing this country would become, if this thing could go on
only for a few years ! And, these rows of new houses,
added to the Wen, are proofs of growing prosperity, are
thev ? These make part of the increased capital of the
countrv, do they ? But, how is this Wen to be dispersed?
I know not whether it be to be done by knife or by caustic ;
but, dispersed it must be ! And this is the only difficulty,
which I do not see the easy means of getting over. — Aye !
these are dreadful thoughts ! I know they are ; but, they
ought not to be banished from the mind ; for they will
LEWES. 65
return, and, at every return, they will be more frightful.
The man who cannot coolly look at this matter is unfit for
the times that are approaching. Let the interest of the
Debt be once well reduced (and that must be sooner or
later) and then what is to become of half a million at least
of the people congregated in this Wen ? Oh ! precious
" Great Man now no more !" Oh ! " Pilot that weathered
the Storm !" Oh ! " Heaven-born" pupil of Prettyman !
(31) Who, but him who can number the sands of tbe sea,
shall number the execrations with which thy memory will
be loaded ! — From London to Croydon is as ugly a bit of
country as any in England. A poor spewy gravel with
some clay. Few trees but elms, and those generally stripped
up and villanously ugly. — Croydon is a good market-town ;
but is, by the funds, swelled out into a Wen. — Upon
quitting Croydon for Godstone, you come to the chalk hills,
the juniper shrubs and the yew trees. This is an extension
Westward of the vein of chalk which I have before noticed
(see pa^e 56) between Bromley and Seven-Oaks. To the
Westward here lie Epsom Downs, which lead on to Merrow
Downs and St. Margaret's Hill, then, skipping over Guild-
ford, you come to the Hog's Back, which is still of chalk,
and at the West end of which lies Farnham. With the
Hog's Back this vein of chalk seems to end ; for then the
valleys become rich loam, and the hills sand and gravel till
you approach the Winchester Downs by the way of Aires-
ford. — Godstone, which is in Suri'ey also, is a beautiful
village, chieflv of one street with a fine large green before
it and with a pond in the green. A little way to the right
(going from London) lies the vile rotten Borough of
Blechingley ; but, happily for Godstone, out of sight.
At and near Godstone the gardens are all very neat ;
and, at the Inn, there is a nice garden well stocked
with beautiful flowers in the season. I here saw, last
summer, some double violets as large as small pinks,
and the lady of the house was kind enough to give me some
of the roots. — From Godstone you go up a long hill of clay
and sand, and then descend into a level country of stiff loam
at top, clav at bottom, corn-fields, pastures, broad hedge-
rows, coppices, and oak woods, which country continues till
you quit Surrev about two miles before you reach East*
Ci instead. The woods and coppices are very fine here. It
is the genuine oak-soil ; a bottom of yellow clay to any
depth, 1 dare say, that man can go. No moss on the oaks.
66
SUSSEX JOURNAL : LEWES.
No dead tops. Straight as larches. The bark of the young-
trees with dark spots in it ; sure sign of free growth and
great depth of clay beneath. The wheat is here sown on
five-turn ridges, and the ploughing is amongst the best that
I ever saw. — At East-Grinstead, which is a rotten Borough
and a very shabby place, you come to stiff loam at top with
sand stone beneath. To the South of the place the land is
fine, and the vale on both sides a very beautiful intermixture
of woodland and corn-fields and pastures. — At about three
miles from Grinstead you come to a pretty village, called
Forest-Row, and then, on the road to Uckfield, you cross
Ashurst Forest, which is a heath, with here and there a few
birch scrubs upon it, verily the most villanously ugly spot I
ever saw in England. This lasts you for five miles, getting,
if possible, uglier and uglier all the way, till, at last, as if
barren soil, nasty spewy gravel, heath and even that stunted,
were not enough, you see some rising spots, which instead
of trees, presents you with black, ragged, hideous rocks.
There may be Englishmen who wish to see the coast of
Nova Scotia. They need not go to sea ; for here it is to
the life. If I had been in a long trance (as our nobility seem
to have been), and had been waked up here, I should have
begun to look about for the Indians and the Squaws, and
to have heaved a sigh at the thought of being so far from
England. — From the end of this forest without trees you
come into a country of but poorish wettish land. Passing
through the village of Uckfield, vou find an enclosed coun-
try, with a soil of a clay cast all the way to within about three
miles of Lewes, when you get to a chalk bottom, and rich
land. I was at Lewes at the beginning of last harvest, and
saw the fine farms of the Ellmans, very justly renowned for
their improvement of the breed of South-Down sheep, and
the younger Mr. John Ellman not less justly blamed for the
part he had taken in propagating the errors of Webb Hall,
and thereby, however unintentionally, assisting to lead thou-
sands to cherish those false hopes that have been the cause
of their ruin. Mr. Ellman may say, that he thought he was
right ; but if he had read my New Years Gift to the Far-
mers, published in the preceding January, he could not think
that he was right. If he had not read it, he ought to have
read it, before he appeared in print. At any rate, if no other
person had a right to censure his publications, I had that
right. I will here notice a calumny, to which the above visit
to Lewes gave rise ; namely, that I went into the neighbour-
LEWES. 67
hood of the Ellmans, to find out whether they illtreated their
labourers! No man that knows me will believe this. The
facts are tbese : the Ellmans, celebrated farmers, had made a
great figure in the evidence taken before the Committee. I
was at Worth, about twentv miles from Lewes. The har-
vest was begun. Worth is a woodland country. I wished
to know the state of the crops ; for, I was, at that very
time, as will be seen bv referring to the date, beginning to
write my First Letter to the Landlords. Without knowing
anything of the matter myself, I asked my host, Mr. Brazier,
what good corn country was nearest to us. He said Lewes.
Off I went, and he with me, in a post-chaise. We had 20
miles to go and 20 back in the same chaise. A bad road,
and rain all the day. We put up at the White Hart, took
another chaise, went round, and saw the farms, through the
window of the chaise, having stopped at a little public-house
to ask which were they, and having stopped now-and-
then to get a sample out of the sheaves of wheat, came
back to the White Hart, after being absent only about an
hour and a half, got our dinner, and got back to Worth
before it was dark ; and never asked, and never intended to
ask, one single question of any human being as to the con-
duct or character of the Ellmans. Indeed the evidence of
the elder Mr. Ellman was so fair, so honest, and so useful,
particularly as relating to the labourers, that I could not
possibly suspect him of being a cruel or hard master. He
told the Committee, that when he began business, forty-five
years ago, every man in the parish brewed his own beer, and
that now, not one man did it, unless he gave him the malt !
Why, here was by far the most valuable part of the whoie
volume of evidence. Then, Mr. Ellman did not present a
parcel of estimates and God knows what ; but a plain and
honest statement of facts, the rate of day wages, of job
wages, for a long series of years, by which it clearly
appeared how the labourer had been robbed and reduced to
misery, and how the poor-rates had been increased. He
did not, like Mr. George and other Bull-frogs, sink these
interesting facts ; but honestly told the truth. Therefore,
whatever I might think of his endeavours to uphold the
mischievous errors of Webb Hall, I could have no suspicion
that he was a hard master.
Lewes,
Jl'rrhiesday, 9 Jan. 1822.
The Meeting and the Dinner are now over. Mr. Davies
68 SUSSEX JOURNAL : LEWES.
Giddy was in the Chair : the place the County Hall. A Mr.
Partington, a pretty little oldish smart truss nice cockney-
looking gentleman, with a yellow and red handkerchief
round his neck, moved the petition, which was seconded by
Lord Chichester, who lives in the neighbourhood. (32)
Much as I had read of that great Doctor of virtual repre-
sentation and Royal Commissioner of Inimitable Bank Notes,
Mr. Davies Giddy, I had never seen him before. He called
to my mind one of those venerable persons, who administer
spiritual comfort to the sinners of the " sister-kingdom ;"
and, whether I looked at the dress or the person, I could
almost have sworn that it was the identical Father Luke,
that I saw about twenty-three years ago, at Philadelphia, in
the farce of the Poor Soldier. Mr. Blackman (of Lewes I
believe) disapproved of the petition, and, in a speech of
considerable length, and also of considerable ability, stated
to the meeting that the evils complained of arose from the
currency, and not from the importation of foreign com.
A Mr. Donavon, an Irish gentleman, who, it seems, is a
magistrate in this " disturbed county," disapproved of dis-
cussing any thing at such a meeting, and thought that the
meeting should merely state its distresses, and leave it to
the wisdom of parliament to discover the remedy. Upon
which Mr. Chatfield observed ; " So, Sir, we are in a trap.
" We cannot get ourselves out though we know the way.
" There are others, who have got us in, and are able to get
" us out, but they do not know how. And we are to tell
" them, it seems, that we are in the trap ; but are not to tell
" them the way to get us out. I don't like long speeches,
" Sir ; but I like common sense." This was neat and
pithy. Fifty professed orators could not, in a whole day,
have thrown so much ridicule on the speech of Mr. Dona-
von. — A Mr. Mabbott proposed an amendment to include
all classes of the community, and took a hit at Mr. Curteis
for his speech at Battle. Mr. Curteis defended himself, and
I thought very fairly. A Mr. Woodward, who said he was
a farmer, carried us back to the necessity of the war against
France ; and told us of the horrors of plunder and murder
and rape that the war had prevented. This gentleman put
an end to my patience, which Mr. Donavon had put to an
extremely severe test ; and so I withdrew. — After I went
awav Mr. Blackman proposed some resolutions, which were
carried by a great majority by show of hands. But, pieces
of paper were then handed about, for the voters to write
LEWES. 69
their names on for and against the petition. The greater
part of the people were gone away by this time ; but, at any
rate, there were more signatures for the petition than for the
resolutions. A farmer in Pennsylvania having a visitor, to
whom he was willing to show how well be treated his
negroes as to food, bid the fellows (who were at dinner) to
ask for a sedond or third cut of pork if they had not enough.
Quite surprised at the novelty, but emboldened by a repeti-
tion of the injunction, one of them did say, " Massa, I
wants another cut." He had it ; but, as soon as the visitor
was gone away, " D — n you," says the master, while he
belaboured him with the " cowskin," " I'll make you know
how to understand me another time !" — The signers of this
petition were in the dark while the show of hands was going
on; but, when it came to signing they knew well what Massa
meant ! This is a petition to be sure ; but, it is no more the
petition of the farmers in the Rapes of Lewes and Pevensey
than it is the petition of the Mermaids of Lapland. — There
was a dinner after the meeting at the Star-Inn, at which
there occurred something rather curious regarding myself.
When at Battle, I had no intention of going to Lewes, till
on the evening of my arrival at Battle, a gentleman, who had
heard of the before-mentioned calumny, observed tome that
I would do well not to go to Lewes. That very observa-
tion made me resolve to go. I went, as a spectator, to
the meeting ; and I left no one ignorant of the place where
I was to be found. I did not covet the noise of a dinner of
from 200 to 300 persons ; and, I did not intend to go to it ;
but, being pressed to go, I finally went. After some pre-
vious common-place occurrences, Mr. Kemp, formerly a
member for Lewes, was called to the chair; and he having
given as a toast, " the speedy discovery of a remedy for our
"distresses," Mr. Ebenezer Johnstone, a gentleman of Lewes,
whom I had never seen or heard of until that day, but who,.
I understand, is a very opulent and most respectable man,
proposed my health, as that of a person likely to be able to
point out the wished-for remedy. — This was the signal for the
onset. Immediately upon the toast being given, a Mr.
Hitehins, a farmer of Seaford, duly prepared for the purpose,
got upon the table, and, with candle in one hand and Re-
gister in the other, read the following garbled passage from my
Letter to Lord Egremont. — 'But, let us hear what the
'younger Ellman said: 'lie had seen them employed in
1 drawing beach gravel, as had been already described. One
70 LEWES.
'of them, the leader, worked with a bell about his" neck.'
Oli ! the envy of surrounding nations and admiration of the
world ! Oh ! what a ' glorious Consitution !' ' Oh ! what a
' happy country ! Impudent Radicals, to want to reform a
' parliament, under which men enjoy such blessings ! On
c such a subject it is impossible (under Six-Acts) to trust one's
' pen ! However, this I will say ; that here is much more
' than enough to make me rejoice in the ruin of the farmers ;
' and I do, with all my heart, thank God for it ; seeing, that
'it appears absolutely necessary, that the present race of them
* should be totally broken up, in Sussex at any rate, in order to
' pat an end to this cruelty and insolence totoards the labourers,
' who are by far the greater number ; and who are men, and a
' little better men too, than such employers as these, who are, in
'fact, monsters in human shape f"
I had not the Register by me, and could not detect the
garbling. All the words that I have put in Italics, this
Hitchins left out in the reading. "What sort of man he
must be the public will easily judge. — No sooner had
Hitchins done, than up started Mr. Ingram, a farmer of Rot-
tendean, who was the second person in the drama (for all had
been duly prepared), and moved that I should be put out of
the room ! Some few of the Webb Hallites, joined by about
six or eight of the dark, dirty-faced, half-whiskered, tax-
eaters from Brighton (which is only eight miles off) joined in
this cry. I rose, that they might see the man that they had
to put out. Fortunately for themselves, not one of them at-
tempted to approach me. They were like the mice that re-
solved that a bell should be put round the cat's neck ! —
However, a considerable hubbub took place. At last, how-
ever, the Chairman, Mr. Kemp, whose conduct was fair and
manly, having given my health, I proceeded to address the
company in substance as stated here below ; and, it is
curious enough, that even those who, upon my health being
given, had taken their hats and gone out of the room (and
amongst whom Mr. Ellman the younger was one) came back,
formed a crowd, and were just as sdent and attentive as the
rest of the company !
[NOTE, written at Kensington, 1 3 Jan. — I must here, be-
fore I insert the speech, which has appeared in the Morning
Chronicle, the Brighton papers, and in most of the London
papers, except the base sinking Old Times and the brimstone-
smelling Tramper, or Traveller, which is, I well know, a mere
tool in the hands of two snap-dragon Whig-Lawyers, whose
LEWES. 71
greediness and folly I have so often had to expose, and which
paper is maintained by a contrivance which I will amply ex-
pose in my next ; I must, before I insert this speech, remark,
that Mr. Ellmaii the younger has, to a gentleman whom I
know to be incapable of falsehood, disavowed the proceeding
of Hitchins ; on which I have to observe, that the disavowal,
to have any weight, must be public, or be made to me.
As to the provocation that I have given the Ellmans, I am,
upon reflection, ready to confess that I may have laid on the
lash without a due regard to mercy. The fact is, that I
have so long had the misfortune to be compelled to keep a
parcel of badger-hided fellows, like Scarlett, in order, that
I am, like a drummer that has been used to flog old offenders,
become heavy handed. I ought to have considered the Ell-
mans as recruits and to have suited my tickler to the tender-
ness of their backs. — I hear that Mr. Ingram of Eottendean,
who moved for mv beina: turned out of the room, and who
looked so foolish when he had to turn himself out, is an
Officer of Yeomanry " Gavaltry." A ploughman spoiled !
This man would, I dare say, have been a very good husband-
man ; but the unnatural working of the paper-system has
sublimated him out of his senses. That greater Doctor, Mr.
Peel, will bring him down again. — Mr. Hitchins, I am told,
alter going away, came back, stood on the landing-place (the
door being open), and, while I was speaking, exclaimed,
" Oh ! the fools ! How they open their mouths ! How they
suck it all in." — Suck what in, Mr. Hitchins ? Was it honey
that dropped from my lips ? Was it flattery ? Amongst
other things, I said that I liked the plain names of farmer
and husbandman better than that of agriculturist ; and, the
prospect I held out to them, was that of a description to
catch their applause ? — But, this Hitchins seems to be a very
silly person indeed.]
The following is a portion of the speech : —
The toast having been opposed, and that, too, in the extra-
ordinary manner we liavc witnessed, I will, at any rate, with
your permission, make a remark or two on that manner. If
the person who has made the opposition had been actuated
by a spirit of fairness and justice, he would not have con-
lined himself to a detached sentence of the paper from which
he has read ; but, would have taken the whole together; for,
!>y taking a particular sentence, and leaving out all the rest,
Avhat writing is there that will not admit of a wicked inter-
pretation ? As to the particular part which has been read, I
72 LEWES.
should not, perhaps, if T had seen it in print, and had had
time to cool a little [it was in a Eegister sent from Norfolk],
have sent it forth in terms so very general as to embrace all
the farmers of this county ; but, as to those of them who put
the bell round the labourer's neck, I beg leave to be now re-
peating, in its severest sense, every word of the passage that
has been read. — Born in a farm-house, bred up at the plough
tail, with a smock-frock on my back, taking great delight in
all the pursuits of farmers, liking their society, and having
amongst them my most esteemed friends, it is natural that I
should feel, and I do feel, uncommonly anxious to prevent, as
far as I am able, that total ruin which now menaces them.
But, the labourer, was I to have no feeling f6r him ? Was
not he my countryman too ? And was I not to feel indigna-
tion against those farmers, who had had the hard-heartedness
to put the bell round his neck, and thus wantonly insult and
degrade the class to whose toils they owed their own ease ?
The statement of the fact was not mine ; I read it in the
newspaper as having come from Mr. Ellman the younger ;
he, in a very laudable manner, expressed his horror at it ; and
was not I to express indignation at what Mr. Ellman felt
horror ? That Gentleman and Mr. Webb Hall may mono-
polize all the wisdom in matters of political economy ; but,
are they, or rather is Mr. Ellman alone, to engross all the
feeling too ? [It was here denied that Mr. Ellman had said
the bell had been put on by farmers^ Very well, then, the
complained of passage has been productive of benefit to the
farmers of this county ; for, as the thing stood in the news-
papers, the natural and unavoidable inference was, that that
atrocious, that inhuman act, was an act of Sussex farmers. (33)
Brighton,
Thursday, 10 Jan., 1852.
Lewes is in a valley of the South Doic?is, this town is at
eight miles distance, to the south south-west or thereabouts.
There is a great extent of rich meadows above and below
Lewes. The town itself is a model of solidity and neatness.
The buildings all substantial to the very out-skirts ; the pave-
ments good and complete ; the shops nice and clean ; the
people well-dressed ; and, though last not least, the girls re-
markably pretty, as, indeed, they are in most parts of Sussex;
round faces, features small, little hands and wrists, plump
aims, and bright eyes. The Sussex men, too, are remarkable
LEWES. 73
for their good looks. A Mr. Baxter, a stationer at Lewes,
shewed me a farmer's account book, which is a very complete
thing of the kind. The Inns are good at Lewes, the people
civil and not servile, and the charges really (considering the
taxes) far below what one could reasonably expect. — From
Lewes to Brighton the road winds along between the hills of
the South Downs, which, in this mild weather, are mostly
beautifully green even at this season, with flocks of sheep
feeding on them. — Brighton itself lies in a valley cut across
at one end by the sea, and its extension, or Wen, has swelled
up the sides of the hills and has run some distance up the
valley. — The first thing you see in approaching Brighton
from Lewes, is a splendid horse-barrack on one side of the
road, and a heap of low, shabby, nasty houses, irregularly
built, on the other side. This is always the case where there
is a barrack. How soon a Reformed Parliament would
make both disappear ! Brighton is a very pleasant place.
For a wen remarkably so. The Kremlin, the very name of
which has so long been a subject of laughter all over the
country (34), lies in the gorge of the valley, and amongst the
old houses of the town. The grounds, which cannot, I think,
exceed a couple or three acres, are surrounded by a wall
neither lofty nor good-looking. Above this rise some trees,
bad in sorts, stunted in growth, and dirty with smoke. As
to the " palace " as the Brighton newspapers call it, the
apartments appear to be all upon the ground floor; and,
when you see the thing from a distance, you think you see a
parcel of cradle-spits, of various dimensions, sticking up out of
the mouths of so many enormous squat decanters. Take a
square box, the sides of which are three feet and a
half, and the height a foot and a half. Take a large
Norfolk-turnip, cut off the green of the leaves, leave the
stalks 9 inches long, tie these round with a string three inches
from the top, and put the turnip on the middle of the top
of the box. Then take four turnips of half the size, treat
them in the same way, and put them on the corners of the
box. Then take a considerable number of bulbs of the crown-
imperial, the narcissus, the hyacinth, the tidip, the crocus,
and others ; let the leaves of each have sprouted to about an
inch, more or less according to the size of the bulb ; put all
these, pretty promiscuously, but pretty thickly, on the top of
the box. Then stand oil* and look at vour architecture.
There ! That's " a Kremlin" ! Only you must cut some
church-looking windows in the sides of the box. As to what
74 JOURNAL I BRIGHTON.
you ought to put into the box, that is a subject far above my
cut. — Brighton is naturally a place of resort for expectants,
and a shifty ugly-looking swarm is, of course, assembled here.
Some of the fellows, who had endeavoured to disturb our har-
mony at the dinner at Lewes, were parading, amongst this
swarm, on the cliff. You may always know them by their
lank jaws, the stiffeners round their necks, their hidden or no
shirts, their stays, their false shoulders, hips and haunches,
their half-whiskers, and by their skins, colour of veal kidney-
suet, warmed a little, and then powdered with dirty dust. —
These vermin excepted, the people at Brighton make a very
fine figure. The trades-people are very nice in all their con-
cerns. The houses are excellent, built chiefly with a blue or
purple brick ; and bow-windows appear to be the general
taste. I can easily believe this to be a very healthy place :
the open downs on the one side and the open sea on the other.
No inlet, cove, or river; and, of course, no swamps. — I have
spent this evening very pleasantly in a company of reformers,
who, though plain tradesmen and mechanics, know I am quite
satisfied, more about the questions that agitate the country,
than any equal number of Lords.
Kensington,
Friday, 11 January, 1822.
Came home by the way of Cuckfield, Worth, and Bed-Hill,
instead of by Uckfield, Grinstead and Godstone, and got into
the same road again at Croydon. The roads being nearly
parallel lines and at no great distance from each other, the
soil is nearly the same, with the exception of the fine oak
country between Godstone and Grinstead, which does not go
so far westward as my homeward bound road, where the land,
opposite the spot just spoken of, becomes more of a moor than
a clay, and though there are oaks, they are not nearly so fine
as those on the other road. The tops are flatter ; the side
shoots are sometimes higher than the middle shoot ; a certain
proof that the tap-root has met with something that it does
not like. — I see (Jan. 15) that Mr. Curteis has thought it
necessary to state in the public papers, that he had nothing to
do with my being at the dinner at Battle ! Who the Devil
thought he had ? Why, was it not an ordinary ; and had I
not as much right there as he ? He has said, too, that he did
not know that I was to be at the dinner. How should he ?
Why was it necessary to apprize h'm of it any more than the
BATTLE. 75
porter of the inn ? He has said, that he did not hear of any
deputation to invite me to the dinner, and, " upon inquiry,'*
cannot find that there was any. Have I said that there was
any invitation at all ? There was ; but I have not said so. I
went to the dinner for my half-crown like another man, with-
out knowing - , or caring, who would be at it. But, if Mr.
Curteis thought it necessary to say so much, he might have
said a little more. He might have said, that he twice ad-
dressed himself to me in a very peculiar manner, and that I
never addressed myself to him except in answer ; and, if he
had thought " inquiry" necessary upon this subject also, he
might have found, that, though always the first to speak or
hold out the hand to a hard-fisted artizan or labourer, I never
did the same to a man of rank or riches in the whole course
of my life. Mr. Curteis might have said, too, that unless
I had gone to the dinner, the party would, according to ap-
pearances, have been very select „■ that I found him at the
head of one of the tables, with less than thirty persons in the
room ; that the number swelled up to about one hundred and
thirty ; that no person was at the other table ; that I took my
seat at it ; and that that table became almost immediately
crowded from one end to the other. To 1 hese Mr. Curteis,
when his hand was in, might have added, that he turned him-
self ia his chair and listened to my speech with the greatest
attention ; that he bade me, by name, good night, when he
retired ; that he took not a man away with him ; and that the
gentleman who was called on to replace him in the chair
(whose name I have forgotten) had got from his seat during the
evening to come and shake me by the hand. All these things
Mr. Curteis might have said ; but the fact is, he has been
bullied by the base newspapers, and he has not been able to
muster up courage to act the manly part, and which, too,
he would have found to be the wise part in the end. "When
he gave the toast " more money and less taxes," he turned
himself towards me, and said, " That is a toast, that I am
" sure, you approve of, Mr. Cobbett." To which I answered,
" It would be made good, Sir, if members of parliament would
"do their duty." — I appeal to all the gentlemen present for
the truth of what I say. — Perhaps Mr. Curteis, in bis heart,
did not like to give my health. If that was the case, he
ought to have left the chair, and retired. Straight forward is
the best course ; and, see what difficulties Mr. Curteis has
involved himself in by not pursuing it ! I have no doubt that
he was agreeably surprised when he saw and heard me. Why
£ 2
76 journal: battle.
not sai/ then : " After all that has been said about Cobbett,
" he is a devilish pleasant, frank, and clever fellow, at any
" rate." — How much better this would have been, than to
act the part that Mr. Curteis has acted. The Editors of
the "Brighton Chronicle and Lewes Express" have, out of mere
modesty, I dare say, fallen a little into Mr. Curteis's strain. In
closing their account (in their paper of the 15th) of the Lewes
Meeting, they say, that I addressed the company at some
length, as reported in their Supplement published on Thurs-
day the 10th. And then they think it necessary to add;
" For ourselves, we can say, that we never saw Mr. Cobbett
until the meeting at Battle." Now, had it not been for pure
maiden-like bashfulness, they would, doubtless, have added,
that, when they did see me, they were profuse in expressions
of their gratitude to me for having merely named their paper
in my Eegister, a thing, which, as I told them, I myself had
forgotten. When, too, they were speaking, in reference to a
speech made in the Hall, of " one of the finest specimens of
oratory that has ever been given in any assembly," it was,
without doubt, out of pure compassion for the perverted taste
of their Lewes readers, that they suppressed the fact, that the
agent of the paper at Lewes sent them word, that it was use-
less for them to send any account of the meeting, unless that
account contained Mr. Cobbett's speech ; that he, the agent,
could have sold a hundred papers that morning, if they had
contained Mr. Cobbett's speech ; but could not sell one with-
out it. I myself, by mere accident, heard this message de-
livered to a third person by their agent at Lewes. And, as
I said before, it must have been pure tenderness towards their
readers that made the editors suppress a fact so injurious to
the reputation of those readers in point of taste ! However,
at last, these editors seem to have triumphed over all feelings
of this sort; for, having printed off a placard, advertising
their Supplement, in which placard no mention was made of
me, they, grown bold all of a sudden, took a painting brush,
and in large letters, put into their placard, " Mr. Cobbett's
Speech at Lewes ;" so that, at a little distance, the placard
seemed to relate to nothing else ; and there was " the finest
specimen of oratory " left to find its way into the world under
the auspices of my rustic harangue. Good God ! What
will this world come to ! We shall, by -and-bye, have to laugh at
the workings of envy in the very worms that we breed in our
oodies ! — The fast-sinking Old Times news-paper, its cat-and-
dog opponent the New Times, the Courier, and the Whig-
HUNTINGDON JOURNAL: ROYSTON. 77
Lawyer Tramper, called the " Traveller ;." the fellows who
conduct these vehicles ; these wretched fellows, their very-
livers burning with envy, have hasted to inform their readers,
that " they have authority to state that Lord Ashburnham and
" Mr. Fuller were not present at the dinner at Battle where
" Cobbett's health was drunk." These fellows have now
" authority " to state, that there were no two men who dined
at Battle, that I should not prefer as companions to Lord
Ashburnham and Mr. Fuller, commonly called " Jack
Fuller," seeing that I am no admirer of lofty reserve, and that,
of all things on earth, I abhor a head like a drum, all noise
and emptiness. These scribes have also " authority " to
state, that they amuse me and the public too by declining
rapidly in their sale from their exclusion of my country lec-
tures, which have only begun. In addition to this The
Tramper editor has " authority " to state, that one of his
papers of 5th Jan. has been sent to the Register-office by post,
with these words written on it : " This scoundrel paper has
" taken no notice of Mr. Cobbett's speech." All these papers
have " authority " to state beforehand, that they will insert
no account of what shall take place, within these three or four
weeks, at Huntingdon, at Lynn, at Chichester, and other places
where I intend to be. And, lastly, the editors have full " au-
thority " to state, that they may employ, without let or mo-
lestation of any sort, either private or public, the price of the
last number that they shall sell in the purchase of hemp or
ratsbane, as the sure means of a happy deliverance from their
present state of torment.
HUNTINGDON JOURNAL : THROUGH WARE AND ROYSTON, TO
HUNTINGDON.
R oyson,
Monday morning, 2\st Jan., 1822.
Came from London, yesterday noon, to this town on my
way to Huntingdon. My road was through Ware, lioyston
is ju<t within the line (on the Cambridgeshire side), which
divides Hertfordshire from Cambridgeshire. On this road,
iis on almost all the others going from it, the enormous Wen
has swelled out to the distance of about six or seven miles.
78 journal: Huntingdon.
— The land till you come nearly to Ware which is in Hert-
fordshire, and which is twenty-three miles from the Wen, is
chiefly a strong and deep loam, with the gravel a good dis-
tance from the surface. The land is good wheat-land ; but,
I observed only three fields of Swedish turnips in the 23
miles, and no wheat drilled. The wheat is sown on ridges of
great width here-and-there ; sometimes on ridges of ten, at
others on ridges of seven, on those of five, four, three, and
even two, feet wide. Yet the bottom is manifestly not very wet
generally ; and, that there is not a bottom of clay is clear
from the poor growth of the oak trees. All the trees are
shabby in this country ; and the eye is incessantly offended
by the sight of pollards, which are seldom suffered to dis-
grace even the meanest lands in Hampshire or Sussex. As
you approach Ware the bottom becomes chalk of a dirtyish
colour, and, in some parts, far below the surface. After you
quit Ware, which is a mere market town, the land grows by
degrees poorer ; the chalk lies nearer and nearer to the sur-
face, till you come to the open common-fields within a few
miles of Royston. Along here the land is poor enough. It
is not the stiff red loam mixed with large blue-grey flints,
lying upon the chalk, such as you see in the north of Hamp-
shire ; but, a whitish sort of clay, with Little yellow flatfish
stones amongst it ; sure signs of a hungry soil. Tet this
land bears wheat sometimes. — Royston is at the foot of this
high poor land ; or, rather in a dell, the open side of which
looks towards the North. It is a common market town.
Not mean, but having nothing of beauty about it ; and
having on it, on three of the sides out of the four, those very
ugly things, common-fields, which have all the nakedness,
without any of the smoothness, of Downs.
Huntingdon,
Tuesday morning, 22nd Jan., 1822.
Immediately upon quitting Royston, you come along, for a
considerable distance, with enclosed fields on the left and
open common-fields on the right. Here the land is excellent.
A dark, rich loam, free from stones, on chalk beneath at a
great distance. The land appears, for a mile or two, to re-
semble that at and near Faversham in Kent, which I have
before noticed. The fields on the left seem to have been en-
closed by act of parliament ; and, they certainly are the most
beautiful tract ol fields that I ever saw. Their extent may be
HUNTINGDON. 79
from ten to thirty acres each. Divided by quick-set hedges,
exceedingly well planted and raised. The whole tract is
nearly a perfect level. The cultivation neat, and the stubble
heaps, such as remain out, giving a proof of great crops of
straw, while, on land with a chalk bottom, there is seldom
any want of a proportionate quantity of grain. Even hei-e,
however, I saw but few Swedish turnips, and those not good.
Nor did I see any wheat (killed; and observed, that, in
many parts, the broad-cast sowing had been performed
in a most careless manner, especially at about three
miles from Royston, where some parts of the broad lands
seemed to have had the seed flung along them with a shovel,
while other parts contained only here and there a blade ; or,
at least, were so thinly supplied as to make it almost doubt-
ful, whether they had not been wholly missed. In some
parts, the middles only of the ridges were sown thickly. This
is shocking husbandry. A Norfolk or a Kentish farmer
would have sowed a bushel and a half of seed to the acre
here, and would have had a far better plant of wheat. — About
four miles, I think it is, from Royston you come to the estate
of Lord Hardwicke. You see the house at the end of an
avenue about two miles long, which, however, wants the main
thing, namely, fine and lofty trees. The soil here begins to
be a very stiff loam at top ; clay beneath for a considerable
distance'; and, in some places, beds of yellow gravel with
very large stones mixed in it. The land is generally cold ; a
great deal of draining is wanted ; and yet, the bottom is
such as not to be favourable to the growth of the oak, of
which sort I have not seen one handsome tree since I left
London. A grove, such as I saw at Weston in Herefordshire,
would, here, be a thing to attract the attention of all ranks
and all ages. What, then, would they say, on beholding a
wood of Oaks, Hickories, Chesnuts, Walnuts, Locusts, Gum-
trees and Maples in America! — Lord Hardwicke's avenue
appears to be lined with Elms chiefly. They are shabby. He
might have had ash ; for, the ash will grow any where; on
sand, on gravel, on clay, on chalk, or in swamps. It is sur-
prising that those who planted these rows of trees did not
observe how well the arm grows here ! In the hedge-rows, in
the plantations, every where the ash is fine. The ash is the
hardiest of all our large trees. Look at trees on any part of
the sea coast. You will see them all, oven the firs, lean from,
the sea breeze, except the ash. You will see the oak shaved
up on the side of the breeze. But, the ash stands upright, as
80 journal: Huntingdon.
if in a warm woody dell. We have no tree that attains a
greater height than the ash; and, certainly none that equals
it in beauty of leaf. It bears pruning better than any other
tree. Its timber is one of the most useful; and as underwood
and fire-wood it far exceeds all others of English growth.
From the trees of an avenue like that of Lord Hardwicke a
hundred pounds worth of fuel might, if the trees were ash,
be cut every year in prunings necessary to preserve the health
and beauty of the trees. Yet, on this same land, has his
lordship planted many acres of larches and firs. These appear
to have been planted about twelve years. If, instead of
these he had planted ash, four years from the seed bed and
once removed ; had cut them down within an inch of the
ground the second year after planting ; and had planted them
at four feet apart, he would now have had about six thousand
ash-poles, on an average twelve feet long, on each acre of
land in his plantation ; which, at three-halfpence each, would
have been worth somewhere nearly forty pounds an acre. He
might now have cut the poles, leaving about 600 to stand
upon an acre to come to trees ; and, while these were grow-
ing to timber, the underwood would, for poles, hoops, broom-
sticks, spars, rods, and faggots, have been worth twenty-five or
thirty pounds an acre every ten years. Can beggarly stuff,
like larches and firs, ever be profitable to this extent ? Ash
is timber, fit for the wheelwright, at the age of twenty years,
or less. What can you do with a rotten fir thing at that age ?
This estate of Lord Hardwicke appears to be very
large. There is a part which is, apparentby, in his own
hands, as, indeed, the whole must soon be, unless he give up
all idea of vent, or, unless he can choack off the fundholder or get
again afloat on the sea of paper-money. In this part of his
land there is a fine piece of Lucerne in rows at about eighteen
inches distant from each other. They are now manuring it
with burnt-earth mixed with some dung ; and I see several
heaps of burnt-earth hereabouts. The directions for doing this
are contained in my Year's Residence, as taught me by Mr.
William Gauntlet, of Winchester. — The land is, all along
here, laid up in those wide and high ridges, which I saw in
Gloucestershire, going from Gloucester to Oxford, as I have
already mentioned. These ridges are ploughed back or down ;
but, they are ploughed up again for every sowing. — At an
Inn near Lord Hardwicke's I saw the finest parcel of dove-
house pigeons I ever saw in my life. — Between this place and
Huntingdon is the village of Caxton, which very much re-
HUNTINGDON. 81
sembles almost a village of the same size in Picardy, where I
saw turi women dragging harrows to harrow in the corn.
Certainly this village resembles nothing English, except
some of the rascally rotten boroughs in Cornwall and Devon-
shire, on which a just Providence seems to have entailed its
curse. The land just about here does seem to be really bad.
The face of the country is naked. The few scrubbed trees
that now-and-then meet the eye, and even the quick-sets, are
covered with a yellow moss. All is bleak and comfortless ; and,
just on the most dreary part of this most dreary scene, stands
almost opportunely, " Caxton Gibbet," tendering its friendly
one arm to the passers by. It has recently been fresh-
painted, and written on in conspicuous characters, for the
benefit, I suppose, of those who cannot exist under the
thought of wheat at four shillings a bushel. — Not far from
this is a new house, which, the coachman says, belongs to a
Mr. Cheer, who, if report speaks truly, is not, however, not-
withstanding his name, guilty of the sin of making people
either drunkards or gluttons. Certainly the spot, on which
he has built his house, is one of the most ugly that I ever saw.
Few spots have every thing that you could wish to find ; but
this, according to my judgment, has every thing that every
man of ordinary taste would wish to avoid. — The country
changes but little till you get quite to Huntingdon. The land
is generally quite open, or in large fields. Strong, wheat-
land, that wants a good deal of draining. Very few turnips
of any sort are raised ; and, of course, few sheep and cattle
kept. Few trees, and those scrubbed. Few woods, and
those small. Few hills, and those hardly worthy of the name.
All which, when we see them, make us cease to wonder, that
this country is so famous for fox-hunting. Such it has,
doubtless been, in all times, and to this circumstance Hunting-
don, that is to say, Huntingdun, or Huntingdown, un-
questionably owes its name ; because down does not mean
un/doughed land, but open and unsheltered land, and the Saxon
word is dun. — When you come down near to the town itself,
the scene suddenly, totally, and most agreeably, changes.
The River Ouxe, separates Godnianchester from Huntingdon,
and there is, I think, no very great difference in the popula-
tion of the two. Both together do not make up a population
of more than about five thousand souls. Huntingdon is a
slightly built town, compared with Lewes, for instance. The
houses arc not in general so high, nor made of such solid and
costly materials. The shops are not so large and their
k 3
82 HERTFORD JOURNAL : ST. ALBANS.
contents not so costly. There is not a show of so much busi-
ness and so much opulence. But, Huntingdon is a very
clean and nice place, contains many elegant houses, and the
environs are beautiful. Above and below the bridge, under
which the Ouse passes, are the most beautiful, and by far the
most beautiful, meadows that I ever saw in my life. The
meadows at Lewes, at Guildford, at Farnham, at "Winchester,
at Sabsbury, at Exeter, at Gloucester, at Hereford, and even
at Canterbury, are nothing, compared with those of Hunting-
don in point of beauty. Here are no reeds, here is no sedge,
no unevennesses of any sort. Here are howling -greens of
hundreds of acres in extent, with a river winding through
them, full to the brink. One of these meadows is the race-
course ; and so pretty a spot, so level, so smooth, so green,
and of such an extent I never saw, and never expected to
see. From the bridge you look across the valleys, first to the
West and theu to the East ; the valleys terminate at the
foot of rising ground, well set with trees, from amongst which
church spires raise their heads here-and-there. I think it
would be very difficult to find a more delightfid spot than this
in the world. To my fancy (and every one to his taste) the
prospect from this bridge far surpasses that from Richmond-
Hill. — All that I have yet seen of Huntingdon I like ex-
ceedingly. It is one of those pretty, clean, unstenched, un-
confined places that tend to lengthen life and make it happy.
JOURNAL : HERTFORDSHIRE, AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE : TO
ST. ALBANS, THROUGH EDGWARE, STANMORE, AND WAT-
FORD, RETURNING BY REDBOURN, HEMPSTEAD, AND
CHESHAM.
Saint Albans, June 19, 1822.
From Kensington to this place, through Edgware, Staumore,
and Watford, the crop is almost entirely hay, from fields of
permanent grass, manured by dung and other matter brought
from the Wen. Near the Wen, where they have had the
first haul of the Irish and other perambulating labourers, the
the hay is all in rick. Some miles further down it is nearly
all in. Towards Stanmore and Watford, a third, perhaps, of
the grass remains to be cut. It is curious to see how the
ST. ALBANS. 83
thing regulates itself. We saw, all the way down, squads of
labourers, of different departments, migrating from tract to
tract ; leaving the cleared fields behind them and proceeding
on towards the work to be yet performed ; and, then, as to
the classes of labourers, the moicers, with their scythes on
their shoulders, were in front, going on towards the standing-
crops, while the hay -makers were coming on behind towards
the grass already cut or cutting. The weather is fair and
warm ; so that the public-houses on the road are pouring out
their beer pretty fast, and are getting a good share of the
wages of these thirsty souls. It is an exchange of beer for
sweat; but the tax-eaters get, after all, the far greater part of the
sweat ; for, if it were not for the tax, the beer would sell for
three-halfpence a pot, instead of fivepence. Of this three-
pence-halfpenny the Jews and Jobbers get about twopence-
halfpenny. It is curious to observe how the different labours
are divided as to the nations. The mowers are all English ;
the haymakers all Irish. Scotchmen toil hard enough
in Scotland ; but, when they go from home it is not
to ivork, if you please. They are found in gardeus,.
and especially in gentlemen's gardens. Tying up flowers,
picking dead leaves off exotics, peeping into melon-frames,
publishing the banns of marriage between the " male " and
"female " blossoms, tap-tap-tappiug against a wall with a
hammer that weighs half an ounce. They have backs as
straight and shoulders as square as heroes of Waterloo ; and
who can blame them ? The digging, the mowing, the carry-
ing of loads ; all the break-back and sweat-extracting work,
they leave to be performed by those who have less prudence
than they have. The great purpose of human art, the great
end of human study, is to obtain ease, to throw the burden of
labour from our own shoulders, and fix it on those of others.
The crop of hay is very large, and that part which is in, is in
very good order. "We shal) have hardly any hay that is not
fine and sweet ; and we shall have it, carried to London, at
leas, I dare say, than 31. a load, that is 18 cwt. So that here
the evil of " over-prod/tclion" (35) will be great indeed!
Whether we shall have any projects for taking hay into pawn,
is more than any of us can say ; for, after what we have seen,
need we be surprised, if we were to hear it proposed to take
butter and even milk into pawn? In after times, the mad
projects of these days will become proverbial. The Oracle
and the over-production men will totally supplant the Murch-
hare. — This is, all along here, and especially as far as Stan-
84 JOURNAL : KENSINGTON.
more, a very dull and ugly country : flat, and all grass-fields
and elms. Few birds of any kind, and few constant labourers
being wanted ; scarcely any cottages and gardens, which form
one of the great beauties of a country. Stanmore is on a
hill ; but it looks over a country of little variety, though rich.
"What a difference between the view here and those which
carry the eye over the coppices, the corn-fields, the hop-gar-
dens and the orchards of Kent ! Tt is miserable land from
Stanmore to Watford, where we get into Hertfordshire.
Hence to Saint Albans there is generally chalk at bottom with
a red tenacious loam at top, with flints, grey on the outside
and dark blue within. Wherever this is the soil, the wheat
grows well. The crops, and especially that of the barley, are
very fine and very forward. The wheat, in general, does not
appear to be a heavy crop ; but the ears seem as if they would
be full from bottom to top ; and, we have had so much heat,
that the grain is pretty sure to be plump, let the weather, for
the rest of the summer, be what it may. The produce depends
more on the weather, previous to the coming out of the ear,
than on the subsequent weather. In the Northern parts of
America, where they have, some years, not heat enough to
bring the Indian Corn to perfection, I have observed, that, if
they have about fifteen days with the thermometer at ninety,
before the ear makes its appearance, the crop never fails,
though the weather may be ever so unfavourable afterwards.
This allies with the old remark of the country people in Eng-
land, that " May makes or mars the wheat ;" for, it is in
May, that the ear and the grains are formed." (36)
Kensington,
June 24, 1822.
Set out at four this morning for Eedbourn, and then turned
off to the Westward to go to High Wycombe, through Hemp-
stead and Chesham. The wheat is good all the way. The
barley and oats good enough till I came to Hempstead. But
the land along here is very fine : a red tenacious flinty loam
upon a bed of chalk at a yard or two beneath, which, in my
opinion, is the very best com land that we have in England.
The fields here, like those in the rich parts of Devonshire,
will bear perpetual grass. Any of them will become upland
meadows. The land is, in short, excellent, and it is a
real corn-country. The trees, from Redburne to Hempstead
are very fine ; oaks, ashes, and beeches. Some of the
HEMPSTEAD. 85
finest of each sort, and the very finest ashes I ever saw
in ray life. They are in great numbers, and make the
fields look most beautiful. No villanous things of the fir-
tribe offend the eye here. The custom is in this part of Hert-
fordshire (and, I am told it continues into Bedfordshire) to
leave a border round the ploughed part of the fields to bear
grass and to make hay from, so that, the grass being now
made into hay, every corn field has a closely mowed grass
walk about ten feet wide all round it, between the corn and
the hedge. This is most beautiful ! The hedges are now
full of the shepherd's rose, honeysuckles, and all sorts of wild
flowers ; so that you are upon a grass walk, with this most
beautiful of all flower gardens and shrubberies on your one
hand, and with the corn on the other. And thus you go from
field to field (on foot or on horseback), the sort of corn, the
sort of underwood and timber, the shape and size of the fields,
the height of the hedge-rows, the height of the trees, all con-
tinually varying. Talk of pleasure-grounds indeed ! What,
that man ever invented, under the name of pleasure-grounds,
can equal these fields in Hertfordshire ? — This is a profitable
system too ; for the ground under hedges bears little corn,
and it bears very good grass. Something, however, depends
on the nature of the soil : for it is not all land that will bear
grass, fit for hay, perpetually ; and, when the land will not do
that, these headlands would only be a harbour for weeds and
couch-grass, the seeds of which would fill the fields with their
mischievous race. — Mr. Tull has observed upon the great
use of headlands. — It is curious enough, that these headlands
cease soon after you get into Buckinghamshire. At first you
see now-and-then a field without a grass headland ; then it
comes to now-and-then a field with one ; and, at the end of
five or six miles, they wholly cease. Hempstead is a very-
pretty town, with beautiful environs, and there is a canal that
comes near it, and that goes on to London. It lies at the
foot of a hill. It is clean, substantially built, and a very
pretty place altogether. Between Hempstead and Cheshain
the land is not so good. I came into Buckinghamshire before
I got into the latter place. Passed over two commons. But,
still, the land is not bad. It is drier; nearer the chalk, and
nnl so red. The wheat continues good, though not heavy;
but the barley, on the land that is not very good, is light,
begins to look bine, and the backward oats arc very short.
On the still thinner lauds the barley and oats must, be a very
short crop. — People do not sow turnips, the ground is so dry
86 JOURNAL : CHESHAM.
and, I should think, that the Swede-crop will be very short ;
for Swedes ought to be up at least, by this time. If I had
Swedes to sow, I would sow them now, and upon ground
very deeply and finely broken. I would sow directly after
the plough, not being half an hour behind it, and would roll
the ground as hard as possible. I am sure the plants would
come up, even without rain. And, the moment the rain came,
they would grow famously. — Chesham is a nice little town,
lying in a deep and narrow valley, with a stream of water run-
ning through it. All along the country that I have come,
the labourers' dwellings are good. They are made of what
they call brick-nog ; that is to say, a frame of wood, and a
single brick thick, filling up the vacancies between the timber.
They are generally covered with tile. Not pretty by any
means ; but they are good ; and you see here, as in Kent,
Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire, and, indeed, in almost every
part of England, that most interesting of all objects, that
which is such an honour to England, and that which dis-
tinguishes it from all the rest of the world, namely, those
neatly kept and productive little gardens round the labourers'
7/ouses, which are seldom unornamented with more or less of
flowers. We have only to look at these to know what sort
of people English labourers are : these gardens are the
answer to the Malthusts and the Scarletts. Shut your
mouths, you Scotch Economists ; cease bawling, Mr.
Brougham, and you Edinburgh Reviewers, till you can show
us something, not like, but approaching towards a likeness of
this !
The orchards all along this country are by no means bad.
Not like those of Herefordshire and the north of Kent ; but a
great deal better than in many other parts of the kingdom.
The cherry-trees are pretty abundant and particularly good.
There are not many of the merries, as they call them in Kent
and Hampshire ; that is to say, the little black cherry, the
name of which is a corruption from the French, merise, in the
singular, and metises in the plural. I saw the little boys, in
many places, set to keep the birds oft' the cherries, which re-
minded me of the time when I followed the same occupation,
and also of the toll that I used to take in payment. The
children are all along here, I mean the little children, locked
out of the doors, while the fathers and mothers are at work
in the fields. I saw many little groups of this sort ; and
this is one advantage of having plenty of room on the outside
of a house. I never saw the country children better clad, or
CHESHAM. 87
look cleaner and fatter than they look here, and I have the
very great pleasure to add, that I do not think I saw three
acres of potatoes (37) in this whole tract of fine country, from
St. Albans to Eedbourn, from Kedbourn to Hempstead, and
from Hempstead to Chesham. In all the houses where I
have been, they use the roasted rye instead of coffee or tea,
and I saw one gentleman who had sown a piece of rye (a
grain not common in this part of the country) for the express
purpose. It costs about three farthings a pound, roasted
and ground into powder. — The pay of the labourers varies
from eight to twelve shillings a-week. Grass mowers get
two shillings-day, two quarts of what they call strong beer,
and as much small beer as they can drink. After quitting
Chesham, I passed through a wood, resembling, as nearly as
possible, the woods in the more cultivated parts of Long
Island, with these exceptions, that there the woods consist of
a great variety of trees, and of more beautiful foliage. Here
there are only two sorts of trees beech and oak : but the
wood at bottom was precisely like an American wood : none
of that stuff which we generally call underwood : the trees
standing very thick in some places : the shade so complete as
never to permit herbage below : no bushes of any sort ; and
nothing to impede your steps but little spindling trees here
and there grown up from the seed. The trees here are as
lofty, too, as they generally are in the Long Island woods,
and as straight, except in cases where you find clumps of the
tulip- tree, which sometimes go much above a hundred feet
high as straight as a line. The oaks seem here to vie with
the beeches, in size as well as in loftiness and straightness.
I saw several oaks which I think were more than eighty feet
high, and several with a clear stem of more than forty feet,
being pretty nearly as far through at that distance from the
ground as at bottom ; and I think I saw more than one, with
a clear stem of fifty feet, a foot and a half through at thai
distance from the ground. This is by far the finest plank
oak that I ever saw in England. The road through the wood
is winding and brings you out at the corner of a field, lying-
sloping to the south, three sides of it bordered by wood and
the field planted as an orchard. This is precisely what you
see in so many thousands of places in America. I had passed
through Hempstead a little while before, which certainly gave
its name to the Township in which I lived in Long Island,
and which I used to write Eampatead, contrary to the or-
thography of the place, never having heard of such a place as
88 JOURNAL : HIGH WYCOMBE.
Hempstead in England. Passing through Hempstead I gave
my mind a toss back to Long Island, and this beautiful wood
and orchard really made me almost conceit that I was there,
and gave rise to a thousand interesting and pleasant reflec-
tions. On quitting the wood I crossed the great road from
London to Wendover, went across the park of Mr. Drake,
and up a steep hill towards the great road leading to
Wycombe. Mr. Drake's is a very beautiful place, and
has a great deal of very fine timber upon it. I think I
counted pretty nearly 200 oak trees, worth, on an average,
five pounds a-piece, growing within twenty yards of the road
that I was going along. Mr. Drake has some thousands
of these, I dare say, besides his beech ; and, therefore, he
will be able to stand a tug with the fundholders for some
time. When I got to High Wycombe, I found everything
a week earlier than in the rich part of Hertfordshire. High
Wycombe, as if the name was ironical, lies along the bottom
of a narrow and deep valley, the hills on each side being very
steep indeed. The valley runs somewhere about from east to
west, and the wheat on the hills facing the south will, if this
weather continue, be fit to reap in ten days. I saw one field
of oats that a bold farmer would cut next Monday.
Wycombe is a very fine and very clean market town ; the
people all looking extremely well ; the girls somewhat larger
featured and larger boned than those in Sussex, and not so
fresh-coloured and bright-eyed. More like the girls of
America, and that is saying quite as much as any reasonable
woman can expect or wish for. The Hills on the south side of
Wycombe form a park and estate now the property of Smith,
who was a banker or stocking-maker at Nottingham, who
was made a Lord in the time of Pitt, and who purchased this
estate of the late Marquis of Landsdowne, one of whose titles
is Baron Wycombe. Wycombe is one of those famous things
called Boroughs, and 34 votes in this Borough send Sir John
Dashwood and Sir Thomas Baring to the " collective wisdom."
The landlord where I put up, " remembered" the name of
Dashwood, but had "forgotten' how the " other" was!
There would be no forgettings of this sort, if these thirty-
four, together with their representatives, were called upon to
pay the share of the National Debt due from High Wycombe.
Between High Wycombe and Beaconsfield, where the soil is
much about that last described, the wheat continued to be
equally early with that about Wycombe. As I approached
Uxbridge I got off the chalk upon a gravelly bottom, and
UXBRIDGE. 89
then from Uxbridge to Shepherd's Bush on a bottom of clay.
Grass-fields and elm-trees, with here and there a wheat or a
bean-field, form the features of this most ugly country,
which would have been perfectly unbearable after quitting
the neighbourhoods of Hempstead, Chesham and High
Wycombe, had it not been for the diversion I derived from
meeting, in all the various modes of conveyance, the cockneys
going to Ealing Fair, which is one of those things which
nature herself would almost seem to have provided for draw-
ing off the matter and giving occasional relief to the over-
charged Wen, I have traversed to-day what I think may be
called an average of England as to corn-crops. Some of the
best, certainly ; and pretty nearly some of the worst. My
observation as to the wheat is, that it will be a fair and
average crop, and extremely early ; because, though it is
not a heavy crop, though the ears are not long they will be
full ; and the earliness seems to preclude the possibility of
blight, and to ensure plump grain. The barley and oats
must, upon an average, be a light crop. The peas a light
crop ; and as to beans, unless there have been rains
where beans are mostly grown, they cannot be half a crop ;
for they will not endure heat. I tried masagan beans
in Long Island, and could not get them to bear more than a
pod or two upon a stem. Beans love cold land and shade.
The earliness of the harvest (for early it must be) is always a
clear advantage. This fine summer, though it may not lead
to a good crop of turnips, has already put safe into store such
a crop of hay as I believe England never saw before. Look-
ing out of the window, I see the harness of the Wiltshire
wagon-horses (at this moment going by) covered with the
chalk-dust of that county ; so that the fine weather continues
in the West. The saint-foin hay has all been got in, in the
chalk countries, without a drop of wet ; and when that is the
case, the farmers stand in no need of oats. The grass crops
have been large every where, as well as got in in good order.
The fallows must be in excellent order. It must be a sloven
indeed that will sow his wheat in foul ground next autumn ;
and the sun, where the fallows have been well stirred, will
have done more to enrich the land than all the dung-carts and
all the other means employed by the hand of man. Such a
summer is a great blessing ; and the only draw-back is, the
dismal apprehension of not seeing such another lor many
years to come. It is favourable for poultry, for colts, for
calves, for lambs, for young animals of all descriptions, not
90 RURAL RIDE FROM
excepting the game. The partridges will be very early.
They are now getting into the roads with their young ones, to
roll in the dust. The first broods of partridges in England
are very frequently killed by the wet and cold ; and this is one
reason why the game is not so plenty here as it is in countries
more blest with sun. This will not be the case this year ; and,
in short, this is one of the finest years that I ever knew.
Wm. COBBETT.
RURAL RIDE, OF 104 MILES, FROM KENSINGTON TO UP-
HUSBAND ; INCLUDING A RUSTIC HARANGUE AT WINCHES-
TER, AT A DINNER WITH THE FARMERS, ON THE 28TH
SEPTEMBER.
Chilworth, near Guildford, Surrey,
Wednesday, 25th Sept., 1822.
This morning I set off, in rather a drizzling rain, from
Kensington, on horseback, accompanied by my son, with an
intention of going to Uphusband, near Andover, which is
situated in the North West corner of Hampshire. It is very
true that I could have gone to Uphusband by travelling only
about 66 miles, and in the space of about eight hours. But,
my object was, not to see inns and turnpike-roads, but to see
the country ; to see the farmers at home, and to see the
labourers in the fields ; and to do this you must go either on
foot or on horse-back. With a gig you cannot get about
amongst bye-lanes and across fields, through bridle-ways and
hunting-gates ; and to tramp it is too slow, leaving the labour
out of the question, and that is not a trifle.
We went through the turnpike-gate at Kensington, and
immediately turned down the lane to our left, proceeded on
to Fulham, crossed Putney-bridge into Surrey, went over
Barnes Common, and then, going on the upper side of Kich-
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 91
mond, got again into Middlesex by crossing E,ichmond-
bridge. All Middlesex is ugly, notwithstanding the millions
upon millions which it is continually sucking up from the rest
of the kingdom ; and, though the Thames and its meadows
now-and-then are seen from the road, the country is not less
ugly from Richmond to Chertsey-bridge, through Twicken-
ham, Hampton, Sunbury and Sheperton, than it is elsewhere.
The soil is a gravel at bottom with a black loam at top near
the Thames ; further back it is a sort of spewy gravel ; and
the buildings consist generally of tax-eaters' showy, tea-gar-
den-like boxes, and of shabby dwellings of labouring people
who, in this part of the country, look to be about half Saint
Giles's : dirty, and have every appearance of drinking gin.
At Chertsey, where we came into Surrey again, there was
a Pair for horses, cattle and pigs. I did not see any sheep.
Every thing was exceedingly dull. Cart colts, two and
fhree years old, were selling for less than a third of
what they sold for in 1813. The cattle were of an inferior
description to be sure ; but the price was low almost beyond
belief. Cows, which would have sold for 15/. in 1813, did
not get buyers at 3/. I had no time to inquire much about
the pigs, but a man told me that they were dirt-cheap. Near
Chertsey is Saint Anne's Hill and some other pretty spots.
Upon being shown this hill I was put in mind of Mr. Fox ;
and that brought into my head a grant that he obtained of
Crown lands in this neighbourhood, in, I think, 1806. The
Duke of York obtained, by Act of Parliament, a much larger
grant of these lands, at Oatlands, in 1801, I think it was.
But this was natural enough ; this is what would surprise
nobody. Mr. Fox's was another affair ; and especially when
taken into view with what I am now going to relate. In
1801 or 1805, Fordyce, the late Duchess of Gordon's brother,
was Collector General (or had been) of taxes in Scotland, and
owed a large arrear to the public. He was also Surveyor of
Crown Lands. The then Opposition were for hauling him
up. Pitt was again in power. Mr. Creevey was to bring
forward the motion in the House of Commons, and Mi-. Fox
was to support it, and had actually spoken once or twice, in
a preliminary way on the subject. Notice of the motion was
regularly given ; it was put off from time to time, and, at
last, dropped, Mr. Fox declininy to support it. I have no
books at hand ; but the affair will be found recorded in tin:
Register. It was not owing to Mr. Creevey that the thing
did not come on. I remember well that it was owing to Mr.
92 RURAL RIDE FROM
Fox. Other motives were stated ; and those others might
be the real motives ; but, at any rate, the next year, or the
year after, Mr. Fox got transferred to him a part of that
estate, which belongs to the public, and which was once so
great, called the Crown Lands ; and of these lands Fordyce
long had been, and then was the Surveyor. Such are the
facts : let the reader reason upon them and draw the con-
clusion. (38)
This county of Surrey presents to the eye of the traveller
a greater contrast than any other county in England. It
has some of the very best and some of the worst lands, not
only in England, but in the world. We were here upon those
of the latter description. For five miles on the road towards
Guildford the land is a rascally common covered with poor
heath, except where the gravel is so near the top as not to
suffer even the heath to grow. Here we entered the enclosed
lands, which have the gravel at bottom, but a nice light,
black mould at top; in which the trees grow very well.
Through bye-lanes and bridle-ways we came out into the
London road, between Ripley and Guildford, and im-
mediately crossing that road, came on towards a village
called Merrow. We came out into the road just men-
tioned, at the lodge-gates of a Mr. Weston, whose
mansion and estate have just passed (as to occupancy) into
the hands of some new man. At Merrow, where we came
into the Epsom road, we found that Mr. Webb Weston,
whose mansion and park are a little further on towards
London, had just walked out, and left it in possession of
another new man. This gentleman told us, last year, at the
Epsom Meeting, that he was losing his income ; and I told
him Jioio it was that he was losing it ! (39) He is said to
be a very worthy man ; very much respected ; a very good
landlord ; but, I dare say, he is one of those who approved
of yeomanry cavalry to keep down the " Jacobins and Level-
lers ;" but, who, in fact, as I always told men of this
description, have put down themselves and their landlords ;
for, without them this thing never could have been done. To
ascribe the whole to contrivance would be to give to Pitt and
his followers too much credit for profundity; but, if the
knaves who assembled at the Crown and Anchor in the
Strand, in 1793, (40) to put down, by the means of prose-
cutions and spies, those whom they called " Republicans and
Levellers ;" if these knaves had said, " Let us go to work to
" induce the owners and occupiers of the land to convey their
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 93
" estates and their capital into our hands," and if the
Government had corresponded with them in views, the effect
could not have been more complete than it has, thus far,
been. The yeomanry actually, as to the effect, drew their
swords to keep the reformers at bay, while the tax-eaters
were taking away the estates and the capital. It was the
sheep surrendering up the dogs into the hands of the wolves.
' Lord Onslow lives near Merrow. This is the man that
was, for many years, so famous as a driver of four-in-hand.
He used to be called Tommy Onslow. He has the character
of being a very good landlord. I know he called me " a
d d Jacobin " several years ago, only, I presume, because
I was labouring to preserve to him the means of still driving
four-in-hand, while he, and others like him, and their yeo-
manry cavalry, were working as hard to defeat my wishes and
endeavours. They say here, that, some little time back, his
Lordship, who has, at any rate, had the courage to retrench
in all sorts of ways, was at Guildford in a gig with one
horse, at the very moment, when Spicer, the Stock-broker, who
was a Chairman of the Committee for prosecuting Lord
Cochrane, and who lives at Esher, came rattbng in with four
horses and a couple of out-riders ! They relate an observa-
tion made by his Lordship, which may, or may not, be true,
and which therefore, I shall not repeat. But, my Lord, there
is another sort of courage ; courage other than that of re-
trenching, that would become you in the present emergency ;
I mean political courage , and, especially the courage ot
acknowledging your errors ; confessing that you were wx*ong,
when you called the reformers jacobins and levellers ; the
courage of now joining them in their efforts to save their
country, to regain their freedom, and to preserve to you your
estate, which is to be preserved, you will observe, by no other
means than that of a lleform of the Parliament. It is now
manifest, even to fools, that it has been by the instrumentality
of a base and fraudulent paper-money, that loan-jobbers,
stock-jobbers and Jews have got the estates into their hands -
"With what eagerness, in 1797, did the nobility, gentry and
clergy, rush forward to give their sanction and their support
to the system which then began, and which has finally pro-
duced what we now behold ! They assembled in all the
counties, and put forth declarations, that they would take
the paper of the Lank, and that they would support the
system. Upon this occasion the county of Surrey was the
very first county ; and, on the list of signatures, the very
94 RURAL RIDE FROM
first name was Onslow! There may be sales and convey-
ances ; there may be recoveries, deeds, and other parchments ;
but, this was the real transfer; this was the real signing
away of the estates. (41)
To come to Chilworth, which lies on the south side of St.
Martha's Hill, most people would have gone along the level
road to Guildford and come round through Shawford under
the hills ; but we, having seen enough of streets and turn-
pikes, took across over Merrow Down, where the Guildford
race-course is, and then mounted the "Surrey Hills," so
famous for the prospects they afford. Here we looked back
over Middlesex, and into Buckinghamshire and Berkshire,
away towards the North West, into Essex and Kent towards
the East, over part of Sussex to the South, and over part of
Hampshire to the West and South West. We are here upon
a bed of chalk, where the downs always afford good sheep
food. We steered for St. Martha's Chapel, and went round
at the foot of the lofty hill on which it stands. This brought
us down the side of a steep hill, and along a bridle-way,
into the narrow and exquisitely beautiful vale of Chilworth,
where we were to stop for the night. This vale is skirted
partly by woodlands and partly by sides of hills tilled as
corn fields. The land is excellent, particularly towards the
bottom. Even the arable fields are in some places, towards
their tops, nearly as steep as the roof of a tiled house ; and
where the ground is covered with woods the ground is still
more steep. Down the middle of the vale there is a series
of ponds, or small lakes, which meet your eye, here and there,
through the trees. Here are some very fine farms, a little
strip of meadows, some hop-gardens, and the lakes have
given rise to the establishment of powder-mills and paper-
mills. The trees of all sorts grow well here ; and coppices
yield poles for the hop-gardens and wood to make charcoal
for the powder-mills. \
They are sowing wheat here, and the land, owing to the
fine summer that we have had, is in a very fine state. The
rain, too, which, yesterday, fell here in great abundance, has
been just in time to make a really good wheat-sowing season.
The turnips, all the way that we have come, are good.
Bather backward in some places ; but in sufficient quantity
upon the ground, and there is yet a good while for them to
grow. All the fall fruit is excellent, and in great abundance.
The grapes are as good as those raised under glass. (42)
The apples are much richer than in ordinary years. The
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 95
crop of hops has been very fine here, as well as every where
else. The crop not only large, but good in quality. They
expect to get six pounds a hundred for them at Weyhill Fair.
That is one more than I think they will get. The best Sussex
hops were selling in the Borough of Southwark at three pounds
a hundred a few days before I left London. The Farnham
hops may bring double that price ; but that, I think, is as much
as they will ; and this is ruin to the hop-planter. The tax,
with its attendant inconveniences, amount to a pound a hun-
dred; the picking, drying, and bagging, to 50s. The carry-
ing to market not less than 5*. Here is the sum of 3Z. 10s.
of the money. Supposing the crop to be half a ton to the
acre, the bare tillage will be 1 0s. The poles for an acre can-
not cost less than 21. a-year ; that is another 4s. to each hun-
dred of hops. This brings the outgoings to 82s. Then
comes the manure, then come the poor-rates, and road-rates,
and county rates ; and if these leave one single farthing for
rent I think it is strange.
I hear that Mr. Birkbeck is expected home from America !
It is said that he is coming to receive a large legacy ; a thing
not to be overlooked by a person who lives in a country where
he can have land for nothing ! The truth is, I believe, that
there has lately died a gentleman, who has bequeathed a part
of his property to pay the creditors of a relation of his who
some years ago became a bankrupt, and one of whose creditors
Mr. Birkbeck was. What the amount may be I know not ;
but I have heard, that the bankrupt had a. partner at the time
of the bankruptcy ; so that there must be a good deal of
difficulty in settling the matter in an equitable manner. The
Chance?')/ would drawl it out (supposing the present system
to continue) (43) till, in all human probability, there would
not be as much left for Mr. Birkbeck as would be required to
pay his way back again to the Land of Promise. I hope he
is coming here to remain here. He is a veiy clever man,
though he has been very abusive and very unjust with regard
to me. (44)
Lea, near Godalming, Surrey,
Thursday, 2G Sept.
W e started from Chilworth this morning, came down
the vale, left the village of Shawford to our right, and
that of Wonersh to our left, and crossing the river
Wey, got into the turnpike-road between (Jiuldford and
96 RURAL RIDE FROM
Godalming, went on through Godalming, and got to Lea,
which lies to the north-east snugly under Hind-Head,
about 11 o'clock. This was coming only about eight
miles, a sort of rest after the 32 miles of the day before.
Coming along the road, a farmer overtook us, and as he had
known me from seeing me at the Meeting at Epsom last year,
I had a part of my main business to perform, namely, to
talk politics. He was going to Haslemere Fair. Upon the
mention of that sink-hole of a Borough, which sends, " as
clearly as the sun at noonday" (45) the celebrated Charles
Long, and the scarcely less celebrated Eobert Ward, to the
celebrated House of Commons, we began to talk, as it were,
spontaneously, about Lord Lonsdale and the Lowthers. The
farmer wondered why the Lowthers, that were the owners of
so many farms, should be for a system which was so mani-
festly taking away the estates of the landlords and the capital
of the farmers, and giving them to Jews, loan-jobbers, stock-
jobbers, placemen, pensioners, sinecure people, and people of
the " dead weight." (46) But, his wonder ceased ; his
eyes were opened ; and " his heart seemed to burn within
him as I talked to him on the way," when I explained to him
the nature of Crown-Lands and " Crown-Tenants" and when
I described to him certain districts of property in Westmore-
land and other parts. I had not the book in my pocket, but
my memory furnished me with quite a sufficiency of matter to
make him perceive, that, in supporting the present system, the
Lowthers were by no means so foolish as he appeared to
think them. From the Lowthers I turned to Mr. Poyntz,
who lives at Midhurst in Sussex, and whose name as a
" Crown-Tenant" I find in a Beport lately laid before the
House of Commons, and the particulars of which I will state
another time for the information of the people of Sussex. I
used to wonder myself what made Mr. Poyntz call me a
jacobin. I used to think that Mr. Poyntz must be a fool to
support the present system. What I have seen in that
Beport convinces me that Mr. Poyntz is no fool, as far as
relates tc his own interest, at any rate. There is a mine of
wealth in these " Crown Lands." (47) Here are farms, and
manors, and mines, and woods, and forests, and houses, and
streets, incalculable in value. What can be so proper as to
apply this public property towards the discharge of a part, at
least, of that public debt, which is hanging round the neck
of this nation like a mill-stone ? Mr. Bicardo proposes
to seize upon a part of the private property of every man, to
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 97
be given to the stock-jobbing race. At an act of injustice
like this the mind revolts. The foolishness of it, besides, is
calculated to shock one. But, in the public property we see
the suitable thing. And who can possibly object to this, ex-
cept those, who, amongst them, now divide the possession or
benefit of this property ? I have once before mentioned, but
I will repeat it, that Marlborough House in Pall Mall, for
which the Prince of Saxe Coburg pays a rent to the Duke of
Marlborough of three thousand pounds a-year, is rented of this
generous public by that most Noble Duke at the rate of less
than forty pounds a-year. There are three houses in Pall
Mall, the whole of which pay a rent to the public of about
fifteen pounds a-year, I think it is. I myself, twenty-two years
ago, paid three hundred pounds a-year for one of them, to a
man that I thought was the owner of them ; but I now find
that these houses belong to the public. The Duke of Buck-
ingham's house in Pall Mall, which is one of the grandest in
all London, and which is not worth less- than seven or eight
hundred pounds a-year, belongs to the public. The Duke is
the tenant ; and I think he pays for it much less than twenty
pounds a-year. I speak from memory here all the way
along; and therefore not positively; I will, another time,
state the particulars from the books. The book that I am
now referring to is also of a date of some years back ; but, I
will mention all the particulars another time. Talk of re-
ducing rents, indeed! Talk of generous landlords ! It is the
public that is the generous landlord. It is the public that
lets its houses and manors and mines and farms at a cheap
rate. It certainly would not be so good a landlord if it had a
Reformed Parliament to manage its affairs, nor would it
suffer 80 many snug Corporations to carry on their snugglings
in the manner that that they do, (18) and therefore it is
obviously the interest of the rich tenants of this poor public,
as well as the interest of the snugglers in Corporations, to
prevent the poor public from having such a Parliament. (49)
We got into free-quarter again at Lea (50) ; and there is
nothing like free-quarter, as soldiers well know. Lea is
situated on the edge of that immense heath which sweeps
down from the summit of Hind-Head across to the north
Over innumerable hills of minor altitude and of an infinite
variety of shapes towards Farnham, to the north-east, towards
the Hog'a Hack, leading from Farnham to Guildford, and to
the east, or nearly so, towards Godalming. Nevertheless,
the inclosed lands at Lea are very good and singularly
9S RURAL RIDE FROM
beautiful. The timber of all sorts grows well ; tbe land is
light, and being free from stones, very pleasant to work. If
you go southward from Lea about a mile you get down into
what is called, in the old Acts of Parliament, the Weald of
Surrey. Here the land is a stiff tenacious loam at top with
blue and yellow clay beneath. This Weald continues on
eastward, and gets into Sussex near East Grinstead : thence
it winds about under the hills, into Kent. Here the oak
grows finer than in any part of England. The trees are more
spiral in their form. They grow much faster than upon any
other land. Yet, the timber must be better ; for, in some of
the Acts of Queen Elizabeth's reign, it is provided, that the
oak for the Royal Navy shall come out of the Wealds of
Surrey, Sussex, or Kent. (51)
Odiham, Hampshire,
Friday, 27 Sept.
From Lea we set off this morning about six o'clock to get
free-quarter again at a worthy okJ friend's (52) at this nice
little plain market-town. Our direct road was right over
the heath through Tilford to Farnham ; but we veered
a little to the left after we came to Tilford, at which place on
the Green we stopped to look at an oak tree, which, when I
was a little boy, was but a very little tree, comparatively,
and which is now, take it altogether, by far the finest tree
that I ever saw in my life. The stem or shaft is short ; that
is to say, it is short before you come to the first limbs ; but
it is full thirty feet round, at about eight or ten feet from the
ground. Out of the stem there come not less than fifteen or
sixteen limbs, many of which are from five to ten feet round,
and each of which would, in fact, be considered a decent
stick of timber. I am not judge enough of timber to say any
thing about the quantity in the whole tree, but my son
stepped the ground, and as nearly as we could judge, the
diameter of the extent of the branches was upwards of ninety
feet, which would make a circumference of about three hundred
feet. The tree is in full growth at this moment. There is a
little hole in one of the limbs ; but with that exception, there
appears not the smallest sign of decay. The tree has made
great shoots in all parts of it this last summer and spring ;
and there are no appearances of white upon the trunk, such
as are regarded as the symptoms of full growth. There are
many sorts of oak in England ; two very distinct ; one with
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 99
a pale leaf, and one with a dark leaf : this is of the pale leaf.
The tree stands upon Tilford-green, the soil of which is a
light loam with a hard sand stone a good way beneath, and,
probably, clay beneath that. The spot where the tree stands
is about a hundred and twenty feet from the edge of a little
river, and the ground on which it stands may be about ten
feet higher than the bed of that river.
In quitting Tilford we came on to the land belonging
to Waverly Abbey, and then, instead of going on to the town
of Farnham, veered away to the left towards Wrecklesham,
in order to cross the Farnkam and Alton turnpike-road, and
to come on by the side of Crondall to Odiham. We went a
little out of the way to go to a place called the Bourn, which
lies in the heath at about a mile from Famham. It is a
winding narrow valley, down which, during the wet season of
the year, there runs a stream beginning at the Holt Forest,
and emptying itself into the Wey just below Moor-Park,
which was the seat of Sir William Temple when Swift was
residing with him. We went to this Bourn in order that I
might show my son the spot where I received the rudiments
of my education. There is a little hop-garden in which I
used to work when from eight to ten years old ; from which
I have scores of times run to follow the hounds, leaving the
hoe to do the best that it could to destroy the weeds ; but the
most interesting thing was a sand-hill, which goes from a part
of the heath down to the rivulet. As a due mixture of
pleasure with toil, I, with two brothers, used occasionally to
desport ourselves, as the lawyers call it, at this sand-hill.
Our diversion was this : we used to go to the top of the hill,
which was steeper than the roof of a house ; one used to
draw his arms out of the sleeves of his smock-frock, and lay
himself down with his arms by his sides ; and then the
others, one at head and the other at feet, sent him rolling
down the hill like a barrel or a log of wood. By the time he
got to the bottom, his hair, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, were
all full of tliis loose sand; then the others took their turn,
and at every roll, there was a monstrous spell of laughter.
I had often told my sons of this while they were very little,
and 1 now took one of them to see the spot. But, that was
not all. This was the spot where I was receiving my educa-
tion ; and this was the sort of education ; and I am perfectly
satisfied that if 1 had not received such an education, or
something very much like it; that, if I had been broughtup
a milksop, with a nursery-maid everlastingly at my heels, 1
F 2
100 RURAL RIDE FROM
■should have been at this day as great a fool, as inefficient a
mortal, as any of those frivolous idiots that are turned out
from Winchester and Westminster School, or from any of
those dens of dunces called Colleges and Universities. Tt is
impossible to say how much I owe to that sand-hill ; and I
went to return it my thanks for the ability which it probably
gave me to be one of the greatest terrors, to one of the
greatest and most powerful bodies of knaves and fools, that
ever were permitted to afflict this or any other country. (53)
From the Bourn we proceeded on to Wrecklesham, at
the end of which, we crossed what is called the river Wey.
Here we found a parcel of labourers at parish-work.
Amongst them was an old playmate of mine. The account
they gave of their situation was very dismal. The harvest
was over early. The hop-picking is now over ; and now
they are employed by the Parish ; that is to say, not abso-
lutely digging holes one day and filling them up the next ;
but at the expense of half-ruined farmers and tradesmen
and landlords, to break stones into very small pieces to
make nice smooth roads lest the jolting, in going along
them, should create bile in the stomachs of the overfed tax-
eaters. (54) I call upon mankind to witness this scene ;
and to say, whether ever the like of this was heard of
before. It is a state of things, where all is out of order ;
where self-preservation, that great law of nature, seems to
be set at defiance ; for here are farmers unable to pay men
for working for them, and yet compelled to pav them for
work ins: in doins: that which is reallv of no use to anv
human being. There lie the hop-poles unstripped. You
see a hundred things in the neighbouring fields that want
doing. The fences are not nearly what they ought to be.
The very meadows, to our right and our left in crossing this
little valley, would occupy these men advantageously until
the setting in of the frost ; and here are they, not, as I said
before, actually digging holes one day and filling them up
the next ; but, to all intents and purposes, as uselessly em-
ployed. Is this Mr. Canning's " Sun of Prosperity?" Is
this the way to increase or preserve a nation's wealth ? Is
this a sign of wise legislation and of cood government ?
Does this thing " work well," Mr. Canning ? Does it prove,
that we want no change ? True, you were born under a
Kingly Government ; and so was I as well as you ; (55)
but I was not born under Six- Acts ; nor was I born under
a state of things like this. I was not born under it, and I
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 101
do not wish to live under it; and, with God's help, I will
change it if I can.
We left these poor fellows, after having given them, not
"religious Tracts," which would, if they could, make the
labourer content with half starvation, but, something to get
them some bread and cheese and beer, being firmly con-
vinced, that it is the body that wants filling and not the
mind. However, in speaking of their low wages, [ told
them, that the farmers and hop-planters were as much
objects of compassion as themselves, which they acknow-
ledged.
We immediately, after this, crossed the road, and went
on towards Crondall upon a soil that soon became stiff
loam and flint at top with a bed of chalk beneath. We did
not go to Crondall ; but kept along over Slade Heath, and
through a very pretty place called Well. We arrived at
Odiham about half after eleven, at the end of a beautiful ride
of about seventeen miles, in a very fine and pleasant day.
Winchester,
Saturday, 28lh September.
Just after day-light we started for this place. By the
turnpike we could have come through Basingstoke by turn-
ing off to the right, or through Alton and Alresford by
turning off to the left. Being naturally disposed towards a
middle course, we chose to wind down through Upton-
Gray, Preston-Candover, Chilton-Candover, Brown-Can-
dover, then down to Ovington, and into Winchester by the
north entrance. From Wrecklesham to Winchester we
have come over roads and lanes of flint and chalk. The
weather being dry again, the ground under you, as solid as
iron, makes a great rattling with the horses' feet. The
country where the soil is stiff loam upon chalk, is never bad
for corn. Not rich, but never poor. There is at no time
any thing deserving to be called dirt in the roads. The
buildings last a long time, from the absence of fogs and
also the absence of humidity in the ground. The absence
of dirt makes the people habitually cleanly ; and all along
through this country the people appear in general to be
very neat. It is a country for sheep, which are always
sound and good upon this iron soil. The trees grow well,
where there are trees. The woods and. coppices are not
numerous ; but they are good, particularly the ash, which
102 RURAL RIDE FROM
always grows well upon the chalk. The oaks, though they
do not grow in the spiral form, as upon the clays, are by
no means stunted ; and some of them very fine trees ;
I take it, that they require a much greater number of years
to bring them to perfection than in the Wealds. The wood,
perhaps, may be harder ; but I have heard, that the oak,
which grows upon these hard bottoms, is very frequently
what the carpenters call shaky. The underwoods here con-
sist, almost entirely, of hazle, which is very fine, and much
tougher and more durable than that which grows on soils
with a moist bottom. This hazle is a thing of great
utility here. It furnishes rods wherewith to make fences ;
but its principal use is, to make wattles for the folding
of sheep in the fields. These things are made much
more neatly here than in the south of Hampshire and
in Sussex, or in any other part that I have seen. Chalk is
the favourite soil of the yew-tree ; and at Preston-Candover
there is an avenue of yew-trees, probably a mile long, each
tree containing, as nearly as I can guess, from twelve
to twenty feet of timber, which, as the reader knows,
implies a tree of considerable size. They have probably
been a century or two in growing ; but, in any way that
timber can be used, the timber of the yew will last, perhaps,
ten times as long as the timber of any other tree that we
grow in England. (56)
Quitting the Candovers, we came along between the two
estates of the two Barings. Sir Thomas, who has supplanted
the Duke of Bedford, was to our right, while Alexander, who
has supplanted Lord Northington, was on our left. The latter
has enclosed, as a sort of outwork to his park, a pretty little
down called Northington Down, in which he has planted,
here and there, a clump of trees. But Mr. Baring, not re-
flecting that woods are not like funds, to be made at a heat,
has planted his trees too large ; so that they are covered
with moss, are dying at the top, and are literally growing
downward instead of upward. In short, this enclosure and
plantation have totally destroyed the beauty of this part of
the estate. The down, which was before very beautiful,
and formed a sort of glacis up to the park pales, is now a
marred, ragged, ugly-looking thing. The dying trees,
which have been planted long enough for you not to per-
ceive that they have been planted, excite the idea of sterility
in the soil. They do injustice to it ; for, as a down, it was
excellent. Every thing that has been done here is to the
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND.
103
injury of the estate, and discovers a most shocking want of
taste in the projector. Sir Thomas's plantations, or, rather
those of his father, have been managed more judiciously.
I do not like to be a sort of spy in a man's neighbour-
hood ; but I will tell Sir Thomas Baring what I have heard ;
and if he be a man of sense I shall have his thanks, rather
than his reproaches, for so doing. I may have been misin-
formed ; but this is what I have heard, that he, and also
Lady Baring are very charitable ; that they are very kind
and compassionate to their poor neighbours ; but that they
tack a sort of condition to this charity ; that they insist
upon the objects of it adopting their notions with regard to
religion ; or, at least, that where the people are not what
they deem pious, they are not objects of their benevolence.
I do not say, that they are not perfectly sincere themselves,
and that their wishes are not the best that can possibly be ;
but of this I am very certain, that, by pursuing this principle
of action, where thev make one £?ood man or woman, thev
will make one hundred hypocrites. It is not little books
that can make a people good ; that can make them moral ;
that can restrain them from committing crimes. I believe
that books of any sort, never yet had that tendency. (57)
Sir Thomas does, I dare say, think me a very wicked man,
since I aim at the destruction of the funding system, and
what he would call a robbery of what he calls the public
creditor ; and yet, God help me, I have read books enough,
and amongst the rest, a great part of the religious tracts.
Amongst the labouring people, the first thing you have to
look after is, common honesty, speaking the truth, andrefrain-
ing from thieving ; and to secure these, the labourer must
have his belly-full and be free from fear ; and this belly-full
must come to him from out of his wages, and not from bene-
volence of any description. Such being my opinion, I think
Sir Thomas Baring would do better, that he would discover
more real benevolence, by using the influence which he must
naturally have in his neighbourhood, to prevent a diminu-
tion in the wages of labour.
Winchester,
Sunday Morning, 29 Sept.
Yesterday was market-day here. Everything cheap and
falling instead of rising. If it were over-production last
year that produced the distress, when are our miseries to
104 RURAL RIDE FROM
have an end ! They will end when these men cease to have
sway, and not before.
I had not been in Winchester long before I heard some-
thing very interesting about the manifesto, concerning the
poor, which was lately issued here, and upon which I re-
marked in my last Register but one, in my Letter to Sir
Thomas Baring. Proceeding upon the true military prin-
ciple, I looked out for free quarter, which the reader will
naturallv think difficult for me to find in a town containing
Cathedral. Having done this, I went to the Swan Inn to
dine with the farmers. This is the manner that I like best
of doing the thing. Six-Acts do not, to be sure, prevent us
from dining together. They do not authorize Justices of
the Peace to kill us, because we meet to dine without their
permission. But, I do not like Dinner-Meetings on my ac-
count. I like much better to go and fall in with the lads of
the land, or with anybody else, at their own places of resort ;
and I am going to place myself down at Uphusband, in
excellent free-quarter, in the midst of all the great fairs of
the West, in order, before the winter campaign begins, that
I may see ns many farmers as possible, and that they may
hear my opinions, and I theirs. I shall be at Weyhill Fair
on the 10th of October, and, perhaps, on some of the suc-
ceeding days ; and, on one or more of those days, I intend
to dine at the White Hart, at Andover. What other fairs
or places I shall go to I shall notify hereafter. And this I
think the frankest and fairest way. I wish to see many
people, and to talk to them : and there are a great many
people who wish to see and to talk to me. What better
reason can be given for a man's going about the country
and dining at fairs and markets ?
At the dinner at Winchester we had a good number of
opulent yeomen, and many gentlemen joined us after the
dinner. The state of the country was well talked over; and,
during the session (much more sensible than some other
sessions that I have had to remark on), I made the following
RUSTIC HARANGUE.
Gentlemen, — Though manv here are, I am sure, glad
to see me, I am not vain enough to suppose that any thing
other than that of wishing to hear my opinions on the pros-
pects before us can have induced manv to choose to be here
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 105
to dine with me to-day. I shall, before I sit down, pro-
pose to you a toast, which you will driak, or not, as vou
choose ; but, I shall state one particular wish in that shape,
that it may be the more distinctly understood, and the better
remembei ed.
The wish to which I allude relates to the tithes. Under
that word I mean to speak of all that mass of wealth which
is vulgarly called Church property ; but which is, in fact,
public property, and may, of course, be disposed of as the
Parliament shall please. There appears at this moment an
uncommon degree of anxiety on the part of the parsons to
see the farmers enabled to pay rents. The business of the
parsons being only with tithes, one naturally, at first sights
wonders why they should care so much about rents. The
fact is this ; they see clearly enough, that the landlords
will never long go without rents, and suffer them to enjoy
the tithes. They see, too, that there must be a struggle
between the land and the funds : they see that there is such
a struggle. They see, that it is the taxes that are taking
away the rent of the landlord and the capital of the farmer.
Yet the parsons are afraid to see the taxes reduced. Why ?
Because, if the taxes be reduced in any great degree (and
nothing short of a great degree will give relief), they see
that the interest of the debt cannot be paid ; and they know
well, that the interest of the Debt can never be reduced,
until their tithes have been reduced. Thus, then, thev find
themselves in a great difficulty. They wish the taxes to be
kept up and rents to be paid too. Both cannot be, unless
some means or other be found out of putting into, or keeping
in, the farmer's pocket, money that is not now there.
The scheme that appears to have been fallen upon for this
purpose is the strangest in the world, and it must, if
attempted to be put into execution, produce something little
short of open and general commotion; namely, that of
reducing the wages of labour to a mark so low as to make
the labourer a walking skeleton. Before I proceed further,
it is right that I communicate to you an explanation, which,
not an hour ago, I received from Mr. Poulter, relative to
the manifesto, lately issued in this town by a Bench of
Magistrates of which that gentleman was Chairman. (58)
have not the honour to be personally acquainted with
Mr. Poulter but certainly, if I had misunderstood the
manifesto, it was right that 1 should be, if possible, made
to understand it. Mr. Poulter, in company with another
f 3
106 RURAL RIDE FROM
gentleman, came to me in this Inn, and said, that the
bench did not mean that their resolutions should have the
effect of lowering the tvages ; and that the sums, stated in
the paper, were sums to be given in the way of relief.
We had not the paper before us, and, as the paper contained
a good deal about relief, I, in recollection, confounded the
two, and said, that I had understood the paper agreeably
to the explanation. But, upon looking at the paper again,
I see, that, as to the words, there was a clear recommenda-
tion to make the wages what is there stated. However,
seeing that the Chairman himself disavows this, we must
conclude that the bench put forth words not expressing
their meaning. To this I must add, as connected with the
manifesto, that it is stated in that document, that such and
such justices were present, and a large and respectable
number of yeomen who had been invited to attend. Now,
Gentlemen, I was, I must confess, struck with this addition
to the bench. These gentlemen have not been accustomed
to treat farmers with so much attention. It seemed odd,
that they should want a set of farmers to be present, to
give a sort of sanction to their acts. Since my arrival in
Winchester, I have found, however, that having them
present was not all ; for, that the names of some of these
yeomen were actually inserted in the manuscript of the
manifesto, and that those names were expunged at the
request of the parties named. This is a very singular pro-
ceeding, then, altogether. It presents to us a strong
picture of the diffidence, or modesty (call it which you
please) of the justices ; and it shows us, that the yeomen
present did not like to have their names standing as giving
sanction to the resolutions contained in the manifesto. In-
deed, they knew well, that those resolutions never could be
acted upon. They knew that they could not live in safety
even in the same village with labourers, paid at the rate of
3, 4, and 5 shillings a- week.
To return, now, Gentlemen, to the scheme for squeezing
rents out of the bones of the labourer, is it not, upon the face
of it, most monstrously absurd, that this scheme should be
resorted to, when the plain and easy and just way of
insuring rents must present itself to every eye, and can
be pursued by the Parliament whenever it choose ? We
hear loud outcries against the poor-rates ; the enormou
poor-rates ; the all-devouring poor-rates ; but, what are the
facts? Why, that, in Great Britain, six millions are paid
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBANB. 107
in poor-rates, (59) seven millions (or thereabouts) in tithes,
and sixty millions to the fund-people, the array, placemen,
and the rest. And yet, nothing of all this seems to be
thought of but the six millions. Surely the other and so
much larger sums ought to be thought of. Even the six
millions are, for the far greater part, toages and not poor-
rates. And yet all this outcry is made about these six
millions, while not a word is said about the other sixty-seven
millions.
Gentlemen, to enumerate all the ways, in which the pub-
lic money is spent, would take me a week. I will mention
two classes of persons who are receivers of taxes ; and you
will then see with what reason it is, that this outcry is set
up against the poor-rates and against the amount of wages.
There is a thing called the Dead Weight. Incredible as it
may seem, that such a vulgar appellation should be used in
such a way and by such persons, it is a fact, that the Minis-
ters have laid before the Parliament an account, called the
account of the Dead Weight. This account tells how five
millions three hundred thousand pounds are distributed
annually amongst half-pay officers, pensioners, retired com-
missaries, clerks, and so forth, employed during the last
war. If there were nothing more entailed upon us by that
war, this is pretty smart-money. Now unjust, unnecessary
as that war was, detestable as it was in all its principles and
objects, still, to every man, who really did Jight, or who per-
formed a soldier's duty abroad, I would give something : he
should not be left destitute. But, Gentlemen, is it right for
the nation to keep on paying for life crowds of young fel-
lows such as make up the greater part of this dead iveight ?
This is not all, however, for, there are the widows and the
children, who have, and are to have, pensions too. You
seem surprised, and well you may : but this is the fact. A
young fellow who has a pension for life, aye, or an old
fellow either, will easily get a wife to enjoy it with him, and
he will, I'll warrant him, take care that she shall not be old.
So that here is absolutely a premium for entering into the
holy state of matrimony. The husband, you will perceive,
cannot prevent the wife from having the pension after his
death. She is our widow, in this respect, not his. She
marries, in fact, with a jointure settled on her. The more
children the husband leaves the better for the widow ; for
each child has a pension for a certain number of years. The
man, who, under such circumstances, does not marry, must
108 RURAL RIDE FROM
be a woman-hater. An old man actually going into the
grave, may, by the mere ceremony of marriage, give any
woman a pension for life. Even the widows and children
of insane officers are not excluded. If an officer, now in-
sane, bat at large, were to marry, there is nothing, as the
thing now stands, to prevent his widow and children from
having pensions. Were such things as these ever before
heard of in the world ? Were such premiums ever before
given for breeding gentlemen and ladies, and that, too,
while all sorts of projects are on foot to check the
breeding of the labouring classes ? Can such a thing
go on ? I say it cannot ; and, if it could, it must
inevitably render this country the most contemptible
upon the face of the earth. And yet, not a word of com-
plaint is heard about these five millions and a quarter, ex-
pended in this way, while the country rings, fairly re-
sounds, with the outcry about the six millions that are given
to the labourers in the shape of poor-rates, but which,
in fact, go, for the greater part, to pay what ought to
be called wages. Unless, then, we speak out here ; unless
we call for redress here ; unless we here seek relief, we
shall not only be totally ruined, but we shall deserve it.
The other class of persons, to whom I have alluded,
as having taxes bestowed on them, are the poor clergy.
Not of the church as by law established, to be sure, you will
sav ! Yes, Gentlemen, even to the poor clergy of the
established Church. We know well how rich that Church
is ; we know well how many millions it annually receives ;
we know how opulent are the bishops, how rich thev die ;
how rich, in short, a body it is. And yet fifteen hundred
thousand pounds have, within the same number of years,
been given, out of the taxes, partly raised on the labourers,
for the relief of the poor clergy of that Church, while
it is notorious that the livings are given in numerous
cases by twos and threes to the same person, and
while a clamour, enough to make the sky ring, is made
about what is given in the shape of relief to the labouring
classes! Why, Gentlemen, what do we want more than
this one fact ? Does not this one fact sufficiently charac-
terize the system under which we live ? Does not this
prove that a change, a great change, is wanted ? Would it
net he more natural to propose to get this money back from
the Church, than to squeeze so much out of the bones of
the labourers ? This the Parliament can do if it pleases;
and this it will do, if you do your duty.
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. 109
Passing over several other topics, let me, Gentlemen, now
come to what, at the present moment, most nearly affects
you ; namely, the prospect as to prices. In the first place,
this depends upon whether Peel's Bill will be repealed. As
this depends a good deal upon the Ministers, and as I am
convinced, that they know no more what to do in the pre-
sent emergency than the little boys and girls that are
running up and down the street before this house, (60) it
is impossible for me, or for any one, to say what will be
done in this respect. But, 'my opinion is decided, that the
Bill will not be repealed. The Ministers see, that, if they
were now to go back to the paper, it would not be the paper
of 1819 ; but a paper never to be redeemed by gold; that
it would be ass'ujnats to all intents and purposes. That
must of necessity cause the complete overthrow of the
Government in a Very short time. If, therefore, the minis-
ters see the thing in this light, it is impossible, that they
should think of a repeal of Peel's Bill. There appeared, last
winter, a strong disposition to repeal the Bill ; and I veriiy
believe, that a repeal in effect, though not in name, was
actually in contemplation. A Bill was brought in, which
was described beforehand as intended to prolong the issue
of small notes, and also to prolong the time lor making
Bank of England notes a legal tender. This would have
been a repealing of Peel's Bill in great part. The Bill,
when brought in, and when passed, as it finally was, con-
tained no clause relative to legal tender ; and without that
clause it was perfectly nugatory. Let me explain to you,
Gentlemen, what this Bill really is. In the seventeenth
year of the late King's reign, an act was passed for a time
limited, to prevent the issue of notes payable to bearer on
demand, for any sums less than five pounds. In the
twenty-seventh year of the late King's reign, this Act was
made perpetual ; and the preamble of the Act sets forth,
that it is made perpetual, because the preventing of small
notes being made has been proved to be for the good of the
nation. Nevertheless, in just ten years afterwards; that is
to say, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-
seven, when the Bank stopped payment, this salutary Act
was suspended; indeed, it was absolutely necessary, for
there was no gold to pav with. It continued suspended,
until 1819, when Mr. Peel's Bill was passed, when a Bill
1 to suspend it still further, until the year 1825.
You will observe, then, that, last winter there were yet
1 10 RURAL RIDE FROM
three vears to come, during; which the banks might make
small notes if they would. Yet this new Bill was passed
last winter to authorize them to make small notes until the
year 1833. The measure was wholly uncalled for. It
appeared to be altogether unnecessary;, but, as I have just
said, the intention was to introduce into this Bill a clause to
continue the legal tender until 1833; and that would,
indeed, have made a great alteration in the state of things ;
and, if extended to the Bank of^England, would have been,
in effect, a complete repeal of Peel's Bill. (61)
It was fully expected by the country-bankers, that the
legal tender clause would have been inserted ; but, before it
came to the trial, the Ministers gave way, and the clause
was not inserted. The reason for their giving way, I do
verily believe, had its principal foundation in their per-
ceiving, that the public would clearly see, that such a mea-
sure would make the paper-money merely assignats. The
legal tender not having been enacted, the Small-note Bill
can do nothing towards augmenting the quantity of cir-
culating medium. As the law now stands, Bank of Eng-
land notes are, in effect, a legal tender. If I owe a debt of
twentvpounds, and tender Bank of England notes in payment,
the law says that you shall not arrest me ; that you may bring
vour action, if you like ; that I may pay the notes into Court ;
that vou may go on with your action ; that you shall pay all
the costs, and I none. At last you gain your action ; you
obtain judgment and execution, or whatever else the ever-
lasting law allows of. And what have you got then ? Why
the notes ; the same identical notes the Sheriff will bring
vou. You will not take them. Go to law with the Sheriff
then. He pays the notes into Court. More costs for you
to pay. And thus you go on ,• but without ever touching
or seeing gold !
Now, Gentlemen, Peel's Bill puts an end to all this pretty
work on the first day of next May. If you have a handful
of a country banker's rags now, and go to him for payment,
he will tender you Bank of England notes ; and if you like
the paying of costs you may go to law for gold. But when
the first of next May comes, he must put gold into your
hands in exchange for your notes, if you choose it ; or you
mav clap a bailiff 's hand upon his shoulder; and if he choose
to pay into Court, he must pay in gold, and pay your costs
also as far as you have gone.
This makes a strange alteration in the thing ! And every
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND. Ill
body must see, that the Bank of England, and the country-
bankers ; that all, in short, are preparing for the first of
May. It is clear that there must be a farther diminution of
the paper-money. It is hard to say the precise degree of
effect that this will have upon prices ; but, that it must bring
them down is clear ; and, for my own part, I am fully per-
suaded, that they will come down to the standard of prices
in France, be those prices what they may. This, indeed,
was acknowledged by Mr. Huskisson in the Agricultural
Report of 1821. That two countries so near together, both
having gold as a currency or standard, should differ very
widely from each other, in the prices of farm-produce, is
next to impossible ; and therefore, when our legal tender
shall be completely done away, to the prices of France you
must come ; and those prices cannot, I think, in the present
state of Europe, much exceed three or four shillings a
bushel for good wheat.
You know, as well as I do, that it is impossible, with the
present taxes and rates and tithes, to pay any rent at all with
prices upon that scale. Let loan-jobbers, stock-jobbers,
Jews, and the whole tribe of tax-eaters say what they will,
you know that it is impossible, as you also know it would be
cruellv unjust to wring from the labourer ,the means of pay-
ing rent, while those taxes and tithes remain. Something
must be taken off. The labourers' wages have already been
reduced as low as possible. All public pay and salaries
ought to be reduced (62) ; and the tithes also ought to be
reduced, as they might be to a great amount without any in-
jurv to religion." The interest of the debt ought to be largely
reduced (63) ; but, as none of the others can, with any show
of justice, take place, without a reduction of the tithes, and
as I am for confining myself to one object at present, 1 will
give you as a Toast, leaving you to drink it or not, as you
please, A large Reduction of Tithes.
Somebody proposed to drink this Toast with three time
three, which was accordingly done, and the sound might
have been heard down to the close. — Upon some Gentleman
giving my health, I took occasion to remind the company,
that, the last time I was at Winchester we had the memor-
112 RURAL RIDE FROM
able fight with Lockhart " the Brave" and his sable friends.
(64) I reminded them, that it was in that same room that
I told them, that it would not be long before Mr. Lockhart
and those sable gentlemen would become enlightened ; and
I observed, that, if we were to judge from a man's language,
there was not a land-owner in England, that more keenly
felt than Mr. Lockhart, the truth of those predictions which
I had put forth at the Castle on the day alluded to. I re-
minded the company, that, I sailed for America in a few days
after that meeting ; that they must be well aware, that, on
the day of the meeting, I knew that I was taking leave of
the country, but, I observed, that I had not been in the
least depressed by that circumstance; because, I relied,
with perfect confidence, on being in this same place again,
to enjoy, as I now did, a triumph over my adversaries.
After this, Mr. Hector gave a Constitutional Reform in
the Commons' House of Parliament, which was drunk with
great enthusiasm ; and Mr. Hector's health having been
given, he, in returning thanks, urged his brother yeomen
and freeholders, to do their duty by coming forward in
county meeting and giving their support to those noblemen
and gentlemen that were willing to stand forward for a
reform and for a reduction of taxation. I held forth to
them the example of the county of Kent, which had done
itself so much honour by its conduct last spring. What
these gentlemen in Hampshire will do, it is not for me to
say. If nothing be done by them, they will certainly be
ruined, and that ruin they will certainly deserve. It was to
the farmers that the Government owed its strength to carry
on the war. Having them with it, inconsequence of a false
and bloated prosperity, it cared not a straw for any body
else. If they, therefore, now do their duty ; if they all,
like the yeomen and farmers. of Kent, come boldly forward,
everv thing will be done necessary to preserve themselves
and their country ; and if they do not come forward, they
will, us men of property, be swept from the face of the
earth. The noblemen and gentlemen who are in Parlia-
ment, and who are disposed to adopt measures of effectual
relief, cannot move with any hope of success unless backed
by the yeomen and farmers, and the middling classes
throughout the country generally. I do not mean to
confine mvself to yeomen and farmers, but to take in all
tradesmen and men of property. With these at their back,
or rather, at the back of these, there are men enough in
KENSINGTON TO UPHUSBAND, 113
both Houses of Parliament, to propose and to urge mea-
sures suitable to the exigency of the case. But without
the middling classes to take the lead, those noblemen and
gentlemen can do nothing. Even the Ministers them-
selves, if they were so disposed (and they must be so dis-
posed at last) could make none of the reforms that are
necessarv, ivithout being actually urged on by the middle
classes of the community. This is a very important con-
sideration. Anew man, as Minister, might indeed propose
the reforms himself; but these men, Opposition as well as
Ministry, are so pledged to the things that have brought all
this ruin upon the country, that they absolutely stand in
need of an overpowering call from the people to justify them
in doing that which they themselves may think just, and
which they mav know to be necessary for the salvation of
the country. They dare not take the lead in the necessary
reforms. (65) It is too much to be expected of any men
upon the face of the earth, pledged and situated as these
Ministers are ; and therefore, unless the people will do
their dutv, they will have themselves, and only themselves,
to thank for their ruin, and for that load of disgrace, and
for that insignificance worse than disgrace which seems,
after so many years of renown, to be attaching themselves
to the name of England.
Uphusband,
Sunday Evening, 29 Sept. 1822.
We came along the turnpike-road, through Wherwell
and Andover, and got to this place about 2 o'clock. This
country, except at the village and town just mentioned, is
very open, a thinnish soil upon a bed of chalk. Between
Winchester and Wherwell we came by some hundreds of
acres of ground, that was formerly most beautiful down,
which was broken up in dear-corn times, and which is now
a district of thistles and other weeds. If I had such land
as this I would soon make it down again. I would for
once (that is to say if I had the money) get it quite clean,
prepare it as for sowing turnips, get the turnips if possible,
feed them off early, or plough the ground if I got no tur-
nips ; sow thick with Saint-foin and meadow-grass seeds
of all sorts, early in September ; let the crop stand till the
next July ; feed it then slenderly with sheep, and dig up
214
RURAL RIDE.
all thistles and rank weeds that might appear ; keep feeding 1
it, but not too close, during the summer and the fall ;
and keep on feeding it for ever after as a down. The
Saint-foin itself would last for many rears ; and as it
disappeared, its place would be supplied by the grass ; that
sort which was most congenial to the soil, would at last
stifle all other sorts, and the land would become a valuable
down as formerly.
I see that some plantations of ash and of hazle have been
made along here ; but, with great submission to the
planters, I think they have gone the wrong way to work,
as to the mode of preparing the ground. They have
planted small trees, and that is right ; they have trenched
the ground, and that is also right ; but they have brought
the bottom soil to the top ; and that is wrong, always ; and
especially where the bottom soil is gravel or chalk, or clay.
I know that some people will say that this is a puff ' ; and
let it pass for that ; but if any gentleman that is going to
plant trees, will look into my Book on Gardening, and into
the Chapter on Preparing the Soil, he will, I think, see how
conveniently ground may be trenched without bringing to
the top that soil in which the young trees stand so long
without making shoots.
This country, though so open, has its beauties. The
homesteads in the sheltered bottoms with fine lofty trees
about the houses and yards, form a beautiful contrast with
the large open fields. The little villages, running strag-
gling along the dells (always with lofty trees and rookeries)
are very interesting objects, even in the winter. You feel
a sort of satisfaction, when you are out upon the bleak hills
yourself, at the thought of the shelter, which is experienced
in the dwellings in the vallies.
Andover is a neat and solid market-town. It is sup-
ported entirely by the agriculture around it ; and how the
makers of population returns ever came to think of classing
the inhabitants of such a town as this under any other head
than that of "persons employed in agriculture," would
appear astonishing to any man who did not know those
population return makers as well as I do. (66)
The village of Uphusband, the legal name of which is
Hurstbourn Tarrant, is, as the reader will recollect, a great
favourite with me, not the less so certainly on account of
the excellent free-quarter that it affords.
THROUGH HAMPSHIRE, BERKSHIRE, SURREY, AND SUSSEX,
BETWEEN 7TH OCTOBER AND 1ST DECEMBER, 1822, 327
MILES.
1th to 10th Oct., 1822.
At Uphusband, a little village in a deep dale, about five
miles to the North of Andover, and about three miles to the
South of the Hills at Highclere. The wheat is sown here,
and up, and, as usual, at this time of the year, looks very
beautiful. The wages of the labourers brought down to six
shillings a week ! a horrible thing to think of ; but, I hear,,
it is still worse in Wiltshire.
Hi! A October.
Went to Weyhill-fair, at which I was about 46 years
ago, when I rode a little poney, and remember how proud I
was on the occasion; but, I also remember, that my
brothers, two out of three of whom were older than I,
thought it unfair that my father selected me ; and my own
reflections upon the occasion have never been forgotten by me.
The 1 1th of October is the Sheep-fair. About 300,000/.
used, some few years ago, to be carried home by the sheep-
sellers. To-day, less, perhaps, than 70,000/. and yet, the
rents of these sheep-sellers are, perhaps, as high, on an
average, as they were then. The countenances of the
farmers were descriptive of their ruinous state. I never,
in all my life, beheld a more mournful scene. There is a
horse-fair upon another part of the Down ; and there I saw
horses keeping pace in depression with the sheep. A pretty
numerous group of the tax-eaters, from Andover and the
neighbourhood, were the only persons that had smiles on
their faces. I was struck with a young farmer trotting a
horse backward and forward to show him off to a couple of
gentlemen, who were bargaining for the horse, and one of
whom finally purchased him. These gentlemen were two of
116 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
our " dead-weight," and the horse was that on which the
farmer had pranced in the Yeomanry Troop ! Here is a
turn of things ! Distress ; pressing distress ; dread of the
bailiffs alone could have made the farmer sell his horse. If
he had the firmness to keep the tears out of his eyes, his
heart must have paid the penalty. What, then, must have
been his feelings, if he reflected, as I did, that the pur-
chase-money for the horse had first gone from his pocket
into that of the dead-weight ! And, further, that the horse
had pranced about for years for the purpose of subduing all
opposition to those very measures, which had finally dis-
mounted the owner !
From this dismal scene, a scene formerly so joyous, we
set off back to Uphusband pretty early, were overtaken by
the rain, and got a pretty good soaking. The land along
here is very good. This whole country has a chalk bottom ;
but, in the vallev on the right of the hill over which you go
from Andover to Wevhill, the chalk lies far from the top,
and the soil has few flints in it. It is very much like the
land about Maiden and Maidstone. Met with a farmer who
said he must be ruined, unless another "good war" should
come ! This is no uncommon notion. They saw high
prices with war, and they thought that the war was the
cause.
12 to 16 of October.
The fair was too dismal for me to go to it again. My
sons went two of the days, and their account of the hop-
fair was enough to make one gloomy for a month, particu-
larly as ray townsmen of Farnham were, in this case,
amongst the sufferers. On the 12th I went to dine with
and to harangue the farmers at Andover. Great attention
was paid to what I had to say. The crowding to get into
the room was a proof of nothing, perhaps, but curiosity;
but, there must have been a cause for the curiosity, and that
cause would, under the present circumstances, be matter
for reflection with a wise government.
17 October.
Went to Newbury to dine with and to harangue the
farmers. It was a fair- day. It rained so hard that I had
to stop at Burghclere to dry my clothes, and to borrow a
great coat to keep me dry for the rest of the way ; so as
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 117
not to have to sit in wet clothes. At Newbury the com-
pany was not less attentive or less numerous than at
Andover. Some one of the tax-eating crew had, I under-
stand, called me an " incendiary." The day is passed for
those tricks. They deceive no longer. Here, at New-
bury, I took occasion to notice the base accusation of Dun-
das, the Member for the County. (67) I stated it as some-
thing that I had heard of, and I was proceeding to charge
him conditionally, when Mr. Tubb of Shillingford rose from
his seat, and said, " I myself, Sir, heard him say the words."
I had heard of his vile conduct long before ; but, I ab-
stained from charging him with it, till an opportunity
should offer for doing it in his own country. After the
dinner was over I went back to Burghclere.
18 to 20 October.
At Burghclere, one half the time writing, and the other
half hare-hunting.
21 October.
"Went back to Uphusband.
22 October.
Went to dine with the farmers at Salisbury, and got back
to Uphusband by ten o'clock at night, two hours later than
I have been out of bed for a great many months.
In quitting Andover to go to Salisbury (1 7 miles from each
other) vou cross the beautiful valley that goes winding down
amongst the hills to Stockbridge. You then rise into the
open country that very soon becomes a part of that large
tract of downs, called Salisbury Plain. You are not in
"Wilt.-hire, however, till you are about half the way to Salis-
bury. You leave Tidworth away to your right. This is
the seat of Asheton Smith; and the fine cours'mg that I
once saw there I should have called to recollection with
pleasure, if I could have forgotten the hanging of the men
at Winchester last Spring for resisting one of this Smith's
game-keepers ! This Smith's son and a Sir John Pollen are
the members for Andover. They are chosen by the Corpo-
ration. One of the Corporation, an Attorney, named Et-
wall, is a Commissioner of the Lottery, or something in that
way. It would be a curious thing to ascertain how large
a portion of the "public services" is performed by the
voters in Boroughs and their relations. These persons are
118 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
singularly kind to the nation. They not only choose a
large part of the " representatives of the people ;" but they
come in person, or by deputy, and perform a very consider-
able part of the '' public services." I should like to know
how many of them are employed about the Salt-Tax, for
instance. A list of these public-spirited persons might be
produced to show the benefit of the Boroughs.
Before you get to Salisbury, you cross the valley that
brings down a little river from Amesbury. It is a very
beautiful valley. There is a chain of farm-houses and little
churches all the way up it. The farms consist of the land
on the flats on each side of the river, running out to a greater
or less extent, at different places, towards the hills and
downs. Not far above Amesbury is a little village called
Netherhaven, where I once saw an acre of hares. We were
coursing at Everly, a few miles off ; and, one of the party
happening to say, that he had seen " an acre of hares " at
Mr. Hicks Beech's at Netherhaven, we, who wanted to see
the same, or to detect our informant, sent a messenger to
beg a day's coursing, which being granted, we went over
the next day. Mr. Beech received us very politely. He
took us into a wheat stubble close by his paddock ; his son
took a gallop round, cracking his whip at the same time ;
the hares (which were very thickly in sight^before) started
all over the field, ran into a flock like sheep ; and we all
agreed, that the flock did cover an acre of ground. Mr.
Beech had an old greyhound, that I saw lying down in the
shrubbery close by the house, while several hares were
sitting and skipping about, with just as much confidence as
cats sit by a dog in a kitchen or a parlour. Was this in-
stinct in either dog or hares ? Then, mind, this same grey-
hound went amongst the rest to course with us out upon
the distant hills and lands ; and then he ran as eagerly as
the rest, and killed the hares with as little remorse. Philo-
sophers will talk a long while before they will make men
believe, that this was instinct alone. I believe that this dog
had much more reason than half of the Cossacks have ; and
I am sure he had a great deal more than many a Negro that
I have seen.
In crossing this valley to go to Salisbury, I thought of
Mr. Beech's hares ; but, I really have neither thought of
nor seen any game with pleasure, since the hanging of the
two men at Winchester. If no other man will petition for
the repeal of the law, under which those poor fellows suf-
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY, AND SUSSEX. 119
fered, I will. But, let us hope, that there will be no need
of petitioning. Let us hope, that it will be repealed with-
out any express application for it. It is curious enough
that laws of this sort should increase, while Sir James
Mackintosh is so resolutely bent on "softening the criminal
code /" (68)
The company at Salisbury was very numerous ; not less
than 500 farmers were present. They were very attentive
to what I said, and, which rather surprised me, they received
very docilely what I said against squeezing the labourers.
A fire, in a farm-yard, had lately taken place near Salisbury ;
so that the subject was a ticklish one. Bat it was my very
first duty to treat of it, and I was resolved, be the conse-
quence what it might, not to neglect that duty.
23 to 26 October.
At Uphusband. At this village, which is a great tho-
roughfare for sheep and pigs, from Wiltshire and Dorset-
shire to Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and away to the North and
North East, we see many farmers from different parts of the
country ; and, if I had had any doubts before, as to the
deplorableness of their state, those would now no longer
exist. I did, indeed, years ago, prove, that if we returned
to cash payments without a reduction of the Debt, and
without a rectifying of contracts, the present race of farmers
must be ruined. But still, when the thing actually comes, it
astounds one. It is like the death of a friend or relation.
We talk of its approach without much emotion. We foretell
the when without much seeming pain. We know it must be.
But, when it comes, we forget our foretellings, and feel
the calamity as acutely as if we had never expected it.
The accounts we hear, daily, and almost hourly, of the
families of farmers actually coming to the parish-book, are
enough to make any body but a Boroughmonger feel. That
species of monster is to be moved by nothing but his own
pecuniary sufferings ; and, thank God, the monster is now
about to be reached. I hear, from all parts, that the
parsons are in great alarm ! Well they may, if their hearts
be too much set upon the treasures of this world ; for, I
can see no possible way of settling this matter justly,
without resorting to their temporalities. They have long
enough been calling upon all the industrious classes for
" sacrifices for the good of the country." The time seems
120 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
to be come for them to do something in this wav them-
selves. In a short time there will be, because there can be,
no rents. And, we shall see, whether the landlords will
then suffer the parsons to continue to receive a tenth part
of the produce of the land ! In many places the farmers
have bad the sense and the spirit to rate the tithes to the
poor-rates. This they ought to do in all cases, whether
the tithes be taken up in kind or not. This, however,
sweats the fire-shovel hat gentleman. It "bothers his
wig." He does not know what to think of it. He does
not know who to blame ; and, where a parson finds things
not to his mind, the first thing he always does is, to look
about for somebody to accuse of sedition and blasphemv.
Lawyers alwavs begin, in such cases, to hunt the books,
to see if there be no punishment to applv. But, the devil
of it is, neither of them have now any body to lay on upon !
I always told them, that there would arise an enemy, that
would laugh at all their anathemas, informations, dungeons,
halters and bayonets. One positive good has, however,
arisen out of the present calamities, and that is, the parsons
are grown more humble than they were. Cheap corn and
a good thumping debt have greatly conduced to the pro-
ducing of the Christian virtue, humility, necessarv in us all,
but doubly necessary in the priesthood. The parson is now
one of the parties who is taking awav the landlord's estate
and the farmer's capital. When the farmer's capital is
gone, there will be no rents; but, without a law upon the
subject, the parson will still have his tithe, and a tithe upon
the taxes too, which the land has to bear ! Will the land-
lords stand this ? No matter. If there be no reform of
the Parliament, they must stand it. The two sets mav, for
aught I care, worry each other as long as they please.
When the present race of farmers are gone (and that will
soon be) the landlord and the parson may settle the matter
between them. Thev will be the only parties interested ;
and which of them shall devour the other appears to be of
little consequence to the rest of the community. They
agreed most cordially in creating the Debt. They went
hand in hand in all the measures against the Reformers.
They have made, actually made, the very thing that now
frightens them, which now menaces them with total extinc-
tion. They cannot think it unjust, if their prayers be now
treated as the prayers of the Reformers were.
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 121
27 to 29 October.
At Burghclere. Very nasty weather. On the 28th the
fox-hounds came to throw off at Penwood, in this parish.
Having heard that Dundas would be out with the hounds,
I rode to the place of meeting, in order to look him in the
face, and to give him an opportunity to notice, on his own
peculiar dunghill, what I had said of him at Newbury. (69)
He came. I rode up to him and about him ; but, he said
not a word. The company entered the wood, and I rode
back towards my quarters. They found a fox, and quickly
lost him. Then they came out of the wood and came back
along the road, and met me, and passed me, they as well as
I going at a foot pace. 1 had plenty of time to survey
them all well, and to mark their looks. I watched Dundas's
eyes, but the devil a bit could 1 get them to turn my way.
He is paid for the present. We shall see, whether he will
go, or send an ambassador, or neither, when I shall be at
Reading on the 9th of next month.
30 October.
Set off for London. Went by Alderbridge, Crookham,
Brimton, Mortimer, Strathfield' Say, Heckfield Heath,
Eversley, Blackwater, and slept at Oakinghara. This is,
with trifling exceptions, a miserably poor countrv. Burgh-
clere lies along at the foot of a part of that chain of hills,
which, in this part, divide Hampshire from Berkshire. The
parish just named is, indeed, in Hampshire, but it forms
merely the foot of the Highclere and Kingsclere Hills.
These hills, from which you can see all across the countrv,
even to the Isle of Wight, are of chalk, and with them,
towards the North, ends the chalk. The soil over which
I have come to-day, is generally a stony sand upon a bed
of gravel. With the exception of the land just round
Crookham and the other villages, nothing can well be
poorer or more villanously ugly. It is all first cousin to
Hounslow Heath, of which it is, in fact, a continuation to
the Westward. There is a clay at the bottom of the gravel ;
so that you have here nasty stagnant pools without fertility
of soil. The rushes grow amongst the gravel ; sure sign
that there is clay beneath to hold the water ; for, unless
there be water constantly at their roots, rushes will not
grow. Such land is, however, good for oaks wherever
o
122 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
there is soil enough on the top of the gravel for the oak to
get hold, and to send its tap-root down to the clay. The
oak is the thing to plant here ; and, therefore, this whole
country contains not one single plantation of oaks ! That
is to say, as far as I observed. Plenty of Jir-trees and
other rubbish have been recently planted ; but, no oaks.
At Strathfield Say is that everlasting monument of English
Wisdom Collective, the Heir Loom Estate of the "greatest
Captain oj the Age /" (70) In his peerage it is said, that it
was wholly out of the power of the nation to reward his
services fully; but, that "she did what she could !" Well,
poor devil ! And what could any body ask for more ? It
was well, however, that she gave what she did while she
was drunk ; for, if she had held her hand till now, I am half
disposed to think, that her gifts would have been very small.
I can never forget that we have to pay interest on 50,000/.
of the money merely owing to the coxcombery of the late
Mr. Whitbread, who actually moved that addition to one of
the grants proposed by the Ministers ! Now, a great part
of the grants is in the way of annuity or pension. It is
notorious, that, when the grants were made, the pensions
would not purchase more than a third part of as much wheat
as they will now. The grants, therefore, have been aug-
mented threefold. What right, then, has any one to say,
that the labourer's wages ought to fall, unless he say, that
these pensions ought to be reduced ! The Hampshire
Magistrates, when they were putting forth their manifesto
(71) about the allowances to labourers, should have noticed
these pensions of the Lord Lieutenant of the County. How-
ever, real starvation cannot be inflicted to any very great
extent. The present race of farmers must give way, and
the attempts to squeeze rents out of the wages of labour
must cease. And the matter will finally rest to be settled
by the landlords, parsons, and tax-eaters. If the land-
lords choose to give the greatest captain three times as
much as was granted to him, why, let him have it. Ac-
cording to all account, he is no miser at any rate ; and the
estates that pass through his hands may, perhaps, be full as
well disposed of as they are at present. Considering the
miserable soil I have passed over to-day, I am rather sur-
prised to find Oakingham so decent a town. It has a
very handsome market-place, and is by no means an ugly
countrv-town.
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 123
31 October.
Set off at daylight and got to Kensington about noon.
On leaving Oakingham for London, you get upon what is
called Windsor Forest ; that is to say, upon as bleak, as
barren, and as villanous a heath as ever man set his eyes
on. However, here are new enclosures without end. And
here are houses too, here and there, over the whole of this
execrable tract of country. " What !" Mr. Canning will
say, ■" will you not allow that the owners of these new
" enclosures and these houses know their own interests ?
"And are not these improvements, and are they not a proof
" of an addition to the national capital ?" To the first I
answer, May be so ; to the two last, No. These new
enclosures and houses arise out of the beggaring of the
parts of the country distant from the vortex of the funds.
The farm-houses have long been growing fewer and fewer ;
the labourers' houses fewer and fewer; and it is manifest
to every man who has eyes to see with, that the villages are
regularly wasting away. This is the case all over the parts
of the kingdom where the tax-eaters do not hauut. In all
the really agricultural villages and parts of the kingdom,
there is a shocking decay ; a great dilapidation and constant
pulling down or falling down of houses. The farm-houses
are not so many as they were forty years ago by three-
fourths. That is to say, the infernal system of Pitt and his
followers has annihilated three parts out of four of the farm
houses. The labourers' houses disappear also. And all
the useful people become less numerous. While these
spewy sands and gravel near London are enclosed and
built on, good lands in other parts are neglected. These
enclosures and buildings are a waste ; they are means mis-
applied; they are a proof of national decline and not of
prosperity. (72) To cultivate and ornament these villan-
ous spots the produce and the population are drawn away
from the good lands. There all manner of schemes have
been resorted to to get rid of the necessity of hands ; (73)
and, I am quite convinced, that the population, upon the
whole, has not increased, in England, one single soul since
I was born ; an opinion that I have often expressed, in
support of which I have as often offered arguments, and
those arguments have never been answered. (74) As to
this rascally heath, that which has ornamented it has
brought miscrv on millions. The spot is not far distant
g 2
124 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
from the Stock-Jobbing crew. The roads to it are level.
They are smooth. The wretches can go to it from the
'Change without any danger to their worthless necks.
And thus it is " vastly improved, Ma'am /" A set of men
who can lock upon this as "improvement," who can
regard this as a proof of the "increased capital of the
country," are pretty fit, it must be allowed, to get the
country out of its present difficulties ! At the end of this
blackguard heath you come (on the road to Egham) to a
little place called Sunning Hill, which is on the Western
side of "Windsor Park. It is a spot all made into "grounds"
and gardens by tax-eaters. The inhabitants of it have
beggared twenty agricultural villages and hamlets.
From this place you go across a corner of Windsor Park,
and come out at Virginia Water. To Egham is then about
two miles. A much more ugly country than that between
Egham and Kensington would with great difficulty be found
in England. Flat as a pancake, and, until you come to
Hammersmith, the soil is a nasty stony dirt upon a bed of
gravel. Hounslow-heath, which is only a little worse than
the general run, is a sample of all that is bad in soil and
villanous in look. Yet this is now enclosed, and what they
call " cultivated." Here is a fresh robbery of villages,
hamlets, and farm and labourers' buildings and abodes !
But, here is one of those "vast improvements. Ma'am,"
called Barracks. What an " improvement !" What an
" addition to the national capital !" For, mind, Monsieur
de Snip, the Surrey Norman, (75) actually said, that the
new buildings ought to be reckoned an addition to the
national capital !" What, Snip ! Do you pretend that
the nation is richer, because the means of making this bar-
rack have been drawn away from the people in taxes ?
Mind, Monsieur le Normand, the barrack did not drop
down from the sky nor spring up out of the earth. It was
not created by the unhanged knaves of paper -money. It
came out of the people's labour; and, when you hear Mr.
Ellman tell the Committee of 1821, that forty-five years ago
every man in his parish brewed his own beer, and that now
not one man in that same parish does it ; when you hear
this, Monsieur de Snip, you might, if you had brains in your
skull, be able to estimate the effects of what has produced
the barrack. Yet, barracks there must be, or Gallon and
Old Sarum must fall ; and the fall of these would break
poor Mr. Canning's heart.
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 125
8 November.
From London to Egham in the evening.
9 November.
Started at day-break in a hazy frost, for Reading. The
horses' manes and ears covered with the hoar before we
got across Windsor Park, which appeared to be a black-
guard soil, pretty much like Hounslow Heath, only not flat.
A very large part of the Park is covered with heath or
rushes, sure sign of execrable soil. But the roads are such
as might have been made by Solomon. "A greater than
Solomon is here !" some one may exclaim. Of that I know
nothing. I am but a traveller ; and the roads in this park
are beautiful indeed. My servant, whom I brought from
amongst the hills and flints of Uphusband, must certainly
have thought himself in Paradise as he was going through
the Park. If I had told him that the buildings and the
labourers' clothes and meals, at Uphusband, were the worse
for those prettv roads with edgings cut to the line, he would
have wondered at me, I dare say. It would, nevertheless,
have been perfectly true ; and this is feelosofee of a much
more useful sort than that which is taught by the Edinburgh
Reviewers.
When you get through the Park you come to Winkfield,
and then (bound for Reading) you go through Binfield,
which is ten miles from Egham and as many from Reading.
At Binfield I stopped to breakfast, at a very nice country
inn called the Stag and Hounds. Here you go along on the
North border of that villanous tract of country that I
passed over in going from Oakingham to Egham. Much
of the land even here is but newly enclosed ; and, it was
really not worth a straw before it was loaded with the fruit
of the labour of the people living in the parts of the country
distant from the Fund- Wen. What injustice! What un-
natural changes ! Such things cannot be, without pro-
ducing convulsion in the end! A road as smooth as a die,
a real stock-jobber's road, brought us to Reading by eleven
o'clock. We dined at one; and very much pleased I was
with the company. I have seldom seen a number of per-
sons assembled together, whose approbation [ valued more
than that of the company of this day. Last year the prime
Minister said, that his speech (the grand speech) was ren-
dered necessary by the "pains that had been taken, in
different parts of the country," to persuade the farmers,
126 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
that the distress had arisen out of the measures of the
government, and not from over-production ! (76) To be
sure I had taken some pains to remove that stupid notion
about over-production, from the minds of the farmers ; but,
did the stern-path-man succeed in counteracting the effect
of my efforts ? Not he, indeed. And, after his speech was
made, and sent forth cheek by jowl with that of the sane
Castlereagh, of hole-digging memory, the truths inculcated
by me were only the more manifest. This has been a fine
meeting at Reading ! I feel very proud of it. The morn-
ing was fine for me to ride in, and the rain began as soon
as I was housed.
I came on horse-back 40 miles, slept on the road, and
finished my harangue at the end of twenty-two hours from
leaving Kensington ; and, I cannot help saying, that is pretty
well for " Old Cobbett." I am delighted with the people that
I have seen at Reading. Their kindness to me is nothing in
my estimation compared with the sense and spirit which
they appear to possess. It is curious to observe how things
have worked with me. That combination, that sort of
instinctive union, which has existed for so many years,
amongst all the parties, to keep [me down generally, and
particularly, as the County-Club called it, to keep me out of
Parliament " at any rate," this combination has led to the
present haranguing system, which, in some sort, supplies the
place of a seat in Parliament. It may be said, indeed, that
I have not the honour to sit in the same room with those
great Reformers, Lord John Russell, Sir Massey Lopez, and
his guest, Sir Francis Burdett ; but man's happiness here
below is never perfect ; and there may be, besides, people
to believe, that a man ought not to break his heart on ac-
count of being shut out of such company, especially when
he can find such company as I have this day found at
Reading.
10 October.
Went from Reading, through Aldermaston for Burgh-
clere. The rain has been very heavy, and the water was a
good deal out. Here, on my way, I got upon Crookham
Common again, which is a sort of continuation of the
wretched country about Oakingham. From Highclere I
looked, one day, over the flat towards Marlborough ; and I
there saw some such rascally heaths. So that this villan-
ous tract, extends from East to West, with more or less of
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 127
exceptions, from Hounslow to Hungerford. From North
to South it extends from Binfield (which cannot be far from
the borders of Buckinghamshire) to the South Downs of
Hampshire, and terminates somewhere between Liphook
and Petersfield, after stretching over Hindhead, which is
certainly the most villanous spot that God ever made. Our
ancestors do, indeed, seem to have ascribed its formation
to another power ; for, the most celebrated part of it is
called "the Devil's Punch Bowl." In this tract of country
there are certainly some very beautiful spots. But these
are very few in number, except where the chalk-hills run
into the tract. The neighbourhood of Godalming ought
hardly to be considered as an exception ; for there you are
just on the outside of the tract, and begin to enter on the
Wealds; that is to say, clayey woodlands. (77) All the
part of Berkshire, of which I have been recently passing
over, if I except the tract from Reading to Crookham, is
very bad land and a very ugly country.
11 November.
Uphusband once more, and, for the sixth time this year,
over the North Hampshire Hills, which, notwithstanding
their everlasting flints, I like very much. As you ride along,
even in a green lane, the horses' feet make a noise like ham-
mering. It seems as if you were riding on a mass of iron.
Yet the soil is good, and bears some of the best wheat in
England. All these high, and indeed, all chalky lands, are
excellent for sheep. But, on the top of some of these hills,
there are as fine meadows as I ever saw. Pasture richer,
perhaps, than that about Swindon in the North of Wiltshire.
And the singularity is, that this pasture is on the very tops
of these lofty hills, from which you can see the Isle of
Wight. There is a stiff loam, in some places twenty feet
deep, on a bottom of chalk. Though the grass grows so
finely, there is no apparant wetness in the land. The wells
are more than three hundred feet deep. The main part of
the water, for all uses, comes from the clouds ; and, indeed,
these are pretty constant companions of these chalk hills,
which are very often enveloped in clouds and wet, when it
is sunshine down at Burghclere or Uphusband. They
manure the land here by digging wells in the fields, and
bringing up the chalk, which they spread about on the land;
and which, being free-chalk, is reduced to powder by the
frosts. A considerable portion of the land is covered with
128 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
wood ; and as, in the clearing of the land, the clearers
followed the good soil, without regard to shape of fields, the
forms of the woods are of endless variety, which, added to
the never-ceasing inequalities of the surface of the whole,
makes this, like all the others of the same description, a
very pleasant country.
17 November.
Set off from Uphusband for Hambledon. The first place
I had to get to was Whitchurch. On my way, and at a
short distance from Uphusband, down the valley, I went
through a village called Bourn, which takes its name from
the water that runs down this valley. A bourn, in the
language of our forefathers, seems to be a river, which is,
part of the year, without water. There is one of these
bourns down this pretty valley. It has, generally, no water
till towards Spring, and then it runs for several months.
It is the same at the Candovers, as you go across the downs
from Odiham to Winchester.
The little village of Bourn, therefore, takes its name
from its situation. Then there are two Hurstbourns, one
above and one below this village of Bourn. Hurst means, I
believe, a Forest. There were, doubtless, one of those on
each side of Bourn ; and when they became villages, the
one above was called £//;-hurstbourn, and the one below,
.Doww-hurstbourn ; which names have become Uphusband
and Downhusband. The lawyers, therefore, who, to the
immortal honour of high-blood and Norman descent, are
making such a pretty story out for the Lord Chancellor,
relative to a Noble Peer who voted for the Bill against
the Queen, ought to leave off calling the seat of the noble
person Hursperne ; for it is at Downhurstbourn where he
lives, and where he was visited by Dr. Bankhead !
Whitchurch is a small town, but famous for being the
place where the paper has been made for the Borough-
Bank ! (78) I passed by the mill on. my way to get out upon
the Downs to go to Alresford, where I intended to sleep.
I hope the time will come, when a monument will be erected
where that mill stands, and when on that monument will be
inscribed the curse of England. This spot ought to be held
accursed in all time henceforth and for evermore. It has
been the spot from which have sprung more and greater
mischiefs than ever plagued mankind before. However, the
evils now appear to be fast recoiling on the merciless authors
of them ; and, therefore, one beholds this scene of paper-
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 129
making with a less degree of rage than formerly. My
blood used to boil when I thought of the wretches who
carried on and supported the system. It does not boil now,
when I think of them. The curse, which they intended
solely for others, is now falling on themselves ; and I smile
at their sufferings. Blasphemy ! Atheism ! Who can be
an Atheist, that sees how justly these wretches are treated ;
with what exact measure they are receiving the evils which
they inflicted on others for a time, and which they intended
to inflict on them for ever! If,. indeed, the monsters had
continued to prosper, one might have been an Atheist. The
true history of the rise, progress and fall of these monsters,
of their power, their crimes and their punishment, will do
more than has been done before to put an end to the doubts
of those who have doubts upon this subject.
Quitting Whitchurch, I went off to the left out of the Win-
chester-road, got out upon the high-lands, took an " observa-
tion," as the sailors call it, and off I rode, in a straight line,
over hedge and ditch, towards the rising ground between
Stratton Park and Micheldever- Wood ; but, before I reached
this point, I found some wet meadows and some running
water in my way in a little valley running up from the turnpike
road to a little place called West Stratton. I, therefore,
turned to my left, went down to the turnpike, went a little
way along it, then turned to my left, went along by Stratton
Park pales down East Stratton-street, and then on towards
the Grange Park. Stratton Park is the seat of Sir Thomas
Baring, who has here several thousands of acres of land ;
who has the living of Micheldever, to which, I think, North-
ington and Swallowfield are joined. Above all, he has
Micheldever Wood, which, they say, contains a thousand
acres, and which is one of the finest oak-woods in England.
This large and very beautiful estate must have belonged
to the Church at the time of Henry the Eighth's " reforma-
tion." It was, I believe, given by him to the family of
Russell ; and, it was, by them, sold to Sir Francis Baring
about twenty years ago. Upon the whole, all things con-
sidered, the change is for the better. Sir Thomas Baring
would not have moved, nay, he did not move, for the pardon
of Lope:, while he left Joseph Swann in gaol for four years
and a half, without so much as hinting at Swann's case !
Yea, verily, I would rather see this estate in the hands of
Sir Thomas Baring than in those of Lopez's friend. Be-
sides, it seems to be acknowledged that anv title is as good
o 3
130 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
as those derived from the old wife-killer. Castlereagh,
when the Whigs talked in a rather rude manner about the
sinecure places and pensions, told them, that the title of the
sinecure man or woman was as good as the titles of the Duke
of Bedford ! this was plagiarism, to the sure ; for Burke
had begun it. He called the Duke the Leviathan of grants ;
and seemed to hint at the propriety of over-hauling them a
little. When the men of Kent petitioned for a "just
reduction of the National Debt," Lord John Russell,
with that wisdom for which he is renowned, repro-
bated the prayer ; but, having done this in terms not
sufficiently unqualified and strong, and having made use of
a word of equivocal meaning, the man, that cut his own
throat at North Cray, pitched on upon him and told him,
that the fundholder had as much right to his dividends, as
the Duke of Bedford had to his estates. (79) Upon this
the noble reformer and advocate for Lopez mended his ex-
pressions ; and really said what the North Cray philosopher
said he ought to say ! Come, come : Micheldever Wood
is in very proper hands ! A little girl, of whom I asked
my way down into East Stratton, and who was dressed in a
camlet gown, white apron and plaid cloak (it was Sunday),
and who had a book in her hand, told me that Lady Baring
gave her the clothes, and had her taught to read and to sing
hymns and spiritual songs.
As I came through the Strattons, I saw not less than a
dozen girls clad in this same way. It is impossible not to
believe that this is done with a good motive ; but, it is pos-
sible not to believe that it is productive of good. It must
create hypocrites, and hypocrisy is the great sin of the age.
Society is in a queer state when the rich think, that they
must educate the poor in order to insure their own safety .-
for this, at bottom, is the great motive now at work in
pushing on the education scheme, though in this particular
case, perhaps, there may be a little enthusiasm at work.
When persons are glutted with riches; when they have
their fill of them ; when they are surfeited of all earthly
pursuits, they are very apt to begin to think about the next
world ; and, the moment they begin to think of that, they
begin to look over the account that they shall have to present.
Hence the far greater part of what are called " charities."
But, it is the business of governments to take care that there
shall be very little of this glutting with riches, and very little
need of " charities."
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 131
From Stratton I went on to Northington Down ; then
round to the South of the Grange Park (Alex. Baring's),
down to Abbotson, and over some pretty little green hills
to Alresford, which is a nice little town of itself, but which
presents a singularly beautiful view from the last little hill
coming from Abbotson. I could not pass by the Grange
Park without thinking of Lord and Lady Henry Stuart,
whose lives and deaths surpassed what we read of in the
most sentimental romances. Yery few things that I have
met with in my life ever filled me with sorrow equal to that
which I felt at the death of this most virtuous and most
amiable pair. (80)
It began raining soon after I got to Alresford, and rained
all the evening. I heard here, that a Requisition for
a County Meeting was in the course of being signed in
different parts of the county. They mean to petition for
Reform, I hope. At any rate, I intend to go to see what
they do. I saw the parsons at the county meeting in 1817.
I should like, of all things, to see them at another meeting
now. These are the persons that I have most steadily in
my eve. The war and the debt were for the tithes and the
boroughs. These must stand or fall together now. 1
alwavs told the parsons, that they were the greatest fools in
the world to put the tithes on board the same boat with the
boroughs. I told them so in 1817 ; and, I fancy, they will
soon see all about it. (81)
November 18.
Came from Alresford to Hambledon, through Titchbourn,
Cheriton, Beauworth, Kilmston, and Exton. This is all a
high, hard, dry, fox-hunting country. Like that, indeed,
over which I came yesterday. At Titchbourn, there is a
park, and "great house," as the country-people call it.
The place belongs, I believe, to a Sir somebody Titchbourne,
a family, very likely half as old as the name of the village,
which, however, partly takes its name from the bourn that
runs down the valley. I thought, as I was riding alongside
of this park, that I had heard good of this family of Titch-
bourne, and, I therefore saw the park pales with sorrow-
There is not more than one pale in a yard, and those
that remain, and the rails and posts and all, seem tumbling
down. This park-paling is perfectly typical of those of the
landlords who are not tax-eaters. They are wasting away
132 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
very fast. The tax-eating landlords think to swim out the
gale. They are deceived. They are " deluded" by their
own greediness.
Kilmston was my next place after Titchbourn, but I
wanted to go to Beauworth, so that I had to go through
Cheriton ; a little, hard, iron village, where all seems to be
as old as the hills that surround it. In coming along you
see Titchbourn church away to the right, on the side of the
hill, a very pretty little view ; and this, though such a hard
country, is a pretty country.
At Cheriton I found a grand camp of Gipsys, just upon
the move towards Alresford. I had met some of the scouts
first, and afterwards the advanced guard, and here the main
body was getting in motion. One of the scouts that I met
was a young woman, who, I am sure, was six feet high.
There were two or three more in the camp of about the
same height ; and some most strapping fellows of men. It
is curious that this race should have preserved their dark
skin and coal-black straight and coarse hair, very much like
that of the American Indians. I mean the hair, for the skin
has nothing of the copper-colour as that of the Indians has.
It is not, either, of the Mulatto cast ; that is to say, there is
no yellow in it. It is a black mixed with our English
colours of pale, or red, and the features are small, like those
of the girls in Sussex, and often singularly pretty. The
tall girl that I met at Titchbourn, who had a huckster
basket on her arm, had most heautiful features. I pulled
up my horse, and said, " Can you tell me my fortune, my
dear ?" She answered in the negative, giving me a look at
the same time, that seemed to say, it was too late ; and that
if I had been thirty years younger she might have seen a
little what she could do with me. It is, all circumstances
considered, truly surprising, that this race should have pre-
served so perfectly all its distinctive marks.
I came on to Beauworth to inquire after the family of a
worthy old farmer, whom I knew there some years ago, and
of whose death I had heard at Alresford. A bridle road over
some fields and through a coppice took me to Kilmston, for-
merly a large village, but now mouldered into two farms,
and a few miserable tumble-down houses for the labourers.
Here is a house, that was formerly the residence of the
landlord of the place, but is now occupied by one of the
farmers. This is a fine country for fox-hunting, and
Kilmston belonged to a Mr. Ridge who was a famous fox-
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 133
hunter, and who is accused of having spent his fortune in
that way. But, what do people mean ? He had a right to
spend his income, as his fathers had done before him. It
was the Pitt-system, and not the fox-hunting, that took
away the principal. The place now belongs to a Mr.
Long, whose origin I cannot find out.
From Kilmston I went right over the Downs to the top
of a hill called Beacon Hill, which is one of the loftiest hills
in the countrv. Here you can see the Isle of Wight in
detail, a fine sweep of the sea ; also away into Sussex, and
over the New Forest into Dorsetshire. Just below you, to
the East, vou look down upon the village of Exton ; and
vou can see up this valley (which is called a Bourn too) as
far as West Meon, and down it as far as Soberton. Cor-
hampton, Warnford, Meon-Stoke and Droxford come within
these two points ; so that here are six villages on this
bourn within the space of about five miles. On the other
side of the main valley down which the bourn runs, and op-
posite Beacon Hill, is another such a hill, which they call
Old Winchester Hill. On the top of this hill there was once
a camp, or, rather fortress ; and the ramparts are now
pretty nearly as visible as ever. The same is to be
seen on the Beacon Hill at Highclere. These ramparts
had nothing of the principles of modern fortification in
their formation. You see no signs of salliant angles. It
was a ditch and a bank, and that appears to have been all.
I had, I think, a full mile to go down from the top of Beacon
Hill to Exton. This is the village where that Parson
Baines lives who, as described by me in 1817, bawled in
Lord Cochrane's ear at Winchester in the month of March
of that year. Parson Boulter lives at Meon-Stoke, which
is not a mile further down. So that this valley has some-
thing in it besides picturesque views ! I asked some
countrymen how Poulter and Baines did; but, their answer
contained too much of irreverence for me to give it here.
(82)
At Exton I crossed the Gosport turnpike-road came up
the cross valley under the South side of Old Winchester
Hill, over Stoke down, then over West-End down, and then
to my friend's house at West- End in the parish of
Harabledon.
Thus have I crossed nearly the whole of this country from
the North- West to the South- East, without going five
hundred yards on a turnpike road, and, as nearly as I could
do it, in B straight line.
134 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
The whole country that I have crossed is loam and flints,
upon a bottom of chalk. At Alresford there are some
watered meadows, which are the beginning of a chain of
meadows that goes all the way down to Winchester, and
hence to Southampton ; but, even these meadows have, at
Alresford, chalk under them. The water that supplies them
comes out of a pond, called Alresford Pond, which is fed
from the high hills in the neighbourhood. These counties
are purely agricultural ; and they have suffered most cruelly
from the accursed Pitt-system. Their hilliness, bleakness,
roughness of roads, render them unpleasant to the luxuri-
ous, effeminate, tax-eating crew, who never come near
them, and who have pared them down to the very bone.
The villages are all in a state of decay. The farm-buildings
dropping down, bit by bit. The produce is, by a few great
farmers, dragged to a few spots, and all the rest is falling
into decay. If this infernal system could go on for forty
years longer, it would make all the labourers as much slaves
as the negroes are, and subject to the same sort of discipline
and management.
November 19 to 23.
At West End. Hambledon is a long, straggling village,
lying in a litte valley formed by some very pretty but not lofty
hills. The environs are much prettier than the village itself,
which is not far from the North side of Portsdown Hill.
This must have once been a considerable place ; for here is
a church pretty nearly as large as that at Farnham in
Surrey, which is quite sufficient for a large town. The
means of living has been drawn away from these villages,
and the people follow the means. Cheriton and Kilmston
and Hambledon and the like have been beggared for the
purpose of giving tax-eaters the means of making " vast im-
provements Ma'am" on the villanous spewy gravel of Wind-
sor Forest ! The thing, however, must go back. Revolu-
tion here or revolution there : bawl, bellow, alarm, as long
as the tax-eaters like, back the thing must go. Back, in-
deed, it is going in some quarters. Those scenes of glorious
loyalty, the sea-port places, are beginning to be deserted.
How many villages has that scene of all that is wicked and
odious, Portsmouth, Gosport, and Portsea ; how many
villages has that hellish assemblage beggared ! It is now
being scattered itself/ Houses which there let for forty or
fifty pounds a-year each, now let for three or four shillings
a-week each ; and thousands, perhaps, cannot be let at all
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 135
to any body capable of paying rent. There is an absolute
tumbling down taking place, where, so lately, there were
such " vast improvements, Ma'am !" (83) Does Monsieur
de Snip call those improvements, then ? Does he insist,
that those houses form "an addition to the national capital?"
Is it any wonder that a country should be miserable when
such notions prevail ? And when they can, even in the Par-
liament, be received with cheering ?
Nov. 24, Sunday.
Set off from Hambledon to go to Thursley in Surrey,
about five miles from Godalming. Here I am at Thursley,
after as interesting a day as I ever spent in all my life. They
say that " variety is charming," and this day I have had of
scenes and of soils a variety indeed !
To go to Thursley from Hambledon the plain way was up
the Downs to Petersfield, and then along the turnpike-road
through Liphook, and over Hindhead, at the north-east foot
of which Thursley lies. But, I had been over that sweet
Hindhead, and had seen too much of turnpike-road and of
heath, to think of taking another so large a dose of them.
The map of Hampshire (and we had none of Surrey) showed
me the way to Headley, which lies on the West of Hind-
head, down upon the flat. I knew it was but about five
miles from Headley to Thursley ; and I, therefore, resolved
to go to Headley, in spite of all the remonstrances of friends,
who represented to me the danger of breaking my neck at
Hawkley and of getting buried in the bogs of Woolmer
Forest. My route was through East-Meon, Froxfield,
Hawkley, Greatham, and then over Woolmer Forest (a
heath if you pleased, to Headley.
Off we set over the downs (crossing the bottom sweep of
Old Winchester Hill) from West-End to East-Meon. We
came down a long and steep hill that led us winding round
into the village, which lies in a valley that runs in a direc-
tion nearly east and west, and that has a rivulet that comes
out of the hills towards Petersfield. If I had not seen any
thing further to-day, I should have dwelt long on the beau-
ties of this place. Here is a very fine valley, in nearly an elip-
tical form, sheltered by high hills sloping gradually from it ;
and, not far from the middle of this valley there is a hill nearly
in the form of a soblet- class with the foot and stem broken
off and turned upside down. And this is clapped down
136 RURAL RIDE.
upon the level of the val]ey, just as you would put such gob-
let upon a table. The bill is lofty, partly covered with wood,
and it gives an air of great singularity to the scene. I am
sure that East-Meon has been a large place. The church
has a Saxon Tower pretty nearly equal, as far as I recollect,
to that of the Cathedral at Winchester. The rest of the
church has been rebuilt, and, perhaps, several times ; but
the tower is complete ; it has had a steeple put upon it ; but,
it retains all its beauty, and it shows that the church (which
is still large) must, at first, have been a very large building.
Let those, who talk so glibly of the increase of the popula-
tion in England, go over the country from Highclere to
Hambledon. Let them look at the size of the churches, and
let them observe those numerous small inclosures on every
side of every village, which had, to a certainty, each its
house in former times. But, let them go to East-Meon, and
account for that church. Where did the hands come from
to make it ? Look, however, at the downs, the many square
miles of downs near this village, all bearing the marks of the
plough, and all out of tillage for many many years ; yet, not
one single inch of them but what is vastly superior in quality
to any of those great " improvements " on the miserable
heaths of Hounslow, Bagshot, and Windsor Forest. It is
the destructive, the murderous paper-system, that has trans-
ferred the fruit of the labour, and the people along with it,
from the different parts of the country to the neighbourhood
of the all-devouring Wen. I do not believe one word of
what-hi said of the increase of the population. All observa-
tion and all reason is against the fact ; and, as to the par-
liamentary returns, what need we more than this : that they
assert, that the population of Great Britain has increased
from ten to fourteen millions in the last twenty years ! That
is enough ! A man that can suck that in will believe, lite-
rallv believe, that the moon is made of green cheese. Such
a thing is too monstrous to be swallowed by any body but
Englishmen, and by any Englishman not brutified by a Pitt-
system. (84)
to Mr. Canning.
Worth CSussex),
10 December, 1822.
Sir,
The agreeable news from France, relative to the intended
invasion of Spain, compelled me to break off, in my last
Letter, in the middle of my Rural Ride of Sunday, the 24th
of November. Before I mount again, which I shall do in
this Letter, pray let me ask you what sort of apology is to
be offered to the nation, if the French Bourbons be per-
mitted to take quiet possession of Cadiz and of the Spanish
naval force ? (85) Perhaps you may be disposed to an-
swer, when you have taken time to reflect ; and, therefore,
leaving you to muse on the matter, I will resume my ride.
November 24.
(Sundav.) From Hambledon to Thursley (continued.)
From East-Meon, I did not go on to Froxfield church,
but turned off to the left to a place (a couple of houses) called
Bower. Near this I stopped at a friend's house, which is
in about as lonely a situation as I ever saw. A very plea-
sant place however. The lands dry, a nice mixture of woods
and fields, and a great variety of hill and dell.
Before I came to East-Meon, the soil of the hills was a
shallow loam with flints, on a bottom of chalk ; but, on this
side of the valley of East-Meon ; that is to say, on the
north side, the soil on the hills is a deep, stiff loam, on a
bed of a sort of gravel mixed with chalk ; and the stones,
instead of being grey on the outside and blue on the inside,
are vellow on the outside and whitish on the inside. In
coming on further to the North, I found, that the bottom
was sometimes gravel and sometime chalk. Here, at the
138 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
time when v)hatever it was that formed these hills and
valleys, the stuff of which Hindhead is composed seems
to have run down and mixed itself with the stuff of
which Old Winchester Hill is composed. Free chalk (which
is the sort found here) is excellent manure for stiff land, and
it produces a complete change in the nature of clays. It is,
therefore, dug here, on the North of East-Meon, about in
the fields, where it happens to be found, and is laid out upon
the surface, where it is crumbled to powder by the frost, and
thus gets incorporated with the loam.
At Bower I got instructions to go to Hawkley, but accom-
panied with most earnest advice not to go that way, for that
it was impossible to get along. The roads were represented
as so bad ; the floods so much out ; the hills and bogs so
dangerous ; that, really, I began to doubt ; and, if I had not
been brought up amongst the clays of the Holt Forest and
the bogs of the neighbouring heaths, I should certainly have
turned off to my right, to go over Hindhead, great as was
my objection to going that way. " Well, then," said my
friend at Bower, " If you will go that way, by G — , you
" must go down Hawkley Hanger " of which he then gave
me such a description ! But, even this I found to fall short of
the reality. I inquired simply, whether people were in the
habit of going down it ; and, the answer being in the affir-
mative, on I went through green-lanes and bridle-ways till
I came to the turnpike-road from Petersfield to Winchester,
which I crossed, going into a narrow and almost untrodden
green-lane, on the side of which I found a cottage. Upon
my asking the way to Hawkley, the woman at the cottage
said, {< Right up the lane, Sir : you'll come to a hanger
" presently : you must take care, Sir : you can't ride down :
f * will your horses go alone ?"
On we trotted up this pretty green lane ; and indeed, we
had been coming gently and generally up hill for a good
while. The lane was between highish banks and pretty high
stuff growing on the banks, so that we could see no distance
from us, and could receive not the smallest hint of what was
so near at hand. The lane had a little turn towards the
end ; so that, out we came, all in a moment, at the very
edge of the hanger ! And, never, in all my life, was I so
surprised and so delighted ! I pulled up my horse, and sat
and looked ; and it was like looking from the top of a castle
down into the sea, except that the valley was land and not
water. I looked at my servant, to see what effect this un-
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 139
expected sight had upon him. His surprise was as great as
mine, though he had been bred amongst the North Hamp-
shire hills. Those who had so strenuously dwelt on the
dirt and dangers of this route, had said not a word about
beauties, the matchless beauties of the scenery. These
hangers are woods on the sides of very steep hills. The
trees and underwood hang, in some sort, to the ground,
instead of standing on it. Hence these places are called
Hangers. From the summit of that which I had now to
descend, I looked down upon the villages of Hawkley,
Greatham, Selborne and some others.
From the south-east, round, southward, to the north-
west, the main valley has cross- valleys running out of it,
the hills on the sides of which are very steep, and, in many
parts, covered with wood. The hills that form these cross-
valleys run out into the main valley, like piers into the sea.
Two of these promontories, of great height, are on the west
side of the main valley, and were the first objects that
struck my sight when I came to the edge of the hanger,
which was on the south. The ends of these promontories
are nearly perpendicular, and their tops so high in the air,
that ) ou cannot look at the village below without some-
thing like a feeling of apprehension. The leaves are all off,
the hop-poles are in stack, the fields have little verdure ;
but, while the spot is beautiful beyond description even now,
I must leave to imagination to suppose what it is, when the
trees and hangers and hedges are in leaf, the corn waving,
the meadows bright, and the hops upon the poles !
From the south-west, round, eastward, to the north, lie
the heaths, of which Woolmer Forest makes a part, and
these go gradually rising up to Hindhead, the crown of
which is to the north-west, leaving the rest of the circle
(the part from north to north-west) to be occupied by a
continuation of the valley towards Headley, Binstead,
Frensham and the Holt Forest. So that even the contrast
in the view from the top of the hanger is as great as can
possibly be imagined. Men, however, are not to have such
beautiful views as this without some trouble. We had had
the view ; but we had to go down the hanger. We had,
indeed, some roads to get along, as we could, afterwards ;
but, we had to get down the hanger first. The horses took
the lead, and crept partly down upon their feet and partly
upon their hocks. It was extremely slippery too ; for the
soil is a sort of marie, or, as they call it here, maume, or
140 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
mame, which is, when wet, very much like grey soap. la
such a case it was likely that I should keep in the rear,
which I did, and I descended by taking hold of the branches
of the underwood, and so letting myself down. When we
got to the bottom, I bade my man, when he should go back
to Uphusband, tell the people there, that Ashmansioorth
Lane is not the worst piece of road in the world. Our
worst, however, was not come yet, nor had we by any
means seen the most novel sights.
After crossing a little field and going through a farm-
yard, we came into a lane, which was, at once, road and
river. We found a hard bottom, however ; and when we
got out of the water, we got into a lane with high banks.
The banks were quarries of white stone, like Portland-stone,
and the bed of the road was of the same stone ; and, the
rains having been heavy for a day or two before, the whole
was as clean and as white as the steps of a fund-holder or
dead-weight door-way in one of the Squares of the Wen.
Here were we, then, going along a stone road with stone
banks, and yet the underwood and trees grew well upon the
tops of the banks. In the solid stone beneath us, there
were a horse-track and wheel-tracks, the former about three
and the latter about six inches deep. How many many
ages it must have taken the horses' feet, the wheels, and the
water, to wear down this stone, so as to form a hollow way !
The horses seemed alarmed at their situation ; they trod
with fear; but they took us along very nicely, and, at last,
got us safe into the indescribable dirt and mire of the road
from Hawkley Green to Greatham. Here the bottom of
all the land is this solid white stone, and the top is that
mame, which I have before described. The hop-roots
penetrate down into this stone. How deep the stone may
go I know not ; but, when I came to look up at the end of
one of the piers, or promontories, mentioned above, I found
that it was all of this same stone.
At Hawkley Green, I asked a farmer the way to Thursley.
He pointed to one of two roads going from the green ; but,
it appearing to me, that that would lead me up to the
London road and over Hindhead, I gave him to understand
that I was resolved to get along, some how or other,
through the " low countries." He besought me not to
think of it. However, finding me resolved, he got a man
to go a little way to put me into the Greatham road. The
man came, but the farmer could not let me go off without
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 141
renewing his entreaties, that I would go away to Liphook,
in which entreaties the man joined, though he was to be
paid very well for his trouble.
Off we went, however, to Greatham. I am thinking,
whether I ever did see worse roads. Upon the whole, I
think, I have ; though I am not sure that the roads of New
Jersey, between Trenton and Elizabeth-Town, at the break-
ing up of winter, be worse. Talk of shows, indeed ! Take
a piece of this road ; just a cut across, and a rod long, and
carry it up to London. That would be something like a
show !
Upon leaving Greatham we came out upon Woolmer
Forest. Just as we were coming out of Greatham, I asked
a man the way to Thurslev. " You must go to Liphook,
Sir," said he. " But," I said, " I will not go to Liphook."
These people seemed to be posted at all these stages to
turn me aside from my purpose, and to make me go over
that Hindhead, which I had resolved to avoid. I went on
a little further, and asked another man the way to Headley,
which, as I have already observed, lies on the western foot
of Hindhead, whence I knew there must be a road to
Thursley (which lies at the North East foot) without going
over that miserable hill. The man told me, that I must go
across the forest. I asked him whether it was a good road :
" It is a sound road," said he, laying a weighty emphasis
upon the word sound. " Do people go it ?" said I. " Ye-es,"
said he. " Oh then," said I, to my man, " as it is a sound
"road, keep you close to my heels, and do not attempt io
" go aside, not even for a foot." Indeed, it was a sound
road. The rain of the night had made the fresh horse
tracks visible. And we got to Headley in a short time,
over a sand-road, which seemed so delightful after the flints
and stone and dirt and sloughs that we had passed over and
through since the .morning ! This road was not, if we had
been benighted, without its dangers, the forest being full of
quags and quicksands. This is a tract of Crown-lands, or,
properly speaking, public-lands, on some parts of which our
Land Steward, Mr. Huskisson, is making some plantations
of trees, partly fir, and partly other trees. What he can
plant the fir for, God only knows, seeing that the country
is already over-stocked with that rubbish. But, this pub lie-
land concern is a very great concern.
If 1 were a Member of Parliament, I would know what
timber has been cut down, and what it has been sold for,
142 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
since year 1 790. However, this matter must be investigated,
first or last. (86) It never can be omitted in the winding
up of the concern ; and that winding up must come out
of wheat at four shillings a bushel. It is said, here-
abouts, that a man who lives near Liphook, and who
is so mighty a hunter and game pursuer, that they call
him William Rufus ; it is said that this man is Lord
of the Manor of Woolmer Forest. This he cannot be
without a grant to that effect ; and, if there be a grant,
there must have been a reason for the grant. This reason I
should very much like to know; and this I would know if
I were a Member of Parliament. That the people call him
the Lord of the Manor is certain ; but he can hardly make
preserves of the plantations ; for it is well known how mar-
vellously hares and young trees agree together ! This is a
matter of great public importance ; and yet, how, in the
present state of things, is an investigation to be obtained ?
Is there a man in parliament that will call for it ? Not one.
Would a dissolution of Parliament mend the matter ? No :
for the same men would be there still. They are the same
men that have been there for these thirty years; and the
same men they will be, and they must be, until there be a
reform. To be sure when one dies, or cuts his throat (as
in the case of Castlereagh), another one comes ; but, it is
the same body. And, as long as it is that same body, things
will always go on as they now go on. However, as Mr.
Canning says the body " tvorks well," we must not say the
contrary.
The soil of this tract is, generally, a black sand, which, in
some places, becomes peat, which makes very tolerable fuel.
In some parts there is clay at bottom ; and there the oaks
would grow ; but not while there are hares in any number
on the forest. If trees be to grow here, there ought to be
no hares, and as little hunting as possible*
We got to Headly, the sign of the Holly-Bush, just at
dusk, and just as it began to rain. I had neither eaten nor
drunk since eight o'clock in the morning ; and as it was a
nice little public-house, I at first intended to stay all night,
an intention that I afterwards very indiscreetly gave up. I
had laid my plan, which included the getting to Thursley
that night. When, therefore, I had got some cold bacon
and bread, and some milk, I began to feel ashamed of
stopping short of my plan, especially after having so heroic-
ally persevered in the "stern path," and so disdainfully
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 143
scorned to go over Hindhead. I knew that my road lay
through a hamlet called Churt, where they grow such fine
bennet-grass seed. There was a moon ; but there was also
a hazy rain. I had heaths to go over, and I might go into
quags. Wishing to execute my plan, however, I, at last
brought myself to quit a very comfortable turf-fire, and to
set off in the rain, having bargained to give a man three
shillings to guide me out to the Northern foot of Hindhead.
I took care to ascertain, that my guide knew the road per-
fectly well ; that is to say, I took care to ascertain it as far
as I could, which was, indeed, no farther than his word
would go. Off we set, the guide mounted on his own or
master's horse, and with a white smock frock, which enabled
us to see him clearly. We trotted on pretty fast for about
half an hour ; and I perceived, not without some surprise,
that the rain, which I knew to be coming from the South, met
me full in the face, when it ought, according to my reckon-
ing, to have beat upon my right cheek. I called to the
guide repeatedly to ask him if he was sure that he was right, to
which he always answered " Oh ! yes, Sir, I know the road."
I did not like this, " / know the road." At last, after going
about six miles in nearly a Southern direction, the guide
turned short to the left. That brought the rain upon my
right cheek, and, though I could not very well account for
the long stretch to the South, I thought, that, at any rate,
we were now in the right track ; and, after going about a
mile in this new direction, I began to ask the guide how
much further we had to go ; for, I had got a pretty good
soaking, and was rather impatient to see the foot of Hind-
head. Just at this time, in raising my head and looking
forward as I spoke to the guide, what should I see, but a
long, high, and steep hanger arising before us, the trees along
the top of which I could easily distinguish ! The fact was,
we were just getting to the outside of the heath, and were
on the brow of a steep hill, which faced this hanging wood.
The guide had begun to descend ; and I had called to him
to stop ; for the hill was so steep, that, rain as it did and wet
as my saddle must be, I got off my horse in order to walk
down. But, now behold, the fellow discovered, that he had
lost his icay ! — Where we were I could not even guess.
There was but one remedy, and that was to get back, if we
could. I became guide now ; and did as Mr. Western is
advising the Ministers to do, retraced my steps. We went
back about half the way that we had come, when we saw two
144 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
men, who showed us the way that we ought to go. At the
end of about a mile, we fortunately found the turnpike-road ;
not, indeed, at the foot, but on the tip-top of that very Hind-
head, on which I had so repeatedly vowed I would not go S
We came out on the turnpike some hundred yards on the
Liphook side of the buildings called the Hut ; so that we
had the whole of three miles of hill to come down at not
much better than a foot pace, with a good pelting rain at our
backs.
It is odd enough how differently one is affected bv the
same sight, under different circumstances. At the " Holly
Bush" at Headlv there was a room full of fellows in white
smock frocks, drinking and smoking and talking, and I,
who was then dry and warm, moralized within myself on
their folly in spending their time in such a way. But, when
I got down from Hindhead to the public-house at Road-
Lane, with my skin soaking and my teeth chattering, I
thought just such another group, whom I saw through
the window sitting round a good fire with pipes in
their mouths, the ivisest assembly I had ever set my eyes
on. A real Collective Wisdom. And, I most solemnly de-
clare, that I felt a greater veneration for them than I have
ever felt even for the Privy Council, notwithstanding the
Right Honorable Charles Wvnn and the Right Honorable
Sir John Sinclair belong to the latter.
It was now but a step to my friend's house, where a good
fire and a change of clothes soon put all to rights, save and
except the having come over Hindhead after all my resolu-
tions. This mortifying circumstance; this having been
beaten, lost the guide the three shillings that I had agreed to
give him. " Either," said I, " you did not know the way
" well, or you did : if the former, it was dishonest in you to
" undertake to guide me : if the latter, you have wilfully led
" me miles out of my way." He grumbled ; but off he
went. He certainly deserved nothing ; for he did not know
the way, and he prevented some other man from earning
and receiving the money. But, had he not caused me to
get upon Hindhead, he would have had the three shillings. I
had, at one time, got my hand in my pocket ; but the
thought of having been beaten pulled it out again.
Thus ended the most interesting day, as far as I know,
that I ever passed in all my life. Hawkley-hangers, pro-
montories, and stone-roads will always come into my mind
when I see, or hear of, picturesque views. I forgot to men-
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 145
tion, that, in going from Havvkley to Greatham, the man,
who went to show me the way, told me at a certain fork,
" that road goes to Selborne." This put me in mind of
a book, which was once recommended to me, but which
I never saw, entitled " Tlie History and Antiquities of Sel-
borne," (or something of that sort) written, I think, by
a parson of the name of White, brother of Mr. White,
so long a Bookseller in Meet-street. This parson had, I
think, the living of the parish of Selborne. The book was
mentioned to me as a work of great curiosity and interest.
But, at that time, the thing was biting so very sharply that
one had no attention to bestow on antiquarian researches.
Wheat at 39s. a quarter, and South-Down ewes at 125. Qd.
have so weakened the thing's jaws and so filed down its
teeth, that I shall now certainly read this book if I can get
it. By-the-bye if all the parsons had, for the last thirty
years, employed their leisure time in writing the histories of
their several parishes, instead of living, as many of them
have, engaged in pursuits that I need rot here name, neither
their situation nor that of their flocks would, perhaps, have
been the worse for it at this day.
Nov. 25.
Thursley {Surrey).
In looking back into Hampshire, I see with pleasure the
farmers bestirring themselves to get a County Meeting called.
There were, I was told, nearly five hundred names to a
Requisition, and those all of land-owners or occupiers. —
Precisely what they mean to petition for I do not know ; but
(and now I address myself to you, Mr. Canning,) if they
do not petition for a reform of the Parliament, they will do
worse than nothing. You, Sir, have often told us, that the
house, however got together, " works well." Now, as I
said in 1817, just before I went to America to get out of the
reach of our friend, the Old Doctor, and to use my long
arm; (S7) as I said then, in a Letter addressed to Lord
Grosvenor, so I say now, show me the inexpediency of
reform, and I will hold my tongue. Show us, prove to us,
that the House " works well," and I, for my part, give the
matter up. It is not the construction or the motions of a
machine that I ever look at: all I look after is the effect.
When, indeed, I find that the effect is deficient or evil, I
look to the construction. And, as I now see, and have for
H
146 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
many years seen, evil effect, I seek a remedy in an alteration
in the machine. There is now nobody ; no, not a single
man, out of the regions of "Whitehall, who will pretend, that
the country can, without the risk of some great and terrible
convulsion, go on, even for twelve months longer, unless
there be a great change of some sort in the mode of managing
the public affairs.
Could you see and hear what I have seen and heard
during this Rural Ride, you would no longer say, that the
House " works well." Mrs. Canning and your children are
dear to you ; but, Sir, not more dear than are to them the
wives and children of, perhaps, two hundred thousand men,
who, by the Acts of this same House, see those wives and
children doomed to beggary, and to beggary, too, never
thought of, never regarded as more likely than a blowing up
of the earth or a falling of the sun. It was reserved for this
" working well" House to make the fire-sides of farmers
scenes of gloom. These fire-sides, in which I have always
so delighted, I now approach with pain. I was, not long
ago, sitting round the fire with as worthy and as industrious
a man as all England contains. There was his son, about
19 years of age ; two daughters from 15 to 18 ; and a little
boy sitting on the father's knee. I knew, but not from him,
that there was a mortgage on his farm. I was anxious
to induce him to sell without delay. With this view I, in
an hypothetical and round-about way, approached his case
and at last, I came to final consequences. The deep and
deeper gloom on a countenance, once so cheerful, told me
what was passing in his breast, when turning away my looks
in order to seem not to perceive the effect of my words, I
saw the eyes of his wife full of tears. She had made the
application; and there were her children before her ! And,
am I to be banished for life if I express what I felt upon
this occasion ! And, does this House, then, "work well?"
How many men, of the most industrious, the most upright,
the most exemplary, upon the face of the earth, have been,
by this one Act of this House, driven to despair, ending in
madness or self-murder, or both ! Nay, how many scores !
And, yet, are we to be banished for life, if we endeavour to
show, that this House does not " work well ?" — However,
banish or banish not, these facts are notorious : the House
made all the Loans which constitute the debt : the House
contracted for the Dead Weight : the House put a stop
to gold-payments in 1797 : the House unanimously passed
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 147
Peel's Bill. Here are all the causes of the ruin, the misery,
the anguish, the despair, and the madness and self-murders.
Here they are all. They have all been acts of this House;
and yet, we are to be banished if we say, in words suitable
to the subject, that this House does not " work wett!"
This one Act, I mean this Banishment Act, (88) would be
enough, with posterity, to characterize this House. When
they read (and can believe what they read) that it actually
passed a law to banish for life any one who should write,
print, or .publish any thing having a tendency to bring it into
contempt ,- when posterity shall read this, and believe it, they
will want nothing more to enable them to say what sort of
an assembly it was ! It was delightful, too, that they should
pass this law just after they had passed Peel's Hill / Oh,
God ! thou art just ! As to reform, it must come. Let what
else will happen, it must come. Whether before, or after,
all the estates be transferred, I cannot, say. But, this I
know very well ; that the later it come, the deeper will
it go.
I shall, of course, go on remarking, as occasion oifers,
upon what is done by and said in this present House ; but,
I know that it cau do nothing efficient for the relief of the
country. I have seen some men of late, who seem to think,
that even a reform, enacted, or begun, by this House, would
be an evil ; and that it would be better to let the whole
thing go on, and produce its natural consequence. I am
not of this opinion : I am for a reform as soon as possible,
even though it be not, at first, precisely what I could wish ;
because, if the debt blow up before the reform take place,
confusion and uproar there must be ; and I do not want to
see confusion and uproar. I am for a reform of some sort,
and soon ; but, when I say of some sort, I do not mean of
Lord John llusscll's sort ; I do not mean a reform in the
Lopez way. In short, what T want, is, to see the men changed.
I want to see other men in the House ; and as to ic/io those
other men should be, I really should not be very nice. I
have seen the Tierneys, the Bankeses, the Wilberforces, the
Michael Angelo Taylors, the Lambs, the Lowthers, the
vis Qdddies, the Sir John Sebrights, the Sir Francis
Burdetts, the Hobhouscs, old or young, Whitbreads the
same, the Lord Johns and the Lord Williams and the Lord
Henries and the Lord Charleses, and, in short, all the whole
family ; I have seen them all there, all the same faces and
names, all my life time ; I see that neither adjournment nor
h 2
148 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
prorogation nor dissolution makes any change in the men ;
and, caprice let it be if you like, I want to see a change in
the men. These have done enough in all conscience ; or, at
least, they have done enough to satisfy me. I want to see
some fresh faces, and to hear a change of some sort or other
in the sounds. A " hear, hear" coming everlastingly from
the same mouths, is what I, for my part, am tired of.
I am aware that this is not what the "great reformers''' in
the House mean. They mean, on the contrary, no such
thing as a change of men. They mean that Lopez should sit
there for ever ; or, at least, till succeeded by a legitimate
heir. I believe that Sir Francis Burdett, for instance, has
not the smallest idea of an Act of Parliament ever being
made without his assistance, if he chooses to assist, which is
not very frequently the case. I believe that he looks upon a
seat in the House as being his property ; and that the other
seat is, and ought to be, held as a sort of leasehold or copy-
hold under him. My idea of reform, therefore ; my change
of faces and of names and of sounds will appear quite
horrible to him. However, I think the nation begins to be
very much of my way of thinking ; and this I am very sure
of, that we shall never see that change in the management of
affairs, which we most of us want to see, unless there be a
pretty complete change of men.
Some people will blame me. for speaking out so broadly
upon this subject. But I think it the best way to disguise
nothing ; to do what is right ; to be sincere ; and to let
come what will.
G odalming,
November 2G to 28.
I came here to meet my son, who was to return to London
when we had done our business. — The turnips are pretty
good all over the countiy, except upon the very thin soils on
the chalk. At Thursley they are very good, and so they are
upon all these nice light and good lands round about
G odalming.
This is a very pretty country. You see few prettier spots
than this. The chain of little hills that run along to the
South and South- East of Goclalming, and the soil, which is
a good loam upon a sand-stone bottom, run down on the
South side, into what is called the Weuld. This Weald is a
bed of clay, in which nothing grows well but oak trees. (89)
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 149
It is first the Weald of Surrey, and then the Weald of
Sussex. It runs along on the South of Dorking;, Reigate,
Bletchingley, Godstone, and then winds away down into
Kent. In no part of it, as far as I have observed, do the
oaks grow finer than between the sand hill on the South of
Godstone and a place called Fellbridge, where the county of
Surrey terminates on the road to East Grinstead.
At Godalming we heard some account of a lawsuit between
Mr. Holme Sumner and his tenant, Mr. Nash ; but the
particulars I must reserve till I have them in black and white.
In all parts of the country, I hear of landlords that begin
to squeak, which is a certain proof that they begin to feel the
bottom of their tenants' pockets. No man can pay rent; I
mean any rent at all, except out of capital ; or, except under
some peculiar circumstances, such as having a farm near a
spot where the fund-holders are building houses. When I
was in Hampshire, I heard of terrible breakings up in the
Isle of Wight. They say, that the general rout is very near
at hand there. I heard of one farmer, who held a farm at
seven hundred pounds a-year, who paid his rent annually,
and punctually, who had, of course, seven hundred pounds to
pay to his landlord last Michaelmas ; but who, before Michael-
mas came, thrashed out and sold (the harvest being so early)
the whole of his corn ; sold off his stock, bit by bit ; got the
very goods out of his house, leaving only a bed and some
trifling things ; sailed with a fair wind over to France with
his family ; put his mother-in-law into the house to keep
possession of the house and farm, and to prevent the
landlord from entering upon the land for a year or better,
unless he would pay to the mother-in-law a certain sum of
money ! Doubtless the landlord had already sucked away
about three or four times seven hundred pounds from this
farmer. He would not be able to enter upon his farm without
a process that would cost him some money, and without the
farm being pretty well stocked with thistles and docks, and
perhaps laid half to common. Farmers on the coast oppo-
site France are not so firmly bounden as those in the interior.
Some hundreds of these will have carried their allegiance,
. their capital (what they have left), and their skill, to go and
grease the fat sow, our old friends the Bourbons. I hear of
a sharp, greedy, hungry shark of a landlord, who says that
" some law must be passed ;" that " Parliament must do
something to prevent this !" There is a pretty fool for you !
There is a great jackass (I beg the real jackass's pardon), to
150 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
imagine that the people at Westminster can do any thing- to
prevent the French from suffering people to come with their
money to settle in France ! This fool does not know, per-
haps, that there are Members of Parliament that live in
France more than they do in England. I have heard of one,
who not only lives there, but carries on vineyards there, and
is never absent from them, except when he comes over " to
attend to his duties in Parliament." He perhaps sells his
wine at the same time, and that being genuine, doubtless
brings him a good price ; so that the occupations harmonize
together very well. The Isle of Wight must be rather pecu-
liarly distressed ; for it was the scene of monstrous expendi-
ture. When the pure Whigs were in power, in 1806, it was
proved to them and to the Parliament, that in several in-
stances, a barn in the Isle of Wight was rented by the " envy
of surrounding nations" for more money than the rest of the
whole farm ! These barns were wanted as barracks ,■ and,
indeed, such things were carried on in that Island as never
could have been carried on under any thing that was not
absolutely " the admiration of the world." These sweet
pickings, caused, doubtless, a great rise in the rent of the
farms ; so that, in this Island, there is not only the depres-
sion of price, and a greater depression than any where else,
but also the loss of the pickings, and these together leave the
tenants but this simple choice ; beggary or flight ; and as
most of them have had a pretty deal of capital, and will be
likely to have some left as yet, they will, as they perceive the
danger, naturally flee for succour to the Bourbons. This is,
indeed, something new in the History of English Agriculture ;
and were not Mr. Canning so positive to the contrary, one
would almost imagine that the thing which has produced it
does not work so very well. However, that gentleman
seems resolved to prevent us, by his King of Bohemia and his
two Red Lions, from having any change in this thing ; and
therefore the landlords, in the Isle of Wight, as well as else-
where, must make the best of the matter.
November 29.
Went on to Guildford, where I slept, Every body, that
has been from Godalming to Guildford, knows, that there is
hardly another such a pretty four miles in all England. The
road is good ; the soil is good ; the houses are neat ; the
people are neat : the hills, the woods, the meadows, all are
beautiful. Nothing wild and bold, to be sure, but exceed-
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 151
ingly pretty ; and it is almost impossible to ride along" these
four miles without feelings of pleasure, though you have rain
for your companion, as it happened to be with me.
Dorking,
November 30.
I came over the high hill on the south of Guildford, and
came down to Chilworth, and up the valley to Albury. I
noticed, in my first Rural Ride, this beautiful valley, its
hangers, its meadows, its hop-gardens, and its ponds. This
valley of Chilworth has great variety, and is very pretty ; but
after seeing Hawkley, every other place loses in point of
beauty and interest. This pretty valley of Chilworth has a
run of water which comes out of the high hills, and which,
occasionally, spreads into a pond ; so that there is in fact a
series of ponds connected by this run of water. This valley,
which seems to have been created by a bountiful providence,
as one of the choicest retreats ot man ; which seems formed
for a scene of innocence and happiness, has been, by ungrate-
ful man, so perverted as to make it instrumental in effecting
two of the most damnable of purposes ; in carrying into exe-
cution two of the most damnable inventions that ever sprang
from the minds of man under the influence of the devil !
namely, the making of gwi powder and of banknotes ! Here
in this tranquil spot, where the nightingales are to be heard
earlier and later in the year than in any other part of Eng-
land ; where the first bursting of the buds is seen in Spring,
where no rigour of seasons can ever be felt ; where every
thing seems formed for precluding the very thought of
wickedness ; here has the devil fixed on as one of the seats of
his grand manufactory $ and perverse and ungrateful man
not only lends him his aid, but lends it cheerfully ! As to
the gunpowder, indeed, we might get over that. In some
cases that may be innocently, and, when it sends the lead at
the hordes that support a tyrant, meritoriously employed.
The alders and the willows, therefore, one can see, without
so much regret, turned into powder by the waters of this
valley; but, the Bank-notes! To think that the springs
which God has commanded to flow from the sides of these
happy hills, for the comfort and the delight of man ; to think
that these springs should be perverted into means of spread-
ing misery over a whole nation; and that, too, under the
base and hypocritical pretence of promoting its credit and
152 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
maintaining its honour and its faith f There was one cir-
cumstance, indeed, that served to mitigate the melancholy
excited by these reflections ; namely, that a part of these
springs have, at times, assisted in turning rags into Registers !
(90) Somewhat cheered by the thought of this, but, still, in a
more melancholy mood than I had been for a long while, I
rode on with my friend towards .^wry, up the valley, the sand-
hills on one side of us and the chalk-hills on the other.
Albury is a little village consisting of a few houses, with a
large house or two near it. At the end of the village we
came to a park, which is the residence of Mr. Drummond. —
Having heard a great deal of this park, and of the gardens, I
wished very much to see them. My way to Dorking lay
through Shire, and it went along on the outside of the park.
I guessed, as the Yankees say, that there must be a way
through the park to Shire ; and I fell upon the scheme of
going into the park as far as Mr. Drummond's house, and
then asking his leave to go out at the other end of it. This
scheme, though pretty bare-faced, succeeded very well. It is
true that I was aware that I had not a Norman to deal with ;
or, I should not have ventured upon the experiment. I sent
in word that, having got into the park, I should be exceed-
ingly obliged to Mr. Drummond if he would let me go out of
it on the side next to Shire. He not only granted this request,
but, in the most obliging manner, permitted us to ride all
about the park, and to see his gardens, which, without any ex-
ception, are, to my fancy, the prettiest in England ; that is to
say, that I ever saw in England.
They say that these gardens were laid out for one of the
Howards, in the reign of Charles the Second, by Mr. Evelyn,
who wrote the Sylva. The mansion-house, which is by no
means magnificent, stands on a little flat by the side of the
parish church, having a steep, but not lofty, hill rising up on
the south side of it. It looks right across the gardens, which
lie on the slope of a hill which runs along at about a quarter
of a mile distant from the front of the house. The gardens,
of course, lie facing the south. At the back of them, under
the hill, is a high wall ; and there is also a wall at each end,
running from north to south. Between the house and the
gardens there is a very beautiful run of water, with a sort of
little wild narrow sedgy meadow. The gardens are separated
from this by a hedge, running along from east to west. From
this hedge there go up the hill, at right angles, several other
hedges, which divide the land here into distinct gardens, or
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 153
orchards. Along at the top of these there goes a yew hedge,
or, rather, a row of small yew trees, the trunks of which are
bare for about eight or ten feet high, and the tops of which
form one solid head of about ten feet high, while the bottom
branches come out on each side of the row about eight feet
horizontally. This hedge, or row, is a quarter of a mile long.
There is a nice hard sand-road under this species of um-
brella ; and, summer and winter, here is a most delightful
■walk ! Behind this row of yews, there is a space, or garden
(a quarter of a mile long you will observe) about thirty or
forty feet wide, as nearly as I can recollect. At the back of
this garden, and facing the yew-tree row, is a wall probably
ten feet high, which forms the breastwork of a terrace ; and
it is this terrace which is the most beautiful thing that I
ever saw in the gardening way. It is a quarter of a mile
long, and, I believe, between thirty and forty feet wide ; of
the finest green sward, and as level as a die.
The wall, along at the back of this terrace, stands close
against the hill, which you see with the trees and underwood
upon it rising above the wall. So that here is the finest spot
for fruit trees that can possibly be imagined. At both ends
of this garden the trees in the park are lofty, and there are a
pretty many of them. The hills on the south side of the
mansion-house are covered with lofty trees, chiefly beeches
and chesnut : so that a warmer, a more sheltered, spot than
this, it seems to be impossible to imagine. Observe, too, how
judicious it was to plant the row of yew trees at the distance
which I have described from the wall which forms the breast-
work of the terrace : that wall, as well as the wall at the back
of the terrace, are covered with fruit trees, and the yew-tree
row is just high enough to defend the former from winds,
without injuring it by its shade. In the middle of the walk
at the back of the terrace, there is a recess, about thirty feet
in front and twenty feet deep, and here is a basin, into which
rises a spring coming out of the hill. The overflowings of
this basin go under the terrace and down across the garden
into the rivulet below. So that here is water at the top,
across the middle, and along at the bottom of this garden.
Take it altogether, this, certainly, is the prettiest garden that
I ever beheld. There was taste and sound judgment at every
step in the laying out of this place. Every where utility and
convenience is combined with beauty. The terrace is by far
the finest thing of the sort that I ever saw, and the whole
thing altogether is a great compliment to the taste of the
h 3
154 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
times in which it was formed. I know there are some ill-
natured persons, who will say, that I want a revolution that
would turn Mr. Drummond out of this place and put me into
it. Such persons will hardly believe me, but upon my Avord
I do not. From everything that I hear, Mr. Drummond is
very worthy of possessing it himself, seeing that he is famed
for his justice and his kindness towards the labouring classes,
who, God knows, have very few friends amongst the rich. If
what I have heard be true, Mr. Drummond is singularly good
in this way ; for, instead of hunting down an unfortunate
creature who has exposed himself to the lash of the law ; in-
stead of regarding a crime committed as proof of an inherent
disposition to commit crime ; instead of rendering the poor
creatures desperate by this species of proscription, aild forcing
them on to the gallows, merely because they have once me-
rited the Bridewell ,■ instead of this, which is the common
practice throughout the country, he rather seeks for such un-
fortunate creatures to take them into his employ, and thus to
reclaim them, and to make them repent of their former
courses. If this be true, and I am credibly informed that it
is, I know of no man in England so worthy of his estate.
There may be others, to act in like manner ; but I neither
know nor have heard of anv other. I had, indeed, heard of
this, at Alresford in Hampshire ; and, to say the truth, it was
this circumstance, and this alone, which induced me to ask
the favour of Mr. Drummond to go through his park. But,
besides that Mr. Drummond is very worthy of his estate,
what chance should I have of getting it if it came to a
scramble ? There are others, who like pretty gardens, as
well as I ; and if the question were to be decided according
to the law of the strongest, or, as the French call it, by the
droit du plus fort, my chance would be but a very poor one.
The truth is, that you hear nothing but fools talk about revo-
lutions made for the purpose of getting possession of people's
property. They never have their spring in any such motives.
They are caused, by Governments themselves ; and though they
do sometimes cause a new distribution of property to a cer-
tain extent, there never was, perhaps, one single man in this
world that had anything to do, worth speaking of, in the
causing of a revolution, that did it with any such view. But
what a strange thing it is, that there should be men at this
time to fear the loss of estates as the consequence of a convul-
sive revolution ; at this time, when the estates are actually
passing away from the owners before their eyes, and that too,
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 155
in consequence of measures which have been adopted for what
has been called the preservation of property, against the de-
signs of Jacobins and Radicals ! Mr. Drummond has, I dare
say, the means of preventing his estate from being actually
taken away from him ; but, I am quite certain that that es-
tate, except as a place to live at, is not worth to him, at this
moment, one single farthing. What could a revolution do
for him more than this ? If one could suppose the power of
doing what they like placed in the hands of the labouring
classes ; if one could suppose such a thing as this, which
never was yet seen ; if one could suppose anything so mon-
strous as that of a revolution that would leave no public au-
thority any where ; even in such a case, it is against nature
to suppose, that the people would come and turn him out of
his house and leave him without food ; and yet that they
must do, to make him, as a landholder, worse off than he is ;
or, at least, worse off than he must be in a very short time.
I saw, in the gardens at Albury Park, what I never saw be-
fore in all my life ; that is, some plants of the American
Cranberry. I never saw them in America ; for there they
grow in those swamps, into which I never happened to go at
the time of their bearing fruit. I may have seen the plant,
but I do not know that I ever did. Here it not only grows,
but bears ; and, there are still some cranberries on the plants
now. I tasted them, and they appeared to me to have just
the same taste as those in America. They grew in a long
bed near the stream of water which I have spoken about, and
therefore it is clear that they may be cultivated with great
case in this country. The road, through Shire along to
Dorking, runs up the valley between the chalk-hills and the
sand-hills ; the chalk to our left and the sand to our right.
This is called the Home Dale. It begins at Reigate and ter-
minates at Shalford Common, down below Chilworth.
Reigate,
December 1.
I set off this morning with an intention to go across the
Weald to Worth ; but the red rising of the sun and the other
appearances of the morning admonished me to keep upon
high ground ; so 1 crossed the Mole, went along under JJox-
hill, through Betchworth and Buckland, and got to this
place just at the beginning of a day of as heavy rain, and as
boisterous wind, as, I think, 1 have ever known in England.
156 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
In one rotten borough, one of the most rotten too, and with
another still more rotten up vpon the Mil, in Eeigate, and
close by Gatton, how can I help reflecting, how can my mind
be otherwise than filled with reflections on the marvellous
deeds of the Collective Wisdom of the nation ! At present,
however (for I want to get to bed) I will notice only one of
those deeds, and that one yet " incohete" a word, which Mr.
Canning seems to have coined for the nonce (which is not a
coined word), when Lord Castlereagh (who cut his throat the
other day) was accused of making a swap, as the horse-
jockeys call it, of a writer-ship against a seat. It is barter,
truck, change, dicker, as the Yankees call it, but as our horse-
jockeys call it swap, or chop. The case was this : the chop
had been begun ,• it had been entered on ; but had not been
completed ; just as two jockeys may have agreed on a chop
and yet not actually delivered the horses to one another.
Therefore, Mr. Canning said that the act was incohete, which
means, without cohesion, without consequence. Whereupon
the House entered on its Journals a solemn resolution, that
it was its duty to watch over its purity with the greatest care ;
but that the said act being " incohete," the House did not
think it necessary to proceed any farther in the matter ! It
unfortunately happened, however, that in a very few clays after-
wards, that is to say on the memorable eleventh of June, 1809,
Mr. Maddocks accused the very same Castlereagh of having
actually sold and delivered a seat to Quintin Dick for three
thousand pounds. The accuser said he was ready to bring
to the bar proof of the fact ; and he moved that he might be
permitted so to do. Now then what did Mr. Canning say ?
Why he said that the reformers were a low degraded crew,
and he called upon the house to make a stand against demo-
cratical encroachment ? And the House did not listen to
him, surely ? Yes, but it did ! And it voted by a thunder-
ing majority, that it would not hear the evidence. And this
vote was, by the leader of the Whigs, justified upon the
ground, that the deed complained of by Mr. Maddocks was
according to a practice, which was as notorious as the sun at
noonday. (91) So much, for the word "incohete," which
has led me into this long digression. The deed, or achieve-
ment, of which I am now about to speak, is, not the Marriage
Act ; for that is cohete enough : that has had plenty of con-
sequences. It is the New Turnpike Act, which though
passed, is, as yet " incohete ;" and is not to be cohete for
sometime yet to come. I hope it will become cohete during
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 157
the time that Parliament is sitting for otherwise, it will
have cohesion pretty nearly equal to that of the Marriage Act.
In the first place this act makes chalk and lime every where
liable to turnpike duty, which in many cases, they were not
before. This is a monstrous oppression upon the owners and
occupiers of clay lauds ; and comes just at the time, too,
when thev are upon the point, many of them, of being driven
out of cultivation, or thrown up to the parish, by other
burdens. But, it is the provision with regard to the toheels
which will create the greatest injury, distress and confusion.
The wheels which this law orders to be used on turnpike
roads, on pain of enormous toll, cannot be used on the cross-
roads throughout more than nine-tenths of the kingdom. To
make these roads and the drove-lanes (the private roads of
farms) fit for the cylindrical wheels described in this Bill,
would cost a pound an acre, upon an average, upon all the
land in England, and especially in the counties where the
land is poorest. It would, in those counties, cost a tenth
part of the worth of the fee-simple of the land. And this is
enacted, too, at a time, when the wagons, the carts, and
all the dead stock of a farm ; when the whole is falling
into a state of irrepair ; when all is actually perishing for
want of means in the farmer to keep it in repair ! This is
the time that the Lord Johns and the Lord Henries and the
rest of that Honourable body have thought proper to enact
that the whole of the farmers in England shall have new
wheels to their wagons and carts, or, that they shall be
punished by the payment of heavier tolls ! It is useless,
perhaps to say anything about the matter ; but I could not
help noticing a thing which has created such a general alarm
amongst the farmers in every part of the country where I
have recently been.
Worth (Sussex),
December 2.
I set off from Eeigate this morning, and after a pleasant
ride of ten miles, got here to breakfast. — Here, as every
where else, the farmers appear to think that their last hour is
approaching. — Mr. Charles B 'v Janus ,- I believe it
is Sir Charles B ; (92) and I should be sorry to
withhold from him his title, though, being said to be a very
good sort of a man, he might, perhaps, be able to shift without
it : this gentleman's farms are subject of conversation here
158 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
The matter is curious, in itself, and very well worthy of
attention, as illustrative of the present state of things.
These farms were, last year, taken into hand by the owner.
This was stated in the public papers about a twelvemonth
ago. It was said, that his tenants would not take the farms
again at the rent which he wished to have, and that therefore,
he took the farms into hand. These farms lie somewhere
down in the west of Sussex. In the month of August last I
saw (and I think in one of the Brighton newspapers) a
paragraph stating that Mr. B , who had taken his
farms into hand the Michaelmas before, had already got in
his harvest, and that he had had excellent crops ! This was
a sort of bragging paragraph ; and there was an observation
added, which implied that the farmers were great fools for
not having taken the farms ! We now hear that Mr. B
has let his farms. But, now, mark how he has let them.
The custom in Sussex is this ; when a tenant quits a farm,
he receives payment, according to valuation, for what arc
called the dressings, the half-dressings, for seeds and lays,
and for the growth of underwood in coppices and hedge-rows ;
for the dung in the yards ; and, in short, for whatever he
leaves behind him, which, if he had staid, would have
been of value to him. The dressings and half-dressings
include, not only the manure that has been recently put into
the land, but also the summer ploughings ; and, in short,
every thing which has been done to the land, and the benefit
of which has not been taken out again by the farmer. This
is a good custom ; because it ensures good tillage to the
land. It ensures, also, a fair-start to the new tenant ; but
then, observe, it requires some money, which the new tenant
must pay down before he can begin, and therefore this custom
presumes a pretty deal of capital to be possessed by farmers.
Bearing these general remarks in mind, we shall see, in a
moment, the case of Mr. B . If my information be
correct, he has let his farms : he has found tenants for his
farms ; but not tenants to pay him any thing for dressings,
half-dressings, and the rest. He was obliged to pay the
out-going tenants for these things. Mind that ! He was
obliged to pay them according to the custom of the country ;
but he has got nothing of this sort from his in-coming
tenants ! It must be a poor farm, indeed, where the valua-
tion does not amount to some hundreds of pounds. So that
here is a pretty sum sunk by Mr. B ; and yet even
on conditions like these, he has, I dare say, been glad to get
HAMPSHIRE, SURREY AND SUSSEX. 159
his farms off his hands. There can be very little security for
the payment of rent where the tenant pays no in-coming- ;
but even if he get no rent at all, Mr. B has clone
well to get his farms off his hands. Now, do I wish to
insinuate, that Mr. E asked too much for his farms
last year, and that he wished to squeeze the last shilling out
of his farmers ? By no means. He bears the character of
a mild, just and very considerate man, by no meaus greedy,
but the contrary. A man very much beloved by his tenants ;
or, at least, deserving it. But the truth is, he could not
believe it possible that his farms were so much fallen in value.
He could not believe it possible that his estate had been
taken away from him by the legerdemain of the Pitt-system,
which he had been supporting all his life : so that, he thought,
and very naturally thought, that his old tenants were endea-
vouring to impose upon him, and therefore resolved to take
his farms into hand. Experience has shown him that farms
yield no rent, in the hands of the landlord at least ; and
therefore he has put them into the hands of other people.
Mr. B — , like Mr. Western, has not read the Register.
Tf he had, he would have taken any trifle from his old
tenants, rather than let them go. But he surely might have
read the speech of his neighbour and friend Mr. Huskisson,
made in the House of Commons in 1814, in whiclx that gen-
tleman said, that, with wheat at less than double the price
that it bore before the war, it would be impossible for any
rent at all to be paid. (93) Mr. B — ■ might have read
this ; and he might, having so many opportunities, have
asked Mr. Huskisson for an explanation of it. This gentle-
man is now a great advocate for national faith ; but may not
Mr. B ask him whether there be no faith to be kept
with the landlord ? However, if I am not deceived, Mr.
B or Sir Charles B (for I really do not know
which it is) is a member of the Collective ! If this be the case
he has had something to do with the thing himself ; and he
must muster up as much as he can of that " patience" which
is so strongly recommended by our great new state doctor
Mr. Canning.
1 cannot conclude my remarks on this Rural Hide without
noticing the new sort of language that I hear every where
made use of with regard to the parsons, but which language
I do not care to repeat. These men may say, that I keep
company with none but those who utter "sedition and
blasphemy ;" and if they do say so, there is just as much
160 RURAL RIDE.
veracity in their words as I believe there to be charity and
sincerity in the hearts of the greater part of them. One thing
is certain ; indeed, two things : the first is, that almost the
whole of the persons that I have conversed with are farmers ;
and the second is, that they are in this respect, all of one
mind ! It was my intention, at one time, to go along the
south of Hampshire to Portsmouth, Fareham, Botley, South-
ampton, and across the New-Forest into Dorsetshire. My
affairs made me turn from Hambledon this way ; but I had
an opportunity of hearing something about the neighbourhood
ot Botley. Take any one considerable circle where you know
every body, and the condition of that circle will teach you
how to judge pretty correctly of the condition of every other
part of the country. I asked about the farmers of my old
neighbourhood, one by one ; and the answers I received only
tended to confirm me in the opinion, that the whole race will
be destroyed ; and that a new race will come, and enter upon
farms without capital and without stock ; be a sort of bailiffs
to the landlord for a while, and then, if this system go on,
bailiffs to the Government as trustee for the fundholders. If
the account which I have received of Mr. B 's new
mode of letting be true, here is one step further than has
been before taken. In all probability the stock upon the farms
belongs to him, to be paid for when the tenant can pay for
it. Who does not see to what this tends ? The man must
be blind indeed, who cannot see confiscation here ; and, can
he be much less than blind, if he imagine that relief is to be
obtained by the patience recommended by Mr. Canning ?
Thus, Sir, have I led you about the country. All sorts of
things have I talked of, to be sure ; but there are very few of
these things which have not their interest of one sort or
another. At the end of a hundred miles or two of travelling,
stopping here and there ; talking freely with every body.
Hearing what gentlemen, farmers, tradesmen, journeymen,
labourers, women, girls, boys, and all have to say ; reasoning
with some, laughing with others, and observing all that
passes ; and especially if your manner be such as to remove
every kind of reserve from every class ; at the end of a tramp
like this, you get impressed upon your mind a true picture,
not only of the state of the country, but of the state of the
FROM KENSINGTON TO WORTH. 161
people's minds throughout the country. And, Sir, whether
you believe me or not, I have to tell you, that it is my decided
opinion, that the people, high and low, with one unanimous
voice, except where they live upon the taxes, impute their
calamilies to the House of Commons. Whether they be right
or wrong is not so much the question, in this case. That
such is the fact I am certain ; and, having no power to make
any change myself, I must leave the making or the refusing
of the change to those who have the power. I repeat, and
with perfect sincerity, that it would give me as much pain as
it would give to any man in England, to see a change in the
form of the Government. With King, Lords, and Commons,
this nation enjoyed many ages of happiness and of glory.
Without Commons, my opinion is, it never can again see any
thing but misery and shame; and when I say Commons I
m'-Mn Commons, and, by Commons, I mean, men elected by
the free voice of the untitled and unprivileged part of the
people, who, in fact as well as in law, are the Commons of
England.
I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
WM. COBBETT.
JOURNAL : RIDE FROM KENSINGTON TO WORTH, IN SUSSEX.
Monday, May 5, 1823.
From London to Reigate, through Sutton, is about as
villanous a tract as England contains. The soil is a mixture
of gravel and clay, with big yellow stones in it, sure sign of
really bad land. Before you descend the hill to go into
Reigate, you pass Gatton (" Gatton and Old Sarum"), which
ia a very rascally spot of earth. The trees arc here a week
later than they arc at Tooting. At Reigate they arc (in order
to save a few hundred yards length of road,) cutting through
a lull. They have lowered a little hill on the London side of
Sutton. Thus is the money of the country actually thrown
away : the produce, of labour is taken from the industrious,
and given to the idlers. Mark the process ; the town of
162 RURAL RIDE
Brighton, in Sussex, 50 miles from the Wen, is on the sea-
side, and is thought by the stock-jobbers, to afford a salubrious
air. It is so situated that a coach, which leaves it not very
early in the morning, reaches London by noon ; and, starting
to go back in two hours and a half afterwards, reaches
Brighton not very late at night. Great parcels of stock-
jobbers stay at Brighton with the women and children. They
skip backward and forward on the coaches, and actually carry
on stock-jobbing, in 'Change Alley, though they reside at
Brighton. This place is, besides, a place of great resort with the
whiskered gentry. There are not less than about twenty coaches
that leave the Wen every day for this place ; and, there being-
three or four different roads, there is a great rivalship for the
custom. This sets the people to work to shorten and to level
the roads ; and here you see hundreds of men and horses con-
stantly at work to make pleasant and quick travelling for the
jews and jobbers. The jews and jobbers pay the turnpikes,
to be sure ; but, they get the money from the land and
labourer. They drain these, from John-a-Groat's House to
the Land's End, and they lay out some of the money on the
Brighton roads! "Vast improvements, ma'am!" as Mrs.
Scrip said to Mrs. Omnium, in speaking of the new enclosures
on the villanous heaths of Bagshot and Windsor. — Now,
some will say, " Well, it is only a change from hand to hand."
Very true, and if Baddy Coke of Norfolk like the change, I
know not why I should dislike it. More and more new
houses are building as you leave the Wen to come on this
road. Whence come the means of building these new houses
and keeping the inhabitants? Do they come out of trade
and commerce? Oh, no! they come from the land ; but, if
Daddy Coke like this, what has any one else to do with it ?
Daddy Coke and Lord Milton like " national faith ;" it would
be a pity to disappoint their liking. The best of this is, it
will bring down to the very dirt ; it will bring down their
faces to the very earth, and fill their mouths full of sand; it
will thus pull down a set of the basest lick-spittles of power
and the most intolerable tyrants towards their inferiors in
wealth, that the sun ever shone on. It is time that these
degenerate dogs were swept away at any rate. The Black-
thorns are in full bloom, and make a grand show. When you
quit Beigate to go towards Crawley, you enter on what is
called the Weald of Surrey. It is a level country, and the
soil a very, very strong loam, with clay beneath to a great
depth. The fields are small, and about a third of the land
FROM KENSINGTON TO WORTH. 163
covered with oak-woods and coppice-woods. This is a
country of wheat and beans ; the latter of which are about
three inches high, the former about seven, and both looking
verv well. I did not see a field of bad-looking wheat from
Reigate-hill foot to Crawley, nor from Crawley across to this
place, where, though the whole country is but poorish, the
wheat looks very well ; and, if this weather hold about twelve
days, we shall recover the lost time. They have been strip-
ping trees (taking the bark off) about five or six days. The
nightingales sing very much, which is a sign of warm weather.
The house-martins and the swallows are come in abundance;
and they seldom do come until the weather be set in for mild.
Wednesday, 1th May.
The weather is very fine and warm ; the leaves of the Oalcs
are coming out very fast : some of the trees are nearly in
half-leaf. The Birdies are out in leaf. I do not think that
I ever saw the wheat look, take it all together, so well as it
does at this time. I see, in the stiff land, no signs of
worm or slug. The winter, which destroyed so many turnips,
must, at any rate, have destroyed these mischievous things.
The oats look well. The barley is very young; but I
do not see any thing amiss with regard to it. — The land be-
tween this place and Eeigate is stiff. How the corn may be,
in other places, I know not ; but, in coming down, I met with
a farmer of Bedfordshire, who said, that the wheat looked
very well in that county ; which is not a county of clay,
like the Weald of Surrey. I saw a Southdown farmer, who
told me, that the wheat is good there, and that is a fine
corn-country. The bloom of the fruit trees is the finest I
ever saw in England. The pear-bloom is, at a distance, like
that of the Gueldre Rose ; so large and bold are the bunches.
The plum is equally fine ; and, even the Blackthorn (which
is the hedge-plum) has a bloom finer than I ever saw it have
before. It is rather early to offer any opinion as to the crop
of corn; but if I were compelled to bet upon it, I would bet
upon a good crop. Frosts frequently come after this time ;
and, if they conic in May, they cause " things to come about"
very fast. But, if we have no more frosts : in short, if we
have, after this, a good summer, we shall have a fine laugh at
the Quakers' and the Jews' press. Fifteen days' sun, will
bring things about in reality. The wages of labour, in the
country, have taken a rise, and the poor-rates an increase,
164
RURAL RIDE ACROSS
since first of March. I am glad to bear, that the Straw Bonnet
affair has excited a good deal of attention. In answer to
applications upon the subject, I have to observe, that all the
information on the subject will be published in the first week
of June. Specimens of the straw and plat will then be to be
seen at No. 183, Fleet Street.
FROM THE [LONDON] WEN ACROSS SURREY, ACROSS THE WEST
OF SUSSEX, AND INTO THE SOUTH EAST OF HAMPSHIRE.
Reigate (Surrey,)
Saturday, 26 July, 1823.
Came from the Wen, through Croydon. It rained nearly
all the way. The corn is good. A great deal of straw.
The barley very fine; but all are backward; and, if this
weather continue much longer, there must be that " heavenly
blight" for which the wise friends of " social order " are so
fervently praying. But, if the wet now cease, or cease soon,
what is to become of the " poor souls of farmers" God only
knows ! In one article the wishes of our wise Government
appear to have been gratified to the utmost ; and that, too,
without the aid of any express form of prayer. I allude to
the hops, of which, it is said, that there will be, according to
all appearance, none at all ! Bravo ! Courage, my Lord
Liverpool ! This article, at any rate, will not choak us, will
not distress us, will not make us miserable by " over-pro-
duction!" — The other day a gentleman (and a man of
general good sense too) said to me : " What a deal of wet
we have : what do you think of the weather now ?" —
More rain," said I. " D — n those farmers," said he,
" what luck they have ! They will be as rich as Jews !" —
Incredible as this may seem, it is a fact. But, indeed, there
is no folly, if it relate to these matters, which is, now-a-days,
incredible. The hop affair is a pretty good illustration of
the doctrine of " relief" from " diminished production." Mr.
ct
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 165
Eicardo may now call upon any of the hop-planters for proof
of the correctness of his notions. They are ruined, for the
greater part, if their all be embarked in hops. How are
they to pay rent ? I saw a planter, the other day, who sold
his hops (Kentish) last fall for sixty shillings a hundred.
The same hops will now fetch the owner of them eight
pounds, or a hundred and sixty shillings.
Thus the Quaker gets rich, and the poor devil of a farmer
is squeezed into a gaol. The Quakers carry on the far
greater part of this work. They are, as to the products of
the earth, what the Jews -are as to gold and silver. How
they profit, or, rather, the degree in which they profit, at the
expense of those who own and those who till the land, may
be guessed at if we look at their immense worth, and if we,
at the same time reflect, that they never work. (94) Here
is a sect of non-labourers. One would think, that their
religion bound them under a curse, not to work. Some
part of the people of all other sects work ; sweat at work ;
do something that is useful to other people ; but, here is a
sect of buyers and sellers. They make nothing ; they cause
nothing to come ; they breed as well as other sects ; but
they make none of the raiment or houses, and cause none of
the food to come. In order to justify some measure for
paring the nails of this grasping sect, it is enough to say of
them, which wc may with perfect truth, that, if all the other
sects were to act like them, the community must perish.
This is quite enough to say of this sect, of the monstrous
privileges of whom we shall, I hope, one of these days, see
an end. If I had the dealing with them, I would soon teach
them to use the spade and the plough, and the musket too when
necessary.
The rye, along the road side, is ripe enough ; and some of
it is reaped and in shock. At Mearstam there i3 a field of
cabbages, which, I was told, belonged to Colonel Joliffe.
They appear to be early Yorks, and look very well. The
rows seem to be about eighteen inches apart. There may
be from 15,000 to 20,000 plants to the acre; and I dare
say, that they will weigh three pounds each, or more. I
know of no crop of cattle food equal to this. If they be
early Yorks, they will be in perfection in October, just when
the grass is almost gone. No five acres of common grass
land will, during the year, yield cattle food equal, cither in
quantity or quality, to what one acre of land, in early Yorks,
will produce during three months.
166 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
Worth (Sussex),
Wednesday, 30 July.
Worth is ten miles from Eeigate on the Brighton-road,
which goes through Horley. Reigate has the Surrey chalk
hills close to it on the North, and sand hills along on its
South, and nearly close to it also. As soon as you are over
the sand hills, you come into a country of deep clay ; and this
is called the Weald of Surrey. This Weald winds away
round, towards the West, into Sussex, and towards the East,
into Kent. In this part of Surrey, it is about eight miles
wide, from North to South, and ends just as you enter the
parish of Worth, which is the first parish (in this part) in the
county of Sussex. All across the Weald (the strong and
stiff clays) the corn looks very well. I found it looking well
from the Wen to Reigate, on the villanous spewy soil be-
tween the Wen and Croydon ; on the chalk from Croydon to
near Eeigate ; on the loam, sand and chalk (for there are all
three) in the valley of Eeigate ; but, not quite so well on the
sand. On the clay all the corn looks well. The wheat,
where it has begun to die, is dying of a good colour, not
black, nor in any way that indicates blight. It is, however,
all backward. Some few fields of white wheat are changing
colour; but, for the greater part, it is quite green; and,
though a sudden change of weather might make a great
alteration in a short time, it does appear, that the harvest
must be later than usual. When I say this, however, I by no
means wish to be understood as saying, that it must be so
late as to be injurious to the crop. In 1816, I saw a barley-
rick making in November. In 1821, 1 saw wheat uncut, in
Suffolk, in October. If we were now to have good, bright,
hot weather, for as long a time as we have had wet, the
whole of the corn, in these Southern counties, would be
housed, and great part of it threshed out, by the 10th of
September, So that, all depends on the weather, which ap-
pears to be clearing up in spite of Saint Swithin. This
Saint's birth-day is the 15th of July; and it is said, that,
if rain fall on his birth-day, it will fall on forty days suc-
cessively. But, I believe, that you reckon retrospectively as
well as prospectively ; and, if this be the case, we may, this
time, escape the extreme unction ; for, it began to rain on
the 26th of June; so that it rained VJ davs before the 15th
of July ; and, as it has rained 1 6 days since, it has rained,
in the whole, 35 days, and, of course, five days more will
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 167
satisfy this wet soul of a saint. Let him take his five days ;
and, there will be plenty of time for us to have wheat at four
shillings a bushel. But, if the Saint will give us no credit for
the 19 days, and. will insist upon his forty daily drenchings
after the fifteenth of July ; if he will have such a soaking as
this at the celebration of the anniversary of his birth, let us
hope that he is prepared with a miracle for feeding us, and
with a still more potent miracle for keeping the farmers from
riding over us, filled, as Lord Liverpool thinks their pockets
' will be, by the annihilation of their crops !
The upland meadow grass is, a great deal of it, not cut yet,
along the Weald. So that, in these parts, there has not been
a great deal of hay spoiled. The clover hay was got in very
well ; and only a small part of the meadow hay has been
spoiled in this part of the country. This is not the case,
however, in other parts, where the grass was forwarder, and
where it was cut before the rain came. Upon the whole,
however, much hay docs not appear to have been spoiled as
yet. The farmers along here, have, most of them, begun to
cut to-day. This has been a tine day; and, it is clear, that
they expect it to continue. I saw but two pieces of Swedish
turnips between the Wen and Eeigatc, but one at Eeigate,
and but one between Rcigate and Worth. During a like
distance, in Norfolk or Suffolk, you would see two or three
hundred fields of this sort of root. Those that I do see here,
look well. The white turnips are just up, or just sown, though
there are some which have rough leaves already. This Weald
is, indeed, not much of land for turnips ; but, from what
I see here, and from what I know of the weather, 1 think
that the- turnips must be generally good. The after-grass is
surprisingly fine. The lands, which have had hay cut and
carried from them, are, I think, more beautiful than I ever
saw them beiore. It should, however, always be borne in
mind, that this beautiful grass is by no means the best. An
acre of this grass will not make a quarter part so much
butter as an acre of rusty-looking pasture, made rusty by
the rays of the sun. Sheep on the commons die of the
beautiful grass produced by long-continued rains at this time
of the year. Even geese, hardy as they are, die from the
MUne One, Therein will give quantity; but, without sun,
the qualify must be poor at the best. The woods have not
shot much this year. The cold winds, the frosts, that we
had up to Midsummer, prevented the trees from growing
168 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
much. They are beginning to shoot now ; but, the wood
must be imperfectly ripened.
I met, at Worth, a beggar, who told me, in consequence
of my asking where he belonged, that he was born in South
Carolina. I found, at last, that he was born in the English
array, during the American rebel-war; that he became a
soldier himself; and that it had been his fate to serve under
the Duke of York, in Holland; under General Whitelock,
at Buenos Ayres ; under Sir John Moore, at Corunna ; and
under " the Greatest Captain," at Talavera ! This poor '
fellow did not seem to be at all aware, that, in the last case,
he partook in a victory ! He had never before heard of its
being a victory. He, poor fool, thought that it was a defeat.
" Why," said he, " we ran away, Sir." Oh, yes ! said I, and
so you did afterwards, perhaps, in Portugal, when Massena
was at your heels ; but it is only in certain cases, that run-
ning away is a mark of being defeated ; or, rather, it is only
with certain commanders. A matter of much more interest
to us, however, is, that the wars for " social order," not for-
getting Gatton and Old Sarum, have filled the country with
beggars, who have been, or who pretend to have been, soldiers
and sailors. For want of looking well into this matter, many
good and just, and even sensible men are led to give to these
army and navy beggars what they refuse to others. But, if
reason were consulted, she would ask what pretensions these
have to a preference ? She would see in them men who had
become soldiers or sailors because they wished to live without
that labour, by which other men are content to get their bread.
She would ask the soldier beggar, whether he did not volun-
tarily engage to perform services such as were performed at
Manchester ; (95) and, if she pressed him for the motive
to this engagement, could he assign any motive other than
that of wishing to live without work upon the fruit of the work
of other men ? And why should reason not be listened to?
Why should she not be consulted in every such case ? And,
if she were consulted, which would she tell you was the
most worthy of your compassion, the man, who, no matter from
what cause, is become a beggar after forty years spent in the
raising of food and raiment for others as well as for himself;
or, the man, who, no matter again from what cause, is become
a beggar after forty years living upon the labour of others,
and, during the greater part of which time, he has been
living in a barrack, there kept for purposes explained by
Lord Palmerston, and always in readiness to answer those
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 169
purposes ? As to not giving to beggars, I think there is a
law against giving ! However, give to them people will, as
long as they ask. Kemove the cause of the beggary ; and
we shall see no more beggars ; but, as long as there are
horoiujlimongers, there will be beggars enough.
Horsham (Sussex),
Thursday, 31 July.
I left Worth this afternoon about 5 o'clock, and am got
here to sleep, intending to set off for Pet worth in the morn-
ing, with a view of crossing the South Downs and then
going into Hampshire through Havant, and along at the
southern foot of Fortsdown Hill, where I shall see the earliest
corn in England. From Worth you come to Crawley along
some pretty good land ; you then turn to the left and go two
miles along the road from the Wen to Brighton ; then you
turn to the right, and go over six of the worst miles in Eng-
land, which miles terminate but a few hundred yards before
you enter Horsham. The first two of these miserable miles
go through the estate of Lord Erskine. It was a bare heath
with here and there, in the better parts of it, some scrubby
birch. It has been, in part, planted with fir-trees, which are
as ugly as the heath was : and, in short, it is a most villainous
tract. After quitting it, you enter a forest; but a most
miserable one ; and this is followed by a large common, now
enclosed, cut up, disfigured, spoiled, and the labourers all
driven from its skirts. I have seldom travelled over eight
miles so well calculated to fill the mind with painful reflec-
tions. The ride has, however, this in it : that the ground is
pretty much elevated, and enables you to look about you.
You see the Surrey hills away to the North ; Hindhead and
Blackdown to the North West and West; and the South
Downs from the West to the East. The sun was shining
upon all these, though it was cloudy where I was. The soil
is a poor, miserable, clayey-looking sand, with a sort of sand-
stone underneath. When you get down into this town, you
are again in the Weald of Sussex. I believe; that Weald
meant clay, or low, wet, stiff land. This is a very nice,
solid, country town. Very clean, as all the towns in Sussex
are. The people very clean. The Sussex women arc very
nice in their dress and in their houses. The men and boy's
wear smock-frocks more than they do in some counties.
When country people do not they always look dirty and coin-
I
170 RURAL RIDK ACROSS
fortless. This lias been a pretty good day ; but there was a
little rain in the afternoon ; so that St. Swithin keeps on as
yet, at any rate. The hay has been spoiled here, in cases
where it has been cut ; but, a great deal of it is not yet cut.
I speak of the meadows ; for the clover-hay was all well got
in. The grass, which is not cut, is receiving great injury.
It is, in fact, in many cases, rotting upon the ground. As
to corn, from Crawley to Horsham, there is none worth
speaking of. What there is is very good, in general, con-
sidering the quality of the soil. It is about as backward as
at Worth : the barley and oats green, and the wheat beginning
to change colour.
Billingshurst {Sussex),
Friday Morning, 1 Aug.
This village is 7 miles from Horsham, and I got here to
breakfast about seven o'clock. A very pretty village, and a
very nice breakfast, in a very neat little parlour of a very
decent public-house. The landlady sent her son to get
me some cream, and he was just such a chap as I was at his
age, and dressed just in the same sort of way, his main gar-
ment being a blue smock-frock, faded from wear, and mended
with pieces of neic stuff, and, of course, not faded. The
sight of this smock-frock brought to my recollection many
things very dear to me. This boy will, I dare say, perform
his part at Billingshurst, or at some place not far from it. If
accident had not taken me from a similar scene, how many
villains and fools, who have been well teazed and tormented,
would have slept in peace at night, and have fearlessly
swaggered about by day ! When I look at this little chap ;
at his smock-frock, his nailed shoes, and his clean, plain, and
coarse shirt, I ask myself, will anything, I wonder, ever send
this chap across the ocean to tackle the base, corrupt, per-
jured llepublican Judges of Pennsylvania ? Will this little
lively, but, at the same time, simple boy, ever become the
terror of villains and hypocrites across the Atlantic ? What a
chain of strange circumstances there must be to lead this boy to
thwart a miscreant tyrant like Mackeen, the Chief Justice and
afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania, and to expose the cor-
ruptions of the band of rascals, called a " Senate and a House
of Representatives," at Harrisburgh, in that state ! (96)
I was afraid of rain, and got on as fast as I could : that
is to say, as fast as my own diligence could help me on; for,
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 171
as to my horse, lie is to go only so fast. However, I had no
rain ; and got to Petworth, nine miles further, by about ten
o'clock.
Petworth (Sussex),
Friday Evening, 1 Aug.
No rain, until just at sunset, and then very little. I must
now look back. Prom Horsham to within a few miles of
Petworth is in the Weald of Sussex 5 stiff land, small fields,
broad hedge-rows, and, invariably, thickly planted with tine,
growing oak trees. The corn here consists chiefly of wheat
and oats. There are some bean-fields, and some few fields of
peas ; but very little barley along here. The corn is very
good all along the Weald ; backward ; the wheat almost
green; the oats quite green; but, late as it is, I see no
blight ; and the farmers tell me, that there is no blight.
There may be yet, however ; and, therefore, our Government,
our "paternal Government," so anxious to prevent "over
production," need not despair, as yet, at any rate. The beans
in the Weald are not very good. They got lousy, before the
wet came ; and it came rather too late to make them recover
what they had lost. What peas there are look well. Along
here the wheat, in general, may be fit to cut in about 16
days' time ; some sooner ; but some later, for some is per-
fectly green. No Swedish turnips all along this country.
The white turnips are just up, coining up, or just sown. The
farmers are laying out lime upon the wheat fallows, and this
is the universal practice of the country. I see very few
sheep. There are a good many orchards along in the Weald,
and they have some apples this year ; but, in general, not
many. The apple trees are planted very thickly, and, of
course, they arc small ; but, they appear healthy in general ;
and, in some places, there is a good deal of fruit, even this
year. As you approach Petworth, the ground rises and the
soil grows lighter. There is a hill which I came over, about
two miles from Petworth, whence I had a clear view of the
Surrey chalk-hills, Lcith-hill, Hindhcad, Blaekdown, and
of the South Downs, towards one part of which I wag ad-
vancing. The pigs along here are all black, thin-haired, and
of precisely the same sort of those that I took from England
to Long Island, and with which I pretty well stocked the
American states. By-thc-by, the trip, which Old Sidmoutli
and crew gave mc to America, was attended with some in—
i 2
] 72 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
teresting consequences ; amongst which were the intro-
ducing of the Sussex pigs into the American farrn-yards ; the
introduction of the Swedish turnip into the American fields ;
the introduction of American apple-trees into England ; and
the introduction of the making, in England, of the straw plat,
to supplant the Italian ; for, had my son not been in America,
this last would not have taken place ; and, in America he
would not have been, had it not been for Old Sidmouth and
crew. One thing more, and that is of more importance
than all the rest, Peel's Bill arose out of the " puff-out"
Registers ; these arose out of the trip to Long Island ; and
out of Peel's Bill has arisen the best bothering that the
wigs of the Boroughmongers ever received, which bothering
will end in the destruction of the Boroughmongering. It is
curious, and very useful, thus to trace events to their causes.
Soon after quitting Billingshurst I crossed the river Arun,
which has a canal running alongside of it. At this there are
large timber and coal yards, and kilns for lime. This appears
to be a grand receiving and distributing place. The river
goes down to Arundale, and, together with the valley that it
runs through, gives the town its name. This valley, which is
very pretty, and which winds about a good deal, is the dale of
the Arun : and the town is the town of the Arun-dale. To-
day, near a place called "VYestborough Green, I saw a woman
bleaching her home-spun and home-woven linen. I have not
seen such a thing before, since I left Long Island. There,
and, indeed, all over the American States, North of Mary-
land, and especially in the New England States, almost the
whole of both linen and woollen, used in the country, and a
large part of that used in towns, is made in the farm-houses.
There are thousands and thousands of families who never use
either, except of their own making. All but the weaving is
done by the family. There is a loom in the house, and the
weaver goes from house to house. I once saw about three
thousand farmers, or rather country people, at a horse-race in
Long Island, and my opinion was, that there were not five
hundred who were not dressed in home-spun coats. As to
linen, no farmer's family thinks of buying linen. The Lords
of the Loom have taken from the land, in England, this part
of its due ; and hence one cause of the poverty, misery, and
pauperism, that are becoming so frightful throughout the
country. A national debt, and all the taxation and gambling
belonging to it have a natural tendency to draw wealth into
great masses. These masses produce a power of congre-
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 173
gating manufactures, and of making the many work at them,
for the gain of a few. The taxing Government finds great
convenience in these congregations. It can lay its hand
easily upon a part of the produce ; as ours does with so much
effect. But, the land suffers greatly from this, and the
country must finally feel the fatal effects of it. The country
people lose part of their natural employment. The women
and children, who ought to provide a great part of the
raiment, have nothing to do. The fields must have men and
boys; but, where there are men and boys there will be
women and girls ,• and, as the Lords of the Loom have now
a set of real slaves, by the means of whom they take away a
great part of the employment of the country-women and
girls, these must be kept by poor-rates in whatever degree
they lose employment through the Lords of the Loom. One
would think, that nothing can be much plainer than this ;
and yet you hear the jolterheads congratulating one another
upon the increase of Manchester, and such places ! My straw
affair will certainly restore to the land some of the employ-
ment of its women and girls. It will be impossible for any
of the " rich ruffians ;" any of the horse-power or steam-
power or air-power ruffians ; any of these greedy, grinding
ruffians, to draw together bands of men, women and children,
and to make them slaves, in the working of straw. The
raw material comes of itself, and the hand, and the hand
alone, can convert it to use. I thought well of this before I
took one single step in the way of supplanting the Leghorn
bonnets. If I had not been certain, that no rich ruffian, no
white slave holder, could ever arise out of it, assuredly one
line upon the subject never would have been written by me.
Better, a million times, that the money should go to Italy ;
better that it should go to enrich even the rivals and enemies
of the country ; than that it should enable these hard, these
unfeeling men, to draw English people into crowds and
make them slaves, and slaves too of the lowest and most de-
graded cast.
As I was coming into this town I saw a new-fashioned
sort of stone-cracking. A man had a sledge-hammer, and
was cracking the heads of the big stones that had been laid
on the road a good while ago. This is a very good way ;
but, this man told me, that he was set at this, because the
farmers had no employment for many of the men. " Well,"
said I, " but they pay you to do this !" " Yes," said he.
" Well, then," said I, " is it not better for them to pay you
174 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
for working on their land P" " I can't tell, indeed, Sir, how
that is." But, only think ; here is half the haymaking to
do : T saw, while I was talking to this man, fifty people in
one hay-field of Lord Egremont, making and carrying hay;
and vet. at a season like this, the farmers are so poor as to
be unable to pay the labourers to work on the land ! From
this cause there will certainly be some falling off in produc-
tion. This will, of course, have a tendency to keep prices
from falling so low as they would do if there were no falling
off. But, can this benefit the farmer and landlord ? The
poverty of the farmers is seen in their diminished stock.
The animals are sold younger than formerly. Last year was
a year of great slaughtering. There will be less of every
thing produced ; and the quality of each thing will be worse.
It will be a lower and more mean concern altogether.
Petworth is a nice market town ; but solid and clean. The
great abundance of stone in the land hereabouts has caused
a corresponding liberality in paving and wall-building ; so
that every thing of the building kind has an air of great
strength, and produces the agreeable idea of durability.
Lord Egremont's house is close to the town, and, with its
out-buildings, garden walls, and other erections, is, perhaps,
nearly as big as the town ; though the town is not a very
small one. The Park is very fine, and consists of a parcel
of those hills and dells, which Nature formed here, when
she was in one of her most sportive modes. I have never
seen the earth flung about in such a wild way as round
about Hindhead and Blackdown ; and this Park forms a
part of this ground. From an elevated part of it, and,
indeed, from each of many parts of it, you see all around
the country to the distance of many miles. From the
South East to the North West, the hills are so lofty and so
near, that they cut the view rather short ; but, for the rest
of the circle, you can see to a very great distance. It is,
upon the whole, a most magnificent seat, and the Jews will
not be able to get it from the present owner; though, if he
live many years, they will give even him a twist. If I had
time, I would make an actual survey of one whole county,
and find out how many of the old gentry have lost their
estates, and have been supplanted by the Jews, since Pitt
began his reign. I am sure I should prove that, in number,
they are one-half extinguished. But, it is now, that they go.
The little ones are, indeed, gone ; and the rest will follow
in proportion as the present farmers are exhausted. These
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 175
will keep on giving rents as long as they can beg or borrow
the money to pay rents with. But, a little more time will
so completely exhaust them, that they will be unable to pav;
and, as that takes place, the landlords will lose their estates.
Indeed many of them ; and even a large portion of them,
have, in fact, no estates now. They are called theirs ; but
the mortgagees and annuitants receive the rents. As the
rents fall off, sales must take place, unless in cases of
entails; and, if this thing go on, we shall see acts passed
to cut off entails, in order that the Jews mav be put into
full possession. Such, thus far, will be the result of our
" glorious victories" over the French ! Such will be, in
part, the price of the deeds of Pitt, Addington, Perceval
and their successors. For having applauded such deeds ;
for having boasted of the Wellesleys ; for having bragged
of battles won by money and by money only, the nation
deserves that which it will receive ; and, as to the land-
lords, thcv, above all men living, deserve punishment.
Thev put the power into the hands of Pitt and his crew to
torment the people ; to keep the people down ; to raise
soldiers and to build barracks for this purpose. These base
landlords laughed when affairs like that of Manchester took
place. They laughed at the Dlanketteers. (97) They
laughed when Canning jested about Ogden's rupture.
Let them, therefore, now take the full benefit of the mea-
sures of Pitt and his crew. They would fain have us
believe, that the calamities they endure do not arise from
the acts of the Government. What do they arise from,
then ? The Jacobins did not contract the Debt of
800,000,000/. sterling. The Jacobins did not create a
Dead JFeiyht of 150,000,000/. The Jacobins did not cause
a pauper-charge of 200,000,000/. by means of " new
inclosure bills," " vast improvements," paper-money, pota-
toes, and other " proofs of prosperity." The Jacobins did
not do these things. And will the Government pretend
that " Providence " did it ? That would be " blasphemy "
indeed. Poh ! These things are the price of efforts to
crush freedom in France, lest the example of France should
produce a reform in England. These things are the price of
that undertaking ; which, however, has not yet been
crowned with success ; for the question is not yet decided.
They boast of their victory over the French. The Pitt
crew boast of their achievements in the war. They boast
of the battle of Waterloo. Why ! what fools could not get
176 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
the same, or the like, if they had as much money to get it
with ? Shooting with a silver gun is a saying amongst game-
eaters. That is to say, purchasing the game. A waddling,
fat fellow that does not know how to prime and load, will,
in this way, beat the best shot in the country. And, this is
the way that our crew "beat" the people of France. They
laid out, in the first place, six hundred millions which they
borrowed, and for which they mortgaged the revenues of
the nation. Then they contracted for a "dead weight" to
the amount of one hundred and fifty millions. Then they
stripped the labouring classes of the commons, of their
kettles, their bedding, their beer-barrels ; and, in short,
made them all paupers, and thus fixed on the nation a per-
manent annual charge of about 8 or 9 millions, or, a gross
debt of 200,000,000/. By these means, by these anticipa-
tions, our crew did what they thought would keep down
the French nation for ages ; and what they were sure would,
for the present, enable them to keep up the tithes and other
things of the same sort in England. But, the crew did not
reflect on the consequences of the anticipations ! Or, at
least the landlords, who gave the crew their power did not
thus reflect. These consequences are now come, and are
coming ; and that must be a base man indeed, who does
not see them with pleasure.
Singleton (Sussex),
Saturday, 2 Aug.
Ever since the middle of March, I have been trying
remedies for the hooping-cough, and have, I believe, tried
every thing, except riding, wet to the skin, two or three
hours amongst the clouds on the South Downs. This
remedy is now under trial. As Lord Liverpool said, the
other day, of the Irish Tithe Bill, it is " under experiment."
I am treating my disorder (with better success I hope) in
somewhat the same way that the pretty fellows at Whitehall
treat the disorders of poor Ireland. There is one thing in
favour of this remedy of mine, I shall know the effect of it,
and that, too, in a short time. It rained a little last night.
I got off from Petworth, without baiting my horse, thinking
that the weather looked suspicious ; and that St. Swithin
meaned to treat me to a dose. I had no great coat, nor
any means of changing my clothes. The hooping-cough
SURREY, SUSSEX, AND HAMPSHIRE. 177
made me anxious ; but I had fixed on going along the
South Downs from Donnington-hill down to Lavant, and
then to go on the flat to the South foot of Portsdown-hill,
and to reach Fareham to-night. Two men, whom I met
soon after I set off, assured me that it would not rain. I
came on to Donnington, which lies at the foot of that part
of the South Downs which I had to go up. Before I came
to this point, I crossed the Arun and its canal again ; and
here was another place of deposit for timber, lime, coals,
and other things. "White, in his history of Selborne, (98)
mentions a hill, which is one of the Hindhead group, from
which two springs (one on each side of the hill) send water
into the two seas ; the Atlantic and the German Ocean !
This is big talk ; but it is a fact. One of the streams be-
comes the Arun, which falls into the Channel ; and the
other, after winding along amongst the hills and hillocks
between Hindhead and Godalming, goes into the river Wey,
which falls into the Thames at Weybridge. The soil upon
leaving Petworth, and at Petworth, seems very good ; a fine
deep loam, a sort of mixture of sand and soft chalk. I then
came to a sandy common ; a piece of ground that
seemed to have no business there ; it looked as if it had
been tossed from Hindhead or Blackdown. The common,
however, during the rage for " improvements," has been
inclosed. That impudent fellow, Old Rose, stated the num-
ber of Inclosure Bills as an indubitable proof of " national
prosperity." There was some rye upon this common, the
sight of which would have gladdened the heart of Lord
Liverpool. It was, in parts, not more than eight inches
high. It was ripe, and, of course, the straw dead ; or, I
should have found out the owner, and have bought it to
make bonnets of! I defy the Italians to grow worse rve
than this. The reader will recollect, that I always said, that
we could grow as poor corn as any Italians that ever lived.
The village of Donton lies at the foot of one of these great
chalk ridges, which are called the South Downs. The
ridge, in this place, is, I think, about three-fourths of a
mile high, by the high road, which is obliged to go twisting
about, in order to get to the top of it. The hill sweeps
round from about West North West, to East South East ;
and, of course, it keeps off all the heavy winds, and
especially the South West winds, before which, in this part
of England (and all the South and Western part of it) even
the oak trees seem as if they would gladly flee ; for it
i 3
178 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
shaves them up as completely as you see a quickset hedge
shaved by hook or shears. Talking of hedges reminds me
of having seen a box-hedge, just as I came out of Petworth,
more than twelve feet broad, and about fifteen feet high. I
dare say it is several centuries old. I think it is about forty
yards long. It is a great curiosity.
The apple trees at Donnington show their gratitude to
the hill for its shelter; for I have seldom seen apple trees
in England so large, so fine, and, in general, so flourishing.
I should like to have, or to see, an orchard of American
apples under this hill. The hill, you will observe, does not
shade the ground at Donnington. It slopes too much for
that. But it affords complete shelter from the mischievous
winds. It is very pretty to look down upon this little
village as you come winding up the hill.
From this hill I ought to have had a most extensive view.
I ought to have seen the Isle of Wight and the sea before
me ; and to have looked back to Chalk Hill at Eeigate, at
the foot of which I had left some bonnet-grass bleaching.
But, alas ! Saint Swithin had begun his works for the day,
before I got to the top of the hill. Soon after the two
turnip- hoers had assured me that there would be no rain, I
saw, beginning to poke up over the South Downs (then
right before me) several parcels of those white, curled
clouds, that we call Judges' Wigs. (99) And they are just
like Judges' wigs. Not the parson-like things which the
Judges wear when they have to listen to the dull wrangling
and duller jests of the lawyers ; but, those big wigs
which hang down about their shoulders, when they are
about to tell you a little of their intentions, and when their
very looks say, " Stand clear /" These clouds (if rising
from the South West) hold precisely the same language to
the great-coatless traveller. Rain is sure to follow them.
The sun was shining very beautifully when I first saw these
Judges' wigs rising over the hills. At the sight of them he
soon began to hide his face ! and, before I got to the top of
the hill of Donton, the white clouds had become black, had
spread themselves all around, and a pretty decent and
sturdy rain began to fall. I had resolved to come to this
place (Singleton) to breakfast. I quitted the turnpike road
(from Petworth to Chichester) at a village called Up-
waltham, about a mile from Donnington Hill; and came
down a lane, which led me first to a village called East-
dean ; then to another called Westdean, I suppose ; and
SURREY, SCE3SEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 179
then to this village of Singleton, and here I am on the
turnpike road from Midhurst to Chichester. The lane
o-oes along through some of the finest farms in the world.
It is impossible for corn land and for agriculture to be finer
than these. In cases like mine, you are pestered to death
to find out the way to set out to get from place to place.
The people you have to deal with are innkeepers, ostlers,
and post-boys; and they think you mad if you express your
wish to avoid turnpike roads ; and a great deal more than
half mad, if you talk of going, even from necessity, by any
other road. They think you a strange fellow if you will
not ride six miles on a turnpike road rather than two on any
other road. This plague I experienced on this occasion. I
wanted to go from Petworth to Havant. My way was
through Singleton and Funtington. I had no business at
Chichester, which took me too far to the South. Nor
at Midhurst, which took me tuo far to the West. But.
though I staid all day (after my arrival) at Petworth, and
though I slept there, I could get no directions how to set
out to come to Singleton, where I am now. I started,
therefore, on the Chichester road, trusting to my inquiries
of the country people as I came on. By these means I got
hither, down a long valley, on the South Downs, which
valley winds and twists about amongst hills, some higher
and some lower, forming cross dells, inlets, and ground in
such a variety of shapes that it is impossible to describe ;
and, the whole of the ground, hill as well as de!l, is fine,
most beautiful, corn land, or is covered with trees or un-
derwood. As to St. Swithin, I set him at defiance. The
road was flinty, and very flinty. I rode a foot pace ; and
got here wet to the skin. I am very glad I came this road.
The corn is all fine ; all good ; fine crops, and no appear-
ance of blight. The barley extremely fine. The corn not
forwarder than in the Weald. No beans here ; few oats
comparatively ; chiefly wheat and barley ; but great quan-
tities of Swedish turnips, and those very forward. More
Swedish turnips here upon one single farm than upon all the
farms that I saw between the Wen and Petworth. These
turnips are, in some places, a foot high, and nearly cover
the ground. The farmers are, however, plagued by this S e .
Swithin, who keeps up a continual drip, which prevents the
thriving of the turnips and the killing of the weeds. The
orchards are good here in general. Fine walnut trees, and
an abundant crop of walnuts. This is a series of villages
180 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
all belonging to the Duke of Richmond, the outskirts
of whose park and woods come up to these farming
lands, all of which belong to him ; and, I suppose, that
every inch of land that I came through this morning,
belongs either to the Duke of Richmond, or to Lord
Egremont. No harm in that, mind, if those who till the
land have fair play ; and I should act unjustly towards
these noblemen, if I insinuated that the husbandmen have
not fair play, as far as the landlords are concerned ; for
everv body speaks well of them. There is, besides, no
misery to be seen here. I have seen no wretchedness
in Sussex; (100) nothing to be at all compared to that
which I have seen in other parts ; and, as to these villages
in the South Downs, they are beautiful to behold. Hume
and other historians rail against the/ewrfaZ-system ; and we,
*' enlightened" and " free" creatures as we are, look back
with scorn, or, at least, with surprise and pity, to the " vas-
salage" of our forefathers. But, if the matter were well
enquired into, not slurred over, but well and truly examined,
we should find, that the people of these villages were as
free in the days of William Rufus as are the people of the
present day ; and that vassalage, only under other names,
exists now as completely as it existed then. Well; but,
out of this, if true, arises another question : namely,
Whether the millions would derive any benefit from being
transferred from these great Lords who possess them by
hundreds, to Jews and jobbers who would possess them by
half-dozens, or by couples ? One thing we may say with a
certainty of being right : and that is, that the transfer would
be bad for the Lords themselves. There is an appearance
of comfort about the dwellings of the labourers, all along
here, that is very pleasant to behold. The gardens are neat,
and full of vegetables of the best kinds. I see verv few of
'* Ireland's lazy root ;" and never, in this country, will the
people be base enough to lie down and expire from starva-
tion under the operation of the extreme unction ! Nothing
but a potatoe-eater will ever do that. As I came along be-
tween Upwaltham and Eastdean, I called to me a young
man, who, along with other turnip-hoers, was sitting under
the shelter of a hedge at breakfast. He came running to
me with his victuals in his hand ; and, I was glad to see,
that his food consisted of a good lump of household bread
and not a very small piece of bacon. I did not envy him
his appetite, for I had, at that moment, a very good one of
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 181
my own ; but, I wanted to know the distance I had to go
before I should get to a good public-house. In parting
with him, I said, " You do get some bacon then ?" " Oh,
yes ! Sir," said he, and with an emphasis and a swag of the
head which seemed to say, " We must and will have that."
I saw, and with great delight, a pig at almost every
labourer's house. The houses are good and warm ; and
the gardens some of the very best that I have seen in
England. What a difference, good God ! what a difference
between this country and the neighbourhood of those corrupt
places Great Bedwin and Cricklade. What sort of breakfast
would this man have had in a mess of cold potatoes ?
Could he have worked, and worked in the wet, too, with
such food ? Monstrous ! No society ought to exist where
the labourers live in a hog-like sort of way. The Morning
Chronicle is everlastingly asserting: the mischievous conse-
quences of the want of enlightening these people " i th a
Sooth;" and telling us how well they are off in the North.
(101) Now, this I know, that, in the North, the "en-
lightened" people eat sowens, bitrgoo, porridge, and potatoes :
that is to say, oatmeal and water, or the root of extreme
unction. If this be the effect of their light, give me the
darkness " o' th a Sooth." This is according to what I
have heard. If, when I go to the North, I find the
labourers eating more meat than those of the " Sooth," I
shall then say, that " enlightening" is a very good thing ;
but, give me none of that " light," or of that '* grace,"
which makes a man content with oatmeal and water, or that
makes him patiently lie down and die of starvation amidst
abundance of food. The Morning Chronicle hears the
labourers crying out in Sussex. They are right to cry out
in time. When they are actually brought down to the ex-
treme unction, it is useless to cry out. And, next to the
extreme unction, is the porridge of the " enlightened" slaves
who toil in the factories for the Lords of the Loom. Talk
of vassals ! Talk of villains ! Talk of serfs ! Are there
any of these, or did feudal times ever see any of them, so
debased, so absolutely slaves, as the poor creatures who, in
the " enlightened" North, are compelled to work fourteen
hours in a day, in a heat of eighty-four degrees ; and who
are liable to punishment for looking out at a window of the
factory !
This is really a soaking day, thus far. I got here at nine
o'clock. I stripped off my coat, and put it by the kitchen
IS2 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
fire. In a parlour just eight feet square I have another
fire, and have dried my shirt on my back. We shall see
what this does for a hooping cough. The clouds fly so
low as to be seen passing bv the sides of even little hills on
these downs. The Devil is said to be busy in a high wind ;
but, he really appears to be busy now in this South-west
wind. The Quakers will, next market day, at Mark-lane,
be as busy as he. They and the Ministers and St. Swithin
and Devil all seem to be of a mind.
I must not forget the churches. That of Donnington is
very smali, for a church. It is about twenty feet wide and
thirty long. It is, however, sufficient for the population, the
amount of which is, two hundred and twenty-two, not one
half of whom are, of course, ever at church at one time.
There is, however, plenty of room for the whole : the
" tower" of this church is about double the size of a sentry-
box. The parson, whose name is Davidson, did not, when
the Return was laid before Parliament, in 1818, reside in
the parish. Though the living is a large living, the parson-
age house was let to " a lady and her three daughters."
What impudence a man must have to put this into a Return !
The church at Upwaltham is about such another, and the
"tower" still less than that at Donnington. Here the
population is seventy-nine. The parish is a rectory, and,
in the Return before mentioned, the parson (whose name
was Tripp), says, that the church will hold the popula-
tion, but, that the parsonage house will not hold him ! And
why ? Because it is " a miserable cottage." I looked
about for this " miserable cottage," and could not find it.
What an impudent fellow this must have been ! And, indeed,
what a state of impudence have they not now arrived at !
Did he, when he was ordained, talk any thing about a fine
house to live in ? Did Jesus Christ and Saint Paul talk
about fine houses ? Did not this priest most solemnly vow-
to God, upon the altar, that he would be constant, in season
and out of season, in watching over the souls of his flock?
However, it is useless to remonstrate with this set of men.
Nothing will have any effect upon them. They will keep
grasping at the tithes as long as they can reach them. " A
miserable cottage I" What impudence ! What, Mr. Tripp,
is it a fine house that you have been appointed and ordained
to live in ? Lord Egremont is the patron of Mr. Tripp ; and
he has a duty to perform too ; for, the living is not his : he
is, in this case, only an hereditary trustee for the public ;
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE. 1S3
and he ought to see that this parson resides in the parish,
which, according to his own Return, yields bim 125/. a-year.
Eastdean is a Vicarage, with a population of 353, a church
which the parson says will hold 200, and which I say will
hold 600 or 700, and a living worth 85/. a-year, in the gift
of the Bishop of Chichester.
Westdean is united with Singleton, the living is in the gift
of the Church at Chichester and the Duke of Richmond
alternately; it is a large living, it has a population of 613.
and the two churches, says the parson, will hold 200 people !
What careless, or what impudent fellows these must have
been. These two churches will hold a thousand people,
packed much less close than they are in meeting houses.
At Upwaltham there is a toll gate, and, when the woman
opened the door of the house to come and let me through, I
saw some straw plat lying in a chair. She showed it me ;
and I found that it was made by her husband, in the even-
ings, after he came home from work, in order to make him
a hat for the harvest. I told her how to get better straw
for the purpose ; and, when I told her, that she must cut
tiie grass, or the grain, green, she said, "Aye, I dare say
" it is so : and I wonder we never thought of that before ;
'' for, we sometimes make hats out of rushes, cut green, and
" dried, and the hats are very durable." This woman ought
to have my Cottage Economy. She keeps the toll-gate at
Upwaltham, which is called Waltham, and which is on the
turnpike road from Petworth to Chichester. Now, if any
gentleman, who lives at Chichester, will call upon my Son,
at the Office of the Register in Fleet Street, and ask for a
copy of Cottage Economy, to be given to this woman, he will
receive the copv, and my thanks, if he will have the good-
ness to give it to her, and to point to her the Essav on Straw
Plat.
Fareham (Hants),
Saturday, 2 Auyvat.
Here I am iu spite of St. Swithin!— The truth is, that
the Saint is like most other oppressors ; rough him ! rough
him ! and he relaxes. After drying myself, and sitting the
better part of four hours at Singleton, I started in the rain,
boldly setting the Saint at defiance, and expecting to have
not one dry thread by the time I got to Havant, which is
184 RURAL RIDE ACROSS
nine miles from Fareham, and four from Cosham. To my
most agreeable surprise, the rain ceased before I got by
Selsey, I suppose it is called, where Lord Selsey's house and
beautiful and fine estate is. On I went, turning off to the
right to go to Funtington and Westbourn, and getting to
Havant to bait my horse, about four o'clock.
From Lavant (about two miles back from Funtington)
the ground begins to be a sea side flat. The soil is some-
what varied in quality and kind ; but, with the exception of
an enclosed common between Funtington and Westbourn,
it is all good soil. The corn of all kinds good and earlier
than further back. They have begun cutting peas here,
and, near Lavant, I saw a field of wheat nearly ripe. The
Swedish turnips very fine, and still earlier than on the
South Downs. Prodigious crops of walnuts ; but the apples
bad along here. The South West winds have cut them off;
and, indeed, how should it be otherwise, if these winds
happen to prevail in May, or early in June ?
On the new enclosure near Funtington, the wheat and
oats are both nearly ripe.
In a new enclosure, near Westbourn, I saw the only
really blighted wheat that I have yet seen this year. " Oh !"
exclaimed I, "that my Lord Liverpool; that my much
" respected stern-path-of-duty-man could but see that wheat,
" which God and the seedsman intended to be white ; but
" which the Devil (listening to the prayers of the Quakers)
" has made black ! Oh ! could but my Lord see it, lying
" flat upon the ground, with the May-weed and the Couch-
" grass pushing up through it, and with a whole flock of
" rooks pecking away at its ears ! Then would my much
" valued Lord say, indeed, that the ' difficulties' of agricul-
*' ture are about to receive the ' greatest abatement !' '
But now 1 come to one of the great objects of my
journey : that is to say, to see the state of the corn along
at the South foot and on the South side of Portsdown-hill.
It is impossible that there can be, any where, a better corn
country than this. The hill is eight miles long, and about
three-fourths of a mile high, beginning at the road that runs
along at the foot of the hill. On the hill-side the corn land
goes rather better than half way up ; and, on the sea-side,
the corn land is about the third (it maybe half) a mile wide.
Portsdown-hill is very much in the shape of an oblong tin
cover to a dish. From Bedhampton, which lies at the
Eastern end of the hill, to Fareham, which is at the
SURREY, SUSSEX AND HAMPSHIRE.
1S5
Western end of it, you have brought under your eye not
less than eight square miles of corn fields, with scarcely a
hedge or ditch of any consequence, and being, on an
average, from twenty to forty acres each in extent. The land
is excellent. The situation good for manure. The spot the
earliest in the ivhole kingdom. Here, if the corn were back-
ward, then the harvest must be backward. We were talking
at Reigate of the prospect of a backward harvest. I
observed, that it was a rule, that, if no wheat were cut
under Portsdown-hill on the hill fair-day, 26th July, the
harvest must be generally backward. When I made this
observation, the fair-day was passed ; but I determined in
my mind to come and see how the matter stood. When,
therefore, I got to the village of Bedhampton, I began
to look cut pretty sharply. I came on to Wimmering,
which is just about the mid-way along the foot of the hill,
and there I saw, at a good distance from me, five men reap-
ing in a field of wheat of about 40 acres. I found, upon
inquiry, that they began this morning, and that the wheat
belongs to Mr. Boniface, of Wimmering. Here the first
sheaf is cut that is cut in England ; that the reader may
depend upon. It was never known, that the average even
of Hampshire was less than ten days behind the average of
Portsdown-hill. The corn under the hill is as good as
I ever saw it, except in the year 1813. No beans here.
No peas. Scarcely any oats. Wheat, barley, and turnips.
The Swedish turnips not so good as on the South Downs
and near Funtington j but the wheat full as good, rather
better ; and the barley as good as it is possible to be. Iu
looking at these crops, one wonders whence are to come the
hands to clear them off.
A very pleasant ride to day ; and the pleasanter for my
having set the wet Saint at defiance. It is about thirty
miles from Petworth to Fareham ; and I got in in very good
time. I have now come, if I include my boltings, for the
purpose of looking at farms and woods, a round hundred
miles from the Wen to this town of Fareham ; and, in the
whole of the hundred miles, I have not seen one single
wheat rick, though I have come through as fine corn coun-
tries as any in England, and by the homesteads of the
richest of farmers. Not one single whtat rick have I seen,
and not one rick of any sort of corn. I never saw, nor
heard of the like of this before ; and, if I had not witnessed
the fact with my own eyes I could not have believed it.
186 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
There are some farmers, who have corn in their barns, per-
haps ; but, when there is no rick left, there is very little
corn in the hands of farmers. Yet, the markets, St.
Swithin notwithstanding-, do not rise. This harvest must
be three weeks later than usual ; and the last harvest was
three weeks earlier than usual. The last crop was begun
upon at once, on account of the badness of the wheat of the
year before. So that the last crop will have bad to give
food for thirteen months and a half. And yet, the markets
do not rise ! And yet there are men, farmers, mad enough
to think, that they have " got past the bad place," and that
things will come about, and are coming about ! And Leth-
bridge, of the Collective, withdraws his motion because he
has got what he wanted : namely, a return of good and
" remunerating prices !" The Morning Chronicle of this
day, which has met me at this place, has the following
paragraph. " The weather is much improved, though it
" does not yet assume the character of being fine. At the
" Corn Exchange since Monday the arrivals consist of 7,130
" quarters of wheat, 450 quarters of barley, 8,300 quar-
" ters of oats, and 9,200 sacks of flour. The demand for
" wheat is next to Zero, and for oats it is extremely dull.
" To effect sales, prices are not much attended to, for the
" demand cannot be increased at the present currency. The
"farmers should pay attention to oats, for the foreign new,
" under the King's lock, will be brought into consumption,
" unless a decline takes place immediately, and a weight
" will thereby be thrown over the markets, which under ex-
isting circumstances will be extremely detrimental to the
" agricultural interests. Its distress however does not de-
" serve much sympathy, for as soon as there was a prospect
" of the payment of rents, the cause of the people was
" abandoned by the Representatives of Agriculture in the
" Collected Wisdom, and Mr. Brougham's most excellent
"measure for encreasing the consumption of Malt was neg-
lected. Where there is no sympathy, none can be ex-
" pected, and the land proprietors need not in future depend
" on the assistance of the mercantile and manufacturing in-
" terests, should their own distress again require a united
•' effort to remedy the general grievances." As to the
mercantile and manufacturing people, what is the land to
expect from them ? But, I agree with the Chronicle, that
the landlords deserve ruin. They abandoned the public
cause, the moment they thought that they saw a prospect
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 187
of getting rents. That prospect will scon disappear, unless
they pray hard to St. Swithin to insist upon forty days wet
after his birth-day. I do not see what the farmers can do
about the price of oats. They have no power to do any
thing, unless they come with their cavalry horses and storm
the " King's lock." In short, it is all confusion in men's
minds as well as in their pockets. There must be some-
thing completely out of joint, when the Government are
afraid of the effects of a good crop. I intend to set off to-
morrow for Botley, and go thence to Easton ; and then to
Alton and Crondall and Farnham, to see how the hops are
there. By the time that I get back to the Wen, I shall
know nearly the real state of the case as to crops ; and that,
at this time, is a great matter.
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.
Botley {Hampshire),
bth August, 1823.
I got to Fareham on Saturday night, after having got a
soaking on the South Downs on the morning of that day,
On the Sunday morning, intending to go and spend the day
atTitchfield (about three miles and a half from Fareham),
and perceiving, upon looking out of the window, about 5
o'clock in the morning, that it was likely to rain, I got up,
struck a bustle, got up the ostler, set off and got to my
destined point before 7 o'clock io the morning. And here
I experienced the benefits of early rising ; for I had scarcely
got well and safely under cover, when St. Swithin began to
pour down again, and he continued to pour during the whole
of the day. From Fareham to Tichfield village a large
part of the ground is a common enclosed some years ago.
It is therefore amongst the worst of the land in the country.
ISS RURAL RIDE THROUGH
Yet, I did not see a bad field of corn along here, and the
Swedish turnips were, I think, full as fine as any that I saw
upon the South Downs. But it is to be observed that this
land is in the hands of dead-weight people, and is conve-
niently situated for the receiving of manure from Ports-
mouth. Before I got to my friend's house, I passed by a
farm where I expected to find a wheat-rick standing. I did
not, however ; and this is the strongest possible proof that
the stock of corn is gone out of the hands of the farmers. I
set out from Tichfield at 7 o'clock in the evening, and had
seven miles to go to reach Botley. It rained, but I got my-
self well furnished forth as a defence against the rain. I
had not gone two hundred yards before the rain ceased ; so
that I was singularly fortunate as to rain this day ; and I
had now to congratulate myself on the success of the re-
medy for the hooping-cough which I used the day before on
the South Downs ; for really, though I had a spell or two
of coughing on Saturday morning when I set out from Pet-
worth, I have not had, up to this hour, any spell at all since
I got wet upon the South Downs, I got to Botley about
nine o'clock, having stopped two or three times to look
about me as I went along ; for, I had, in the first place, to
ride, for about three miles of my road, upon a turnpike-road
of which I was the projector, and, indeed, the maker. (102)
In the next place I had to ride, for something better than
half a mile of my way, along between fields and coppices
that were mine until they came into the hands of the mort-
gagee, and by the side of cottages of my own building. The
only matter of much interest with me was the state of the
inhabitants of those cottages. I stopped at two or three
places, and made some little enquiries ; I rode up to two or
three houses in the village of Botley, which I had to pass
through, and, just before it was dark, [ got to a farm-house
close by the Church, and what was more, not a great many
yards from the dwelling of that delectable creature, the
Botley Parson, whom, however, I have not seen during my
stay at this place.
Botley lies in a valley, the soil of which is a deep and stiff
clay. Oak trees grow well ; and this year the wheat grows
well, as it does upon all the clays that I have seen. I have
never seen the wheat better in general, in this part of the
country, than it is now. I have, I think, seen it heavier ;
but never clearer from blight. It is backward compared to
the wheat in many other parts ; some of it is quite green ;
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 189
but none of it has any appearance of blight. This is not
much of a barley country. The oats are good. The beans
that I have seen, very indifferent.
The best news that I have learnt here is, that the Botley
parson is become quite a gentle creature, compared to
what he used to be. The people in the village have told me
some most ridiculous stories about his having been hoaxed
in London ! It seems that somebody danced him up from
Botley to London, by telling him that a legacy had been
left him, or some such story. Up went the parson on horse-
back, being in too great a hurry to run the risk of coach.
The hoaxers, it appears, got him to some hotel, and there
set upon him a whole tribe of applicants, wet-nurses,
dry-nurses, lawyers with deeds of conveyance for bor-
rowed money, curates in want of churches, coffin-makers,
travelling companions, ladies' maids, dealers in Yorkshire
hams, Newcastle coals, and dealers in dried night-soil at
Islington. In short, if I am rightly informed, they kept
the parson in town for several days, bothered him three
parts out of his senses, compelled him to escape, as it were,
from a fire ; and then, when he sot home, he found the vil-
lage posted all over with handbills giving an account of his
adventure, under the pretence of offering 500/. reward, for
a discovery of the hoaxers ! The good of it was the parson
ascribed his disgrace to me, and thev say that he perseveres
to this hour in accusing me of it. Upon my word, I had
nothing to do with the matter, and this affair only shows
that I am not the only friend that the Parson has in the
world. (103) Though this may have had a tendency to
produce in the Parson that amelioration of deportment
which is said to become him so well, there is something else
that has taken place, which has, in all probability, had a
more powerful influence in this way ; namely, a great reduc-
tion in the value of the Parson's living, which was at one
time little short of five hundred pounds a year, and which, I
believe, is now not the half of that sum ! This, to be sure,
is not only a natural but a necessary consequence of the
change in the value of money. The parsons are neither
more nor less than another sort of landlords. They must
fall, of course, in their demands, or their demands will not
be paid. They may tiike in kind, but that will answer them
no purpose at all. They will be less people than they have
been, and will continue to grow less and less, until the day
190 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
when the whole of the tithes and other Church property, as
it is called, shall be applied to public purposes.
Easton (Hamjjshire),
Wednesday Evening, 6th August.
This village of Easton lies at a few miles towards the
north-east from Winchester. It is distant from Botley by
the way which I came about fifteen or sixteen miles. I came
through Durley, where I went to the house of farmer Mears.
I was very much pleased with what I saw at Durley, which
is about two miles from Botley, and is certainly one of the
most obscure villages in this whole kingdom. Mrs. Mears,
the farmer's wife, had made, of the crested dog's tail grass,
a bonnet which she wears herself. I there saw girls platting
the straw. They had made plat of several degrees of fine-
ness ; and, they sell it to some person or persons at Fare-
ham, who, I suppose, makes it into bonnets. Mrs. Mears,
who is a very intelligent and clever woman, has two girls
at work, each of whom earns per week as much (within a
shilling) as her father, who is a labouring man, earns per
week. The father has at this time, only 7s. per week.
These two girls (and not very stout girls) earn six shillings
a week each : thus the income of this family is, from seven
shillings a week, raised to nineteen shillings a week. I shall
suppose that this may in some measure be owing to the
generosity of ladies in the neighbourhood, and to then* desire
to promote this domestic manufacture ; but, if I suppose
that these girls receive double compared to what they will
receive for the same quantity of labour when the manufac-
ture becomes more general, is it not a great thing to make
the income of the family thirteen shillings a week instead
of seven ? Very little, indeed, could these poor things have
done in the field during the last forty days. And, besides,
how clean ; how healthful ; how every thing that one could
wish, is this sort of employment ! The farmer, who is also
a very intelligent person, told me, that he should endeavour
to introduce the manufacture as a thing to assist the obtain-
ing of employment, in order to lessen the amount of the
poor-rates. I think it very likely that this will be done in
the parish of Durley. A most important matter it is, to put
paupers in the way of ceasing to be paupers. I could not
help admiring the zeal as well as the intelligence of the
farmer's wife, who expressed her readiness to teach the girls
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 191
and women of the parish, in order to enable them to assist
themselves. I shall hear, in all probability, of their pro-
ceedings at Durley, and if I do, T shall make a point of com-
municating to the Public an account of those interesting
proceedings. From the very first ; from the first moment
of my thinking about this straw affair, I regarded it as likely
to assist in bettering the lot of the labouring people. If it
has not this effect, 1 value it not. It is not worth the at-
tention of any of us ; but I am satisfied that this is the way
in which it will work. I have the pleasure to know, that
there is one labouring family, at any rate, who are living
well through my means. It is I, who, without knowing
them, without ever having seen them, without even now
knowing their names, have given the means of good living
to a family who were before half-starved. This is indis-
putably my work ; and when I reflect that there must
necessarily be, now, some hundreds of families, and shortly,
many thousands of families, in England, who are and will
be, through my means, living well instead of being half-
starved ; I cannot but feel myself consoled ; I cannot but
feel that I have some compensation for the sentence passed
upon me bv Ellenborough, Grose, Le Blanc and Bailey;
(104) and I verily believe, that, in the case of this one
single family in the parish of Durley, I have done more
good than Bailev ever did in the whole course of his life,
notwithstanding his pious Commentary on the Book of
Common Prayer. I will allow nothing to be good, with
regard to the labouring classes, unless it make an addition
to their victuals, drink, or clothing. As to their minds, that
is much too sublime matter for me to think about. I know
that thev are in rags, and that they have not a belly-full ;
and I know that the way to make them good, to make them
honest, to make them dutiful, to make them kind to one
another, is to enable them to live well ; and 1 also know,
that none of these things will ever be accomplished by
Methodist sermons, and by those stupid, at once stupid and
malignant things, and roguish things, called Religious
Tracts.
It seems that this farmer at Durley has always read the
Register, since the first appearance of little Twopenny
'I'm*//. Had it not been lor this reading, Mrs. Mean
would not have thought about the grass ; and had she not
thought about the grass, none of the benefits above men-
tioned would have arisen to her neighbours. The difference
192 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
between this affair and the spinning-jenny affairs is this ,
that the spinning-jenny affairs fill the pockets of " rich
ruffians," such as those who would have murdered me at
Coventry ; and that this straw affair makes an addition to
the food and raiment of the labouring classes, and gives not
a penny to be pocketed by the rich ruffians.
From Durley I came on in company with farmer Mears
through Upham. This Upham is the place where Young,
who wrote that bombastical stuff, called " Night Thoughts,"
was once the parson, and where, I believe, he was born.
Away to the right of Upham, lies the little town of Bishop's
Waltham, whither I wished to go very much, but it was too
late in the day. From Upham we came on upon the high
land, called Black Down. This has nothing to do with that
Black-down Hill, spoken of in my last ride. We are here
getting up upon the chalk hills, which stretch away towards
Winchester. The soil here is a poor blackish stuff, with
little white stones in it, upon a bed of chalk. It was a
Down, not many years ago. The madness and greediness
of the days of paper-money led to the breaking of it up.
The corn upon it is miserable ; but, as good as can be ex-
pected upon such land.
At the end of this tract, we come to a spot called White-
flood, and here we cross the old turnpike-road which leads
from Winchester to Gosport through Bishop's Waltham.
Whiteflood is at the foot of the first of a series of hills over
which you come to get to the top of that lofty ridge called
Morning Hill. The farmer came to the top of the first hill
along with me; and he was just about to turn back, when
I, looking away to the left, down a valley which stretched
across the other side of the Down, observed a rather
singular appearance, and said to the farmer, " What is that
" coming up that valley ? is it smoke, or is it a cloud ?"
The day had been very fine hitherto ; the sun was shining
very bright where we were. The farmer answered, "Oh,
" it's smoke ; it comes from Ouselberry, which is down in
" that bottom behind those trees." So saying, we bid each
other good day; he went back, and I went on. Before I
had got a hundred and fifty yards from him, the cloud which
he had taken for the Ouselberry smoke, came upon the hill
and wet me to the skin. He was not far from the house
at Whiteflood; but I am sure that he could not entirely
escape it. It is curious to observe how the clouds sail
about in the hilly countries, and particularly, I think,
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 193
amongst the chalk-hills. I have never observed the like
amongst the sand-hills, or amongst rocks.
From Whiteflood you come over a series of hills, part of
which form a rabbit-warren called Longwood warren, on
the borders of which is the house and estate of Lord
Northesk. These hills are amongst the most barren of
the Downs of England ; yet a part of them was broken up
during the rage for improvements ; during the rage for
what empty men think was an augmenting of the capital of
the country. On about twenty acres of this land, sown
with wheat, 1 should not suppose that there would be twice
twenty bushels of grain ! A man must be mad, or nearly
mad, to sow wheat upon such a spot. However, a large
part of what was enclosed has been thrown out again
alreadv, and the rest will be thrown out in a very few-
years. The Down itself was poor; what then must it be as
corn-land ! Think of the destruction which has here taken
place. The herbage was not good, but it was something :
it was something for every year, and without trouble.
Instead of grass it will now, for twenty years to come, bear
nothing but that species of weeds which is hardy enough to
grow where the grass will not grow. And this was '' aug-
" menting the capital of the nation." These new enclosure-
bills were boasted of by George Rose and by Pitt as proofs
of national prosperity ! When men in power are ignorant
to this extent, who is to expect any thing but consequences
such as we now behold.
From the top of this high land called Morning lad, and
the real name of which is Magdalen hill, from a chapel
which once stood there dedicated to Mary Magdalen ;
from the top of this land you have a view of a circle which
is upon an average about seventy miles in diameter ; and I
believe in no one place so little as fifty miles in diameter.
You see the Isle of Wight in one direction, and in the
opposite direction you see the high lands in Berkshire. It
is not a pleasant view, however. The fertile spots are all
too far from you. Descending from this hill, you cross the
turnpike-road (about two miles from Winchester), leading
from V.'inchester to London through Alresford and Fain-
ham. As soon as you cross the road, you enter the estate
of the descendant of Rollo, Duke of Buckingham, which
estate is in the parish of Avington. In this place the Duke
has a farm, not very good land. It is in his own hands.
The corn is indifferent, except the barley, which is every
K
194 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
•where good. You come a full mile from the roadside down
through this farm, to the Duke's mansion-house at Aving-
ton, and to the little village of that name, hoth of them
beautifully situated, amidst fine and lofty trees, fine meadows,
and streams of clear water. On this farm of the Duke I
saw (in a little close hv the farm-house), several hens
in coops with broods of pheasants instead of chickens. It
seems that a gamekeeper lives in the farm-house, and I dare
say the Duke thinks much more of the pheasants than of the
corn. To be very solicitous to preserve what has been
raised with so much care and at so much expense, is by no
means unnatural ; but then, there is a measure to be
observed here ; and that measure was certainly outstretched
in the case of Sir. Deller. I here saw, at this gamekeeping
farm-house, what I had not seen since my departure from
the Wen ; namely, a wheat-rick ! Hard, indeed, would it
have been if a Plantagenet, turned farmer, had not a wheat-
rick in his hands. This rick contains, I should think, what
they call in Hampshire ten loads of wheat, that is to say,
fifty quarters, or four hundred bushels. And this is the only
rick, not onlv of wheat, but of any corn whatever that I have
seen since I left London. The turnips, upon this farm, are
by no means good; but, I was in some measure compen-
sated for the bad turnips by the sight of the Duke's turnip-
hoers, about a dozen females, amongst whom there were
several very pretty girls, and they were as merry as larks.
There had been a shower that had brought them into a sort
of huddle on the roadside. When [ came up to them, they
all fixed their eyes upon me, and, upon my smiling, they
bursted out into laughter. I observed to them that the
Duke of Buckingham was a very happy man to have such
turnip-hoers, and really they seemed happier and better
off than any work-people that I saw in the fields all the way
from London to this spot. It is curious enough, but I have
always observed, that the women along this part of the
country are usually tall. These girls were all tall, straight,
fair, round-faced, excellent complexion, and uncommonly
gay. They were well dressed, too, and I observed the same
of all the men that I saw down at Avington. This could,
not be the case if the Duke were a cruel or hard master ;
and this is an act of justice due from me to the descendant
of Rollo. It is in the house of Mr. Deller that I make these
notes, but, as it is injustice that we dislike, I must do Rollo
justice ; and I must again say, that the good looks and
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 195
happy faces of his turnip-hoers spoke much more in his
praise than could have heen spoken by fifty lawyers,
like that Storks who was employed, the other day, to
plead against the Editor of the Bucks Chronicle, for
publishing an account of the selling-up of farmer Smith,
of Ashendon, in that county. I came through the Duke's
Park to come to Easton, which is the next village below
Avington. A very pretty park. The house is quite in the
bottom ; it can be seen in no direction from a distance
greater than that of four or five hundred yards. The river
Itchen, which rises near Alresford, which runs down
through Winchester to Southampton, goes down the middle
of this valley, and waters all its immense quantity of
meadows. The Duke's house stands not far from the river
itself. A stream of water is brought from the river to feed
a pond before the house. There are several avenues of trees
which are very beautiful, and some of which give complete
shelter to the kitchen garden, which has, besides, extraor-
dinarily high walls. Never was a greater contrast than
that presented by this place and the place of Lord Egre-
mont. The latter is all loftiness. Every thing is high
about it ; it has extensive views in all directions. It sees
and can be seen by all the country around. If I had the
ousting of one of these noblemen, I certainly, however,
would oust the Duke, who, I dare say, will by no means be
desirous of seeing arise the occasion of putting the sincerity
of the compliment to the test. The village of Easton is,
like that of Avington, close by the waterside. The meadows
are the attraction ; and, indeed, it is the meadows that have
caused the villages to exist.
•6»
Selborne {Hants),
Thursday, 7th August, Noon.
I took leave of Mr. Deller this morning, about 7 o'clock.
Came back through Avington Park, through the village of
Avington, and, crossing the Itchen river, came over to the
village of Itchen Abas. J has means below. It is a French
word that came over with Duke Hollo's progenitors. There
needs no better proof of the high descent of the Duke, ;;nd
of the antiquity of his family. This is that Itchen Abas
where that famous Parson- justice, the Rev( rend Robert
Wright, lives, who refused to hear Mr. Deller's complaint
against the Duke's servant at his own house, and whoalter-
k 2
196 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
•wards, along with Mr. Poultcr. bound Mr. Deller over to
the Quarter Sessions for the alleged assault. I have great
pleasure in informing the public that Mr. Deller has not had
to bear the expenses in this case himself; but that they
have been borne by his neighbours, very much to the
credit of those neighbours. I hear of an affair between
the Duke of Buckingham and a Mr. Bird, who resides in
this neighbourhood. If I had had time I should have gone
to see Mr. Bird, of whose treatment I have heard a great
deal, and an account of which treatment ought to be
brought before the public. It is very natural for the
Duke of Buckingham to wish to preserve that game
which he calls his hobby-horse. It is very natural for him
to delight in his hobby ; but, hobbies, my Lord Duke, ought
to be gentle, inoffensive, perfectly harmless little creatures.
They ought not to be suffered to kick and fling about them :
they ought not to be rough-shod, and, above all things,
they ought not to be great things like those which are ridden
by the Life-guards : and, like them, be suffered to dance,
and caper, and trample poor devils of farmers under foot.
Have your hobbies, my Lords of the Soil, but let them be
gentle ; in short, let them be hobbies in character with the
commons and forests, and not the high-fed hobbies from
the barracks at Knightsbridge, such as put poor Mr. Sheriff
Waithman's life in jeopardy. That the game should be
preserved, every one that knows anything of the country
will allow ; but, every man of any sense must see that it
cannot be preserved by sheer force. It must be rather
through love than through fear ; rather through good-will
than through ill-will. If the thing be properly managed,
there will be plenty of game, without any severity towards
anv good man. Mr. Deller's case was so plain : it was so
monstrous to think that a man was to be punished for beine;
on his own ground in pursuit of wild animals that he himself
had raised : this was so monstrous, that it was only neces-
sary to name it to excite the indignation of the country.
And Mr. Deller has, by his spirit and perseverance, by the
coolness and the good sense which he has shown through-
out the whole of this proceeding, merited the commendation
of every man who is not in his heart an oppressor. It occurs
to me to ask here, who it is that -finally pays for those
" counsels' opinions " which Poulter and Wright said they
took in the case of Mr. Deller ; because, if these counsels'
opinions are paid for by the county, and if a Justice of the
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 197
Peace can take as many counsels' opinions as he chooses, I
should like to know what fellow, who chooses to put on a
bobtail wig and call himself a lawyer, may not have a good
living given to him by any crony Justice at the expense of
the county. This never can be legal. It never can be bind-
ing on the county to pay for these counsels' opinions. How-
ever, leaving this to be enquired into another time, we have
here, in Mr. Deller's case, an instance of the worth of coun-
sels' opinions. Mr. Deller went to the two Justices, shewed
them the Register with the Act of Parliament in it, called
upon them to act agreeably to that Act of Parliament ; but
they chose to take counsels' opinion first. The two " coun-
sel," the two '' lawyers," the two " learned friends," told
them that they were right in rejecting the application of
Mr. Deller and in binding him over for the assault ; and,
after all, this Grand Jury threw out the Bill, and in that
throwing out shewed that they thought the counsels'
opinions not Worth a straw.
Being upon the subject of matter connected with the con-
duct of these Parson-Justices, I will here mention what is
now going on in Hampshire respecting the accounts of the
Treasurer of the County. At the last Quarter Sessions, or
at a Meeting of the Magistrates previous to the opening of
the Sessions, there was a discussion relative to this matter.
The substance of which appears to have been this ; that the
Treasurer, Mr. George Hollis, whose accounts had been
audited, approved of, and passed, every year by the Magis-
trates, is in arrear to the county to the amount of about
four thousand pounds. Sir Thomas Baring appears to have
been the great stickler against Mr. Hollis, who was but
feeblv defended by his friends. The Treasurer of a county
is compelled to find securities. These securities have be-
come exempted, in consequence of the annual passing of the
accounts by the Magistrates ! Nothing can be more just
than this exemption. I am security, suppose, for a Treasurer.
The Magistrates do not pass his accounts on account of a de-
ficiency. I make good the deficiency. But, the Magistrates
are not to go on vear after year passing his accounts, and then,
at the end of several years, come and call upon me to make
good the deficiencies. Thus say the securities of Mr. Hollis.
The Magistrates, in fact, are to blame. One of the Magis-
trates, a Reverend Mr. Orde, said that the Magistrates were
more to blame than the Treasurer ; and really 1 think so
too ; for, though Mr. Hollis has been a tool for many man}
198
RURAL RIDE THROUGH
years, of Old George Rose and the rest of that crew, it
seems impossible to believe that he could have intended any
thing dishonest, seeing that the detection arose out of an
account, published by himself in the newspaper, which ac-
count he need not have published until three months later
than the time when he did publish it. This, is, as he him-
self states, the best possible proof that he was unconscious
of any error or any deficiency. The fact appears to be
this; that Mr. Hollis, who has for many years been Under
Sheriff as well as Treasurer of the County, who holds several
other offices, and who has, besides, had large pecuniary
transactions with his bankers, has for years had his accounts
so blended that he has not known how this money belong-
ing to the county stood. His own statement shows that it
was all a mass of confusion. The errors, he says, have
arisen, entirely from the negligence of his clerks, and from
causes which produced a confusion in his accounts. This is
the fact ; but he has been in good fat offices too long not to
have made a great many persons think that his offices would
be better in their hands ; and they appear resolved to oust
him. I, for my part, am glad of it ; for I remember his
coming up to me in the Grand Jury Chamber, just after the
people at St. Stephen's had passed Power-of-Imprisonment
Bill in 1817 ; I remember his coming up to me as the Under
Sheriff of Willis, the man that we now call Flemming, who
has begun to build a house at North Stoneham. I remem-
ber his coming up to me, and with all the base sauciness of
a thorough paced Pittite, telling me to disperse or he would
take me into custody ! (105) I remember this of Mr. Hollis,
and I am therefore glad that calamity has befallen him ;
but I must say, that after reading his own account of the
matter ; after reading the debate of the Magistrates ; and
after hearing the observations and opinions of well-informed
and impartial persons in Hampshire who dislike Mr. Hollis
as much as I do ; I must say that I think him perfectly
clear of all intention to commit any thing like fraud, or to
make any thing worthy of the name of false account ; and I
am convinced that this affair, which will now prove extremely
calamitous to him, might have been laughed at by him at
the time when wheat was fifteen shillings a bushel. This
change in the affairs of the Government ; this penury now
experienced by the Pittites at Whitehall, reaches, in its
influence, to every part of the country. The Barings are
now the great men in Hampshire. They were not such in
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 199
the days of George Rose, while George was able to make
the people believe that it was necessary to give their money
freely to preserve the "blessed comforts of religion."
George Rose would have thrown his shield over Mr. Hollis;
his broad and brazen shield. In Hampshire the Bishop
too, is changed. The present is, doubtless, as pious as the
last, every bit; and has the same Bishop-like views ; but it
is not the same family ; it is not the Garniers and Poulters
and Norths and De Grays and Haygarths ; it is not pre-
cisely the same set who have the power in their hands.
Things, therefore, take another turn. The Pittite jolter-
heads are all broken-backed ; and the Barings come forward
with their well-known weight of metal. It was exceedingly
unfortunate for Mr. Hollis that Sir Thomas Baring happened
to be against him. However, the thing will do good alto-
gether. The county is placed in a pretty situation : its
Treasurer has had his accounts regularly passed by the
Magistrates ; and these Magistrates come at last and dis-
cover that they have for a long time been passing accounts
that thev ought not to pass. These Magistrates have ex-
empted the securities of Mr. Hollis, but not a word do they
say about making good the deficiencies. What redress,
then, have the people of the county ? They have no redress,
unless they can obtain it by petitioning the Parliament ; and
if thev do not petition ; if they do not state their case, and
that boldly, too, they deserve every thing that can befal
them from similar causes. I am astonished at the boldness
of the Magistrates. I am astonished that thev should think
of calling Mr. Hollis to account without being prepared for
rendering an account of their own conduct. However, we
shall see what thev will do in the end. And when we have
seen that, we shall see whether the county will rest quietly
under the loss which it is likely to sustain.
I must now go back to Itchen Abas, where, in the farm-
yard of a farmer, Courtenay, I saw another wheat-rick.
From Itchen Abas I came up the valley to Itchen Stoke.
Soon after that I crossed the Itchen river, came out into the
Alresford turnpike-road, and came on towards Alresford,
having the valley now upon my left. If the hay be down all
the way to Southampton in the same manner that it i^ along
here, there are thousands of acres of hay rotting on the sides
of this Itchen river. Most of the meadows are watered
artificially. The crops of grass are heavy, and, they appear
to have been cut precisely in the right time to be spoiled.
200 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
Coming on towards Alresford, I saw a gentleman (about a
quarter of a mile beyond Alresford) coming out of his gate
with his hat off, looking towards the south-west, as if to
see what sort of weather it was likely to be. This was no
other than Mr. Rolleston or Rawlinson, who, it appears, has
a box and some land here. This gentleman was, when I
lived in Hampshire, one of those worthy men, who, in the
several counties of England, executed " without any sort
of remuneration," such a large portion of that justice which
is the envv of surrounding nations and admiration of the
world. We are often told, especially in Parliament, of the
disinterestedness of these persons ; of their worthiness, their
piety, their loyalty, their excellent qualities of all sorts, but
particularly of their disinterestedness, in taking upon them the
office of Justice of the Peace ; spending so much time,
taking so much trouble, and all for nothing at all, but for
the pure love of their King and country. And the worst of
it is, that our Ministers impose upon this disinterestedness
and generosity ; and, as in the case of Mr. Rawlinson, at the
end of, perhaps, a dozen years of services voluntarily rendered
to " King and country," they force him, sorely against his
will, no doubt, to hecome a Police Magistrate in London !
To be suit', there are five or six hundred pounds a-year of
public money attached to this ; but, what are these paltry
pounds to a " country gentleman," who so disinterestedly
rendered us services for so many years ? Hampshire is
fertile in persons of this disinterested stamp. There is a
'Squire Greme, who lives across the countrv, not many
miles from the spot where I saw '' Mr. Justice " Rawlinson.
This 'Squire also has served the country for nothing during
a great many years ; and, of late years, the 'Squire Junior,
eager, apparently to emulate his sire, has become a distri-
butor of stamps, for this famous county of Hants ! What
sons 'Squire Rawlinson may have is more than I know at
present, though I will endeavour to know it, and to find out
whether they also be serving us. A great deal has been
said about the debt of gratitude due from the people to the
Justices of the Peace. An account, containing the names
and places of abode of the Justices, and of the public money,
or titles, received by them and by their relations; such
an account would be a very useful thing. We should then
know the real amount of this debt of gratitude. We shall see
such an account by-and-by ; and, we should have seen it
long ago, if there had been, in a certain place, only one
single man disposed to do his duty.
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY". 201
I came through Alresford about eight o'clock, having
loitered a good deal in coming up the valley. After
quitting Alresford you come (on the road towards Alton),
to the village of Bishop's Suttoa ; and then to a place called
Ropley Dean, where there is a house or two. Just before
you come to Ropley Dean, you see the beginning of the
Valley of Itchen. The Itchen river, falls into the salt water
at Southampton. It rises, or rather has its first rise, just
by the roadside at Ropley Dean, which is at the foot of that
very high land which lies between Alresford and Alton. All
along by the Itchen river, up to its very source, there are
meadows; and this vale of meadows, which is about twenty-
five miles in length, and is, in some places, a mile wide, is,
at the point of which I am now speaking, only about twice
as wide as my horse is long ! This vale of Itchen is worthy
of particular attention. There are few spots in England more
fertile or more pleasant ; and none, I believe, more healthy.
Following the bed of the river, or rather, the middle of the
vale, it is about five-and-twenty miles in length, from Ropley
Dean to the village of South Stoneham, which is just above
Southampton. The average width of the meadows is, I
should think, a hundred rods at the least ; and if I am right
in this conjecture, the vale contains about five thousand
acres of meadows, large part of which is regularly watered.
The sides of the vale are, until you come down to within
about six or eight miles of Southampton, hills or rising
grounds of chalk, covered more or less thickly with loam.
Where the hills rise up very steeply from the valley, the
fertilitv of the corn-lands is not so great ; but for a con-
siderable part of the way, the corn-lands are excellent, and
the farm-houses, to which those lands belong, are, for the far
greater part under covert of the hills on the edge of the
valley. Soon after the rising of the stream, it forms itself
into some capital ponds at Alresford. These, doubtless,
were augmented by arc, in order to supply Winchester with
fish. The fertility of this vale, and of the surrounding
country, is best proved by the fact, that, besides the town of
Alrestord and that of Southampton, there are seventeen
villages, each having its parish church, upon its borders.
When we consider these things we are not surprised that a
spot, situated about half way down this vale should have
been chosen for the building of a city, or that that city
should have been for a great number of years a place of resi-
dence for the Kings of England.
202 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
"Winchester, which is at present a mere nothing to what
it once was, stands across the vale at a place where the vale
is made very narrow by the jutting forward of two immense
hills. From the point where the river passes through the
city, you go, whether eastward or westward, a full mile up
a very steep hill all the way. The city is, of course, in one
of the deepest holes that can be imagined. It never could
have been thought of as a place to be defended since the
discovery of gunpowder; and, indeed, one would think that
very considerable annoyance might be given to the in-
habitants even by the flinging of the flint-stones from the
hills down into the city.
At Ropley Dean, before I mounted the hill to come on
towards Rotherham Park, I baited my horse. Here the
ground is precisely like that at Ashmansworth on the
borders of Berkshire, which, indeed, I could see from the
ground of which I am now speaking. In coming up the
hill, I had the house and farm of Mr. Duthy to my right.
Seeing some very fine Swedish turnips, I naturally expected
that they belonged to this gentleman who is Secretary to the
Agricultural Society of Hampshire ; but I found that they
belonged to a farmer Mayhew. The soil is, along upon this
high land, a deep loam, bordering on a clay, red in colour,
and pretty full of large, rough, yellow-looking stones, very
much like some of the land in Huntingdonshire ; but here
is a bed of chalk under this. Every thing is backward here.
The wheat is perfectly green in most places ; but, it is every
where pretty good. I have observed, all the way along,
that the wheat is good upon the stiff, strong land. It is so
here; but it is very backward. The greater part of it is
full three weeks behind the wheat under Portsdown Hill.
But few farm-houses come within my sight along here ;
but in one of them there was a wheat-rick, which is
the third I have seen since I quitted the Wen. In de-
scending from this high ground, in order to reach the
village of East Tisted, which lies on the turnpike-road from
the Wen to Gosport through Alton, I had to cross Rother-
ham Park. On the right of the park, on a bank of land
facing the north-east, I saw a very pretty farm-house,
having every thing in excellent order, with fine corn-fields
about it, and with a wheat-rick standing in the yard. This
farm, as I afterwards found, belongs to the owner of Rother-
ham Park, who is also the owner of East Tisted, who has
recently built a new house in the park, who has quite
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 203
metamorphosed the village of Tisted, within these eight
years, who has, indeed, really and truly improved the whole
country just round about here, whose name is Scot, well
known as a brickmaker at North End, Fulham, and who
has, in Hampshire, supplanted a Norman of the name of
Powlet. The process by which this transfer has taken
place is visible enough, to all eyes but the eyes of the
jolterheads. Had there been no Debt created to crush
liberty in France and to keep clown reformers in England,
Mr. Scot would not have had bricks to burn to build houses
for the Jews and jobbers and other eaters of taxes; and
the Norman Powlet would not have had to pay in taxes,
through his own hands and those of his tenants and labour-
ers, the amount of the estate at Tisted, first to be given to
the Jews, jobbers and tax-eaters, and then by them to be
given to " 'Squire Scot" for his bricks. However, it is not
'Squire Scot who has assisted to pass laws to make people
pay double toll on a Sunday. 'Squire Scot had nothing to
do with passing the New Game-laws and Old Ellenborough's
Act ; 'Squire Scot never invented the New Trespass law,
in virtue of which John Cockbain of Whitehaven in the
county of Cumberland was, by two clergymen and three
other magistrates of that county, sentenced to pay one
half- penny for damages and seven shillings costs, for going
upon a field, the property of William, Earl of Lonsdale.
In the passing of this Act, which was one of the first passed
in the present reign, 'Squire Scot, the brickmaker, had
nothing to do. Go on, good 'Squire, thrust out some more
of the Normans : witli the fruits of the augmentations
which you make to the Wen, go, and take from them their
mansions, parks, and villages !
At Tisted I crossed the turnpike-road before mentioned,
and entered a lane which, at the end of about four miles,
brought me to this village of Selborne. My readers will
recollect that I mentioned this Selborne when I was giving
.in account of Hawkley Hanger, last fall. I was desirous
of seeing this village, about which I have read in the book
of Mr. White, and which a reader has been so good as to
send me. From Tisted I came generally up hill till I got
within half a mile of this village, when, all of a sudden, I came
to the edge of a hill, looked down over all the larger vale
of which the little vale of this village makes a part. Here
Hindhead and Black-down Hill came full in my view.
When I was crossing the forest in Sussex, going from
204 UURAL RIDE THROUGH
Worth to Horsham, these two great hills lay to my west
and north-west. To-day I am got just on the opposite
side of them, and see them, of course, towards the east and
the south-east, while Leith Hill lies away towards the
north-east. This hill, from which you descend down into
Selborne, is very lofty ; but, indeed, we are here amongst
some of the highest hills in the island, and amongst
the sources of rivers. The hill over which I have come
this morning sends the Itchen river forth from one side of
it, and the river Wey, which rises near Alton, from
the opposite side of it. Hindhead which lies before me,
sends, as I observed upon a former occasion, the Arun forth
towards the south and a stream forth towards the north,
■which meets the river Wey, somewhere above Godalming.
I am told that the springs of these two streams rise in the
Hill of Hindhead, or, rather, on one side of the hill, at not
many yards from each other. The village of Selborne is
precisely what it is described by Mr. White. A straggling
irregular street, bearing all the marks of great antiquity,
and shewing, from its lanes and its vicinage generally, that
it was once a very considerable place. I went to look at
the spot where Mr. White supposes the convent formerly
stood. It is very beautiful. Nothing can surpass in beauty
these dells and hillocks and hangers, which last are so steep
that it is impossible to ascend them, except by means of a
serpentine path. I found here deep hollow ways, with beds
and sides of solid white stone; but not quite so white and
so solid, I think, as the stone which I found in the roads at
Hawkley. The churchyard of Selborne is most beautifully
situated. The land is good, all about it. The trees are
luxuriant and prone to be lofty and large. I measured the
yew-tree in the churchyard, and found the trunk to be,
according to my measurement, twenty-three feet, eight
inches, in circumference. The trunk is very short, as is
generally the case with yew-trees ; but the head spreads
to a very great extent, and the whole tree, though probably
several centuries old, appears to be in perfect health. Here
are several hop-plantations in and about this village ; but,
for this once, the prayers of the over-production men will
be granted, and the devil of any hops there will be. The
bines are scarcely got up the poles ; the bines and the leaves
are black, nearly, as soot ; full as black as a sooty bag or
dirgy coal-sack, and covered with lice. It is a pity that
these hop-planters could not have a parcel of Spaniards and
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 205
Portuguese to louse their hops for them. Prettv devils to
have liberty, when a favourite recreation of the Donna is to
crack the lice in the head of the Don ! I really shrug up
my shoulders thinking of the beasts. Very different from
such is my landlady here at Selbome, who, while I am
writing my notes, is getting me a rasher of bacon, and has
alreadv covered the table with a nice clean cloth. T have
never seen such quantities of grapes upon any vines as I see
upon the vines in this village, badlv pruned as all the vines
have been. To be sure, this is a year for grapes, such, I
believe, as has been seldom known in England, and the
cause is, the perfect ripening of the wood by the last
beautiful summer. I am afraid, however, that the grapes
come in vain ; for this summer has been so cold, and is now
so wet, that we can hardly expect grapes, which are not
under glass, to ripen. As I was coming into this village,
I observed to a farmer who was standing at his gateway,
that people ought to be happy here, for that God had done
every thing for them. His answer was, that he did not
believe there was a more unhappy place in England : for
that there were always quarrels of some sort or other going
on. This made me call to mind the King's proclamation,
relative to a reward for discovering the person who had
recently shot at the parso?i of this village. This parson's
name is Cobbold, and, it really appears that there was a shot
fired through his window. He has had law-suits with the
people ; and, I imagine, that it was these to which the
farmer alluded. The hops are of considerable importance to
the village, and their failure must necessarily be attended
with consequences very inconvenient to the whole of a
population so small as this. Upon inquiry, 1 find that the
hops are equally bad at Alton, Froyle, Crondall, and even at
Farnham. I saw them bad in Sussex; I hear that they are
bad in Kent; so, that hop-planters, at any rate, will be, for
once, free from the dreadful evils of abundance. A corre-
spondent asks me what is meant by the statements which
he sees in the Register, relative to the hop-duty ? He sees
it. he says, continually falling in amount; and he wonders
what this means. The thing has not, indeed, been pro-
perly explained. It is a gamble ; and, it is hardly right for
mc to state, in a publication like the Register, any thing
relative to a gamble. However, the case is this: a taxing
system is necessarily a system of gambling ; a system of
betting; stock-jobbing is no more than a system of betting,
206 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
and the wretched dogs that carry on the traffic are little
more, except that they are more criminal, than the waiters
at an E Table, or the markers at billiards. The hop
duty is so much per pound. The duty was imposed at two
separate times. One part of it, therefore, is called the Old
Duty, and the other part the New Duty. The old duty
was a penny to the pound of hops. The amount of this
duty, which cau always be ascertained at the Treasury as
soon as the hopping season is over, is the surest possible
guide in ascertaining the total amount of the growth of
hops for the year. If, for instance, the duty were to amount
to no more than eight shillings and fourpence, you would
be certain that only a hundred pounds of hops had been
grown during the year. Hence a system of gambling
precisely like the gambling in the funds. I bet you that
the duty will not exceed so much. The duty has some-
times exceeded two hundred thousand pounds. This year,
it is supposed, that it will not exceed twenty, thirty, or
forty thousand. The gambling fellows are betting all this
time ; and it is, in fact, an account of the betting which is
inserted in the Register.
This vile paper-money and funding-system ; this system
of Dutch descent, begotten by Bishop Burnet, and born in
hell ; this system has turned every thing into a gamble.
There are hundreds of men who live by being the agents to
carry on gambling. They reside here in the Wen ; manv
of the gamblers live in the country ; they write up to their
gambling agent, whom they call their stockbroker he
gambles according to their order ; and they receive the
profit or stand to the loss. Is it possible to conceive a viler
calling than that of an agent for the carrying on of
gambling ? And yet the vagabonds call themselves gentle-
men ; or, at least, look upon themselves as the superiors of
those who sweep the kennels. In like manner is the hop-
gamble carried on. The gambling agents in the Wen make
the bets for the gamblers in the country; and, perhaps,
millions are betted during the year, upon the amount of a
duty, which, at the most, scarcely exceeds a quarter of a
million. In such a state of things how are you to expect
young men to enter on a course of patient industry ? How-
are you to expect that they will seek to acquire fortune and
fame by study or by application of any kind ?
Looking back over the road that I have come to-day, and
perceiving the direction of the road going from this village
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 207
in another direction, I perceive that this is a very direct
road from Winchester to Farnham. The road, too, appears
to have been, from ancient times, sufficiently wide ; and,
when the Bishop of Winchester selected this beautiful spot
whereon to erect a monastery, I dare say the roads along
here were some of the best in the country.
Thursley (Surrey),
Thursday, 7(h Auyust.
I got a boy at Selborne to show me along the lanes out
into Woolmer forest on my way to Headley. The lanes
were very deep ; the wet malme just about the colour of
rye-meal mixed up with water, and just about as clammy,
came, in many places, very nearly up to my horse's belly.
There was this comfort, however, that I was sure that there
was a bottom, which is by no means the case when you are
among clays or quick-sands. After going through these
lanes, and along between some fir-plantations, I came out
upon Woolmer Forest, and, to my great satisfaction, soon
found myself on the side of those identical plantations,
which have been made under the orders of the smooth Mr.
Huskisson, and which I noticed last year in my ride from
Hambledon to this place. These plantations are of fir, or,
at least, I could see nothing else, and thev never can be of
any more use to the nation than the sprigs of heath which
cover the rest of the forest. Is there nobody to inquire
what becomes of the income of the crown lands ? (106)
No, and there never will be, until the whole system be
changed. I have seldom ridden on pleasanter ground than
that which I found between Woolmer Forest and this beau-
tiful village of Thursley. The day has been fine, too ; not-
withstanding I saw the Judges' terrific wigs as I came up
upon the turnpike-road from the village of Itchen. I had
but one little scud during the day : just enough for St.
Swithin to swear by ; but, when I was upon the hills, I saw
some showers going about the country. From Selborne, I
had first to come to Headley, about five miles. I came to
the identical public-house, where I took my blind guide last
year, who took me such a dance to the southward, and led
me up to the top of Hindhead at last. I had no business
there. My route was through a sort of hamlet called
•6"
Churt, which lies along on the side and towards the foot of
'M
the north of Hindhead, on which side, also, lies the village
r^
20S RURAL RIDE THROUGH
of Thursley. A line is hardly more straight than is the road
from Headley to Thursley ; and a prettier ride I never had
in the course of my life. It was not the less interesting
from the circumstance of its giving me all the way a full
view of Crookshury Hill, the grand scene of my exploits
when I was a taker of the nests of crows and magpies.
At Churt I had, upon my left, three hills out upon the
common, called the Devil's Jumps. The Unitarians will not
believe in the Trinity, because they cannot account for it.
Will they come here to Churt, go and look at these
" Devil's Jumps," and account to me for the placing of
these three hills, in the shape of three rather squat sugar-
loaves, along in a line upon this heath, or the placing of a
rock-stone upon the top of one of them as big as a Church
tower ? For my part, I cannot account for this placing of
these hills. That they should have been formed by mere
chance is hardly to be believed. How could waters rolling
about have formed such hills ? How could such hills have
bubbled up from beneath? Bat, in short, it is all wonderful
alike : the stripes of loam running down through the chalk-
hills ; the circular parcels of loam in the midst of chalk-hills ;
the lines of flint running parallel with each other horizontally
along the chalk-hills ; the flints placed in circles as true as a
hair in the chalk-hills ; the layers of stone at the bottom of
hills of loam ; the chalk first soft, then some miles further on,
becoming chalk-stone ; then, after another distance, be-
coming burr-stone, as they call it ; and at last, becoming
hard, white stone, fit for any buildings ; the sand-stone at
Hindhead becoming harder and harder till it becomes very
nearlv iron in Herefordshire, and quite iron in Wales; but,
indeed, they once dug iron out of this very Hindhead.
The clouds, coming and settling upon the hills, sinking
down and creeping along, at last coming out again in
springs, and those becoming rivers. Why, it is all equally
wonderful, and as to not believing in this or that, because
the thing cannot be proved by logical deduction, why is any
man to believe in the existence of a God any more than he
is to believe in the doctrine of the Trinity ? For my part,
I think the "Devil's jumps," as the people here call them,
full as wonderful and no more wonderful than hundreds and
hundreds of other wonderful things. It is a strange taste
which our ancestors had, to ascribe no inconsiderable part
of these wonders of nature to the Devil. Not far from
the Devil's jumps, is that singular place, which resembles
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 209
a sugar-loaf inverted, hollowed out and an outside rim only
left. This is called the "Devil's Punch Bowl;" and it
is very well known in Wiltshire, that the forming, or, per-
haps, it is the breaking up of Stonehenge is ascribed to the
Devil, and that the mark of one of his feet is now said to be
seen in one of the stones.
I got to Thursley about sunset, and without experiencing
any inconvenience from the wet. I have mentioned the
state of the corn as far as Selborne. On this side of that
village I find it much forwarder than I found it between
Selborne and Ropley Dean. I am here got into some of
the very best barley-land in the kingdom ; a fine, buttery,
stoneless loam, upon a bottom of sand or sand-stone.
Finer barley and turnip-land it is impossible to see. All the
corn is good here. The wheat not a heavy crop ; but not
a light one ; and the barley all the way along from Headley
to this place as fine, if not finer, than I ever saw it in my
life. Indeed I have not seen a bad field of barley since I
left the Wen. The corn is not so forward here as under
Portsdown Hill ; but some farmers intend to begin reaping
wheat in a few davs. It is monstrous to suppose that the
price of corn will not come down. It must come down,
good weather or bad weather. If the weather be bad,
it will be so much the worse for the farmer, as well as for
the nation at large, and can be of no benefit to any human
being but the Quakers, who must now be pretty busy,
measuring the crops all over the kingdom. It will be
recollected, that, in the Report of the Agricultural Com-
mittee of 1821, it appeared, from the evidence of one
Hodgson, a partner of Cropper, Benson, and Co. Quakers,
of Liverpool, that these Quakers sent a set of corn-guagers
into the several counties, just before every harvest ; that
these fellows stopped here and there, went into the fields,
measured off square yards of wheat, clipped off the ears,
and carried them off. These they afterwards packed up
and sent off to Cropper and Co. at Liverpool. When the
whole of the packets were got together, they were rubbed
out, measured, weighed, and an estimate made of the
amount of the coming crop. This, according to the con-
fession of Hodgson himself, enabled these Quakers to
speculate in corn, with the greater chance of gain. This
has been done by these men for many years. Their dis-
regard of worldly things ; their desire to lay up treasures
in heaven ; their implicit yielding to the Spirit ; these have
210 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
induced them to send their corn-guagers over the country
regularly year after year ; and I will engage that they are at
it at this moment. The farmers will bear in mind, that the
New Trespass-law, though clearly not intended for any
such purpose, enables them to go and seize by the throat
any of these guagers that they may catch in their fields.
They could not do this formerly; to cut off standing corn
was merely a trespass, for which satisfaction was to be
attained by action at law. But now you can seize the caitiff
who is come as a spy amongst your corn. Before, he could
be off and leave you to find out his name as you could ; but
now, you can lay hold of him, as Mr. Deller did of the Duke's
man, and bring him before a Magistrate at once. I do
hope that the farmers will look sharp out for these fellows,
who are neither more nor less than so many spies. They
hold a great deal of corn ; they want blight, mildew, rain,
hurricanes ; but happy I am to see that they will get no
blight, at any rate. The grain is formed; everywhere
every body tells me that there is no blight in any sort
of corn, except in the beans.
I have not gone through much of a bean country. The
beans that I have seen are some of them pretty good, more
of them but middling, and still more of them very indif-
ferent.
I am very happy to hear that that beautiful little bird,
the American partridge has been introduced with success to
this neighbourhood, by Mr. Leech at Lea. I am told that
they have been heard whistling this summer ; that they
have been frequently seen, and that there is no doubt that
they have broods of young ones. I tried several times to
import some of these birds; but I always lost them,
by some means or other, before the time arrived for turn-
ing them out. They are a beautiful litttle partridge, and
extremely interesting in all their manners. Some persons
call them quail. If any one will take a quail and compare
it with one. of these birds, he will see that they cannot be
of the same sort. In my " Year's Residence in America,"
I have, I think, clearly proved that these birds are par-
tridges, and not quails. In the United States, north of
New Jersey, they are called quail : south and south-west of
New Jersey they are called partridges. They have been
called quail solely on account of their size ; for they have
none of the manners of quail belonging to them. Quails
assemble in flocks like larks, starlings or rooks. Partridges
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 211
keep in distinct coveys; that is to say, the brood lives dis-
tinct from all other broods until the ensuing spring, when
it forms itself into pairs and separates. Nothing can be a
distinction more clear than this. Our own partridges stick
to the same spot from the time that they are hatched to
the time that they pair off, and these American partridges
do the same. Quails, like larks, get together in flocks at
the approach of winter, and move about according to the
season, to a greater or less distance from the place where
thev were bred. These, therefore, which have been brought
to Thursley, are partridges ; and, if they be suffered to live
quietly for a season or two, they will stock the whole
of that part of the country, where the delightful intermix-
ture of corn-fields, coppices, heaths, furze-fields, ponds and
rivulets, is singularly favourable to their increase.
The turnips cannot fail to be good in such a season and
in such land; yet the farmers are most dreadfully tor-
mented with the weeds, and with the superabundant turnips.
Here, my Lord Liverpool, is over production indeed !
They have sown their fields broad-cast; they have no
means of destroying the weeds by the plough ; they have
no intervals to bury them in ; and they hoe, or swatch, as
Mr. Tull calls it ; and then comes St. Swithin and sets the
weeds and the hoed-up turnips again. Then there is another
hoeing or scratching ; and then comes St. Swithin again :
so that there is hoe, hoe, muddle, muddle, and such a
fretting and stewing; such a looking up to Hindhead to
see when it is going to be fine ; when, if that beautiful field
of twenty acres, which I have now before my eyes, and
wherein I see half a dozen men hoeing and poking and
muddling, looking up to see how long it is before they must
take to their heels to get under the trees to obtain shelter
from the coming shower ; when, 1 say, if that beautiful
field had been sowed upon ridges at four feet apart, accord-
ing to the plan in my Year's Residence, not a weed would
have been to be seen in the field, the turnip-plants would
have been three times the size that they now are, the
expense would have not been a fourth part of that
which has already taken place, and all the muddling and
poking about of weeds, and all the fretting and all the
stewing would have been spared ; and as to the amount of
the crop, I am now looking at the best land in England,
for Swedish turnips, and I have no scruple to assert, that if
it had been sown after my manner, it would have had
212 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
a crop, double the weight of that which it now will have.
I think I know of a field of turnips, sown much later than
the field now before me, and sown in rows at nearly four
feet apart, which will have a crop double the weight of that
which will be produced in yon beautiful field.
Reigate {Surrey),
Friday, 8th August.
At the end of a long, twisting-about ride, but a most
delightful ride, I got to this place about nine o'clock in
the evening. From Thursley I came to Brook, and there
crossed the turnpike-road from London to Chichester
through Godalming and Midhurst. Thence I came on,
turning upon the left upon the sand-hills of Hambledon (in
Surrey, mind). On one of these hills is one of those pre-
cious jobs, called " Semaphores." For what reason this
pretty name is given to a sort of Telegraph house, stuck up
at public expense upon a high hill ; for what reason this
outlandish name is given to the thing, I must leave the
reader to guess ; but as to the thing itself ; I know that it
means this : a pretence for giving a good sum of the public
money away every year to some one that the Borough-
system has condemned this labouring and toiling nation to
provide for. The Dead Weight of nearly about six millions
sterling a year; that is to say, this curse entailed upon the
country on account of the late wars against the liberties of
the French people, this Dead Weight is, however, falling,
in part, at least, upon the landed jolter-heads who were so
eager to create it, and who thought that no part of it would
fall upon themselves. Theirs has been a grand mistake.
They saw the war carried on without any loss or any cost
to themselves. By the means of paper-money and loans,
the labouring classes were made to pay the whole of the
expenses of the war. When the war was over, the jolter-
heads thought they would get gold back again to make all
secure ; and some of them really said, I am told, that it
was high time to put an end to the gains of the paper-
money people. The jolterheads quite overlooked the cir-
cumstance, that, in returning to gold, they doubled and
trebled what they had to pay on account of the debt, and
that, at last, they were bringing the burden upon them-
selves. Grand, also, was the mistake of the jolterheads,
when they approved of the squanderings upon the Dead
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 213
"Weight. They thought that the labouring classes were
eoing to pay the whole of the expenses of the Knights of
Waterloo, and of the other heroes of the war. The jolter-
heads thought that they should have none of this to pay.
Some of them had relations belonging to the Dead Weight,
and all of them were willing to make the labouring classes
toil like asses for the support of those who had what was
called " fought and bled " for Gatton and Old Sarum. The
jolterheads have now found, however, that a pretty good
share of the expense is to fall upon themselves. Their
mortagees are letting them know that Semaphores and such
pretty things cost something, and that it is unreasonable
for a loyal country gentleman, a friend of "social order"
and of the " blessed comforts of religion " to expect to have
Semaphores and to keep his estate too.
This Dead Weight is, unquestionably, a thing, such as
the world never saw before. Here are not only a tribe of
pensioned naval and military officers, commissaries, quarter-
masters, pursers, and God knows what besides ; not only
these, but their wives and children are to be pensioned,
after the death of the heroes themselves. Nor does it
signify, it seems, whether the hero were married, before he
became part of the Dead Weight, or since. Upon the
death of the man, the pension is to begin with the wife,
and a pension for each child ; so that, if there be a large
familv of children, the family, in many cases, actually gains
by the death of the father ! Was such a thing as this ever
before heard of in the world ? Any man that is going to
die has nothing to do but to marry a girl to give her a pen-
sion for life to be paid out of the sweat of the people ; and
it was distinctly stated, during the Session of Parliament
before the last, that the widows and children of insane
officers were to have the same treatment as the rest ! Here
is the envy of surrounding nations and the admiration of the
world! In addition, then, to twenty thousand parsons,
re than twenty thousand stock-brokers and stock-jobbers
perhaps; forty or fifty thousand tax-gatherers; thousands
upon thousands of military and naval officers in full pay ;
in addition to all these, here are the thousands upon
thousands of pairs of this Dead Weight, all busily engaged
i:i hreeding gentlemen and ladies; and all, while Malthus is
wanting to put a check upon the breeding of the lahouring
classes ; all receiving a premium for breeding I Where is
Malthus ? Where is this check-population parson ! Where
214 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
are his friends, the Edinburgh Reviewers ? Faith, I believe
they have given him up. They begin to be ashamed of
"•ivincv countenance to a man who wants to check the breed-
ing of those who labour, while he says not a word about
those two hundred thousand breeding pairs, whose offspring
are necessarilv to be maintained at the public charge.
Well mav these fatteners upon the labour of others rail
asrainst the Radicals ! Let them once take the fan to their
hand, and they will, I warrant it, thoroughly purge the
floor. However, it is a consolation to know, that the jolter-
heads who have been the promoters of the measures that have
led to these heavy charges ; it is a consolation to know that
the jolterheads have now to bear part of the charges, and
that they cannot any longer make them fall exclusively upon
the shoulders of the labouring classes. The disgust that
one feels at seeing the whiskers, and hearing the copper
heels rattle, is in some measure compensated for by the
reflection, that the expense of them is now beginning to
fall upon the malignant and tyrannical jolterheads who are
the principal cause of their being created.
Bidding the Semaphore good bye, I came along by the
church at Hambledon, and then crossed a little common
and the turnpike-road from London to Chichester through
Godalming and Petworth ; not Midhurst, as before. The
turnpike-road here is one of the best that ever I saw. It
is like the road upon Horley Common, near Worth, and like
that between Godstone and East Grinstead ; and the cause
of this is, that it is made of precisely the same sort of stone,
which, they tell me, is brought, in some cases, even from
Blackdown Hill, which cannot be less, I should think, than
twelve miles distant. This stone is brought in great lumps,
and then cracked into little pieces. The next village I came
to after Hambledon was Hascomb, famous for its beech, in-
somuch that it is called Hascomb Beech.
There are two lofty hills here, between which you go
out of the sandy country down into the Weald. Here are
hills of all heights and forms. Whether they came in con-
sequence of a boiling of the earth, I know not ; but, in form,
they very much resemble the bubbles upon the top of the
water of a pot which is violently boiling. The soil is a
beautiful loam upon a bed of sand. Springs start here and
there at the feet of the hills ; and little rivulets pour away
in all directions. The roads are difficult merely on account of
their extreme unevenuess ; the bottom is every where sound,
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 215
and everything thatmeets the eye is beautiful ; trees, coppices,
corn-fields, meadows ; and then the distant views in everv
direction. From one spot I saw this morning Hindhead,
Blackdown Hill, Lord Egremont's house and park at Pet-
worth, Donnington Hill, over which I went to go on theSouth
Downs, the South Downs near Lewes : the forest at Worth,
Turner's Hill, and then all the way round into Kent and back
to the Surrey Hills at Godstone. From Hascombe I began to
descend into the low country. I had Leith Hill before
me ; but my plan was, not to go over it or any part of it,
but to £ro alon<r, below it in the real Weald of Surrey. A
little way back from Hascomb, T had seen a field
of carrots; and now I was descending into a country
where, strictly speaking, only three things will grow well,
— grass, wheat, and oak trees. At Goose Green, I crossed
a turnpike-road leading from Guildford to Horsham and
Arundel. I next came, after crossing a canal, to a common
called Smithwood Common. Leith Hill was full in front of
me, but I turned away to the right, and went through the
lanes to come to Ewhurst, leaving Crawley to my right.
Before I got to Ewhurst, I crossed another turnpike-road,
leading from Guildford to Horsham, and going on to Worth-
ing or some of those towns.
At Ewhurst, which is a very pretty village, and the
Church of which is most delightfully situated, I treated mv
horse to some oats, and myself to a rasher of bacon. I had
now to come, according to my project, round among the
lanes at about a couple of miles distance from the foot of
Leith Hill, in order to get first to Ockley, then to Holm-
wood, and then to Reigate. From Ewhurst the first three
miles was the deepest clay that I ever saw, to the best of
my recollection. I was warned of the difficulty of getting
along ; but I was not to be frightened at the sound of clay.
A\ r agons, too, had been dragged along the lanes by some
means or another ; and where a wagon-horse could go, my
horse could go. It took me, however, a good hour and a
half to get along these three miles. Now, mind, this is the
real weald, where the clay is bottomless ; where there is no
stone of any sort underneath, as at Worth and all along
from Crawley to Billingshurst through Horsham. This
clayey land is fed with water soaking from the sand-hills;
and in this particular place from the immense hill of Leith.
\11 along here the oak-woods are beautiful. I saw scores
of acres by the road-side, where the young oaks stood as
216 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
regularly as if they had been planted. The orchards are
not bad along here, and, perhaps, they are a good deal in-
debted to the shelter they receive, The wheat very good,
all through the weald, but backward.
At Ockley I passed the house of a Mr. Steer, who has
a great quantity of hay-land, which is very pretty. Here I
came along the turnpike-road that leads from Dorking to
Horsham. When I got within about two or three miles of
Dorking, I turned off to the right, came across the Holm-
wood, into the lanes leading down to Gadbrook-common,
which has of late years been inclosed. It is all clay here ;
but, in the whole of my ride, I have not seen much finer
fields of wheat than I saw here. Out of these lanes I
turned up to " Betchworth " (I believe it is), and from
Betchworth came along a chalk-hill to my left and the sand-
hills to my right, till I got to this place.
Wen,
Sunday, 10th August-
I staid at Reigate yesterday, and came to the Wen to-
day, every step of the way in a rain ; as good a soaking as
any devotee of St. Swithin ever underwent for his sake. I
promised that I would give an account of the effect which
the soaking on the South-Downs, on Saturday the 2nd
instant, had upon the hooping-cough. I do not recommend
the remedy to others ; but this I will say, that I had a spell
of the hooping-cough, the day before I got that soaking,
and that I have not had a single spell since ; though I have
slept in several different beds, and got a second soaking in
£roinc from Botlev to Easton. The truth is, I believe, that
rain upon the South-Downs, or at any place near the sea,
is by no means the same thing with rain in the interior. No
man ever catches cold from getting wet with sea-water ;
and, indeed, I have never known an instance of a man
catching cold at sea. The air upon the South-Downs is
saltish, I dare say; and the clouds may bring something a
little partaking of the nature of sea-water.
At Thursley I left the turnip-hoers poking and pulling
and muddling about the weeds, and wholly incapable, after
all, of putting the turnips in anything like the state in which
they ought to be. The weeds that had been hoed up twice,
were growing again, and it was the same with the turnips
that had been heed up. In leaving Reigate this morning, it
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 217
was with great pleasure that I saw a field of Swedish tur-
nips, drilled upon ridges at about four feet distance, the
whole field as clean as the cleanest of garden ground. The
turnips standing at equal distances in the row, and having
the appearance of being, in every respect, in a prosperous
state. I should not be afraid to bet that these turnips,
thus standing in rows at nearly four feet distance, will be a
crop twice as large as any in the parish of Thursley, though
there is, I imagine, some of the finest turnip-land in the
kingdom. It seems strange, that men are not to be con-
vinced of the advantage of the row-culture for turnips.
They will insist upon believing, that there is some ground
lost. They will also insist upon believing that the row-cul-
ture is the most expensive. How can there be ground lost
if the crop be larger ? And as to the expense, take one
year with another, the broad-cast method must be twice as
expensive as the other. Wet as it has been to-day, I took
time to look well about me as 1 came along. The wheat,
even in this ragamuffin part of the country, is good, with
the exception of one piece, which lies on your left hand as
vou come down from Banstead Down. It is very good at
Banstead itself, though that is a country sufficiently poor.
Just on the other side of Sutton, there is a little good land,
and in a place or two I thought I saw the wheat a little
blighted. A labouring man told me that it was where the
heaps of dung had been laid. The barley here is most
beautiful, as, indeed, it is all over the country.
Between Sutton and the Wen there is. in fact, little be-
sides houses, gardens, grass plats and other matters to ac-
commodate the Jews and jobbers, and the mistresses and
bastards that are put out a-keeping. But, in a dell, which
the turnpike-road crosses about a mile on this side of Sutton,
there are two fields of as stiff land, I think, as I ever saw in
my life. In summer time this land bakes so hard that they
cannot plough it unless it be wet. When you have ploughed
it, and the sun comes again, it bakes again. One of these
fields had been thus ploughed and cross-ploughed in the
month of June, and I saw the ground when it was lying in
lumps of the size of portmanteaus, and not very small ones
either. It would have been impossible to reduce this
ground to small particles, except by the means of sledge
hammers. The two fields, to which I alluded just now,
are alongside of this ploughed field, and they are now in
wiieat. The heavy rain of to-day, aided by the south-west
L
218 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
wind, made the wheat bend pretty nearly to lying down ;
but, vou shall rarely see two finer fields of wheat. It is red
wheat ; a coarseish kind, and the straw stout and strong ;
but the ears are long, broad and full ; and I did not per-
ceive any thing approaching towards a speck in the straw.
Such land as this, such very stiff land, seldom carries a very
large crop ; but I should think that these fields would ex-
ceed four quarters to an acre ; and the wheat is by no means
so backward as it is in some places. There is no corn, that
I recollect, from the spot just spoken of, to almost the
street of Kensington. I came up by Earl's Court, where
there is, amongst the market gardens, a field of wheat.
One would suppose that this must be the finest wheat in the
world. Bv no means. It rained hard, to be sure, and I
had not much time for being particular in my survey; but
this field appears to me to have some blight in it ; and as
to crop, whether of corn or of straw, it is nothing to com-
pare to the general run of the wheat in the wealds of Sussex
or of Surrey ; what, then, is it, if compared with the
wheat on the South Downs, under Portsdown Hill, on the
sea-flats at Havant and at Tichfield, and along on the
banks of the Itchen !
Thus I have concluded this " rural ride," from the Wen
and back again to the Wen, being, taking in all the turn-
ings and windings, as near as can be, two hundred miles in
length. My objects were to ascertain the state of the
crops, both of hops and of corn. The hop-affair is soon
settled, for there will be no hops. As to the corn, my re-
mark is this : that on all the clays, on all the stiff lands
upon the chalk ; on all the rich lands, indeed, but more
especially on all the stiff lands, the wheat is as good as I re-
collect ever to have seen it, and has as much straw. On all
the light lands and poor lands, the wheat is thin, and, though
not short, by no means good. The oats are pretty good
almost every where ; and I have not seen a bad field of barley
during the whole of my ride; though there is no species of soil
in England, except that of the fens, over which I have not
passed. The state of the farmers is much worse than it was
last year, notwithstanding the ridiculous falsehoods of the
London newspapers, and the more ridiculous delusion of the
jolterheads. Innumerous instancesthe farmers, who continue
in theirfarms, have ceased to farm for themselves, and merely
hold the land for the landlords. The delusion caused by the
rise of the price of corn has pretty nearly vanished already ;
HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY. 219
and if St. Swithin would but get out of the way with his
drippings for about a month, this delusion would disappear,
never to return. In the mean while, however, the London
newspapers are doing what they can to keep up the delusion ;
and, in a paper called Bell's Weekly Messenger, edited, I am
told, by a place-hunting lawyer ; (107) in that stupid paper
of this day, I find the following passage : — *' So late as
"January last, the average price of wheat was 39s. per
" quarter, and on the 29th ult. it was above 62s. As it has
" been rising ever since, it may now be quoted as little under
"65s. So that in this article alone, there is a rise of more
" than thirty-five per cent. Under these circumstances, it is
" not likely that we shall hear any thing of agricultural
" distress. A writer of considerable talents, but no prophet,
" had frightened the kingdom by a confident prediction, that
" wheat, after the 1st of May, would sink to 4s. per bushel,
" and that under the effects of Mr. Peel's bill, and the pay-
" ments in cash by the Bank of England, it would never
" again exceed that price ! Nay, so assured was Mr. Cobbett
" of the mathematical certainty of his deductions on the
" subject, that he did not hesitate to make use of the folio w-
" language : ' And farther, if what I say do not come to pass,
" I will give any one leave to broil me on a gridiron, and for
" that purpose I will get one of the best gridirons I can
" possibly get made, and it shall be hung out as near to my
" premises as possible, in the Strand, so that it shall be
" seen by every body as they pass along.' The 1st of May
" has now passed, Mr. Peel's bill has not been repealed, and
" the Bank of England has paid Its notes in cash, and yet
" wheat has risen nearly 40 per cent."
Here is a tissue of falsehoods ! But, onlv think of a coun-
try being "■'frightened" by the prospect of a low price of
provisions ! When such an idea can possiblv find its way
even into the shallow brain of a cracked-skull lawyer ;
when such an idea can possibly be put into print at any rate,
there must be something totally wrong in the state of the
country. Here is this lawyer telling his readers that I had
frightened the kingdom, by saying that wheat would be
sold at four shillings a bushel. Again I say, that there must
be something wrong, something greatly out of place, some
great disease at work in the community, or such an idea as
this could never have found its way into print. Into the
head of a cracked-skull lawyer, it might, perhaps, have
entered at anvtime; but for it to find its way into print,
i'2
220 • RURAL RIDE.
there must be something in the state of society wholly out
of joint. As to the rest of this article, it is a tissue of down-
right lies. The writer says that the price of wheat is sixty-
five shillings a quarter. The fact is, that, on the second
instant, the price was fifty-nine shillings and seven- pence :
and it is now about two shillings less than that. Then
again, this writer must know, that I never said that wheat
would not rise above four shillings a bushel ; but that, on
the contrary, I always expressly said that the price would
be affected by the seasons, and that I thought, that the price
would vibrate between three shillings a bushel and seven
shillings a bushel. Then again, Peel's Bill has, in part,
been repealed ; if it had not, there could have been no
small note in circulation at this day. (108) So that this
lawyer is " All Lie." In obedience to the wishes of a lady,
I have been reading about the plans of Mr. Owen ; and,
though I do not as yet see my way clear as to how we can
arrange matters with regard to the young girls and the
young fellows, I am quite clear that his institution would
be most excellent for the disposal of the lawyers. One of
his squares would be, at a great distance from all other habi-
tations ; in the midst of Lord Erskine's estate for instance,
mentioned by me in a former ride ; and nothing could be so
fitting, his Lordship long having been called the father of
the Bar ; in the midst of this estate, with no town or village
within miles of them, we might have one of Mr. Owen's
squares, and set the bob-tailed brotherhood most effectually
at work. Pray, can any one pretend to say that a spade or
shovel would not become the hands of this blunder-
headed editor of Bell's Messenger better than a pen ? How-
ever, these miserable falsehoods can cause the delusion to
exist but for a very short space of time.
The quantity of the harvest will be great. If the quality
be bad, owing to wet weather, the price will be still lower
than it would have been in case of dry weather. The price,
therefore, must come down ; and if the newspapers were
conducted by men who had any sense of honour or shame,,
those men must be covered with confusion.
RIDE THROUGH THE NORTH EAST PART OF SUSSEX, AND
ALL ACROSS KENT, FROM THE WEALD OF SUSSEX, TO
DOVER.
Worth (Susses),
Friday, 29 August, 1823.
I have so often described the soil and other matters, ap-
pertaining to the country between the Wen and this place,
that ray readers will rejoice at being spared the repetition
here. As to the harvest, however, I find that they were
deluged here on Tuesday last, though we got but little,
comparatively, at Kensington. Between Mitcham and
Sutton they were making wheat-ricks. The corn has not
been injured here worth notice. Now and then an ear in
the butts grown ; and grown wheat is a sad thing ! You
may almost as well be without wheat altogether. However,
very little harm has been done here as yet.
At Walton Heath I saw a man who had suffered most
terribly from the game-laws. He saw me going by, and
came out to tell me his story ; and a horrible story it is, as
the public will find, when it shall come regularly and fully
before them. Apropos of game- works : I asked who was
the Judge at the Somersetshire Assizes, the other day. A
correspondent tells me that it was Judge Burrough. I am
well aware, that, as this correspondent observes, " game-
keepers ought not to be shot at." This is not the point.
It is not a gamekeeper in the usual sense of that word ; it is
a man seizing another without a warrant. That is what it
is ; and this, and Old Ellenborough's Act, are new things in
England, and things of which the laws of England, "the
birthright of Englishmen," knew nothing. Yet fanner
Voke ought not to have shot at the gamekeeper, or seizer,
without warrant : he ought not to have shot at him ; and
he would not had it not been for the law that put him in
danger of being transported on the evidence of this man.
222 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
So that it is, clearly, the terrible law, that, in these cases,
produces the violence. (109) Yet, admire with me, reader,
the singular turn of the mind of Sir James Mackintosh,
whose whole soul appears to have been long bent on the
" amelioration of the Penal Code," and who has never said
one single word about this new and most terrible part of
it ! Sir James, after years of incessant toil, has, I believe,
succeeded in getting a repeal of the laws for the punishment
of " witchcraft," of the very existence of whicb laws the
nation was unacquainted. But, the devil a word has he
said about the game-laws, which put into the gaols a full
third part of the prisoners, and to hold which prisoners the
gaols have actually been enlarged in all parts of the coun-
try ! Singular turn of mind ! Singular " humanity !"
Ah ! Sir James knows very well what he is at. He under-
stands the state of his constituents at Knaresborough too
well to meddle with game-laws. He has a "friend," I dare
say, who knows more about game-laws than he does.
However, the poor witches are safe : thank Sir James for
that. Mr. Carlile's sister and Mrs. Wright are in gaol, and
mav be there for life ! But, the poor witches are safe. No
hypocrite ; no base pretender to religion ; no atrocious,
savage, black-hearted wretch, who would murder half man-
kind rather than not live on the labours of others ; no
monster of this kind can now persecute the poor witches,
thanks to Sir James who has obtained security for them in
all their rides through the air, and in all their sailings upon
the horseponds !
Tonbridge Wells {Kent),
Saturday, 30 August.
I came from Worth about seven this morning, passed
through East Grinstead, over Holthigh Common, through
Ashurst, and thence to this place. The morning was very
fine, and I left them at Worth, making a wheat-rick. There
was no show for rain till about one o'clock, as I was ap-
proaching Ashnrst. The shattering that came at first I
thought nothing of ; but the clouds soon grew up all round,
and the rain set in for the afternoon. The buildings at
Ashurst (which is the first parish in Kent on quitting
Sussex) are a mill, an alehouse, a church, and about six or
seven other houses. I stopped at the alehouse to bait my
horse ; and, for want of bacon, was compelled to put up
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 223
with bread and cheese for myself. I waited in vain for the
rain to cease or to slacken, and the want of bacon made me
fear as to a bed. So, about five, o'clock, I, without great
coat, got upon my horse, and came to this place, just as fast
and no faster than if it had been fine weather. Avery fine
soaking ! If the South Downs have left any little remnant
of the hooping cough, this will take it away to be sure,
made not the least haste to get out of the rain, I stopped,
here and there, as usual, and asked questions about the corn,
the hops, and other things. But, the moment I got in I got a
good fire, and set about the work of drying in good earnest.
It costing me nothing for drink, I can afford to have plenty
of fire. I have not been in the house an hour ; and all my
clothes are now as dry as if they had never been wet. It is
not getting wet that hurts you, if you keep moving, while
vou are wet. It is the suffering of yourself to be inactive,
while the wet clothes are on your back.
The country that I have come over to-day is a very pretty
one. The soil is a pale yellow loam, looking like brick
earth, but rather sandy; but the bottom is a softish stone.
Now-and-then, where you go through hollow ways (as at
East Grinstead) the sides are solid rock. And, indeed, the
rocks sometimes (on the sides of hills) show themselves
above ground, and, mixed amongst the woods, make very in-
teresting objects. On the road from the Wen to Brighton,
through Godstone and over Turner's Hill, and which road
I crossed this morning in coming from Worth to East
Grinstead ; on that road, which goes through Lindfield,
and which is by far the pleasantest coach-road from the
Wen to Brighton ; on the side of this road, on which
coaches now go from the Wen to Brighton, there is a long
chain of rocks, or, rather, rocky hills, with trees growing
amongst the rocks, or, apparently out of them, as they do
in the woods near Ross in Herefordshire, and as they do in
the Blue Mountains in America, where you can see no earth
at all ; where all seems rock, and yet where the trees grow
most beautifully. At the place, of which 1 am now speak-
ing, that is to say, by the side of this pleasant road to
Brighton, and between Turner's Hill and Lindfield, there is
a rock, which they call " Big- upon- Little ;" that is to say,
a rock upon another, having nothing else to rest upon, and
the top one being longer and wider than the top of the one
it lies on. This big rock is no trifling concern, being as big,
perhaps, as a not very small house. How, then, came this
224 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
big upon little ? What lifted up the big ? It balances
itself naturally enough ; but, what tossed it up ? I do not
like to pay a parson for teaching me, while I have " God's
cwn word" to teach me; but, if any parson will tell me how
big came upon little, I do not know that I shall grudge him
a trifle. And, if he cannot tell me this : if he say, All that
we have to do is to admire and adore ; then I tell him, that
I can admire and adore without his aid, and that I will keep
my money in my pocket.
To return to the soil of this country, it is such a loam as
I have described with this stone beneath ; sometimes the
top soil is lighter and sometimes heavier; sometimes the
stone is harder and sometimes softer ; but this is the
general character of it all the way from Worth to Tonbridge
Wells. This land is what may be called the middle kind.
The wheat crop about 20 to 24 bushels to an acre, on an
average of years. The grass fields not bad, and all the
fields will grow grass ; I mean make upland meadows. The
woods good, though not of the finest. The land seems to
be about thus divided : 3-tenths woods, 2-tenths grass, a
tenth of a tenth hops, and the rest corn-land. These make
very prettv surface, especially as it is a rarity to see a pollard
tree, and as nobody is so beastly as to trim trees up like the
elms near the Wen. The country has no flat spot in it;
yet the hills are not high. My road was a gentle rise or a
gentle descent all the way. Continual new views strike the
eye ; but there is little variety in them : all is pretty, but
nothing strikingly beautiful. The labouring people look
pretty well. They have pigs. They invariably do best in
the woodland and forest and wild countries. Where the
mighty grasper has all under his eye, they can get but little.
These are cross-roads, mere parish roads ; but they are very
good. While I was at the alehouse at Ashurst, I heard
some labouring men talking about the roads ; and, they
having observed, that the parish roads had become so
wonderfully better within the last seven or eight years, I
put in my word, and said : '* It is odd enough, too, that the
" parish roads should become better and better as the
"farmers become poorer and poorer /" They looked at one
another, and put on a sort of expecting look ; for my obser-
vation seemed to ask for information. At last one of them
said, " Why, it is because the farmers have not the money to
" employ men, and so they are put on the roads." " Yes,"
said I, " but they must pay them there." They said no more,
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 225
and only looked hard at one another. They had, probably, never
thought about this before. They seemed puzzled by it, and
well they might, for it has bothered the wigs of borough-
mongers, parsons and lawyers, and will bother them yet.
Yes, this country now contains a body of occupiers of the
land, who suffer the land to go to decay for want of means
to pav a sufficiency of labourers ; and, at the same time,
are compelled to pay those labourers for doing that which is
of no use to the occupiers ! There, Collective Wisdom !
Go: brag of that! Call that " the envy of surrounding
nations and the admiration of the world."
This is a great nut year. I saw them hanging very thick
on the way-side during a great part of this day's ride ; and
they put me in mind of the old saying, "That a great nut
vear is a exeat year for that class whom the lawyers, in
their Latin phrase, call the ' sons and daughters of nobody.' '
I once asked a farmer, who had often been overseer of the
poor, whether he really thought, that there was any ground
for this old saying, or whether he thought it was mere
banter ? He said, that he was sure that there were good
grounds for it; and he even cited instances in proof, and
mentioned one particular year, when there were four times
as many of this class as ever had been born in a year in the
parish before ; an effect which he ascribed solely to the
crop of nuts of the year before. Now, if this be the case,
ought not Parson Malthus, Lawyer Scarlett, and the rest of
that tribe, to turn their attention to the nut-trees ? The
Vice Society too, with that holy man Wilberforce at its
head, ought to look out sharp after these mischievous nut-
trees. A law to cause them all to be grubbed up, and
thrown into the fire, would, certainly, be far less unreason-
able than many things which we have seen and heard of.
The corn, from Worth to this place is pretty good. The
farmers say it is a small crop; other people, and especially tha
labourers, say that it is a good crop. I think it is not large
and not small ; about an average crop ; perhaps rather less,
for the land is rather light, and this is not a year for light
lands. But there is no blight, no mildew, in spite of all the
prayers of the " loyal." The wheat about a third cut, and
none carried. No other corn begun upon. Hops very bad
till I came within a few miles of this place, when I saw some,
which I should suppose, would bear about six hundred
weight to the acre. The orchards no great things along
heare. Some apples here and there ; but small and stunted
l 3
226 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
I do not know that I have seen to-day any one tree well
loaded with fine apples.
Tenter den {Kent),
Sunday, 31 August.
Here I am after a most delightful ride of twenty-four
miles, through Frant, Lamherhurst, Goudhurst, Milkhouse-
Street, Benenden, and Rolvenden. By making a great stir
in rousing waiters and " boots" and maids, and by leaving
behind me the name of " a d< — d noisy, troublesome,
fellow," I got clear of " the Wells," and out of the con-
tagion of its Wen-engendered inhabitants, time enough to
meet the first rays of the sun, on the hill that you come up
in order to get to Frant, which is a most beautiful little
village at about two miles from " the Wells." Here the
land belongs, I suppose, to Lord Abergavenny, who has a
mansion and park here. A very pretty place, and kept,
seemingly, in very nice order. I saw here what I never
saw before : the bloom of the common heath we wholly over-
look ; but, it is a very pretty thing ; and here, when the
plantations were made, and as thev grew up, heath was left
to grow on the sides of the roads in the plantations. The
heath is not so much of a dwarf as we suppose. This is
four feet high ; and, being in full bloom, it makes the
prettiest border that can be imagined. This place of Lord
Abergavenny is, altogether, a very pretty place ; and, so
far from grudging him the possession of it, I should feel
pleasure at seeing it in his possession, and should pray God
to preserve it to him, and from the unholy and ruthless
touch of the Jews and jobbers; but, I cannot forget this
Lord's sinecure ! I cannot forget that he has, for doing
nothing, received of the public money more than sufficient
to buy such an estate as this. I cannot forget, that this
estate may, perhaps, have actually been bought with that
money. Not being able to forget this, and with my mind
filled with reflections of this sort, I got up to the church at
Frant, and just by I saw a School-house with this motto on
it : " Train up a child as he should ivalk," &c. That is to
say, try to breed up the Boys and Girls of this village in
such a way, that they may never know any thing about
Lord Abergavenny's sinecure ; or, knowing about it, that
they may think it right that he should roll in wealth coming
to him in such a way. The projectors deceive nobody but
SUSSEX AND KENT TO DOVER. 227
themselves ! They are working for the destruction of their
own system. In looking back over " the Wells" I cannot
but admire the operation of the gambling system. This
little toad-stool is a thing created entirely by the gamble ;
and the means have, hitherto, come out of the wages of
labour. These means are now coming out of the farmer's
capital and out of the landlord's estate ; the labourers are
stripped ; they can give no more : the saddle is now fixing
itself upon the right back.
In quitting Frant I descended into a country more woody
than that behind me. I asked a man whose fine woods
those were that I pointed to, and I fairly gave a start, when
he said, the Marquis Camden's. Milton talks of the Levia-
than in a way to make one draw in one's shoulders with
fear ; and I appeal to any one, who has been at sea when a
whale has come near the ship, whether he has not, at the
first sight of the monster, made a sort of involuntary move-
ment, as if to get out of the way. Such was the movement
that I uow made. However, soon coming to myself, on I
walked my horse by the side of my pedestrian informant. It
is Bavham Abbey that this great and awful sinecure place-
man owns in this part of the county. Another great estate
he owns near Sevenoaks. But here alone he spreads his
length and breadth over more, they say, than ten or twelve
thousand acres cf land, great part of which consists of oak-
woods. But, indeed, what estates might he not purchase?
Not much less than thirty years he held a place, a sinecure
place, that yielded him about thirty thousand pounds a-year !
At any rate, he, according to Parliamentary accounts, has
received, of public money, little short of a million of gui-
neas. These, at 30 guineas an acre, would buy thirty thou-
sand acres of land. And, what did he have all this money
for? Answer me that question, Wilberforce, you who
called him a " bright star," when he gave up a part of
his enormous sinecure. He gave up all but the trifling sum
of nearly three thousand pounds a-year ! What a bright
star! And when did he give it up ? When the Radical
had made the country ring with it. When his name was,
by their means, getting into every mouth in the kingdom ;
when every radical speech and petition contained the name
of Camden. Then it was, and not till then, that this
"bright star," let fall part of its "brilliancy." So that
Wilberforce ought to have thanked the Radicals, and not
Camden. When he let go his grasp, he talked of the merits
228 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
of his father. His father was a lawyer, who was exceed-
ingly well paid for what he did without a million of money
being given to his son. But, there is something rather out
of common-place to be observed about this father. This
father was the contemporary of Yorke, who became Lord
Hardwicke. Pratt and Yorke, and the merit of Pratt was,
that he was constantly opposed to the principles of Yorke.
Yorke was called a Tory and Pratt a Whig ; but the devil of
it was, both got to be Lords ; and, in one shape or another,
the families of both have, from that day to this, been re-
ceiving great parcels of the public money ! Beautiful sys-
tem! The Tories were for rewarding Yorke; the Whigs
were for rewarding Pratt. (110) The Ministers (all in
good time !) humoured both parties; and the stupid people,
divided into tools of two factions, actually applauded, now
one part of them, and now the other part of them, the
squandering away of their substance. They were like the
man and his wife, in the fable, who, to spite one another,
gave away to the cunning mumper the whole of their dinner
bit by bit. This species of folly is over at any rate. The
people are no longer fools enough to be partisans. They
make no distinctions. The nonsense about " court party "
and ''country party " is at an end. Who thinks any thing
more of the name of Erskine than of that of Scott ? As the
people told the two factions at Maidstone, when they, with
Camden at their head, met to congratulate the Regent on
the marriage of his daughter, "they are all tarred with the
same brush ;" and tarred with the same brush they must be,
until there be a real reform of the Parliament. However,
the people are no longer deceived. They are not duped.
They know that the thing is that which it is. The people of
the present day would laugh at disputes (carried on with so
much gravity !) about the principles of Pratt and the prin-
ciples of Yorke. " You are all tarred with the same brush,"
said the sensible people of Maidstone ; and, in those words,
they expressed the opinion of the whole country, borough-
mongers and tax-eaters excepted.
The country from Frant to Lamberhurst is very woody.
I should think five-tenths woods and three grass. The
corn, what there is of it, is about the same as farther back.
I saw a hop-garden just before I got to Lamberhurst, which
will have about two or three hundred weight to the acre.
This Lamberhurst is a very pretty place. It lies in a valley
with beautiful hills round it. The pastures about here are
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 229
very fine ; and the roads are as smooth and as handsome as
those in Windsor Park.
From the last-mentioned place I had three miles to come
to Goudhurst, the tower of the church of which is pretty-
lofty of itself, and the church stands upon the very summit
of one of the steepest and highest hills in this part of the
country. The church-yard has a view of about twenty-five
miles in diameter ; and the whole is over a very fine country,
though the character of the country differs little from that
which I have hefore described.
Before I got to Goudhurst, I passed by the side of a vil-
lage called Horsenden, and saw some very large hop -grounds
awav to my right. I should suppose there were fifty acres ;
and thev appeared to me to look pretty well. I found that
they belonged to a Mr. Springate, and people say, that it
will grow half as many hops as he grew last year, while
people in general will not grow a tenth part so many. This
hop growing and dealing have always been a gamble ; and
this puts me in mind of the horrible treatment which Mr.
Waddington received on account of what was called his
forestalling in hops ! It is useless to talk : as long as that
gentleman remains uncompensated for his sufferings, there
can he no hope of better days. Ellenborough was his coun-
sel ; he afterwards became Judge ; but, nothing was ever
done to undo what Kenyon had done. However. Mr.
Waddington will, 1 trust, yet live to obtain justice. He has,
in the meanwhile, given the thing now-and-then a blow ;
and he has the satisfaction to see it reel about like a drunken
man. (Ill)
I got to Goudhurst to breakfast, and as I heard that the
Dean of Rochester was to preach a sermon in behalf of the
National Schools, I stopped to hear him. In waiting for
his Reverence I went to the Methodist Meeting-house,
where I found the Sunday School boys and girls assembled,
to the almost filling of the place, which was about thirty
feet long and eighteen wide. The "Minister" was not
come, and the Schoolmaster was reading to the children
out of a tract-book, and shaking the brimstone bag at them
most furiously. This schoolmaster was a sleek-\ook'uig
young fellow : his skin perfectly tight : well fed, I'll
warrant him : and he has discovered the way of living,
without work, on the labour of those that do work. There
were 3G little fellows in smock-frocks, and about as many-
girls listening to him ; and I dare say he eats as much meat
230 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
as any ten of them. By this time the Dean, I thought,
would be coming on ; and, therefore, to the church I went ;
but to my great disappointment, I found that the parson
was operating preparatory to the appearance of the Dean,
who was to come on in the afternoon, when I, agreeably to
my plan, must be off. The sermon was from 2 Chronicles,
ch. 31. v. 21., and the words of this text described King
Hezekiah as a most zealous man, doing whatever he did
with all his heart. I write from memory, mind, and, there-
fore, I do not pretend to quote exact words; and I may be
a little in error, perhaps, as to chapter or verse. The
object of the preacher was to hold up to his hearers, the
example of Hezekiah, and particularly in the case of the
school affair. He called upon them to subscribe with all
their hearts ; but, alas ! how little of persuasive power was
there in what he said ! No effort to make them see the use
of the schools. No inducement proved to exist. No argu-
ment, in short, nor anything to move. No appeal either
to the reason, or to the feeling. All was general, common-
place, cold observation ; and that, too, in language which
the far greater part of the hearers could not understand.
This church is about 110 feet long and 70 feet wide in the
clear. It would hold three thousand people, and it had in it
214, besides 53 Sunday School or National School boys;
and these sat together, in a sort of lodge, up in a corner,
16 feet long and 10 feet wide. Now, will any Parson
Malthus, or any body else, have the impudence to tell me,
that this church was built for the use of a population not
more numerous than the present ? To be sure, when this
church was built, there could be no idea of a methodist
meeting coming to assist the church, and as little, I dare
sav, was it expected, that the preachers in the church would
ever call upon the faithful to subscribe money to be sent up
to one Joshua Watson (living in a Wen) to be by him laid
out in " promoting Christian knowledge ;" but, at any rate,
the Methodists cannot take away above four or five hun-
dred ; and what, then, was this great church built for, if there
were no more people, in those days, at Goudhurst, than
there are now ? It is very true, that the labouring people
have, in a great measure, ceased to go to church. There
were scarcely any of that class at this great country church
to-day. I do not believe there were ten. I can remember
when they were so numerous, that the parson could not
attempt to begin, till the rattling of their nailed shoes
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 2-31
ceased. I have seen, I am sure, five hundred boys and
men in smock-frocks coming out of church at one time.
To-day has been a fine day : there would have been many at
church to-day, if ever there are ; and here I have another
to add to the many things that convince me, that the labour-
ing classes have, in great part, ceased to go to church ;
that their way of thinking and feeling with regard to both
church and clergy are totally changed ; and that there is
now very little moral hold which the latter possess. This
preaching for money to support the schools is a most curious
affair altogether. The King sends a circular letter to the
bishops (as I understand it) to cause subscriptions for the
schools ; and the bishops (if I am rightly told) tell the
parish clergy to send the money, when collected, to Joshua
Watson, the Treasurer of a Society in the Wen, " for pro-
moting Christian Knowledge !" What ! the church and all
its clergy put into motion to get money from the people, to
send up to one Joshua Watson, a wine-merchant, or, late a
wine- merchant, in Mincing-lane, Fenchurch-street, London,
in order that the said wine-merchant may apply the money
to the '* promoting of Christian Knowledge !" What ! all
the deacons, priests, curates perpetual, vicars, rectors, pre-
bends, doctors, deans, archdeacons and fathers in God,
right reverend and most reverend ; all ! yea all, engaged in
getting money together to send to a wine-merchant that he
may lay it out in the promoting of Christian knowledge in
their own flocks ! Oh, brave wine-merchant ! What a
prince of godliness must this wine-merchant be ! I say
wine-merchant, or late wine-merchant, of Mincing Lane,
Fenchurch Street, London. And, for God's sake, some
good parson, do send me up a copy of the King's circular,
and also of the bishop's order to send the money to Joshua
Watson ; for some precious sport we will have with Joshua
and his " Society" before we have done with them ! (112)
After " service" I mounted my horse and jogged on
through Milkhouse Street to Benenden, where I passed
through the estate, and in sight of the house of Mr. Hodges.
He keeps it very neat and has planted a good deal. His
ash do very well ; but, the chesnut do not, as it seems to me.
He ought to have the American chesnut, if he have any.
If I could discover an everlasting hop-pole, and one, too, that
would grow faster even than the ash, would not these
Kentish hop-planters put me in the Kalendar along with
their famous Saint Thomas of Canterbury ? We shall see
this, one of these days.
232 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
Coming through the village of Benenden, I heard a man
at ray right, talking very loud about houses ! houses! houses!
It was a Methodist parson, in a house close by the road side.
I pulled up, and stood still, in the middle of the road, but
looking, in silent soberness, into the window (which was
open) of the room in which the preacher was at work. I
believe ray stopping rather disconcerted him ; for he got
into shocking repetition. " Do you know," said he, laying
great stress on the word knoxo .• "do you know, that you have
" ready for you houses, houses I say ; I say do you know ; do
"you know that you have houses in the heavens not made
" with hands ? Do you know this from experience ? Has the
" blessed Jesus told you so ?" And, on he went to say, that,
if Jesus had told them so, they would be saved, and that if
he had not, and did not, they would be damned. Some
girls whom I saw in the room, plump and rosy as could be,
did not seem at all daunted by these menaces ; and indeed,
they appeared to me to be thinking much more about
getting houses for themselves in this world first ; just to see
a little before they entered, or endeavoured to enter, or
even thought much about, those " houses" of which the
parson was speaking : houses with pig-styes and little snug
gardens attached to them, together with all the other
domestic and conjugal circumstances, these girls seemed to
me to be preparing themselves for. The truth is, these
fellows have no power on the minds of any but the miserable.
Scarcely had I proceeded a hundred yards from the place
where this fellow was bawling, when I came to the very
situation which he ought to have occupied, I mean the stocks,
which the people of Benenden have, with singular
humanity, fitted up with a bench, so that the patient, while
he is receiving the benefit of the remedy, is not exposed to
the danger of catching cold by sitting, as in other places,
upon the ground, always damp, and sometimes actually wet.
But, I would ask the people of Benenden what is the use of
this humane precaution, and, indeed, what is the use of
the stocks themselves, if, wiiile a fellow is ranting and
bawling in the manner just described, at the distance of a
hundred yards from the stock?, the stocks (as is here
actually the case) are almost hidden by grass and nettles?
This, however, is the case all over the country ; not nettles
and grass indeed smothering the stocks, but, I never see any
feet peeping through the holes, any where, though I find
Methodist parses every where, and though the law compels
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 233
the parishes to keep up all the pairs of stocks that exist in all
parts of them; and, in some parishes, they have to keep up
several pairs. (113) I am aware, that a good part of the
use of the stocks is the terror they ought to produce. I am
not supposing, that they are of no use hecause not continu-
ally furnished with legs. But, there is a wide difference
between always and never ; and it is clear, that a fellow, who
has had the stocks under his eye all his lifetime, and has
never seen a pair of feet peeping through them, will stand
no more in awe of the stocks than rooks do of an old shoy-
hoy, or than the Ministers or their agents do of Hobhouse
and Burdett. Stocks that never pinch a pair of ancles are
like Ministeral responsibility ; a thing to talk about, but for
no other use ; a mere mockery ; a thing laughed at by those
whom it is intended to keep in check. It is time that the
stocks were again in use, or that the expense of keeping
them up were put an end to.
This mild, this gentle, this good-humoured sort of cor-
rection is not enough for our present rulers. But, mark the
consequence ; gaols teu times as big as formerly ; houses of
correction ; tread-mills ; the hulks ; and the country filled
with spies of one sort and another, game-spies, or other
spies, and if a hare or pheasant come to an untimely death,
police-officers from the Wen are not unfrequently called down
to find out and secure the bloody offender ! (114) Mark
this, Englishmen ! Mark how we take to those things,
which we formerly ridiculed in the French; and take them
up too just as that brave and spirited people have shaken
them off! I saw, not long ago, an account of a Wen
police-officer being sent into the country, where he assumed
a disguise, joined some poachers (as they are called), got
into their secrets, went out in the night with them, and then
(having laid his plans with the game-people) assisted to
take them and convict them. What! is this England/ Is
this the land of " manly hearts ?" Is this the country that
laughed at the French for their submissions ? What ! are
police-officers kept for this ? Does the law say so ? How-
ever, thank God Almighty, the estates are passing away
into the hands of those who have had borrowed from them
the money to uphold this monster of a system. The Debt !
The blessed Debt, will, at last, restore to us freedom.
Just after I emitted Benenden, I saw some bunches of
straw lying upon the quickset hedge of a cottage garden. I
found, upon inquiry, that they were bunches of the straw of
234 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
grass. Seeing a face through the window of the cottage,
I called out and asked what that straw was for. The person
within said, it was to make Leghorn-plat with. I asked him
(it was a young man) how he knew how to do it. He said
he had got a little book that had been made by Mr. Cobbett.
I told him that T was the man, and should like to see some
of his work ; and asked him to bring it out to me, I being
afraid to tie my horse. He told me that he was a cripple,
and that he could not come out. At last I went in, leaving
my horse to be held by a little girl. T found a young man,
who has been a cripple for fourteen years. Some ladies
in the neighbourhood had got him the book, and his family
had got him the grass. He had made some very nice plat,
and he had knitted the greater part of the crown of a bon-
net, and had done the whole very nicely, though, as to the
knitting, he had proceeded in away to make it very tedious.
He was knitting upon a block. However, these little
matters will soon be set to rights. There will soon be per-
sons to teach knotting in all parts of the country. I left this
unfortunate young man with the pleasing reflection, that I
had, in all likelihood, been the cause of his gaining a good
living, by his labour, during the rest of his life. How long
will it be before my calumniators, the false and infamous
London press, will, take the whole of it together, and leave
out its evil, do as much good as my pen has done in this
one instance ! How long will it be ere the ruffians, the base
hirelings, the infamous traders who own and who conduct
that press; how long ere one of them, or all of them toge-
ther, shall cause a cottage to smile ; shall add one ounce to
the meal of the labouring man !
Rolvenden was my next village, and thence I could see
the lofty church of Tenterden on the top of a hill at three
miles distance. This Rolvenden is a very beautiful village ;
and, indeed, such are all the places along here. These
villages are not like those in the iron counties, as I call
them; that is, the counties of flint and chalk. Here the
houses have gardens in front of them as well as behind ; and
there is a good deal of show and finery about them and their
gardens, The high roads are without a stone in them ; and
everv thing looks like gentility. At this place, I saw several
arbutuses in one garden, and much finer than we see them
in general ; though, mind, this is no proof of a mild climate -
for the arbutus is a native of one much colder than that of
England, and indeed than that of Scotland.
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 235
Coming from Benenden to Rolvenden I saw some Swedish
turnips, and, strange as the reader will think it, the first I
saw after leaving Worth ! The reason I take to be this : the
farms are all furnished with grass-fields as in Devonshire
about Honiton. These grass-fields give hay for the sheep
and cattle in winter, or, at any rate, they do all that is not
done by the white turnips. It may be a question, whether
it would be more profitable to break up, and sow Swedes ;
but this is the reason of their not being cultivated along
here. White turnips are more easilv got than Swedes ;
they may be sown later ; and, with good hay, they will fat
cattle and sheep ; but the Swedes will do this business with-
out hay. In Norfolk and Suffolk the land is not generally
of a nature to make hay-fields. Therefore the people there
resort to Swedes. This has been a sad time for these hay-
farmers, however, all along here. They have but just
finished haymaking ; and I see, all along my way, from East
Grinstead to this place, hay-ricks the colour of dirt and
smoking like dung-heaps.
Just before [ got to this place (Tenterden), I crossed a bit
of marsh land, which I found, upon inquiry, is a sort of little
branch or spray running out of that immense and famous
tract of country called Romney Marsh, which, I find, I have
to cross to-morrow, in order to get to Dover, along by the
sea-side, through Hythe and Folkestone.
This Tenterden is a market town, and a singularly bright
spot. It consists of one street, which is, in some places,
more, perhaps, than two hundred feet wide. On one side
of the street the houses have gardens before them, from 20
to 70 feet deep. The town is upon a hill ; the afternoon
was very fine, and, just as I rose the hill and entered the
street, the people had come out of church and were moving
along towards their houses. It was a very fine sight.
Shabbily -dressed people do not go to church. (115) I saw, in
short, drawn out before me, the dress and beauty of the
town ; and a great many very, very prettv girls I saw ; and
saw them, too, in their best attire. I remember the girls in
the Pays de Caux, and, really, I think those of Tenterden
resemble them. I do not know why they should not; for,
there is the Pays de Caux, only just over the water; just
opposite this very place.
The hops about here are not so very bad. They say,
that one man, near this town, will have eight tons of hops
upon ten acres of land ! This is a great crop any year : a
236 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
very great crop. This man may, perhaps, sell his hops for
1,600 pounds ! What a gambling concern it is ! However,
such hop-growing always was and always must be. It is a
thing of perfect hazard.
The church at this place is a very large and fine old
building. The tower stands upon a base thirty feet square.
Like the church at Goudhurst, it will hold three thousand
people. And, let it be observed, that, when these churches
were built, people had not yet thought of cramming them
with petvs, as a stable is filled with stalls. Those who built
these churches, had no idea that worshipping God meant,
going to sit to hear a man talk out what he called preach-
ing. By worship, they meant very different things ; and,
above all things, when they had made a fine and noble
building, they did not dream of disfiguring the inside of it
by filling its floor with large and deep boxes made of deal
boards. In short, the floor was the place for the worship-
pers to stand or to kneel ; and there was no distinction ; no
high place and no low place ; all were upon a level before
God at any rate. Some were not stuck into pews lined with
green or red cloth, while others were crammed into corners
to stand erect, or sit on the floor. These odious distinctions
are of Protestant origin and growth. This lazy lolling in
pews we owe to what is called the Reformation. A place
filled with benches and boxes looks like an eating or a
drinking place ; but certainly not like a place of worship.
A Frenchman, who had been driven from St. Domingo to
Philadelphia by the Wilberforces of France, went to church
along with me one Sunday. He had never been in a Pro-
testant place of worship before. Upon looking round him,
and seeing every body comfortably seated, while a couple
of good stoves were keeping the place as warm as a slack
oven, he exclaimed : " Pardi / On sert Dieu bien a son aise
"id!" That is : "Egad! they serve God very much at
" their ease here!" I always think of this, when I see a
church full of pews ; as, indeed, is now always the case
with our churches. Those who built these churches had no
idea of this : they made their calculations as to the people
to be contained in them, not making any allowance for deal
boards. I often wonder how it is, that the present parsons
are not ashamed to call the churches theirs ! They must
know the origin of them ; and, how they can look at them,
and, at the same time, revile the Catholics, is astonishing
to me.
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 237
This evening I have been to the Methodist Meeting-
house. I was attracted, fairly drawn all down the street,
by the singing. When I came to the place the parson was
got into prayer. His hands were clenched together and
held up, his face turned up and back so as to be nearly
parallel with the ceiling, and he was bawling away, with his
" do thou," and " mayest thou/' and " may we," enough to
stun one. Noisy, however, as he was, he was unable to fix
the attention of a parcel of girls in the gallery, whose eyes
were all over the place, while his eyes were so devoutly shut
up. After a deal of this rigmarole called prayer, came the
preachy, as the negroes call it ; and a. preachy it really was.
Such a mixture of whining cant and of foppish affectation I
scarcely ever heard in my life. The text was (I speak from
memory) one of Saint Peter's epistles (if he have more than
one) the 18th Chapter and 4th Verse. The words were to
this amount : that, as the righteous would be saved with diffi-
culty, what must become of the ungodly and the shiner ! Alter
as neat a dish of nonsense and of impertinences as one could
wish to have served up, came the distinction between the
ungodly and the sinner. The sinner was one who did moral
wrong; the ungodly, one who did no moral wrong, but
who was not regenerated. Both, he positively told us, were
to be damned. One was just as bad as the other. Moral
rectitude was to do nothing in saving the man. He was to
be damned, unless born again, and how was he to be born
figain, unless he came to the regeneration-shop, and gave
the fellows money ? He distinctly told us, that a man
perfectly moral, might be damned ; and that " the vilest of
" the vile, and the basest of the base" (I quote his very
words) "would be saved if they became regenerate ; and
" that colliers, whose souls had been as black as their coals,
" had by regeneration, become bright as the saints that
" sing before God and the Lamb." And will the Edin-
burgh Revieicers again find fault with me for cutting at this
bawling, canting crew ? Monstrous it is to think that the
Clergy of the Church really encourage these roving fanatics.
The Church seems aware of its loss of credit and of power.
It seems willing to lean even upon these men ; who, be it
observed, seem, on their part, to have taken the Church
under their protection. They always prav for the Ministry ;
I mean the ministry at Whitehall. They are most "loyal ''
souls. The thing protects them; and they lend their aid in
upholding the thing. What silly ; nay, what base creatures
238 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
those must be, who really give their money, give their
pennies, which ought to buy bread for their own children ;
who thus give their money to these lazy and impudent fellows,
who call themselves ministers of God, who prowl about the
country living easy and jovial lives upon the fruit of the
labour of other people. However, it is, in some measure,
these people's fault. If they did not give, the others could
not receive. I wish to see every labouring man well fed
and well clad ; but, really, the man who gives any portion
of his earnings to these fellows, deserves to want : he
deserves to be pinched with hunger : misery is the just
reward of this worst species of prodigality.
The singing makes a great part of what passes in these meet-
ing-houses. A number of women and girls singing together
make very sweet sounds. Few men there are who have not
felt the power of sounds of this sort. Men are sometimes
pretty nearly bewitched without knowing how. Eyes do a
good deal, but tongues do more. We may talk of sparkling
eves and snowy bosoms as long as we please ; but, what are
these with a croaking, masculine voice ? The parson seemed
to be fully aware of the importance of this part of the
" service." The subject of his hymn was something about
love : Christian love; love of Jesus ; but, still it. was about
love ; and the parson read, or gave out, the verses, in a
singularly soft and sighing voice, with his head on one side,
and giving it rather a swing. I am satisfied, that the sing-
ing forms great part of the attraction. Young girls like
to sing ; and young men like to hear them. Nay, old
ones too ; and, as I have just said, it was the singing that
drew me three hundred yards down the street at Tenterden,
to enter this meeting-house. By-the-by, I wrote some
Hymns myself, and published them in " Ttoopenny Trash."
I will give any Methodist parson leave to put them into his
hymn-book.
Folkestone {Kent),
Monday (Noon), 1 Sept.
I have had a fine ride, and, I suppose, the Quakers have
had a fine time of it at Mark Lane.
From Tenterden I set off at five o'clock, and got to
Appledore after a most delightful ride, the high land upon
my right, and the low land on my left. The fog was
so thick and white along some of the low land, that I
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 239
should have taken it for water, if little hills and trees
had not risen up through it here and there. Indeed, the
view was very much like those which are presented in the
deep valleys, near the great rivers in New Brunswick
(North America) at the time when the snows melt in the
spring, and when, in sailing over those valleys, you look
down from the side of your canoe, and see the lofty woods
beneath you ! I once went in a log-canoe across a sylvan
sea of this description, the canoe being paddled by two
Yankees. We started in a stream ; the stream became a
wide water, and that water got deeper and deeper, as I
could see by the trees (all was woods), till we got to sail
amongst the top branches of the trees. By-and-by we got
into a large open space ; a piece of water a mile or two, or
three or four wide, with the icoods under us ! A fog, with
the tops of trees rising through it, is very much like this ;
and such was the fog that I saw this morning in my ride to
Appledore. The church at Appledore is very large. Big
enough to hold 3,000 people ; and the place does not seem
to contain half a thousand old enough to go to church.
In coming along I saw a wheat-rick making, though I
hardly think the wheat can be dry under the bands. The
corn is all good here ; and I am told they give twelve
shillings an acre for reaping wheat.
In quitting this Appledore I crossed a canal and entered
on Romney Marsh. This was grass-land on both sides of
me to a great distance. The flocks and herds immense.
The sheep are of a breed that takes its name from the marsh.
They are called Romney Marsh sheep. Very pretty and
large. The wethers, when fat, weigh about twelve stone;
or, one hundred pounds. (116) The faces of these sheep
are white ; and, indeed, the whole sheep is as white as a
piece of writing-paper. The wool does not look dirty and
oily like that of other sheep. The cattle appear to be all of
the Sussex breed. Red, loosed-limbed, and, they say, a
great deal better than the Devonshire. How curious is the
natural economy of a country ! The forests of Sussex ; those
miserable tracts of heath and fern and bushes and sand,
called Ashdown Forest and Saint Leonard's Forest, to
which latter Lord Erskine's estate belongs ; these wretched
tracts and the not much less wretched farms in their neigh-
bourhood, breed the cattle, which we see fatting in Romney
Marsh ! They are calved in the spring ; they are weaned
in a little bit of grass-land ; they are then put into stubbles
240 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
and about in the fallows for the first summer ; thev are
brought into the yard to winter on rough hay, peas-haulm,
or barley-straw ; the next two summers they spend in the
rough woods or in the forest ; the two winters they live on
straw ; they then pass another summer on the forest or at
work; and then they come here or go elsewhere to be fatted.
"With cattle of this kind and with sheep such as I have
spoken of before, this Marsh abounds in every part of it ;
and the sight is most beautiful.
At three miles from Appledore I came through Snargate,
a village with five houses, and with a church capable of con-
taining two thousand people ! The vagabonds tell us, how-
ever, that we have a wonderful increase of population !
These vagabonds will be hanged by-and-by, or else justice
will have fled from the face of the earth.
At Brenzett (a mile further on) I with great difficulty got
a rasher of bacon for breakfast. The few houses that there
are, are miserable in the extreme. The church here (only
a mile from the last) nearly as large ; and nobody to go to
it. What ! will the vagabonds attempt to make us believe,
that these churches were built for nothing ! " Dark ages"
indeed those must have been, if these churches were erected
without there being any more people than there are now.
But, who built them ? Where did the means, where did the
hands come from ? This place presents another proof of
the truth of my old observation : rich land and poor labourers.
From the window of the house, in which I could scarcely
get a rasher of bacon, and not an egg, I saw numberless
flocks and herds fatting, and the fields loaded with corn !
The next village, which was two miles further on, was
Old Romney, and along here I had, for great part of the
way, corn-fields on one side of me and grass-land on the
other. I asked what the amount of the crop of wheat
would be. They told me better than five quarters to the
acre. I thought so myself. I have a sample of the red wheat
and another of the white. They are both very fine. They
reap the wheat here nearly two feet from the ground ; and
even then they cut it three feet long ! I never saw corn like
this before. It very far exceeds the corn under Portsdown
Hill, that at Gosport and Tichfield. They have here
about eight hundred large, very large, sheaves to an acre.
[ wonder how long it will be after the end of the world
before Mr. Birkbeck will see the American "Prairies"
half so good as this Marsh. In a garden here I saw some
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 241
very fine onions, and a prodigious crop ; sure sign of most
excellent land. At this Old Romney there is a church (two
miles only from the last, mind !) fit to contain one thou-
sand five hundred people, and there are, for the people of
the parish to live in twenty-two, or twenty-three, houses !
And yet the vagabonds have the impudence to tell us, that
the population of England has vastly increased ! Curious
system that depopulates Romney Marsh and peoples Bag-
shot Heath ! It is an unnatural system. It is the vaga-
bond's system. It is a system that must be destroyed, or
that will destroy the country.
The rotten borough of New Romnev came next in my
way ; and here, to my great surprise, I found myself upon
the sea-beach ; for I had not looked at a map of Kent for
years, and, perhaps, never. I had got a list of places from
a friend in Sussex, whom I asked to give me a route to
Dover, and to send me through those parts of Kent which
he thought would be most interesting to me. Never was
I so much surprised as when I saw a sail. This place, now
that the squanderings of the thing are over, is, they say, be-
come miserably poor.
From New Romney to Dimchurch is about four miles :
all along I had the sea-beach on my right, and, on mv left,
sometimes grass-land, and sometimes corn-land. They told
me here, and also further back in the Marsh, that they were
to have 15s. an acre for reaping wheat.
From Dimchurch to Hythe you go on the sea beach, and
nearly the same from Hythe to Sandgate, from which last
place you come over the hill to Folkestone. But, let me
look back. Here has been the squandering ! Here has
been the pauper-making work ! Here we see some of these
causes that are now sending some farmers to the workhouse
and driving others to flee the country or to Qut their throats !
I had baited my horse at New Romney, and was coming
jogging along very soberly, now looking at the sea, then look-
ing at the cattle, then the corn, when, mv eve, in swinging
round, lighted upon a great round building, standing upon the
beach. I had scarcely had time to think about what it could
be, when twenty or thirty others, standing along the coast,
caught my eye ; and, if any one had been behind me, he
might have heard me exclaim, in a voice that made my
horse bound. " The Mariello Towers by !" Oh,
Lord ! To think that I should be destined to behold thes<
monuments of the wisdom of Pitt and Dundas and Perceval !
M
■242 RURAL RIDE THROUGH
Good God ! Here thev are, piles of bricks in a circular
form about tbree hundred feet (guess) circumference at the
bate, about forty feet high, and about one hundred and fifty
feet circumference at the top. There is a door-wav, about
midway up, in each, and each has two windows. Cannons
were to he fired from the top of these things, in order to de-
fend the country against the French Jacobins !
I think I have counted along here upwards of thirty
of these ridiculous things, which, I dare say, cost five,
perhaps ten, thousand pounds each ; and one of which
was, I am told, sold on the coast of Sussex, the other day,
for two hundred pounds ! There is, they say, a chain of
■ hese things all the way to Hastings ! I dare say they cost
.millions. But, far indeed are these from being all, or half,
or a quarter of the squanderings along here. Hythe is half
barracks; the hills are covered with barracks ; and barracks
most expensive, most squandering, fill up the side of the
hill. Here is a canal (I crossed it at Appledore) made for
the length of thirty miles (from Hythe, in Kent, to Rye, in
Sussex) to keep out the French ; for, those armies who had
so often crossed the Rhine and the Danube, were to be kept
back by a canal, made by Pitt, thirty feet wide at the most !
All along the coast there are works of some sort or other ;
incessant sinks of money; walls of immense dimensions;
masses of stone brought and put into piles. Then you see
some of the walls and buildings falling down ; some that
have never been finished. The whole thing, all taken to-
gether, looks as if a spell had been, all of a sudden, set upon
the workmen ; or, in the words of the Scripture, here is the
"desolation of abomination, standing in high places." How-
ever, all is right. These things were made with the hearty
<rood will of those who are now comma: to ruin in Canse-
co o
quence of the Debt, contracted for the purpose of making
these things! This is all just. The load will come, at
last, upon the right shoulders.
Between Hythe and Sandgate (a village at about two
miles from Hythe) 1 first saw the French coast. The chalk
cliff's at Calais are as plain to the view as possible, and also
the land, which they tell me is near Boulogne.
Folkestone lies under a Hill here, as Reigate does in
Surrey, only here the sea is open to your right as you come
along. The corn is very early here, and very fine. All cut,
even the beans ; and they will be ready to cart in a day or
two. Folkestone is now a little place; probably a quarter
SUSSEX AND KENT, TO DOVER. 243
part as big as it was formerly. Here is a church one
hundred and twenty feet long and fifty feet wide. It is a
sort of little Cathedral. The church-yard has evidently been
three times as large as it is now.
Before I got into Folkestone I saw no less than eighty-four
men, women, and boys and girls gleaning or leasing, in a field
of about ten acres. The people all along here complain
most bitterly of the change of times. The truth is, that the
squandered millions are gone ! The nation has now to
suffer for this squandering. The money served to silence
some ; to make others bawl ; to cause the good to be
oppressed ; to cause the bad to be exalted ; to " crush the
Jacobins:" and what is the result? What is the end?
The end is not yet come ; but as to the result thus far, go,
ask the families of those farmers, who, after having, for so
many years, threatened to shoot Jacobins, have, in instances
not a few, shot themselves ! Go, ask the ghosts of Pitt
and of Castlereagh what has, thus far, been the result ! Go,
ask the Hampshire farmer, who, not many momhs since,
actually blowed out his own brains with one of those very
pistols which he had long carried in his Yeomanrv Cavalry
holsters, to be ready " to keep down the Jacobins and
Radicals !" Oh, God ! inscrutable are thy ways ; but thou
art just, and of thy justice what a complete proof have we
in the case of these very M"artello Towers ! They were
erected to keep out the Jacobin French, lest they should
come and assist the Jacobin English. The loyal people of
this coast were fattened by the building of them. Pitt and
his loval Cinque Ports waged interminable war against
Jacobins. These very towers are now used to keep these
loyal Cinque Ports themselves in order. These towers are
now used to lodge men, whose business it is to sally forth,
not upon Jacobins, but upon smugglers ! Thus, after
having sucked up millions of the i at on's money, these
loyal Cinque Ports are squeezed agnin : kept in order, kept
down, by the very towers, which they rejoiced to see rise
to keep down the Jacobins.
Dover,
Monday, Sept. 1st, Evening.
I got here this evening about six o'clock, having come
to-d ty thirty-six miles; but I must defer my remarks on
the country between Folkestone and this place ; a most
m 2
244 RURAL RIDE FROM
interesting spot, and well worthy of particular attention.
What place I shall date from after Dover, I am by no means
certain ; but, be it from what place it may, the continuation
of my. Journal shall be published, in due course. If the
Atlantic Ocean could not cut off the communication between
me and my readers, a mere strip of water, not much wider
than an American river, will hardly do it. I am, in real
truth, undecided, as yet, whether I shall go on to France,
or back to the Wen. I think I shall, when I go out of this
Inn, toss the bridle upon my horse's neck, and let him
decide for me. I am sure he is more fit to decide on such
a point than our Ministers are to decide on any point con-
nected with the happiness, greatness, and honour of this
kingdom.
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.
Dover,
Wednesday, Sept. 3, 1823 (Evening).
On Monday I was balancing in my own mind whether I
should go to France or not. To-day I have decided the
question in the negative, and shall set off this evening for
the Isle of Thanet ; that spot so famous for corn.
I broke off without giving an account of the country
between Folkestone and Dover, which is a very interesting
one in itself, and was peculiarly interesting to me on many
accounts. I have often mentioned, in describing the parts
of the countrv over which I have travelled ; I have often
mentioned the chalk-ridge and also the sand-ridge, which I
had traced, running parallel with each other from about
DOVER TO THE WEN. 245
Farnham, in Surrey, to Sevenoaks, in Kent. The reader
must remember how particular I have been to observe that,
in going up from Chilworth and Albury, through Dorking,
Reigate, Godstone, and so on, the two chains, or ridges,
approach so near to each other, that, in many places, you
actually have a chalk -bank to your right and a sand-bank
to your left, at not more than forty yards from each other.
In some places, these chains of hills run off from each
other to a great distance, even to a distance of twenty miles.
They then approach again towards each other, and so they
go on. I was always desirous to ascertain whether these
chains, or ridges, continued on thus to the sea. I have now
found that they do. And, if you go out into the channel,
at Folkestone, there you see a sand-cliff and a chalk-cliff.
Folkestone stands upon the sand, in a little dell about seven
hundred or eight hundred yards from the very termination
of the ridge. All the way along, the chalk-ridge is the
most lofty, until you come to Leith Hill and Hindhead ;
and here, at Folkestone, the sand-ridge tapers off in a sort
of flat towards the sea. The land is like what it is at Rei-
gate, a very steep hill ; a hill of full a mile high, and bend-
ing exactly in the same manner as the hill at Reigate does.
The turnpike-road winds up it and goes over it in exactly
the same manner as that at Reigate. The land to the
south of the hill begins a poor, thin, white loam upon the
chalk ; soon gets to be a very fine rich loam upon the
chalk ; goes on till it mingles the chalky loam with the
sandy loam ; and thus it goes on down to the sea-beach, or
to the edge of the cliff. It is a beautiful bed of earth
here, resembling in extent that on the south side of Ports-
down Hill rather than that of Reigate. The crops here
are always good if they are good any where. A large part
of this fine tract of land, as well as the little town of
Sandgate (which is a beautiful little place upon the beach
itself), and also great part of the town of Folkestone
belong, they tell me, to Lord Radnor, who takes his title
of Viscount from Folkestone. Upon the hill, begins, and
continues on for some miles, that stiff red loam, approach-
ing to a clay, which I have several times described as form-
ing the soil at the top of this chalk-ridge. I spoke of it
in the Register of the 16th of August last, page 409, and
I then said, that it was like the land on the top of this very
ridge at Ashmansworth in the North of Hampshire. At
Reigate you find precisely the same soil upon the top of
246 RURAL RIDE FROM
the hill, a very red, clayey sort of loam, with big yellow
flint stones in it. Every where, the soil is the same upon
the top of the high part of this ridge. I have now found
it to be the same, on the edge of the sea, that I found it
on the North East corner of Hampshire.
From the hill, you keep descending all the way to Dover,
a distance of about six miles, and it is absolutely six miles
of down hill. On your right, you have the lofty land
which forms a series of chalk cliffs, from the top of which
you look into the sea ; on your left, you have ground that
goes rising up from you in the same sort of way. The
turnpike-road goes down the middle of a valley, each side
of which, as far as you can see, may be about a mile and a
half. It is six miles long, you will remember ; and here,
therefore, with very little interruption, very few chasms, there
are eighteen square miles of corn. It is a patch such as you
very seldom see, and especially of corn so good as it is
here. I should think that the wheat all along here would
average pretty nearly four quarters to the acre. A few
oats are sown. A great deal of barley, and that a very fine
crop.
The town of Dover is like other sea-port towns ; but
really much more clean, and with less blackguard people in
it than I ever observed in any sea-port before. It is a most
picturesque place, to be sure. On one side of it rises, upon
the top of a very steep hill, the Old Castle, with all its for-
tifications. On the other side of it there is another chalk-
hill, the side of which is pretty nearly perpendicular, and
rises up from sixty to a hundred feet higher than the tops
of the houses, which stand pretty nearly close to the foot of
the hill.
I got into Dover rather late. It was dusk when I was
going down the street towards the quay. I happened to look
up, and was quite astonished to perceive cows grazing upon
a spot apparently fifty feet above the tops of the houses, and
measuring horizontally not, perhaps, more than ten or twenty
feet from a line which would have formed a continuation
into the air. I went up to the same spot, the next day, my-
self; and you actually look down upon the houses, as you
look out of a window, upon people in the street. The valley
that runs down from Folkestone, is, when it gets to Dover,
crossed by another valley that runs down from Canterbury,
or, at least, from the Canterbury direction. It is in the gorge
of this cross valley that Dover is built. The two chalk-hills
DOVER TO THE WEN. 247
jut out iuto the sea, and the water that comes up between
them forms a harbour for this ancient, most interesting-, aud
beautiful place. On the hill to the North, stands the Castle
of Dover, which is fortified in the ancient manner, except on
the sea-side, where it has the steep Cliff for a fortification.
On the South side of the town, the hill is, I believe, rather
more lofty than that on the North side ; and here is that
Cliff which is described by Shakspeare in the Play of King-
Lear. It is fearfully steep, certainly. Very nearly perpen-
dicular for a considerable distance. The grass grows well,
to the very tip of the cliff ; and you see cows and sheep
grazing there with as much unconcern as if grazing in the
bottom of a vallev.
It was not, however, these natural curiosities that took me
over this hill ; I went to see, with my own eyes, something
of the sorts of means that had been made use of to squander
away countless millions of money. Here is a hill containing,
probablv, a couple of square miles or more, hollowed like a
honey-comb. Here are line upon line, trench upon trench,
cavern upon cavern, bomb-proof upon bomb-proof; in short
the very sight of the thing convinces you that either madness
the most humiliating, or profligacy the most scandalous must
have been at work here for years. The question that every
man of sense asks, is : What reason had you to suppose that
the Irei/ch tronld etar come to this lull to attack it, while the
rest of the country was so much more easy to assail ? How-
ever, let any man of good plain understanding, go and look at
the works that have here been performed, and that are
now all tumbling into ruin. Let him ask what this cavern
was for ; what that ditch was for ; what this tank was for ;
and why all these horrible holes and hiding-places at an ex-
pense of millions upon millions ? Let this scene be brought
and placed under the eyes of the people of England, and let
them be told that Pitt and Dundas and Perceval had these
things done to prevent the country from being conquered ;
with voice unanimous the nation would instantly exclaim:
Let the French or let the devil take us, rather than let us
resort to means of defence like these. This is, perhaps, the
only set of fortifications in the world ever framed for mere
Iiidhiij. There is no appearance of any intention to annoy an
eneniv. (117) It is a parcel of holes made in a bill, to hide
Englishmen from Frenchmen. Just as if the Frenchmen
would come to this hill ! Just as if they would not go (if
they came at all) and land in llomncy Marsh, or on Pevensey
248 RURAL RIDE FROM
Level, or any where else, rather than come to this hill;
rather than come to crawl up Shakspeare's cliff. All the
way along the coast, from this very hill to Portsmouth ; or
pretty nearly all the way, is a flat. What the devil should
they come to this hill for, then ? And, when you ask this
question, they tell you that it is to have an army here behind
the French, after they had marched into the country ! And
for a purpose like this ; for a purpose so stupid, so senseless,
so mad as this, and withal, so scandalously disgraceful, more
brick and stone have been buried in this hill than would go
to build a neat new cottage for every labouring man in the
counties of Kent and of Sussex !
Dreadful is the scourge of such Ministers. However,
those who supported them will now have to suffer. The
money must have been squandered purposely, and for the
worst ends. Fool as Pitt was ; unfit as an old hack of a
lawyer, like Dundas, was to judge of the means of defending
the country, stupid as both these fellows were, and as their
brother lawyer, Perceval, was too : unfit as these lawyers were
to judge in any such a case, they must have known that this was
an useless expenditure of money. (118) They must have
known that ; and, therefore, their general folly ; their general
ignorance is no apology for their conduct. What they wanted,
was to prevent the landing, not of Frenchmen, but of French
principles ; that is to say, to prevent the example of the French
from being alluring to the people of England. The devd a
bit did they care for the Bourbons. They rejoiced at the
killing of the king. They rejoiced at the atheistical
decree. They rejoiced at every thing calculated to alarm
the timid and to excite horror in the people of England
in general. They wanted to keep out of England those
principles which had a natural tendency to destroy borough-
mongering, and to put an end to peculation and plunder.
No matter whether by the means of Mavtello Towers, making
a great chalk-hill a honey-comb, cutting a canal thirty feet
wide to stop the march of the armies of the Danube and the
PJiine : no matter how they squandered the money, so that
it silenced some and made others bawl to answer their great
purpose of preventing French example from having an in-
fluence in England. Simply their object was this : to make
the French people miserable; to force back the Bourbons
upon them as a means of making them miserable ; to degrade
France, to make the people wretched ; and then to have to
say to the people of England, Look there : see what they have
DOVER TO THE WEN. 249
got by their attempts to obtain liberty ! This was their object.
They did not want Martello Towers and honey-combed
chalk-hills, and mad canals : they did not want these to keep
out the French armies. The borough-mongers and the par-
sons cared nothing about the French armies. It was the
French example that the lawyers, borough-mongers and
parsons wished to keep out. And what have they done ? It
is impossible to be upon this honey-combed hill ; upon this
enormous mass of anti-jacobin expenditure, without seeing
the chalk-cliffs of Calais and the corn-fields of France. At
this season, it is impossible to see those fields without know-
ing that the farmers are getting in their corn there as well as
here ; and it is impossible to think of that fact without re-
flecting, at the same time, on the example which the farmers
of France hold out to the farmers of England. Looking
down from this very anti-jacobin hill, this day, I saw the
parsons' shocks of wheat and barley, left in the field after the
farmer had taken his away. Turning my head, and looking
across the Channel, " There," said I, pointing to France,
" There the spirited and sensible people have ridded them-
" selves of this burden, of which our farmers so bitterly com-
" plain." It is impossible not to recollect here, that, in
numerous petitions, sent up, too, by the loyal, complaints
have been made that the English farmer has to carry on a
competition against the French farmer who has no tithes to
pay ! Well, loyal gentlemen, why do not you petition, then,
to be relieved from tithes ? What do you mean else ? Do
you mean to call upon our big gentlemen at Whitehall for
them to compel the French to pay tithes ? Oh, you loyal
fools ! Better hold your tongues about the French not pay-
ing tithes. Better do that, at any rate ; for never will they
pay tithes again.
Here is a large tract of land upon these hills at Dover,
which is the property of the public, having been purchased
at an enormous expense. This is now let out as pasture
land to people of the town. I dare say that the letting of
this land is a curious affair. If there were a Member for
Dover who would do what he ought to do, he would soon get
before the public a list of the tenants, and of the rents paid
by them. 1 should like very much to see such list. Butter-
worth, the bookseller in Fleet-street ; he who is a sort of
metropolitan of the methodists, is one of the Members for
Dover. The other is, I believe, that Wilbraham or Bootle or
Bootlc Wilbraham, or some such name, that is a Lancashire
m 3
250 RURAL RIDE PROM
magistrate. So that Dover is prettily set up. However,
tliere is nothing of this sort that can, in the present state of
things, be deemed to be of any real consequence. As long as
the people at Whitehall can go on paying the interest of the
debt in full, so long will there be no change worth the at-
tention of any rational man. In the meanwhile, the French
nation will be going on rising over us ; and our Ministers
will be cringing and crawling to every nation upon earth who
is known to possess a cannon or a barrel of powder. (119)
This very day I have read Mr. Canning's Speech at Liver-
pool, with a Yankee Consul sitting on his right hand. Not
a word now about the bits of bunting and the fir frigates ; but
now, America is the lovely daughter, who, in a moment of ex-
cessive love, has gone off with a lover (to wit, the French)
and left the tender mother to mourn ! What a fop ! And
this is the man that talked so big and so bold. This is the
clever, the profound, the blustering, too, and, above all things,
"the high spirited" Mr. Canning. However, more of this,
hereafter. I must get from this Dover, as fast as I can.
Sandwich,
Wednesday, 3 Sept. Night.
I got to this place about half an hour after the ringing of
the eight o'clock bell, or Curfew, which T heard at about two
miles distance from the place. From the town of Dover
you come up the Castle-Hill, and have a most beautiful view
from the top of it. You have the sea, the chalk cliffs of
Calais, the high land at Boulogne, the town of Dover just
under you, the valley towards Folkestone, and the much more
beautiful valley towards Canterbury ; and, going on a little
further, you have the Downs and the Essex or Suffolk coast
in full view, with a most beautiful corn country to ride along
tlxough. The corn was chiefly cut between Dover and
Walmer. The barley almost all cut and tied up in sheaf.
Nothing but the beans seemed to remain standing along here.
They are not quite so good as the rest of the corn ; but they
are by no means bad. When I came to the village of Walmer,
I enquired for the Castle ; that famous place, where Pitt,
Dundas, Perceval, and all the whole tribe of plotters
against the French Revolution had carried on their plots.
After coming through the village of Walmer, you see the
entrance of the Castle away to the right. It is situated pretty
nearly on the water's edge, and at the bottom of a little dell,
DOVER TO THE WEN. 251
about a furlong or so from the turnpike-road. This is now the
habitation of our Great Minister, Eobert Bankes Jenkinson,
son of Charles of that name. When I was told, by a girl who
was leasing in a field by the road side, that that was Walraer
Castle, I stopped short, pulled my horse round, looked stead-
fastly at the gateway, and could not help exclaiming : " Oh,
"thou who inhabitest that famous dwelling; thou, who hast
" always been in place, let who might be out of place ! Oh,
" thou everlasting placeman ! thou sage of 'over-production/
" do but cast thine eyes upon this barley-field, where, if I am
" noj| greatly deceived, there are from seven 10 eight quarters
" upon the acre ! Oh, thou whose Courier newspaper has just
" informed its readers that wheat will be seventy shillings the
* quarter, in the month of November : oh, thou wise man, I
"pray thee come forth, from thy Castle, and tell me what
" thou wilt do if wheat should happen to be, at the appointed
" time thirty-five shillings, instead of seventy shillings, the
" quarter. Sage of over-production, farewell. If thou hast
" life, thou wilt be Minister, as long as thou canst pay the
"interest of the Debt in full, but not one moment longer.
" The moment thou ceasest to be able to squeeze from the
" Normans a sufficiency to count down to the Jews their full
" tale, that moment, thou great stern-path-of-duty man, thou
"wilt begin to be taught the true meaning of the words
" Ministerial Mespo?/sidi!it//."
Deal is a most villanous place. It is full of filthy-looking
people. Great desolation of abomination has been going on
here ; tremendous barracks, partly pulled down and partly
tumbling down, and partly occupied by soldiers. Every
thing seems upon the perish. 1 was glad to hurry along
through it, and to leave its inns and public-houses to be oc-
cupied by the tarred, and trousered, and blue-and-buil' crew
whose very vicinage I always detest. From Deal you com"
along to Upper Deal, which, it seems, was the original village
thence upon a beautiful road to Sandwich, which is a roth i
Borough. Kottenness, putridity is excellent for land, 1m
bad for Boroughs. This place, which is as villanous a hole
as one would wish to see, is surrounded by some of the fin
land in the world. Along on one side of it, lies a marsh.
On the other sides of it is land which thev tell me bears
seven quarters of wheat to an acre. It is certainly very fin;' ;
for [ saw large pieces of radish-sccd on the road side; this
seed is grown for the -eedsmen in Loudon ; and it will grow
on none but rich land. All the corn is carried here except
some beans and some barley.
252 RURAL RIDE FROM
Canterbury,
Thursday Afternoon, Ath Sept.
In quitting Sandwich, you immediately cross a river up
which vessels bring coals from the sea. This marsh is about
a couple of miles wide. It begins at the sea-beach, opposite
the Downs, to my right hand, coming from Sandwich, and it
wheels round to my left and ends at the sea-beach, opposite
Margate roads. This marsh was formerly covered with the
sea, very likely ; and hence the land within this sort
of semicircle, the name of which is Thanet, was called
an Isle. It is, in fact, an island now, for the same
reason that Portsea is an island, and that New York is
an island ; for there certainly is the water in this river that
goes round and connects one part of the sea with the other.
I had to cross this river, and to cross the marsh, before I got
into the famous Isle of Thanet, which it was my intention to
cross. Soon after crossing the river, I passed by a place for
making salt, and could not help recollecting that there are
no excisemen in these salt-making places in Trance, that, be-
fore the Revolution, the Trench were most cruelly oppressed
by the duties on salt, that they had to endure, on that
account, the most horrid tyranny that ever was known, ex-
cept, perhaps, that practised, in an ExcJiequer that shall here
be nameless ; that thousands and thousands of men and
women were every year sent to the galleys for what was
called smuggling salt* ; that the fathers and even the mothers
were imprisoned or whipped if the children were detected in
smuggling salt : I could not help reflecting, with delight, as
I looked at these salt-pans in the Isle of Thanet ; I could not
help reflecting, that in spite of Pitt, Dundas, Perceval, and
the rest of the crew, in spite of the caverns of Dover and the
Martello Towers in Eomney Marsh : in spite of all the spies
and all the bayonets, and the six hundred millions of Debt
and the hundred and fifty millions of dead-weight, and the
two hundred millions of poor-rates that are now squeezing the
borough-mongers, squeezing the farmers, puzzling the fellows
at Whitehall and making Mark-lane a scene of greater in-
terest than the Chamber of the Privy Council ; with delight
as I jogged along under the first beams of the sun, I re-
flected, that, in spite of all the malignant measures that had
brought so much misery upon England, the gallant Trench
people had ridded themselves of the tyranny which sent them
ft
DOVER TO THE WEN. 253
to the galleys for endeavouring to use without tax the salt
which God sent upon their shores. Can any man tell why
we should still be paying five, or six, or seven shillings a
bushel for salt, instead of one ? We did pay fifteen shillings
a bushel, tax. And why is two shillings a bushel kept on ?
Because, if they were taken off, the salt-tax-gathering crew
must be discharged ! This tax of two shillings a bushel,
causes the consumer to pay five, at the least, more than he
would if there were no tax at all ! When, great God ! when
shall we be allowed to enjoy God's gifts, in freedom, as the
people of France enjoy them ?
On the marsh I found the same sort of sheep as on Eom-
ney Marsh ; but the cattle here are chiefly Welsh ; black,
and called runts. They are nice hardy cattle ; and, I am
told, that this is the description of cattle that they fat all the
way up on this north side of Kent. When I got upon
the corn land in the Isle of Thanet, I got into a
garden indeed. There is hardly any fallow ; comparatively
few turnips. It is a country of corn. Most of the
harvest is in ; but there are some fields of wheat and of
barley not yet housed. A great many pieces of lucerne, and
all of them very fine. I left Ramsgate to my right about
three miles, and went right across the island to Margate ; but
that place is so thickly settled with stock-jobbing cuckolds, at
this time of the year, that, having no fancy to get their horns
stuck into me, I turned away to my left when I got within
about half a mile of the town. I got to a little hamlet,
where I breakfasted ; but could get no corn for my horse, and
no bacon for myself ! All was corn around me. Barns, I
should think, two hundred feet long ; ricks of enormous size
and most numerous ; crops of wheat, five quarters to an acre,
on the average ; and a public-house without either bacon or
corn ! The labourers' houses, all along through this island,
beggarly in the extreme. The people dirty, poor-looking ;
ragged, but particularly dirty. The men and boys with dirty
faces, and dirty smock-frocks, and dirty shirts ; and, good
God ! what a difference between the wife of a labouring man
here, and the wife of a labouring man in the forests and wood-
lands of Hampshire and Sussex ! Invariably have 1 observed,
that the richer the soil, and the more destitute of woods ;
that is to say, the more purely a corn country, the more
miserable the labourers. The cause is this, the great, the
big bull frog grasps all. In this beautiful island every inch
of land is appropriated by the rich. No hedges, no ditches,
254 RURAL RIDE FROM
no commons, no grassy lanes : a country divided into great
farms ; a few trees surround the great farm-house. All the
rest is bare of trees ; and the wretched labourer has not a stick
of wood, and. has no place for a pig or cow to graze, or even
to lie down upon. The rabbit countries are the countries for
labouring men. There the ground is not so valuable. There
it is not so easily appropriated by the few. Here, in this
island, the work is almost all done by the horses. The horses
plough the ground; they sow the ground; they hoe the
ground ; they carry the corn home ; they thresh it out ; and
they carry it to market : nay, in this island, they rake the
ground ; they rake up the straggling straws and ears ; so that
they do the whole, except the reaping and the mowing. It is
impossible to have an idea of any thing more miserable than
the state of the labourers in this part of the country.
After coming by Margate, I passed a village called Monckton,
and another called Sarr. At Sarr there is a bridge, over
which you come out of the island, as you go into it over the
bridge at Sandwich. At Monckton they had seventeen men
working on the roads, though the harvest was not quite in,
and though, of course, it had all to be threshed out ; but, at
Monckton, they had four threshing machines ; and they have
three threshing machines at Sarr, though there, also, they
have several men upon the roads ! This is a shocking state
of things ; and, in spite of every thing that the Jenkiusons
and the Scots can do, this state of things must be changed.
At Sarr, or a little way further back, I saw a man who had
just begun to reap a field of canary seed. The plants were too
far advanced to be cut in order to be bleached for the making
of plat ; but I got the reaper to select me a few green stalks
that grew near a bush that stood on the outside of the piece.
These I have brought on with me, in order to give them a
trial. At Sarr I began to cross the marsh, and had, after
this, to come through the village of Up-street, and another
village called Steady, before I got to Canterbury. At Up-
street I was struck with the words written upon a board which
was fastened upon a pole, which pole was standing in a gar-
den near a neat little box of a house. The words were these.
" Paradise Place. Spring guns and steel traps are set here"
A pretty idea it must give us of Paradise to know that spring
guns and steel traps are set in it ! This is doubtless some
stock-jobber's place ; for, in the first place, the name is likely
to have been selected by one of that crew ; and, in the next
place, whenever any of them go to the country, they look
DOVER TO THE WEN. 255
upon it that they are to begin a sort of warfare against every-
thing around them. They invariably look upon every
labourer as a thief.
As you approach Canterbury, from the Isle of Thanet, you
have another instance of the squanderings of the lawyer
Ministers. Nothing equals the ditches, the caverns, the
holes, the tanks, and hiding-places of the hill at Dover ; but,
considerable as the City of Canterbury is, that city, within its
gates, stands upon less ground than those horrible erections,
the barracks of Pitt, Dundas, and Perceval. They are
perfectly enormous ; but thanks be unto God, they begin to
crumble down. They have a sickly hue : all is lassitude about
them : endless are their lawns, their gravel walks, and their
ornaments ; but their lawns are unshaven, their gravel walks
grassy, and their ornaments putting on the garments of
ugliness. You see the grass growing opposite the door-ways.
A hole in the window strikes you here and there. Lamp-
posts there are, but no lamps. Here are horse-barracks,
foot-barracks, artillery-barracks, engineer-barracks : a whole
country of barracks ; but, only here and there a soldier. The
thing is actually perishing. It is typical of the state of
the great Thing of things. It gave me inexpressible
pleasure to perceive the gloom that seemed to hang over these
barracks, which once swarmed with soldiers and their blithe
companions, as a hive swarms witli bees. These barracks now
look like the environs of a hive in winter. Westminster Abbey
Church is not the place for the monument of Pitt ; the statue of
the great snorting bawler ought to be stuck up here, just in
the midst of this hundred or two of acres covered with bar-
racks. These barracks, too, were erected in order to compel
the French to return to the payment of tithes ; in order to
bring their necks again under the yoke of the lords and the
clergy. That has not been accomplished. The French, as
Mr. Boggart assures us, have neither tithes, taxes, nor
rates ; and the people of Canterbury know that they have a
hop-duly to pay, while Mr. Hoggart, of Broad-street, tells
them that he has farms to let, in Prance, where there are
hop-gardens and where there is no hop-duty. They have
lately had races at Canterbury ; and the Mayor and Alder-
men, in order to get the Prince Leopold to attend them,
presented him with the Freedom of the City ; but it rained
all the time and he did not come ! The Ma\or and Alder-
men do not understand things half so well as this German
Gentleman, who has managed his matters as well, I think, as
any one that I ever heard of.
256 RURAL RIDE FROM
This fine old town, or, rather, city, is remarkable for clean-
liness and niceness, notwithstanding it has a Cathedral in it.
The country round it is very rich, and this year, while the
hops are so bad in most other parts, they are not so very bad
just about Canterbury.
Elverton Farm, near Faversham,
Friday Morning, Sept. 5.
In going through Canterbury, yesterday, I gave a boy
sixpence to hold my horse, while I went into the Cathedral,
just to thank St. S within for the trick that he had played my
friends, the Quakers. Led along by the wet weather till
after the harvest had actually begun, and then to find the
weather turn fine, all of a sudden ! This must have soused
them pretty decently ; and I hear of one, who, at Canterbury,
has made a bargain by which he will certainly lose two thou-
sand pounds. The land where I am now is equal to that
of the Isle of Thanet. The harvest is nearly over, and all
the crops have been prodigiously fine. In coming from
Canterbury, you come to the top of a hill, called Baughton
Hill, at four miles from Canterbury on the London road ;
and you there look down into one of the finest flats in Eng-
land. A piece of marsh comes up nearly to Faversham;
and, at the edge of that marsh lies the farm where I now am.
The land here is a deep loam upon chalk ; and this is also
the nature of the land in the Isle of Thanet and all the way
from that to Dover. The orchards grow well upon this soil.
The trees grow finely, the fruit is large and of fine flavour.
In 1821 I gave Mr. William Waller, who lives here, some
American apple-cuttings ; and he has now some as fine New-
town Pippins as one would wish to see. They are very
large of their sort ; very free in their growth ; and they pro-
mise to be very fine apples of the kind. Mr. Waller had
cuttings from me of several sorts, in 1822. These were cut
down last year ; they have, of course, made shoots this sum-
mer ; and great numbers of these shoots have fruit-spurs,
which will have blossom, if not fruit, next year, This very
rarely happens, I believe ; and the state of Mr. Waller's trees
clearly proves to me that the introduction of these American
trees would be a great improvement.
My American apples, when I left Kensington, promised to
be very fine ; and the apples, which I have frequently men-
DOVER TO THE WEN. 257
tioned as being upon cuttings imported last Spring, promised
to come to perfection ; a thing which, I believe, we have not
an instance of before.
Merryworth,
Friday Evening, bth Sept.
A friend at Tenterden told me that, if I had a mind to know
Kent, I must go through Bomney Marsh to Dover, from Dover
to Sandwich, from Sandwich to Margate, from Margate to Can-
terbury, from Canterbury to Faversham, from Faversham to
Maidstone, and from Maidstone to Tonbridge. I found
from Mr. Waller, this morning, that the regular turnpike
route, from his house to Maidstone, was through Sitting-
bourne. I had been along that road several times; and
besides, to be covered with dust was what I could not think
of, when I had it in my power to get to Maidstone without
it. I took the road across the country, quitting the London
road, or rather, crossing it, in the dell, between Ospringe
and Green-street. I instantly began to go up hill, slowly,
indeed ; but up hill. I came through the villages of Newn-
ham, Doddington, Riuglestone, and to that of Hollingbourne.
I had come up hill for thirteen miles, from Mr. Waller's
house. At last, I got to the top of this hill, and Avent
along, for some distance, upon level ground. I found I was
got upon just the same sort of land as that on the hill at
Folkestone, at Eeigate, at Ttopley, and at Ashmansworth.
The red clayey loam, mixed up with great yellow flint stones.
I found fine meadows here, just such as are at Ashmansworth
(that is to say, on the north Hampshire hills.) This sort of
ground is characterized by an astonishing depth that they
have to go for the water. At Ashmansworth, they go to a
depth of more than three hundred feet. As I was riding
along upon the top of this hill in Kent, I saw the same
beautiful sort of meadows that there are at Ashmansworth ;
I saw the corn backward ; I was just thinking to go up to
some house, to ask how far they had to go for water, when I
saw a large well-bucket, and all the chains and wheels
belonging to such a concern; but here was also the tackle
for a horse to work in drawing up the water ! I asked about
tin' depth of the well ; and the information I received must
have been incorrect ; because I was told it was three hundred
yards. I asked this of a public-house keeper further on, not
seeing any body where the farm-house was. I make no
doubt that the depth is, as near as possible, that of Ash-
258 RURAL RIDK PROM
mansworth. Upon the top of this hill, I saw the finest field
of beans that I have seen this year, and, by very far, indeed,
the finest piece of hops. A beautiful piece of hops, sur-
rounded by beautiful plantations of young ash, producing
poles for hop-gardens. My road here pointed towards the
West. It soon wheeled round towards the South; and, all
of a sudden, I found myself upon the edge of a hill, as lofty
and as steep as that at Folkestone, at Beigate, or at Ash-
mansworth. It was the same famous chalk-ridge that I was
crossing again. When I got to the edge of the hill, and
before I got off my horse to lead him down this more than mile
of hill, I sat and surveyed the prospect before me, and to the
right and to the left. This is what the people of Kent call
the Garden of Eden. It is a district of meadows, corn
fields, hop-gardens, and orchards of apples, pears, cherries
and filberts, with very little if any land which cannot, with
propriety, be called good. There are plantations of Chesnut
and of Ash frequently occurring ; and as these are cut when
long enough to make poles for hops, they are at all times
objects of great beauty.
At the foot of the hill of which I have been speaking, is
the village of Hollingbourne ; thence you come on to Maid-
stone. From Maidstone to this place (Merryworth) is about
seven miles, and these are the finest seven miles that I have
ever seen in England or any where else. The Medway is to
your left, with its meadows about a mile wide. You cross
the Medway, in coming out of Maidstone, and it goes and
finds its way down to Kochester, through a break in the
chalk-ridge. From Maidstone to Merryworth, I should think
that there were hop-gardens on one half of the way on both
sides of the road. Then looking across the Medway, you see
hop-gardens and orchards two miles deep, on the side of a
gently rising ground : and this continues with you all the way
from Maidstone to Merryworth. The orchards form a great.
feature of the country ; and the plantations of Ashes and of
Chesnuts that I mentioned before, add greatly to the beauty.
These gardens of hops are kept very clean, in general, though
some of them have been neglected this year owing to the bad
appearance of the crop. The culture is sometimes mixed : that
is to say, apple-trees, or cherry-trees or filbert-trees and hops,
in the same ground. This is a good way, they say, of raising
an orchard. I do not believe it ; and I think that nothing-
is. gained by any of these mixtures. They plant apple-trees
or cherry-trees in rows here ; they then plant a filbert-tree
DOVER TO THE WEN. 259
close to each of these large fruit-trees ; and then they cultivate
the middle of the ground by planting potatoes. This is
being too greedy. It is impossible that they can gain by
this. What they gain one way they lose the other way ; and
I verily believe, that the most profitable way would be, never
to mix things at all. In coming from Maidstone I passed
through a village called Teston, where Lord Basharn has
a seat.
Tonbridge,
Saturday morning, 6th Sept.
I came off from Merryworth a little before five o'clock,
passed the seat of Lord Torrington, the friend of Mr. Bar-
retto. This Mr. Barretto ought not to be forgotten so soon.
In 1820 he sued for articles of the peace against Lord Tor-
rington, for having menaced him, in consequence of his
having pressed his Lordship about some money. It seems
that Lord Torrington had known him in the East Indies;
that they came home together, or soon after one another ;
that his Lordship invited Mr. Barretto to his best parties in
India ; that he got him introduced at Court in England by
Sidmouth ; that he got him made a Telloio of the Royal
Society ; and that he tried to get him introduced into Parlia-
ment. His Lordship, when Barretto rudely pressed him
for his money, reminded him of all this, and of the many
difficulties that he had had to overcome with regard to his
colour and so forth. Nevertheless, the dingy skinned Court
visitant pressed in such a way that Lord Torrington was
obliged to be pretty smart with him, whereupon the other
sued for articles of the peace against his Lordship ; but these
were not granted by the Court. This Barretto issued a
hand-bill at the last election as a candidate for St. Albans.
I am truly sorry that he was not elected. Lord Camellbrd
threatened to put in his black fellow; but he was a sad
swaggering fellow ; and had, at last, too much of the
borough-monger in him to do a thing so meritorious. Lord
Torrington's is but an indifferent looking place.
I here begun to sec Soutli Down sheep again, which I had
not seen aincfl the time I left Tentcrden. All along here the
villages are at not more than two miles distance from each
other. They have all large churches, and scarcely any body
to go to them. At a village called lladlow, there is a house
belonging to a Mr. May, the most singular looking thing I
260 RURAL RIDE FROM
ever saw. An immense house stuck all over with a parcel
of chimnies, or things like chimnies; little brick columns,
with a sort of caps on them, looking like carnation sticks,
with caps at the top to catch the earwigs. The building is
all of brick, and has the oddest appearance of any thing I
ever saw. This Tonbridge is but a common country town,
though very clean, and the people looking very well. The
climate must be pretty warm here ; for in entering the town,
I saw a large Althea Frutex in bloom, a thing rare enough,
any year, and particularly a year like this.
Westerham,
Saturday, Noon, 6th Sept.
Instead of going on to the Wen along the turnpike road
through Sevenoaks, I turned to my left when I got about a
mile out of Tonbridge, in order to come along that tract of
country called the Weald of Kent ; that is to say, the solid
clays, which have no bottom, which are unmixed with chalk,
sand, stone, or anything else ; the country of dirty roads and
of oak trees. I stopped at Tonbridge only a few minutes ;
but in the Weald I stopped to breakfast at a place called
Leigh. From Leigh I came to Chittingstone causeway,
leaving Tonbridge Wells six miles over the hills to my left.
From Chittingstone I came to Bough-beach, thence to Four
Elms, and thence to this little market-town of Westerham,
which is just upon the border of Kent. Indeed, Kent, Surrey,
and Sussex form a joining very near to this town. Wester-
ham, exactly like Eeigate and Godstone, and Sevenoaks, and
Dorking, and Folkestone, lies between the sand-ridge and the
chalk-ridge. The valley is here a little wider than at Eei-
gate, and that is all the difference there is between the places.
As soon as you get over the sand hill to the south of Eeigate,
you get into the Weald of Surrey ; and here, as soon as you
get over the sand hill to the south of Westerham, you get
into the Weald of Kent.
I have now, in order to get to the Wen, to cross the chalk-
ridge once more, and, at a point where I never crossed it
before. Coming through the Weald I found the corn very
good ; and, low as the ground is, wet as it is, cold as it
is, there will be very little of the wheat which will not be
housed before Saturday night. All the corn is good, and the
barley excellent. Not far from Bough-beach, I saw two oak
DOVER TO THE WEN. 261
trees, one of which was, they told me, more than thirty feet
round, and the other more than twenty seven ; but they have
been hollow for half a century. They are not much bigger
than the oak upon Tilford Green, if any. I mean in the
trunk ; but they are hollow, while that tree is sound in all its
parts, and growing still. I have had a most beautiful ride
through the Weald. The day is very hot ; but I have been
in the shade ; and my horse's feet very often in the rivulets
and wet lanes. In one place I rode above a mile completely
arched over by the boughs of the underwood, growing in the
banks of the lane. "What an odd taste that man must have
who prefers a turnpike-road to a lane tike this.
Very near to Westerham there are hops : and I have seen
now and then a little bit of hop garden, even in the Weald.
Hops will grow well where lucerne will grow well ; and
lucerne will grow well where there is a rich top and a dry
bottom. When therefore you see hops in the Weald, it is on
the side of some hill, where there is sand or stone at bottom,
and not where there is real clay beneath. There appear to
be hops, here and there, all along from nearly at Dover to
Alton, in Hampshire. You find them all along Kent ; you
find them at Westerham ; across at Worth, in Sussex ; at
Godstone, in Surrey ; over to the north of Merrow Down,
near Guildford ; at Godalming ; under the Hog's-back, at
Farnham ; and all along that way to Alton. But there, I
think, they end. The whole face of the country seems to rise,
when you get just beyond Alton, and to keep up. Whether
you look to the north, the south, or west, the land seems to
rise, and the hops cease, till you come again away to the
north-west, in Herefordshire.
Kensington,
Saturday night, 6 Sefrt.
Here I close my day, at the end of forty-four miles. In
coming up the chalk hill from Westerham, I prepared myself
for the red stiff clay-like loam, the big yellow flints and the
meadows ; and I found them all. I have now gone over this
chalk-ridge in the following places : at Coombc in the North-
Wesl of Hampshire; I mean the North-west corner, the very
extremity of the county. I have gone over it at Ashmans-
worth, or Highclere, going from Newbury to Andover ;
at King's Clere, going from Newbury to Winchester; at
Eopley, going from Alresford to Sclbornc ; at Dippinghall
262 RURAL RIDE FROM
going- from Crondall to Thursly; at Merrow, going from
Chertsey to Chilworth ; at Reigate ; at Westerham, and
then, between these, at Godstone ; at Sevenoaks, going
from London to Battle ; at Hollingbourne, as mentioned
above, and at Folkestone. In all these places I have crossed
this chalk-ridge. Every where, upon the top of it, I have
found a flat, and the soil of all these flats I have found to be
a red stiff loam mingled up with big yellow flints. A soil
difficult to work ; but by no means bad, whether for wood,
hops, grass, orchards or corn. I once before mentioned that
I was assured that the pasture upon these bleak hills was as
rich as that which is found in the North of Wiltshire, in the
neighbourhood of Swindon, where they make some of the
best cheese in the kingdom. Upon these hills I have never
found the labouring people poor and miserable, as in the rich
vales. All is not appropriated where there are coppices and
wood, where the cultivation is not so easy and the produce
so very large. (120)
After getting up the hill from Westerham, I had a general
descent to perform all the way to the Thames. When you
get to Beckenham, which is the last parish in Kent, the
country begins to assume a cockney-like appearance ; all is
artificial, and you no longer feel any interest in it. I was
anxious to make this journey into Kent, in the midst of har-
vest, in order that I might know the real state of the crops.
The result of my observations and my inquiries, is, that the
crop is a fall average crop of every thing except barley, and
that the barley yields a great deal more than an average
crop. I thought that the beans were very poor during my
ride into Hampshire ; but I then saw no real bean countries.
T have seen such countries now ; and I do not think that the
beans present us with a bad crop. As to the quality, it is,
in no case (except perhaps the barley), equal to that of last
year. We had, last year, an Italian summer. When the
wheat, or other grain has to ripen in wet weather, it will not
be bright, as it will when it has to ripen in fair weather. It
will have a dingy or clouded appearance ; and perhaps the
flour may not be quite so good. The wheat, in fact, will not
be so heavy. In order to enable others to judge, as well as
myself, I took samples from the fields as I went along. I
took them very fairly, and as often as I thought that there
was any material change in the soil or other circumstances.
During the ride I took sixteen samples. These are now at
the Office of the Register, in Fleet- street, where they may be
DOVER TO THE WEN. 263
seen by any gentleman who thinks the information likely to
be useful to him. The samples are numbered, and there is
a reference pointing out the place where each sample was
taken. The opinions that I gather amount to this : that
there is an average crop of every thing, and a little more of
barley.
Now then we shall see how all this tallies with the
schemes, with the intentions and expectations of our match-
less gentlemen at Whitehall. These wise men have put forth
their views in the Courier of the 27th of August, aud in words
which ought never to be forgotten, and which, at any rate,
shall be recorded here.
" Grain — During the present unsettled state of the wea-
" ther, it is impossible for the best informed persons to anti-
" cipate upon good grounds what will be the future price of
" agricultural produce. Should the season even yet prove
"favourable, for the operations of the harvest, there is every
" probability of the average price of grain continuing at that
" exact price, which will prove most conducive to the in-
" terests of the corn growers, and at the same time encou-
'• raging to the agriculture of our colonial possessions. We
" do not speak lightly on this subject, for we are aware that
" His Majesty's Ministers have been fully alive to the in-
" quiries from all qualified quarters as to the effect likely to
" be produced on the markets from the addition of the pre-
" sent crops to the stock of wheat already on hand. The
" result of these inquiries is, that in the highest quarters
" there exists the lull expectation, that towards the month of
" November, the price of wheat will nearly approach to
" seventy shillings, a price which, while it affords the extent
" of remuneration to the British farmer, recognized by the
" corn laws, will at the same time admit of the sale of the
" Canadian bonded wheat ; and the introduction of this
" foreign corn, grown by British colonists, will contribute to
" keeping down our markets, and exclude foreign grain from
" other quarters."
There's nice gentlemen of Whitehall ! What pretty
gentlemen they are J "Envy of surrounding nations," in-
deed, t<> be under command of pretty gentlemen who cau
make calculations so nice, and put forth predictions so posi-
tive upon auch B subject ! " admiration of the world" indeed,
to live under the eoinniand of men who can bo controul sea-
sons and markets; or, at least, who can so dive into the
secrets of trade, aud lind out the contents of the iields, barns,
264 RURAL RIDE FROM
and ricks, as to be able to balance things so nicely as to
cause the Canadian corn to find a market, without injuring
the sale of that of the British farmer, and without admitting
that of the French farmer and the other farmers of the con-
tinent ! Happy, too happy, rogues that Ave are, to be under
the guidance of such pretty gentlemen, and right just is it
that we should be banished for life, if we utter a word tending
to bring such pretty gentlemen into contempt.
Let it be observed, that this paragraph must have come
from Whitehall. This wretched paper is the demi-official or-
gan of the Government. As to the owners of the paper,
Daniel Stewart, that notorious fellow, Street, and the rest of
them, not excluding the brother of the great Oracle, which
brother bought, the other day, a share of this vehicle of base-
ness and folly ; as to these fellows, they have no control
other than what relates to the expenditure and the receipts
of the vehicle. They get their news from the offices of the
"Whitehall people, and their paper is the mouth-piece of those
same people. Mark this, I pray you reader ; and let the
French people mark it, too, and then take their revenge for the
Waterloo insolence. This being the case, then ; this paragraph
proceeding from the pretty gentlemen, what a light it throws
on their expectations, their hopes, and their fears. They see
that wheat at seventy shillings a quarter is necessary to them !
Ah ! pray mark that ! They see that wheat at seventy
shillings a quarter is necessary to them ; and, there-
fore, they say that wheat will be at seventy shillings
a quarter, the price, as they call it, necessary to re-
munerate the British farmer. And how do the conjurors at
Whitehall know this ? Why, they have made full inquiries
"in qualified quarters." And the qualified quarters have
satisfied the "highest quarters," that, "towards the month
" of November, the price of wheat will nearly approach to
" seventy shillings the quarter !" I wonder what the words
towards the " end of November," may mean. Devil's in't if
middle of September is not " towards November;" and the
wheat, instead of going on towards seventy shillings, is very
fast coming down to forty. The beast who wrote this para-
graph ; the pretty beast ; this " envy of surrounding nations"
wrote it on the 27th of August, a soaking wet Saturday !
The pretty beast was not aware, that the next day was going
to be fine, and that we were to have only the succeeding
Tuesday and half the following Saturday of wet weather until
the whole of the harvest should be in. The pretty beast
DOVER TO THE WEN. 265
wrote while the rain was spattering against the window ; and
he did "not speak lightly," but was fully aware that the
highest quarters, having made inquiries of the qualified
quarters, were sure that wheat would be at seventy shillings
during the ensuing year. What will be the price of wheat it
is impossible for any one to say. I know a gentleman, who
is a very good judge of such matters, who is of opinion that
the average price of wheat will be thirty-two shillings a
quarter, or lower, before Christmas ; this is not quite half
what the highest quarters expect, in consequence of the in-
quiries which they have made of the qualified quarters. I do
not say, that the average of wheat will come down to thirty-
two shillings ; but this I know, that at Reading, last Satur-
day, about forty-five shillings was the price ; and, I hear, that,
in Norfolk, the price is forty-two. The highest quarters, and
the infamous London press, will, at any rate, be prettily ex-
posed, before Christmas. Old Sir Thomas Lethbridge, too,
and Gaffer Gooch, and his base tribe of Pittites at Ipswich ;
Coke and Suffield, and their crew ; all these will be prettily
laughed at; nor will that " tall soul," (121) Lord Milton,
escape being reminded of his profound and patriotic obser-
vation relative to " this self-renovating country." No sooner
did he see the wheat get up to sixty or seventy shillings than
he lost all his alarms ; found that all things were right,
turned his back on Yorkshire Eeformers, and went and toiled
for Scarlett at Peterborough : and discovered, that there was
nothing wrong, at last, and that the " self-renovating coun-
try " would triumph over all its difficulties ! — So it will, " tall
soul ;" it will triumph over all its difficulties : it will reno-
vate itself: it will purge itself of rotten boroughs, of vile
borough-mongers, their tools and their stopgaps ; it will
purge itself of all the villanies which now corrode its heart ;
it will, in short, free itself from those curses, which the expen-
diture of eight or nine hundred millions of English money took
place in order to make perpetual : it will, in short, become
free from oppression, as easy and as happy as the gallant and
sensible nation on the other side of the Channel. This is the.
sort of renovation, but not renovation by the means of wheat
at seventy shillings a quarter. Renovation it will have : it
will rouse and will shake from itself curses like the
pension which is paid to Burke's executors. This is
the sort of renovation, " tall soul ;" and not wheat at
70s. a quarter, while it is at twenty-five shillings a quarter in
Prance. Tray observe, reader, how the " tall soul," caiched
N
266 RURAL RIDE FROM
ait the rise in the price of wheat : how he snapped at it : how
quickly he ceased his attacks upon the Whitehall people and
upon the System. He thought he had been deceived : he
thought that things were coming about again ; and so he
drew in his horns, and began to talk about the self- renovating
country. This was the tone of them all. This was the tone
of all the borough-mongers ; all the friends of the System ; all
those, who, like Lethbridge, had begun to be staggered. They
had deviated, for a moment, into our path ! but they popped
back again the moment they saw the price of wheat rise !
All the. enemies of Reform, all the calumniators of Reformers,
all the friends of the System, most anxiously desired a rise in
the price of wheat. Mark the curious fact, that all the vile
press of London ; the whole of that infamous press ; that
newspapers, magazines, reviews : the whole of the base thing ;
and a baser surely this world never saw ; that the whole of this
base thing rejoiced, exulted, crowed over me, and told an im-
pudent lie, in order to have the crowing ; crowed, for what ?
Because wheat and bread were become dear ! A newspaper
hatched under a corrupt Priest, a profligate Priest, and
recently espoused to the hell of Pall Mall ; even this vile
thing crowed because wheat and bread had become dear !
Now, it is notorious, that, heretofore, every periodical pub-
lication in this kingdom was in the constant habit of lament-
ing, when bread became dear, and of rejoicing, when it be-
came cheap. This is notorious. Nay, it is equally
notorious, that this infamous press was everlastingly as-
sailing bakers, and millers, and butchers, for not selling
bread, flour, and meat cheaper than they were selling
them. In how many hundreds of instances has this infamous
press caused attacks to be made by the mob upon tradesmen
of this description ! (122) All these things are notorious.
Moreover, notorious it is that, long previous to every harvest,
this infamous, this execrable, this beastly press, was engaged
in stunning the public with accounts of the great crop which
Avas just coming forward ! There was always, with this press,
a prodigiously large crop. This was invariably the case. It
was never known to be the contrary.
Now these things are perfectly well known to every man in
England. How comes it, then, reader, that the profligate,
the trading, the lying, the infamous press of London, has
now totally changed its tone and bias. The base thing never
now tells us that there is a great crop or even a good crop.
It never now wants cheap bread and cheap wheat and cheap
DOVER TO THE WEN. 267
meat. It never now finds fault of bakers and butchers. It
now always endeavours to make it appear that corn is dearer
than it is. The base " Morning Herald" about three weeks
ago, not only suppressed the fact of the fall of wheat, but
asserted that there had been a rise in the price. Now why
is ail this ? That is a great question, reader. That is a very
interesting question. Why has this infamous press, which
always pursues that which it thinks its own interest ; why
has it taken this strange turn ? This is the reason : stupid
as the base thing is, it has arrived at a conviction, that if the
price of the produce of the laud cannot be kept up to some-
thing approaching ten shillings ; bushel for good wheat, the
hellish system of funding must be blown up. The infamous
press has arrived at a conviction, that that cheating, that
fraudulent system by which this press lives, must be de-
stroyed unless the price of corn can be kept up. The
infamous traders of the press are perfectly well satisfied, that
the interest of the Debt must be reduced, unless wheat can
be kept up to nearly ten shillings a bushel. Stupid as they
are, and stupid as the fellows down at Westminster are, they
know very well, that the whole system, stock-jobbers, Jews,
cant and all, go to the devil at once, as soon as a deduction
is made from the interest of the Debt. Knowing this, they
want wheat to sell high ; because it has, at last, been ham-
mered into their skulls, that the interest cannot be paid in
full, if wheat sells low. Delightful is the dilemma in which
they are. Dear bread does not suit their manufactories,
and cheap bread does not suit their debt. " Envy of
surrounding nations," how hard it is that Providence will not
enable your farmers to sell dear and the consumers to buy
cheap ! These arc the things that you want. Admiration
of the world you are ; bat have these things you will not.
There may be those, indeed, who question whether you your-
self know what you want ; but, at any rate, if you want these
things, you will not have them.
Before I conclude, let me ask the reader to take a look at
tin- singularity of the tone and tricks of this Six-Acts Govern-
ment. Is if, not a novelty in the world to see a Government,
and in ordinary seasons, too, having its whole soul absorbed
in considerations relating to the price of corn ? There are
our neighbours, the French, who have got a Government
engaged in taking military possession of a great neigh-
bouring kingdom to free which from these very French, we
have recently expended a hundred and fifty millioni of money.
n 2
268 RURAL RIDE FROM
Our neighbours have got a Government that is thus engaged,
and we have got a Government that employs itself in making
incessant " inquiries in all the qualified quarters" relative to
the price of wheat ! Curious employment for a Government !
Singular occupation for the Ministers of the Great George !
They seem to think nothing of Spain, with its eleven millions
of people, being in fact added to France. Wholly insensible
do they appear to concerns of this sort, while they sit think-
ing, day and night, upon the price of the bushel of wheat !
However, they arc not, after all, such fools as they appear
to be. Despicable, indeed, must be that nation, whose
safety or whose happiness does, in any degree, depend on so
fluctuating a thing as the price of corn. This is a matter that
we must take as it comes. The seasons will be what they
will be ; and all the calculations of statesmen must be made
wholly independent of the changes and chances of seasons.
This has always been the case, to be sure. "What nation
could ever carry on its affairs, if it had to take into considera-
tion the price of corn? Nevertheless, such is the situation
of our Government, that its very existence, in its present way,
depends upon the price of corn. • The pretty fellows at
Whitehall, if you may say to them : Well, but look at Spain;
look at the enormous strides of the Trench ; think of the con-
sequences in case of another war ; look, too, at the growing
marine of America. (123) See, Mr. Jenkinson, see, Mr.
Canning, see, Mr. Huskisson, see, Mr. Peel, and all ye tribe
of Grenvilles, see, what tremendous dangers are gathering-
together about us ! " Us ! " Aye, about you ; but pray
think what tremendous .dangers wheat at four shillings a
bushel will bring about us ! This is the git. Here lies the
whole of it. We laugh at a Government employing itself in
making calculations about the price of corn, and in employ-
ing its press to put forth market puffs. We laugh at these
things ; but we should not laugh, if we considered, that it is
on the price of wheat that the duration of the power and the
profits of these men depends. They know what they want ;
and they wish to believe themselves, and to make others
believe, that they shall have it. I have observed before, but
it is necessary to observe again, that all those who are for the
System, let them be Opposition or Opposition not, feel as
Whitehall feels about the price of corn. I have given an
instance, in the "tall soul;" but it is the same with the
whole of them, with the whole of those who do not wish to
see this infernal System changed. I was informed, and I
DOVER TO THE WEN. 269
believe it to be true, that the Marquis of Lansdowne said,
last April, when the great rise took place in the price of
corn, that he had always thought that the cash-measures had
but little effect on prices ; but that he was now satisfied that
those measures had no effect at all on prices ! Now, what
is our situation ; what is the situation of this country, if we
must have the present Ministry, or a Ministry of which the
Marquis of Lansdowne is to be a Member, if the Marquis of
Lansdowne did utter these words ? And again, I say, that
I verily believe he did utter them.
Ours is a Government that now seems to depend very
much upon the weather. The old type of a ship at sea will
not do now, ours is a weather Government ; and to know the
state of it, we must have recourse to those glasses that the
Jews carry about. Weather depends upon the winds, in a
great measure ; and I have no scruple to say, that the situa-
tion of those two Right Honourable youths, that are now
gone to the Lakes in the North ; (1 24) that their situation,
next winter, will be rendered very irksome, not to say peril-
ous, by the present easterly wind, if it should continue about
fifteen days longer. Pitt, when he had just made a mons-
trous issue of paper, and had, thereby, actually put the match
which blowed up the old She Devil in 1797— Pitt, at that
time, congratulated the nation, that the wisdom of Parlia-
ment had established a solid system of finance. Any thing
but solid it assuredly was ; but his system of finance was as
worthy of being called solid, as that system of Govern-
ment which now manifestly depends upon the weather and
the winds.
Since my return home (it is now Thursday, 11th Septem-
ber), I have received letters from the East, from the North,
and from the West. All tell me that the harvest is very far
advanced, and that the crops are free from blight. These
letters are not particular, as to the weight of the crop ; ex-
cept that they all say that the barley is excellent. The wind
is now coming from the East. There is every appearance of
the fine weather continuing. Before Christmas, we shall
have the wheat down to what will be a fair average price in
future. I always said that the late rise was a mere pull. It
was, in part, a scarcity rise. The wheat of 1S21 was grown
and bad. That of 1822 had to be begun upon in July.
The crop has had to last thirteen months and a half. The
present crop will have to last only eleven months, or less.
The crop of barley, last year, was so very bad ; so very
270 RURAL RIDE
small ; and the crop of the year before so very bad in quality
that wheat was malted, last year, in great quantities, instead
of barley. This year, the crop of barley is prodigious. All
these things considered, wheat, if the cash-measures had had
no effect, must have been a hundred and forty shillings a
quarter, and barley eighty. Yet the first never got to
seventy, and the latter never got to forty ! And yet there
was a man who calls himself a statesman to say that that
mere puff of a rise satisfied him, that the cash-measures had
never had any effect ! Ah ! they are all afraid to believe in
the effect of those cash-measures : they tremble like chil-
dren at the sight of the rod, when you hold up before them
the effect of those cash-measures. Their only hope, is, that
I am wrong in my opinions upon that subject ; because, if I
am right, their System is condemned to speedy destruction !
I thus conclude, for the present, my remarks relative to the
harvest and the price of corn. It is the great subject of the
day ; and the comfort is, that we are now speedily to see
whether I be right or whether the Marquis of Lansdowne be
right. As to the infamous London press, the moment the
wheat comes down to forty shillings ; that is to say, an ave-
rage Government Eeturn of forty shillings, I will spend ten
pounds in placarding this infamous press, after the manner in
which we used to placard the base and detestable enemies of
the Queen. This infamous press has been what is vulgarly
called " running its rigs," for several months past. The
Quakers have been urging it on, underhanded. They have, I
understand, been bribing it pretty deeply, in order to calum-
niate me, and to favour their own monopoly, but, thank God,
the cunning knaves have outwitted themselves. They wont
play at cards ; but they will play at Stocks ; they will play
at Lottery Tickets, and they will play at Mark -lane. They
have played a silly game, this time. Saint Swithin, that
good old Roman Catholic Saint, seemed to have set a trap for
them : he went on, wet, wet, wet, even until the harvest be-
gan. Then, after two or three days' sunshine, shocking wet
again. The ground soaking, the wheat growing, and the
" Friends ,-" the gentle Friends, seeking the Spirit, were as
busy amongst the sacks at Mark-lane as the devil in a high
wind. In short they bought away, with all the gain of God-
liness, and a little more, before their eyes. All of a sudden,
Saint Swithin took away his clouds ; out came the sun ; the
wind got round to the East ; just sun enough and just wind
enough ; and as the wheat ricks every where rose up, the
ACROSS SURREY. 271
long jaws of the Quakers dropped down ; and their faces of
slate became of a darker hue. That sect will certainly be
punished, this year ; and, let us hope, that such a change
will take place in their concerns as will compel a part of
them to labour, at any rate ; for, at present, their sect is a
perfect monster in society ; a whole sect, not one man of
whom earns his living by the sweat of his brow. A sect a
great deal worse than the Jews ; for some of them do work.
However, God send us the easterly wind, for another fort-
night, and we shall certainly see some of this sect at work.
RURAL RIDE : FROM KENSINGTON, ACROSS SURREY, AND
ALONG THAT COUNTY.
lleigate, Wednesday Evening,
IWi Oetober, 1825.
Having some business at Ilartswood, near Reigate, I in-
tended to come off this morning on horseback, along with my
son Richard, but it rained so furiously the last night, that we
gave up the horse project for to-day, being, by appointment,
to be at lleigate by ten o'clock to-day : 30 that we came off
this morning at five o'clock, in a post-chaise, intending to re-
turn home and take our horses. Finding, however, that we
cannot quit this place till Friday, we have now sent for our
horses, though the weather is dreadfully wet. But we are
under a farm-house roof, and the wind may whistle and the
rain fall as much as they like.
Reigate, Thursday Evening,
2Wi October.
Having done my business at Ilartswood to-day about
eleven o'clock, I went to a sale at a farm, which the farmer
is quitting. Hen; 1 had a view of what has long been going
on all over the country. The farm, which belongs to Christ's
Hospital, has been held by a man of the name of Charing-
272 RURAL RIDE
ton, in whose family the lease has been, I hear, a great num-
ber of years. The house is hidden by trees. It stands in
the Weald of Surrey, close by the River Mole, which is here
a mere rivulet, though just below this house the rivulet sup-
plies the very prettiest flour-mill I ever saw in my life.
Everything about this farm-house was formerly the scene
of plain manners and plentiful living. Oak clothes-chests,
oak bedsteads, oak chests of drawers, and oak tables to eat
on, long, strong, and well supplied with joint stools. Some
of the things were many hundreds of years old. But all ap-
peared to be in a state of decay and nearly of disuse. There
appeared to have been hardly any family in that house, where
formerly there were, in all probability, from ten to fifteen
men, boys, and maids : and, which was the worst of all, there
was a 'parlour. Aye, and a carpet and bell-pull too ! One
end of the front of this once plain and substantial house had
been moulded into a "parlour ;" and there was the maho-
gany table, and the fine chairs, and the fine glass, and all as
bare-faced upstart as any stock-jobber in the kingdom can
boast of. And, there were the decanters, the glasses, the
" dinner-set " of crockery-ware, and all just in the true stock-
jobber style. And I dare say it has been 'Sqtiire Charington
and the Miss Charington's ; and not plain Master Charing-
ton, and his son Hodge, and his daughter Betty Charington,
all of whom this accursed system has, in all likelihood,
transmuted into a species of mock gentlefolks, while it has
ground the labourers down into real slaves. Why do not
farmers now feed and lodge their work-people, as they did
formerly ? Because they cannot keep them upon so little as
they give them in wages. This is the real cause of the
change. There needs no more to prove that the lot of the
working classes has become worse than it formerly was. This
fact alone is quite sufficient to settle this point. All the
world knows, that a number of people, boarded in the same
house, and at the same table, can, with as good food, be
boarded much cheaper than those persons divided into twos,
threes, or fours, can be boarded. This is a well-known truth :
therefore, if the farmer now shuts his pantry against his
labourers, and pays them wholly in money, is it not clear,
that he does it because he thereby gives them a living cheaper
to him ; that is to say, a worse living than formerly? Mind,
he has a house for them; a kitchen for them to sit in, bed
rooms for them to sleep in, tables, and stools, and benches,
of everlasting duration. All these he has : all these cost
ACROSS SURREY. 273
Mm nothing ; and yet so much does he gain by pinching
them in wages, that he lets all these things remain as of no
use, rather than feed labourers in the house. Judge, then, of
the change that has taken place in the condition of these
labourers ! And, be astonished, if you can, at the pauperism
and the crimes that now disgrace this once happy and moral
England.
The land produces, on an average, what it always pro-
duced ; (125) but, there is a new distribution of the produce.
This 'Squire Charmgton's father used, I dare say, to sit at
the head of the oak-table along with his men, say grace to
them, and cut up the meat and the pudding. He might
take a cup of strong beer to himself, when they had none ; but,
that was pretty nearly all the difference in their manner of
living. So that all lived well. But, the 'Squire had many
wine-decanters and wine-glasses and " a dinner set," and a
" breakfast set," and "desert knives,-" and these evidently
imply carryings on and a consumption that must of necessity
have greatly robbed the long oak table if it had remained
fully tenanted. That long table could not share in the work
of the decanters and the dinner set. Therefore, it became
almost untenanted ; the labourers retreated to hovels, called
cottages ; and, instead of board and lodging, they got money ;
so little of it as to enable the employer to drink wine ; but,
then, that he might not reduce them to quite starvation,
they were enabled to come to him, in the king's name, and
demand food as jiavpers. And, now, mind, that which a man
receives in the king's name, he knows well he has by force ;
and it is not in nature that he should thank any body for it,
and least of all the party from whom it is forced. Then,
if this sort of force be insufficient to obtain him enough to
eat and to keep him warm, is it surprising, if he think it no
great offence against God (who created no man to starve) to
use another sort of force more within his own control? Is
it, in short, surprising, if he resort to theft and rob-
bery ? (1 2 6)
This is not only the natural progress, but it has been the
progress in England. The blame is not justly imputed to
'tiquire Charington and his like : the blame belongs to the
infernal stock-jobbing system. There was no reason to
expect, that farmers would not endeavour to keep pace, in
point of show and luxury, with fund-holders, and with all
the tribes that war and taxes created. Farmers were not the
authors of the mischief; and now they arc compelled to shut
n 3
274 RURAL RIDE
the labourers out of their houses, and to pinch them in their
wages in order to be able to pay their own taxes ; and, be-
sides this, the manners and the principles of the working-
class are so changed, that a sort of self-preservation bids the
farmer (especially in some counties) to keep them from
beneath his roof.
I could not quit this farm house without reflecting on the
thousands of scores of bacon and thousands of bushels of
bread that had been eaten from the long oak-table which, I
said to myself, is now perhaps, going at last, to the bottom
of a bridge that some stock-jobber will stick up over an
artificial river in his cockney garden. " By it sliant"
said I, almost in a real passion : and so I requested a friend
to buy it for me ; and if he do so, I will take it to Kensing-
ton, or to Fleet-street, and keep it for the good it has done in
the world.
When the old farm-houses are down (and down they must
come in time) what a miserable thing the country will be !
Those that are now erected are mere painted shells, with a
Mistress within, who is stuck up in a place she calls a parlour,
with, if she have children, the " young ladies and gentle-
men" about her : some showy chairs and a sofa (a sofa by all
means) : half a dozen prints in gilt frames hanging up -. some
swinging book-shelves with novels and tracts upon them : a
dinner brought in by a girl that is perhaps better " educated"
than she : two or three nick-nacks to eat instead of a piece of
bacon and a pudding : the house too neat for a dirty-shoed
carter to be allowed to come into ; and every thing proclaiming
to every sensible beholder, that there is here a constant
anxiety to make a show not warranted by the reality. The
children (which is the worst part of it) are all too clever
to toork : they are all to be gentlefolks. Go to plough ! Good
God! What, "young gentlemen" go to plough! They
become cle?'ks, or some skimmy-dish thing or other. They
flee from the dirty work as cunning horses do from the bridle.
What misery is all this ! "What a mass of materials for pro-
ducing that general and dreadful convidsion that must, first or
last, come and blow this funding and jobbing and enslaving
and starving system to atoms !
I was going, to-day, by the side of a plat of ground, where
there was a very fine flock of turkeys. I stopped to admire
them, and observed to the owner how fine they were, when he
answered, " We owe them entirely to you, Sir, for, we never
" raised one till we read your Collage Economy." I then told
ACROSS SURREY. 275
him, that we had, this year, raised two broods at Kensing-
ton, one black and one white, one of nine and one of eight ;
but, that, about three weeks back, they appeared to become
dull and pale about the head; and, that, therefore, I sent
them to a farm house, where they recovered instantly, and
the broods being such a contrast to each other in point of
colour, they were now, when prowling over a grass field
amongst the most agreeable sights that I had ever seen. I
intended of course, to let them get their full growth at
Kensington, where they were in a grass plat about fifteen
yards square, and where I thought that the feeding of them,
in great abundance, with lettuces and other greens from the
garden, together with grain, would carry them on to perfec-
tion. But, I found that I was wrong ; and that, though you
may raise them to a certain size, in a small place and with
such management, they then, if so much confined, begin to
be sickly. Several of mine began actually to droop : and,
the very day they were sent into the country, they became as
gay as ever, and, in three days, all the colour about their
heads came back to them.
This town of Ueigate had, in former times, a Priory,
which had considerable estates in the neighbourhood ; and
this is brought to my recollection by a circumstance which
has recently taken place in this very town. We all know
how long it has been the fashion for us to take it for granted,
that the monasteries were bad things ; but, of late, I have
made some hundreds of thousands of very good Protestants
begin to suspect, that monasteries were better than poor-
rates, and that monks and nuns, who fed the poor, were
better than sinecure and pension men and women, \t\\ofeed
upon the poor. But, how came the monasteries ! Plow came
this that was at Reigate, for instance ? Why, it was, if I re-
collect correctly, founded by a Surrey gentleman, who gave this
spot and other estates to it, and who, as was usual, provided
that masses were to be said in it for his soul and those of
others, and that it should, as usual, give aid to the poor and
needy.
Now, upon the face of the transaction, what harm could
this do the communitv ? On the contrary, it must, one
would think, do it good ; for here was this estate given to a
set of landlords who never could quit the spot ; who could
have no families ; who could save no money ; who could
hold no private property ; who could make no will ; who
must spend all their income at lleigate and near it; who
276 RURAL RIDE
as was the custom, fed the poor, administered to the sick,
and taught some, at least, of the people, gratis. This, upon
the face of the thing, seems to be a very good way of dis-
posing of a rich man's estate.
" Aye, but," it is said, " he left his estate away from his
relations." That is not sure, by any means. The contrary
is fairly to be presumed. Doubtless, it was the custom for
Catholic Priests, before they took their leave of a dying rich
man, to advise him to think of the Church and the Poor ;
that is to sav to exhort him to bequeath something to them ;
jsnd this has been made a monstrous charge against that
Church. It is surprising how blind men are, when they
have a mind to be blind ; what despicable dolts they are,
when they desire to be cheated. We, of the Church of
England, must have a special deal of good sense and of
modestv, to be sure, to rail against the Catholic Church on
this account, when our own Common Prayer Book, copied
from an act of Parliament, commands our Parsons to do just
the same thing ! (127)
Ah ! say the Dissenters, and particularly the Unitarians ;
that queer sect, who will have all the wisdom in the world
to themselves ; who will believe and won't believe ; who
will be Christians and who won't have a Christ ; who will
laugh at you, if you believe in the Trinity, and who would
(if they could) boil you in oil if you do not believe in the
Resurrection : " Oh !" say the Dissenters, we know very
" well, that vour Church Parsons are commanded to get, if
*' they can, dying people to give their money and estates to
" the Church and the poor, as they call the concern, though
" the poor, we believe, come in for very little which is got
" in this way. But, what is your Church ? We are the
" real Christians ; and we, upon our souls, never play such
"tricks; never, no never, terrify old women out of their
" stockings full of guineas." " And, as to us," say the
Unitarians, " we, the most liberal creatures upon earth ;
" we, whose virtue is indignant at the tricks by which the
" Monks and Nuns got legacies from dying people to the
" injury of heirs and other relations ; we, who are the really
" enlightened, the truly consistent, the benevolent, the dis-
interested, the exclusive patentees of the salt of the earth,
" which is sold only at, or by express permission from our
" old and original warehouse and manufactory, Essex-
" street, in the Strand, first street on the left, going from
" Temple Bar towards Charing Cross ; we defy you to show
' that Unitarian Parsons. ....,,"
ACROSS SURREY. 277
Stop vour protestations and hear my Reigate anecdote,
which, as I said above, brought the recollection of the Old
Priory into my head. The readers of the Register heard
me, several times, some years ago, mention Mr. Raron
IMaseres, who was, for a great many years, what they call
Cursitor Raron of the Exchequer. He lived partly in
London and partly at Reigate, for more, I believe, than half
a century ; and he died, about two years ago, or less, leaving,
lam told, more than a quarter of a million of money . The
Raron came to see me, in Pall Mall, in 1S00. He always
came frequently to see me, wherever I was in London ; not
by any means omitting to come to see me in Newgate, where
I was imprisoned for two years, with a thousand pounds
fine and seven years heavy bail, for having expressed my in-
dignation at the flogging of Englishmen, in the heart of
England, under a guard of German bayonets ; and, to New-
gate he always came in his wig and gown, in order, as he
said, to show his abhorrence of the sentence. (128) I
several times passed a week, or more, with the Raron at his
house, at Reigate, and might have passed many more, if my
time and taste would have permitted me to accept of his in-
vitations. Therefore, I knew the Raron well. He was a
most conscientious man ; he was when I first knew him, still
a very clever man ; he retained all his faculties to a very
great age; in I SI 5, I think it was, I got a letter from him,
written in a firm hand, correctly as to grammar, and ably as
to matter, and he must then have been little short of ninety.
He never was a bright man ; but had always been a very
sensible, just and humane man, and a man too who alwavs
cared a great deal for the public good ; and he was the only
man that I ever heard of, who refused to have his salary
augmented, when an augmentation was offered, and when
all other such salaries were augmented. I had heard of
this : I asked him about it when I saw him again ; and he
said: "There was no work to be added, and I saw no
"justice in adding to the salary. It must," added he, "be
" paid by somebody, and the more I take, the less that some-
" body must have."
He did not save money for money's sake. He saved it
because his habits would not let him spend it. He kept a
house in Rathbone Place, chambers in the Temple, and his
very pretty place at Reigate. He was by no means stingy,
but his scale and habits were cheap. Then, consider, too,
a bachelor of nearly a hundred years old. His father left
278 RURAL RIDE
him a fortune, his brother (who also died a very old
bachelor), left him another ; and the money lay in the funds,
and it went on doubling itself over and over again, till it be-
came that immense mass which we have seen above, and
which, when the Baron was making his will, he had neither
Catholic priest nor Protestant parson to exhort him to leave
to the church and the poor, instead of his relations ; though,
as we shall presently see, he had somebody else to whom to
leave his great heap of money.
The Baron was a most implacable enemy of the Catholics,
as Catholics. There was rather a peculiar reason for this,
his grand-father having been a French Hugonot and having
fled with his children to England, at the time of the revoca-
tion of the Edict of Nantz. The Baron was a very humane
man ; his humanity made him assist to support the French
emigrant priests ; but, at the same time, he caused Sir
Eichard Musgrave's book against the Irish Catholics to be
published at his own expense. He and I never agreed upon
this subject ; and this subject was, with him, a vital one.
He had no asperity in his nature ; he was naturally all
gentleness and benevolence ; and, therefore, he never re-
sented what I said to him on this subject (and which
nobody else ever, I believe, ventured to say to him) : but,
he did not like it ; and he liked it the less because I cer-
tainly beat him in the argument. However, this was long
before he visited me in Newgate : and it never produced
(though the dispute was frequently revived) any difference
in his conduct towards me, which was uniformly friendly to
the last time I saw him before his memory was gone.
There was great excuse for the Baron. From his very
birth he had been taught to hate and abhor the Catholic
religion. He had been told, that his father and mother had
been driven out of France by the Catholics : and there was
that mother dinning this in his ears, and all manner of horrible
stories along with it, during all the tender years of his life.
In short, the prejudice made part of his very frame. In the
year 1803, in August, I think it was, I had gone down to his
house on a Friday, and was there on a Sunday. After dinner
he and I and his brother walked to the Priory, as is still
called the mansion house, in the dell at Reigate, which is now
occupied by Lord Eastnor, and in which a Mr. Birket, I
think, then lived. After coming away from the Priory, the
Baron (whose native place was Betchworth, about two or
three miles from Reigate) who knew the history of every
ACROSS SURREY. 279
Louse and every thing else in this part of the country, began
to tell me why the place was called the Priory. From this he
came to the superstition and dark ignorance that induced
people to found monasteries ; and he dwelt particularly on the
injustice to heirs and relations ; and he went on, in the usual
Protestant strain, and with all the bitterness of which he was
capable, against those crafty priests, who thus plundered
families by means of the influence which they had over people
in their dotage, or who were naturally weak-minded.
Alas ! poor Baron ! he does not seem to have at all fore-
seen what was to become of his own money ! "What would
he have said to me, if I had answered his observations by pre-
dicting, that he would give his great mass of money to a little
parson for that parson's own private use ; leave only a mere
pittance to his own relations ; leave the little parson his house
in which we were their sitting (along with all his other real
property) ; that the little parson would come into the house
and take possession ; and that his own relations (two nieces)
would walk out ! Yet, all this has actually taken place, and
that, too, after the poor old Baron's four score years of jokes
about the tricks of Popish priests, practised, in the dark ayes,
upon the ignorant and superstitious people of Reigate.
When I first knew the Baron he was a staunch Church of
England man. He went to church every Sunday once, at
least. He used to take me to Reigate church : and I ob-
served, that he was very well versed in his prayer book.
But, a decisive proof of his zeal as a Church of England man
is, that he settled an annual sum on the incumbent of Rei-
gate, in order to induce him to preach, or pray (I forget
which), in the church, twice on a Sunday, instead of once ;
and, in case this additional preaching, or praying, were not
performed in Reigate church, the annuity was to go (and
sometimes it does now go) to the poor of an adjoining
parish, and not tu those of Reigate, lest I suppose, the par-
son, the overseers, and other rate-payers, might happen to
think that the Baron's annuity would be better laid out in
food for the bodies than for the souls of the poor ; or, in
other words, lest the money should be taken annually and
added to the poor-rates to ease the purses of the farmers.
It did not, I dare say, occur to the poor Baron (when he
was making this settlement), that he was now giving money
to make a church parson put up additional prayers, though
he had, all his lifetime, been laughing at those, who, in the
dark ages, gave money, for this purpose, to Catholic priests.
2 SO RURAL RIDE
Nor did it, I dare say, occur, to the Baron, that, in his con-
tingent settlement of the annuity on the poor of an adjoin-
ing parish, he as good as declared his opinion, that he
distrusted the piety of the parson, the overseers, the church-
wardens, and, indeed, of all the people of Reigate : yes, at
the very moment that lie was providing additional prayers
for them, he in the very same parchment, put a provision,
which clearly showed that he was thoroughly convinced that
they, overseers, churchwardens, people, parson and all,
loved money better than prayers.
What was this, then ? Was it hypocrisy ; was it osten-
tation ? No : mistake. The Baron thought that those who
could not go to church in the morning ought to have an op-
portunity of going in the afternoon. He was aware of the
power of money ; but, when he came to make his obligatory
clause, he was compelled to do that which reflected great
discredit on the very church and religion, which it was his
object to honour and uphold.
However, the Baron was a staunch churchman as this
fact clearly proves : several years he had become what they
call an Unitarian. The first time (I think) that I perceived
this, was in 1812. He came to see me in Newgate, and he
soon began to talk about religion, which had not been much
his habit. Pie went on at a great rate, laughing about the
Trinity ; and I remember that he repeated the Unitarian
distich, which makes a joke cf the idea of there being a devil,
and which they all repeat to you, and at the same time
laugh and look as cunning and as priggish as Jack-daws ;
just as if they were wiser than all the rest in the world ! I
hate to hear the conceited and disgusting prigs, seeming to
take it for granted, that they only are wise, because others
believe in the incarnation, without being able to reconcile it
to reason. The prigs don't consider, that there is no more
reason for the resurrection than for the incarnation ; and
vet having taken it into their heads to come up again, they
would murder you, if they dared, if you were to deny the
resurrection. I do most heartily despise this priggish set
for their conceit and impudence; but, seeing that they want
reason for the incarnation ; seeing that they will have effects,
here, ascribed to none but usual causes, let me put a question
or two to them.
1. /('hence comes the white clover, that comes up and
covers all the ground, in America, where hard-wood
trees, after standing for thousands of years, have been
burnt down ?
ACROSS SURREY. 281
2. Whence come (in similar cases as to self-woods)
the hurtle-berries in some places, and the raspberries
in others ?
3. Whence come fish in new made places where no fish
have ever been put ?
4. What causes horse-hair to become living things ?
5. What causes frogs to come in drops of rain, or those
drops of rain to turn to frogs, the moment they are on
the earth ?
6. What causes musquitoes to come in rain water caught
in a glass, covered over immediately with oil paper,
tied down and so kept till full of these winged tor-
ments ?
7. What causes flounders, real little fiat fish, brown on
one side, white on the other, mouth side-ways, with
tail, fins, and all, leaping alive, in the inside of a rotten
sheep's, and of every rotten sheep's, liver? (129)
There, prigs ; answer these questions. Fifty might be
given you ; but these are enough. Answer these. I sup-
pose you will not deny the facts? They are all notoriously
true. The last, which of itself would be quite enough for
you, will be attested on oath, if you like it, by any farmer,
ploughman, and shepherd, in England. Answer this ques-
tion 7, or hold your conceited gabble about the " impos-
sibility" of that which I need not here name.
Men of sense do not attempt to discover that which
it is impossible to discover. They leave things pretty
much as they find them ; and take care, at least, not to
make changes of any sort, without very evident necessity.
The poor Baron, however, appeared to be quite eaten up
with his " rational Christianity." He talked like a man
who has made a discovery of his own. He seemed as
pleased as I, when I was a boy, used to be, when I had
just found a rabbit's stop, or a black-bird's nest full of
young ones. I do not recollect what I said upon this
occasion. It is most likely that I said nothing in contra-
diction to him. I saw the Baron many times after this,
but I never talked with him about religion.
Before the summer of 1822, I had not seen him for a
year or two, perhaps. But, in July of that year, on a very
hot day, I was going down Rathbone Place, and, happening
to cast my eye on the Baron's house, I knocked at the door
282 RURAL RIDE
to ask how he was. His man servant came to the door,
and told me that his master was at dinner. " Well," said I,
" never mind ; give my best respects to him." But, the
servant (who had always been with him since I knew him)
begged me to come in, for that he was sure his master
would be glad to see me. I thought, as it was likely that
I might never see him again, I would go in. The servant
announced me, and the Baron said, " Beg him to walk in."
In I went, and there I found the Baron at dinner ; but not
quite alone; nor without spiritual as well as carnal and
vegetable nourishment before him : for, there, on the oppo-
site side of his vis-d.-vis dining table, sat that nice, neat,
straight, prim piece of mortality, commonly called the
Keverend Robert Fellowes, who was the Chaplain to the
unfortunate Queen until Mr. Alderman Wood's son came to
supply his place, and who was now, I could clearly see, in
a fair way enough. I had dined, and so I let them dine on.
The Baron was become quite a child, or worse, as to mind,
though he ate as heartily as I ever saw him, and he was
always a great eater. When his servant said, "Here is
Mr. Cobbett, Sir ;" he said, " How do you do, Sir ? I
" have read much of your writings, Sir ; but never had the
"pleasure to see your person before." After a time I made
him recollect me ; but, he, directly after, being about to
relate something about America, turned towards me, and
said, " Were you ever in America, Sir ?'' But, I must
mention one proof of the state of his mind. Mr. Fel-
lowes asked me about the news from Ireland, where the
people were then in a state of starvation (1822), and I
answering that, it was likely that many of them would
actually be starved to death, the Baron, quitting his green
goose and green pease, turned to me and said, " Starved,
" Sir ! Why don't they go to the parish ?" " Why," said
I, "you know, Sir, that there are no poor-rates in Ireland."
Upon this he exclaimed, " What ! no poor-rates in Ireland ?
" Why not ? I did not know that ; I can't think how that
" can be." And then he rambled on in a childish sort of
way.
At the end of about half an hour, or, it might be more,
I shook hands with the poor old Baron for the last time,
well convinced that I should never see him again, and not
less convinced, that I had seen his heir. He died in about
a year or so afterwards, left to his own family about
20,000/., and to his ghostly guide, the Holy Robert Fel-
ACROSS SURREY. 2S3
lowes, all the rest of his immense fortune, which, as I have
been told, amounts to more than a quarter of a million of
money.
Now, the public will recollect that, while Mr. Fellowes
was at the Queen's, he was, in the public papers, charged
with being an Unitarian, at the same time that he officiated
as her chaplain. It is also well known, that he never pub-
licly contradicted this. It is, besides, the general belief at
Reigate. However, this we know well, that he is a parson,
of one sort or the other, and that he is not a Catholic priest.
That is enough for me. I see this poor, foolish old man
leaving a monstrous mass of money to this little Protestant
parson, whom he had not even known more, I believe, than
about three or four years. When the will was made I can-
not say. I know nothing at all about that. I am sup-
posing that all was perfectly fair ; that the Baron had his
senses when he made his will ; that he clearly meant to do
that which he did. But, then, I must insist, that, if he had
left the money to a Catholic priest, to be by him expended
on the endowment of a convent, wherein to say masses and
to feed and teach the poor, it would have been a more sen-
sible and public-spirited part in the Baron, much more be-
neficial to the town and environs of Reigate, and beyond all
measure more honourable to his own memory. (130)
Chilworth, Friday Evcniny,
2lst Oct.
It has been very fine to-day. Yesterday morning there
was snow on Reigate Hill, enough to look white from where
we were in the valley. We set off about half- past one
o'clock, and came all down the valley, through Buckland,
Betchworth, Dorking, Sheer and Aldbury, to this place.
Very few prettier rides in England, and the weather beau-
tifully fine. There are more meeting-houses than churches
in the vale, and I have heard of no less than five people,
in this vale, who have gone crazy on account of religion.
To-morrow we intend to move on towards the West ; to
take a look, just a look, at the Hampshire Parsons again.
The turnips seem fine ; but they cannot be large. All other
things are very fine indeed. Every thing seems to prog-
nosticate a hard winter. Ail the country people say that it
will be so.
RIDE : FROM CHILWORTH, IN SURREY, TO WINCHESTER.
Thursley, four miles from
Godalming, Surrey,
Sunday Evening, 23rd October, 1825.
We set out from Chilworth to day about noon. This is
a little hamlet, lying under the South side of St. Martha's
Hill ; and, on the other side of that hill, a little to the
North West, is the town of Guildford, which (taken with
its environs) I, who have seen so many, many towns, think
the prettiest, and, taken all together, the most agreeable and
most happy-looking, that I ever saw in my life. Here are
hill and dell in endless variety. Here are the chalk and the
sand, vieing with each other in making beautiful scenes.
Here is a navigable river and fine meadows. Here are
woods and downs. Here is something of everything but
fat marshes and their skeleton-making agues. The vale,
all the way down to Chilworth from Reigate, is very de-
lightful.
We did not go to Guildford, nor did we cross the River
Wei/, to come through Godalming ; hut bore away to our
left, and came through the village of Hambleton, going first
to Hascomb, to show Richard the South Downs from that
high land, which looks Southward over the Wealds of
Surrey and Sussex, with all their fine and innumerable oak
trees. Those that travel on turnpike roads know nothing of
England. — From Hascomb to Thursley almost the whole
way is across fields, or commons, or along narrow lands.
Here we see the people without any disguise or affectation.
Against a great road things are made for show. Here we
see them without any show. And here we gain real know-
ledge as to their situation. — We crossed to-day, three turn-
pike roads, that from Guildford to Horsham, that from
Godalming to Worthing, I believe, and that from Godal-
ming to Chichester.
CHILWORTH TO WINCHESTER. 285
Thursley, Wednesday, 2Gt/i Oct.
The weather has been beautiful ever since last Thursday
morning ; but, there has been a white frost every morning-,
and the days have been coldish. Here, however, I am quite
at home in a room, where there is one of my American Fire
Places, bought, by my host, (131) of Mr. Judson of Ken-
sington, who has made many a score of families comfort-
able, instead of sitting shivering in the cold. At the house
of the gentleman, whose house I am now in, there
is a good deal of fuel-ivood ; and here I see in the
parlours, those fine and cheerful fires that make a great
part of the happiness of the Americans. But, these
fires are to be had only in this sort of fire-place.
Ten times the fuel ; nay, no quantity, would effect the same
object, in any other fire-place. It is equally good for coal
as for wood; but, for pleasure, a wood-fire is the thin"-.
There is, round about almost every gentleman's or great
farmer's house, more wood suffered to rot every year, in
one shape or another, than would make (with this fire-place)
a couple of rooms constantly warm, from October to June.
Here, peat, turf, saw-dust, and wood, are burnt in these
fire-places. My present host has three of the fire-places.
Being out a-coursing to-day, I saw a queer-lookin"-
building upon one of the thousands of hills that nature has
tossed up in endless variety of form round the skirts of the
lofty Hindhead. This building is, it seems, called a
Semaphore, or Semiphare, or something of that sort. What
this word may have been hatched out of I cannot say ; but
it means a job, I am sure. To call it an alarm-post would
not have been so convenient ; for, people not endued with
Scotch intellect, might have wondered why the devil we
should have to pay for alarm-posts ; and might have thought,
that, with all our " glorious victories," we had "brought
our hogs to a fine market," if our dread of the enemv were
such as to induce us to have alarm-posts all over the
country ! Such unintellectual people might have thought
that we had "conquered France by the immortal Welling-
ton," to little purpose, if we were still in such fear as to
build alarm-posts; and they might, in addition, have ob-
served, that, for many hundred of years, England stood in
need of neither signal posts nor standing army of mercen-
aries ; but relied safely on the courage and public spirit of
the people themselves. By calling the thing by an out-
2S6 RURAL RIDE FROM
landish name, these reflections amongst the unintellectual
are obviated. Alarm-post would be a nasty name ; and it
would puzzle people exceedingly, when they saw one of
these at a place like Ashe, a little village on the north side
of the chalk-ridge (called the Hog's Back) going from
Guildford to Farnham ! What can this be for ? Why are
these expensive thing put up all over the country ? Re-
specting the movements of whom is wanted this alarm-
system ? Will no member ask this in Parliament ? Not
one : not a man : and yet it is a thing to ask about. Ah!
it is in vain, Thing, that you thus are making your prepara-
tions ; in vain that you are setting your trammels ! The
debt, the blessed debt, that best ally of the people, will
break them all ; will snap them, as the hornet does the cob-
web ; and, even these very " Semaphores," contribute
towards the force of that ever-blessed debt. Curious to
see how things work! The " glorious revolution," which
was made for the avowed purpose of maintaining the Pro-
testant ascendancy, and which was followed by such terrible
persecution of the Catholics ; that " glorious " affair, which
set aside a race of kings, because they were Catholics,
served as the precedent for the American revolution, also
called " glorious," and this second revolution compelled the
successors of the makers of the first, to begin to cease their
persecutions of the Catholics ! Then, again, the debt was
made to raise and keep armies on foot to prevent reform of
parliament, because, as it was feared by the Aristocracy,
reform would have humbled them; (132) and this debt,
created for this purpose, is fast sweeping the Aristocracy out
of their estates, as a clown, with his foot, kicks field-mice
out of their nests. There was a hope, that the debt could
have been reduced by stealth, as it were; that the Aristo-
cracy could have been saved in this way. That hope now
no longer exists. In all likelihood the funds will keep
going down. What is to prevent this, if the interest of
Exchequer Bills be raised, as the broad sheet tells us it is
to be ? What ! the funds fall in time of peace ; and the
French funds not fall, in time of peace ! However, it will
all happen just as it ought to happen. Even the next
session of parliament will bring out matters of some in-
terest. The thing is now working in the surest possible
way.
The great business of life, in the country, appertains, in
some way or other, to the game, and especially at this time of
I
CHILWORTH TO WINCHESTER. 287
the year. If it were not for the game, a country life would be
like an everlasting honey-moon, which would, in about half a
centurv, put an end to the human race. In towns, or large
villages, people make a shift to find the means of rubbing
the rust off from each other by a vast variety of sources of
contest. A couple of wives meeting in the street, and
giving each other a wry look, or a look not quite civil
enough, will, if the parties be hard pushed for a ground of
contention, do pretty well. But in the country, there is,
alas ! no such resource. Here are no walls for people to
take of each other. Here they are so placed as to prevent
the possibility of such lucky local contact. Here is more
than room of every sort, elbow, leg, horse, or carriage, for
them all. Even at Church (most of the people being in the
meeting-houses) the pews are surprisingly too large. Here,
therefore, where all circumstances seem calculated to cause
never-ceasing concord with its accompanying dullness, there
would be no relief at all, were it not for the game. This,
happily, supplies the place of all other sources of alternate
dispute and reconciliation ; it keeps all in life and motion,
from the lord down to the hedger. When I see two men,
whether in a market-room, by the way-side, in a parlour,
in a church-yard, or even in the church itself, engaged in
manifestly deep and most momentous discourse, I will, if it
be any time between September and February, bet ten to
one, that it is, in some way or other, about the game. The
wives and daughters hear so much of it, that they inevitably
get engaged in the disputes ; and thus all are kept in a state
of vivid animation. I should like very much to be able to
take a spot, a circle of 12 miles in diameter, and take an
exact account of all the time spent by each individual, above
the age of ten (that is the age they begin at), in talking,
during the game season of one year, about the game and
about sporting exploits. I verily believe that it would
amount, upon an average, to six times as much as all the
other talk put together ; and, as to the anger, the satisfac-
tion, the scolding, the commendation, the chagrin, the ex-
ultation, the envy, the emulation, where are there any of
these in the country, unconnected with the game?
There is, however, an important distinction to be made
between hunters (including coursers) and shooters. The
latter are, as far as relates to their exploits, a disagreeable
class, compared with the former ; and the reason of this is,
their doings are almost wholly their own ; while, in the
288 RURAL RIDE FROM
case of the others, the achievements are the property of
the dogs. Nobody likes to hear another talk much in
praise of his own acts, unless those acts have a manifest
tendency to produce some good to the hearer ; and shooters
do talk much of their own exploits, and those exploits rather
tend to humiliate the hearer. Then, a great shooter will,
nine times out of ten, go so far as almost to lie a little;
and, though people do not tell him of it, they do not like
him the better for it ; and he but too frequently discovers
that they do not believe him : whereas, hunters are mere
followers of the dogs, as mere spectators ; their praises, if any
are called for, are bestowed on the greyhounds, the hounds,
the fox, the hare, or the horses. There is a little rivalship in
the riding, or in the behaviour of the horses ; but this has
so little to do with the personal merit of the sportsmen,
that it never produces a want of good fellowship in the
evening of the day. A shooter who has been missing all
day, must have an uncommon share of good sense, not to feel
mortified while the slaughterers are relating the adventures
of that day ; and this is what cannot exist in the case of
the hunters. Bring me into a room, with a dozen men in
it, who have been sporting all day ; or, rather let me be in
an adjoining room, where I can hear the sound of their
voices, without being able to distinguish the words, and I
will bet ten to one that I tell whether they be hunters or
shooters.
I was once acquainted with a famous shooter whose name
was William Ewing. He was a barrister of Philadelphia, but
became far more renowned by his gun than by his law cases.
We spent scores of days together a shooting, and were
extremely well matched, I having excellent dogs and caring
little about my reputation as a shot, his dogs being good
for nothing, and he caring more about his reputation as a
shot than as a lawyer. The fact which I am going to
relate respecting this gentleman, ought to be a warning to
voung men, how they become enamoured of this species of
vanity. We had gone about ten miles from our home, to
shoot where partridges were said to be very plentiful. We
found them so. In the course of a November day, he had,
just before dark, shot, and sent to the farm-house, or kept
in his bag, ninety-nine partridges. He made some few
double shots, and he might have a miss or two, for he some-
times shot when out of my sight, on account of the woods.
However, he said that he killed at every shotj and, as he
CHILWORTH TO WINCHESTER. 289
had counted the birds, when we went to dinner at the
farm-house and when he cleaned his gun, he, just before
sun-set, knew that he had killed ninety-nine partridges,
every one upon the wing, and a great part of them in woods
very thickly set with largish trees. It was a grand achieve-
ment; but, unfortunately, he wanted to make it a hundred.
The sun was setting, and, in that country, darkness comes
almost at once ; it is more like the going out of a candle
than that of a fire ; and I wanted to be off, as we had a very
bad road to go, and as he, being under strict petticoat
government, to which he most loyally and dutifully sub-
mitted, was compelled to get home that night, taking me
with him, the vehicle (horse and gig) being mine. I, there-
fore, pressed him to come away, and moved on myself to-
wards the house (that of old John Brown, in Bucks county,
grandfather of that General Brown, who gave some of our
whiskered heroes such a rough handling last war, which
was waged for the purpose of " deposing James Madison"),
(133) at which house I would have stayed all night, but
from which I was compelled to go by that watchful govern-
ment, under which he had the good fortune to live. There-
fore I was in haste to be off. No : he would kill the
hundredth bird ! In vain did I talk of the bad road and its
many dangers for want of moon. The poor partridges,
which we had scattered about, were calling all around us ; and,
just at this moment, up got one under his feet, in a field in
which the wheat was three or four inches high. He shot and
missed. " That's it," said he, running as if to pick up the
bird. "What!" said I, "you don't think you killed, do
" you ? Why there is the bird now, not only alive, but
" calling in that wood" ; which was at about a hundred
yards distance. He, in that form of words usually employed
in such cases, asserted that he shot the bird and saw it fall ;
and I, in much about the same form of words, asserted, that
he had missed, and that I, with my own eyes, saw the bird
fly into the wood. This was too much ! To miss once out
of a hundred times ! To lose such a chance ot immor-
tality ! He was a good-humoured man ; I liked him very
much ; and I could not help feeling for him, when he said,
" Well, Sir, I killed the bird ; and if you choose to go away
" and take your dog away, so as to prevent me fromjinding
" it, you must do it ; the dog is yours, to be sure." " The
" dog," said I, in a very mild tone, " why, Ewing, there is
" the spot ; and could wc not see it, upon this smooth
o
290 RURAL RIDE FROM
" green surface, if it were there ?" However, he began to
look about ; and I called the dog, and affected to join him
in the search. Pity for his weakness got the better of ray
dread of the bad road. After walking backward and for-
ward many times upon about twenty yards square with our
eyes to the ground, looking for what both of us knew was
not there, I had passed him (he going one way and I the
other), and I happened to be turning round just after I had
passed him, when I saw him, putting his hand behind him,
take a partridge out of his hag and let it fall upon the ground !
I felt no temptation to detect him, but turned away ray
head, and kept looking about. Presently he, having re-
turned to the spot where the bird was, called out to me, in
a most triumphant tone ; " Here ! here ! Come here !" I
went up to him, and he, pointing with his finger down to
the bird, and looking hard in ray face at the same time,
said, " There, Cobbett ; I hope that will be a warning
" to you never to be obstinate again" ! " Well," said I,
" come along" : and away we went as merry as larks.
When we got to Brown's, he told them the story, triumphed
over me most clamorously ; and, though he often repeated
the story to my face, I never had the heart to let him know,
that I knew of the imposition, which puerile vanity had in-
duced so sensible and honourable a man to be mean enough
to practise.
A professed shot is, almost always, a very disagreeable
brother sportsman. He must, in the first place, have a head
rather of the emptiest to pride himself upon so poor a talent.
Then he is always out of temper, if the game fail, or if he
miss it. He never participates in that great delight which
all sensible men enjoy at beholding the beautiful action, the
docility, the zeal, the wonderful sagacity of the pointer and
the setter. He is always thinking about himself ; always
anxious to surpass his companions. I remember that, once,
Ewing and I had lost our dog. We were in a wood, and
the dog had gone out, and found a covey in a wheat stubble
joining the wood. We had been whistling and calling him
for, perhaps, half an hour, or more. When we came out of
he wood we saw him pointing, with one foot up ; and, soon
after, he, keeping his foot and body unmoved, gently turned
round his head towards the spot where he heard us, as if to
bid us come on, and, when he saw that we saw him, turned
his head back again. I was so delighted, that I stopped to
look with admiration. Ewing, astonished at ray want of
CHILWORTH TO WINCHESTER. 291
alacrity, pushed on, shot one of the partridges, and thought
no more about the conduct of the dog than if the saga-
cious creature had had nothing at all to do with the matter.
When I left America, in 1800, I gave this dog to Lord
Henry Stuart, who was, when he came home, a year or two
afterwards, about to bring him to astonish the sportsmen
even in England ; but, those of Pennsylvania were resolved
not to part with him, and, therefore they stole him the night
before his Lordship came away. Lord Henry had plenty of
pointers after his return, and he saw hundreds ; but always
declared, that he never saw any thing approaching in ex-
cellence this American dog. For the information of sports-
men I ought to say, that this was a small-headed and sharp-
nosed pointer, hair as fine as that of a greyhound, little and
short ears, very light in the body, very long legged, and
swift as a good lurcher. I had him a puppy, and he never
had anv breaking, but he pointed staunchly at once ; and I
am of opinion, that this sort is, in all respects, better than
the heavy breed. Mr. Thornton, (I beg his pardon, I
believe he is now a Knight of some sort) who was, and
perhaps still is, our Envoy in Portugal, at the time here
referred to was a sort of partner with Lord Henry in this
famous dog ; and gratitude (to the memory of the dog I
mean), will, I am sure, or, at least, I hope so, make him
bear witness to the truth of my character of him ; and, if
one could hear an Ambassador speak out, I think that Mr.
Thornton would acknowledge, that his calling has brought
him in pretty close contact with many a man who was pos-
sessed of most tremendous political power, without possess-
ing half the sagacity, half the understanding, of this dog,
and without being a thousandth part so faithful to his trust.
I am quite satisfied, that there are as many sorts of men
as there are of dogs. Swift was a man, and so is Walter
the base. But, is the sort the same ? It cannot be educa-
tion alone that makes the amazing difference that we see.
Besides, we see men of the very same rank and riches and
education, differing as widely as the pointer does from the
pug. The name, man, is common to all the sorts, and hence
arises very great mischief. What confusion must there be
in rural affairs, if there were no names whereby to dis-
tinguish hounds, greyhounds, pointers, spaniels, terriers,
and sheep dogs, from each other ! And, what pretty work,
if, without regard to the sorts of dogs, men were to attempt
to employ them ! Yet, this is done in the case of men ! A
o 2
292 RURAL RIDE FROM
man is always a man; and, without the least regard as to
the sort, they are promiscuously placed in all kinds of
situations. Now, if Mr. Brougham, Doctors Birkbeck,
Macculloch and Black, and that profound personage, Lord
John Russell, will, in their forth-coming " London Uni-
versity," teach us how to divide men into sorts, instead of
teaching us to " augment the capital of the nation," by
making paper-money, they will render us a real service.
That will be feelosofy worth attending to. What would be
said of the 'Squire who should take a fox-hound out to find
partridges for him to shoot at ? Yet, would this be more
absurd than to set a man to law-making who was manifestly
formed for the express purpose of sweeping the streets or
digging out sewers ? (134)
Farnham, Surrey,
Thursday, Oct. 27th.
We came over the heath from Thursley, this morning,
on our way to Winchester. Mr. Wvndham's fox-hounds
are coming to Thursley on Saturday. More than three-
fourths of all the interesting talk in that neighbourhood,
for some days past, has been about this anxiously looked-for
event. I have seen no man, or boy, who did not talk about
it. There had been a false report about it ; the hounds did
not come ; and the anger of the disappointed people was
very great. At last, however, the authentic intelligence
came, and I left them all as happy as if all were young and
all just going to be married. An abatement of my pleasure,
however, on this joyous occasion was, that I brought away
with me one, who was as eager as the best of them.
Richard, though now only 1 1 years and 6 months old, had,
it seems, one fox-hunt, in Herefordshire, last winter ; and
he actually has begun to talk rather contemptuously of hare
hunting. To show me that he is in no danger, he has been
leaping his horse over banks and ditches by the road side,
all our way across the country from Reigate ; and he joined
with such glee in talking of the expected arrival of the fox-
hounds, that I felt some little pain at bringing him away.
My engagement at Winchester is for Saturday ; but, if it
had not been so, the deep and hidden ruts in the heath, in
a wood in the midst of which the hounds are sure to find,
and the immense concourse of horsemen that is sure to be
CHILWORTH TO WINCHESTER. 293
assembled, would have made me bring him away. Upon
the high, hard and open countries, I should not be afraid
for him ; but, here the danger would have been greater
than it would have been right for me to suffer him to run. ^
We came hither by the way of Waverley Abbey and
Moore Park. On the commons I showed Richard some of
my old hunting scenes, when I was of his age, or younger,
reminding him that I was obliged to hunt on foot. (135)
We got leave to go and see the grounds at Waverley,
where all the old monks' garden walls are totally gone, and
where the spot is become a sort of lawn. I showed him the
spot where the strawberry garden was, and where I, when
sent to gather hautboys, used to eat every remarkably fine
one, instead of letting it go to be eaten by Sir Robert
Rich. I showed him a tree, close by the ruins of the
Abbey, from a limb of which I once fell into the river, in an
attempt to take the nest of a crow, which had artfully placed
it upon a branch so far from the trunk as not to be able to
bear the weight of a boy eight years old. I showed him an
old elm tree, which was hollow even then, into which I,
when a very little boy, once saw a cat go, that was as big
as a middle-sized spaniel dog, for relating which I got a
great scolding, for standing to which I, at last, got a beat-
ing ; but, stand to which I still did. I have since many
times repeated it ; and I would take my oath of it to this
dav. When in New Brunswick I saw the great wild grey
cat, which is there called a Lucifee ; and it seemed to me to
be just sush a cat as I had seen at Waverley. I found the
ruins not very greatly diminished ; but, it is strange how
small the mansion, and ground, and every thing but the
trees, appeared to me. They were all great to my mind
when I saw them last ; and that early impression had re-
mained, whenever I had talked or thought, of the spot ; so
that, when I came to see them again, after seeing the sea
and so many other immense things, it seemed as if they had
all been made small. This was not the case with regard to
the trees, which are nearly as big here as they are any
where else ; and, the old cat-elm, for instance, which
Richard measured with his whip, is about 16 or 17 feet
round.
From Waverley we went to Moore Park, once the seat of
Sir William Temple, and, when I was a very little boy, the
seat of a Lady, or a Mrs. Temple. Here 1 showed Richard
.Mother Ludlum's Hole ; but, alas ! it is not the enchanting
294 RURAL RIDE FROM
place that I knew it, nor that which Grose describes in his
Antiquities ! The semicircular paling is gone ; the basins, to
catch the never-ceasing little stream, are gone; the iron
cups, fastened by chains, for people to drink out of, are
gone ; the pavement all broken to pieces ; the seats, for
people to sit on, on both sides of the cave, torn up and
gone ; the stream that ran down a clean paved channel,
now making a dirty gutter ; and the ground opposite, which
was a grove, chiefly of laurels, intersected by closely mowed
grass-walks, now become a poor, ragged-looking alder-
coppice. Near the mansion, I showed Richard the hill,
upon which Dean Swift tells us he used to run for exercise,
while he was pursuing his studies here ; and I would have
showed him the garden- seat, under which Sir William
Temple's heart was buried, agreeably to his will; but, the
seat was gone, also the wall at the back of it ; and the
exquisitely beautiful little lawn in which the seat stood,
was turned into a parcel of divers-shaped cockney-clumps,
planted according to the strictest rules of artificial and re-
fined vulgarity.
At Waverley, Mr. Thompson, a merchant of some sort,
has succeeded (after the monks) the Orby Hunters and Sir
Robert Rich. At Moore Park, a Mr. Laing, a West India
planter or merchant, has succeeded the Temples ; and at
the castle of Farnham, which you see from Moore Park,
Bishop Prettyman Tomline has, at last, after perfectly re-
gular and due gradations, succeeded William of Wykham !
In coming up from Moore Park to Farnham town, I stopped
opposite the door of a little old house, where there appeared
to be a great parcel of children. " There, Dick," said I,
" When I was just such a little creature as that, whom you
" see in the door-way, I lived in this very house with my
" grand-mother Cobbett." He pulled up his horse, and
Jooked very hard at it, but said nothing, and on we came.
Winchester,
Sunday noon, Oct. 30.
We came away from Farnham about noon on Friday,
promising Bishop Prettyman to notice him and his way of
living more fully on our return. At Alton we got some
bread and cheese at a friend's, and then came to
CHILWORTH TO WINCHESTER. 295
Alresford by Medstead, in order to have fine tnrf to
ride on, and to see, on this lofty land that which is,
perhaps, the finest beech-wood in all England. These high
down-countries are not garden plats, like Kent ; but they
have, from my first seeing them, when I was about ten,
always been my delight. Large sweeping downs, and deep
dells here and there, with villages amongst lofty trees, are
my great delight. When we got to Alresford it was nearly
dark, and not being able to find a room to our liking, we
resolved to go, though in the dark, to Easton, a village
about six miles from Alresford down by the side of the
Hichen River.
Coming from Easton yesterday, I learned that Sir Charles
Ogle, the eldest son and successor of Sir Chaloner Ogle,
had sold to some General, his mansion and estate at Martyr's
Worthy, a village on the North side of the Hichen, just
opposite Easton. The Ogles had been here for a couple of
centuries perhaps. They are gone off now, "for good and
all," as the country people call it. Well, what I have to
say to Sir Charles Ogle upon this occasion is this : "It was
"you, who moved at the county meeting, in 1817, that
" Address to the Regent, which you brought ready engrossed
" upon parchment, which Fleming, the Sheriff, declared to
" have been carried, though a word of it never was heard
" by the meeting ; which address applauded the poicer of im-
" prisonment bill, just then passed; and the like of which
" address, you will not in all human probability, ever again
" move in Hampshire, and, I hope, no where else. So, you
" see, Sir Charles, there is one consolation, at any rate."
I learned, too, that Greame, a famously loyal 'squire and
justice, whose son was, a few years ago, made a Distributor
of Stamps in this county, was become so modest as to
exchange his big and ancient mansion at Cheriton, or some-
where there, for a very moderate-sized house in the town
of Alresford ! I saw his household goods advertised in the
Hampshire newspaper, a little while ago, to be sold by public
auction. I rubbed my eyes, or, rather, my spectacles, and
looked again and again ; for I remembered the loyal 'Squire ;
and I, with singular satisfaction, record this change in his
scale of existence, which has, no doubt, proceeded solely
from that prevalence of mind over matter, which the Scotch
feelosofers have taken such pains to inculcate, and which
makes him flee from greatness as from that which dimi-
296 RURAL RIDE FROM
nishes the quantity of " intellectual enjoyment" ; and so now
he,
" Wondering man can want the larger pile,
"Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile."
And they really tell me, that his present house is not much
bigger than that of my dear, good old grandmother Cob-
bett. But (and it may not be wholly useless for the 'Squire
to know it) she never burnt candles ; but rushes dipped in
grease, as I have described them in my Cottage Economy ;
and this was one of the means that she made use of in
order to secure a bit of good bacon and good bread to eat,
and that made her never give me potatoes, cold or hot. No
bad hint for the 'Squire, father of the distributor of Stamps.
Good bacon is a very nice thing, I can assure him ; and, if
the quantitv be small, it is all the sweeter ; provided, how-
ever, it be not too small. This 'Squire used to be a great
friend of Old George Rose. But his patron's taste was
different from his. George preferred a big house to a little
one ; and George began with a little one, and ended with a
big one.
Just by Alresford, there was another old friend and sup-
porter of Old George Rose, 'Squire Rawlinson, whom I
remember a very great 'squire in this county. He is now a
Police-' squive in London, and is one of those guardians of
the Wen, respecting whose proceedings we read eternal
columns in the broad-sheet.
This being Sunday, I heard, about 7 o'clock in the morn-
ing, a sort of a jangling, made by a bell or two in the Cathe-
dral. We were getting ready to be off, to cross the country
to Burghclere, which lies under the lofty hills at Highclere,
about 22 miles from this city; but hearing the bells of the
cathedral, I took Richard to show him that ancient and
most magnificent pile, and particularly to show him the
tomb of that famous bishop of Winchester, William of
Wykham ; who was the Chancellor and the Minister of the
great and glorious King, Edward III. ; who sprang from
poor parents in the little village of Wykham, three miles
from Botley ; and who, amongst other great and most mu-
nificent deeds, founded the famous College, or School, of
Winchester, and also one of the Colleges at Oxford. I told
Richard about this as we went from the inn down to the
cathedral; and, when I showed him the tomb, where the
bishop lies on his back, in his Catholic robes, with his mitre
CHILWORTH TO WINCHESTER.
297
on his head, his shepherd's crook by his side, with little
children at his feet, their hands put together in a praying
attitude, he looked with a degree of inquisitive earnestness
that pleased me very much. I took him as far as I could
about the cathedral. The " service" was now begun.
There is a dean, and God knows how many prebends belong-
ing to this immensely rich bishopric and chapter : and there
were, at this " service," two or three men and. five or six boys
in white surplices, with a congregation of fifteen women and
four men ! Gracious God ! If William of Wykham could,
at that moment, have been raised from his tomb ! If Saint
Swithin, whose name the cathedral bears, or Alfred the
Great, to whom St. Swithin was tutor: if either of these
could have come, and had been told, that that was now what
was carried on by men, who talked of the " damnable errors"
of those who founded that very church ! But, it beggars
one's feelings to attempt to find words whereby to express
them upon such a subject and such an occasion. How, then,
am I to describe what I felt, when I yesterday saw in Hyde
Meadow, a county bridewell, standing on the very spot,
where stood the Abbey which was founded and endowed by
Alfred, which contained the bones of that maker of the
English name, and also those of the learned monk, St.
Grimbald, whom Alfred brought to England to begin the
teaching at Oxford !
After we came out of the cathedral, Richard said, " Why,
" Papa, nobody can build such places now, can they ?" '' No,
" my dear," said I. " That building was made when there
" were no poor wretches in England, called paupers ; when
" there were no poor-rates ; when every labouring man was
" clothed in good woollen cloth ; and when all had a plenty
" of meat and bread and beer." This talk lasted us to the
inn, where, just as we were going to set off, it most
curiously happened, that a parcel which had come from Ken-
sington by the night coach, was put into my hands by the
landlord, containing, amongst other things, a pamphlet, sent
to me from Rome, being an Italian translation of No. I. of
the " Protestant Reformation." I will here insert the title
for the satisfaction of Doctor Black, who, some time ago,
expressed his utter astonishment, that " such a work should
" be published in the nineteenth century." Why, Doctor?
Did you want me to stop till the twentieth century ? That
would have been a little too long Doctor.
O 6
298 RURAL RIDE FROM
Storia
Delia
Riforma Protestante
In Xnghilterra ed in Irlanda
La quale Dimostra
Come un tal' avvenimento ha impoverito
E degradato il grosso del popolo in que' paesi
in una serie di lettere indirizzate
A tutti i sensati e guisti inglesi
Da
Guglielmo Cobbett
E
Dail' inglese recate in italiano
Da
Dominico Gregorj.
Roma 1825.
Presso Francesco Bourlie.
Con Approvazione.
There, Doctor Black. Write you a book that shall be
translated into any foreign language ; and when you have
done that, you may again call mine " pig's meat." (136)
RURAL RIDE : FROM WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE.
Burghclere, Monday Morning,
31s* October, 1825.
We had, or I had, resolved not to breakfast at Winches-
ter yesterday : and yet we were detained till nearly noon.
But, at last off we came, fasting. The turnpike road from
Winchester to this place comes through a village, called
Sutton Scotney, and then through Whitchurch, which lies
on the Andover and London road, through Basingstoke.
We did not take the cross-turnpike till we came to Whit-
church. We went to King's Worthy; that is, about two
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 299
miles on the road from Winchester to London ; and then,
turning short to our left, came up upon the downs to the
north of Winchester race-course. Here, looking back at
the city and at the fine valley above and below it, and at
the many smaller valleys that run down from the high
ridges into that great and fertile valley, I could not help
admiring the taste of the ancient kings, who made this city
(which once covered all the hill round about, and which con-
tained 92 churches and chapels) a chief place of their resi-
dence. There are not many finer spots in England ; and if
I were to take in a circle of eight or ten miles of semi-dia-
metex - , I should say that I believe there is not one so fine.
Here are hill, dell, water, meadows, woods, corn-fields,
downs : and all of them very fine and very beautifully dis-
posed. This country does not present to us that sort of
beauties which we see about Guildford and Godalming, and
round the skirts of Hindhead and Blackdown, where the
ground lies in the form that the surface-water in a boiling
copper would be in, if you could, by word of command, make
it be still, the variously-shaped bubbles all sticking up ; and
really, to look at the face of the earth, who can help imagi-
ning, that some such process has produced its present form ?
Leaving this matter to be solved by those who laugh at
mysteries, I repeat, that the country round Winchester does
not present to us beauties of this sort ; but of a sort which
I like a great deal better. Arthur Young calls the vale be-
tween Farnham and Alton the finest ten miles in England.
Here is a river with fine meadows on each side of it, and
with rising grounds on each outside of the meadows, those
grounds having some hop-gardens and some pretty woods.
But, though I was born in this vale, I must confess, that
the ten miles between Maidstone and Tunbridge (which the
Kentish folks call the Garden of Eden) is a great deal finer ;
(137) for here, with a river three times as big, and a vale
three times as broad, there are, on rising grounds six times
as broad, not only hop-gardens and beautiful woods, but
immense orchards of apples, pears, plums, cherries and fil-
berts, and these, in many cases, with gooseberries and cur-
rants and raspberries beneath ; and, all taken together, the
vale is really worthy of the appellation which it bears. But,
even this spot, which I believe to be the very finest, as to
fertility and diminutive beauty, in this whole world, I, for
my part, do not like so well ; nay, as a spot to live on, I
think nothing at all of it, compared with a country where
300 RURAL RIDE FROM
high downs prevail, with here and there a large wood on the
top or the side of a hill, and where you see, in the deep
dells, here and there a farm-house, and here and there a
village, the buildings sheltered by a group of lofty trees.
This is my taste, and here, in the north of Hampshire, it
has its full gratification. I like to look at the winding side
of a great down, with two or three numerous flocks of sheep
on it, belonging to different farms ; and to see, lower down,
the folds, in the fields, ready to receive them for the night.
We had, when we got upon the downs, after leaving Win-
chester, this sort of country all the way to Whitchurch.
Our point of destination was this village of Burgh-
clere, which lies close under the north side of the lofty
hill at Highclere, which is called Beacon-hill, and on the top
of which there are still the marks of a Roman encampment.
We saw this hill as soon as we °:ot on Winchester downs ;
and without any regard to roads, we steered for it, as sailors
do for a land-mark. Of these 13 miles (from Winchester to
Whitchurch) we rode about eight or nine upon the green-
sward, or over fields equally smooth. And, here is one great
pleasure of living in countries of this sort : no sloughs, no
ditches, no nasty dirty lanes, and the hedges, where there
are any, are more for boundary marks than for fences.
Fine for hunting and coursing : no impediments ; no gates to
open ; nothing to impede the dogs, the horses, or the view.
The water is not seen running ,• but the great bed of chalk
holds it, and the sun draws it up for the benefit of the grass
and the corn ; and, whatever inconvenience is experienced
from the necessity of deep wells, and of driving sheep and
cattle far to water, is amply made up for by the goodness
of the water, and by the complete absence of floods, of
drains, of ditches and of water-furrows. As things now are,
however, these countries have one great draw-back : the
poor day-labourers suffer from the want of fuel, and they
have nothing but their bare pay. For these reasons they
are greatly worse off than those of the woodland countries ;
and it is really surprising what a difference there is between
the faces that you see here, and the round, red faces that
you see in the wealds and the forests, particularly in Sussex,
where the labourers will have a meat-pudding of some sort
or other ; and where they will have a fire to sit by in the
winter.
After steering for some time, we came down to a very fine
farm-house, which we stopped a little to admire ; and I
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 301
asked Richard whether that was not a place to be happy in.
The village, which we found to be Stoke-Charity, was about
a mile lower down this little vale. Before we got to it, we
overtook the owner of the farm, who knew me, though I did
not know him ; but, when I found it was Mr. Hinton
Bailey, of whom and whose farm I had heard so much, I
was not at all surprised at the fineness of what I had just
seen. I told him that the word charity, making, as it did,
part of the name of this place, had nearly inspired me with
boldness enough to go to the farm house, in the ancient
style, and ask for something to eat ; for, that we had not
yet breakfasted. He asked us to go back ; but, at Burgh-
clere we were resolved to dine. After, however, crossing the
village, and beginning again to ascend the downs, we came
to a labourer's {once a farm house), where I asked the man,
whether he had any bread and cheese, and was not a little
pleased to hear him say " Yes." Then I asked him to give
us a bit, protesting that we had not yet broken our fast. He
answered in the affirmative, at once, though I did not talk
of payment. His wife brought out the cut loaf, and a piece
of Wiltshire cheese, and I took them in hand, gave Richard
a good hunch, and took another for myself. I verily
believe, that all the pleasure of eating enjoyed by all the
feeders in London in a whole year, does not equal that
which we enjoyed in gnawing this bread and cheese, as we
rode over this cold down, whip and bridle-reins in one
hand, and the hunch in the other. Richard, who was purse
bearer, gave the woman, by my direction, about enough
to buy two quartern loaves : for she told me, that they
had to buy their bread at the mill, not being able to bake
themselves for want of fuel ; and this, as I said before, is
one of the draw-backs in this sort of country. I wish every
one of these people had an American fire-place. Here
they might, then, even in these bare countries have com-
fortable warmth. Rubbish of any sort would, by this
means, give them warmth. I am now, at six o'clock in the
morning, sitting in a room, where one of these fire-places,
with very light turf in it, gives as good and steady a
warmth as it is possible to feel, and which room has, too,
been cured of smoking by this fire-place.
Before we got this supply of bread and cheese, we, though
in ordinary times acouple of singularly jovial companions, and
seldom going a hundred yards (except going very fast) with-
out one or the other speaking, began to grow dull, or rather
302 RURAL RIDE FROM
glum. The way seemed long ; and, when I had to speak in
answer to Richard, the speaking was as hrief as might be.
Unfortunately, just at this critical period, one of the loops
that held the straps of Richard's little portmanteau broke;
and it became necessary (just before we overtook Mr.
Bailey) for me to fasten the portmanteau on before me,
upon my saddle. This, which was not the work of more
than five minutes, would, had I had a breakfast, have been
nothing at all, and, indeed, matter of laughter. But, now t
it was something. It was his "fault" for capering and
jerking about " so." I jumped off, saying, "Here! I'll
carry it myself." And then I began to take off the remain-
ing strap, pulling, with great violence and in great haste.
Just at this time, my eyes met his, in which I saw great
sui'prise ; and, feeling the just rebuke, feeling heartily
ashamed of myself, I instantly changed my tone and
manner, cast the blame upon the saddler, and talked of the
effectual means which we would take to prevent the like in
future.
Now, if such was the effect produced upon me by the
want of food for only two or three hours ; me, who had
dined well the day before and eaten toast and butter the
over- night ; if the missing of only one breakfast, and that,
too, from my own whim, while I had money in my pocket,
to get one at any public-house, and while I could get one
only for asking for at any farm-house ; if the not having
breakfasted could, and under such circumstances, make me
what you may call " cross" to a child like this, whom I must
necessarily love so much, and to whom I never speak but in
the very kindest manner; if this mere absence of a break-
fast could thus put me out of temper, how great are the
allowances that we ought to make for the poor creatures,
who, in this once happy and now miserable country, are
doomed to lead a like of constant labour and of half-starva-
tion. I suppose, that, as we rode away from the cottage,
we gnawed up, between us, a pound of bread and a
quarter of a pound of cheese. Here v/as about five-pence
worth at present prices. Even this, which was only a
mere snap, a mere stay -stomach, for us, would, for us two,
come to 3s. a week all but a penny. How, then,
gracious God ! is a labouring man, his wife, and, perhaps,
four or five small children, to exist upon 8s. or 9s. a week !
Aye, and to find house-rent, clothing, bedding and fuel
out of it ? Richard and I ate here, at this snap, more, and
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 303
much more, than the average of labourers, their wives and
children, have to eat in a whole day, and that the labourer
has to work on too !
When we got here to Burghclere, we were again as
hungry as hunters. What, then, must be the life of these
poor creatures ? But is not the state of the country, is not
the hellishness of the system, all depicted in this one dis-
graceful and damning fact, that the magistrates, who settle
on what the labouring poor ought to have to live on, allow
THEM LESS THAN IS ALLOWED TO FELONS IN THE GAOLS,
and allow them nothing for clothing and fuel, and house-
rent ! And yet, while this is notoriously the case, while
the main body of the working class in England are fed and
clad and even lodged worse than felons, and are daily
becoming even worse and worse off, the King is advised to
tell the Parliament, and the world, that we are in a state of
unexampled prosperity, and that this prosperity must be
permanent, because all the great interests are prospering !
THE WORKING PEOPLE ARE NOT, THEN, "A
GREAT INTEREST"! THEY WILL BE FOUND
TO BE ONE, BY-AND-BY. What is to be the end
of this ? What can be the end of it, but dreadful convul-
sion ? What other can be produced by a system, which
allows the felon better food, better clothing, and better
lodging then the honest labourer ? (138)
I see that there has been a grand humanity -meeting in
Norfolk, to assure the parliament that these humanity-
people will back it in any measures that it may adopt for
freeing the negroes. Mr. Buxton figured here, also Lord
Suffield, who appear to have been the two principal actors,
or showers-off. This same Mr. Buxton opposed the Bill
intended to relieve the poor in England by breaking a little
into the brewers' monopoly; and, as to Lord Suffield, if he
really wish to free slaves, let him go to Wykham in this
county, where he will see some drawing, like horses, gravel
to repair the roads for the stock-jobbers and dead-weight
and the seat-dealers to ride smoothly on. If he go down
a little further, he will see convicts at precisely the
same work, harnessed in just the same way ; but, the
convicts he will find hale and ruddy-cheeked, in dresses
sufficiently warm, and bawling and singing ; while he will
find the labourers thin, ragged, shivering, dejected mortals,
such as never were seen in any other country upon earth.
There is not a negro in the West Indies, who has not more
304 RURAL RIDE FROM
to eat in a day, than the average of English labourers have
to eat in a week, and of better food too. Colonel Wode-
house and a man of the name of Hoseason, (whence came
he ?) who opposed this humanity-scheme, talked of the
sums necessary to pav the owners of the slaves. They
took special care not to tell the humanity-men to look at
home for slaves to free. No, no ! that would have applied
to themselves, as well as to Lord Suffield and humanity
Buxton. If it were worth while to reason with these people,
one might ask them, whether they do not think, that another
war is likely to relieve them of all these cares, simply by
making the colonies transfer their allegiance, or assert their
independence ? But, to reason with them is useless. If
they can busy themselves with compassion for the negroes,
while they uphold the system that makes the labourers of
England more wretched, and beyond all measure more
wretched, than anv negro slaves are, or ever were, or ever
can be, thev are unworthy of anvthing but our contempt.
(139)
But, the "education" canters are the most curious fel-
lows of all. They have seen "education" as they call it,
and crimes, go on increasing together, till the gaols, though
six times their former dimensions, will hardly suffice ; and
yet, the canting creatures still cry, that crimes arise from
want of what they call " education!" They see the felon
better fed and better clad than the honest labourer. They
see this ; and yet they continuallv cry, that the crimes arise
from a want of " education !" What can be the cause of
this perverseness ? It is not perverseness : it is roguery,
corruption, and tyranny. The tyrant, the unfeeling tyrant,
squeezes the labourers for gain's sake ; and the corrupt poli-
tician and literary or tub rogue, find an excuse for him by
pretending, that it is not want of food and clothing, but
want of education, that makes the poor, starving wretches
thieves and robbers. If the press, if only the press, were
to do its duty, or but a tenth part of its duty, this hellish
system could not go on. But, it favours the system by
ascribing the misery to wrong causes. The causes are
these : the tax-gatherer presses the landlord ; the landlord
the farmer ; and the farmer the labourer. Here it falls at
last ; and this class is made so miserable, that a felon' 's life
is better than that of a labourer. Does there want any
other cause to produce crimes ? But, on these causes, so
clear to the eye of reason, so plain from experience, the
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 305
press scareely ever says a single word ; while it keeps
bothering our brains about education and morality ; and
about ignorance and immorality leading to felonies. To
be sure immorality leads to felonies. Who does not know
that ? But, who is to expect morality in a half-starved
man, who is whipped if he do not work, though he has
not, for his whole day's food, so much as I and my little
boy snapped up in six or seven minutes upon Stoke-Charity
down ? Aye ! but, if the press were to ascribe the increase
of crimes to the true causes, it must go further back. It
must go to the cause of the taxes. It must go to the debt,
the dead- weight, the thundering standing army, the enor-
mous sinecures, pensions, and grants ; and this would suit
but a very small part of a press, which lives and thrives
principally by one or the other of these.
As with the press, so is it with Mr. Brougham, and all
such politicians. Thev stop short, or, rather, they begin
in the middle. Thev attempt to prevent the evils of the
deadly ivy by cropping off, or, rather, bruising a little, a
few of its leaves. They do not assail even its branches,
while they appear to look upon the trunk as something too
sacred even to be looked at with vulgar eyes. Is not the
injury recently done to about forty thousand poor families
in and near Plymouth, by the Small-note Bill, (140) a thing
that Mr. Brougham ought to think about before he thinks
anv thing more about educating those poor families ? Yet,
will he, when he again meets the Ministers, say a word
about this monstrous evil ? I am afraid that no Member
will say a word about it; but, I am rather more than afraid,
that he will not. And why ? Because, if he reproach the
Ministers with this crying cruelty, they will ask him first,
how this is to be prevented without a repeal of the Small-
note Bill (by which Peel's Bill was partly repealed) ; then
they will ask him, how the prices are to be kept up without
the small-notes; then they will say, " Does the honourable
" and learned Gentleman wish to see wheat at four shillings
" a bushel again?'
B. No, (looking at Mr. Western and Daddy Coke) no,
no, no ! Upon my honour, no !
Mix. Does the honourable and learned Gentleman wish
to see Cobbett again at county meetings, and to see peti-
tions again coming from those meetings, calling for a re-
duction of the interest of the . . . . ?
B. No, no, no, upon my soul, no !
306 RURAL RIDE FROM
Min. Does the honourable and learned Gentleman wish
to see that " equitable adjustment," which Cobbett has a
thousand times declared can never take place without an
application, to new purposes, of that great mass of public
property, commonly called Church property? (141)
B. (Almost bursting- with rage) How dare the honour-
able gentleman to suppose me capable of such a thought ?
Min. We suppose nothing. We only ask the question ;
and we ask it, because to put an end to the small-notes
would inevitably produce all these things ; and it is impos-
sible to have small notes to the extent necessary to keep up
prices, without having, now-and-then, breaking banks. Banks
cannot break without producing misery ; you must have the
consequence, if you will have the cause. The honourable
and learned Gentleman wants the feast without the reckon-
ing. In short, is the honourable and learned Gentleman
for putting an end to ''public credit" ?
B. No, no, no, no !
Min. Then would it not be better for the honourable and
learned Gentleman to hold his tongue? (142)
All men of sense and sincerity will, at once, answer this
last question in the affirmative. They will all say, that this
is not opposition to the Ministers. The Ministers do not
wish to see 40,000 families, nor any families at all (who give
them no real annoyance), reduced to misery; they do not
wish to cripple their own tax-payers ; very far from it. If
they could carry on the debt and dead- weight and place and
pension and barrack system, without reducing any quiet
people to misery, they would like it exceedingly. But, they
do wish to carry on that system ; and he does not oppose
them who does not endeavour to put an end to the system.
This is done by nobody in Parliament ; and, therefore,
there is, in fact, no opposition ; and this is felt by the whole
nation ; and this is the reason why the people now take so
little interest in what is said and done in Parliament, com-
pared to that which they formerly took. This is the reason
why there is no man, or men, whom the people seem to care
at all about. A great portion of the people now clearly
understand the nature and effects of the system ; they are
not now to be deceived by speeches and professions. If
Pitt and Fox had now to start, there would be no " Pittites"
and " Foxites." Those happy days of political humbug are
gone for ever. The " gentlemen opposite" are opposite only
as to mere local position. They sit on the opposite side of
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 307
the house : that's all. In every other respect they are like
parson and clerk ; or, perhaps, rather more like the rooks
and jackdaws: one caio and the other chatter; but both
have the same object in view : both are in pursuit of the
same sort of diet. One set is, to be sure, in place, and the
other out ; but, though the rooks keep the jackdaws on the
inferior branches, these latter would be as clamorous as the
rooks themselves against felling the tree; and just as cla-
morous would the " gentlemen opposite" be against any
one who should propose to put down the system itself.
And yet, unless you do that, things must go on in the pre-
sent way, and felons must be better fed than honest labourers ;
and starvation and thieving and robbing and gaol-building
and transporting and hanging and penal laws must go on
increasing, as they have gone on from the day of the esta-
blishment of the debt to the present hour. Apropos of
penal laws, Doctor Black (of the Morning Chronicle) is now
filling whole columns with very just remarks on the new
and terrible law, which makes the taking of an apple
felon// ; but, he says not a word about the silence of Sir
Jammy (the humane code-softener) upon this subject ! The
"humanity and liberality" of the Parliament have relieved
men addicted to fraud and to certain other crimes from the
disgrace of the pillory, and they have, since Castlereagh cut
his own throat, relieved self-slayers from the disgrace of the
cross-road burial ; but the same Parliament, amidst all the
workings of this rare humanity and liberality, have made it
felony to take an apple off a tree, which last year was a trivial
trespass, and was formerly no offence at all! (143) How-
ever, even this is necessary, as long as this bank note system
continue in its present way ; and all complaints about seve-
rity of laws, levelled at the poor, are useless and foolish ;
and these complaints are even base in those who do their
best to uphold a system, which has brought the honest labourer
to be fed worse than the felon. What, short of such laws,
can prevent starving men from coming to take away the
dinners of those who have plenty ? " Education" ! Des-
picable cant and nonsense ! What education, what moral
precepts, can quiet the gnawings and ragings of hunger ?
Looking, now, back again, for a minute to the little village
of Stoke -Charity, the name of which seems to indicate, that
its rents formerly belonged wholly to the poor and indigent
part of the community : it is near to Winchester, that grand
scene of ancient learning, piety and munificence. Be this
308 RURAL RIDE FROM
as it may, the parish formerly contained ten farms, and it now
contains but two, which are owned by Mr. Hinton Bailey
and his nephew, and, therefore, which mav probably become
one. (144) There used to be ten well-fed families in this
parish, at any rate : these, taking five to a family, made
fifty well-fed people. And now, all are half-starved, except
the curate and the two families. The blame is not the land-
owner's ; it is nobody's ; it is due to the infernal funding
and taxing system, which of necessity drives property into
large masses in order to save itself ,• which crushes little
proprietors down into labourers ; and which presses them
down in that state, there takes their wages from them and
makes them paupers, their share of food and raiment being
taken away to support debt and dead- weight and army and
all the rest of the enormous expenses, which are required
to sustain this intolerable system. Those, therefore, are
fools or hypocrites, who affect to wish to better the lot of
the poor labourers and manufacturers, while they, at the
same time, either actively or passively, uphold the system
which is the manifest cause of it. Here is a system, which,
clearly as the nose upon your face, you see taking away the
little gentleman's estate, the little farmer's farm, the poor
labourer's meat-dinner and Sunday-coat ; and, while you see
this so plainly, you, fool or hypocrite, as you are, cry out
for supporting the system that causes it all ! Go on, base
wretch ; but remember, that of such a progress dreadful
must be the end. The day will come, when millions of long-
suffering creatures will be in a state that they and you now
little dream of. All that we now behold of combinations,
and the like, are mere indications of what the great body of
the suffering people feel, and of the thoughts that are
passing in their minds. The coaxing work of schools and
tracts will only add to what would be quite enough without
them. There is not a labourer in the whole country, who
does not see to the bottom of this coaxing work. They are
not deceived in this respect. Hunger has opened their eyes.
I'll engage that there is not, even in this obscure village of
Stoke-Charity, one single creature, however forlorn, who
does not understand all about the real motives of the school
and the tract and the Bible affair as well as Butterworth, or
Rivington, or as Joshua Watson himself.
Just after we had finished the bread and cheese, we
crossed the turnpike road that goes from Basingstoke to
Stockbridge ; and Mr. Bailey had told us, that we were
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 309
then to bear away to our right, and go to the end of a wood
(which we saw one end of), and keep round with that wood,
or coppice, as he called it, to our left ; but we, seeing
Beacon-Hill more to the left, and resolving to go, as nearly
as possible, in a straight line to it, steered directly over the
fields ; that is to say, pieces of ground from 30 to 100 acres
in each. But, a hill, which we had to go over, had here
hidden from our sight a part of this " coppice," which con-
sists, perhaps, of 150 or 200 acres, and which we found
sweeping round, in a crescent-like form so far, from towards
our left, as to bring our land-mark over the coppice at about
the mid-length of the latter. Upon this discovery we
slackened sail ; for this coppice might be a mile across ; and
though the bottom was sound enough, being a coverlet of
flints upon a bed of chalk, the underwood was too high and
too thick for us to face, being, as we were, at so great a
distance from the means of obtaining a fresh supply of
clothes. Our leather leggings would have stood any thing ;
but, our coats were of the common kind ; and, before we
saw the other side of the coppice we should, I dare say,
have been as ragged as forest-ponies in the month of
March.
In this dilemma I stopped, and looked at the coppice.
Luckily two boys, who had been cutting sticks (to sell, I
dare say, at least I hope so), made their appearance, at about
half a mile off, on the side for the coppice. Richard galloped
off to the boys, from whom he found, that, in one part of
the coppice, there was a road cut across, the point of en-
trance into which road they explained to him. This was to
us, what the discovery of a canal across the isthmus of
Darien would be to a ship in the Gulph of Mexico, wanting
to get into the Pacific without doubling Cape Home. A
beautiful road we found it. I should suppose the best part
of a mile long, perfectly straight, the surface sound and
smooth, about eight feet wide, the whole length seen at
once, and, when you are at one end, the other end seeming
to be hardlv a yard wide. When we got about half way,
we found a road that crossed this. These roads are, I
suppose, cut for the hunters. They are very pretty, at any
rate, and we found this one very convenient ; for it cut our
way short by a full half mile.
From this coppice, to Whitchurch, is not more than
about four miles, and we soon reached it, because here you
begin to descend into the vale, in which this little town lies.
310 RURAL RIDE FROM
and through which there runs that stream, which turns the
mill of 'Squire Portal, and which mill makes the Bank of
England Note-Paper ! Talk of the Thames and the Hud-
son, with their forests of masts ; talk of the Nile and the
Delaware, bearing the food of millions on their bosoms;
talk of the Ganges and the Mississippi sending forth over
the world their silks and their cottons : talk of the Rio de
la Plata and the other rivers, their beds pebbled with silver
and gold and diamonds. What, as to their effect on the
condition of mankind, as to the virtues, the vices, the en-
joyments and the sufferings of men ; what are all these
rivers put together, compared with the river of WJiitchurch,
which a man of threescore may jump across dry-shod,
which moistens a quarter of a mile wide of poor, rushy
meadow, which washes the skirts of the park and game pre-
serves of that bright patrician, who wedded the daughter of
Hanson, the attorney and late solicitor to the Stamp- Office,
and which is, to look at it, of far less importance than any
gutter in the Wen ! Yet, this river, by merely turning a
wheel, which wheel sets some rag-tearers and grinders and
washers and re-compressers in motion, has produced a greater
effect on the condition of men, than has been produced on
that condition by all the other rivers, all the seas, all the
mines and all the continents in the world. The discovery
of America, and the consequent discovery and use of vast
quantities of silver and gold, did, indeed, produce great ef-
fects on the nations of Europe. They changed the value of
money, and caused, as all such changes must, a transfer of
property, raising up new families and pulling down old ones,
a transfer very little favourable either to morality, or to real
and substantial liberty. But this cause worked slowly ; its
consequences came on by slow degrees ; it made a transfer
of property, but it made that transfer in so small a degree,
and it left the property quiet in the hands of the new pos-
sessors/or so long a time, that the effect was not violent, and
was not, at any rate, such as to uproot possessors by whole
districts, as the hurricane uproots the forests. (145)
Not so the product of the little sedgy rivulet of Whit-
church ! It has, in the short space of a hundred and
thirty-one years, and, indeed, in the space of the last forty,
caused greater changes as to property than had been caused
by all other things put together in the long course of seven
centuries, though, during that course there had been a
sweeping, confiscating Protestant reformation. Let us look
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 311
back to the place where I started, on this present rural ride.
Poor old Baron Maseres, succeeded at Reigate, by little
Parson Fellowes, and at Betchworth (three miles on my
road) by Kendrick, is no bad instance to begin with ; for,
the Baron was nobly descended, though from French an-
cestors. At Albury, fifteen miles on my road, Mr. Drum-
mond (a banker) is in the seat of one of the Howards, and,
close by, he has bought the estate, just pulled down the
house, and blotted out the memory of the Godschalls. At
Chilworth, two miles further down the same vale, and close
under St. Martha's Hill, Mr. Tinkler, a powder-maker,
(succeeding Hill, another powder-maker, who had been a
breeches-maker at Hounslow) has got the old mansion and
the estate of the old Duchess of Marlborough, who fre-
quently resided in what was then a large quadrangular
mansion, but the remains of which now serve as out farm-
buildings and a farm-house, which I found inhabited by a
poor labourer and his family, the farm being in the hands of
the powder-maker, who does not find the once noble seat
good enough for him. Coming on to Waverley Abbey,
there is Mr. Thompson, a merchant, succeeding the Orby
Hunters and Sir Robert Rich. Close adjoining, Mr. Laing,
a West India dealer of some sort, has stepped into the place
of the lineal descendants of Sir William Temple. At Farn-
ham the park and palace remain in the hands of a Bishop
of Winchester, as they have done for about eight hundred
years : but why is this ? Because they are public property ;
because they cannot, without express laws, be transferred.
Therefore the product of the rivulet of Whitchurch has had
no effect upon the ownership of these, which are still in the
hands of a Bishop of Winchester ; not of a William of
Wykham, to be sure; but still, in those of a bishop, at any
rate. Coming on to old Alresford (twenty miles from
Farnham) Sheriff, the son of a Sheriff, who was a Commis-
sary in the American war, has succeeded the Gages. Two
miles further on, at Abbotston (down on the side of the
Itchen) Alexander Baring has succeeded the heirs and suc-
cessors of the Duke of Bolton, the rema : ns of whose noble
mansion I once saw here. Not above a mile higher up, the
same Baring has, at the Grange, with its noble mansion,
park and estate, succeeded the heirs of Lord Northington ;
and, at only about two miles further, Sir Thomas Baring, at
Stratton Park, has succeeded the Russells in the ownership
of the estates of Stratton and Micheldover, which were
312 RURAL RIDE FROM
once the property of Alfred the Great ! Stepping back,
and following my road, down by the side of the meadows of
the beautiful river Itchen, and coming to Easton, I look
across to Martyr's Worthy, and there see (as I observed
before) the Ogles succeeded by a general or a colonel, sorae-
bodv; but who, or whence, I cannot learn.
This is all in less than four score miles, from Reigate
even to this place, where I now am. Oh ! mighty rivulet
of Whitchurch ! All our properties, all our laws, all our
manners, all our minds, you have changed ! This, which I
have noticed, has all taken place within forty, and, most of
it, within ten years. The small gentry, to about the third
rank upwards (considering there to be five ranks from the
smallest gentry up to the greatest nobility), are all gone,
nearly to a man, and the small farmers along with them.
The Barings alone have, I should think, swallowed up thirty
or forty of these small gentry without perceiving it. They,
indeed, swallow up the biggest race of all ; but, innumerable
small fry slip down unperceived, like caplins down the
throats of the sharks, while these latter feel only the cod-
fish. It frequently happens, too, that a big gentleman or
nobleman, whose estate has been big enough to resist for a
long while, and who has swilled up many caplin-gentry,
goes down the throat of the loan-dealer with all the caplins
in his belly.
Thus the Whitchurch rivulet goes on, shifting property
from hand to hand. The big, in order to save themselves
from being " swallowed up quick" (as we used to be taught
to say, in our Church Prayers against Buonaparte), make
use of their voices to get, through place, pension, or sinecure,
something back from the taxers. Others of them fall in
love with the daughters and widows of paper-money people,
big brewers, and the like ; and sometimes their daughters
Jail in love with the paper-money people's sons, or the
fathers of those sons ; and, whether they be Jews, or not,
seems to be little matter with this all-subduing passion of
love. But, the small gentry have no resource. While war
lasted, "glorious war," there was a resource; but now,
alas ! not only is there no war, but there is no hope of war ;
and, not a few of them will actually come to the parish-
look. There is no place for them in the army, church,
navy, customs, excise, pension-list, or any where else. All
these are now wanted by '' their betters." A stock-jobber's
family will not look at such pennyless things. So that,
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 313
while they have been the active, the zealous, the efficient
instruments, in compelling the working classes to submit to
half-starvation, they have, at any rate been brought to the
most abject ruin themselves ; for which I most heartily
thank God. The " harvest of war" is never to return
without a total blowing up of the paper- system. Spain
must belong to France, St. Domingo must pay her tribute.
America must be paid for slaves taken away in war, she
must have Florida, she must go on openly and avowedly
making a navy for the purpose of humbling us ; and all this,
and ten times more, if France and America should choose ;
and yet, we can have no war, as long as the paper-system
last ;* and, if that cease, then what is to come! (146)
Burghclere,
Sunday Morning, 6th November.
It has been fine all the week, until to-day, when we in-
tended to set off for Hurstbourn-Tarrant, vulgarly called
Uphusband, but the rain seems as if it would stop us. From
Whitchurch to within two miles of this place, it is the same
sort of country as between Winchester and Whitchurch.
High, chalk bottom, open downs or large fields, with here
and there a farm-house in a dell, sheltered by lofty trees,
which, to my taste, is the most pleasant situation in the
world.
This has been, with Richard, one "whole week of hare-
hunting, and with me, three days and a half. The weather
has been amongst the finest that T ever saw, and Lord
Caernarvon's preserves fill the country with hares, while
these hares invite us to ride about and to see his park and
estate, at this fine season of the year, in every direction.
We are now on the north side of that Beacon-hill for which
we steered last Sunday. This makes part of a chain of
lofty chalk-hills and downs, which divides all the lower part
of Hampshire from Berkshire, though, the ancient ruler,
owner, of the former, took a little strip all along, on the flat,
on this side of the chain, in order, I suppose, to make the
ownership of the hills themselves the more clear of all dis-
pute ; just as the owner of a field-hedge and bank owns also
the ditch on his neighbour's side. From these hills you
look, at one view, over the whole of Berkshire, into Oxford-
P
314 RURAL RIDE FROM
shire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, and you can see the
Isle of Wight and the sea. On this north side the chalk
soon ceases, the sand and clay begin, and the oak-woods
cover a great part of the surface. Amongst these is the
farm-house, in which we are, and from the warmth and
good fare of which we do not mean to stir, until we can do
it without the chance of a wet skin.
This rain has given me time to look at the newspapers of
about a week old. Oh, oh ! The Cotton Lords are tear*
ing ! Thank God for that ! The Lords of the Anvil are
snapping ! Thank God for that too ! They have kept
poor souls, then, in a heat of 84 degrees to little purpose,
after all. The " great interests" mentioned in the King's
Speech, do not, then, all continue to flourish ! The " pros-
perity" was not, then, "permanent" though the King was
advised to assert so positively that it was! ''Anglo-
Mexican and Pasco-Peruvian" fail in price, and the Chronicle
assures me, that " the respectable owners of the Mexican
" Mining shares mean to take measures to protect their
"property." Indeed! Like protecting the Spanish Bonds,
I suppose ? Will the Chronicle be so good as to tell us the
names of these " respectable persons ?" Doctor Black must
know their names ; or else he could not know them to be
respectable. If the parties be those that I have heard, these
mining works may possibly operate with them as an emetic,
and make them throw up a part, at least, of what they have
taken down.
There has, I see, at New York, been that confusion,
which I, four months ago, said would and must take place ;
that breaking of merchants and all the ruin, which, in such
a case, spreads itself about, ruining families and producing
fraud and despair. Here will be, between the two coun-
, tries, an interchange of cause and effect, proceeding from the
dealings in cotton, until, first and last, two or three hundred
thousands of persons have, at one spell of paper-money
work, been made to drink deep of misery. I pity none but
the poor English creatures, who are compelled to work on
the wool of this accursed weed, which has done so much
mischief to England. The slaves who cultivate and gather
the cotton, are well fed. They do not suffer. The suffer-
ers are these who spin it and weave it and colour it, and the
wretched beings who cover with it those bodies, which, as
in the time of old Fortescue, ought to be " clothed
throughout in good woollens."
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 315
One newspaper says, that Mr. Huskisson is gone to Paris,
and thinks it likely that he will endeavour to " inculcate in
" the mind of the Bourbons wise principles of free trade/"
What the devil next ! Persuade them, I suppose, that it
is for their good, that English goods should be admitted
into France and into St. Domingo, with little or no duty ?
Persuade them to make a treaty of commerce with him;
and, in short, persuade them to make France help to pay
the interest of our debt and dead-weight, lest our system of
paper should go to pieces, and lest that should be followed
by a radical reform, which reform would be injurious to
" the monarchical principle !" This newspaper politician
does, however, think, that the Bourbons will be "too dull"
to comprehend these " enlightened and liberal" notions ; and
I think so too. I think the Bourbons, or, rather, those who
will speak for them, will say : " No thank you. You con-
" tracted your debt without our participation ; you made
" your dead-weight for your own purposes ; the seizure of
" our museums and the loss of our frontier towns followed
" your victory of Waterloo, though we were 'your Allies'
" at the time ; you made us pay an enormous Tribute after
" that battle, and kept possession of part of France till we
" had paid it ; you ivished, the other day, to keep us out of
" Spain, and you, Mr. Huskisson, in a speech at Liverpool,
" called our deliverance of the King of Spain an unjust and
" unprincipled act of aggression, while Mr. Canning prayed
" to God that we might not succeed. No thank you, Mr.
" Huskisson, no. No coaxing, Sir : we saw, then, too
" clearly the advantage we derived from your having a debt
" and a dead weight, to wish to assist in relieving you from
"either. 'Monarchical principle' here, or 'monarchical
" principle' there, we know, that your mill-stone debt is
" our best security. We like to have your wishes, your
" prayers, and your abuse against us, rather than your sub-
" sidies and your fleets : and so. farewell, Mr. Huskisson:
"if you like, the English may drink French wine; but
" whether they do or not, the French shall not wear your
" rotten cottons. And, as a last word, how did you main-
" tain the ' monarchical principle,' the ' paternal principle,
" or as Castlcreagh called it, the ' social system,' when you
" called that an unjust and unprincipled aggression, which
" put an end to the bargain, bv which the convents and
" other cliurch-property of Spain were to be transferred to
" the Jews and Jobbers of London ? Bon jour, Monsieur
p 2
316 RURAL RIDE FROM
'* Huskisson, ci-devant membre et orateur du club de quatre
" vingt neuf !" (147)
If they do not actually say this to him, this is what they
will think ; and that is, as to the effect, precisely the same
thing. It is childishness to suppose, that any nation will
act from a desire of serving all other nations, or any one
other nation, as well as itself. It will make, unless com-
pelled, no compact, by which it does not think itself a
gainer ; and amongst its gains, it must, and always does,
reckon the injury to its rivals. It is a stupid idea, that all
nations are to gain, by anything. Whatever is the gain of
one, must, in some way or other, be a loss to another. So
that this new project of " free trade" and " mutual gain"
is as pure a humbug as that which the newspapers carried
on, during the "glorious days" of loans, when they told
us, at every loan, that the bargain was " equally advan-
tageous to the contractors and to the public !" The fact is,
the "free trade" project is clearly the effect of a conscious-
ness of our weakness. As long as we felt strong, we felt
bold, we had no thought of conciliating the world ; we up-
held a system of exclusion, which long experience proved to
be founded in sound policy. But, we now find, that our
debts and our loads of various sorts cripple us. We feel
our incapacity for the carrying of trade sword in hand: and
so, we have given up all our old maxims, and are endea-
vouring to persuade the world, that we are anxious to enjoy
no advantages that are not enjoyed also by our neighbours.
Alas ! the world sees very clearly the cause of all this ; and
the world laughs at us for our imaginary cunning. My old
doggrel, that used to make me and my friends laugh in
Long Island, is precisely pat to this case.
When his maw was stuffed with paper,
How John Bull did prance and caper !
How he foam'd and how he roar'd :
How his neighbours all he gored !
How he scrap'd the ground and hurl'd
Dirt and filth on all the world !
But Johx Bull of paper empty,
Though in midst of peace and plenty,
Is modest grown as worn-out sinner,
As Scottish laird that wants a dinner ;
As Wilbekforce, become content
A rotten burgh to represent;
WINCHESTER TO BURGHCLERE. 317
As Blue and Buff, when, after hunting
On Yankee coasts their " bits of bunting,"
Came softly back across the seas,
And silent were as mice in cheese.
Yes, the whole world, and particularly the French and
the Yankees, see very clearly the course of this fit of
modesty and of liberality, into which we have so recently
fallen. They know well, that a war would play the very
devil with our national faith. They know, in short, that no
Ministers in their senses will think of supporting the paper
system through another war. They know well, that no
Ministers that now exist, or are likely to exist, will venture
to endanger the paper-system ; and therefore they know
that (for England,) they may now do just what they please.
When the French were about to invade Spain, Mr. Canning
said that his last despatch on the subject was to be under-
stood as a protest, on the part of England, against per-
manent occupation of any part of Spain by France. There
the French are, however ; and at the end of two years and
a half, he says that he knows nothing about any intention
that they have to quit Spain, or any part of it.
Why, Saint Domingo was independent. We had traded
with it as an independent state. Is it not clear, that if we
had said the word, (and had been known to be able to
arm), France would not have attempted to treat that fine
and rich country as a colony ? Mark how wise this mea-
sure of France ! How just, too ; to obtain by means of a
tribute from the St. Domingoians, compensation for the
loyalists of that country ! Was this done with regard to
the loyalists of America, in the reign of the good jubilee
George III. ? Oh, no ! Those loyalists had to be paid,
and many of them have even yet, at the end of more than
half a century, to be paid out of taxes raised on us, for the
losses occasioned by their disinterested loyalty ! This was
a master-stroke on the part of France ; she gets about
seven millions sterling in the way of tribute ; she makes
that rich island vield to her great commercial advantages ;
and she, at the same time, paves the way for effecting one
of two objects ; namely, getting the island back again, or
throwing our islands into confusion, whenever it shall be
her interest to do it.
This might have been prevented by a word from us, if
we had been ready for war. But we are grown modest ;
318 RURAL RIDE FROM
we are grown liberal ; we do not want to engross that which
fairly belongs to our neighbours ! We have undergone a
change, somewhat like that which marriage produces on a
blustering fellow, who, while single, can but just clear his
teeth. This change is quite surprising, and especially by
the time that the second child comes, the man is loaded;
he looks like a loaded man; his voice becomes so soft and
gentle compared to what it used to be. Just such are the
effects of our load: but the worst of it is, our neighbours
are not thus loaded. However, far be it from me to regret
this, or any part of it. The load is the people's best friend.
If that could, without reform ; if that could be shaken off,
leaving the seat-men and the parsons in their present state,
I would not live in England another day ! And I say this
with as much seriousness as if I were upon my death-bed.
The wise men of the newspapers are for a repeal of the
Corn Laws. With all my heart. I will join any body in a
petition for their repeal. But, this will not be done. We
shall stop short of this extent of " liberality," let what may
be the consequence to the manufacturers. The Cotton
Lords must all go, to the last man, rather than a repeal,
these laws will take place : (148) and of this the newspaper
wise men may be assured. The fanners can but just rub
along now, with all their high prices and low wages.
What would be their state, and that of their landlords, if
the wheat were to come down again to 4, 5, or even 6
shillings a bushel ? Universal agricultural bankruptcy
would be the almost instant consequence. Many of them
are now deep in debt from the effects of 1820, 1821, and
1822. (149) One more year like 1822 would have broken
the whole mass up, and left the lands to be cultivated,
under the overseers, for the benefit of the paupers. Society
would have been nearly dissolved, and the state of nature
would have returned. The Small-Note Bill, co-operating
with the Corn Laws have given a respite, and nothing
more. This Bill must remain efficient, paper-money must
cover the country, and the corn-laws must remain in force;
or an "equitable adjustment" must take place; or, to a
state of nature this country must return. What, then, as
I want a repeal of the corn-laws, and also want to get rid
of the paper-money, I must want to see this return to a
state of nature ? By no means. I want the " equitable
adjustment," and I am quite sure, that no adjustment can
be equitable, which does not apply every penny's worth
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 3 1*9
of public property to the payment of the fund-holders
and dead- weight and the like. Clearly just and rea-
sonable as this is, however, the very mention of it makes
the Fire-Shovels, and some others, half mad. It makes
them storm and rant and swear like Bedlamites. But it is
curious to hear them talk of the impracticability of it ; when
they all know that, by only two or three acts of Parliament,
Henry VIII. did ten times as much as it would now, I
hope be necessary to do. If the duty were imposed on me,
no statesman, legislator or lawyer, but a simple citizen, I
think I could, in less than twenty-four hours, draw up an
act, that would give satisfaction to, I will not say every man;
but to, at least, ninety-nine out of every hundred ; an act
that would put all affairs of money and of religion to rights
at once ; but that would, I must confess, soon take from us
that amiable modesty, of which I have spoken above, and
which is so conspicuously shown in our works of free trade
and liberality.
The weather is clearing up ; our horses are saddled, and
we are off.
RIDE, FROM BURGHCLERE TO PBTBRSFIELD.
Hurstbourne Tarrant (or Uphusband),
Monday, 1th November, 1825.
"We came off from Burghclere yesterday afternoon, cross-
ing Lord Caernarvon'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 singu-
larly 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, con-
taining at least 500 sheep.
320 RURAL RIDE FROM
It is about six miles from Burghclere to this place ; and,
we made it about twelve ; not in order to avoid the turn-
pike road ; but, because we do not ride about to see turn-
pike 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 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! licensed!) to
serve out cat-lap to these wretched creatures ! And, our
impudent and ignorant newspaper scribes talk of the de-
graded state of the people of Spain ! Impudent 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 instrumentality 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 per-
mission 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 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 state-
ment. Let the Spaniards come and look at this poor,
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 321
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 mortgaged. 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, 9th Nov.
I intended to go from Uphusband to Stonehenge, thence
to Old Sarum, and thence through the New Forest, to
Southampton 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
Laverstock, 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 1 must get to London by a certain day ;
and as 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, 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 Up-
husband (or Ilurstbourn 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 Stock-
bridge and Rumsey, 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 Ports-
p
322 RURAL RIDE PROM
mouth'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 An-
dover road, and leaving Andover to our right and Whit-
church to our left, we came on to Long Parish, where,
crossing the water, we came up again on 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 Cathedral ; 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 Win-
chester 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 my last Register, sold to a general, or colo-
nel. 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 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 terres-
trial paradise ! " Sir Charles" might be very frequently in
this paradise, while that Sidmouth, whose Bill he so ap-
plauded, had many men shut up in loathsome dungeons !
Ah, well ! " Sir Charles," those very men may, perhaps, at
this moment, envy neither you nor Sidmouth ; no, nor Sid-
mouth'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
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 32&
estate. It seems that he bought it " stock and fluke" as
the sailors call it ; that is to say, that he bought moveables
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 loyal 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 in-
offensive 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 head ! Oh ! Peel, Peel, Peel I
Thy bill, oh, Peel, did sicken them so ! Let us, oh, thou
offspring of the great Spinning Jenny promoter, who sub-
scribed ten thousand pounds towards the late " glorious"
war; who was, after that, made a Baronet, and whose
biographers (in the Baronetage) 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 ! However, if thou wilt not
listen to us, great Peel, we must, perhaps, (and only per-
haps) wait a little longer. It is sure to come at last, and to
come, too, in the most efficient way. (150)
The water in the Itchen is, they say, famed for its clear-
ness. As I was crossing the river the other day, at Aving-
ton, 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 re-
marked 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 Chilworth in Surrey,) I should have put a question,
relative to 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
324 RURAL RIDE FROM
see, a church and a barrack destroyed. And, why a bar-
rack ? 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, would 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 Government. 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 ? Ah ! but, they are wanted by
creatures who will not work in England, and whom this fine
system of ours sends out into those woods to live in idle-
ness 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
dreadful effects proceeding from them ; but to me, it is
bevond 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 is allowed (aye, by the magistrates)
less food than the felon in the gaol ; and the felon is clothed
and has fuel ; and the labouring man has nothing allowed
for these. These worthless colonies, which find places for
people that the Thing provides for, have helped to produce
this dreadful state in England. Therefore, any assistance
the sufferers should never have from me, while I could find
an honest and industrious English labourer (unloaded with
a familv too) fed worse than a felon in the gaols ; and this
I can find in every part of the country.
Petersfteld, Friday Evening,
Wlh November.
We lost another day at Easton ; the whole of yesterday,
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 325
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 Easton, 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 high 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 very prettiest
spots in the world. The wild water-fowl seem to take par-
ticular delight in this place. There are a great many at
Lord Caernarvon's ; but, there the water is much larger,
and the ground and wood 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 bowl-
ing-green. To see 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
326 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 comparison, 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," (151) said I to Richard.
" Why ?" said Dick. It was too cold to talk much ; and, be-
sides, a great sluggishness in his horse made us both rather
serious. 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, contract-
ing 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
any thing 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'sWaltham, 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
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 327
exception of the valleys of the Itcheu 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
and 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 ! They seem to pity
our 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, since 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
convulsion, is the most miserable nonsense that ever was
conceived in the heads of ideots. 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 preveut the final arrival of that hour. To have
proceeded with Peel's Bill was, indeed, to produce total con-
vulsion. 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 owjld 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
32S RURAL RIDE.
change a single word of that. It pleased Mr. Brougham's
" hest public instructor" to abuse that petition, and it
pleased Daddy Coke and the Hickory Quaker, Gurney, and
the wise barn-orator, to calumniate its author. (152) They
succeeded ; but, their success was but shame to them ; and
that author is yet destined to triumph over them. 1 have
seen no London paper for ten davs, until to-dav ; 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 thereabouts ; 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 substantial 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 con-
fiding foreigners, so disgraceful to the name of England ;
with the thousands of industrious and care-taking crea-
tures 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 per-
manent, because all the great interests are flourishing ?" Let
them ! 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
shocking 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, \2th Nov. 1825.
I was at this town in the summer of 1823, when I crossed
Sussex from Worth to Huntington, 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 Id. 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 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
330 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 Eng-
land where, I believe, they live better than in any other
part of it. The poor creature here has seven-pence a day
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 surrounding nations, and the admira-
tion 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 single pious sigh for these in-
numerable sufferers, who are doomed to become felons or
to waste away their bodies by hunger. (153)
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 deliberative mood. So I said, looking
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 331
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 other; 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 dare
say, erected more than a thousand years ago, If I had had
time, I should have told this group, that, before the Pro-
testant Reformation, the labourers of Rogate received four-
pence a day from Michaelmas to Lady-day ; five-pence
a day from Lady-day to Michaelmas, 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
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. Twy-
ford is the squire, and where there is a very fine and ancient
church close by the squire's house. I saw the squire look-
ing at some poor devils who were making " wauste im-
provements, ma'am," on the road which passes by the
squire's door. He looked uncommonly hard at me. It
was a scrutinizing 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
any thing 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
332 RURAL RIDE FROM
not help reflecting on the intolerable baseness of this de-
scription 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 thev 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 allow-
ance. 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 London! I hear, that Squire
Twyford was always a distinguished champion of loyalty ;
what they call a staunch friend of Government ; and, it is
therefore natural that the Government should be a staunch
friend to him. By the taxing of his estate, and 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 reason-
able 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
distribution, have been totally extinguished. I should sup-
pose Squire Twyford to be in the second rank upwards (di-
viding 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
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 333
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,
finding that no form of trial would answer his purpose, in-
vented 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 Mon-
tague, the estate has been held to this day ; and Mr. Poyntz,
who married the sole remaining heiress of this family, a
Miss Brown, is now the proprietor of the estate, comprising,
I belie ve, forty or fifty manors, the greater part of which are
in this neighbourhood, some of them, however, extending
more than twenty miles from the mansion. We entered
the park through a great iron gate-way, 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 in-
numerable 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 sensible worthies took
it into their heads to go down a place something resem-
bling 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 not 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 man-
sion completely repaired, and fitted up as a place of resi-
dence : and a few days, or a verv 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
334 RURAL RIDE FROM
this mansion, there runs a little river which runs winding
away through the vallies, and at last falls into the Arron.
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
chesnut. I asked the people at Midhurst where Mr. Povntz
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 enter-
ing 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 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 Wil-
liam Wyndham, from whom Lord Egremont is descended.
But there is another building much more capacious and mag-
nificent 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 structure 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 Bride-
well 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 1 ' 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 !
Thursley,
Sunday, \Zth Nov.
To our great delight we found Richard's horse quite well
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 335
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; and everything looking exceedingly beautiful. The
spot itself being one of the very finest in the world, not
excepting, I dare say, 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
the 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 enclo-
sure was nine miles round; and this, after all, forms, pro-
bably, 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 princelv estate. But, I cannot forget
that his two brothers, who are now very old men, have had,
336 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 dependence 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 strug-
gling 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 extinguishment 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 is quite a blessing, in a village, to see
a rich Jew or Jobber come to supplant them. They come,
too, with far less cunning than the half-broken gentry.
Cunning as the Stock-jobber is in Change Alley, I defy
him to be cunning enough for 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,
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 337
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 in-
volved 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
revelation. 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, probably, twenty
thousand cf 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 pro-
perty." It seems, that these places, which have extensive
buildings on them, were for the purpose of making gun-
powder. Like most other of these enterprises, they have
been given up, after a time, and so the ground and all the
buildings, and the monstrous 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,
Q
338 RURAL RIDE FROM
'.' 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 Chiddingfold ; 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 Chiddingfold, the people were
just going to church ; and we saw a carriage and pair con-
veying an old gentleman and some ladies to the churchyard
steps. Upon inquiry, we found that this was Lord Winter-
ton, whose name, they told us, was Turnour. I thought I
bad 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. How-
ever, it is as broad, perhaps, as it is long : a man is not to
have all the enjoyments of making the gout, and the enjoy-
ments of abstinence too : that would not be fair play ; and I
dare say that Lord Winterton is just enough to be content
with the consequences of his enjoyments.
This Chiddingfold is a very pretty place. There is a
verv pretty and extensive green opposite the church ; and
we were at the proper time of the day to perceive that the
modern 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
twentv 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
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 339
use to expend money in this sort of way upon poor crea-
tures that have not half a bellyful of food ? We had not
breakfasted when we passed them. We felt, at that mo-
ment, 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 al-
lowance 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. (154)
We had now come on the Turnpike road from my Lord
Egremont's Park to Chiddingfold. 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 constantly prevented by being told that the road which
I wished to take would lead me to Haslemere. If you talk
to ostlers, or landlords, or post-boys ; or, indeed, to almost
any body else, they mean by a road a turnpike road ; and
they positively will not talk to you about any other. Now,
just after quitting Chiddingfold, Thursley lies over fine
woods and coppices, in a north-west direction, or there-
abouts ; 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 fol-
low the Turnpike road one single 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 afld meadows here and
there, shaded all over, or nearly all over, by the surrounding
Q 2
340 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 pud-
dine: 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 obser-
vation 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. 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.
I 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 buv 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 has formed a meadow sometimes a
rod wide, and sometimes twenty rods wide, while the bed
of the stream itself was the most serpentine 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
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 341
stopped the man several times, to sit and admire this beau-
tiful spot, shaded ia 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 convenience of
the fox-hunters. At last, we came into an ash-coppice, which
had been planted in regular rows, at about four feet dis-
tances, 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 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 afterwards saw Mr. Leech, but, I dare say, the
ground was trenched before it was planted ; but, what is
that expense when compared with the great, the permanent
profit of such an undertaking ! 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 man-
ner ; 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
root9 of the oak. For present profit, and, indeed, for per-
manent 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 or stakes? The
342 RURAL RIDE FROM
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
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 or-
dinary 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 hare a thing that will last twenty years, than
a thing that will last only three ? I know of no English un-
derwood 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 rab-
bits 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 were too bad to send to him, which were a great deal
higher than his head. His ground was as good as mine, ac-
cording to his account ; but I had no hares to fight against ;
or else mine would have been all dead too.
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 343
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 locust 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 Eng-
" land !" 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 tear-
ing up their infernal Scotch firs and larches in Wolmer Forest
and elsewhere, and putting locust trees in their stead, in
order, first to provide this excellent material for ship-build-
ing ; and next to have some fine plantations in the Holt
Forest, Wolmer 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 Government's adopting
this irige and beneficial measure?
1 am disposed to believe, however, that the Government
will not be brutish t;nougli, obstinately to reject the advice
given to them on this head, it being observed, however, tha
344 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 Kegister 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, bat 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 of a polish nearly as fine as that
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. lie 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
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 345
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
pailing 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 pailing 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.
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
which was formerly amongst the most uncomfortable in the
world. This is another of what the malignant parsons call
Cobbett's Quackeries. But my real opinion is that the whole
body of them, all put together, have never, since they were
born, conferred so much benefit upon the country, as I have
conferred upon it by introducing this fire place. Mr. Judson
of Kensington, who is the manufacturer of them, tells me that
he has a great demand, which gives me much pleasure ; but
really, coining to conscience, no man ought to sit by one
of these fire-places that does not go the full length with me
a 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.
.unison's affair, either as to the profit or the loss, he must
sell the lire-places to whomsoever he pleases.
Kensington,
Sunday, 2Wi Nov.
Coming to Godalming on Friday, where business kept us
that night, wc had to experience at the inn the want of our
(i 3
346 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 those rooms which stand in absolute
need of such a fire-place. It is, I should think, five-and-
thirty, or forty feet long, and pretty 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, dine in that room upon turbot and surloin of
beef. An American fire-place, 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 con-
sumes these coals by the bushel, to effect that which he can-
not 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-
dingfold. I believe that Sir Thomas More lived at Losely,
or, at any rate, that the Molyneuxes are, in some degree, de-
scended 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 inhabited,
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 not ; but as I have read his name amongst the
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 347
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 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 what-
ever. And no naturalization 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 Hipley, 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 inten-
tion, 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 fanning 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-hantincj ! That is a dangerous thing.
When he and I went from home, I had business at Reigah .
It was a very wet morning, and we went off long before day-
light iu 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 proba-
bility of our meeting with fox-hounds, which gave me occa-
sion to address him thus : " Fox-hunting is a very fine
" tiling, and very proper for people to be engaged in, an' i'.
" 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
348 RURAL RIDE FROM
" or any stable-fellow, who is as ignorant as the horse, can
" 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 kuow ; 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 imagin-
able. His knowledge of figures lie had acquired from the
necessity of knowing the several numbers upon 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 to 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 ac-
counts, 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 verv
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 in-
correctlv, he was corrected bv me. When we had e;ot a sum
of about 2 i, I said now there is another line of figures on
the left of this, and therefore you are to put down the 4 and
carry 2. " What is carrying ?" 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 day-
light, J took a pencil and set him a little sum upon paper,
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 349
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 c;ood 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 readi-
ness 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, " I don't
" want this, because, you knoAv, I have nothing to do but to
" divide by twelve." 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 mortification, and very often how much loss of health,
it costs the poor scolded broken-hearted child, who becomes
dunder-licaded and dull for all his life-time, merely because
that has been imposed upon him as a task which he ought to
ord as an object of pleasant pursuit. I never even once
desired him to 9tay 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, 1 advised him to go
up into his bed-room and read it twenty times over out loud
350 RURAL RIDE FROM
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
multiplication. 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
consequence 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
1 believe that every boy of the same age, equally healthy, and
brought up in the same manner, Avould (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 any thing ; 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
bqok -learning before they are capable of reasoning, is the sure
and certain way to enfeeble their minds for life ; and, if they
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 prin-
ciples ; and the difference between principles and rules is
this, that the former are persuasions and the latter are com-
mands. 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
PETERSF1ELD TO KENSINGTON. 351
little. 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. T 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 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 any thing ;
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 abridg-
ment 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 with-
out any attempt being made to give him education." How
came this writer to know that it was a midakni notion ?
Ought he not rather, when he looked at the result, when he
considered the astonishing knowledge and great deeds of
Alfred — ought he not to have hesitated before he thus criti-
cised the notions ot the father ? It appears from the result
352 WURAL RIDE FROM
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. (155)
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 torment-
ing disorder which, as I observed before, comes upon her by
spells. Dr. M'Culloch may say what he pleases about her
being " wi balm." 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
wonderfully 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 falsifica-
tion 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 the Small-note Bill ; and that a short
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
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 353
the principal cause of the present embarrassments ! This is
pretty work indeed ! What ! I ! The poor deluded crea-
ture, whose predictions were all falsified, who knew nothing
at all about such matters, who was a perfect pedlar in poli-
tical economy, who was " a conceited and obstinate old
" dotard," as that polite and enlightened paper, the Morning
Herald, called me : is it possible that such a poor miserable
creature can have had the power to produce effects so prodi-
gious ? Yet this really appears to be the opinion of one, at
least, of these Mr. Brougham's best possible public instruc-
tors. The Public Ledger, of the 16th of November, has the
following passage.
" It is fully ascertained that the Country Banking Esta-
" blishinents 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
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, un-
hinge all contracts and all engagements, and plunge the pecu-
niary 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 unjust
pretension) for me to think myself the cleverest man in the
country, if I can of my own head, and at my own pleasure,
354 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 incontrollable 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 agree-
ably 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 accommodate merchants and keep them
from breaking. It cannot be to blame for both, and, indeed,
it is blameable for neither. It is the fellows that put out the
paper and then break that do 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. (156)
When the foreign loans first began to go on, Peter Maccul-
loch and all the Scotch were cock o' whoop. They said that
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 free-
dom and liberality in their stead. Unhappy and purblind, I
could not for the life of me see the matter in this light. My
perverted optics could perceive no surplus capital in bundles
of bank-notes. I could see no gain in sending out goods
PETERSFIELD TO KENSINGTON. 355
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 compelled 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
compelled 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 convic-
tion 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
speculation 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 gam-
bling, 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
356 RURAL RIDE FROM
appears to be so muck 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 Chrovnicle, of the 18th instant. I perfectly agree
with the writer. The Editor of the Morning Chronicle does
not, as appears by the remark which he makes at the head of
it ; 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 per-
fection. What, then, is this debt of the United States?
Why, it was on the 1st of January, 1824, this 90,177,962;
that is to say dollars ; that is to say, at four shil-
lings and sixpence the dollar, just twenty millions sterling ;
that is to say, 59-1,000 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 is 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
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 357
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 Kevolutionary 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 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 Ame-
ricans as above stated ? In short, it is almost to insult the
understandings of my readers, to seem to institute any com-
parison between the two things ; and nothing in the world,
short of this gambling, this unprincipled, this maddening
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 Smail-note Bill, and of the consequent purring 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. (157)
Uphusband {Hampshire),
Thursday, 2-Uh Aug. 182G.
Wo left Burghelere 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 line
hereabouts; and, there are never any pease, nor any beans,
grown here. The sainfoin fields, though on these high lauds,
and though the dry weather has been of such long continu-
ance, look as green as watered meadows, and a great deal
358 RURAL RIDE FROM
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
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 them-
selves, who had expected to see the price of agricultural pro-
duce brought down by the lessening of the quantity of
paper-money. Now, in the first place, corn 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, therefore, 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. avoirdupois weight ; so that the price of South
Down wool now is, 8d. a pound and a fraction over ; and
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 359
this is, I believe, cheaper than it has ever been known within
the memory of the oldest man living ! The " best pubbc
instructor" may, 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, -ilb., a ram 71b. Calculate,
good Mr. Thwaites, what a difference it is when this wool
becomes 8d. a pound instead of 17d., and instead of 30d.
as it was not many years ago ! In short, every middling-
sheep farmer receives, this year, about 2501. less, as the pro-
duce of sheep and wool, than he received last year ; and, on
an average, 250Z. 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 into the mouth. Prices
will go on gradually falling, as they did from 1819 to IS 22
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, 27th August. Evening.
We set off from Uphusband on Friday, about ten o'clock,
the morning having been wet. My sons came round, in the
chaise, by Andover and Weyhill, while I came right across
the country towards Ludgarshall, 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 keep 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
called Tanu.ley. 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 Ludgars-
hall, which I knew could not be more than about four miles
360 RURAL RIDS FROM
off. She did not know ! A very neat, smart, and pretty
woman ; but, she did not know the way to this rotten bo-
rough, Avhich was, I was sure, only about four miles off !
" Well, my dear good woman," said I, " but you have been at
Ludgarshall ?" — " 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 tlie pariah 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. (158) 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 Choiiey (about eight or
ten miles), and who started off, on foot, and went, alone, to
Uouen, in Prance, and back again to London, in the space of
about ten days ; and that, too, without being able to speak,
or to understand, a word of Trench. N.B. Those gentle-
men, who, at Green-street, in Kent, were so kind to this
man, upon finding thai he had voted for me, will be pleased to
accept of my best thanks. Wilding (that is the man's name)
was full of expressions 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 in 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
BURGHCLERE TO PETERSFIELD. 361
borough, is, as to all practical purposes, as much private pro-
perty 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 trom Ludgarshall, so that
we got here in the afternooD 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 Down-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, recognized 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 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 aicay 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 swiftest 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 tke live-
oak. Beyond the garden is a large clump of lofty sycamores,
and, in these a most populous rookery, in which, of all tilings
in the world, I delight. The village, which contains 301
souls, lies to the north of the inn, but adjoining its premises.
R
362 RURAL RIDE DOWN
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, whde I was writing the last
sentence of the foregoing paragraph, thought took me 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 and not less
ardent enmity ; and after filling me with wonder, that a heart
and mind so wrapped up in every thing belonging to the
gardens, the fields and the woods, should have been con-
demned 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 per-
form about Nicholas Grimshaw and his ditches! ( 59)
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 prettv good ride in this country. There is no plea-
sure in travelling, except on horse-back, or on foot. Car-
riages 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'dth Aug. 1826.
A very fine morning ; a man, eighty-tico 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 sjnew in your frame, if you go upright and do your
work 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 eighty. I wish I may be able to mow
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON. 363
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 congre-
gation ; and, thus, to find matter, if I can, to justify the
mad wretches, who, from Committee-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 pro-
pose a law to punish the rooks for trespass.
RIDE DOWN THE VALLEY OP THE AVON IN WILTSHIRE.
"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn ; and,
The labourer i$ worthy of his reward."— Deuteronomy, ch. xxv, ver.
4 ; 1 Cor. ix, 9 ; 1 Tim. v, 9.
Milton,
Monday, 28th Auyust.
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 vallev ; but I had often
heard this valley described as one of the finest pieces of land in
r 2
364 RURAL RIDE DOWN
all England ; I knew that there were ahout thirty parish
churches, 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 dare say, too much justice to complain, see-
ing 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 Iliver ; 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-Imprisonment 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 Milton Hill Farm. This was
upon the high land, and before I came to the edge of this
Valley of Avon, which was ray 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 tosvards
Milton ; 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, 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 each
out-side of the valley are downs. From the edge of the
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON. 365
downs begin capital arable fields generally of very great di-
mensions, 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 fre-
quently 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 any-
thing to please me like this valley of the Avon. I sat upon
my horse, and looked over Milton and Easton and Pewsy
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 beauti-
ful 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 apiece of
very thin paper upon the map, and thus traced the river
upon my paper, putting figures to represent the spots where
churches stand, and putting stars to represent the spots
where Manor-houses or Mansion-houses formerly stood.
Endless is the variety in the shape of the 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 in-
anity, the presumption, the insufferable emptiness and inso«-
366 RURAL RIDE DOWN
ence and barbarity, of those numerous wretches, who have
now the audacity to propose to transport the people of Eng-
land, 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
due, 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 New-
bury through Burghclere, Highclere, Uphusband, and
Tangley, I had seen but few. At and about Ludgarshall
and Everley, I had seen hardly any. But, when I came,
this morning, to Milton 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 gotten to the bottom of the hill, I proceeded on
to the village of Milton, the church of which is, in the map,
represented by the figure 3. I left Easton (2) away at my
right, and I did not go up to Watton 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 Milton. 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
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON. 367
general they speak truth. I take pretty good care not to
approach any house, with the smallest appearance of a de-
sign to eat or drink in it, unless I be quite sw'e of a cordial
reception ; but my friend at Fifield (it is in Milton parish)
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 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 labour-
ers, 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 presumption
of Birkbeck, who, observe, richly merited all that he suf-
fered, 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
be 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 1817, before he
set out for America, I was, in Catherine Street, Strand, Lon-
don, 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 disadvan-
tages 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 any body get you more than twenty
368 RURAL RIDE DOWN
" miles from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore."
Upon which he gave me a most dignified look, and, ob-
served : " Miss Birkbeck 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 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 injurv. They did me no injury, no thanks
to them ; and I have seen them most severely, but most
justly, punished. (160)
Amesbury,
Tuesday, 29M August.
I set off from Fifield this morning, and got here (25 on
the map) 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 but, here comes my dinner : and I
must put off my notes till I have dined.
Salisbury,
Wednesday, 30 th August.
My ride yesterday, from Milton 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 that I ever
had 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 1 went over
the Accursed Hill (Old Sarum), and went across to Laver-
stoke, 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"
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON. 369
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 dare say ; 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
in the map), 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 pease and beans, nor of oats, except for home
consumption. 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 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 hanged at last ! What a pity, since he
was to be hanged, the hanging 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, be-
sides barley-ricks, and hav-ricks, and also besides the con-
tents of the barns, many of which exceed a hundred, some
r 3
370 RURAL RIDE DOWN
two hundred, and I saw one at Pewsey (4 in map), and
another at Fittleton (16 in map), each of which exceeded
two hundred and fifty feet in length. At a farm, which, in
the old maps, is called Chissenbury Priory (14 in map), 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 tvho 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 projects 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 trans-
porting the idlers who live in luxury upon this same food ;
when no project is on foot for transporting pensioners, par- •
son9, 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, 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-ahs !
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 sur-
prise, 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 everywhere 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
ra^r-rookery) to every parish. By the water's edge there
are willows; and to almost every farm, there is a fine
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON.
371
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 they were un-
tormented 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 I
At a farm at Milton 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 pro-
duce, 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 ot the question, as being
things that human creatures, and especially labouring human
creatures ought never to use as 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
372 RURAL RIDE DOWN
the state of people in the 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 and 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.
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 scores
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
the valley of the avon. 373
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 . . ... 7
This being the case, the 3000 quarters of wheat, which
the parish annually produces, would suffice for 800 families.
The 6000 quarters of barley, would suffice for 207 families.
The 3500 fat sheep, being half the number kept, would
suffice for 500 families. So that here is, produced in the
parish of Milton, 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, 21,0001b., and capable of being made into
8,400 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 Milton, that
we have under our eye, would give bread to 800 families,
mutton to 580, 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 800 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 Milton
yields a sufficiency. In the wool, the milk, butter, eggs,
poultry, and game, we have seen ample, and much more
than ample, provision for all wants, other than those of
374 RURAL RIDE DOWN
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, 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 ! 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 (56s. the quarter) amounts to
10/. 10*. The barley (for bacon and beer) 22 qrs. 3
bushels, at present price (345. the quarter), amounts to
37/. 16s. 8d. The seven sheep, at 40s. each, amount to 14/.
The total is 62/. 6s. 8d.; 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 9*. a week. The parish allowance is only
about 7s. 6d. for the five people, including clothing, fuel,
bedding and every thing ! Monstrous state of things ! But,
let us suppose it to be nine shillings. Even that makes only
23/. 8s. a year, for food, drink, clothing, fuel and every
thing, 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.
The parish of Milton does, as we have seen, produce
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON. 375
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
every thing. Now, then, according to the " Population
Return," laid before 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 two
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 naked-
ness, while the food and drink and wool are almost all car-
ried 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 much about thus, 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 " Population 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 propor-
tion that we have seen in the case of Milton does not hold
good all th e way through ; that is, there is no reason to sup-
pose, that the produce does not exceed the consumption in
every other case in the same degree that it does in the case
of Milton. 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 Watt< n
llivers (1 in map) to Stratford Dean (29 in map), then lu-re
are 9,110 persons raising food and raiment sufficient for
376 RURAL RIDE DOWN
45.5S0 persons, fed and lodged according to my scale; and
sufficient for 136,740 persons, according to the scale on
which the unhappy labourers of this fine valley are now fed
and lodged !
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-rate
amount to about seven millions; yet, while the cowardly
reptiles never utter a word against the taxes, they are in-
cessantly 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
raonev, 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 (7s. Id.) ex-
clusive 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 chil-
dren ; 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 magis-
trates to transport paupers beyond the seas ! They are base
enough for this, or for any thing ; but the whole system
will go to the devil long before they will get such an act
passed ; long before they will see perfected this consumma-
tion of their iufamous tyranny. (161)
It is manifest enough, that the population of this valley
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON. 377
was, at one time, many times over what it is now ; for, in
the first place, what were the twenty-nine churches built
for ? The population of the 29 parishes is now but little
more than one-half of that of the single parish of Kensing-
ton ; and there are several of the churches bigger than the
church at Kensington. What, then, should all these
churches have been built for ? And besides, where did
the hands come from ? And where did the money come
from ? These twenty-nine churches would now not only
hold all the inhabitants, men, women, and children, but all
the household goods, and tools, and implements, of the
whole of them, farmers and all, if you leave out the wagons
and carts. In three instances, Fifield, Milston, and Roach-
Fen (17, 23, and 24), 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
edifices. 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 whims 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 (jiants, or that they had surprising riches, else we can-
not believe that they had the means of gratifying the strange
wishes of their Priests and their own not less stran ge 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
378 RURAL RIDE DOWN
twenty-nine churches made 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 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 re-
pairing 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 particu-
larly Pewsy and Upavon (4 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 parsonage- 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 con-
cerned, has been long upon the decline and decay. Dilapi-
dation 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 in-
stances, are of no benefit to the labouring people ; they em-
ploy 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, to-
gether with the clocks, the brass kettles, the brewing-vessels,
the good bedding and good clothes and good furniture, and
THE VALLEY OF THE AVON. 379
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 fund-
ing and paper-money, by the well-known exactions of the
state, and by the not less real, though less generally under-
stood, 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
Milton (3 in my map) 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 in my map) 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 generation,
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 become dead-weight creatures, tax-gatherers,
barrack-fellows, thief-takers, or, perhaps, paupers or thieves.
Senator Snip congratulated, some years ago, that pre-
ciously honourable '' Collective Wisdom" of which he is a
most worthy Member ; Snip congratulated it on the succes
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 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
3S0 RURAL RIDE DOWN
Atwood (one of the members for Lowther- town), not to
believe that paper-money ever did, or ever could, create any-
thing of 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 gentle-
men 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 con-
sumed, 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. (162)'
This is, too, the notion of Burdett as expressed in his
silly and most nasty, musty aristocratic speech of last ses-
sion. 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? 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 ma-
nufacturers, 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 Wiltshire for labour in Lan-
cashire ; and, upon the whole, here is no over-production.
If the produce be exported, it is the same thing : it is an ex-
change of one sort of labour for another. But, our course
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 tothing in exchange.
THE fAiLEY OF THE AVON. 381
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 " na-
tion," which means the whole of the people. National
Wealth means the Commonwealth 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 bv robbing those who labour, in order to support
a large part of the community in idleness. Devizes is the
market-town to which the corn goes from the greater part
of this Valley. If, when a wagon-load of wheat goes off in
the morning, the wagon 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 wagon 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 govern-
ment being able to cause the work to be done by those who
have hardlv anv share in the fruit of the labour ! What a
twist such a head must have ! The Scotch fcelosofers, who
seem all to have been, by nature, formed for negro-drivers,
have an insuperable objection to all those establishments and
customs which occasion liolidays. They call them a great
hinrierance, a great bar to industry, a great drawback irom.
" national wealth." I wish each of these unfeeling fellows
had a spade put into his hand for ten days, only ten davs,
and that he were compelled to dig only just as much as one
of the common labourers at Fulhum. The metaphysical
gentleman would, I believe, soon discover the use of huh-
382 RURAL RIDE DOWN
days ! But, why should men, why should any men, work
hard ? Why, I ask, should they work incessantly, if work-
ing part of the days of the week be sufficient? Why
should the people at Milton, 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 holidays ? And, pray, say, thou
conceited Scotch feelosofer, how the " national wealth" can
be increased by making these people 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 monopolizing 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, give
them their fair share of its products, will always give suste-
nance in sufficiency to those who apply to it by skilful and
diligent labour. (163)
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 employment for the women and girls ; but,
it is now wholly gone ; and this has made a vast 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 Luddites, 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
THE VALLEY OP THE AVON. 3S3
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 productive 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 ma-
chine 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, Warminster, Bradford, West-
bury, 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 ani-
mals 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 beastly Malthus, or
anv of his nasty disciples, can discover a mode of having
men and bovs without having women and girls, then, cer-
tainly, 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 mis-
chievous 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
384 RURAL RIDE DOWN
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 bv 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 it would not answer their purpose to make the things.
(164)
The survey of this Valley is, I think, the finest answer in
the world to the " Emigration Committee" fellows, and to
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 Com-
mittee" would be after. I remember, that, last winter, a
young woman complained 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 " Com-
mittee." We shall see all about the matter, however, by-
and-by ; and, when we get the transporting 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
those 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
vou call poor-rates ought to be called wages. But, at any
rate, what has all this to do with the necessity of emigra-
tion ? 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
THE VALLEr OF THE AVON. 385
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 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 that 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, place-
men, soldiers, parsons, fundholders, 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, Chelten-
ham, 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 oj the 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 con-
tinue many years ! By some means or other 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 plea-
sure, 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-
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
s
3S6 RURAL RIDE DOWN
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 consider-
able mansion-houses, besides the one near the church.
These mansions are all down now ; and it is curious enough
to see the former icalled 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 un-
natural, this dilapidating, this ruining and debasing work
must go on, until that which produces it be destroyed.
When I came down to Stratford Dean (29 in map,) I
wanted to go across to Laverstoke, which lay to ray left of
Salisbury ; but just on the side of the road here, at Strat-
ford 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 Glou-
cester 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. He said, very badly.
I asked him what was the cause of it. He said the hard
times. ''What times," said I; "was there 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
''is they?" 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 VALLEY OF THE AVON. 387
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 to produce, It was
impossible to stand on this accursed spot, without swelling
with indignation against the base and plundering and mur-
derous sons of corruption. I have often wished, and I,
speaking out loud, expressed the wish now ; " May that
" man perish for ever and ever, who, having the power, neg-
" lects to bring to justice the perjured, the suborning, the
*' insolent and perfidious miscreants, who openly sell their
"country's rights and their own souls."
From the Accursed Hill I went to Laverstoke 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 Lordship (Palmerston) is, I see, making a tolerable
figure in the newspapers as a share-man ! I got into Salis-
bury about half-past seven o'clock, less tired than I recol-
lect 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.
RIDE FROM SALISBURY TO WARMINSTER, FROM WARMIN-
STER TO FROME, FROM FROME TO DEVIZES, AND FROM
DEVIZES TO HIGHWORTH.
" Hear this, Oye 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
" neeiy 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 feasting into mourning, saith
"the Lord God, and your songs into lamentations." — Amos, chap,
viii. ver. 4 to 10.
Heytesbury {Wilts), Thursday,
Z\st 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 T got
into the nave of the church, and was looking up and ad-
miring 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 to-
wards 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
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 389
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 this most magnificent and
beautiful cathedral ? I wonder what they would say, if
thev 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 car-
ried 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 publish-
ing abusive pamphlets against that Catholic religion which
had given them their very bread. (165) 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 !
At Salisbury, or very near to it, four other rivers fall into
the Avon. The Wyly river, the Nadder, the Born, and
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. Incoming from Salisbury, I came up
the road which runs pretty nearly parallel with the river
Wyly, which river rises at Warminster and in the neigh-
390 RURAL RIDE PROM
bourhood. 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 ! 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 singularly 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 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, repre-
sented 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,
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 391
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.
Mv next village was one that 1 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 down this valley. I also remem-
bered, very well, that 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 recollection 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
vallev. 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 toStroud,
and so on to Gloucester and Hereford. But, when I got to
Everlev, 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 Lang-
ford 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 tormented him to
such a degree, that to ride him was work as hard as thresh-
ing. When I gdf to Steeple Langford, I found no public-
house, and I found it a much more miserable place than I
had remembered it. The Steeple, to which it owed its dis-
tinctive appellation, was gone ; and the place altogether
seemed to me to be very much altered for the worse. A
little further on, however, 1 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 remembered Wyly very well, and thought it a gay place
392 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 carelessness 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 Rectorv, and the
great tithes must be worth, I should think, six or seven
hundred pounds a year, at the least.
It is a part of our system to have certain families, who
b.ave 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.
Yv'hat, 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 them 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 dreed 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
fourpence 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 and
her Knights. Strangely altered now. The shape of the
garden shows you what revelry used to be carried on here.
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 393
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 regimental jacket. They do not hang these
up now in the " parlour" for everybody to see them : they
hang them up in their bed rooms, 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 chari-
table 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 Go-
vernment which strip them, (as the late Order in Council
does) (166), 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 thev 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 veomen 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 exulta-
tions on the occasion of the 16th of August at Manchester ;
let them remember their cowardly abuse of men, who were
endeavouring 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 mv house in the neighbourhood of New
s 3
394 RURA.L RIDE FROM
York, just before 1 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 con-
tained 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 any thing 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 against me. He is now, even
now, putting forth, under the form of letters to me, a re-
vival 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 con-
duct the English newspapers, would give circulation to his
letters, containing, as they must, the substance of a con-
versation purely private. But, I never had any conversa-
tion 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, be-
sides, 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 par-
ticular 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
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 395
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 !
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 necessary 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 gentle-
man ; so, they set him to crack stones upon the highway ;
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, (167) 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 their 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 "suffer-
ing ;" when I hear of people being " ruined ;" when I hear
of " unfortunate families ;" when I hear a talk of this kind,
I stop, before 1 either express or feel compassion, to ascer-
tain 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 en-
titled 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
396 RURAL RIDE FROM
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. They have signed addresses, applauding
everv thing tyrannical and inhuman. They have seemed to
glory in the shame of their country, to rejoice in its degra-
dation, 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 enjoyment 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 T hear of ''ruin" or "misery," I must know
what the conduct of the sufferers has been before I bestow
my compassion.
i Warminster (Wilts), Friday, 1st 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 men 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 manufacturers had full work, at one shilling and three-
pence 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 shil-
ling 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 break-
fast for once in their lives. There were eig-ht of them, six
. a and two boys; and I gave thern two quartern loaves,
two pounds of cheese, and eight pints of strong beer. The
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH.
397
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 anv thing for the bed since I had been so good to
the poor men. Yes, said I, but I must not throw the ex-
pense upon you. I had no supper, and I have had no
breakfast; and, therefore, I am not called upon to pay for
them : but / have had the bed. It ended by my paying for
the bed, and coming off, leaving the nutters at their break-
fast, 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 pre-
vail amongst publicans 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 the 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 Hevtesburv, vou see through this wide opening into
Somersetshire. You see a round hill rising in ihe middle of
the opening ; 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 twentv-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-bv), stated to be such miserable dwell-
ings as to be unfit for a parson to reside in. Two of them,
however, are gone. There are no parsonage-houses in
those two parishes: there aie the scites; there arc 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 par-
son comes and works in three or four churches of r. Sunday ;
398 RURAL RIDE FROM
but the master parson is not there. (168) He generally
carries away the produce to spend it in London, at Bath, or
somewhere else, to show off his daughters ; and the over-
seers, 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,
except 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 beg-
garly 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 verv
easy for the eyes of man to discover labouring people more
miserable. There are two villages, one called Norton
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 Bishops-
trow, 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 con-
sent to let Ottiwell Wood (169) remain quiet in his seat,
and suffer the pretty gentlemen of Whitehall to go on with-
out note or comment till they had fairly blowed up their
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 399
concern. The farm-yard is surrounded by lofty and beau-
tiful 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 horn- cattle 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
Heytesbury, with its 1,023 souls ; and I further include this
very good and large market town of Warminster, with its
population 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 Bishopstrow 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 Warminster, though quite sufficient to
contain the people that go to church, are none of them
nearlv so big as several of the village churches. All these
400 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 Chalmers, 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 Reforma-
tion, 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
population 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 population 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 opulent 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 impudent, 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 popu-
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 401
lation 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 pro-
duce 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.
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 coun-
trymen 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 readyto becarried 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." (170) What ! and is the " Emigration Com-
mittee" 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 everv parish ? Are there schemers
of this sort of work still, while no man, no man at all, not a
single man, savs 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-
402 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 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 their dead-weight
claim upon us. The " country gentlemen" fellows know all
this : they know that the pour 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, 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, Ellenborough's Act, Poach-
ing 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. They
were the cause of all the taxes, and all the debts ; and now
let them take the consequences !
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORIH, 403
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 and 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. (171) "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 thev 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. Roe, at Kensington, 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. Gfl. a week for a man, 2s. for his wife, \s. Zd. for each
child under eight years of age, 3d. a week, in addition, to
each child above eight, who can go to work : and, if the
404 RURAL RIDE FROM
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
institution," has clothing, fuel, candle, soap, and house-
rent, over and above what is allowed to this miserable
family ! And yet the base i*eptile=, who, are called " coun-
try gentlemen," and whom Sir James Graham calls upon
us to commit all sorts of acts of injustice in order to pre-
serve, never utter a whisper about the expenses of keeping
the soldiers, while thev 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 any thing. 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 manufacture that cannot
very well come to a complete end ; still it has received a
blow from which it cannot possibly recover. The popu-
lation 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 sisns of accommodation 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 up stairs. 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
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 405
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 every where ; that the puffing is over ;
that we must come back again to something like reality.
The first factories that I met with were at a village called
Upton Lovell, just before I came to Heytesbury. There
they were a doing not more than a quarter work. There
is only one factory, I believe, here at Warminster, 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 land-
lord at Hevtesbury told me, that every one of them had a
license to beg, given them he said, " by the Government."
I suppose it was some pass from a Magistrate ; though I
know of no law that allows of 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. (172)
However, all law of this sort, all salutary and humane
law, really seems to be drawing towards an end in this now
miserable country, where the thousands are caused to wal-
low 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 trulv horrible fact, namely, that the common soldiers, oj
the standing army in time of peace, subscribe, in order to
furnish the meanest of diet to keep from starving the industrious
peopte who are taxed to 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 disgraceful, this damning fact; is
not this enough to convince us, that 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 dip<rraced the earth ?
406 RURAL RIDE FROM
Devizes, (Wilis),
Sunday Morning, 3rd 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 Berk-
shire. The distance, 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 corn 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
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 407
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 cottcn-factories, steam-en-
gines, 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 pro-
duced the reports of the starvation-committees of Manches-
ter to confirm his opinions. One would think, that this in-
stance 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 an-
noyed, 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.
I do not much like weasels ; but I hate rats ; and,
therefore, I say, success to the weasels. But, there is one
408 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 pro-
duces 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 pro-
duces 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 Eng-
land. But, ours is, altogether, a system of monopolies,
created by taxation and paper-money, from which monopo-
lies are inseparable. 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 sav, they
pay two millions a year more than they would pay were it
not for the monopoly ; and, mind, I do not mean the mono-
poly 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,
SALISBURY TO HIGHWORTH. 409
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 judg-
ment. 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
Westbury, 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, oq
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 sepa-
ration 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 fiat, enclosed 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 beau-
tiful ; 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
410 RURAL RIDE.
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
She 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
ihouse is white ; and the front of every one is covered with
some sort or other of clematis, or with rose-trees, or jas-
mines. 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, 4th Sept.
I got here yesterday, after a ride, including my deviations,
&f about thirty-four miles, and that, too, without breaking my
fast. Before I got into the rotten-borough of Calne, I had
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 now am.
1 would have made my horse fast too, if I could have
3one it without the risk of making him unable to carry me.
RIDE FROM HIGHWORTH TO CRICKLADE AND THENCE TO
MALMSBURT.
Highworth (Wilts),
Monday, ith Se^it. 1826.
When I got to Devizes, on Saturday evening, and came
to look out of the inn-window into the street, I perceived,
that T 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 coi-n- 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
had 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 prosti-
tutes, who are all tax-eaters, in the Wens of Bath and
London. Pottern, which I passed through in my way from
Warminster 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 belfry, 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, 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
monopolizing 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
t 2
412 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 remaining.
There were five parish-churches nearly close to my road ;
and, in one parish out 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 pro-
perty, been dilapidated ! The parsons have swallowed the
tithes and the rent of the glebes ; and have, successively,
suffered the parsonage-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 Cors-
ley, 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 breeding ! 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! (173)
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 growing 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 impu-
dent to contend, that the churches were formed by the flood,
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSBURY. 413
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 ? And could
they be made at all, without a great abundance of hands ?
These shelves are every where to be seen throughout the
down-countries of Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset-
shire, Devonshire and Cornwall ; and, besides this, large
tracts of land, amounting to millions of acres, perhaps,
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 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 din-
ner, 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 rentis, in some places,
a shilling a rod, which is, mind, IGOs. 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, sbarp 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 countrv, and to talk of our " consti-
tution " and our "liberties," and to affect to pity the
414 RURA.L RIDE FROM
Spaniards, whose working people live like gentlemen, com-
pared 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 com-
pelled 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 f * liberty," of any sort ; for the sum
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." (174) 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 ljd. 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 get for the money that
they give to the poor ; whereas, in the case of the road-
work, 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 / 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
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSEURY. 415
the farming districts. However, (and I thank God for it) the
feelosofers have enough to do at home now ; for the poor are
crving for food in dear, cleanly, warm, fruitful Scotland her-
self, in spite of a' the Hamiltons and a' the Wallaces and a'
the Maxwells and a' the Hope Johnstones and a' the Dun-
dases and a' the Edinhro' 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. (175)
From Devizes I came to the vile rotten borough of Calne
leaving the park and house of Lord Lansdown to my left.
This man's name is Petty, and, doubtless, his ancestors
'' came in with the Conqueror;" for, Petty is, unquestion-
ably, 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 Grindstone, or Grimstone, in the Norman lan-
guage. 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
push, in poor, unfortunate Ireland ! The history of that
push would amuse the people of Wiltshire ! Talking of
Normans and high-blood, puts me in mind of Beckford and
his ''Abbey"! The public knows, that the to wer 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, Far-
quhar, 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,
416 RURAL RIDE FROM
without cursing Corruption at every step ; and, when I was
coming by an ill-looking, broken-winded 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 Wotton- Basset ! This also is a mean, vile place,
though the country all round it is very fine. On this side
of Wotton-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 Tre-
gose ; and, to a certainty, the word was Tregrosse ; that is
to say, tresgrosse, 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 Parliament, that the parsonage-house is
•" worn out and incapable of repair!" And, observe, that
Parliament lets him continue 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 ! 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 Wotton-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
eeen great crops of walnuts all the way from London. From
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSBURY. 417
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, aud 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 additional inducement, was to have a good long political
gossip, 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 Coleshill, which is in Berkshire, and
which is the property of Lord Kadnor, or Lord Folkestone,
and is the scat of the latter. I was at Coleshill 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
Coleshill ; 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 forty acres, per-
haps 50 acres. The rest of the ground; that is to say, the
ground where the clumps of Locusts do not stand, was, at
t 3
418 RURAL RIDE FROM
the same time that the Locust clumps were, planted with
chesnuts, 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 4J 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 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.
The trees are, indeed, in good land, and have been taken
good care of; but, the other trees are in the same land ; ana,
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
transport is this. A "Wiltshire wagon came to Worth for the
trees, on the 14th of March 1824. The wagon had been
stopped on the way by the snow ; and, though the snow was
gone off before the trees were put upon the wagon, 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
wagon, 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
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSBURT. 419
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 Kegister. 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 ix
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 ! How they look
at the poor slow-growing things for years ; when they might,
if they would, have it at once : really ahnost at a wish ; and,
with due attention, in almost any soil ; and the most valuable
of woods into the bargain. Mr. Painter, the bailiff, showed
me, near the house at Coleshill, a Locust tree, which was
planted about 35 years ago, or perhaps 40. He had mea-
sured 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 Coleshill, the most complete farm yard that
I ever saw, and that I believe there is in all England, many
and complete as Enghsh 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 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
iarm-yard. Here all are comfortable ; gaunt hunger here
stares no man in the face. That same disposition which
420 RURAL RIDE FROM
sent Lord Folkestone to visit John Knight in the dungeons
at Beading, keeps pinching hunger away from Coleshill. 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, had no
newspapers 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, had nobody to enjoy the light with. I
had no sharers 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 delin-
quents ! Aye, and this, too, while (as the " instructor" told
us) this same sovereign had just bestowed, unasked for (oh !
the dear good man !), an annuity of 500/. 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
pullings down and alterations 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,
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSBURY. 421
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 as
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's 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
stands, having, on the base of it, the word Wellington in
great staring letters, while all the other letters are veiy, 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 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
Biver, and before they had thrashed Blue and Buff so un-
mercifuljy on the ocean and on the lakes ; that, at that time,
when the creatures called " English ladies" were nocking,
from all parts of the country, to present rings, to "Old
Blucher" ; thai, at that time of exultation with the corrupt,
and of mourning with the virtuous, the Collective, in the
hey-day, in the delirium, of its joy, resolved to expend three
millions of money on triumphal arches, or columns, or monu-
ments 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 Minis-
ters, until "prosperity, unparalleled prosperity" came ! This
422 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 scaf-
folding will be knocked away, down will come the whole of
the horrid borough-mongering system, for the upholding of
which the vde 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" tells us, that Can-
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" (176)
orator is going to try the force of his oratory, in order to in-
duce 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 wdl again be
war for three months as long as this borough and paper sys-
tem 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 knoio 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 in-
terfering in the affairs of Portugal, if they find it their interest
to interfere. They know, that we cannot go to war. They
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSBURY. 423
know this as well as we do ; and every sane person in Eng-
land seems to know it well. No war for us without Reform !
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 real state, a good deal enlightened by
"late panic." They had hardly any notion of our state be-
fore that. That opened their eyes, and led them to conclu-
sions 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 sub-
scribe and pay off this Debt for the people at Whitehall.
The foreign governments (not excepting the American) all
hate the English Keformers ; 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 ! Let
our foes subscribe, I say, and pay off that Debt ; for until they
do that, we snap our fingers at them.
Higliworth,
Friday, 8(7i Sept.
" The best public instructor " of yesterday (arrived to-
day) informs us, that " A number of official gentlemen con-
" nected with finance have waited upon Lord Liverpool " !
Connected 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
I- /ging proclamation 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
424 RURAL RIDE FROM
record or recount the endless blessings of a Jubilee-Govern-
ment ! 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
shilbng 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 tfiey 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 alons with it.
'a
Malmsbury {Wilts),
Monday, Wth 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 break-
fast, 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 the 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 farm-
yard here more food than enough for four times the inhabi-
tants of the parish ; and this yard did not contain a tenth,
perhaps, cf the produce of the parish ; but, while the poor
HJGHWORTH TO MALMSBURT. 425
creatui-es that raise the wheat and the barley and cheese and
the mutton and the beef are living upon potatoes, an ac-
cursed Canal conies 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 improve-
ment ?" 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 woidd look me in the face and call this
" an improvement." What ! was it not better for the con-
sumers of the food to live near to the places where it was
grown ? We have very nearly come to the system of Hin-
dostan, 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 undisguised a
manner here : here are assessor, collector, exciseman, super-
visor, informer, constable, justice, sheriff, jailor, judge, jury,
jack-ketch, barrack-man. Here is a great deal of ceremony
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
contain 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.
In looking into this account, as it was finally made up and
printed by the parliamentary officers, I saw, that it was im-
possible for it to be true. I have always asserted, and, in-
deed, I have clearly proved, that one of the two last popula-
tion returns is false, barefacedly false ; and, I was sure, that
the account, of which I am now speaking, was equally false.
The falsehood, 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
426 RURAL RIDE FROM
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
contain. 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 conveniently, two
hundred people ! But, there was one instance, in which the
parson bad 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 Sharneut, in this county of Wilts. It lies on the
very northermost edge of the county, and its boundary, on one
side, divides Wiltshire from Gloucestershire. To this Sharn-
eut, 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 stricken. 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 cadi 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
Sharneut, the church of which, according to the parson's
account, could contain eight persons !
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSBURV. 427
At the end of about three miles more of road, rather diffi-
cult to find, but very pleasant, I got to Shamcut, which L
found to consist of a church, two farm-houses, and a parson-
-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-
six 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 per-
sons, at the least, might be accommodated, with perfect con-
venience, 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 tints particular, in this instance, because I would
leave no doubt as to the barefacedness 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 to the crime of lying.
What the Parliament meant was, what " is the greatest
"number of persons that the church can contain at wor-
"ship;" and, therefore to put the figure of s against the
church of Sharneut 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 BerveSj perhaps, three or four other churches, comes here
at five o'clock in the afternoon.
The MotfM 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, every thing tells them, that the country
i- a mean and miserable tiling, compared with what it was in
former times. They feel the facts; hut they wish to disguise
them, because they "know that they have been one great cause
of the country being in its present impoverish) d and dilapi-
dated Mate. They know, that the people look at them with
an accusing eye ; and they wish to put as fair a face a. they
can upon the state of things. If you talk to them, they will
never acknowledge that there is an\ misery in the country ;
because they well know how large a share they have had in
428 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 pro-
perty ! 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-estabbshing
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 over-reached themselves ;
and those of them who have common sense, now see it : each
hopes that the thing Avill 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 dare say, 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 P
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 thistles are all cut and carried away from the fields by
the harvest ; but, they grow alongside the roads ; and, in this
place, in great rmantities. So that the goldfinches were got
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, 1 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
HIGHWORTH TO MALMSBURY. 429
conveniently, 3 or -1,000 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,
giving my horse to a boy to hold. The fellow says that his
church " can contain two hundred people." I counted pews
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. Every where
you see the indubitable marks of decay in mansions, in par-
sonage-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 pro-
perty, 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 unfit for
a parson to live in, or, as being wholly tumbled down and
gone ! What then, are there Scotch vagabonds ; are there
Chalmerses and Cohpihouuds, 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 !
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 seenthcm be-
fore, and had never heard of them until I was at Highworth,
»avc 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
imagined. 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
430 RURAL RIDE FROM
down, through a flat of very fine meadows. The town and
the beautiful remains of the famous old Abbey, stand on the
rounded spot, which 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 /^ri-pinching poverty, this is a very pleasant
jfiace. 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 magnifi-
cent 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 skilful, 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 sur-
pass us in all other things worthy of admiration?
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 him-
self; and to 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
MALMSBURY INTO "WORCESTERSHIRE. 431
16,077Z. lis. 8d„ of tlie money of the present clay ! Amongst
other, many other, great men produced by this Abbey of
Malmsbury, was that famous scholar and historian, "Williarn
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," w T ith 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 pos-
sibly, 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 Koss, Herefordshire,
my road being across the county, and through the city of
Gloucester.
RIDE, FROM MALMSBURY, IN WILTSHIRE, THROUGH GLOU-
CESTERSHIRE, HEREFORDSHIRE, AND WORCESTERSHIRE.
Stroud (Gloucestershire),
Tuesday Forenoon, \2th Sept., 1820.
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, cither in England
or America ; and that is saying a great deal indeed. This cir-
cumstance was the more pleasant, as J had never before
432 RURAL RIDE FROM
either seen or heard of, these kind, unaffected, sensible, sans-
facoiis, and most agreeable friends. From Malmsbury I first
came, at the end of five miles, to Tutbury, which is in Glou-
cestershire, 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 to
each county. And now, before I take my leave of Wiltshire,
I must observe, that, in the whole course of my life (days of
courtship excepted, of course), I never passed seventeen
pleasanter days than those which I have just spent in Wilt-
shire. 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 gold/incites, 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 Chardonaret. 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 ox-
tame : naturally so, indeed ; for every one knows, that it is
the toet, 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 fat-
ted, as in Long Island ; and, it is not in one case out of ten,
that they 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,
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
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 433
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 ;
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 them-
selves, 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 j
very young, most of them, bur, in some places, very fine, and
in every instance, nicely hoed out. The land that will beay
400 bushels of potatoes to the acre, will bear 40 bushels cf
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 Avas met by a good many
people, in twoes, 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 ; hut,
"what arc you all pursuing him for?" "lie has been
" steal in cj." " What has he been stealing ?" " Cabbages."
"Where?" "Out of Mr. Glover, the hatter's, garden,"
"What! do you call that dealing ; and would you punish a
434 RURAL RIDE FROM
" man, a poor man, and, therefore, in all likelihood, a hungry
"man too, and, moreover an old man; do you set up a hue-
<c 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, teaches
" 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
T, 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, T,
upon lookingback, perceived, that I had slackened thepursuit !
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
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 ano-
ther for such an act, such talker would be held in universal
abhorrence : people would hate him ; and, in short, if rich as
Eicardo 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
towards 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 ot the high land,
MALJISBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 435
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 T.
" One 'Scjuire Eicardo, 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 Gentleman's dead, and"
" God 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 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 a 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.
Shepperd, 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 connexion
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
v ^
436 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 ma-
gistrates, 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 ! (177)
The Gloucestershire people have 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 altogether 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 oft". 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,
Between Gloucester and Ross.
From Stroud I came up to Pitchcomb, leaving Painswick
on my right. Erom 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
Worcestershire. The hill is a mile down. When down, you
are amongst dairy-farms and orchards all the way to Glou-
cester, and, this year, the orchards, particularly those of
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 437
pears, are greatly productive. I intended to sleep at Glou-
cester, 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 fruits of the system, called a " Music-Meeting!"
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 ;
unci, 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 cliildren, 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 starving people. From this scene of pros-
titution and of pocket-picking I moved off with all conve-
nient speed, but not before the ostler made me pay 9d. 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
9d. 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 vil-
lage, 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 slug-
gard.
Bollitree,
Wednesday, \Wi Sept.
This morning was most beautiful. There has been rain
here now, and the grass begins (but only begins) to grow.
When 1 got within two hundred yards of Mr. Palmer's, I
had the happiness to meet my son llichard, who said that he
had been ii]) an hour. As 1 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
438 RURAL RIDE FROM
the grass, was the purple flowered C'olchicum, 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 the fresh grass, which was a little shorter than
itself, it was very beautiful. (178)
Bollitree,
Saturday, 2Zd 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 ofNetherby." 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
bebeve, 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. Eveiy
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 Eng-
lishman that chooses to lay it on, and particularly from me.
(179)
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 of 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 win-
tering of another. Hay at Stroud, was six pounds a ton :
last year it was 37. 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 Ihd. ; it is now 6d. There has
been in North Wilts and in Gloucestershire half the quantity of
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 439
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 les-
sening in price, while the facility of keeping them has been
augmenting ! Aye ; but the paper-money has not been
augmenting, notwithstanding 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 everything, 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 neighbourhood. Mr. Palmer sold, at this
fail', 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 ! 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. (ISO) 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
tcomen 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
440 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 ecoonoo-
my to the devil, at any rate. In spite of all their plausibi-
lity and persevering brass, the Scotch writers are now gene-
rally looked upon as so many tricky humbugs. Mr. Sedg-
wick'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 themselves ; and,
while they do this, they arc 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 licence ; or, in other words, to cheat upon a small
scale, as their superiors do upon a large one. (181) This
tricky and greedy set have, however, at last, over-reached
themselves, after having so long overreached 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 lie had brought in the bill, Avhich compelled me
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 441
to make the Register contain two sheets and a quarter, and
to 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 tiling it is to behold, poor people receiving rates, or
alms, to prevent 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 distressed people from committing acts of violence,
when the cost of the horse and foot would, probably, if ap-
plied 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 twenty pounds of hay. These at present
prices, cost 16s. 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, do not cost so little as 36s. a week;
and that is more than the parish allowance to five labourers'
or manufacturers' families, at five to a family ; so that one
horseman and his horse cost 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. (182) 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
arc deemed an insupportable burden ; 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 icages ; 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 I
v 3
442 RURAL RIDE FROM
When will this be done? 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 consequences, 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 reason-
able as the act was wise and just. It would have been lucky
for them if 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 embarrass-
ments. Therefore I am not for blaming the Ministers for
acting from jear. They did the same in the case of the poor
Queen. Fear taught them wisely, then, also. What ! would
you never have people act from fear ? What but fear of the
law restrains many men from committing crimes ? What
but fear of exposure 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 fell enough of them too, under
Pitt, Dundas, Perceval, Gibbs, Ellenborough, Sidmouth
and Castlereagh. I prefer governments 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 as towards the
fierce and whiskered dead-weight, in the presence of any of
MAL.MSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 443
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 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 !
(183) Let the world match that if it can ! And yet there
are scoundrels to say, that we do not want a radical reform !
Why there must be such a reform, in order to prevent us
from becoming a mass of wretches too corrupt and pro-
fligate and base even to carry on the common transactions
of life.
Ryall, near Upton on Severn (Worcestershire),
Monday, 2bth Sept.
I set off from Mr. Palmer's yesterday, after breakfast,
having his son (about 13 years old) as my travelling com-
panion. 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 Yatcses, and the
Scudamores. They suppose him to have ten thousand
pounds a year in rent here! Famous "watching the turn
of the market " ! The Barings are at work clown 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 nesta that they have. The
"instructor" tells us, that the Kicardos have received sixty-
four thousand pounds Commission, on the " Greek Loans,"
or, rather, " Loans to the Greeks." Oh, brave Greeks, to
444 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 ihem 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 Mexi-
cans 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 harm-
less folly ; it is foolishness, the offspring of greediness and
of a gambling, which is little short of a roguish disposition ;
and this disposition prevails to an enormous extent in the
country, as I am told, more than in the monstrous Wen
itself. Most delightfully, however, have the greedy, mer-
cenary, 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, ap-
proved of, and rejoiced at, Sidmouth's J? ower-of -Imprison-
ment 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. (184)
Mr. Hanford, of this county, and Mr. Canning of Glou-
cestershire, 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 England. 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 vou see into nine or ten counties ; and
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 445
those curious bubblings-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 Wor-
cester, 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 Tewksbury, 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. Kine-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 Leicester breed,
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 Glouces-
tershire 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 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 pro-
duce, 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 inha-
bited by and the property of Roman Catholics ; for there
is, in one corner of the very top of the building-, up in the
44S RURAL RIDE FROM
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
little 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 purpose of evading the grasp of
those greedy Scotch minions, to whom that pious and tolerant
Protestant, James I., delivered over those English gentle-
men, 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 Scsevola" ; and we English-
men, 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 ac-
complices 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 pre-
served 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 be-
come mere hovels. What I have written on the " Pro-
testant Reformation," has proceeded entirely from a sense
of justice towards our calumniated Catholic forefathers, to
whom we owe all those of our institutions that are worthy of
our admiration and gratitude. I have not written as a
Catholic, but as an Englishman ; yet, a sincere Catholic
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 447
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
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/or reform, in
1817, my Lord Somers wrote and published a pamphlet,
under his own name, condemning our conduct and our prin-
ciples, and insisting that we, if let alone, should produce
"a revolution, and endanger all property !" (185) The
Barings are adding field to field and tract to tract in Here-
fordshire ; and, as to the Ricardos, they seem to be ani-
mated with the same laudable spirit. This Osmond Ricardo
has a park at one of his estates, called Brcomsborough, 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 clumsv goer, I verily believe I got away from it at the
rate of ten or twelve miles an hour. My companion, who
is ah.vavs upon the look-out for 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 dare say he has wondered ever
since what should have given me wings just for that once
and that once only.
Worcester i
Tuesday, 2GM Sept.
Mr. Price rode with us to this city, which is one of the
cleanest-, neatest, and handsomest towns lever saw : indeed,
448 RURAL RIDE FROM
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. Every thing 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 every where else, I find a group of cor-
dial 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 Bavies spoken of here with great ap-
probation : 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 ap-
pears to be about 75s. 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 matters. They are ten times more jealous upon this
score than men ever are of their wives; aye, and than they
are of their mistresses, 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
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 449
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 compared 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 pro-
ject," and Messrs. Atwood and Spooner being the origi-
nators 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 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 suppose, 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 sove-
reigns, 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
430 RURAL RIDE FROM
banker pays me my deposit with a thousand half sove-
reigns ! 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 in-
ference respecting the intellects of Messrs. Atwood and
Spooner, I must say, that I do most sincerely believe, that
there is not one of my readers, who will not feel astonish-
ment, that any men, having the reputation of men of sound
mind, should not clearly see, that such a project must al-
most instantly produce a revolution of the most dreadful
character. (186)
Stanford Park,
Wednesday, 27th Sept. (Morning).
In a letter which I received from Sir Thomas Winning-
ton (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 Worces-
ter 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 bor<-
ders 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 dis-
interestedness, the trees being chiefly oaks, which he is sure
he can never see grow to timber. (187) 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 breakfast,
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 yesterday, when
MALMSBURY INTO WORCESTERSHIRE. 451
he brought me hither, convinced me that he was acquainted
with the insides of the books. I asked, and shall ask, no
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 objects 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, siap, 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 wild ducks ! Yes, but
the delight of seeing Prosperity Robinson hang his head for
shame : the delight of beholding the tormenting embarrass-
ments of those who have so long retained crowds of base
4,52 RURAL RIDE.
miscreants to revile me ; the delight of ousting spitten-
upon Stanley and bound-over Wood ! Yes, but, 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 !" Shall he never again be told of
Six- Acts and of his wish " to extinguish that accursed torch
" of discord \ for ever !" 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 medi-
tating 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 Niy/it, 21th Sept.
After breakfast we took our leave of Sir Thomas Win-
nington, and of Stanford, very much pleased with our visit.
We wished to reach ltyall 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 an-
other direction, early in the morning.
RIDE FROM RYALL, IN WORCESTERSHIRE, TO BURGHCLERE,
IN HAMPSHIRE.
" Alas, the country ! How shall tongue or pen
Bewail her now, «wcountry gentlemen !
The last to bid the cry of warfare cease,
The first to make a malady of peace '.
For what were all these country patriots born ?
To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn.
But corn, like ev'ry mortal thing, must fall :
Kings, concpierors, and, markets most of all.' 7
Lord Byron.
Ryall,
Friday Morning, 29th September, 1826.
1 have observed, in this country, and especially near
Worcester, 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 bv 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 cot-
tages, 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 in-
stantly he 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 llell-IIoles of S4
454 RURAL RIDE FROM
decrees 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 monopolizers, the Jews, and the tax-eaters, when the
Government chooses to raise the value of money, and lower
the price of goods ? The whole of the industrious part of
the country must suffer in such a case ; but, where manu-
facturing 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 verv great part, performed by females at their own
homes,' and where the earnings come in aid of the mans
wages ; in such case the misery cannot be so great ; and
accordingly, while there is an absolute destruction of life
going on in the hell-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 *' antal-
lectual enjoyments," is the only security for happiness in a
labourer's family.
Then, this glove-manufacturing is not like that of cot-
tons, a mere gambling concern, making Baronets to-day
and Bankrupts to-morrow, and making those who do the
work slaves. Here are no masses of people, called to-
gether 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 Parliament to " give freedom" to the South
Americans, who, as these " patriots" have been informed,
use a great quantity of cottons !
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 monopo-
lizers and tax-eaters. Here, as in Wiltshire and Glouces-
tershire and Herefordshire, you find plenty of large
churches without scarcely any people. I dare say, that,
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE. 455
even in this county, 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 manufacturers
away. The land is now used to raise food and drink for the
monopolizers 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 population 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 neigh-
bours to be taxed, to build new churches for the monopo-
lizers 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 depopulation, 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 taxes ; and, therefore, they must not complain. And,
thus the thing goes on. These land-owners see, too, the
churches falling 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 par-
456 RURAL RIDE FROM
sonage-house costs, Ihe larger the spending income. But,
in the meanwhile, here is a destruction 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 un-
touched ? Shall the widow and the orphan, whose money
has been borrowed by the land-oivners (including the Par-
sons) 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 un-
touched ! 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 ! What, then ! — Ought not this church to be re-
pealed ? An Act of Parliament made this church ; an Act
of Parliament can unmake it ; and, is there any but a mon-
ster 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 "no 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 ! (188)
On my return from Worcester to this place, yesterday, I
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE. 457
noticed, at a village called Severn Stoke, a very curiously-
constructed 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 bene-
fice 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 par-
son had to look until the day of his death, with a view,
doubtless, of piously furnishing his aged brother with a
memento 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 absti-
nence 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 per-
sons I would just put this one question ; did they ever either
from Scripture or tradition, learn that any of the Apostles
or their disciples, erected graperies from motives such as?
this ? 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 William Scott (now a lord of
some sort) (189) never convinced me, by his parson-prais-
ing speech of 1S02, 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 jmmp-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 1 793, they have had hardlyany
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
w
458 RURAL RIDE FROM
immense mass, of public property, called " church property,"
to be used as it now is.
I have seen, in this count}', 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 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 all 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
,1 7 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
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE. 459
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 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 we'll 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 ani-
mals 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
satisfaction, what I before said about the apparent compara-
tively 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, 30th Sept.
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,
30th Sept.
From Ryall, in Worcestershire, we came, yesterday
(Friday) morning, first to Tewksbury in Gloucestershire.
This is a good, substantial town, which, for many years,
sent to Parliament that sensible and honest and constunt
hater of Pitt and his infernal politics, James Martin, and
which now sends to the same place his son, Mr. John Mai tin,
w 2
460 RURAL RIDE FROM
who, when the memorable Kentish Petition was presented, in
June 1822, 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 " ! (190) 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 sugges-
tion 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 conceit 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 and 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 tenements. These things are notorious ; and, Sir Wil-
liam 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
RYALL TO BURGHCLERB. 46 1
flocks ! Memorandum : 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
" desolation of abomination." I have seldom seen any
thing with more heartfelt satisfaction. " Oh !" said I to
myself, " the accursed thing has certainly got a blow, then,
"in every part of its corrupt and corrupting carcass!"
The whole town (and it was now ten o'clock) looked de-
lightfully dull. I did not see more than four or five car-
riages, 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 fantastical dwelling
places, called " Colombia Place," given it, doubtless, by
some dealer in Bonds. There is what a boy told us was
the " New Spa ;" there is '* Water loo -house /" Oh ! how
I rejoice at the ruin of the base creatures ! There is
*' Liverpool- 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 any thing pleasant near it. A putting
down of the one pound notes will soon take away its spa-
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
462 RURAL RIDE FROM
to say, the veal and lamb. I have paid particular attention
to this matter, at Worcester and Tewksbury as well as at
Cheltenham; and I have seen no veal and no lamb to be
compared with those of Warminster. I have been think-
ing, but cannot imagine how it is, that the Wen-Devils,
either at Bath or London, do not get this meat away from
Warminster. 1 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 Glou-
cester and up upon the Cotswold Hills, which name is tau-
tological, I believe ; for I think that ivold 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-
easterly direction from Dodeswell to near Fairford, and in a
north-easterly direction, from Pitchcomb Hill, in Gloucester-
shire (which, remember, I descended on the 12th Sep-
tember) 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 left,
the vale of Wiltshire to our right, and the vale of Berkshire
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 cen-
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE.
463
turies, a particular race of sheep, called the Cotswold breedi
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. (191)
A route, when it lies through villages, is one thing on a map,
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 inconveni-
ence, 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 monev 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 pocketting some slices of meat and bread at Ryall,
provided against this contingency, as far as related to our-
selves, 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 every where 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 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 inevitable. But how melancholy is the
sight of these decayed and still decaying villages in the
464 RURAL RIDE FROM
dells of the Cotswold, where the building materials, being
stone, the ruins do not totally disappear 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-abodied 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 -blocks (192) 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 ! 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 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 dare say,
that some tax-eater, or some blaspheming Jew, or some
still more base and wicked loan-mongering robber (193) 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,
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE. 465
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, and 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 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 tur-
nips, and, in some places, decent crops. Upon this Wold
I saw more early turnips in a mile or two, than I saw in all
Herefordshire 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 frequently,
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, thev sav, built in the
w %
466 RURAL RIDE FROM
reign of Henry VII. ; and one is naturally surprised to see,
that its windows of beautiful stained glass had the luck to
escape, not only the fangs of the ferocious " good Queen
Bess ;" not only the unsparing 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 Kempsford, 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 rem-
nants 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 pre-
sumptuous asses, what lying braggarts, they make us appear !
No people here, " mon, teel the Scots cam to seevelize" us t
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 t?vo 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. (194)
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 before we reached this place ; but, our journey
being short, we soon got our clothes dry again.
KYALL TO BURGHCLERE. 467
Bitryhclere (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 kind-
ness 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 beautiful sight. But, every thing is full of riches ;
and, as fast as skill and care and industry can extract these
riches from the land, the unseen grasp of taxation, loan-
jobbing and monopolizing 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 wc got to Swindon, we crossed a canal at a
468 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 orne, 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
eoal-yard, I asked him to what gentleman the house be-
longed : " 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 occu-
pied 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 Cots wold. We left
Marlborough away to our right, and came along the turn-
pike 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 wit-
ness 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 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 ! 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-Rock) we passed close by the side of. 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
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE.
469
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 (195), 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
"•ood early turnips, Swedish as well as White ! All the
three counties of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester (ex-
cept 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 thev 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 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 Glouces-
ter, 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 beautiful 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 JJovant and Bishopstrow,
between Heytesbury and Warminster in Wiltshire ; for
470 RURAL RIDE FROM
there is, as appertaining to rural objects, every thing that I
delight in. Smooth and verdant downs in hills and valleys
of endless variety as to height and depth and shape ; rich
corn-land, unencumbered by fences ; meadows in due pro-
portion, and those watered at pleasure; and, lastly, the
homesteads, and villages, sheltered in winter and shaded in
summer bv 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 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 Rarnsbury to Shallburn, where
Tull, the father of the drill-husbandry, 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 Prosper-
ous, I determined 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 Bishop'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 1817, he has re-
solved, that his numerous life-holds shall run out, and that
those who were life-holders under his Aunt, from whom he
"•ot the estate, shall become rack-renters to him, or quit the
occupations. Besides this, he is continually purchasing
lands and houses round about and in this place. He has
now let his house to a Mr. Acres ; and, as the Mot-ning
Herald says, is safe landed at Bordeaux, with his family, for
the winter ! When here, he did not occupy a square inch
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE. 471
of his land ! He let it all, park and all ; and onlv reserved
" a right of road " from the highway to his door. "He
had and has a right to do all this." A right ? Who denies
that? But, is this giving us a specimen of that " liberality
and generosity and hospitality " of those " English Coun-
try 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 will ; and he ac-
tually 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 !
However, what I have principally to do with, is, his ab-
sence from the country at a time like this, and, if the news-
papers 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 placeman ; 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 Parlia-
ment, 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 Parlia-
ment. 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 engnged in
it! He must know of the great embarrassment, 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-
472 RURAL RIDE FROM
minster, to go out of the country, at such a time and leave
his seat vacant ? He must know that, during the ensuing
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 representing 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 contemptible, and infinitely ,more mis-
chievous, than the " accursed hill" of Wiltshire : but, this
is not so .- the people of Westminster 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 ma-
lignity 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 was sending to the heaarts of the de-
fenceless part of my family !
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 Rams-
burv, 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
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE.
473
laughing, though it poured of rain and though I already felt
the water on my skin. — Mem. To ask, when I get to Lon-
don, 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. 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 ray
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 o' 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 ! (196)
Turning from viewing the scene of Thimble and Cow-
hide'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 ourselves in motion so as to prevent
our catching cold; for it rained, and 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.
Including 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
474 RURAL RIDE FROM
principle, I determined to encounter the darkness for once,
though in cross-country roads, presenting us, at evervmile,
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, that 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 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 to a T, or to a +.
A fellow told me once, in ray 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
" lank into the wheat ?" " No, no," said he, " I mean that
il 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 direc-
tion 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 barn ;
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 accordingly. Many days I have no
breakfast and no dinner. I went from Devizes to Highworth
without breaking my fast, a distance, including my devia-
tions, 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
RYALL TO BURGIICLERE. 475
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 am the better for not stuffing
and blowing myself out, and with the savings I make 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
evening was auspicious ; it was pretty dark, the weather
mild, and Old Michaelmas (when yearly services end) was
fast approaching ; 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 com-
pelled to go at a snail's pace : and 1 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 condition 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/ you dirty-necked
*' devil, and where got you that word ! You, who, but a
'' few years ago, came, perhaps, up from the country in a
" wagon ; 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 !"
s
476 RURAL RIDE FROM
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, Sih 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 be-
tween 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 cab-
bages, in the intervals, at the same time ; or, of potatoes, if
they liked them better.
Before my arrival here, Mr. Budd had seen my descrip-
tion of the state of the labourers in Wiltshire, and had, in
consequence, written to my son James (not knowing where
I was) as follows "In order to see how the labourers are
" now screwed down, look at the following facts : Arthur
" Young, in 1771 (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 allowance was, for such family,
" according to the present money-prices, lis. 4<d. 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 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
RYALL TO BURGHCLERE. 477
" 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 car-
riage 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 con-
tend 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
or rewards can seduce from us. She is a steady, unrelaxing, perse-
vering, incorruptible ally. An ally that is proof against all blandish-
ments, 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. Ths 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." — Lettkr to
Mr. Jabet, of Birmingham, Register, v. 31, p. 477. (Nov. 1816.)
Hurstbourn Tarrant,
{commonly called Uphusband,)
Wednesday, lltk 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 Ap-
pleshaw. These two days are allotted for the selling of
sheep only, though the horse-fair begins on the 10th. To
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 479
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 Dorsetshire and out of the part of Somer-
setshire 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" 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 Wey-
hill, 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, "theloan-
" 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
Dorsetshire 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 1812 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, vesterdav, sold for 18s. Yet, the sheep and grass and
all things are the same in real value. What a false, what a
deccptious, what an infamous thing, this paper-money
system is !
However, it is a pleasure, it is real, it is great delight, it
480 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 squall-
ing : 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 contain 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 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 par-
sonships 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 Kilmainham," or Kinsaleham, or whatever it is (for I
really have forgotten) ; 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 36s. Mr.
Jolliff, of Crux-Easton, was asking 16s. 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
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 481
people to purchase horses, who had got only half-price for
their sheep ?
The sales of sheep, at this one fair (including Apple-
shaw), must have amounted, this year, to a hundred and
twenty or thirty thousand pounds less than last year!
Stick a pin there, 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 pro-
portion. 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, pease, and beans), lis. 9d. cheaper,
upon the whole ; that is to say, Us. 9d. upon 258s. 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, 150s. dearer, instead of lis. 9d. 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 Scot-
land and Ireland ; for, in England, I hope that the people
will " demand and insist" (to use the language of the Bill of
Eights) 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 dene,
the better for the country. I know very well that the land-
owners 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
x
452 RURAL RIDE FROM
" labourer's skia 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 Hobhouse's father), army, and the rest of the " good
things," would be nearly as bad as to take awav 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 cut long enough ago, that, if
any serious settlement should take place, t hey go to a cer-
tainty. 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 joiterheaded 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 rain us all. He would
" introduce anarchy, confusion, and destruction of pro-
" perty !" 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
sgain. Their tenants will be ruined first: and, here what
£ foul robbery these landowners have committed, or at 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-holf, or thereabouts ; and yet, they were prepared to
BURGKCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 4S3
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 manv, manv 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 Weyhil!, yesterday, who came there as
it were to know their Jate ; 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 con-
viction, 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 seriousness 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 1820 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 pro-
duce the absolute destruction, of these base, selfish, hard
and dastardly dogs themselves. Pitij them ! Let them go
for pity to those whom they have applauded and abetted.
The farmers, I mean the renters, will not now, as they
did in 1819, stand a good long emptying out. They had,
in 1S22, 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 verv
rapid. The notion, that the Ministers will " do something"
is clung on to bv all those who are deeplv in debt, and all
x 2
484 RURAL RIDE FROM
•who have leases, or other engagements for time. These
believe (because they anxiously wish) that the paper-monev,
by means of some sort or other, will be put out again ;
while the Ministers believe (because they anxiously tcish)
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-manque', 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 consequences 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, one of the young men, who was handed at Win-
chester, in the year 1822. There was anotheryoung man,
named Smith, who was, on account of another game-
battle, hanged on the same gallows ! And this for the pre-
servation 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, K.T." (being sure not
to omit the K.T.) ; this hanging of us is for the preserva-
tion of the sports of that aristocracy, for the sake of whom
this Graham, this barefaced 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 up-
holding what he insolently calls the " dignity" of this-
sporting aristocracy, 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, fa-
tigued, from hunting or shooting, to cause the belly of one
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 485
of their vassals to be ripped up, in order for the lord to soak
his feet in the bowels ! Sir James Graham of the hright
sword does not propose to carry 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! (197)
But, to return to the above-mentioned hanging at Win-
chester (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)
llobert Snelgrove, assistant game-keeper to Lord Palmer-
ston (Secretary at War), at Broad-lands, in the parish of
Romsey. Poor Charles Smith had better have been hunt-
ing after shares than after hares ! Mines, however deep, he
would have found less perilous than the pleasure grounds of
Lord Palmerston ! I deem this hanging at Winchester
worthy of general attention, and particularly at this time,
when the aristocracy near Andover, and one, at least, of the
members for that town, of whom this very Thomas Asheton
Smith was, until lately, one, was, if the report in the Morn-
ing Chronicle (copied into the Register of the 7th 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 ! Did not ; oh, no !
did not care even about the farmers! It was only for the
sake of the poor, naked devils of labourers, that the col-
league of young Thomas Asheton Smitli cared ; it was only
for those who were in the same rank of life as James
Turner aud 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 aristocrats do " beat every
486 RURAL RIDE FROM
thing." 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 uow
read it ; and I hope, that they will remember it ivell.
T, 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 conduct towards the rest of the nation, and es-
pecially 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 charac-
ters. Engrafted upon your native 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 burdens
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, stcod 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,
BURGHCLERE TO LTNDHURST. 487
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 deno-
minated 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 oug-ht to be forgotten.
And, while you are complaining of your "distress," I wilt
endeavour to lay before the public that which will show,
that the law has not been unmindful of even your sports.
The time is approaching, when the people will have an op-
portunity of exercising 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 my 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 con-
*' eluded on Saturdav mornin" - . The Criminal Calendar
" contained 58 prisoners for trial, 1G 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, for aiding and assisting in killing
''Robert Baker, gamekeeper to Thomas Ashetou Smith,
" Esq., in the parish of South Tidworth, and Charles Smith,
" aged 27j for having wilfully and maliciously shot at Robert
'TSfFellgrove, assistant gamekeeper to Lord Palmerston, at
" Broadlands, in the parish of Romsey, with intent to do
" him grievous bodily harm. The Judge (Burrough) ob-
" served, it became necessary to these cases, that the extreme
" sentence of the law should be inflicted, to deter others, as
" resistance to gamekeepers tvas 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 per-
sons actually put to death, were those who had been en-
deavouring to get at the hares, pheasants or partridges of
Thomas Asheton Smith, and of our Secretary at War, Lord
Palmerston. Whether the Judge Burrough (who was lung
Chairman of the Quarter Sessions in Hampshire), uttered
the words ascribed to him, or not, L cannot say ; but, the
words have gone forth in print, and the impression they are
488 RURAL RIDE FROM
calculated to make is this : that it was necessary to put
these two men to death, in order to deter others from resist-
ing game-keepers. The putting of these men to death has
excited a very deep feeling throughout 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 inten-
tion to do him bodilv 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 Ellen-
borough, 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 of-
fence of these two men that have been hanged at Winches-
ter, 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 game-keepers !
I know very well that there is Law for this ; but what I
shall endeavour to show is, that the Law ought to be al-
tered ; 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 an-
nihilation 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 Com-
munity at large; and they will never be thought just if they
aim at the protection of things belonging to one particular
class of the Community, and, especially, if those very things
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 489"
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 ob-
jects 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 game-keepers ; 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 supposed to be in pursuit, of partridges, phea-
sants 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 founda-
tion 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 untameable 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 disturbance ; but
" if once thev 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
Blackstone, the poacher might read as follows : " With re-
' gard likewise to wild animals, all mankind had by the
' original grant of the Creator a right to pursue and take
• away any fowl or iusect of the air, any fish or inhabitant
' of the waters, and any beast or reptile of the field : and
' this natural right still continues 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 cpaalified property, or, if dead, are abso-
' lately his own : so that to steal them, or otherwise in-
' vade this property, is, according to the respective values,
x 3
490 RURAL RIDE FROM
" 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. Be-
fore I proceed further in commenting upon the case imme-
diately 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 coun-
" tries, 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 im-
" ported 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 solejjroperty of all the
• " game in England in the King alone ; (198) 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 war-
" ren : 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 en-
" tirely 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 of permanent property in
" wild creatures ; and both productive 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.)
When 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 Game-keeper ? He calls it tyranny to
BURGHCLERE TO LYKDHURST. 491
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 men-
tioned by those humane and gentle creatures, who are abso-
lutely supporting a sort of reputation, and aiming at distinc-
tion in Societv, in consequence of their incessant talk about
softening the Criminal Code ?
The Law may say what it will, but the feelings of man-
kind will never be in favour of this Code; and whenever it
produces 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 pos-
session 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 on further
according to reason. If the law give him ample compensa-
tion 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 ap-
prehended invasion, to call upon all his people to take up
arms in defence of the country. The Militia Law compete
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, therefore, it is his duty to defend the country. Some
rights, too, beyond that of merely living, merely that of
breathing the air. And then, I should be glad to know,
what rights an Englishman has, if the pursuit of even will
animals is to be the ground of transporting him from his
country? There is a sufficient punishment provide*! 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 r.oming upon the land, it is for coming after the
wild animal?, which nature and reason tells them, are as
much theirs as they are yours.
It is impossible for the people not to contrast the treat-
ment of these two men at Winchester with the trei ra :nt 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 gallowa,
402 RURAL RIDK FROM
after being recommended to mercy, not to remember tbe
almost instant pardon, given to the exciseman, who was not
recommended 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 commit-
ted 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 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 ins olenceas
ever! It s 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 convic-
tion to make them just. (199)
Such was what I then addressed to the Landlords. How
well it fits the present time ! They are just in the same sort
of mess, now, that they were in 1822. But, there is this
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 493
most important difference, that the paper-money cannot now
be put out, in a quantity sufficient to save them, without
producing not only a " lute 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, how-
ever, 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
dccav. There are al on 2: 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 along under the chain, eleven churches
along 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 families. 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 cattle-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 de-
494 RURAL RIDE FROM
cent family of small farmers that formerly lived happily in
this very house.
This, with few exceptions, is the case all over Eng-
land ; and, if we duly consider the nature and tendency
of the hellish system of taxing, of funding, and of paper-
money, it must he 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." Could not
he, or somebody else, give us a portrait of the military and
of the naval parson ? 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 ! 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 the Parliament
declared, in the case of parson Home Tooke, 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. Welherspoon (I think it is), and the rest of Sir
Bobby's Itump, toasting " the independence of the Borough
and its member ! " (200)
" That's our case," as the lawyers say : match it if you
can, devil, in all your roamings up and down throughout
the earth ! I have often been thinking, and, indeed, ex-
pecting, to see Sir Bobby turn parson himself, as the like-
liest way to get back his half-pay. If he should have *' a
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 495
call," I do hope we shall have him for parson at Kensing-
ton ; and, as an inducement, I promise him, that I will give
hirn 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 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 val-
leys, where there is constantly, or occasionally, a stream of
water, the top soil is blackish, and the surface meadows.
This has been the distribution 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 ccrn-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 llighclere, 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 Kings-
clere, founded one of the charities which still exists in the
town of Newbury, which is but a few miles from Kings-
clere.
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 scries of
496 RURAL RIDE FROM
hill and dell, but the dell part going constantly on increasing
upon the hilly part, till you come down to this village ; and
then you, continuing 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 f/?-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 incon-
venience. 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 sainfoin 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, luithout whose labour there
would be neither 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 ! For, I have, in no part of
England, seen the 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
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 497
Friend." This is one of the great purposes for which I
take these " Rides." I am persuaded, that, before the day
shall come when mv labours must cease I shall have mended
the meals of millions. I may over-rate the effects of my en-
deavours ; but, this being my persuasion, I should be guilty
of a great neglect of duty, were I not to use those endea-
vours.
Andover, Sunday,
15th 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
relative 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.
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
kingdom, than it ever was before from the creation of the
world to the beginning of those 20 days. The Thomas
Uheton Smiths and the Sir John Pollens, famous as they
have been under the banners of the Old Navy Purser,
George ltose, and his successors, have never, even since the
4DS RURAL RIDE FROM
death of poor Turner, been half so famous, tliey 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
Avent with two Farnham friends, Messrs. Ivnowles 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 earjeresi and
the sharpest that I ever saw in any set of features in my
whole life-time ; having an air of authority and of master-
ship, which, to a stranger, as I was, seemed quite incompa-
tible 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
Ave 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
up, and the stairs, leading to the room, crammed from bot-
tom 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 011 those succes-
sive 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
BUKGIICLERE TO LYXDHURST. 499
by a bank-restriction. Just as I was stating these my
reasons, on a prospective matter of snch deep interest to my
hearers, amongst whom were land-owners, land-renters,
cattle and sheep dealers, hop and cheese producers and mer-
chants, 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
iu the passage, the cause of which was, upon inquiry, found to
be no less a personage than our landlord, our host Sutton, who,
it appeared, finding that my speech-making had cut off, or,
at least, suspended, all intercourse between the dining, now
become a drinking, room and the har ; 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 some one called to him, and told
him that he was causing an interruption, to which he an-
swered, that that was what he bad come to do ! And then
he went on to say, in so many words, that my speech injured
his sale of liquor !
The disgust and abhorrence, which such conduct could not
fail to excite, produced, at first, a desire to quit the room and
the house, ami 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 retreating
out of the door-wav with all the activity of which he was
master. After this T proceeded with my speech-making;
ami, 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 part, at a convenient distance. An assemblage of
circumstances, more auspicious to " free-trade" in the "neat"
500 RURAL RIDE FROM
and " genuine," has seldom occurred ! But, now behold,
the old fustian-jacketed fellow, whose head was, I think,
powdered, took it into that head not only to lay " restrictions"
upon trade, but to impose an absolute embargo ; cut off en-
tirely all supplies whatever from his bar to the room, as long
as I remained in that room. A message to this effect, from
the old fustian man, having been, through the waiter, com-
municated to Mr. Knowles, and he having commu-
nicated 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 observe, that
" this feeling of mine has been confined to hogs oifour 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 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,
tellino- me that those gentlemen wished to be introduced to
me, he, with a fawning look, laid his hand upon my knee !
c: 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
proceeded without interruption ; songs, toasts, and speeches
tilled up the time, until half-past two o'clock this morning,
though in the house of a landlord who receives the sacra-
ment, 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
BURGHCLERE TO LYNDHURST. 501
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 " reciprocity," he wanted, and no matter how, to
restore the reciprocal 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 un-
quenchable. (201)
To-morrow morning we set off for the New Forest ; and,
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 published
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 doimr anv thin" - which shall sink the English Govern-
ment in the eyes of the world, and I hereby 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
Gowcr (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 IS 17, said, that
the "ever living luminary of British prosperity was only
hidden behind a cloud;" and who, in 1 S10, said, that
" Peel's Bill had set the currency question at rest for ever ;"
therefore the profound Captain is gone over to sec what he
can do.
But, Captain, a word in your car : Ave 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
502 RURAL RIDE FROM
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.
Rumsey (Hampshire)
Monday Noon, Ibth Get.
Like a very great fool, T, out of senseless complaisance,
waited, this morning, to breakfast with the friends, at whose
house we slept last night, at Andover. Vsc 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 greatest part, an open corn and sheep
country, a considerable portion of the land being downs.
The wheat and rye and vetch and sainfoin fields look beautiful
here ; and, during the whole of the way from Andover to
Pumsey, 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 situations, where grass grows. From Stockbridge to
Pumsey we came nearly by the river side, and had to cross
the river several times. This, the Paver Teste, which, as I
described, in my Pide of last November, begins at Lphus-
band, by springs, bubbling up, in March, out of the bed of
that deep valley. It is at first a bourn, thai 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 wind-
ing about between the chalk hills, for many miles, first in a
general direction towards the south-east, and then in a simi-
lar direction 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 Pumscy, it is a large
and very fine river, famous, all the way down, for trout and
eels, and both of the finest quality.
EURGHCLSRE TO LYNDHURST. 503
Lyndhurst {New Forest),
Monday Evening, 16th Octoher.
I have just time, before I go to bed, to observe that we
arrived here, about -1 o'clock, over about 10 or 11 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 cut of llumsey (or Eomsey), and crossed our
River Teste once move, we saw to our left, the sort of park,
called Broad-Lands, where pom- Charles Smith, who (as
mentioned above) was hanged for snooting at Cnot killing) one
Snelgrove, an assistant game-keeper of Lord Palmerston,
who was then our Secretary at War, and who is in that, office,
elieve, now, though he is now better known as a Director
of tiie grand Mining Joint- Stock Company, which shows the
great industry of this Noble and " Right Honourable per-
son," 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 "watching 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
Pi ivy 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, bigotted" ancestors, who
would, I dare say, have been as ready to /tang a man for pro-
posing 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
Id Purser's son George Piose's !
RIDE : FROM LYNDHURST (NEW FOREST) TO BEAULIEU
ABBEY ; THENCE TO SOUTHAMPTON AND WESTON ; THENCE
TO BOTLEY, ALLINGTON, WEST END, NEAR HAMBLEDOX ;
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 tbe 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, Aye of Bronze.
Weston Grove,
Wednesday, 18 Oct., 182G.
Yesterday, from Lyndhurst to this place, was a ride, in-
cluding our round-abouts, of more than fortv miles ; but the
roads the best in the world, one half of the way green turf ;
and the dav 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 about
Iwo o'clock at Andover, we went to bed, at Lyndhurst,
LTNDHURST TO GODALMING. 505
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 possibility, there might
be " a lady " actually in bed ; here lay I, my bones aching
with lying in bed, my stomach growling for victuals, impri-
soned bv my modesty. But, at last, I grew impatient ; for,
modesty here or modesty there, I was not to 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, previously
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 befel
her did not befal me, and, second, that I advise those, who
are likely to be hungry in the morning, not to sleep in inner
rooms ; or, if thev 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 my
landlady 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, which I saw cut out of the sheep and cut
into chops. The?e were brought to the inn ; George and I
ate about 21b. out of the 51b.. 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 ot 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 cfiarilij gives a
blessing on both sides ; to the giver as well as the receiver.
(202) But, I really think, that, if, in general, the food and
drink given, came out of food and drink deducted from the
usual quantity swallowed by the giver, the blessing would be
y
506 RURAL RIDE FROM
still greater, and much more certain. I can speak for my-
self, 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 ahout 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 satis-
fied 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 sav 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 do.ne, 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 Eumsev, which we passed rather too
hastily through on the 16th, as noticed in the Ride that
was published last week. This town was, in ancient times,
a very grand place, though it is now nothing more than a
decent market-town, without any thing to entitle it to par-
ticular 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 " Lady Palmer- Stone," who, a
few years ago, " 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 Lansdown.
He was the son of a cloth-weaver, and was, doubtless,
himself, a weaver when young. He became a surgeon,
LYNDHURST TO GODALMING. 507
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
hy that profligate 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 to 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 ot money, and the getting of grants of lands in
poo? 4 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 of paper, convertible into gold, was the
best and most solid and safe, especially since Platina had
been discovered! " Oh, God !" exclaimed I to myself, as
I stood listening and admiring " 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 V 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, openlv confess, that he was
deceived, when, in 1819, 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 he gained by
508 RURAL RIDE FROM
putting this man in the place of any of those who are in
power now ? (203)
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 man-
sion-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 considerable 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 Com-
missioners." My business here was to see, whether any
thing had been done towards the making of Locust planta-
tions. 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 breakfast, 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 dav 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 harked bv the hares ! But, a
LYNDHURST TO GODALMING. 509
little 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 verv soon be owners of fine plantations of
Locusts, for the use of the navy. And, what are the hares
kept/or here ? Who 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 planta-
tion 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 for ? Whv, 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 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 for ? 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 all
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 manufacturers in the
North ! And, again I say, who is all this venison and game
for ? 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 anv venison, from the New
Forest ?
What a pretty thing here is, then ! Here is another deep
bite into us by the loug 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 he kept, too, to eat up
trees, to destroy plantations, to destroy what is first paid for
510 RURAL RIDE PROM
the planting of ! And that the public should pay keepers to
preserve this game ! And that the people should be trans-
ported 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 pro-
perty, 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 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 he 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 Lyndkurst, which lay in precisely the opposite
direction. My guide through the plantations was not
LYNDHURST TO GODALMING. 511
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, 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 Southampton to Lyndhurst, from
Lyndhurst to Lymington, from Lymington to Sway. I had
now come in on the north of Miustead from Roinsey, 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 South-
ampton, and went to Dipten and on to Ealing, 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 Beuley),
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 thousands. 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 GO yards of
my horse. After a very pleasant ride, on land without a
stone in it, wc came down to the Beaulieu river, the highest
branch of which rises at the foot of a hill, about a rode
and a half to the north-cast 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-bills, it becomes a little river, and has, on the
sides of it, lands which were, formerly, very beautiful
512
RURAL RIDE FROM
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 for-
merly 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 tbat
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 Spit-
head, and all the ships that are sailing or lie anywhere oppo-
site Portsmouth. The Isle of Wight is right before you, and
you have in view, at one and the same time, the towns of
Yarmouth, Newton, Cowes and Newport, with all the beau-
tiful 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
LYNDHURST TO GODALMING. 513
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 Buccleugb, 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 budt.
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 hospitabty, which was the main busi-
ness 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
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 drnnk. " God bless me, Sir, no, no !" I said, I will,
upon my soul, farmer. I now left him, very grateful on our
y 3
514 RURAL RIDE FROM
pai't 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 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 Beidey 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 meanin^Z«ce 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 1204, 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 tioenty -eight pounds,
six shillings and eight pence a year, making in money of the
present day, upwards of eight thousand five hundred potmds 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. Prom 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. J ohn 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
LYNDHURST TO GODALMING. 515
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 there priests that
" makes men confess their sins and go down upon their mar-
" row-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 devil 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. (204) They could possess no
private property ; 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 nothing. Whatever they received, as rent
for their lands, they must necessarily spend upon the
spot, for, they never could emit 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 damned name of pauper pronounced, as long as
those monks and Templars continued ! You and I are ex-
cellent 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 Tem-
plars, 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 fangs from
father to son for hundreds of years; they were real yeo-
men, and not miserable rack-renters, such as now till the
land of this once happy country, and who are little better
than tin- drivers of the labourers, for the profit of the land-
lords. Farmer John Biel, what the Duchess of Bucelcugh
does, you know, and I do not. She may, lor any thing that
I know to the contrary, leave 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,
516 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 pronounced 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 un-
known 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 the rents away from the spot ; and she
may consume, by herself, and her own family and servants,
only just as much as is 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-
Ueu, 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 Botley. 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 into-
lerable 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 right
all the way along, which list of trees from the south-west
side of that arm of the sea which goes from Chalshot
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
LYNDHURST TO GODALMING. 517
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
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 !
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 Ju-
bilee 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 devil, 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 160S, 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. Tins must have gone into the
pockets of somebody. At any rate, if we had the sime
quantity of timber now, that we had when the Protestant
I! (formation took place, or even when Old Betsy turned up
her toes, we should be how three millions of money richer
than we are ; not in bills ; not in notes payable to bearer on
5 IS RURAL RIDE FROM
demand; not in Scotch "cash credits ;" not, in short, in lies,
falseness, impudence, downright blackguard cheatery and
mining shares and " Greek cause " and the devil knows
what. (205)
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 be-
comes 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 Forest. (206)
RIDE : FROM WESTON, NEAR SOUTHAMPTON, TO KEN-
SINGTON.
Western Grove,
18tA 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 Ues
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-
WESTON TO KENSINGTON 519
dent of iraposters. 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 lad
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 Eorest 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 devil he did !
How populous, then, good God, 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 ;
Irassey as they are, 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
property ; 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 north-
ward, 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 Fordingbridge, and the villages of Bolder, Fawley, Lynd-
hurst, 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 Con-
quest : 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 Doomsday Book, which was made by this \
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-
520 RURAL RIDS FROM
Hon ■ 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
Conqueror 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. IJ. p. 277)
says -. " There was one pleasure to which WilHam, as well as
" all the Normans and ancient Saxons was extremely ad-
" dieted, and that was hunting : but this pleasure he indulged
" more at the expense of his unhappy subjects, whose inte-
'•' rests he 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 tchose 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 wil-
" 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
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 521
from Hume. Hume says, that the King "expelled the in-
" habitants ;" and Lingard says " the inhabitants were ex-
" petted:" 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
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 carious " dit-
" 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 ! 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-
ratee Wiltshire from Hampshire ; by the river Avon ; by the
sea from Christcliurch 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 tlmt there was, over this whole
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
of each other ! And observe, the parishes could, on an avc-
522 RURAL RIDK FROM
rage, contain no more, each, than 2,966 acres of land ! Not
a very large farm ; 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 are 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 ; notwithstand-
ing that he describes this district as " rich," it is the very
poorest in the whole kingdom. Dr. Lingard was, I believe,
born 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. Supposing 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 sta-
tioned 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 conquest, have literally
swarmed with people ; for, there is the land now, and all the
land, too : neither Hume nor Dr. Lingard can change the na-
ture 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
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 523
was, covered with people and with churches, what the devil
must Worcestershire have been ! To this, then, we come at
last : having made out what I undertook to show ; namely,
that the historians, as they call themselves, 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. (207)
Poor, however, as this district is, and, culled about as it
has been for the best spots of land by those favourites who
have get 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 concern ; too little controllable by superiors. It
is a thing calculated for jobbing, above all others; calcu-
lated to promote the success of favouritism. Who can
imagine that the persons employed about plantations and
farms for the public, are employed 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 temp-
tation is too great to be resisted. The public must pay for
everything a pois d'or. 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 completely 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
524 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 the hands of an ad-
venturer, 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 be-
lieve 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 perfection 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. Chamberlayne 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.
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 525
The Southampton Water begins at Portsmouth, and goes
up by Southampton, to Redbridge, being, upon an average,
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 inter-
mixed. 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 op-
posite 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. (208)
The woods here are chiefly of oak ; the ground consists
of a series of hill and dale, as you go long-wise from one
end of the estate to the other, about six mites 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 wavhome, 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
526 RURAL RIDE FROM
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 esti-
mation, 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 ;
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 anv 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 monev 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 fahe, 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.
It is curious enough, that those who are the least disposed
to give good wages to the labouring people, should be the
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 527
most disposed to discover for them schemes for saving their
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 thev receive. Just as if a
poor fellow could put any thing 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
something 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. (209) 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 !av by part of his loaf! I know
of no county where the po<. r are worse treated than in
many parts of this county of Hants. It is happy to know
of one instance in which thev are well treated ; and I deem
it a real honour to be under the roof of him who has uni-
formly set so laudable an example in this most important
concern. What are all his riches to me ? They form no
title to mv respect. 'Tis not for me to set mvself up in
judgment as to his taste, his learning, bis 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 fee!, 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 even-
ing 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, 1 can do him no good by it,
and I do 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 reader.-. Here is a striking and a
most valuable practical example. Here is a whole neigh-
528 RURAL RIDE FROM
bourhood of labourers living as they ought to live ; enjoy-
ing 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 them-
selves, 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 Lsetus Locus, or Pleasant Place.
Letley was made up of an abbreviation of the Latus 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 sup-
pressed, 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 pro-
testaut, and was a great actor in punishing those who ad-
hered to Henry Vlllth'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
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
Winchester, 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 vears aeo,
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
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 529
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 Netlev, 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 maintain the " Reforma-
tion." 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 succes-
sors of the Wriothesleys, the Paulets, and the Russells,
who, throughout all the reigns of confiscation, were con-
stantly 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 thev 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 thorovgh 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 pennvless
yesterday ; can it be law, that I (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, how-
ever; 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 sufh-
z
530 RURAL RIDE FROM
cient 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 1 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 devil of a business ; though,
in desperate cases, even this is, I believe, sometimes re-
sorted 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
day, and until after breakfast yesterday. I had not seen
" the Botley Parson " for several years, 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,
we went to Mr. Hallett's, at Allington, and had the very
great pleasure of seeing him in excellent health. We in-
tended to go back to Botley, and then to go to Titchfield,
and, in our way to this place, over Portsdown Hill, whence
I intended to show George the harbour and the fleet, and (of
still moie 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 that I wrote at Botley.
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 531
I came to London in November 1816; the Power-of-Im-
prisonment Bill was passed in February, 1817 ; just before
it was passed, the Meeting took place on Portsdown Hill ;
and I, in my way to the hill from London, stopped at Bot-
lev and wrote the petition. We had one meeting after-
wards 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
vou now! 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 ! Pay off the Deht, parsons ! They sav
you can lay the devil. Lay this devil, then; or, confess
that he is too many for you ; aye, and for Sturges Bourne,
or Bourne Sturges (I forget which), at your backs ! (211)
Prom 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 verv
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;
hut the land is good, the chalk is at a foot from the sur-
face, 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 manv
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 anything like positiveness as to the measurement
of this down ; but I do not believe that it exceeds six hun-
dred 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 Kumsey.
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 Botlev, we there iound the tur-
nips as good as I had ever seen them in my life, as far 1
z 2
b'6'2 RURAL HIDE FROM
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 prettv nearly the same
may be said of the whole of that neighbourhood for manv
miles round.
After quitting Soberton Down, we came up a hill leading
to Hambledcx, and turned off to our left to bring us down
to Mr. Golo^mith'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 rub-
bishy 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
shop-keeping, is injurious to any community. What are
the shop and the shop-keeper for ? To receive and distri-
bute the produce of the land. There are other articles,
certainly ; but the main part is the produce of the iand.
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 bv
the consumer of the produce ; or, perhaps, partly bv 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 hcuse-rent, good air, andplentv
of room. He need pay no heavy rent for shop ; and no
disadvantages from confined situation ; and, then, by at-
tending three or four or five or six fairs in a year, he sold
the work of his hands, unloaded wnh a heavy expense
attending the keeping 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
r^ispfl the food and the clothing from the land. I had an
WKSTON TO KENSINGTON. 533
instance of this in what occurred to myself ?t 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 bv 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 six 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 re-
gard to the management of which they were so scrupu-
lously careful ; the fair and the 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 con-
venience. The shop and the trafficker keeps 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, vou 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 dis-
grace trafficking^ in general.
Very wise, too, and very just, were the laws against
534 RURAL RIDE FROM
forestalling and regrating. They were laws to prevent the
producer 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 consequence of the whole current of the laws
now running in favour of the trafficking monoply. 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 traffickers of every descrip-
tion, 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 svstem
of usury. TxW 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, \\ 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 the bare word of these vagabonds. (212) This is,
with me, something 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 (1
forget to whom it belonged) was stabbed or shot in the
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 535
night-time in a field. Singleton was taken up, tried at
Winchester, convicted and transported. I cannot relate
exactly what took place. I remember that there were
some curious circumstances attending the conviction of this
man. The people in that neighbourhood were deeply im-
pressed with these circumstances. Singleton was trans-
ported ; but Goodlad and his wife were both dead and
buried, in less, I believe, than three months after the depar-
ture of poor Singleton. I do not know that any injustice
really was done ; but I do know that a great impression
was produced, and a very sorrowful impression, too, on the
minds of the people in that neighbourhood. (213)
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 propo-
sition 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 voung oak trees as man.
ever set his eyes on ; many of them as big or bigger
round than mv thigh ! Therefore, besides the sweep-
ing 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 greedi-
ness 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 Com-
missioners 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 thev 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.
536 RURAL RIDE FROM
Thursley, Monday Evening,
23rd October.
When I left Wes f on, 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 then by Cranbrook, Tuobridge, 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 Peters-
field, in the first place ; then to Lyphook 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 ter-
minates 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 Portsmouth road goes
at sixteen miles to the north of this great chalk-hill ; some
think that Hindhead is the highest 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 verv 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 hun-
dred 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 vnur
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
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 537
the north of Hampshire ; nay, the whole county, together
with a great part of Surrey and of Sussex. Tou 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, Wimmermg, 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, having
one valley to our right and the other valley 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 suc-
cessively, 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 sate
there upon our horses, were alternately in clouds and in sun-
shine. 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. Tin?
truth is, that fogs are clouds, and clouds are fogs. They air
more or less full of water ; but, they are all water ; some-
times a sort of steam, and sometimes water that falls in
drops. Yesterday morning the fogs had ascended to the tops
of the hills; ai d it was raining on all the hills round about
us before it began to rain in the valleys. We, as I ob-
served 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 thai appears very interesting
z*3
RURAL RIDE FROM
to me, and something, which, though it must liave been seen
by every man that has lived in the country, or, at least, in
any hilly country, has never been particularly mentioned by
anybody as far as I can recollect. We frequently talk of
clouds coming from clews ; 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 form-
ing 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 1 found that the country peoj)le, all
round about, had this mode of the 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 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 : and, 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 wood-
land hills ; and bade him remember to tell his father of it
when he should get home, to convince him that the hills of
WESTON TO KENSINGTON* 539
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 way 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 Lyphook, where we stayed about half an hour.
In coining from Lyphook 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,
unfortunately for him, I asked him what place he had lived
at as a weaver ; and he told me that he was a Spitaltields
weaver. I instantly put on my glove and returned my purse
into my pocket, saying, go, then, to Sidmouth rind Peel and
the rest of them " and get relief ; for, I have this minute,
" while 1 was stopping at Lyphook, read in the Morning
" Mail newspaper, an address to the King from the Spital-
" fields' weavers, for which address they ought to suffer
" death from 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 Keformers in 1817 and 1819 ; they, by fair
" inference, express their approbation of the thanks given to
" the Manchester Yeomanry. You are one of them ; raj
" 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 explanations, lie said that
they only said it in order to get relief; but that they did not
mean it in their hearts. " Oh, base dogs !" said 1 : ''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
r AQ RURAL RIDE FROM
cc
them. T 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, T believe,
I never before looked, in my whole life. I saw the royal arms
at the top of the paper ; took it for the Cld Times, and, in a
sort of lounging mood, said to George, " Give me hold of
" that paper, and let us see what that foolish devil Anna
" Brodie says." Seeing the words " 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
*ort or other, upon these base vagabonds. Little did I think
that an opportunity would so soon occur of showing my re-
sentment against them, and that, too, in so striking, so ap-
propriate, 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 Kegister, as soon as I can find it) ; but, that
is nothing to me and my fellow sufferers of 1817 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 without 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,
lather than sanction the publication of so infamous 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 scoun-
drel, who should have called upon them to present an address
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 541
to the King, and in that address to applaud the terrible
deeds committed 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.
To a boy at the bottom of Hiudhead, 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, 2GtA 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 Co!ley Farm, near
Reigate, where we slept. I have so often described the
country from Hiudhead to the foot of Reigate Hill, and from
the top of Reigate Hill to the Thames, that I shall not at-
tempt to do it again here. When we got to the river Wey,
we crossed it from Godalming Pismarsh to come up to Chil-
worth. I desired George to look round the country, and
asked him if he did not think it was very pretty. 1 put the
>ame question to him when we got into the beautiful neigh-
bourhood of Dorking, and when we got to Reigate, and es-
pecially 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 (putting Mr. Knowles's, George insisted
that that u;is 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 re-
minded him of Weston Grove ; and I reminded him of the
542 RURAL RIDE FROM
beautiful ponds and grass and plantations 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. Drummond's at Aid bury, rented by a farmer
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 ; and here I must mention (I do not know
why I must, by the bye) an instance of my own skill in mea-
suring land by the eye. The cabbages stand upon half a
field and on the part of it furthest 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 that 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 cab-
bages 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 will not be diffi-
cult 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 T 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
WESTON TO KENSINGTON. 543
high time for me to get home again ; for here had been
pretty devils' works going on. Here I found the " Greek
cause," and all its appendages, figuring away in grand style.
But, I must make this matter of separate observation.
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 re-
quires 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 imperatively his duty, when
he lias seen, in the course of his life, so many men ; so many
men of excellent hearts and of good talents, rendered prema-
turely old, cut off ten or twenty years 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 codling myself up in the house,
these soakings would have frightened me half out of my senses ;
but I can vi ry 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 : to
544 RURAL RIDE.
stick to your intention whether it be attended with inconve-
niences 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 ray horse, which grieved me much more on his
account than on my own. I have a friend, who, when he is
disappointed in accomplishing any thing 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 dare say
1 shall) that the petition will not be tried until February,
I shall take my horse and set off again to that very spot, in
the London turnpike-road, at the foot of Butser-hill, whence
I turned off to go to Petersfield, instead of turning the other
way to go to Up Park : I shall take ray horse and go to this
spot, and, with a resolution not to be beaten next time, go
along through the whole length of Sussex, and sweep round
through Kent and Surrey till J come to Reigate again, and
then home to Kensington ; for I do not like to be beaten by
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, fare-
well to the country, and now for the Wen and its villanous
<onuptions.
RURAL RtDU : TO TRING, IN HERTFORDSHIRE.
Barn-Elm Farm,
23rd 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, bequeath-
ing to Mr. Elliman 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 neigh-
bours, 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 necessity of effectual fences :
without these, you plant and sow in vain : you plant and sow
the plants and seeds of disappointment and mortification; and
the earth, being always grateful, is sure to reward you with a
plentiful cr.ip. One half acre of Mr. Elliman's plantation
of locusts before-mentioned, time will tell him, is worth
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 Woodlands 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 If ood-
lands, in paragraphs 3S3 to .?86 inclusive. In that part of
The Woodlands will he 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
546 RURAL RIDE TO
here, one seed out of one hundred will not come up ; and,
with the proper precautions, 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 respect-
able place, I saw what reminded me of another of my en-
deavours to introduce useful things into this country. At
the door of a shop I saw a large case, with the lid taken
off, containing 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 instructions 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 won-
dered that they should send to Tuscany for the straw,
seeing that it might be grown, harvested, 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 Kent, and presented by
that most public-spirited and excellent 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 manufacture 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 Rol-
venden, 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
TRING, IN HERTFORDSHIRE. 547
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, in-
clusive, 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 fur 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, 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 anv one can,
where I can get some spring wheat. The botanical name of
it is, Triticum JEstivum, 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 ear-
lier ; 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 " Cobbett's 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. 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 go and see specimens of the three great undertakings,
or rather, great additions to the wealth of the nation, in-
troduced under the name of Cobbett.
548 • RURAL RIDE TO
I am the more desirous of introducing this manufacture
at Tring on account of the very marked civility which I met
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 gentlemen 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 din-
ners in several parts of England, I never found, even in
Sussex, where 1 have frequently been so delighted, a more
sensible, hearty, entertaining, and hospitable company than
this. From me, something in the way of speech was ex-
pected, 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 news-
paper called The Bucks Gazette and General Advertiser, who
has published in his paper the following account of what
passed at the dinner. As far as the report goes, it is sub-
stantially correct ; and, though this gentleman 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. Elliraan, a draper of Tring, has lately formed a
considerable plantation of the locust tree, which Mr. Cob-
bett claims the merit of having introduced into this coun-
try. The number he has planted is about 30,000, on five
acres and a half of very indifferent land, and they have
thrived so uncommonly well, that not more than 500 of the
whole number have failed. The success of the plantation
TRING, IN HERTFORDSHIRE. 549
being made known to Mr. Cobbett, induced him to pay a
visit to Triig 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 pur-
pose ; when about forty persons, agriculturists and trades-
men of Tring and the neighbouring towns, assembled, and
sat down to a dinner served up in verv excellent stvle, bv
Mr. Northwood, the landlord : Mr. Faithful, solicitor, of
Tring, in the chair.
'' The us ual routiue 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 communicating to his writings an energy and
perspicuitv 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 Poli-
tical Register, from the first of them to the last, with plea-
sure 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 kinglv government. He advocated the rights
of the people, but he always expressed himself favourable to
ourancient form of government ; he certainly had strongly,
'out not too strongly, attacked the corruption of the govern-
ment ; but had never attacked its form or its just powers.
As a pub'ic 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 sneaking of the pleasure of passing from
censure to praise, and thus expressed himself. ' It is turn-
ing from the frowns of a early 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 enduring the greatest fatigues ; and a mind of
superi. r order. Brilliancy, it was said, was a mere meteor ;
it was so : it was the Solidity and depth of understanding
such as he possessed, that were really valuable. He bad
visited this place in consequence 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 en-
joy prosperity and happiness, in duration equal to that
550
RURAL RIDE TO
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 ap-
pear like presumption to suppose that those who were as-
sembled 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 convinced 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 di-
versity 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 wtre
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 suffi-
cient to do in their respective avocations, without troubling
themselves with such matters. For what were the minis-
ters, 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 sta-
tions was another thing. He had been told that Mr. Hus-
kisson was so ignorant of the cause of the 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 pro-
fess 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 un-
derstand the business by which he gained his living ; and if
any one should say to him, because he did not understand
politics, ' You are a very stupid fellow !' he might fairly re-
ply, ' What is that to you ?' But it was another thing in
those who were so well paid to manage the affairs of the
TRING, IN HERTFORDSHIRE. 551
country to plead ignorance; of the cause of the prevailing
distress.
" Mr. Goulburn, with a string of figures as long as his
arm, had endeavoured to prove in the House of Commons,
that the withdrawal of the one-pound notes, being altogether
so small an amount, little more than two millions, 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, fi;ty 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 to 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 rii^ht ; 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 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 !
" 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 pas-
tare, wife this, 'Good God! is a country like tins 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
552 RURAL RIDE TO
string across any road leading into London, and that the
first 1000 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 naughtv boy; but since that time
a Bill had been passed which made it banishment for life to
use language that brought the Houses of Parliament into
contempt, and therefore he did not say so now. The Go-
vernment, it should be recollected, had passed all these Acts
with the hearty concurrence of both Houses of Parliament ;
thev were thus backed bv these Houses, and they were
backed by ninetv-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 anti-
cipated, from what they there saw, the ruin which had fallen
on the country. Thus we had an ignorant Government, an
ignorant Parliament, and something worse than an ignorant
press ; the latter being employed (some of them with con-
siderable 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 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 whatever
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 once was, and to be capable of driving the
Russians back from the country of our old and best ally —
the Turks. During the time of war, we were told that it
was necessary to make great sacrifices to save us from dis-
grace. 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 na-
tions 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. (215) Never since
the time of Charles had such disgrace been brought
upon tiie country ; and why was this ? When were
TRING, IN HERTFORDSHIRE. OOo
we again to see the labourer receiving 1 his wages from
the farmer instead of being sent on the road to break
stones ? Some people, under this state of things, consoled
themselves by saying things would come about again ; they
had come about before, and would come about again. Thev
deceived themselves, things did not come about ; the sea-
sons came about, it was true ; but something must be done
to bring things about. Instead of the neuter verb (to speak
as a grammarian) they should use the active ; they should
not say things will come about, but things must be put about.
He thought that the distress would shortly become so great,
perhaps, about Christmas, that the Parliamentary gentle-
men, finding they received but a small part of their rents,
without which they could not do, any more than the farmer,
without his crops, wouid endeavour to bring them about ;
and the measures they would propose for that purpose, as
far as he could judge, would be Bank restriction, and the
re-is^ue 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 a bill to that effect would be
passed. (216) If such a bill did pass, he would advise all
persons to be cautious in their dealings ; it would be peril-
ous to make bargains under such a state of things. Money
was the measure of value; but if this measure 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 o f little
use to them ; whilst a few great men could render their
votes of no avail. If we had possessed a House of Com-
mons that represented the feelings and wishes of the
pie, they would not h.tve submitted to much of what
had take n place ; and until we had a reform we should
never, be 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
B B
5.54 RURAL RIDE.
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 prosperity, to be careful. Until there whs an equitable
adjustment, 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 bv 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 dis-
tress was the work of the Government and House of Com-
mons, 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 anv 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 joints 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 sixpence 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 English 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 fact?,
NOR! HERN TOUR. 555
the farmers feel all the pinchings of distress, and the still
harsher pinchings of anxiety for the future ; and the labour-
ing people are suffering in a degree not to be described.
The shutting of the male paupers up in pounds is common
through Bedfordshire 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 resist-
ance 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. ("217) Jails are next to useless in such a
case : their 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, 2>\st January, 1830.
On the 26th instant I gave my third lecture at Leeda. I
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
b b .:
556 NORTHERN TOUR.
parts ; but on the second and the third, it was filled brim
full, boxes, pit and gallery ; besides a dozen or two of
"•entleraen who were accommodated with seats on the stage.
Owin«-to a coid 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 al.owance 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
1 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 bro-
ther, 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 inertly 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 iequest 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 promised 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. Ail the way along, from
Leeds to Sheffield, it is coal and iron, andiron and' coal. It
was dark before we reached Sheffield ; so that we saw the
iron furnaces in all the horrible splendour of their everlast-
ing blaze. No; lung 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
roan to make one to operate upon the other, as to turn the
ir m-stone into liquid matter, which is drained off from the
bottom of the furnace, »nd afterwards moulded into blocks
and bars, and all soils of thiogs. The combustibles ate
NORTHERN TOUR. 557
put into the top of the furnace, which stands thirty, fortv,
or fiftv 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 wagons forced up hv steam, and brought
down again to be re-filled. It is a surprising thing to
behold ; and it is impo-^ible to behold it without being
convinced that, whatever other nations may do with cotton
and with wool, they wiil 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
u«ed in the whole world; there being, I understand, no
knives made at Birmingham ; the manufacture of which
place consists of the larger sort 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, ex-
cept, at Harewood and Ripley, a stack of wheat since I came
into Yorkshire; and even there, the whole I saw; and all
that I have seen since I came into Yorkshire ; and all that
I saw during a ride of six miles that L 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-raehers, and knife-
makers, compel us to send the food to them, which, indeed,
we do very cheerfully, in exchange for the produce of their
rocks, and the wondrous works of their hands.
The trade of Sheffield has fallen off le.-:s in proportion
than that of the other manufacturing districts. North
Ami'rica, and particularly the United States, where the
peop'e have so much victuals to cut, form a «reat 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. (218) No fear of rivalship
in this trade. The Americans may lay on their tariff, and
double if, and triple it ; but as long as they continue to cut
their victuals, from Sheffield they must have the things to
cut it with.
558 NORTHERN TOUR.
The ragged hills all round about this town are bespan-
gled 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 York-
shire 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 I was 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 be
a little recovered from my cold ; but, to my great morti-
fication, I found that the lecture had been advertised, and
that great numbers of persons had actually assembled. To
send them out again, and give hack 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, 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 Uewshury, 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 3d, 4th, and 5th of February, and
for a public breakfast to be given to me on the first of those
days, I having declined a dinner agreeably to my original
notification, and my friends insisting upon something or
NORTHERN TOUR. 559
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 thirty
vears, 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 Americans would not
have been in the Floridas ; we should 'not have 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 Chris-
" tianity." — King of Bohemia's Letter to Canning, published in the
" Register, 4th of January, 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 hoth 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 nume-
rous 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
Ytlverton, 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 enter-
tained 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 plavhouse of the
place, which was crowded in every p^rt, 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
EASTERN TOCP.. 5C1
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 he of one mind; and as these friends observed to me, so
! thought, that more effect had been produced by this one
lecture in that neighbourhood, than could have been pro-
duced 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; 1 use pretty powerful arguments;
and I hammer them down so closely upon the mind, that
thev 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 trades-
men 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 1 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 nearlv three
hours. But there occurred here something that I must
notice. 1 was speaking of the degrees by which the estab-
lished church had been losing its legal influence since the
peace. First, the Unitarian Bill, removing the penal act
which forbade an impugning of the doctrine of the Trinity ;
second, the repeal of the Test Act, which declared, in effect,
that the religion 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
bv four or five more, who said '* No, No." " Then," .-u:d I,
it b 3
562 EASTERN TOUR.
*' we will, if you like, put it to the vote. Understand, gentle-
" men, that / do not say, whatever I may think, that the Re-
" formation 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 pari 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 the clergy of this church of ours,
"if they remain silent while such a law shall be passed."
We were entertained at Ipswich by a very kind and ex-
cellent 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 ani-
mated 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 admir-
ing 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
EASTERN TOUR. 563
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, T dare say, 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 permis-
sion 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 .' 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 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
delivered six lectures. These 120 miles have been through
a fine farming country, and without my seeing, until I came to
Thetford, 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 Wymondham, 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. Ilarleston, on the road to Eye, is a
very pretty market-town : of Eye, I have spoken before.
From Eve to Ipswich, we pass through a series of villages,
and at Ipswich, to my great surprise, we found a most
beautiful town, with a population of about twelve thousand
persons ; and here our profound Prime Minister might have
ii most abundant evidence of prosperity ; for the wew
oG4 EASTERN TCt/R.
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 opu-
lent 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 dis-
cover an additional proof of prosperity ; if he were to be
thus situated, and to be thus feeling, would not 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 opu-
lence ; but it is a BARRACK ; aye, and the money to
build that barrack, and to maintain the 20,000 troops, has
assisted to beggar, to dilapidate, to plunge into ruin and
decay, hundreds upon hundreds of villages and hamlets in
Wiltshire, in Dorsetshire, in Somersetshire, 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 then? at least
700 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 bed*
ridden 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
EASTERN TOUR. 565
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, per-
haps, 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 Conquerer, 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 Cardinal Wolsey, the gateway
of which, though built in brick, is still preserved, being the
same sort of architecture as that of Plampton 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 gro^n in this most productive countv,
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 Lon-
don 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 alto-
gether 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 farm-
houses, 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 BAR-
RACK, and made me utter involuntarily the words of
Blackstone : " The laws of England recognise no distinc-
" tion between the citizen and the soldier; they know of
" no standing soldier ; no inland fortresses; no barracks."
" Ah !" said I myself, but loud enough for any one to
have heard me a hundred yards, " such were the laws of
•' England when mass was said in those magnificent
' churches, and such thev continued until a septennial par-
' li anient 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 ;
5G6 EASTERN TOUR.
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, every
thing good and solid, and no wretched dwellings to be seen
on its 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 homesteds
so snug ; the stocks of turnips so abundant every where ;
the sheep and cattle in such fine order; the wheat all
drilled ; the ploughman 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 halfpenny, 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
outskirts. I remarked that I did not see in the whole
county one single instance of paper or rags supplying the
EASTERN TOUR. 5G7
place of glass in any window, and did not see one miserable
hovel in which a labourer resided. The county, however,
is Jlat : 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 sitten 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 descrip-
tion, from the hazel to the oak. In Suffolk it appears to
be just the contrary : here is the great dissight 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 be 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 fuel ;
and why not plant hedges to be unbroken by these pollards ?
1 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 vears.
However, the great number of farm-houses in Suffolk,
the neatness of those houses, the moderation in point of
5G8 eastern tour.
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 catile, ail
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 verv 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 airv, 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, 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 protected 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 5 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
EASTERN 10UH, 5G9
on, not for the defence of England ; not for the upholding of
English liberty and happiness, but for the purpose of crushing
liberty and happiness 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 net always that which
would be our choice. One might imagine, that after all that
I have said about this tine 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. h\ 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, 28M March, 1830.
I went from Hargham to Lynn on Tuesday, the 23rd ;
but owing to the disappointment at Thetford, every thing
was deranged. It was market-day at Lynn, but no prepa-
rations of any sort had been made, and no notification
given. I therefore resolved, after staving at Lynn on Wed-
nesday, to make a short tour, and to come back to it again.
This tour was to take in Ely, Cambridge, St. Ives, Stam-
ford, 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 Gernmn bayonets cost me so dear.
I got there about noon on Thursday, the 25th, being
market-day ; but 1 had been apprised even before I left
O/O EASTERN TOUR.
Lynn, that no place had been provided for my accommo-
dation. A gentleman at Lynn gave me the name of one
at Elv, who, as he thought, would be glad of an oppor-
tunity of pointing out a proper place, and of speaking about
it ; but just before I set off from Lynn, I received a notifi-
cation 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 feeling
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 your 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 kingdom. These founda-
tions were laid more than a thousand years ago ; and yet
there are vagabonds who have the impudence to say that it
is the Protestant religion that has made England a great
country.
Ely is what one may call a miserable little town : very
prettilv situated, but poor and mean. Every thing 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 build-
ing, 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
EASTERN TOUR.
571
tlie 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 re-
built 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 aiter-
noon, in the choir of which they saw God honoured by the
presence of two old men, forming the whole of the congre-
gation. 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 th;it 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 cairy
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 pas-
ture-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 told him that a large sum of English
money was now everv 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 mult, hops,
beer, leather, soap, candles, tobacco, tea, sugar, and every
572 EASTKRN TOUR.
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
vtbout one million seven hundred thousand pounds had been
sent abroad on this account, since the peace. (219)
When I opened, I found that this man was willing to
open too ; and he uttered sentiments that would have con-
vinced 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 mau, who came to me in the even-
ing 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 labouring 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 amongst the far-
mers ; 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 as-
semblage, 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 ;
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 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
EASTERN TOUR. 573
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 consequeuces of
hoping that this distress would remove itself. I portrayed
to them the effects of the taxes ; and showed them that we
owe this enormous burden to the want of being fairlv
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 Government
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 ori-
ginally relieved ; told them that the revenues of the livings,
which had their foundation in charity, were divided amongst
the poor. The demands for repair of the churches, and
the clergv 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 vou believe, gentlemen, that when
that magnificent pile was reared, and when all the fine
monasteries, hospitals, schools, and other resorts of piely
Rod charitv, existed in this town and neighbourhood ; can
you believe, that Elv was the miserable little place that it
now is ; and that that England which had never heard of
tl.e name of jumper, contained the crowds of miserable
creatures that it now contains, some starving at stone-
cracking by the wav-side, and others drawing loaded
wagons on that way ?"
A young man iu the room (I having come to a pause)
said ; " lint, Sir, were there no poor in Catholic times?"
" Yes," said I, " to be sure there were. The Scripture
Rays, that t he 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 he poor.
.Alcn have two motives to industry and care iu all tiie walk*
ot life : one, to acquire wealth ; but the other and stronger,
to avoid poverty. If there were no poverty, there would
574 EASTERN TOUR.
be no industry, no enterprise. But this poverty is not to
be made a punishment unjustly severe. Idleness, extrava-
gance, 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 sus-
tain 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, 9l?i April, 1830.
Quitting Cambridge and Dr. Chafy and Serjeant Frere,
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 to 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-dav; 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. (220)
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 1st of April, I harangued here
EASTERN TOUR. 575
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 Par-
liament, 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 playhouse
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 Fitz-
william, had acted with regard to the French war, with
regard to Burke and his pension; with regard to the dun-
geoning law, which drove me across the Atlantic in 1817,
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 sd 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-
duct, and given my opinion on it, many applauded, and not
one expressed disapprobation.
On the 3d, I speechified at Wisbeach, in the playhouse,
to about 220 people, I think it was ; and that same right,
went to sleep at a friend's (a total stranger to me, however)
at St. Edmund's, in the heart of the Fens. I staid 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. Edmund's, 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 gen-
tlemen, to whom also we were personally perfect strangers;
and in the evening, I addressed a very large assemblage of
most respectable farmers and others, in this once famous
town. There was another hard frost on the Monday morn-
ing ; just, as it were, to Jinish \he apricot bloom.
(hi the 6th 1 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
576 EASTERN TOUR.
containing as good and kind friends as I have met with in
anv other ; and though the people are generally as good,
contains also, apparently, a large proportion of dead weight,
the offspring, most likely, of ti;e rottenness of the borough.
Two or three, or even one man, may, if not tossed out
at once, disturb 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, gracious God ! 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 the nicest and most unostentatious manner, made all the
preparations. 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 beau-
tiful 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 government in the world, and we, their cowardly
and foolish and profligate sons have Hiade this once-paradise
what we now behold ! "
EASTERN TOUR. 577
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
over, since I left Cambridge on the 29th of March.
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 Chat-
teris (which last is in the Isle of Ely), the land is better,
particularly as you approach the latter place. From Chat-
teris 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 a whitish stone
below ; very much like the soil at and near Ross in Here-
fordshire, 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 : vou
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 avast deal
more of wealth in their hands and at their own disposal.
There are three beautiful churches at Stamford, not less, I
dare say, than three [qucEre] 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 dif-
ferent 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
c c
578 EASTERN TOUR.
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,
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, andthathonour
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, Pro-
testants or not Protestants, feel as I feel upon this subject ;
search the hearts of the bishop and of his dean and chap-
ter, 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 end-
less 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 pro-
duced ! There is nothing that I address to my hearers with
more visible effect than a statement of the manner in which
the poor-rates and the church-rates came- This, of course,
includes an account oihow the poor were relieved in Catholic
EASTERN TOUR. 579
times. To the far greater part of people this is information
wholly new ; they are deeply interested in it ; and the impres-
sion is very great. Always before we part, Tom Cranmer's
church receives 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
monasteries. That of Winchester and several others, cer-
tainly 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 something 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 little 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 Encyclopedia 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 word
Bedford. I got into a passion with the book, because it
contained no account of the mode of raiting the birch-
tree ; and it was sold to a son (as I was told) of Mr. Alder-
man 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
c c 2
580 EASTERN TOUR.
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.
Wisbe3ch, 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 these and the heath-
covered sand-hills of Surrey, amongst which I was born !
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
EASTERN TOUR. 581
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 modem 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 ! 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, sur-
rounded by land that produced nothing good ! 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 ihis
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 Crow-
land was a place of importance in the earliest times.
From Crowland to Lynn, through Thorney and Wis-
beach, is all Fens, well besprinkled, formerly, with monas-
teries of various descriptions, and still well set with mag-
nificent 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, Wth 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.
582 EASTERN TOUR.
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 blas-
phemers 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 couLj they hold sacred the anniversary
appointed to commemorate 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 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 perse-
cuted 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 Notting-
ham, in the middle ot 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 considerable import-
ance ; 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
EASTERN TOUR. 583
is both a land-mark and a sea-mark. To describe the
richness, the magnificence, the symmetry, the exquisite
beauty of this pile, is wholly out of my power. It is im-
possible 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 do believe, that, when
this pile was reared, the age was dark, the people rude and
ignorant, and the country destitute of tcealth 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 loched-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 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 Pro-
testant Parliament, 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,
supplanted by the monotonous hummings of an oaken hutch,
has not the mortification to see his church treated in a man-
ner 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 gallenj, that great and charac-
teristic 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 satisfaction to
see, that the base of his celebrated church is surrounded by
584 EASTERN TOUR.
an iron fence, to keep from it all offensive and corroding
matter, which is so disgusting to the sight round the mag-
nificent piles at Norwich, Ely and other places ; that the
churchyard, and all appertaining to it, are kept in the neatest
and most respectable slate ; 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 ex-
tinguished 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 indusl?'ious people, and not in those of a
fat and luxurious dean and chapter, wallowing in wealth
deiived from the people's labour.
Horncastle, \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 the 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 wood-
land also ; and just before we got to Horncastle, 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 Mai for five
years longer.
EASTERN TOUR. 585
It is curious, that the moment you get out of the rich
land, the churches become smaller, mean, and with scarcely
any thing in the way of tower or steeple. This town is
seated in the middle o'f a large valley, not, however, remark-
able 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 those who sell these; and accord-
ingly, it suffers severely from the loss of the small paper-
money.
Horncastle, \3th 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 audieace.
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"! And of these I had a great deal at Horncastle.
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 to-
gether on one tree, in the sand-hills of Surrey ! Oh ! the
carolling in the coppices and the dingles of Hampshire
and Sussex and Kent 1 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
c c 3
586 EASTERN TOUR.
the hedges, the hushes, from the middle and the top-
most twigs of the trees, comes the singing of endless
variety ; from the long dead grass comes the sound of the
sweet and soft voice of the white-throat or nettle-tom, while
the loud and merry song of the lark (the songster himself
out of sight) seems to descend from the skies. Milton, in
his description 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 hell. I must, how-
ever, 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 can-
not 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 1
it is not the aged, the halt, the ailing ; it is not the paupers
that are going; but men with from 200Z. to 2 000/. in their
pocket ! This very year, from two to five millions of
pounds sterling will actually be carried/rom England to the
United States. The Scotch, who have money to pay their
pa-sages, 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, 1830.
Here we are, at the end cf a pretty decent trip since
we left Boston. The next place, on our way to Hull, was
Horncastle, where I preached politics, in the playhouse, to
a most respectable 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 wav to Horncastle, and we then began to
see the high land. From Horncastle I set off two hours
EASTERN TOUR. 587
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 tur- x
nips, 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 Dorset-
shire, and like that near St. Austle, in Cornwall, which 1
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 parti-
cularly attentive to us. Mr. Naull, ironmonger, who had
had the battle to fight for me for twenty years, expressed
his exultation at my triumph, in a manner that showed that
he ju-tly 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 the hand was excessive. " Ah !" said
he, " where are now those savages who, at Hull, threatened
" to kill tnc 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,
588 EASTERN TOUR.
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 Horncastle 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, in our way from Louth to
Barton. " What the devil !" 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 book-
seller 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 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
gentleman, 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
EASTERN TOUR. 589
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 to
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. However, it would excite no surprise
there, that one of their countrymen had acted this part ; for
every man of them, having the same opportunity, would do
the same. Their forefathers 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 cor-
rupted 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 Satur-
day, I went in the middle of the day to Beverley ; saw
590 EASTERN TOUR.
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 every where fine. To the east lies the Holdemess
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 H umber ; is as
flat and fat as the land between Holbeach and Boston, with-
out, as they tell me, the necessity cf 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 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 !" And that of the Yorkshire 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 king-
dom, Yorkshiremen 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 1 saw Yorkshire. In
the army, where we see men of all counties, I always found
Yorkshiremen distinguished 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 parents; and, in truth, 1 long ago
made up my mind, that this hardness and sharpness
EASTERN TOUR. 591
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 circum-
stances, and their consequent success in all the situations
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 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 volu-
bility. (221)
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 gocdncss of the land in all these places. I de-
clare that I have never seen any to be compared with the
land on the banks of the Humber, from the Ilolderness
country included, and with the exception of the land from
Wisheach to Ilolbeach, and llolbeach to Boston. Really,
the single parish of Ilolbeach, or a patch of the same size
592 EASTERN TOUR.
in the Holderness 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, every thing like it;
clean as the best parts of London, and the people as bustling
and attentive. The town of Hull is surrounded with com-
modious 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 beauti-
ful. 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 ap-
proaches to London : none of those ofT-scourings of per-
nicious 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 alwavs, from my very youth, dis-
liked sea-ports ; but really, the sight of this nice town, the
manners of its people, the civil, and kind and cordial recep-
tion 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 differ-
ent 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
EASTERN TOUR. 593
" the horses," I had no curiosity, thinking it was such a
parcel of 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, T 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 Holderness 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 longeron
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 misery. 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 different distances from the sur-
face. In some parts, this stone is of a yellowish colour,
and in the form of very thick slate ; and in these parts the
soil is not so g-ood ; 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
594
EASTERN TOUR.
ash, very fine, and of free growth ; and innumerable flocks of
those big, long-woolled sheep, from one hundred to a thou-
sand in a flock, each having from eight to ten pounds of wool
upon his body. (222) 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 Holderness 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
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
EASTERN TOUR. 595
arrived at this place ; it was about six o'clock in the even-
ing ; 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 Hamp-
shire, or Sussex, or Kent, we should have heard ten thou-
sand 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 York-
shire. (223) 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 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 ac-
cident, 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
596 EASTERN TOUR.
told me that they never had any thing 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 clay 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 Prance at the eve of the revolution !
Precisely such ; and precisely the same were the causes.
Whether the effect will be the same, I do not take upon my-
self 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
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 -ic ashing 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 farmers 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 the poor of that 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 four-
teen 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
EASTERN TOUR. 597
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 manufac-
turers 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 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 preventing 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 con-
tinue 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 ware-
house, and his company dispersed. In most places, the in-
sides 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
plavhouse, in which'l 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 arc made the tools of the Government and the corpora-
598 EASTERN TOUR.
tions 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 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 matrimo-
nial alliances with players ; if so many playeresses had not
become peeresses. We may thank God for disposing the
hearts of our law-makers to be guilty of the same sins and
foibles as ourselves ; fur 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 de-
grading punishment 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 vac/rants, 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 tip 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 ser-
vice, which I performed en a carpenter's bench in a wheel-
wright'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, ad-
vertising farming stock for sale ; and amongst the implements
of husbandry, "an excellent fire-engine, several steel traps, and
" spring guns" ! And that is the life, is it, of an English
farmer ? I walked on about six miles of the road from Hol-
beach to Boston. I have before observed upon the inex-
haustible riches of this land. At the end of about five miles
EASTERN TOUR. 599
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 neighbour-
hood. 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 home-
stead was totally destroyed. This was told me in the pre-
sence of several gentlemen, who all spoke of it as a fact of
perfect notoriety. (224)
Another respect in which our situation so exactly re-
sembles that of France on the eve of the Revolution, is, the
fleeing fro in 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 on board of ship. The roguish villains had de-
ceived them : but no matter ; they will get into the United
States; and going through Canada 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 oil' 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 wagons
have gone carrying people to the canals, leading to Liver-
pool ; and a gentleman, whom I saw at Peterboro', told me
600 EASTERN TOUR.
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 Eoman 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 Horton, with your
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
bad of them, to be kept at our expense on the rocks and
EASTERN" TOUR.
60!
swamps of Nova Scotia and Canada. You have no money
to send them away with : the tax-eaters want it all ; and,
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. (225)
After evening lecture, at Horncastle, 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 a 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 oif in a short time. From Glasgow the
sensible Scotch are pouring out amain. Those that are poor
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 Gulph
of St. Lawrence ; but when the American vessels come over
with Indian corn and flour and pork and beef and poultry
and eggs and butter and cabbages and green pease and
asparagus for the soldier-officers and other tax-eaters, that
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 cu-
cumbers ; 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.
D D
C02 MIDLAND TOUR.
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 dares not have. As to France or the
Netherlands, or any pari; of that hell called Germany, English-
men can never settle there. The United States form another
England without its unbearable taxes, its insolent game-laws
its intolerable dead-weight, and its tread-mills.
EASTERN TO'JR ENDED, MIDLAND TOUR BEGUN.
Lincoln, 22rcl 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 Sowing 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 trades-
men'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.
MIDLAND TOUR.
G03
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, but a great many still. As you get on towards Lin-
coln, 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 lohole world.
All the others that I have seen (and I have seen all in Eng-
land except Chester, York, Carlisle, and Durham), are little
things compared with this. To the task of describing a ttrju-
sandth-part of its striking beauties I am inadequate ; it sur-
passes 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 magnificence ; admiration of the zeal and
disinterestedness of those who here devoted to the honour
of God those immense means which they might have ap-
plied to their own enjoyments ; melancholy at its present
neglected state ; and indignation against those who now en-
joy 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 working clergy of the
church of England ; we are all oppressed ; but they are op-
pressed 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, 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
d d 2
604 MIDLAND TOUR.
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 dependents ; but
which swallowings are imputed to every one bearing 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.
Leicester, 26/A April, 1830.
At the famous ancient city of Lincoln I had crowded au-
diences, 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 re-
sentment 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 vour 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 an-
nually made; that it has been on an average, 110,000/. a-
year, and that, of course, this band of foreigners have ac-
tually 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 now is ; 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 continue thus to swallow for
half a century to come.
** That the advocates of the project for sending us out of
MIDLAND TOUR. 605
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 de-
crease in our numbers ; that, however, while this is in-
sisted on in vour honourable House, we perceive a part of
our own earnings voted away to encourage marriage amongst
tliose who do no work, and who live at our expense ; and
that to your 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 pro-
poses to send away the drones ; but that your petitioners
hope to see the day when the checking of the increase of
the drones, and not of the bees, will be the object of an
English Parliament.
" That, in consequence of taxes, your petitioners pay
sixpence for a pot of worse beer than they could make for
one penny ; (2'2G) that they pay ten shillings for a pair of
shoes that 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 compel them to apply for aid to the poor-rates ;
that, knowing these things, they feel indignant at hearing
themselves described 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 to be got rid of, while the idlers who live upon
their earnings are upheld, caressed and cherished, as if thev
were the sole support of the country."
606 MIDLAND TOUR.
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
to them ; and, Gentlemen, why should not your labourers
petition in the same strain ? Why should you suffer them
to remain in a state of ignoranoe, 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 peti-
tioners 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 be-
come so poor that the butchers killed no meat in the neigh-
bourhood, I counted more than two thousand fat sheep tying
about in the pastures in 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 ! 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
abunrlance which God has put into your hands, to be the
excuse for your resigning yourselves to starvation ? My
God ! is there no spirit left in England except in the mise-
rable sand-hills of Surrey?" These words were not uttered
without effect, I can assure the reader. The assemblage was
of that stamp, in which thought goes before expression ; but
the effect of this example of my men in Surrey, will, I am
sure, be greater than any thing 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.
MIDLAND TO UK. 607
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 even-
ing of Saturday, the 2-lth, 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 Holderness country, in point of
riches ; a large part arable land, well tilled ; but not such
large homesteads, such numerous great stacks of wheat, and
such endless flocks of lazy sheep.
Before we got to Melton Mowbray, the beautiful pastures
of tins little 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 beau-
tiful 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 AVen. The land is warmer here than
in Lincolnshire ; the grass more forward, am! the wheat, be-
tween Mowbray and Leicester, six inches high, and generally
looking exeeedingly well. In Lincolnshire and .Nottingham-
shire, l found the wheat in general rather thin, and frequently
sickly ; nothing like so promising as in Suffolk and Norfolk.
608 MIDLAND TOUR.
We got to Leicester on the 24th, at about half-after
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 dun-
geons have now become the most striking edifices in every
county in the kingdom.
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 Lut-
terworth 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
MIDLAND TOUR. 609
labourers reside ! 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 cow-sheds of the cottagers on the skirts of
the forests in Hampshire, 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 every thing. 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
him whether that was the parson's house. Having an-
swered 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 ?" " AVhy, 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
D D 3
610 MIDLAND TOUR.
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 move 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
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 t'o 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. Be-
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
MIDLAND TOUR.
611
good grace, and not taken by force, is the only refuge for the
aristocracy of this kingdom. Just as it was iu France. All
the tricks of financiers have been tried in vain; and by-and-by
some trick more pompous and foolish than the rest ; Sir
Henry Parnell's trick, perhaps, or something equally foolish,
would blow the whole concern into the air. (227)
Worcester, W/h Mai/, 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 s; y, 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 olt 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), and
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 llumber 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 ! The farmers
are cowed down : the poorer they get, the more cowardly
they are. Every one of them sees the cause of his suffering,
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 fanners 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 Trance: 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, Uousseau, Diderot, and others.
612 MIDLAND TOUF.
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 unbearable ; by debts ot the State ; but, in
fact, by the despair of the people, produced by the weight of
the taxes. (228)
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 genera-
tion to generation. It will not do for them to ascribe revo-
lutions 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 Re-
volution 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 toge-
ther, the truck or tommy system generally prevails ; and this
is a very remarkable feature in the state of this country. I
have 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 Chatham barracks, in the year 17S3, 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 else-
where.
MIDLAND TOUR. 6l'S
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 payment 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
v.auges that produce for more goods; and thus the con-
cerns of the community 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 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 be 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 earn a pound a week
each. This is not the case in the iron- works ; but no matter,
we can illustrate our meaning by one sum as well as by
another. These men lay out weekly the whole of the hun-
dred 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 ; and
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 1.560Z.
a year. He, therefore, sets up a tommy shop : a long place
614 MIDLAND TOUR.
containing every commodity that the workman 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 do not rent of his master ; and if he will have liquor,
beer, or gin, or any thing else, he must get it by tracking
with the goods that he has got at the tommy shop.
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
experience the benefit of this payment in kind. It is, to be
sure, a sorrowful reflection, that such a check upon the
drinking propensities 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 shopkeepers
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 ex-
tortion ; 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 ; 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 work-
ing for him, might supply them with meat for four-pence the
MIDLAND TOUR. 615
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 mar-
ried 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 bad a village at my com-
mand, 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
talk lit controlling and compelling, what a control-
ling 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 in-
dustrious and careful, be cleanly in their persons and habits,
be civil in their language. These are amongst the uses of
tin means which God has put into his hands; and arc
tin- means to be neglected towards married servants any
more than towards single ones ?
u in the well-cultivated and thickly-settled parts of the
United Statu of America, it is the general custom, and a
very good custom it is, to pay the wages of labour partly in
moiK"j ami jKtrthj in kind ; and this practice is extended to
carpenlcrs, 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,
616 MIDLAND TOUR.
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 commonest work. And the wages of a good labourer
now, in Worcestershire, is eight shillings a week, and not
found. Accordingly 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
lowering 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
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. (229)
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, espe-
cially on the Welsh side, are the most beautiful that can be
MIDLAND TOUR. 617
conceived. 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 ironmongers 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 rent and taxes to pay that they had to pay before,
have resorted 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 oft' 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,
arc driving skill and wealth out of the country in all direc-
t ions ; arc causing iron-masters to make Prance, and parti-
cularly Belgium, blaze with furnaces, in the lieu of those
which have been extinguished here ; and that have established
furnaces and eotton-mills in abundance. These same taxes
and this same Corn-bill arc sending the long wool from Lin-
618 TOUR IN THE WEST.
colnslrire to France, there to be made into those blankets
which, for ages, were to be obtained nowhere bat 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 daws, 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 to Young Men.
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 cor-
dial shakes by the hand ; in proportion to their numbers,
not more at Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Halifax, Leeds,
or Nottingham, 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 pre-
pared to act upon the insolent doctrine of Huskisson, and
quietly submit to this state of things " during the present
generation" ?
TOUR IX THE WKST.
3rd July, 1830.
Just as I was closing my third Lecture (on Saturday night),
at Bristol, to a numerous and most respectable audience, the
news of the above event [the death of George IV.] arrived.
I had advertised, and made all the preparations, for lec-
turing 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
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 619
may be, return to Bath, taking Hertford shire and Bucking-
hamshire 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, Westmore-
land, Durham, Cumberland, and Northumberland ; and
these, if I have life and health till next spring, I shall see,
in my way to Scotland. But never shall I see another place
to interest me, and so pleasing to me, as Bristol and its envi-
rons, 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 vary much like the Yorkers and Lancas-
trians. 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
probably 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 IX THE XORTII.
Newcastle-vjmn-Tyne, 23 Sejitcmler, 1832.
From Bolton, in Lancashire, T 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 emracred in a
struggle I'm- getting foremost in point of utility to man. On
the J '• '". I -tail tail day at Todmorden to write and to sleep.
I • tl -'Uli I set olF for Leeds by the stagecoach, through Hali-
fax and l>radford ; and as to agriculture, certainly the poorest
country that. 1 have ever set my eyes on, exeeiil that miserable
m ScVtitt, where there are the townships of Horton and of
Wilmot, and whither the sensible suckling statesman, Lord
Howick, is wanting to send Ei country girls, lest they
should breed if they stay in England! This country, from
620 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
Todmorden to Leeds, is, however, covered over with popula-
tion, and the two towns of Halifax and Bradford are exceed-
ingly populous. There appears to be nothing produced by the
earth but the natural grass of the country, which, however,
is not bad. The soil is a sort of yellow-looking, 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,
Darbngton, 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 hus-
bandry," what was mv 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 Dur-
ham 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 labour-
ers' 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 Durham I saw hardly any
wheat at all, or any wheat stubble, no barley, the chief crops
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 621
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
wagon-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 T 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 containing 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-Hiding of Yorkshire, 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
comparison. 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 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' cot-
tages, the thinness 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
622 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
to be a large quantity of turnips. They are sowed in drills,
cultivated between, beautifully clean, very large in the buib,
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 off 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 pasturage, serving, during the winter,
instead of hay, wherewith to feed the cattle of various de-
scriptions.
This, then, is not a country of farmers, 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. (230) 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 have it so deter-
mined, that he could not get them to abstain from it, even
on the fast-days ; and that he 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
<c 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 plough-field, as was, in evi-
dence before the special commissions, proved to have been
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 623
the common practice in Hampshire and Wiltshire, and which
had been before proved by evidence taken by unfeeling com-
mittees 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 mi-
serable 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 de-
luders, as far as they are able to delude ; these vagabond au-
thors, who thus write and publish for the purpose of per-
suading the working-people to be quiet, while they sack luxu-
ries and riches out of the fruit of their toil ; these literary
impostors take cave 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, and perverting literary im-
postors suppress the facts, for reasons far too manifest to need
stating. (231)
The cattle here arc 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 scaJe, to
be sure, the model of all these beautiful cattle: short horns,
strait back, a taper neek, very small in proportion where it
joins on the si, lall ami handsome head, deep dewlap, small-
boned in the legs, hoop-ribbed, square-hipped, tail slender.
A great part of (hem are white, or approaching very nearly to
white : they ail appear to be half fat, cows and oxen and all;
and the meat fj»m them is said to be, and I believe it is, as
fine as thai, from Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, Roomer
Marsh, or lYvensey Level; and 1 am ready, at any time, to
swear, if Deed be, t bat. one pound of it fed upon this grass is
worth more, to me at least, than any ten pounds or twenty
pounds i'vd upon oil-cake, or the slinking stuff of distilleries ;
624 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
aye, or even upon turnips. This is all grass-land, even from
Staffordshire 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-Biding 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, 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 " wanst improvements,
Mdum," 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 de-
fiance to the will of Providence, and, instead of rich pasture,
present to the eye of the traveller half-green starvelling oats
and peas, some of them in blossom in the last week of Sep-
tember. 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 pas-
ture, at any rate, in which the grass, like that of Here-
fordshire 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 tvell ; and this is
very true ; for, upon the food which does very well for the
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 625
common cows of Hampshire and Surrey, they would dwindle
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 innu-
merable 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 avooI. 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 Glouces-
tershire, they showed me their sheep in several places, which
are a stout big-boned sheep. They told me that many at-
tempts 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 com-
plaint 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 far-
" mers 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 sucli persons as we call farm-labourers. From Cheshire
to Newcastle, 1 have never seen one single labourer's eollay
by the aide of (he road ! Oh, Lord ! if the 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 ^>w\\ 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 I hey could go up from that city
K E
626 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
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 innumerable 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-sighted-
ness 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 Com-
mon ; 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 and 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
lie can see a score of churches, and from his lofty and ever-
green downs, and from his fat valleys beneath, he annuajly
sends his 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 at Maidstone, all tarred with the same brush. It is
curious, 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 Cots wold of Gloucester-
shire, where, in going in a postchaue 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 Northumbrian 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 Koman
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 627
Catholic, seemed to ine to be ready to cross himself several
times. (232)
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
Hiding of Yorkshire and of Durham, where a large farm sel-
dom 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 wonted.
Lord John ought to have known the cause of the great dif-
ference, 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 s^e so many churches as are to be
seen in any twenty miles of any of the valleys of Wiltshire.
All these tilings 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 land3
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
flay nl soldiers during the lad war.
If any of these sensible men of Newcastle were to see the
B K 2
628 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
farming in the South clowns, 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 these 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 law-
giver 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 ; contemplating 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, and be hanged along with them, rather
" than see them live upon potatoes." (233)
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 24 September, 1832.
Since writing the above I have bad 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 lament-
able 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 cen-
tury; that the land does not now, with present prices, yield
a clear profit, anything 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
wi rid, 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 invention ap-
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 629
peared ! This gentleman told me, that this breaking 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 !
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, beauti-
ful, 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 re-
spect and kindness met me at the door of the coach in
which I came from Leeds, on Friday, the 21. September.
In the early part of Saturday, the 22. 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 I have written and published more than a 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 those truths that dropped from my pen ; that
my whole life has been a life of sobriety and labour; that I
have invariably shown that I loved and honoured my coun-
try, 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 on any account to touch ; that, for having
630 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
thwarted this Government in its wastefulness of the public
resources, and particularly for mv endeavours to produce
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 lam
on a spot within a hundred miles of which I never was be-
fore in my life ; and here I am receiving the unsolicited ap-
plause of men amongst the most intelligent in the whole
kingdom, and the names of some of whom have been pro-
nounced accompanied with admiration, even to the southern-
most edge of the kingdom.
Hexham, 1. Oct., 1832.
I left Morpeth this morning pretty early, to come to
this town, which lies on the banks of the Tvne, 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 ex-
tent. I saw in one place more than a hundred corn-stacks
in one yard, each having from six to seven Surrev wagon-
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 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. Verv
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
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 631
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 hardi-
ness, are the sycamore, the beech, and the birch, which are
all seen here ; but none of them tine. 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 badlv 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 uf 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; as I approached this town,
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 luftv, and green as in June ; the other trees
proportionally large and fine; and when I got down into
the vale of Hexham itself, there I found the oak tree, cer-
tain 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, cnnvried 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, varus, 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, fine.-t, 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 tfle
kindness to receive and to entertain me (and that in a
632 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
manner which will prevent me from ever forgetting either
him or his most amiabie 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 con-
trived, 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), 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 dis-
" countenanced. The company, he believed, as much dis-
" approved of that political traveller who was now going
" through the country — he meant Cobbett — as they de»
" tested 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. (234)
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 Hex-
ham, put my foot upon this contemptible creeping thing,
who is offering himself as a candidate for the southern
division of the county, being so eminently fitted to be a
maker of the laws !
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 633
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 ; 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 Hex-
ham, 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, doubtless, 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, 2. 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, want-
ing 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 rail-
ways 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
Newcastle ; and I saw them at work at it as I came along.
There are great lead mines not far from Hexham ; and
634 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
I saw a great number of little one-horse carts bringing down
the pigs of lead to the point where the Tyne becomes navi-
gable 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, to-
gether with their value compared 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, end all the
wisdom of Beaumont, to keep the boat above water for
another five years.
'' North Shields, 3. 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 Northumber-
land ; 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 man-
gel-wurzel, you see scarcely any potatoes ; a certain sign
that the working people do not live like hogs. This root is
raised in 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
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 635
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 Wolse-
ley, 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 interesting 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.
From this degrading curse ; from sitting round a dirty
board, with potatoes trundled out upon it, as the Irish do ;
from going 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 eulogize ; from this degrading curse, the
county of Northumberland is yet happily free ! (235)
Sunderland, 4. Oct., 1832.
This morning I left North Shields in a post-chaise, in
order to come hither through Newcastle and Gateshead,
this affording me the onlv 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 mv 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 cir-
cumstanced to furnish proof of the excellence of my instruc-
tions as to planting. The predecessor of Mr. Donkin also
made plantations upon the same spot, and consisting pre-
cisely of the same sort of trees. The two plantations 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, in-
credible as it may appear, the trees in the latter are full as
lofty as those in the former ; and besides the equal lofti-
636 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
ness, are vastly superior in point of shape/and, which is very
curious, retain ail 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 pre-
cisely the same. As a sort of reward for having thus con-
tributed 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 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 gener-
ally 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 suf-
ficient to guard against the wet-frosts which always fall per-
pendicularly. 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 pennyworth 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 sim-
plicity, accompanied with that genius, which distinguished
the man. Mr. Wm. Armstrong was kind enough to make
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 637
me a present of a copy of the last performance of this so
justly celebrated 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.
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
shillings a week ; they live rent-free, their fuel costs them
nothing, and their doctor cost 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 beautiful 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 Bean and Chapter of Durham. Al-
most 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 thou-
sand 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 ? There would be no difficulty in these
cases, but on the contrary a very great convenience ; because
all these tenants of the Dean and Chapter might then pur-
chase out-and-out, and make that property freehold, which
they now hold by a tenure so uncertain and so capricious.
Alnwick, 1th 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 re-
cord something that I heard at Sunderland respecting that
638 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
babbling fellow Trevor ! Mv readers will recollect the part
which this fellow acted with regard to the " liberal Whig
prosecution ;" thev will recollect that it was he who first
mentioned the thing in the House of Commons, and sug-
gested to the wise Ministers the propriety .of prosecuting
me ; that Lord Althorp and Denrnau hummed and had about
it; that the latter had not read it, and that the former would
offer no opinion upon it ; that Trevor came on again, en-
couraged by the works of the curate of Crowhurst, and by
the bloody, bloody old Times, whose former editor and now
printer, is actually a candidate for Berkshire, (236) sup-
ported by that unprincipled political prattler, Jepthah Marsh,
whom 1 will call to an account as soon as I get back to the
South. My readers will further recollect that the bloody
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 ariicles which I wrote about him, I put these words,
"TREVOR AND POTATOES;" meaning that he hated
me because I was resolved, fire or fire not, 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 bean 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 fel-
low (I wish to God you could see him !) went to Sunderland
to canvass these freemen 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 /" Ah! stupid coxcomb ! little
did he imagine, when he was playing his game with Althorp
and Denmau, what would be the ultimate effect of that
game !
From Newcastle to Morpeth (the country is what I before
described it to be). From Morpeth to this place (Alnwick),
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 639
the country, generally speaking, is very poor as to land,
scarcely any trees at all ; the farms enormously extensive ;
only two churches, T 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 ! 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 indescribable
pleasure of having seen Newcastle, the Shieldses, Sunderland,
Durham, and Hexham, I have now discovered the true ground
of all the errors of the Scotch feelosofers with regard to popu-
lation, 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
Ty ne, the Wear, and the Tees. Northumberland has 1,871
square miles ; and Suffolk has 1,512 square miles. North-
umberland lias eight;/ -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
i.s there, with regard to population and poor-laws, which can
640 PROGRESS IN THE NORTH.
apply to both cases ? And how is my Lord Howick, born
and bred up in Northumberland, 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 agricul-
tural population of Suffolk to that of the number of North-
umberland ! The population of Northumberland, larger than
Suffolk as it is, does not equal it in total population by nearly
one-third, notwithstanding that one half of its whole popula-
tion 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 pro-
duce. Yes, the cows, pigs, geese, poultry, gardens, bees and
fuel that arise from those wastes, far exceed, even in the capa-
city of sustaining people, similar breadths of ground, distri-
buted 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
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 much that I could stop a day at Ber-
wick, in order to find some feelosofer to ascertain, by some
chemical process, the exact degree of the improvement of
the " antalluct." I am afraid, 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.
PROGRESS IN THE NORTH. 641
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 T promul-
gate ; and whatever your flatterers may sav 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
I 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 neces-
sary to restore the greatness and happiness of the coun try ;
and, if he show a disposition to do this, I should deem my-
self the most criminal of all mankind, if I were to make use
of any influence that I possess 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 conse-
quences to individuals what they mav, the greatness,
the freedom, and the happiness of England must be
restored. (237)
END.
NOTES.
["Register," in the following notes, stands for Cobbett's
Weekly Register, and "Selections" for Selections from
Cobbett's Political Works.']
Note (1) Page 1. — Described by Mr. (afterwards Lord Chief
Justice) Denman as " Sis Bills which went to overthrow all that was
valuable in the constitution." Hansard, vol. 41, pp. 1072, 1501.
Pas-ed in 1819, 60 Geo. 3 and 1 Geo. 4 : commonly called the Blas-
phemous and seditious libels bill, c. 8; Seizure of arms bill, c. 2;
Training prevention bill, c. 1 ; Newspaper stamp duty bill, c. 9; Se-
ditious meetings bill, c. 6; and Misdemeanours bill, c. 4.
(2) p. 2. — This phrase, touching the national debt, was attributed
to the late Sir John Bailey, Bart., one of the Judges of the King's
Bench, and afterwards B .ron of the Court of Exchequer. Selections,
v. 5, p. 490. — The first Sir Robert Peel wrote a pamphlet, contending
that the national debt was no burthen to the nation, because the people
owed it all to themselves. — In a work by a City writer, Mr. Bernard
Cohen, Compendium of Finance, Sfc. (1822), the author considers it
to be " the generally adopted opinion, that a national debt is indispen-
sable to our independence." p. 197.
(3) p. 5. — The late Mr. William Budd, for many years Clerk, of the
Peace for ihe County of Berks. A Letter from him in Register, v. 82,
p. 609. — Mr. Cobbett's work, The Woodlands, is dedicated to him. —
See Notes 8 and 14.
(4) p. 6. — The Report here referred to, on agricultural distress, is
commented upon in Register of Nov. 3, 1821, in a Letter to Landlords.
"In 1790, the nation was in a state of great real prosperity. We
heard then of none of these distresses, and these corn bills, and this
hole-digging work. We heard then of no emigrations} no overstock of
people and overstock of food at the same time ; of no persons peti-
tioning to be transported ! Of no new jails and " improved prison
discipline ;" of no county hospitals for the insane. All these signs of
" prosperity" have made their appearance while rents were trebling. 1,
therefore, can see no good reason for the Committee hoping so anxiously
that rents will not come back to the old standard. Their reason,
however, is this, that, if the rents do come back, it is clear as day-
light, that the present Landlords, if encumbered, must lose their estates
right speedily ; and, it not encumbered, the Landlords must be brought
down, and will soon be insignificant creatures compared to the Fund-
lords, who are daily rising over them ; and who in a short time will
and must have a complete ascendancy. * * * It is not all gold that
glistens. The gay farm-houses with pianos within were not improve-
ments. The pulling down of 200,000 small farm-houses and making
the inhabitants paupers was not an improvement. The gutting of the
cottages of their clocks, and brass ket'les, and brewing tackle was no
improvement. And I a^k, where is or where will soon be found the
NOTES. 643
landlord, not to wish that h ! s estate and the poor-rates, independent of
all other taxes, were wh*t they were in 1790?" v. 40, pp. 1031, 1036. —
And see Letter to the Earl of Chichester, Register, v. 41, p. 129, Jan.
1822.
(5) p. 9. — The " Thing :"' a term often repeated in tliis work, and
in the Register, meaning the system of the English government.
(6) p. 17. — "Gallon loaf ' refers to a calculated sufficiency for
maintenance of labourers. The "man," Mr. John Bennett, M.P.
for South Wilts. See Register, v. 48, p. 113.
(7) p. 17. — Mr. Joseph Blount, of the Roman Catholic family of
that name. The place, Uphusband, connected with the lowness of
wages and misery of the people thereabouts, is frequently mentioned
in these Rides. About 6 miles from Andover. Andover Union : see
Note 217.
(8) p. 26.— See Notes 3 and 14.
(9) p. 27. — The estate here named was afterwards purchased by Mr.
Henry Baring (the late Lord Asbburton).
(10) p. 27. — The late Rev. G. F. Nott, D.D., who is somewhere
mentioned by Lord Byron, was Prebendary of Winchester and of Chi-
chester, Rector of Woodchurch in Kent, and of Harrietsham in Kent,
and held the advowson of Stoke Canon in Devonshire. While holding
all these offices, he was advertised for in the Morning Herald of the
12th July, 1831, by a parishioner of Woodchurch, the fleck there
being anxious to find its shepherd ; and it was then ascertained that
the Doctor had long been and was residing in Rome.
(11) p. 28. — The Forests and Crown Lands will be found more
minutely treated of further on in this work. Of late, a good deal of
stir has been made on the subject. In 1848 a number of charges of
"cribbing" timber in the New Forest were preferred against small
foresters, and minor officials, at the Se=sions at Winchester : but none
were convicted. — There is a Parliamentary Report of the New and
Waltham Forest Commission, with a Sub-Report of the Secretary,
Mr. J. B. Hume: 1850. — The gentlemen of the " Financial Reform
Association," in their tract on The Aristocracy and the Public
Service, say — " The Committee of Parliament which inquired into tbe
woods, forests, and land revenues of the Crown, made revelations in
the evidence published in 1848 and 1849 about the verderers of
Epping Forest, and their clerk, which would have destroyed their re-
putation for life had the disclosures related to the servants of a private
estate."— p. 35. (See Notes 38, 47, 106, a.d 141.)
(12) p. 28.— (Seepages 307-8.)— The Rev. Mr. Davies, in his work
entitled The Case of the Labourers in Husbandry, date 1795,
complains of the ill effects of engrossing f^rms ; and some of our agri-
cultural publications of the present time, 1853, are asserting that luw
wages are associated with large, rather than with small farms. Mr.
Davies says — " Thousands of parishes have not now half the number
of farmers which they bail formerly ; and in proportion as the number
of farming families haa decreased, the number of poor families has in-
creased." — Mr. Sadler, in his work on Ireland, writes strongly in
favour of Bmall farms. — Mr. Cobbetfs Letter to Mr. Coke (Lord
Leicester) on this subject, Register, v. 39, p. 505; Selections, v. 6,
p. 115, and to the Edinburgh Reviewers, v. 52, p. 336. — The Report
of House of Commons Committee on Allotments of Land to labourers
644 NOTES.
(1843, No. 402) is much in favour of the practice, asserting that it has
lessened crime and improved the habits of the poor. — The Rev. J. S.
Henslow, Rector of Hitcham, Suffolk, has published (1852), in his
Address to the Parish, some interesting details, showing the same
good results. But he appears to have had to struggle against the
large farmers, one of whom says — " I ask what has been the ruin of
Ireland but this sub-letting system, and it will be the ruin of this
parish if persevered in. * * * I do hereby make this declaration, I
will never cart another ton of coals for the poor, so long as this sub-
letting system is in existence." — Small holdings, however, should not
be confounded with minute subdivisions of property. The Quarterly
Reviewers, April, 1816, are for the former of these, while, in Dec,
1846, they are, and not inconsistently, against the latter. — There is
a great deal of historical information on this subject in the Dublin
Review, Nov. 1842. — Earl Stanhope, in his evidence before the Lord's
Committee on Poor-Laws, Mar. 1831, says — " I am of opinion that
the destruction of small farms, and the formation of large farms, has
much diminished the comforts of the people, and injured the prosperity
of the country."
(13) p. 34.— See page 574, and Note 220.
(14) p. 35.— See Motes 3 and 8.— It was by Mr. Budd that Mr.
Cobbett was first made acquainted with Mr. Tull's work on Hus-
bandry. See advertisement in Register, No. 21, v. 40. — Mr. Loudon
speaks of Tull's system as that of an " eccentric" teacher, but says the
Scotch were the first to discover its merit. Voltaire says he has tried
Mr. Tull's system, and found it " execrable."
(15) p. 35. — But enclosures have been facilitated by very recent
Statutes. See 8 & 9 Vict., c. 118; 15 Vict., c. 2.— The Report of
House of Commons Committee of 1797, states that up to that date there
had been 1,532 enclosure Bills passed, and 2,804,197 acres enclosed
during the reign of George III. In the period from 1792 to 1820,
there were 2,287 Bills passed, and the number in each Session was great
in proportion to the dearness of corn at the time. — Letter to Electors of
Berkshire, on the New System for the Management of the Poor, by the
late Mr. John Walter, M.P. 1834.
(16) p. 37. — See Register, addressed to the late Duke of Bucking-
ham, " on his late Speech in the House of Lords, relative to a change in
the System." "Does not loss of estate threaten all but the loan-
mongers and other Jews, &c. ?" v. 60, p. 641 (1826). The present
Duke of Buckingham has of late been twitted by our '' liberal" press
on the fact that it is not his Grace, but one of the Barons Rothschild,
who is now the greatest man, and who keeps the pack of stag-hounds,
in the neighbourhood of Stowe.
(17) p. 39. — See preface to The Woodlands, on the philosophy of
tree-planting. — The gallant Admiral Collingwood in his Corre-
spondence, published in 1829, speaks of the importance of planting
oaks.
"What I am most anxious about, is the plantation of
oak in the country. We shall never cease to be a great
people while we have ships, which we cannot have without
timber; and that is not planted, because people are unable
to play at cards next year with the produce of it. I plant
NOTES. 645
an oak whenever I have a place to put it in, and have some
very nice plantations coming on ; and not only that, but I
have a nursery in my garden, from which I give trees to
any gentleman who will plant them, and instruction how to
top them at a certain age, to make them spread to knee
timber." — [Letter to Lord Radstock, dated Ocean, off Cadiz,
Feb. 3, 1807.) — " Be kind to old Scott; and when you see
him weeding my oaks, give the old man a shilling." — {Letter
to his daughters, dated Queen, at Sea, Feb. 17, 1806.)
(18) p. 42. — The " Wen," a name often applied by the author to
London, as a great excrescence on the country. So M. de Sismondi
speaks of the city of ancient Rome, as a " parasite population." And
Mercier, in his Tableau de Paris, published at Amsterdam just before
the old French Revolution, calls Paris a wen : " Paris is too big; it
flourishes, at the expense of the whole nation ; but there would be
more danger now in removing the wen (loupe) than in letting it be."
—(2nd Edit., 1783, v. 1, chap. 3.)
(19) p. 42. — The Penitentiary at Millbank is said to have been
originally suggested by Mr. Jeremy Bentham. Register, v. 87, p. 138.
(20) p. 44. — Quoting the language of Lord Liverpool, when ac-
counting for the distress of the country in 1822.
(21) p. 44. — The Small Note Bill was continued soon after this
date, viz. in July, 1822. Note 27.
(22) p. 44. — Rt. Hon. Nicholas Vansittart, Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, afterwards created Lord Bexley. Register, v. 30, p. 80 ; v.
32, p. 57, v. 51, p. 656.
(23) p. — This is moderate praise on our cider-orchards ; for the
modern Normans grow apples, and make a cider, which Englishmen
would despise; while some Worcestershire and Herefordshire men
boast of their perry having passed for very good champagne. — See
Note 42.
(24) p. 50. — These severally, in the order of the text, mean Lord
Liverpool, Lord Castlereagh (Londonderry), Mr. Canning, Mr.
(the 2nd Sir Robert) Peel, the Barings, and Mr. Ricardo. — " Stern
path of duly," in Lord L's. speech of Feb. 24, 1817. "This is the
expression always used by Lord Liverpool when ho means to be firm,
and before circumstances induce him to swerve." Sir James Graham,
Corn and Currency, p. 37.
(25) j). 51. — The Rev. Richard Baker, Rector of Botley, the place
ef the author's residence in Hampshire.
(26) p. 51. — Bawnd or baw, means boy or lad, as mawther or maw
means girl or lass ; names in common use in Norfolk, and which Sir
Thomas Brown, a Norwich man, derives from the Saxon or Danish.
(27) p. 52. — Alluding to what has been called "Cobbcti's Gridiron
Prephecy," written in Ling Island, Sept. 1H19. Repeated in several
places in Register, and the more subsequent repetitions, the stronger in
terms. V. 35, pp. 165, 170, 179, 364 ; v. 40. p. 350; v. 48, p. 1 ;
■lions, v. 5, pp. 4 13, 136; v. (',, p. 42.—" Mr. Cobbett foretold,
as early as 1818, certainly more distinctly than anybody else at the
time, that a gold standard at 3/. 17s. 10.' I., would inevitably reduce
the price of wheat to 4s. 6d. or 5s. the bushel on an average, and other
646 NOTES.
comnooflities in a s'milar ratio ; nor would it have risen upon an ave-
rage since 1819, but for the different means that were found to prevent
the full operation of Peel's Bill. Our sta'esmen were as little in-
formed as babies of what Mr. Cobbett understood so well, or otherwise
fancied they could counteract the effect which that adjustment of the
metallic standard would induce." (Lord Western's Letter to Chelms-
ford and Essex Agricultural Society, May, 1835.) — Mr. Matthias
Attwood had expressed the same views of the measure, in the House
of Commons, as those stated in the Register. — Peei's Bill is 59 Geo.
3, c. 4. Of the 9 important Statutes since passed, touching the cur-
rency, there are 3, the provisions of which expressly or in effect,
operate in repeal of Peel's Bill: viz. 1 and 2 Geo. 4, c. 28 (May, 1821) ;
3 Geo. 4, c. 70 (July, 1822); and 3and4Wm. 4, c. 98 (August, 1833).
That here wasa " direct controverting of the tenor of the Act of 1819 "
is asserted by Mr. Robinson, now Lord Ripon, in debate of Feb. 10,
1826 ; anrl by Sir Robert Pee] himself.— (Hansard, v. 14, N. S.p. 356).
And see Sir James Graham's Corn and Currency, 3rd Edit., 1827, p. 51.
(28) p. 58. — "Rags:" bank-notes.
(29) p. 60. — Articles on this subject in Selections, for which see
Index thereto.
(30) p 62— See Note 32.
(31) p. 65. — "Great Man," and "Pilot," refer to the minister
Pitt. Bishop Pretyman, Mr. Pitt's tutor.
(32) p 68. — See Letter to the Earl of Chichester. — Register, v. 41,
Jan. 1822. " It app ars surprising that the nobility should not en-
deavour to conciliate the people, while they have the means of con-
ciliation in their hands ; or, at least, it would appear surprising, if
one had not witnessed the events of the last thirty years'' p. 144.
What is said in the same page respecting the little fffect of the •' writ-
ings of philosophers," is exactly repeated by the Edinburgh Review,
in April, 1838, p. 209.— See post, p. 611.
(33) p. 72. — The sort of practice here mentioned was afterwards
noted by some of the roving Poor-Law Commissioners. And on the
motion of the present Duke of Richmond, for an inquiry into the
state of the country, March, 18, 1830, his Grace was reported as
savins: that "he had remonstrated against the putting of men to draught-
work like horses, with a man to drive them " (in Sus-ex).
(34) p. 73. — Kremlin : name of the Russian Emperor's palace at
Moscow. The Biighton Kremlin is now in the hands of the authorities
of the town, and used for public purposes.
(35) p. 83. — " Over-production," stated by Lord Liverpool, in
Parliament, to be a cause of national distress. Register, v. 46, pp.
103, 336.
(26) p. 84. — It is also an old saying that " drought never brought
dearth into England." And Mr. Cobbett used to say that wheat never
wanted a rlrop of rain from sowing to harvest time.
(37) p. 87. — One of the author's earlier notices of this root is in an
article en itled Milton, Shakespear, and Potatoes, in Register, v. 30,
p. 82, referring to another in v. 29, p. 193. (1815).— The same
subject in v. 46, p. 518 (1823).— During the Irish famine of 1846 the
" degrading root " was denounced in the House of Commons (17th
April), as being "poor," "watery," &c, and hopes were expressed
that the Irish might be "induced to adopt a more generous diet."
NOTES. 647
And the "failure in the potatoe-crop," as " causing a serious defici-
ency in the quantity of a material article of food, ' forms an important
topic in the Royal speech on the prorogation (August 28, 1846). — The
poisonous qualities of the potatne have been recently spoken of by
several writers, as in the work of Mes»rs. Maw and Abercrombie, 1850,
and in Mr. Kemp's Hand-Book, 1851. 'I he latter asserts that pota-
toes, eaten raw, will generally kill a horse. — The prevailing disease in
the root appears to have been universal. Mr. Skirving of Liverpool,
well known to farmers and gardeners, has found that the phmt in its
natural state, in Peru, is affected with the d sease, which, he also says,
has attacked the cultivated potatoe in the Dargheely Hills in India, a
country in which this root has grown unusually well.
(38) p. 92.— See Notes 1 1 and 47.
(39) p. 92.— See Notes 4, 9, and 16.
(40) p. 92.— These were the "Loyal and Constitutional Association,"
of which Mr. John Reeves, author of History of the English Law,
was chairman. Mr. Arthur Young also belonged to this body, and
wrote a work against the English Reformers, entitled The Example of
France a Warning to Britain.
(41) p. 94.— See page 286.
(42) p. 94. — William of Malmsbury says that in the 12th century
the Yale of Gloucester produced as good wine as many provinces in
France. Domesday Book gives the number of barrels produced on
each estate ; and the Editor's preface accounts for this cultivation being
dropped, by citing our treaties with foreign princes to take wine in
exchange for our manufactures. — See A T o/e 23.
(43 and 44) p. 95. Mr. Birckbeck was accidentally drowned, in cross-
ing the river Wabash, soon after thednte of this Ride. Mr. Cobbett's
correspondence with him appears in the Year's Residence in America.
There are several communications from him in the Register, in 1815
and 1816.
(45) p. 96. — Words quoted refrr to speech of Mr. Ponsonby, on
Mr. Madocks's motion, respecting parliamentary seat-selling by
Ministers, in 1809. "Such things w. re known to be done hy hun-
dreds, and why, therefore, inquire into this transaction. The practice
of trafficking in seats hsd, he admitted, become as glaring as the noon-
day sun." — Register, v. 15, p. 767.
(46) p. 96. — Name given by the lite Lord Castlereagh, " with
much more propriety than elegance." to the annual charge of half-
pay officeis, pensioners, &c. — Register, v. 44, p. 36.
(4 7) p. 96.— See Note 11.
(48 and 49) p 97. — Since this date, we have not only had Corpo-
ration Reform (1835). and other great ch nges, but. our newspapers of
Ocober, 1847, were discovering that England is " a poor country,"
because " in debt for more than she can pay."
(50) p. 97.— The house of the late Mr. John Leech, Member for
We-t Surrey in the first Reform Parliament.
(51) p. 98.— Weald, wald, or wait, a Saxon word, said to mean
wood, or grove. In some editions of the statutes (23 Eliz., c. 5, and
27 Eli*, c. 19) it is " the wilds of Surrey," " the wilds of Sussex,
Kent," &c.
(52) p. 98. — The late Mr. Nicholls. of Odihmn, a large holder of
lav tithes : one of those to whom the author applied the name of
" grey-coated parson."
648 NOTES.
(53) p. 100. — "When I first trudged afield, with my wooden bottle
and my satchel swung over ray shoulders, I was hardly able to climb
the gates and stiles ; and, at the close of the day, to reach home was
a task of infinite difficulty. My next employment was weeding wheat,
and leading a single horse in harrowing barley, &c." — Porcupine's
Works, v. 4, p. 34. And see Selections, v. 1, pp. 132, 214, and
post, p. 362.
(54) p. 100.— See Note 33.
(55) p. 100.— In Cobbett's Two-Penny Trash, No. for May, 1831,
p. 252, there is the following passage. The title of this work wa3
adopted from the late Lord Castlereagh (Londonderry) having applied
it, in Parliament, to such publications.
" I have observed before, and I beseech you to attend to
it, that the words liberty, freedom, rights, and the rest of the
catalogue, which hypocritical knaves send rolling off the
tongue, are worth nothing at all : it is things that we want.
Those men who make a fuss about sorts of government, and
who tell us about the good things which arise from the re-
publican government of America, deceive themselves, or
deceive others. It is not because the government is re-
publican, but because it is cheap ; and it is cheap, not
because it is republican, but because the people choose
those who make the laws and vote the taxes. If the Presi-
dent of America were called King of America, instead of
being called President, it would be of no consequence to the
people, if the King cost no more than the President now
costs. Nothing is worth looking after ; nothing is worth
talking about but the cost ; because it is this that comes and
takes the dinner from the labourer, and that takes the coat
from his back. We have had, during this last winter, a clear
proof that we never can have relief except through the means
of a Reform in Parliament. During the winter before, Sir
James Graham proved that 1 1 3 of the aristocracy of England
received out of the taxes six hundred and fifty thousand
pounds a year, a sum equal in amount to a year's poor-rates
of the five counties of Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Cambridge,
and Cumberland !"
It may be observed that the term republic had no peculiar terrors in
it till of late years. Even in the speeches from the throne, in the
reign of James I., we find the phrase " this Republic of England."
(56) p. 102. — St-veral writers speak of the yew-trees at Fountains
Abbey, Yorkshire, as being more than 1200 years old.
(57) p. 103.— See Note 155.
(58) p. 105. — Rev. Edmund Poulter, Prebendary of Winchester,
and Rector of Meon Stoke and Soberton. — Register, v. 43, p. 711.
The " Manifesto" is there, p. 707. This gentleman is mentioned in
History of the Protestant Reformation, Letter 4.
(59) i>. 107. — Amount of poor's-rate. — See Note 217.
NOTES.
649
(60 and 61) pp. 109, 110.— Ses Note 27. A legal tender clause
was afterwards enacted, in 3 and 4 Win. 4, c. 98 (Auiust, 1833).
(62) p. 111. — A reduction in this respect has of late been taking
place ; but, as is asserted, principally with those who work the hardest
for what they receive, as in the case of the Judges, and that of th fe
working men in public offices.
(63) p. 111.— See Note.
(64) p. 112.— See page 211.
(65) p. 113. — This passage was afterwards well illustrated in the
struggle which eventually occurred at the passing of the Reform Bill.
(66) p. 114. — (See page 123). — Several writers have pointed out
that the Population Returns bear internal evidence of their being
erroneous. See the author's speech for repeal of the Malt-Tax. —
Register, v. 83, p. 705 (1834).— Selections, v. 6, p. 781.— The fol-
lowing Table is taken from page 3 of the late Mr. John Marshall's
Statistics of the British Empire, published in 1837. The same
Table appears in his Digest of all the Accounts , Sfc, page 3, published
in 1833. It strongly supports what Mr. Cobbett says in his speech on
the Malt-Tax, and elsewhere, respecting population and employment,
the compiler being one of the most able and most faithful dealers with
such matters that our country has produced. Numbers of other
" Statisticians" are borrowers from his book, of what suits them, while
they strive to hide the disagreeable truths which it contains. He re-
proached the government of the day with having suppressed a large
number, 1250 copies, of his work of 1833, which they purchased of
him. He was the author of that string of ;>ble Resolutions proposed
to the House of Commons, by Mr. Hume, in 1826 ; and the Tables
of the laie Mr. G. R. Porter are founded on the works of this laborious
man. Mr. Marshall observes, that " notwithstanding the prevailing
" notion of Manufacturing being the predominant interest of Great
" Britain, the Analysis of the Population Returns shows that Jive-
" sixths of the whole are dependent on Agriculture for subsistence."
OF THE POPULATION OF GREAT BRITAIN - .
Analysis of Occupations.
Number of
Families in
1821. 1831.
1 Agricultural Occupiers
2 Ditto Labourers
3 Mining Ditto
t Millers, Bakers, Butchers. • ..
5 Artificers, Builders, &c
6 Manufacturers
7 Tailors, Shoemakeis, & 1 1
8 Shopkeeper!
•J Seamen Bod Soldiers
Lfl Clerical, Legal, and Medical..
11 Disabled Paupers
1 2 Proprietors, Annuitants
250,000
728,956
110,000
160,000
200,000
340,000
150.
310 239
3!'j
80,000
192,888
250,000
800,000
120,000
180,000
230,000
11)0,000
180,000
350,000
-'7 7,017
90,000
110,000
316
Total No. of
Persons in
1831.
1,500,000
4,800,000
600,000
900,000
650,000
2,400,000
1,080,000
2,MK),0(I0
831,000
450,000
110,000
1,116,398
Totals 2,941,383 3,303,504 10,537.;"-
V V
650 NOTES.
(67) p. 117. — Viz., "a connexion and anticipation with Mr.
Thistlewood and his associates." — Register, v. 44, p. 246.
(68) p. 119. — The author shortly afterwards petitioned the House
of Commons. Petition, presented by Mr. Brougham, is in Register,
v. 46, p. 386; and in Hansard, v. 9, N.S., p. 79.— {Note 231).— Mr.
Thomas Baring is reported as saying, on this occasion, that " half
the offenders in Hampshire were committed for poaching."
(69) p. 121.— See Note 67.
(70) p. 122. — A. name first given to the Duke of Wellington by the
late Sir Francis Burdett.
(71) p. 122.— See Note 58.
(72) p. 123.— See Note 15.
(73 and 74) p. 123.— See Notes 66, 162, 207.
(75) p. 124. — Refers to Mr. John Maberly, M.P., and contracts
for Army clothing. — Register, v. 75, p. 393.
(76) p. 126.— See Note 3b.
(77) p. 127.— " Wealds," Notebl.
(77) p. 128. — See further in page 151. — There seems to be good
reason for believing that our paper-mills were also once employed,
about 1790 or soon after, in making paper for the forgery of French
assignats. This matter is mentioned in Paper against Gold, Letter
14 ; Register, v. 19 p. 1229 ; and in v. 34, p. 43 ; v. 35, p. 230 ; and
v. 47, p. 791. The case of Strongitharm v. Lutein, cited hy Mr.
Cobbett in the above Letter, is reported in 1 Espinasse s Reports, 389 ;
date 1795. Mr. Cobbett sometimes charged Pitt with participation in
this business. Lord Kenyon, in the case in Espinasse, impliedly
countenances such an act, when done against the ene-ny, quoting that
line of the poet which Dryden translates — " Let fraud supply the want
of force in ivar." It would appear that a part, if not the whol e of the
paper used for these assignats, was manufactured at Houghton paper-
mill, on the North Tyne, a few miles above Hexham, Northumberland,
the neighbourhood mentioned at page 630. Mr. William Smith, the
present owner, still retains the mould in which the paper was made,
and some sheets of the paper, made during the time of his father to
whom he succeeded, and bsaring the water-marks, and in one part, the
date " 1790." They are small, long sheets, of a size to hold the plate
of four assignats. A young man, son of a tenant-farmer on the Hough-
ton estate, who went to London about 1780, and afterwards became
a wealthy stationer there, is stated to have been the agent through
whom the paper was obtained.
(79) p. 130. — Sir Moses Manasseh Lopez, M.P., convicted of bri-
bery and corruption. Register, v. 49, p. 528. — Joseph Swan : Register,
v. 50, p. 416. — The speeches on the Kent Petition here mentioned are
in Hansard, 1822.
(80) p. 131. — Lord H. Stuart, son of first Marquh of Bute, was
associated with Mr. Robert Liston, English Emb issador to America
in 1799, and staid some time with the friends of Mr. Cobbett men-
tioned in Note 221. Lord Henry and Mr. Liston were witnesses for
Mr. Cobbett in the case prosecuted by Mr. Perceval, Note 118.
(81 and 82) p. 131.— See Note 211.
(83) p. 135. — This was literally the ense around London, during
the distress of 1825-6.
(84) p. 136.«-See Note 66.
NOTES. 651
(85) p. 137.— See pages 157 and 144 ; and Note 184.
(86) p. 142.— See Note 11.
(87) p. 145. — " The Doctor," name given by Mr. Canning to Lord
Sidmouth. — " Long arm," means the Register when written in America
and printed in England. Anecdote of the " long arm," Register, v.
32, March 28, 1817.
(88) p. 147. — " Banished; " that is, under the Bill, c. 8, named in
Note 1.
(89) p. 148.— See Note 51.
(90) p. 152.— See Note 77.
(91) p. 156.— SeeA'ote45.
(92) p. 157. — Supposed to refer to Sir Charles Bun-ell, Bart., M.P.,
who was one of those who attacked the author at the time of the fires
in 1830. He is mentioned in Register, v. 84, p. 616, as having a
good Bill before Parliament on the subject of the Poor.
(93) p. 159. — Speech quoted, in Selections, v. 6, pp. 229, 445, and
in Register, v. 61, p. 339.
(94) p. 165. — The author has elsewhere no'iced the difference to be
observed between the Quakers when in trade, and those of their sect
engaged in the pursuits of rural life. — See page 591.
(95) p. 168. — Alluding to the "Manchester Massacre," of 16th
August, 1819; vulgarly named Peterloo, having occurred on a spot
called Peter's Field.
(96) p. 170. — Judge McKean.and Senate, &c. — Porcupine' s Works;
and Selections, v. 1, p. 191, contain the particulars of what is here re-
feired to. Mr. Cobbett, when in America in 1818, memorihlized the
Pennsylvania Government at Harrisburgh, to obtain compensation in
this matter. In 1819 he received a letter from the laie Mr. Ambrose
Spencer, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New
York, in which that learned Judge (who was personally unknown to
Mr. Cobbett) stated his opinion that the proceedings complained of
were illegal, and that compensation ought to have been made by the
State's Government.
(97) p. 175. — Blanketteers : great numbers of the people in the
North, who, in the distress of 1816-17, were said to be on the move
towards London, each carrying his blanket. — See Letters to, Register,
vol. 34, pp. 348,827.
(98) p. 177. — This interesting book has of late become much more
known than it was a few years buck. A remarkable instance of bo<>k-
making, and reviewing, occurs in a book called Journal of a Naturalist,
\ J29, which would appear to hue been compiled (probably by some
Irish gentleman living in London) from the work of Mr. White, and
others relating to natural history. This Journal was published by Mr.
Murray, and the Quart i />/ Review (also published by Mr. M.) recom-
mends it as " a book th it ought to rind its way into every rural draw-
ing-room in the kingdom." (No. for April, 1829.)
(99) p. 178. — The Saint himself was one of our Saxon Lord Chan-
cellor-. Is mentioned in Lord Campbell's Lives.
(100) p. 180.— See, however, Note 33.
(101) p. 181. — Cobbetl's Tour in Scotland on this subject. And
Note 217, for r <• iii decisions in the Scotch courts. — It has been
li vi ral times remarked by the author, that (lie loud praises bestowed
by some on the superior educatioo, morals, well-being, &c. of the
p r 2
652 NOTES.
Scotch, were in fact intended to hide from England the actual state of
Scotland, and to reconcile Englishmen to miseries, in their own condi-
tion, which no people ought to endure. The strongest evidences we
have of the degradation of the poor Scotch have been furnished on
Scotch authorities ; and if these tell the truth, one can hardly imagine
anything more shocking than that which is the lot of a large part of
the Scottish nation. " To hold up Scotland as an object of our imita-
tion, is to be impudent to a degree worthy of blows." American
Register, June, 1816.
(102) p. 188.— This is the, road, 11 miles, from Botley to Win-
chester, through Fairoak and Twyford, Hants.
(103) p. 189. — See Note 25. — The author of this hoax was an inti-
mate acquaintance of Mr. Cobbett; but the latter in fact knew nothing
about the contrivance at the time when it occurred.
(104) p. 191. — Thi9 was the sentence of two years imprisonment in
Newgate, and to pay ,£1,000 fine to the King, for a libel published
July 1, 1809, in Register, v. 15, p. 993. The libel consists of com-
ments upon the fact of some Local Militia-men having been flogged,
at Ely, under the guard of German Legion Cavalry. Sir Vicary Gibbs
was the A ttorney- General ; the defendant was tried on the loth June,
1810, by a special jury ; and received sentence on the 9th July. — See
Selections, v. 3, p. 373. — Many have justly remarked that the article
containing this libel is a very infeiior piece of the author's writing. See
page 277.
(105) p. 198.— See page 531.
(106) p. 20 .—See Note 11
(107) p. 219.— Supposed to refer to the late Mr F. L. Holt, after-
wards Vice Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Said to be a very
worthy and benevolent man. Mr. Cobbett somewhere speaks of him
as having, when a young man, made a bold stand against Lord Ellen-
borough in a libel case. He was author of a work on Libel (1816),
showing a singular leaning towards what are called arbitrary principles.
(108) p. 220. — So said .Sir Robert Peel himself, on the occasion re-
ferred to in Note 27. — Letter to Mr. Robinson (Lord Ripon) on this
subject, in Selections, v. 6, p. 445.
(109) p. 222. — Note 68, and page 490.— Lord Ellenborough 's Act
is 43 George 3, c. 58, modified by " Peel's Acts," 4 George 4, c. 48,
and 9 George 4, c. 31. — Ater the date of this Ride there was passed
the Night-Poaching Act, commonly called " Lord Lansdowne's Act,"
9 George 4, c. 69 (1828). — There are altogether, besides the Forest
Charters, about 100 Game- Laws (96 at least), in force or repealed, on
the Statut' -Book. 80 of these have been passed since the beginning
of Henry VIII, year 1509. And 32 of them were passed in the reign
of Oeo. III.
(110) p. 228. — This Lord Camden was grandson of Mr, Pratt, Lord
Chiet Justice of thi- King's Bench, and son of Charles, afterwards Lord
Carnd n, who was Lord Chief Justice ol the Common Pleas, and then
Lord Chancellor.
(111) p. 229. — The late Mr. Samuel F. Wadding ton, whose case is
reported in 1 Bast, 153. This matter is spoken of at large in Cobbett '»
American Register, p. 329 (1816).
(112) p. 231. — Mr. Watson, the snme person spoken of in the intro-
ductory part of Cobbc-tt's Hist, of the Protestant Rpformation.
NOTES. 653
(113) p. 233. — " It is said that every vill, of common right, is bound
to provide a pur of stocks.'' — Bterns' Justice.
(114) p. 223. — Since this was written, during the period from 1835
to 1838, we were informed by the Government prints of the police
being engaged in the work of forcibly separating families among the
poor. Also, we have seen the introduction of a newer police, called
" rural," which, in some places, have been considered expensive, and
of but little use, excepting as gamekeepers.
(115) p. 235. — The same remark has since been made, by some of
the clergy, in what they have written on the management of the poor.
(116) p. 239.— See page 463, and Note 191.
(117) p. 247. — The author is here speaking, not, probably, without
a certain share of science, from the study he had formerly given to
matters of a military kind. While in his regiment, in Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick (1785-9 : Selections, v. 3, p. 251), he mastered Eng-
lish grammar, and wro'e a book on arithmetic, in which the rules and
sums are stated in a very neat hand, and another book, of equal neat-
ness, setting out the rules of geometry, accompanied by diagrams. He
was as particular about his dress, being, it is said, the first in the army
to begin wearing the regimental coat buttoned close up. He bore the
character of being extremely rigorous in discipline with the soldiers
under him. During this time, he made some large plans of military
fortifications, drawn with pen-and-ink, most exact in every line, and
showing great application. In his Treatise on Indian Corn, 1828,
par. 183, he mentions a public document which he, while Serjeant
Major, had drawn up for the Commissioners sent out to New Brunswick.
This, he says, came into the hands of the late Duke of Kent, when
Commander-in-Chief of the Province, who afterwards showed it to Mr.
Cobbett, at Halifax, in 1800. — His remarks on the proper discipline
for " Volunteers" (at the time of apprehended invasion, 1804, Register,
v. 5, pp. 32, 54) accord with the recommendations lately published by-
one of the Generals Napier.
(118) p. 248. — Twenty years before this date, the writer had been
imagined on Shakspeare's Cliff by Mr. Perceval himself, when, as At-
torney-General, in 1804, he was prosecuting Mr. Cobbett, before Lord
Ellenborough, for the libel written by Mr. Justice Johnson. Borrow-
ing expression for his contempt from the Roman satirist, Mr. P. says
— " Who is Mr. Cobbett ? Is he a man of family in this country ?
Is he a man wriiing purely from motives of patriotism? Quis homo
hie est t Quo palre natus ? [Who is this man ? what is his origin ?]
He seems to imagine himself a species of censor, who, elevated to the
solemn seat of judgement, is to deal about his decisions for the instruc-
tion of mankind. He casts his eye downward, like the character repre-
sented by the poet of nature, from Dover Cliff, and looks upon the in-
ferior world below as pigmies b?neath him." 29 Howell, S. T. 36. —
Mr. Marshall (quoted in Note 66) affords striking evidence, if he be
correct, of the wildness of "expenditure" i>t this period. In his note
to a Table of figures, published in the MontMy Magazine, No. 392,
yi ar 1824, he says — ''The income of the first five yens of the war.
1793-7, exceeds, by the enormous sum of about 25 millions, the sum
shown to hav-e been expended." And he states another discrepancy as
occurring in the public accounts for 1816, " when about 3 millions
more is charged for interest than was actually due." In his Digest.
1833, he asserts that these matters are still not cleare 1 up.
654 NOTES.
(119) p. 250. — " It is on the warlike spirit of a nation that her honour,
security, and happiness must chkfly depend ; and this spirit is generally
found to exist in an inverse proportion to the magnitude of her purse."
Register, Deer. 24, 1801 ; Selections, v. 1, p. 221. And in justifying the
superiority in fame, over all other men, enjoyed by those engnged in war,
the author says — " Much as I abhor cuttings and stabbing.*, I have a still
greater abhorrence of submission to a foreign yoke. Commerce, Opu-
lencp, Luxury, Effeminacy, Cowardice, Slavery: these are the stages of
national degradation. We are in the fourth ; &c." Register, August,
1805. — The recent Declaration of the Merchants, Bankers, Traders,
and others, of London, for " cultivating the arts of peace" with
France, was advertised as being signed by 5,000 persons, and is in our
morning papers of March 29, 1853. Among the leading names, there
are those of four Baronets, and of eight commercial members of Par-
liament. It was carried to the footstool of Napoleon III. by some of the
City gentlemen ; and to some of these our newspapers imputed motives
of the money-making kind. But the Manchester men had long before
done this. In 1840, when a warlike spirit was apprehended with
Mons. Thiers, the then French Minister, there was a meeting of the
" Friends of Peace,'' on a requisition signed by "60 firms and indivi-
duals," at which an Address was adopted to their " Friends and Allies,"
the French nation. This Address is in the Manchester papers of Nov.
4, 1840. It was presented at Paris by a deputation, having at their
bead Dr. Bowrine, formerly styled our " commercial agent on the
Continent," and now in office at Hong Kong. — The spirit prompting
those Peace Placards, which were suppressed by Lord Derby's
Ministry in October, 1852, is thus treated by Mr. Cobbett. " I have
told you, as General Washington told a great branch of your combination,
that those were not entitled to any of the rights of citizens or subjects,
who, under whatever pretence, refused to take up arms in the defence
of their country, or of the legal powers of the State, including, in your
case, the office and person of the King. I have told you, that if we
Englishmen wire all to act upon your principles, the King might be
dragged from his throne, and the country torn to pieces, or enslaved by
invaders, and that these would be the inevitable results." — Letter to Mr.
James Tuffnell, the Quaker, Register, v. 66, p. 388, (1828).
(120) p. 262.— See Note 12.
(121) p. 265. — "Tall soul," phrase used in Lord John Russell's
Tragedy of Don Carlos, criticised in Register, v. 45, p. 39.
(122) p. 266. — This practice of the Press is noticed in the Letter to
the Luddites (name adopted by the frame-breakers in Notiingham),
Register, v. 22, p. 10; v. 31, p. 571. Selections, " Luddites" in Index.
— A similar attack was made, but a short time back, upon the trades-
men of London, who were charged with selling at prices not sufficiently
evincing the " benefits of free trade." The character of the American
Press, as pictured by itself, is given in Register, v. 81, p. 732. — With
the English, a remarkable instance occurred in the Courier, for many
years the 1'ory Ministerialist evening organ, and advocate of legitimacy.
It maintained the cause of the unfortunate Charles X. and Due D'An-
gouleme until they were undoubtedly beaten by the pe>>ple. But when
they were sent to sea, and it was questioned whether tney ought to be
allowed to land in England, the Courier spoke of them as " that couple
of vagabonds afloat in the Channel."
NOTES. 655
(123) p. 268. — Something is wanting here, which renders the sense
incomplete.
(124) p. 269.— Supposed to refer to Mr. Canning and Mr. Hus-
kisson, who were about this date at a public dinner in Liverpool. Re-
gister, v. 47. p. 705.
(125) p. 273. — It has been said, however, by many competent
judges, that, as resppcts grain, our land has not of late borne crops so
large as it did from 60 to 80 years back. — Our " protectionist " and
''free trade" parties have each had to confess themselves much
deceived with respect to the great supplies they expected from America.
The House of Commons Return, obtained by Mr. Cayley, Nov. 1852
{Paper 14), shows 9,618,026 qrs., the total import of all sorts of
gra ; n in 1851 : but in these there are but 911,855 qrs. of wheat from
the United Stages, while France alone furnishes 1,193,433 qrs. of
wheat. It was thought that our supplies from the former country
would be boundless. A miscalculation, from not observing that the
produce, per acre, in America, is much less than with us, the crop de-
pending, not so much on the goodness of soil and of climate, as
upon the quantity of labour bestowed. Mr. Jacob, and Mr. Solly, in
their evidence to the Committee on Agriculture in 1833 (quoted since
by Mr. Bowen of Bridgewater, and by the late Mr. John Fielden)
represent hundreds of thousands of the producers of fine wheat on the
Continents being themselves fed on " potatoes, hog-pea', and gruel ;"
diet very different from that of the " free- trade Democrats of America,''
who were placarded, a few years back, as being about to send us such
great quantities of their cheap corn. The inferior quality of other
American provisions, received by us of late, is to be accounted for in
no other way. They would be better, if better paid for. — In the
Transactions of the American Institute for 1850 (New York),
General Chandler is reported as saying that they may expect to
furnish Great Britain with " but a very small portion of her bread-
stuffs, except in cases of famine, or a general war in Europe. It was
the low price of labour in the North of Europe which enabled her to
procure her supplies there cheaper than she could obtain them from
us." p. 458. Again, in the Volume of the New York Agricultural
Society for 1851, it is said that " the word 'cheap' in the ears of many
has an agreeable sound, having a supposed relationship to prudence
and economy : but this is one among several deceptions. The word
' cheap ' in agriculture, as in roo-t othf-r matters, means inferior.
When a cheap article is obtained, the probability is that deception
lurks somewhere about it : it is cither imperfect in fabric or material,
or purchased at less than its bona fide value, in which case, the
purchaser is but aiding in the ruin of the seller, ive." p. 499.
(126) p. 273. — Many others, since the author ceased to write, havi
spoken in this way. We read precisely simi ; ar arguments in the
tracts of some Reverend, and, no doubt, sincerely benevolent gentle-
null in London, who have as-uiiied the strange name of " Christian
Socialists." — " It is essentially unjust,'' says Mr. G. Foulett Scrope,
M.P., " to punish attacks on property, if you offer no alternative for
the preservation of life; it is practically impossible to prevent the
destitute, if left unrelieved, from preying upon society in tome shape
or other, as mendicants, vagrants, plunderers, or rebels." Letter tu
I md John Russell, 1837.
656 NOTES.
(127) p. 276.— See page 531.
(128) p. 277. — The Sentence here mentioned : see Note 104. —
Baron Maseres was a steady advocate of parliamentary reform. He
republished a number of valuable tracts, on that and various other
subjects, and a large work on Logarithms.
(129) p. 281.— And the same with some other animals. In the
South these "fish " are called flounders by the country people : in the
North, flukes, which is another name for flat-fish.
(130) p. 283. — See Register, address To the Edinburgh Reviewers,
v. 52, p. 321, on the state of Religion in America, An eminent
Unitarian professor of divinity, in the United States, was a few years
ago cashiered by his flock for having ventured to preach against negro
slavery. — It is an error to suppose, as some do, that the law of that
country takes no cognizance at all of religion. "The right of a society
or government to interfere in matters of religion will hardly be con-
tested by any persons, who believe that piety, religion, and morality
are intimately connected with the well-being of a state and indispen-
sable to the administration of civil justice." Story's Commentaries,
(1833), v. 3, p. 722.-2 Kent's Commentaries, 34, 37. 4th Edit.
refers to Bakes, alias Oakes v. Hill, 10 Pickering, 333, a case of en-
forcing church dues.
(131) p. 285.— The late Mr. John Knowles, of Thursley.
(132) p. 286. — The true cause and circumstances of the war of
1793 are frequently alluded to by the author, as in Register, v. 61, p.
37 ; v. 69, p. 430 ; Selections, v. 5, p. 308 ; Register, v. 70, p. 379.
In the latter of these (1830) he says — "In the year 1793, a famous
old Boroughmonger said to Mr. John Nicholls, ' If we suffer this re-
volution to succeed in France, our order must be overset in this coun-
try. We will therefore try to prevent its success. Our trial may
fail, but if we do not try we must be overthrown.' " — See Recollections
and Reflections, fyc. during the Reign of George III., by John
Nicholls, Esq., M.P. in the 15th, 16th, and 18th Parliaments
of Great Britain : 2 small 8vo. volumes : 2nd Edit., 1822. This is
a work which should be read by every one desiring to understand the
matter of the war of 1793, the whole blame of which Mr. Nicholls
throws on Mr. Burke, and those whom he describes as "the great
Whig families," the leaders of whom were the Duke of Portland,
Earl Fitz william, and Earl Spencer. The author was a Barrister, of
Lincolns-Inn, and wrote in 1819-20. His book is written in a tem-
perate way, but implies a lasting reproach. " Mr. Burke had suffi-
cient influence over the great Whig families, to induce tbem to concur
with the King in clamouring for a crusade against French principles.
Mr. Pitt was unable to resist ; and that he might retain his situation
as Minister, he was under the necessity of receiving the great Whig
families into his Cabinet, and of embarking the country in the cru-
sade." v. 2, p. 200. The true character of this war, as respects par-
ties, has been little studied ; and recent explanations have done little
better than confirm such erroneous notions on the subject as were
before prevalent.
(133) p. 289. — The account of General Brown's performances, in
Register, v. 30, p. 516. — "Deposing James Madison," an idea attri-
buted to the late Admiral Sir Joseph Yorke, who was also said to have
prescribed the " twenty-four hours under water " as the cure for Ire-
MOTES. 657
land. The Admiral was drowned, near Southampton, from the up-
setting of a boat.— Register, v. 47, p. 728 ; v. 53, p. 579, 580.
(134) p. 292. — "London University." The newspapers informed
us that Lord Brougham was laughed at, and even " hissed" by the
bays of this school, when, in 1848, he was making them a speech
against boys participating in the revolutionary spirit of the time. — See
Note 231.
(135) p. 293. — The following description of one of these hunting
scenes is from his first Letter to the Hon. John Stuart Woriley, the
present Lord Wharncliffe, on Equitable Adjustment, Register, v. 81,
p. 514. The author is asserting that Mr. Wortley had been put, by
other writers, on a wrong scent as to the value of the currency ; and
he thus introduces the Red Herring.
" When I was a boy, a huntsman, named George Bradley*
who was huntsman to Mr. Smither, of Hale, very wantonly
gave me a cut with his whip, because I jumped in amongst
the dogs, pulled a hare from them, and got her scut, upon
a little common, called Seal Common, near Waverly Abbey.
I was only about eight years old ; but my mind was so
strongly imbued with the principles of natural justice, that I
did not rest satisfied with the mere calling of names, of
which, however, I gave Mr. George Bradley a plenty. I
sought to inflict a just punishment upon him ; and, as I had
not the means of proceeding by force, I proceeded by cunning
in the manner that I am presently going to describe. I had
not then read the Bible, much less had I read Grotius and
Puffendorf: I. therefore, did not know, that God and man
had declared that it was laudable to combat tyranny by either
force or fraud ; but, though I did not know what tyranny
meant, reason and a sense of justice taught me that Bradley
had been guilty of tvrannv towards me ; and the native
resources of my mind, together with my resolution, made me
inflict justice on him in the following manner: — Hounds
(hare-hounds at lest) will follow the trail of a red-herring
as eagerly as that of a hare, and rather more so, the scent
beirif stronger and more unbroken. I waited till Bradlev
and his pack were tailing for a hare in the neighbourhood
of that same Seal common. They were pretty sure to find m
the space of half an hour and the hare was pretty sure to go
up the common and over the hill to the south. I placed
myself ready, with a red herring at the end of a string, in a
dry field, and near a hard path, along which, or near to
which, 1 was pretty sure the hare would go. I waited a
long while ; the sun was getting high ; the scent bad ; but,
bv-and-by, I heard the view-halloo and full cry. I scpuatted
down in the fern, and my heart bounded with the prospect
r v 3
G58 NOTES.
of inflicting justice, when I saw my lady come skipping by,
going off towards Pepper Harrow ; that is to say, to the
south. In a moment, I clapped down my herring, went oft*
at a right angle towards the west, climbed up a steep bank
very soon, where the horsemen, such as they were, could
not follow ; then on I went over the roughest part of the
common that I could find, till I got to the pales of Moor
Park, over which I went, there being holes at the bottom
for the letting in of the hares. That part of the park was
covered with short heath ; and I gave some twirls about to
amuse Mr. Bradley for half an hour. Then off I went, and
down a hanger at last, to the bottom of which no horseman
could get without riding round a quarter of a mile. At the
bottom of the hanger was an alder-moor, in a swamp. There
my herring ceased to perform its service. The river is
pretty rapid : I tossed it in, that it might go back to the set:.,
and relate to its brethren the exploits of the land. I washed
my hands in the water of the moor; and took a turn, and
stood at the top of the hanger to witness the winding-up of
the day's sport, which terminated a little before dusk in one
of the dark days of November. After overrunning the
scent a hundred times ; after an hour's puzzling in the dry-
field, after all the doubles and all the turns that the sea-
born hare bad given them, down came the whole posse to the
swamp; the huntsman went round a mill-head not far off,
and tried the other side of the river : ' No ! d — n her, ichere
can she be?' And thus, amidst conjectures, disputations^
mutual blamings, and swearings a plenty, they concluded,
some of them half leg deep in dirt, and going soaking home
at the end of a drizzling day." (Register, v. 81, p. 513).
(136) p. 298. — Mr. John Black, a Scotchman, formerly Editor of
the Morning Chronicle, and often called " Doctor " in the Register.
Though these two publications were continually warring, on questions
of Education, Poor- Law, &c, Mr. Black was always a good-humoured
opponent. At the hottest of the anti-pauper crusade (1835) his paper
held that the New Poor-Lawwas " the saviour of the landed interest,"
and " the sheet-anchor of the country," and that " the pauper must
be made to feel that poverty is a degradation." Not long afterwards,
when the fame measure was in odium, Lord Brougham (then cast off
by the Whigs) endeavoured to throw on Lord Melbourne the blame of
tht; New Poor-Law ; and then Mr. Black's paper candidly admitted
'..iat the great Philippic of Lord B. of 1834, in which he had said that
the poor of England were less humane than " the most brutal savages,"
showed him to have been " ignorant of the subject of his declama-
tion." We find the edi'or of the Examiner, another anti-pauper
print, doing the s. me in 1838. " Lord Brougham has not yet found that
NOTES. 659
he was in error upon the Poor- Law. * * * He designated the statute
of Elizabeth as an ' accursed' act.'— When the History here named
first cameout (in Numbers, in 1825), there was a publication in answer,
made to resemble it, in colour of wrapper &c, and two or three Num-
bers of this latter were distributed, gratis,, to a great many people.
The Numbers printed of Cobbett's History were to the amount of more
than 50,000 each, the first edition, and of one No. there were 61,000
sold.
(137) p. 290.— And then, again, for the growth of corn, some say
the finest ten miles are those between Worcester and Tewkesbury.
But there may be other claimants for a distinction of this kind.
There is the vale of Evesham, afterwards noticed in this work.
(138) p. 303.— See Note 209. We are now (1853) full of appre-
hensions that there may not be sufficient numbers of the " Working
Interest" 6pared, from the tide of emigration, to maintain the other
Interests of the country. See Note 161.
(139) p. 304.— Mr. Buxton here mentioned, the late Sir Thomas
Fowell Buxton, Bart. — See article in Reaister, ("Aristocratic
Quakers,") v. 82. p. 429, on slave-holders, with account of Benjamin
Lay, a Quaker, persecuted by Quakers, for endeavouring to free the
slaves of Quakers.
(110) p. 305. — Register, To the Ministers, on this, v. 56, p. 129- —
and see Small-Note Bill, Note 27.
(141) p. 306.— Sincrt this date we have had the Quarterly Reviewers
{in 1833) claiming to have the alienated property of the Church re-
stored. On the other hand, the " Financial Reform " gentlemen (at
the head of whom is a Mr. Robertson Gladstone) appear, from the
way in which they treat the subject, to intend that the Church shall
rather be a loser than a gainer, by the next turn in her affairs. — These
gentlemen, five vears back, at a moment when Engl md was found to be
" a poor country " were engaged in rummaging up tlie accounts of
the Qu.-en's priv ite expenditure, and republishing, from a book of
kitchen oossip, what they call curious details touching " bedchamber
women," "gentlemen ushers," and " pages of the back stairs."
(142) p. 306.— During tha difficulties of 1847, the late Lord \sh-
hurton was reported as saying neai ly the same thing to the learned per-
Bon here named : the latter asking the government to increase the
money of the country, and the former rointing out to him that then
was already more than could be safely used.
(143) p. 307.— One of " Peel's Ac s," 7 & 8 George 4, c. 42.
(144) p. 308.— {Seepage 28.
(145) p. 310. — In Blackstone there are some interesting passages
of the precious metals, and the effects resulting;
him) more especially as respects the custom of corn rents, originally
invented, be says, tor the benefit of the landlord. Book 1, c. 7- " Lord
Treasurei Burleigh, and Sir Thomas Smith, thnn (time of Elizabeth)
r ing how treaily the value of money had sunk,
by the quantity of bullion imported, dei ised tins method for upholding
the revenn i of colleges." /fr/'/A- 2, c. 20.— The proposed Resolution*
framed by Col. Thompson, late M.P., during the Session of 1852, wi n
in like manner intended to bew tit the public creditor in apprehension
of his dividend becomil r. from the new imports of gold, of l<
value.
GG0 NOTES.
(146) p. 313. — Many readefs of this sentence will have observed
that since the time when it was written, the Americans have been
doing pretty much as they pleased ; as witness the Boundary -Line,
Texas, Oregon, Mexico, and their now recent stubbornness respecting
Cuba. California was first discovered by our Admiral Sir Francis
Drake ; and some writers have insisted that we had no right to suffer
the United States to assume any power in that country.
(147) p. 316. — Agreeing with this, and the passage next following
it, is the Letter to the People of Kent, Register, v. 57, p. G14, where
the author says that "Nations are essentially enemies of each other.
They talk as friends. They make treaties of amity. They make
in the most solemn names, compacts of perpetual friendship ; and, in
framing those very treaties, each party has an ultimate eye to war,"
&c. — Mr. Huskisson'sterm "reciprocity," to which Mr. Cobbettused
to add the phrase " all on one side," has been succeeded in favour by
two other remarkable dicta of leading statesmen. Sir James Graham
was reported as declaring, in May, 1846, that "this country can no
longer be regarded as an agricultural, but a manufacturing country "
(a declaration previously made in No. 30 of the League Circular) ;
while Sir Robert Peel, in May, 1842, asserted it to be a principle ad-
mitted by all, " that we should buy in the cheapest market, and sell in
the dearest." The latter of these is among Lord Chesterfield's very
shopkeeper-like Axioms in Trade. But it also appears, as having
been promulgated many hundred years before, in Rollin's description
of the Carthaginians, where it figures with a more lively effect.
" Traffick," says this Historian, "was the predominant inclination and
the peculiar characteristic of the Carthaginians ; it formed in a manner
the basis of the state, the soul of the commonwealth, and the grand
spring which gave motion to all their enterprizes. The Carthaginians
were skilful merchants ; employed wholly in traffic ; excited strongly
by the desire of gain, and esteeming nothing but riches ; directing all
their talents, and placing their chief glory in amassing them, though,
at the same time, they scarce knew the use for which they were de-
signed, or how to use them in a noble or worthy manner. A. mountebank
had promised to the citizens of Carthage, to discover to them their
most secret thoughts in case they would come, on a day appointed, to
hear him. Being all met, he told them ' they were desirous to buy
cheap and sell dear.' Every man's conscience pleaded guilty to the
charge ; and the mountebank was dismissed with applause and
laughter."
(148) p. 318. — "Rather than repeal:" something wanting here
in the original text.
(149) p. 318. — A similar state of things was affecting the land
about ten years later, when it was resolved to make an onslaught upon
the pauper, in 1834. See Note 217.
(150) p. 325. — Wheat, in the calculation of Sir Robert Peel, was
expected, after repeal of the corn-law, to range from 52s. to 56s. the
quarter. It has of late, 1850 to 1853, been down to from 37s. to
45s.
(151) p. 326. — " Westminster's Pride," &c, a name once applied
to the late Sir Francis Burdett, by his admirers of Westminster.
(152) p. 328. — The "barn-orator" is Mr. Edmund Wodehonse,
one of the members for Norfolk, from whom Mr. Cobbett adopted the
NOTES. GG1
phrase "equitable adjustment." A phrase, however, which had
long before been employed, as with the financiers of Louis XIV. — The
Norfolk Petition, drawn up by Mr. Cobbett : Register, v. 45, p. 78 ;
v. 56, p. 717.
(153) p. 330.— See page 304, and Note 139.
(154) p. 339. — "It is only deceiving the poor, and preparing for
them a wretched existence, to call them from the plough and the
hammer to the School-bench, with a promise that the latter is the way
t j fortune. * * * If you reduced the number of the labouring
class to a fourth or fifth of what they now are, you need dispense also
with three-fourths or four-fifths of the clergy, the lawyers, and other
professional men. Get rid of all the working people, and then you
may do without the rest of mankind. * * * It is among those
who cultivate the soil that an increase in numbers is attended by the
least danger.'' — Sismondt's Etudes, v. 3, pp. 2G1, 267.
(155) p. 352. — Mr. Locke, on Education, expresses almost exactly
the same views of the subject. And we find the same also in writers
of the United Sta'es, with reference to the condition of their own
country, as affected, for good or for evil, by mere book learning.
(156) p. 356. — This blaming of the bank was afterwards more
remarkable, when, in 1838-9, the " Manchester Chamber of Com-
merce" reproached the Bank of Engl md with that confusion and
misery which were just then occasioned, in fact, by the Joint-Stock
Banks. — A similar error has again appeared now (1853) in the asser-
tion of some, that the influx of gold has done nothing towards the
present rise in prices and briskness in trade. Between November,
1851, and July, 1852, the Bank received an addition to her gold of
about 7,000,000/. During the same period, her paper issues increased
from 19,355,220/. to 2j, 748,735/. An increase of notes to this
amount has never yet failed to revive trade and manufactures. It is
reported also that the banks of our customers in America have
greatly increased their paper, on the strength of the gold lately brought
in to the United States.
(157) p. 357— See page 444, and Note 205.
(158) p. 300. — "The modern labourer enjoys a novel and almost
magical facility of locomotion. * * * He is whirled alon; with a
velocity, ease, and comfort, which would have excited the envy and
wonder of ancient civilization or feudal magnificence," Lecture of
Professor Rickards, p. 76 : (see Note 237). — It is certain that it has
been the habit of the country people to edl those of a neighbouring
parish by the name of " foreigner." — In the Reports of the " Criminal
Stitistics'' of the North, some of the writers have represented the cha-
racter of the people in the form of a map, the several districts being
marked in a lighter or darker shade, according to the greater i r smaller
amount of crime. The more thickly populated, and manufacturing
places, are by far the darker. — The gentlemen of the " League" are
represented as having said, in some of their speeches, that the immo-
rality of these dark spots is owing to the bad example of those who
have come to them from the " dark parishes" (i. e< ignorant parishes)
of agriculture. Yet it is said, in the Report on Health of Towm, and
in various other publications, thai the infant children of many of the
manufacturing people are tended throughout the day sumewhat after
the manner of rearing house-lambs, but having a very inferior kind of
662 NOTES.
sustenance. One old woman has the care of a lot of these, while
the mothers are gone from home to the factoiy, keeping them quiet by
piling them doses of •' Godfrey's cordial," "mother's quietness,"
"infants' cordial," "soothing-syrup" &c. A small work entitled
Public Nurseries, published by Parker, West Strand, 1850, and in
which are quoted a great number of authorities on this subject, says —
" In Ashton, 15 druggists sold on an average about 6 gallons per week
of these preparations. In Preston 21 druggists sold in one week
681bs. of narcotics, of which but a very small quantity is said to have
been for the use of adults. ' Godfrey' contains \\ ounce of pure lau-
danum to the quart. 'Infants' cordial' is stronger." Paee 11.—
General Sir John Elley, in debate on the Factory Bill of 1836 (May
10), said that a " recruiting officer would reject five out of ten of those
who offered themselves for the Army in the manufacturing districts,
whereas he would not reject one in ten in the rural."
(159) p. 362.— Mr. Grimshaw, Mayor of Preston, in 1826.
"Ditches." refers to passages made for the bringing up of voters at
the election in that year. Register, v. 58, p. 777-
(160) p. 368.— See Notes 43 and 44.
(161) p. 376. — It is now repoited, 1853, that our emigration is at
the rate of 1000 persons per day. In an article of the Morning
Chronicle (government organ) of April 4, 1836, the condition of the
Irish peasant is stated to form " a picture of human wretchedness and
degradation, the bare appearance of which would cause an English-
man's blood to boil, and his soul to rebel within him." " The bodies
of the people," it says, "have been lying for many days in cellars
and garre's, in a state of putrefaction for want of coffins to bury
them." — Recent, as well as former descriptions of Scotch misery, have
been nearly to the same effect. — The Irish Poor-Law Bill, brought in
during the session of 1835 by Mr. G. Poulett Scrope and Mr. Ben-
jamin Hawes, offered relief to the pauper only on condition of his con-
senting " to emigrate." In the bad time of 1848 (June) the Times
newspaper was almost frantic with eagerness to ship off the English
labourers, that being then the panacea. In January, 1849, the same
paper becomes as wildly alarmed at the fact of 244,251 persons having
emigrated in eleven months, perceives that "the movement in pro-
gress bids fair to affect the condition of the national prosperity in
ch»ap labour," and says that " we may very properly recoil at an in-
cident of such overwhelming magnitude." And again, on the 19th of
October, 1852, the same paper ridicules and jeers Lord Berners, for
having, at the Waltham Agricultural Meeting, questioned the polcyof
" importing labourers from France and Belgium." Encouraged by
the new prosperity, arising from the influx of gold, and r.-ferring to the
circumstance of "a new factory at Bradford now rising up, covering
six acres," &c, the Times asks, "Why is it un-English to hail the
arrival of French, or Flemish, or German immigrants : what are the
English people altogether but one great medley of racts, collected from
every shore within reach of these isles ? " As to large farm build-
ings, on the other hand, it observes that " there are too many of them
already. They are an extravagance, and they do not pay." Prices
having become low after the repeal of the corn-law, it was found rea-
sonable that our farmers should be exported, and thus feel themselves
really " free " or "liberated" by the measure. So it is stated in the
NOTES. 6G3
Economist paper, a publication having much influence with the govern-
ment, and whose edito-, Mr. James Wilson (a Scotch gentleman) was
Secretary of the Board of Control under Lord John Russell, and is
now (1853) a Secretary to the Treasury under Lord Aberdeen. That
paper, of the 17th February, 1849, says — " We read lately an account
given at some meeting of the agriculturists, of two English farmers
going abroad expressly to cultivate some part of the Continent in order
to supply our markets. Not only the continent of Europe, but the
United States and all our Colonies are now thrown open to the indus-
try of the farmers of England for the same purpose. We know the
difficulty of removal ; still they will rather remove than be ruined or
starved. They are the men, therefore, whose industry has been most
liberated, whose independence has been most assured, by the land of
the whole world being offered to them to buy or hire, by the abolition
of the corn-law, in order to continue with advantage their labour of
supplying our markets. They are no longer limited to the land owned
by the English aristocracy. They are no longer tempted to bind them-
selves to the cultivation of our soil. If they cannot get land on easy
terms here, they can get it elsewhere. It is the alteration in the rela-
tion between farmers and landlords, the substitution of considerations
purely commercial for mixed considerations, political and commercial,
in all their bargains, against which the land owners of England, since
the soil of the United States of America has been offered to the in-
dustry of our farmers, will have to provide. That the latter will, as
fast as circumstaaces allow, hasten to take advantage of their new free-
dom, we have no doubt ; and 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." This writer, at the time of the
last dreadful Irish famine, remonstrated against our giving money to
save the people's lives, saying, that what they ought to have was a
stronger police to keep them in order.
(162) p. 380 — There are passages inthe Etudes of M. de Sismondi,
vol. 3, pp. 2 Jo, 237 (1838), which are all but literally the same as
what the f uthor here says in pages 378 to 380. — " The problem which
it is the business of political economy to solve is — how to produce ihe
most, with the least labour." Westminster Review, 1827, quoted
Register, v. C4, p. 245.
(103)p. 382. — The dismal doctrines on '' excessive population "
have since been carried to such a pitch, that finally, in 1838, there was
a plan, gravely recommended in a work of 73 octavo pages, for mur-
dering infant children, by means of what the author calls "painless
extinction," to facilitate which he gives directions most scientific and
minute. This work, brought out in a rather expensive form, is entitled
" On the Possibility of Limiting Popnlousness. By Marcus." It
w is sold by respectable publishers, Messrs. Sherwood and Co., and
bears internal evidence, in its language, of having been written by a
S otchman. The Hon. and Rev. Mr. Baptist Noel, the seceder, in one
of his anti corn-law tracts, casts the infamy of this publication upon
the poor, alleging that he had found i; in the shop of a " chartist
bookseller ; the fact being, that the little bookseller had republished
the. work by way of exposing the author and bis teaching to what they
merited. — " It m gh be objectionab e, on main r«i els, t ) withhold
relief from the future issue of marriages sin ady contracted; but why
664 NOTES.
may not such relief be refused to the children born of marriages to be
contracted after a certain period ?" Mr., now Lord Brougham, quoting
Mr. Malthus, on Agricultural Distress, in House of Commons,
April 9, 1816, (Speech republished by himself, in 1838.)— See Note
237.
(164) p. 384. — For Luddites, mentioned here in p. 382, see Note
122. — The arguments in favour of machinery are obvious. They are
strongly urged in the Address to the Luddites ; and all that has been
more recently written on the same side is, and must of necessity have
been pretty much to the same effect. Mr. John Arthur Roebuck,
M.P., has published (1852) a History of the Whig Ministry o/1830.
In this work, as supposed by the Westminster Review, Mr. R. would
appear to be little other than holding a pen as agent for Lord
Brougham, and for the purpose, principally, of extolling the motives
and conduct of his patron, at the period of the Reform Bill. This is
the same Mr. Roebuck, who, in 1835, started a cheap, but short
lived Pamphlet for the People, the fir?t number of which intimated
that it was to succeed, as a leader of the public mind, to Cobbett's
Two-penny Trash. In that work Mr. R. was very democratic, and
advocated a "putting down of the Lords," they being an "un-
mixed evil,'' while he was also unmerciful towards those who change
in their political opinions. In Register, v. 88, p. 323, Mr. Cobbett
warns Mr. Roebuck that the people will be too likely to accept his
(Mr. R.'s) " trash" in a literal sense. ' But in Mr. R.'s more recent
History, the author indulges in sarcasm against " the mob orator" and
"the demagogue," and speaks of "the foolish rant of the poor
chartist:" and he remarks, in a note, that " Cobbett always raved
against machinery." There are, however, some able writers, who
consider that Mr. Cobbeti's notions about machinery were fir too
much in favour of it. And Mr. Roebuck was, no doubt, aware, that
Lord Brougham applied to Mr. Cobbett during the riots of 1830, to
have the Letter to the Luddites republished, as a defence of machinery.
Mr. Roebuck's sneer at the " poor chartist" is worthy of note. For,
as the last " Convention" originated with some persons of wealth and
station at Birmingham (August 6, 1838,) and not with the afterwards
imprisoned or transported chartists ; so the document called the
Charter was the work of some Members of Parliament, who, in 1837,
found themselves in bad odour with the people, and were some of them
rejected as candidates, from having supported the New Poor-Law.
These gentlemen laid their heads together to devise an expedient,
whereby to toll the people away from the grievance then engaging
their attention. Accordingly, a new move for " further Reform" was
projected, and the Working Men's Association were invited to join
the Gentlemen Reformers. Colonel Thompson, in 1839, stated that
there were 14 Members of Parliament among the drawers-up of the
Charter. On one edition of it there was a picture of a new sort of
ballot-box, much resembling one of our patent rat-traps. Mr. Roe-
buck was among the authors of this " Charter," which had its origin
as here stated.
(165) p. 389.— This refers to the date (1800) of the controversy
between Dr. Sturges, Prebendary of Winchester, and the late Dr.
Milner, Roman Catholic Bishop, and author of the Letters to a
Prebendary.
NOTES. 665
(166) p. 393. — Order, of Sept. 1, 1826, for admitting certain grain
at low duties. — Register, v. 59, p. 677.
(167) p. 395. — The bank here referred to was one of those which
afterwards broke in the unfortunate time of 1847, about December. —
Scotch Farming. On one of the " League" tracts of 1843, there is
a picture representing two Englishmen with a wheeled plough, and
having five horses all in tandem ; and beneath it a clever ploughman of
the Lothians, holding a swing-plough, and two horses, with reins,
abreast. But the Scotch borrowed the latter mode of ploughing from
England. It is mentioned in Mr. Young's Southern Tour, 80 years
back, as practised in several counties, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, &c.
Mr. Cobbett had swing-ploughs, to work with two horses, from
Suffolk, in 1811. The practice was certainly used in Surrey as early
as 1813 ; but perhaps long before. — There are some persons, however,
who write on these subjects without seeming to be aware that a hnrse,
and even an ox, will not bear the same toil and privation as a human
being.
(168) p. 398.— See Note 10.
(169) p. 398.— Father of Mr. John Wood, who was M.P. for
Preston in 1826, and afterwards Chairman of the Board of Taxes.
(170) p. 401. — "Beef, pork, &c." quoting the words of Chancellor
Fortescue, in his work in praise of the Laws of England.
(171) p. 403. — Lord John Russell, not long back, reminded the
manufacturers in the House of Commons, that it was they who had
the most frequently sought the aid of troops to keep the people in
order.
(17'J) )>. 405. — Licences to beg were granted, by law, in time
of Henrv VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth, as mentioned in Regis-
ter, v. 88, p. 757.
(173) p. 112. — But it was proposed by Pitt, in 1796, to give pre-
miums lor large families in the case of labourers; or, rather, this
QS to have been acceded to by Mr. Pitt, on the suggestion of Mr.
Whitbread. This was in the debate on Mr. Whitbread's Bill for
regulating wages. Here we find Mr. Pitt speaking against the law of
tlement, and for that "free circulat on of labour" so much urged
of late. Cobbett' s Debates, v. 32, p, 70S.— In same debate, page 712,
Mr. Lechmere states the barley loaf to be at I2\d., and wages Is. per*
day.
(174) p. Hi. — Mr. Robert Dale Owen did (in 1836) publish a
work for this purpose. He refers to Mr. Mill, the author of British
India, bs baring inculcated the same, in the article Colony, Encyclo-
Britannica,
( 1 75 ) p. 1 15.— This operation of " throwing the people back," &c
wm i in 1841-2; when in one of Mr. Robert Hyde Greg's
tracts, he warns the landed proprietors of " vast multitudes residing
in the manufacturing districts, but who really belong to the agricul-
tural ones," being "caai back upon their birth-place, and claiming
support from their native parishes."
p, 122.— Willis n, printer, of Manchester. It has
he.-n said that Mr. Canning did Dot iii fad otto r tins expression, But
it was asserted, as a matter of complaint, in Mr. Ogden's own account
of bis sufferin R ■ >• \er, vr. 33, p. 565; v. 61, p. 531. And in
n, /</. v. 70, p. 179.
666 NOTES.
(177) p. 436. — "Patient resignation" has been the compliment
paid in Parliament, within a short time past, to the degraded Scotch
and Irish poor, while dying of hunger.
(178) p. 438. — The medicinal plant, colchicum. is much like a pur-
ple crocus, only about two inches taller in the stalk, and rather wider
in the flower.
(179) p. 438. — This refers to Sir James Graham's wirk on Corn
and Currency, in which the writer says, in speaking of his own class,
the landlords — " Substantial justice is on our side ; and who are they
that are against us ? — the Annuitants, the Fundholders, and the
Economists ; a body which the Land Owners, if true to themselves,
and in concert with the people, cannot fail to defeat. * * * It is not
the price of bread aione, which is a check to our industry; on the
contrary, I am well convinced, that its effect is insignificant, compared
with the weight of taxation ; and every notion of free- trade is wors^
than visionary, unless accompanied by a large reduction of taxes and
duties." (1827), 3rd Edition, pp. 64, 101.
(180) p. 439.— The Order specified in Note 166.
(181) p. 440. — In the Northern counties, the popular name for
hawker or pedlar is " Scotchman."
(182) p. 441. — Mr. Hay was Vicar of Rochdale, and Chairman of
the Lancashire Sessions at Salford.
(183) p. 443.— See page 494 : Note 200.
(184) p. 444.— See page 518: Note 205.
(185) p. 447.— And Mr. Lambton (the late Lord Durham) at a
dinner in Newcastle-oa-Tyne,in 1819, was reported as saying, that "the
Radical Reformers were bawling, ignorant, and mischievous quacks,
whose doctrines and views were exposed to universal derision and ab-
horrence." Newcastle Chronicle, 9th January. The Nobility and
landed Gentry have now a more powerful, but perhaps not a more
magnanimous class of men than the humble Radicals to deal with.
The Liverpool " Financial Reform " gentlemen, in treating of the
Aristocracy and Public Service, observe that " the public have not
forgotten the desperate battle fought by the Bentinck family and the
Duke of Richmond against the nation's bread and industry." They
make no ceremony in their attack upon high ladies on the pension-
fist. And they assert that " no chairman of a board of guardians has
more rigorously enforced the poor-law than the Duke of Richmond,
chairman of the West Hampnet Union." At a large reform meeting
in .Manchester, held on the 3rd Deer. 1851, Mr. John Bright, the
present Member for the Borough, after taking a review of the above-
mentioned battle, and of circumstances preceding it, exclaimed, with
an emphasis on the last word — " and then, the proudest Aristocracy
in the world succumbed I" — Mr. Cobbett, in his Letter to the Nobility
of England, thus addresses them : —
' You feel, because you must feel, that you are not the
men that your grandfathers were ; but you have come into your
present state by slow degrees, and therefore you cannot tell,
even to yourselves, not only how the change has come about,
but you cannot tell what sort of change it really is. You
may know what it is, however, or, at least, you may form
NOTES. 667
some lii tie notion of the nature of it when you reflect that
your grandfathers would as soon thought, aye, and sooner
thought of dining with a chimney-sweep than of dining with
a Jew, or with any huckstering reptile, who had amassed
money by watching the turn of the market ; that those
grandfathers would have thought it no dishonour at all to sit
at table with farmers, or even with labourers, but that they
would have shunued the usurious tribe of loan-jobbers, and
other notorious changers of money, as they would have
shunned the whirlwind or the pestilence. These usurers
now take precedence of you in many cases, and many of you
really live in awe of them. To this you have brought your-
selves, by your jealousy of those who are justly denominated
the people, who are your natural friends, and whose friend-
ship you have lost, and thereby made yourselves the de-
pendants, in some degree, at any rate, of this tribe of loan-
jobbing vagabonds whom you despise in your hearts, and
whom you compliment in your words and by your looks.
Never, everv reader of this Register will say, were truer
words than these put upon paper. * * *
" Every man of sense knows, as well as he knows how to
distinguish daylight from dark, that England must continue
the greatest naval nation in the world, or be reduced to be one
of the most contemptible nations in the world. Burke has said,
and though he was a horrible, pensioned old hack, he said it
well and truly, " that a nation, once become great, can never
sink into a middle state and there remain ; that it must con-
tinue to be great, or, sink so low as hardly to be worthy of
the name uf a nation." There are many men, and those by
no means fools, who think that England will sink down into
the last-mentioned state. I am of a different opinion. The
whole of the history of my country tells me that that will never
be. Divers have been the times when England seemed to
be torn to pieces ; seemed to be incapable of ever recovering ;
but in every such case, whether from a change of the govern-
ment ; from the destruction of the sovereign ; or from some
cause or other, such a change has taken place as to put every-
thing to rights, and to make the nation as formidable as ever
to its neighbours. It has always been, with the people of
England, the most monstrous of crimes in their ruler*, to do
anything tending to pull down the country; and, if mv ob-
servation do not deceive me, that spirit ia as much alive at
this hour as it was in the daya oi King John or of Edward
the Second. Bat something mast sutler ; something must
668 NOTES.
go to wreck; somebody or something must be overturned,
when the nation recovers itself bv means so convulsive. If,
then, my Lords, somebody or something must go to wreck
in consequence of such convulsive movement ; and if I
should be able to show to you that the dreaded
depression, degradation, abasement, must come, without
suitable means of prevention, who, or what is it, my Lords,
that, in such case, would be most likely to go to wreck ? "
Register, v. 61, pp. 133, 135. (1827.)
(186) p. 450.— The author's "Letter toHenry James, Esq., of Bir-
mingham, on his project for making ashillingpass for eighteen-pence,''
in Register, v. 34, p. 1051 (1819). — The converse of this proposed
now (1852-3) owing to the apprehended excess of gold. See Note
14.5.
(187) p. 450.— See page 39, and Note 17.
(188} p. 456.— See pages 28 and 438, and Notes 10 and 179.—
Mr. Cobbett wrote against the Tithe Commutation Bill (passed in
1836 j 6 Sf 7 Win. IV. c. 71), saying that it affected to prop that which
it would tend to pulldown. Register, v. 86, pp. 779, 780; v. 88,
p. 89.
(189) p. 457. — Sir Wiliam Scott, afterwards Lord Stowell: men-
tioned again in page 626. — Lord Campbell, in his Life of Ld.
Chancellor Eldon, quotes a letter from Lord Eldon to his brother, in
which he says how, if he had his way, he would deal with sach people
as " your friend Cobbatt." — It was related, some years back, that
Lord Stowell on one occasion invited his brother and Lord Liverpool
to hear him read an article in the Register, in which the two latter
happened to be named as follows, Lord Stowell supplying the
innuendos as he read : '' ' Liverpool-Jenkinson' (thereby meaning you,
my Lord) ' and Scott-Eldon ' (thereby meaning you, my Lord,") &c.
(190) p. 460.— Kentish Petition, is in Register, v. 42, p. 676.
(191) p. 463. — A quarter of one of these Cotswold sheep, weighing
63!bs., was exhibited as a curiosity in the market of New York, in
January, 1851. It had been sent from Devizes, in Wiltshire. But
there have been considerably heavier; from 751bs. to even 801bs. the
quarter. The Lincolnshire is said to be a still heavier sheep.
(192) p. 464. — Tapping-blocks, or horse blocks, but little known in
some parts of the country, are three or four steps, of brick or stone,
to assist in getting on horseback.
(193) p. 464. — Lord Byron's sarcasm, in associating the Jew and
the Christianas " fellow-Christians," is perhaps no more than justice
to the Jew. Raynal asserts that his church makes nfl comrromise
with usury, but repudiates it altogether. But it would seem that the
Turk, observing the law of his Koran, is after all the most rigid
" Christian " in this respect. The Roman Catholic rules of discipline
forbid the taking of interest to this day ; but those rules are laid aside
in practice. Giannone, in his History of Naples, says that " the Jens
were all expelled from that city in 1540, the Nobles having been
pillaged by their exactions ; and a public pawn-house was established,
in order to avoid the same evil from the Chri-tian lenders of money,
for they, allured by the great gains of the business, began to do worse
than the Jews had done before t!:em." v. 4, pp. 70, 71.
NOTES. 669
(194) p. 466. — See the account of the "Shakespeare Forgeries,"
Register, v. 53, p. 278 ; v. 68, p. 4/2, 505 ; v. 88, p. 552.
(195) p. 469.— Son of the late Mr. William Palmer, of Bollitree,
near Ross.
(196) p. 473. — The "intense Comedy," in Register, v. 55, p.
769. — Mr. John Brie, a partisan of the late Mr. O'Connell, and after-
wards killed in Ireland in a duel.
(197) p. 485. — See pages 438 and 456, and Notes there referred
to. — And as to " taking away victuals," see page 555 and Note there.
(198) p. 490. — " This unqualified position of the learned Commen-
tator must be deemed incorrect." Chitty's Game Laws, 3. — See Note
109. — "The statutes for preserving the game are many and various,
and not a little obscure and intricate ; it being remarked, that in one
statute only, 5 Anne, c. 14, there is false grammar in no fewer than
six places, besides other mistakes : the occasion of which, or what de-
nomination of persons were probably the penners of these statutes, I
shall not at present inquire." — Blackstone, Co mm. Book 4, chap. 13. —
" The game laws are already sufficiently oppressive, and therefore
ou<*ht not to be extended by implication. Nothing can be more op-
pressive than the present system of the game laws. And wherever a
law is productive of tyranny, T shall ever give my consent to narrow
the construction." Mr. Justice Willes, in Jones v. Smart, 1 T. R. 44.
"This nation exhibits at this time every mark of a sink-
ing state ; every mark that the empire of Rome exhibited
when it was approaching to its fall. A false and frivolous taste
has seized upon the people, as well as upon the Government :
in dress, in entertainments, in our manner of receiving our
friends, in our language, habits, and everything, we have
become a hollow and tinsel nation, compared to what our
fathers were. Even in the sports of the field, we have
become frivolous, and effeminate, and senseless. Our Lords
and Gentlemen now do precisely what the old Noblesse of
France did, just before the Revolution. It is not sporting
now, the finding of the game being uncertain, and the toil
considerable ; but it is going to a poultry-pen with people,
instead of dogs, to drive out the animals, to preserve which,
laws, in emulation of those existing in France, have been
made and executed in England; and the at once slothful,
effeminate, and tyrannical Sportsmen (as they call themselves)
have even adopted the phraseology, and borrowed the terms
of the despicable creatures of France, calling a day's shoot-
ing, a hat Tiiis is a remark as old as aristocracy itself;
hundreds of wise men have repeated this remark, which has
been verified in the decline and fall of every state where such
profusion existed. Everything solid and plain is despised ;
the relationships between master and servant are obliterated
along with the names. AH is hollow and false; all i- al! -
670 NOTES.
tation and unjust pretension : and as for love of country and
its honour, let the estimate he founded on this damning fact,
that the moment the ahove announcement was made at
Llovd's, the Funds rose, making good the observation of the
old Lord Chatham, that that, which was calculated to sink
the character of the country caused the hopes of these muck-
worms to rise. His miserable son augmented the number of
these muckworms a hundred fold : it is his system which has
debased the country ; that has broken its spirit, destroyed
its ancient and laudable pride, and made it view disgrace with-
out shame ; and it really now appears to be fast approaching
towards that state which I described when I tcok my leave of
England in 1817, to avoid the dungeons of Sidmouth and
Castlereagh or to avoid crawlingat their feet. I then told my
countrymen ( Leave-taking Address, vol. 32, March IS),
that, if the system were to go on for any considerable time,
' it is hard to say how very low th ; s country is to be sunk
in the scale of nations. It would, in that case, become so
humble, so poverty-stricken, so degraded, so feeble, that it
would, in a few years, not have the power, even if it had the
inclination, to»defend itself against any invader. The people
would become the most beggarly arod slavish of mankind,
and nothing would be left of England but the mere name,
and that onlv as it were for the purpose of reminding the
wretched inhabitants of the valour and public spirit of their
forefathers.' Greatly do I fear that this prediction will be
verified." — Letter to the Duke of Wellington, on Foreign
Affairs and Lord Aberdeen, Register, v. 66, p. 462 (1828).
(199) p. 492. — Mr. Cobbett, while at Botley, was for years a strict
preserver of game, thou ;h no " shot," keeping sometimes from 30 to
40 dogs, greyhounds, pointers, setters, and s-paniels. He had a cart's
bed full of live har>s brought from Berkshire, to turn down on his
own farms. He prosecuted one poacher, by sueing him, as for a tres-
pass (in the year 1816), in the court of pie -powder, at Winchester.
(200) p. 498.— The House that Jack Built (like the Man in the
Moon}, was one of the many publications of attack upon George IV.
and his Ministers, at the time of Queen Caroline's coming to England,
in 1S20. No less than 28 editions, and 140,000 copies of this were
stated to have been sold in 6 weeks. The Rev. Vicesiaius Knox, D.D.,
Fellovv of St. John's, Oxford, was the reputed author. The Parodies
on the Litany and Creed, for which Mr. Hone was prosecuted in 1817,
were supposed to have been written by a Socinian Min ster, who
afterwards went to the United States. — It is the late Sir Robert
Wilson who is mentioned in this passage : his gallant conduct, whi'e
in service, is frequently alluded to in the Register. — It was voted that
Mr. Home Tooke could not sit in Parliament, because he was in holy
orders.
NOTES. 671
(201) p. 501.— "Reciprocity." See p. 316, and Note 147.
(202) p. 505. — "The quality of mercy : it is twice bless'd, &c."
Merch. of Venice, act iv.
(203) p. 508.— Afterwards were the Report of H. of C. Committee
on renewal of Bank of England Charter (1833), and Report of H.
of C. Committee on Joint-Stock Banks (1837).
(204) p. 515. — Ths question of ce'ibacy seems to have been much
contested among the Brazilians about the year 1828, when a Roman
Catholic Bishop published a work on the subject, afterwards repub-
lished in the United States :— " Demonstration of the Necessity of
abolishing a Constrained Clerical Celibacy ; exhibiting the Evils of
that Institution and the Remedy. By the Rt. Rev. Diego Antonio
Feijo, Senator and Ex -Regent of the Empire of Brazil, Bishop
Elect of Marianna, 8{c. Translated from the Portuguese, by Rev.
D. P. Kidder, A.M.,' Philadelphia : 1844."
(205) p. 518.— See pages 357 and 444'. — Register, v. 60, pp. 385,
449, on the Greek Pie. or Pate a la Grec. — Mr. Doubleday, in his
Financial History of England, has given some account of the ruin
attending our loans to foreign states. — During the revolutionary war
in Spain of 1836, there was a meeting of English bond-holders in
London, the anticipation expressed at which was, more recently, stated
to have been realized in an abundance of confiscations. Mr. R. Thorn-
ton was reported as then saying (May 14), that " The resources of
Spain would allow of ample justice being done to the holders of
Spanish stock. The monastic property was of the value of eighteen
millions per annum. The Crown lands realized an immense amount,
and the Church property was estimated at eleven millions sterling per
annum."
(206) p. 518. — Blackstone's Law Tracts treat at large of this foreign
tyranny, and of the origin and history of the Forest Charters, &c.
(207) p. 523.— And the same author, Commentaries, Book 4, c. 33,
says that the Conqueror " had always ready at bis command an army
of 60,000 knights, or milites."
(208) p. 525. — The late Mr. Chamberlayne is spoken of in one of
the Registers as being a supeiior speaker, and a man of great political
independence.
(209) p. 527.— See p. 555, and Note 217. The "allowance- system,"
Of making up wages out of rates, was condemned by the author many
years back, as being most pernicious to the labourer. Register, v. 14,
p. 73, (1808). — It appears, from the reports in the Farmer's Herald
[ul other publications, that some of the farmers at their meetings are
now, 1852-3, resolving that, to better the condition of the labourer, it
is advisable to pay him better wages. — An eld farmer in Surrey says —
"The oldest, farmers that I remember told me that their labourers
were not pleased if they, the masters, did not at Whitsuntide go to
tlwir cottages to smoke a pipe with them, and te'l them which had
KOI the b «1 ale. And two parishes adjoining that where I was born,
being in fear of annexation (that is, for a rate in aid) to a parish having
n | oor's-ra'e, called a meeting, and invited the labourers to iittend, and
offered them money as relief. This they refused, saying they did not
want it. The farmers adjourned, and called a second nut tint:, it which
thev offered the Lab ur rs some malt. This they accepted : and by
tin- e parishes made a small rate. I believe out, if not both
G72 NOTES.
of these parishes, has since, been paying 20s. in the pound for poor's-
rate." — The fallacy in the notion of a poor man saving for a " bad day''
or "rainy day" has been well and completely exposed by Mr. Sadler.
in his work on Ireland ; and more recently, by Mr. John Bowen of
Bridgewater, in his Letter to the King, in 1835 (published by Hatchard,
Piccadilly). This Letter of Mr. Bowen, and his other tracts on the
Poor-law question, exhibit such knowledge and talent in the writer as
are rarely found among statesmen. " Surely," he says, "the Noble
diffusers of this ' useful knowledge ' should likewise be brought down to
the Prussian standard (sleeping on straw, and their food principally
grey hog-peas boiled in water). Lord Brougham's official salary
would have paid somewhat more than 90 Prussian Judges. Even his
pensioa, for four years' services (<£5,000 a year), is not materially less
than all the judicial salaries of one of the 26 Provincial Governments
of the Prussian monarchy." Authors of Philippics and lectures like
Lord Brougham should be reminded, that those poor whom he has so
unmercifully attacked, have no opportunities, such as he has enjoyed,
of forcing themselves into high places, with enormous pay, by threat-
ening Ministers with the loss of their heads. Note 231.
(210) p. 530. — In some of the country towns in the United States,
where the people are well off, and living much at their ease, it is not
at all uncommon for married couples to advertize for children to adopt.
Thus illustrating Mr. Doubleday's True Law of Population. As is
found also in some of the old writers. Steriliora cuncta pinguia, et
in maribus, et infceminis. Pliny, lib. 11, c. 37.
(211) p. 531. — The Hampshire Petition here referred to, is in Regis-
ter, v. 32, p. 195. — The author was no doubt much influenced, when
making some of the remarks on the clergy which appear in these Rides,
by his recollections of the political conduct of the clergy on this and
other occasions. It is right, however, at this day, to bear in mind the
very able and independent stand which has more recently been made
by the clergy of the Established Church in behalf of the poor. The
Rev. H. F. Yeatman, of Dorsetshire, was the first to expose the falla-
cies of the early Reports of the Poor Law Commissioners. His
writing is inserted in Register, v. 81, pp. 21, 328. Then, during
the 10 or 12 years of commotion occasioned by the New Poor Law,
we had, in the same work, the Rev. G. S. Bull, Rev. Wm, Brock,
Rev. H. J. Marshall, Hon. and Rev. S. G. Osborne, and many others
of the clergy, whose united talents and great exertions produced most
important effects for the good of the poor.
(212)p.534. — Enactments since, inl828 and 1833, enabling Quakers
and Moravians to affirm in place of swearing : 9 Geo. 4, c. 32, and 3
and 4 Wm. 4, c. 49. And again, those who have been, but cease to
be of these sects, but " retain their scruples of conscience," have the
same privilege, by 1 and 2 Vict., c. 77.
(213) p. 535. — This man, John Singleton, lived on the skirt of
Waltham Chase, and bore the repute of being a great poacher. The
cosjent evidence against him (on the charge of wounding a mare, the
property of a person named Earwaker, by shooting,) was asserted to
have been a distorted statement of his own, made to a fellow-prisoner,
wh le aivaiting his trial. He wa< transpoited for life, but permitted to
return at the end of 18 years to his old place of residence. And, al-
though he had lest a leg while abroad, being a man of great energy,
NOTES. 673
he bad, at the time of his death, in the winter of 1852, managed to
acquire some property in land. In 1806-7, when Mr. Windham and
Mr. Cobbett were advocating the encouragement of athletic sports,
boxing, single-stick, &c.,this man was one of a number of country-
men who contended for prizes on the sta°:e for single-stick established
at Botley, and was noted for his indomitable courage under the blows
of the stick. In a private letter from Mr. Cobbett to Mr. Windham,
dated August 2nd, 1805, the writer says : "Before this reaches you,
you will have seen that I have written, this week, no article upon the
subject of the boxers ; and I am glad I have not ; because your letter,
this day received, throws great light upon the subject; I mean of this
particular case. I fear, with you, the disposition of the Judges : the
cant of humanity and gentleness is the order of the day, especially
the weakest part of the community. * * * I hope soon to
hear from you again, with some suggestions on the subject of the
boxers."
(214) p. 547. — Although the quality of Indian corn, as human
food, has been a good deal doubted, it appears to be eaten by the
wealthier classes in all the countries where it grows. At this time
there is a great deal of it used to feed the poor in our workhouses.
(215) p. 552. — Spoken at a time when the French were writing of
England in a taunting style, as quoted in the Register, v. 68, p. 408
(Sept., 1829).
(216) p. 553. — Both of these measures were in fact proposed
during the time of distress in 1847, in Parliament as well as out.
(217) p- 555. — After this, in August, 1834, was finally adopted that
measure for pauper government (4 and 5 Wm. 4, c. 76) which has
caused so much turmoil and heart-burning throughout the country.
This was intended as a sop to the land, in its thtn distressful state,
and to reduce those 6 or 7 millions of rates mentioned in these Rides ;
and also, at the fame time, to induce the rural population to emigrate,
or to " migrate " into manufactures in the Northern towns. Mr.
Cobbett asserted, in the House of Commons, while this measure was
debated, the existence of a document, showing that the projectors
contemplated the bringing of the labouring people to live on a " coarser
sort of food." Selections, v. 6, p. 740. Afterwards, as appears bv
flmtsard's report (Feb. 7, p. 223, and Feb. 23, p. 1159, in the year
1843) the late Mr. John Walter produced this document in the House
of Commons, and it is inserted in Hansard's report. — For a long
series of years before, Lord Brougham, and others contemplating such
" schemes," had repeatedly been warned, in the Register, that nothing
of the kind could succeed; that such "schemes" must result in
failure. The extinction of ''la mendicite"," or pauperism and b
gary, by coercion, had been attempted under Louis XVI., but bad
failed, as described by M. Necker. A similar attempt was subsequently
made in Fiance! under the more imperious rule of Buonaparte. Thit,
as remarked by tin- Edinburgh />' had no bitter success. —
Some of the recorded declarations of public men on this subject are
now, on reviewing them, almost incredible. On the question i I poor-
law for Ireland, M 18) Lord Pitzwilliam, with all his great ex-
perienee in sueh matters, is ri as saying that "any improve-
ment, in the poor-laws which h ■ '1 in Kngland was merelj
a step towards no poor-law at all ; and th it was the wise view to take
(, r;
674 NOTES.
of it." While, in 1835-6, at the time our commercial press were
taunting the landlords and farmers with their poverty, and their
" comparative insignificance" as an " Interest," the landed men, at
their public meetings, had been holding that there must be a poor-law for
Ireland, in order that the Irish might be made to eat their own produce,
instead of sending it over to England, and thereby keeping down the
prices of English produce ! — The final breaking down of the reputa-
tion of this new " scheme " may perhaps be dated with the Report of
the Andover Committee of the House of Commons, (August 20th,
1846,) who state that " some of the inmates of the Workhouse were
in the habit of eating raw potatoes, and grain, and refuse food which
had been thrown to the hogs and fowls," and that " instances occurred
in which the same inmates, employed in bone-crushing, ate the gristle
and marrow of the bones which they were set to break." From the
evidence on which this Report is founded, it appears that the three
Poor-Law Commissioners had fallen-out with their Secretary, Mr.
Edwin Chadwick ; or, at least, that such was the case with one of the
three, Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis, who (Evidence, 22,620) describes
Mr. C. as being "as unscrupulous and as dangerous an officer as he ever
saw within the walls of an office." One of the charges which the
Commissioner makes against the Secretary is, that of having obtained
from the Board what he, Sir Thomas, calls " a horrible and offensive
order, that the paupers were not to have the bells tolled at their fune-
rals." (Evidence, 22,601.) Yet it appears, from whatever cause,
that the Government regarded the Secretary in a different light, for,
although quitting his office with the Board, he thereupon had the office
of " Sanitary Commissioner " conferred upon him, was made a " Com-
panion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath," in May, 1848 ;
and in the same month had the further honour of being presented at
Court. — Sir T. F. Lewis, in his Evidence (22,590) reiterates the grand
principle of the New Poor-Law (as often before laid down in the Com-
missioners' Reports) : — " The prohibition of out-door relief to able-
bodied paupers : that was the main object for which our Commission
was appointed." But so early as 1839, Sir James Graham had ad-
mitted (Hansard, July 20,) " that experience taught the practical im-
possibility of giving general effect to the law," which, as he had just
before said, "contemplated the refusal of out-door relief throughout
England and Wales." Mr. Wodehouse there says (p. 574) that
<' four-fifths of the relief at present afforded under the new Act was
out-door relief." — The " Financial Reformers" (of a class of persons
by no means opposed to the new law at the time when it promised well)
now use the failure of the measure as a ground of complaint against
the government. They, in 1850, presented the following as the sequel,
or result down to 1848. "An attempt was made by the law of 1831
[should be 1834] to lessen the amount and to subdue the inducements
to pauperism. The 13th Poor-Law Report (1847) states the sums
actually paid in relief as follows:— in 1843, 5,208,027/.; in 1844,
4,976,093/. ; in 1845, 4,039,703/. ; in 1846, 4,962,026/. The total
expenditure of all these years has, however, closely approached seven
millions; and of the money paid the poor three-fourths is given in
out-door relief. The amounts for 1847 and 1848 were sure to exceed
somewhat tho«e of the years stated, and they are given as follows : —
Actually spent in relief, in 1847, 4,678,110/.; in 1848, 5,435,973/.,
NOTES. 675
the year ending at Lady day. The Supplement to the Standard of
Freedom remarks: — ' As taxation is increased, these rates will increase
— as it is diminished, these rates will diminish. This is the law of God
and of nature, which neither Kings nor Parliaments can alter or repeal.' "
If, in continuation, we look at the 4th Report of the Poor-Law Board
for 1851, and at the Return to the House of Commons, May 7, 1852,
Paper 319, we still find the sums " actually expended" to be about
5,000,000/. per year, and a similar large portion of that is for out-door
relief. — It is well known that in the millions formerly charged as " to
the poor" there was a great portion of which the poor in fact received
nothing. General Johnson, when Member for Boston, in 1837, stated
that the poor of his neighbourhood did not receive above one-half of
what was put down to their account. And some evidence upon this
point is given by Mr. Parker in the Andover case above mentioned. —
As to Scotland, we find Lord Brougham in Parliament, May 28, 1838,
giving praise to " the blessings which the Scottish system of limited
relief had bestowed on Scotland:" a system which was frequently
noticed in the Register as having the opposite tendency, and the mean
practices of which, but little understood in this country, are explained
in Register, v. 83, p. 413. — It appears, from the Return above men-
tioned, that the rates in Scotland, which amounted in 1840 to only
220,812/., had increased, in 1849, to 547,558/. This arose from the
great distress in Scotland in 1842 and 1847-8, when two cases were
decided by the Scotch Judges which went to upset the whole theory
of the "blessed Scottish system." These cases are, that of Elspeth
Prude, or Duncan v. the Heritors and Kirk-Session of Ceres, Scottish
Jurist, vol. 25, p. 287 (1843) ; and that of William Lindsay, an appeal
of a similar kind, in Glasgow. The judgment of Lord Jeffrey, delivered
in the former of these cases, most unqualifiedly maintains those rights
for the poor of Scotland (by their common law) which have been so
much disputed in England ; and Lord Robertson, in the latter case,
holds exactly the same. — Tbe " Landed Interest" might have read, in
Lord Byron's satire of 1810, a warning against the danger of looking
for relief in " Scottish" schemes and " coarser food" :
" Yet mark one caution, ere thy next Review
Spread its light wings of saffron and of blue ;
Beware lest blundering Brougham destroy the sale,
Turn beef to bannocks, cauliflowers to kail."
And that " Interest" was not alone in adopting this unfortunate new
measure. Tbe commercial and manufacturing were quite as much for
it. We find Mr. Cobden, in 1837, writing of this new poor-law as an
" amendment," and. while recommending statesmen to "go through a
course of Adam Smith and the Economists," he is for their " beginning
with Harriet. Martineau." — Mr. Coode, of the Poor-Law Board, in his
Letter of 1851, states there to be •' now in force wholly or partially
about I GO (1G2) poor-law statutes," and that " of these at least 40
(43) have accumulated since the enactment of the Amendment Act in
L834."
(2 IS) p. 557. — Probably the author had in recollection what occurred
about 1820, when English goods were almost given away at the auction
sales in the United States.
(219) p. 572.—" Flogging the Militia-men."— See page 191, and
Note 104.
G G 2
676 NOTES.
(220) p. 574. — Dr. Chafy, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge ; and
Sergeant Frere, Master of Downing College. The author had asked
leave of the former to be permitted to lecture at Cambridge, which
was refused. Correspondence between the three, in Register, v. 69,
p. 425. — Since this date we have the University Commission.
(221) p. 591. — " Friends of Pennsylvania," with whom the author
was staying in 1798, at Bustleton, near Philadelphia. There were
two brothers, James and Thomas Paul, Quaker farmers, the son of
the first of whom, the present Mr. James Paul, was afterwards a
member of the Pennsylvania State Senate. — Register, v. 69, p. 462.
(222) p. 594.— Sheep : see p. 463, and .Vote 191.
(223) p. 595. — Several other birds, called night-warblers, are occa-
sionally mistaken for the nightingale. Thus it is, in Lancashire and
Cheshire, with the bird vulgarly called pitsparrow, which is heard
late at night, but the note of which is nothing like that of the
nightingale.
(224) p. 599. — With what is here referred to from Lord Stanhope,
should also be taken the speech of the Marquis of Salisbury, made
shortly after this date (Nov. 29, 1830 : in Register, v. 70, p. 896.)
" Clearing estates," and " paying wages out of the poor's rates," are
there treated of. It was confidently predicted, subsequently, par-
ticularly by Lord Althorp (the late Earl Spencer) that the New
Poor-Law would cause wages to rise. The contrary result has been
notorious.
(225) p. 601.— Quite latterly, the " shoals" of Irish into our
Northern towns have caused both enormous expense and a good deal
of alarm. During one period, in 1848-9, it was said that the most
valuable, or paging cargoes out of the port of Liverpool, consisted of
the persons of our emigrants taking ship there for foreign lands. The
author's remarks on Mr. Hortou's Emigration Project is in Register,
v. 69, p. 352 (1830).
(226) p. 605. — The importance to farm-labourers of having 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. — In the debate on Mr.
D'Israeli's Budget, 1852, Mr. Cobden is reported as having declared
that the labourers did not require any beer, or, that they would be all
the better without it. The same gentleman, in his England, Ireland,
and America, 1837, attacks the Marquis of Chaudos for having
moved against the Malt-Tax: speaks of the "almost fanatical out-
cry against the Malt-Tax," as tending to cause " the British nation
to be declared bankrupt."
(227) p. 611. — The " trbk" here meant is the scheme for the
Joint- Stock Banks, which, after they got into operation, threatened to
break the Bank of England, and did break a great many other people,
and, finally, were themselves broken down with much disgrace. — (See
Note 27 : Act of 1833). Register, v. 69, p. 755 (1830), reports thd
meeting in London, at which the project for these Companies was
discussed, Sir Henry Parnell (afterwards Lord Congleton) and Mr.
Spring Rice (now Lord Monteagle), among the advocates of the pro-
posed experiment.
(228) p. 612.— See page 68.
(229) p. 616. — This system of payment was afterwards partially
NOTES. 677
suppressed, in 1831, by the "Truck-Act," 1 and 2 Wm. 4, c. 37.—
The payments of labour in our great railway works have, to a great
extent, been made in a similar way, by " goods -notes," which, ac-
cording to other Acts of Parliament, are perhaps illegal.
(230) p. 622.— Fortescue's work.— See Note 170.
(231) p. 623-— " Malthusian .- " see Notes 163 and 237.—
" Brougham." This personage, as all readers of the Register know,
was for a long series of years an object of the author's frequent
animadversion, being designated by a variety of undignifying names,
such as "shallow and noisy man," " bawler," "barker," " bow-wow,"
'Tamper," and " swamper : " the two latter specially applying to those
epochs inLord B.'s history in which he thrust himself into office, and
quickly afterwards, by his fierce crusade against the pauper, brought his
own associates in government into difficulty. Lord B., though having
singular powers and opportunities for retaliating at the moment, has
thought right to lie by, and to take his vengeance at a time when there
could be no more danger from the adversary's club. Accordingly, in
his Letter to the Marquess of Lansdowne (published by Ridgway, in
1848) the noble writer brings in the name and the deeds of Mr. Cobbett.
Pleading for those whom he used to denounce, without mercy, as
"foreign tyrants," and denouncing that " anonymous monster," the
Press, which he formerly eulogized, he charges statesmen with having
been influenced in their votes by "the dread they felt of Cobbett," and
charges a jury of having (in 1831), " refused," from the same unworthy
motive, " to convict" Cobbett. He also charges Mr. Cobbett with
" direct incitements to the invasion of private property," "to plun-
derers," "to incendiaries." He had before this, in 1838, in an article
against the Press in the Edinburgh Review, charged the same man
with bribery of the basest possible kind, namely, in taking a money
reward for services rendered to Queen Caroline. This latter imputa-
tion is answered in Selections, vol. 6. And then, again, in the Letter
to Lord Lansdoicne, he intimates that there is still a something more
in "his recollection," but which he does not express, connected with
the prosecution by Sir Vicary Gibbs, in 1810 : a something intended,
probably, at some future day, to be divulged posthumously, and by
the means of that kind of agency which has given us Mr. Roebuck's
defence of Lord Broupham in the form of a History of the Whigs of
1830. — No one, in fact, appeared to have more " dread " of the
Register than Lord Brougham himself. When presenting the petition
mentioned in Note 68, (in 1823) he went somewhat out of his way to
describe Mr. Cobbett as of a character the very opposite of that given
in the Letter above quoted. And three years after, in 1826, he even
addressed a communication " to the Editor of the Register," consist-
ing of a tissue of sarcasm and ridicule upon hia own political rivals,
persons of high rank. But this is only the same treatment as other
people have experienced from the same personage ; nor is it necessary
to refer so far hack as to the opprobrious language applied by him to
his opponents in the House of Lords. In this same Letter to tin
Noble M.u-quess (1818) the reader finds Louis Napoleon, the then
mere " Paris Deputy," hailed by the No'nle and Learned writer's
sneer of contempt. Yet, the first announcement in England of the
Prince becoming Emperor (November, 1852) is accompanied by another
announcement of a visit from Lord 15. to '.he new potentate. In this
678 NOTES.
Letter, Lord B. complains of certain speeches of his on French matters
(probably of a Conservative kind) having been " prevented from being
given to the public." The speech by which he made himself Chan-
cellor was also on French affairs, and in time of revolution and
the greatest excitement, and delivered, in Yorkshire, just at the
moment when, principally from measures adopted against the
Press, Charles X. was losing his crown. It was the means of a
sudden great gain of popularity for the hon. and learned speaker ;
and (reported as follows in Mr. Hone's Annals of the Revolution of
1830), affords an edifying example of how the clever can take advan-
tage of the cat's jump. — "When Mr. Brougham visited Sheffield
as a candidate to represent the county of York, the measures of
Charles X. and his Ministers had just become known. Mr.
Brougham's Opinion upon the subject was requested, and he said,
with a power and energy peculiarly his own — ' Alas ! the news has
reached us that a frantic tyrant (for I can call him nothing else),
bent upon mischief, and guided by an ignorant and besotted priest-
hood — led by the most despicable advisers — forgetful of the obliga-
tion he owes to his people, forgetful of the duty he owes to that Provi-
dence which restored him to his throne — has in the face of that
Providence, and in defiance of that people, declared that he will
trample on the liberties of his country, and rule 30,000,000 of its
people by the sword. I heartily pray that his advisers will meet with
that punishment which they so richly merit. The Minister who could
give such counsels deserves that his head should be severed from his
body and rolled in the dust. If it were possible that any could dare
to give such advice to our King, the same punishment ought to be
inflicted up in him, and his head should roll in the dust the same day,
before sunset, on which he gave that command.' "
(232) p. 627.— Sir William Scott : see Note 189.
(233) p. 628.— " Potatoes :" see p. 635, and Note 37.— The trial :
that of July 7, 1831, for an alleged libel in Register, of Dec. 11,
1830, in an article headed " Rural War," v. 70, p. 929. Tried before
Lord Tenterden and a special jury. The prosecution by Sir Thomas,
now Lord Denman, then Attorney General. There is a verbatim
report of this trial, published at the time, by Mr. William Carpenter.
The speech of Mr. Cobbettto the jury, owing to the manner in which
he assailed the government, was remarked as being one of the most
furious attacks ever made for the purpose of defence.
(234) p. 632. — The author elsewhere writes of two other like recep-
tions while travelling, at Meriden, in 1820, and in Scotland, in 1832.
Register, v. 36, p. 197 : Tour in Scotland, p. 228.
(235) p. 635.— See Note 233.
(236) p. 638.— The late Mr. John Walter, afterwards M.P. for
Berkshire. — The articles mentioned in this page, " Trevor and Pota-
toes," are in Register, v. 70, p. 1099, and v. 71, p. 38.
(237) p. 641. — Large Parishes. .What the author says of these, in
page 639, agrees with the reason recited in 13 & 14 Charles II., c.
112, sec. 21, whereby townships, in Durham and other northern
counties, are to maintain their separate poor. — " These opinions of
mine," &c. It now seems to be formally announced, and, as it were,
on public scientific authority, that the doctrine of Mr. Malthus, so
much combated in these Rides and throughout the Register, is to be
NOTES. 679
abandoned, as being no more than a great delusion. See Leciurts
delivered before the University of Oxford in 1852, by George K.
Rickards, M.A., Professor of Political Economy (Oxford and London :
published by J. H. Parker). " It is impossible," says Mr. Rickards,
" to construe tbis doctrine in any other sense than as an impeachment
upon the wisdom of those laws by which Providence has regulated
both the fecundity of the species, and the productiveness of the earth."
It is, also, impossible not to obseive, in reading these Lectures, the
large heap of French and Scotch volumes on Political Economy in
which Mr. Rickards buries himself, while he acknowledges nothing on
the part of such writers as Mr. Satiler, Mr. Doubleday, Mr. Booth,
and Mr. Bowen, who had all long preceded him.
Lou"
ERRATA.
Page 362,
Note (59) should be (159).
Page 506,
For Palmer- Stone read Palmerstone.
Page 530,
Note (210) is omitted, at the end of the first paragraph.
Page 547,
Note (214) is omitted, at the end of the last line in the page.
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