SELECTIONS FROM WILLIAM COBBETT'S RURAL RIDES 1821-1832

William Cobbett

ISBN 10: 0863500196 / ISBN 13: 9780863500190

Published by Webb & Bower, Exeter, 1984

About this Item

This copy is in fine, unmarked condition bound in brown cloth covered boards with yellow titling to the spine and the upper board. This copy is bright, tight, white and square. The unclipped dustwrapper is lightly sunned to the spine so best described as near fine condition International postal rates are calculated on a book weighing 1 Kilo, in cases where the book weighs more than 1 Kilo increased postal rates will be quoted, where the book weighs less then postage will be reduced accordingly. Rural Rides is the book for which the English journalist, agriculturist and political reformer William Cobbett is best known. At the time of writing in the early 1820s, Cobbett was a radical anti-Corn Law campaigner, newly returned to England from a spell of self-imposed political exile in the United States. Cobbett disapproved of proposals for remedies for agricultural distress suggested in Parliament in 1821. He made up his mind to see rural conditions for himself, and to "enforce by actual observation of rural conditions" the statements he had made in answer to the arguments of the landlords before the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee. He embarked on a series of journeys by horseback through the countryside of Southeast England and the English Midlands. He wrote down what he saw from the points of view both of a farmer and a social reformer. The result documents the early 19th-century countryside and its people as well as giving free vent to Cobbett's opinions. He first published his observations in serial form in the Political Register, running from 1822 to 1826. They were first published in book form in two volumes in 1830. This lavishly illustrated book contains a selection of his writings Ref KKK 3.

Seller Inventory # 023762

Bibliographic Details

• Title: SELECTIONS FROM WILLIAM COBBETT'S RURAL RIDES 1821-1832
• Publisher: Webb & Bower, Exeter
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0863500196
• ISBN 13: 9780863500190
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

William Cobbett (1762-1835) was an essayist, politician, agriculturalist, journalist, and equestrian traveller. The son of a labourer, Cobbett was self taught. He enlisted in the British Army, then fled to Philadelphia to avoid prosecution for demanding a decent wage for his fellow soldiers. After several years in exile, Cobbett returned to England where he became politically active, eventually winning a seat in Parliament. In the early 1820s the new MP set out on horseback to make a series of personal tours through the English countryside. These observations were collected and make up the two volumes of Rural Rides . The two books are written in some of the finest prose to grace the English language. Considered one of the best accounts of rural England ever written they are detailed, factual, filled with shrewd observation and remain enduring classics.