- Rural Rides
Infobox Book
name = Rural Rides
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption = Cover of the 2001 Penguin Classics edition
author =William Cobbett
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country =Great Britain
language =English
series =
subject =
genre =
publisher = The Political Register
pub_date = 1822 to 1826
english_pub_date =1830 in 2 volumes.
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followed_by ="Rural Rides" is the book for which the English
journalist ,agriculturist and political reformerWilliam 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 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 nineteenth 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 published in book form in two volumes in1830 .Editions
*Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (27 Sep 2001) ISBN 0140435794. Introduction and notes by
Ian Dyck .
*Constable; Abridged Hardcover edition (Sep 1982) ISBN 0094640602. Introduction byE.R. Chamberlain .
*J.M. Dent & Sons Everyman (1912), reprinted 1924 and 1953, ASIN B00085HPA0. Introduction by Edward Thomas.
*"Rural Rides in the Counties of Surrey, Kent , Sussex, Hampshire..." Original publication by Cobbet, 1830 and 1853.References
* [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp?t_id=Cobbett William Cobbett, Rural Rides] at Vision of Britain. Accessed March 2008. Contains extracts from the book available on line.
* [http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/headley/cobbett.htm Cobbett's "Rural Rides" through Headley] Accessed March 2008
* [http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/webmap/hantsmap/hantsmap/cobbett/cobbett1.htm Cobbett's Hampshire 1830] at Geography Department, Portsmouth University. Accessed March 2008.
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/ruralrides.htm Rural Rides] Abridged version at Squashed Writers. Accessed March 2008
*William Cobbett: Politician and Soil Scientist , A. J. Moffat,The Geographical Journal, Vol. 151, No. 3 (Nov., 1985), pp. 351-355 [doi:10.2307/633017 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398(198511)151%3A3%3C351%3AWCPASS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O]
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