Rural Rides

A fog thick enough to look like smoke hides the road from London to Newbury. William Cobbett watches the sun fight it, then steps over a miniature river at a country estate and wonders how anyone could mistake such make-believe grandeur for good taste.

In the early 1820s, Cobbett rides through Hampshire and beyond, taking the measure of England from its muddy lanes, flinty hills and farm fields. A farmer as well as a sharp-eyed observer, he sees men hanging on through hard times while landlords wait to take their share—and he has little patience for the politics he believes keep them there. His journal ranges from hare hunts and turnip crops to damp fogs and absurd garden ornaments, with the same brisk wit and conviction. What does the countryside reveal to a rider who refuses to look away?

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