A key text for the understanding of Victorian politics and England's rural history
Travelling on horseback through southern England in the early 19th century, William Cobbett provides evocative and accurate descriptions of the countryside, colourful accounts of his encounters with labourers, and indignant outbursts at the encroaching cities and the sufferings of the exploited poor. Ian Dyck's new edition places these lively accounts of rural life in the context of Cobbett's political and social beliefs and reveals the volume as his platform for rural radical reform.
William Cobbett, born in Surrey in 1762, was the most prolific muck-raking journalist of his age and the publisher of The Political Register, the main newspaper of the working class in early-nineteenth-century England. He died in 1835.