William Cobbett- Rural rides

William Cobbett, a surrey farmer and then English Journalist, wrote Rural rides in 1830 as a way of documenting the agricultural conditions of England in the early 19^th century. He rode on horseback throughout the south-east countryside to note his findings about the changing world of farming.

Cobbett started as a farm labourer and his entire childhood took place in a rural setting and therefore the subject of the changing countryside is close to his heart. Cobbett has a distinct view of how he feels the countryside should be, and the changes he sees are not pleasing to him.

Cobbett was also seen as a campaigner for the people, and therefore his Rural rides is a way of documenting the damaging effect of the industrial revolution on the countryside and the treatment of the working class, but in a peaceful way.

The countryside has a massive influence on Cobbett’s view of the countryside in Rural rides, he shows a negative attitude towards the change that the countryside has received, and an understanding that it will never be able to go back to ‘the good old days’ or how Cobbett remembers it, from his time as a farm labourer. Cobbett uses terms such as ‘dull’ and ‘ugly’ to describe the current countryside, compared to that of what he remembers and therefore he documents well his displeasures at the constantly changing countryside. His attitude is so negative that he was even called a ‘moaner’ in the seminar.

Cobbett’s concerns are varied, starting with the farmers and labourers themselves.  Cobbett feels that change to the way of farming and newly introduced laws meant that the divide between rich and poor would be stretched, making the people who relied on the old system bankrupted and the rich yeoman even richer.

Corn laws meant that it would be better to buy British corn, as exported corn would be taxed, meaning that land owners and political power would be strengthened.  The Enclosure act was seen as a way to feed a growing population, but wealthy land owners renting common land, which had been used previously as common land, where farmers could graze pigs and grow vegetables in certain strips, caused the rich to become richer, and those who had relied on the strip system, to be put out of business.  This in turn led to a larger number of travellers, turning for the towns for work in the new industrial age, abandoning the shrinking countryside. This to Cobbett was unacceptable and caused him to radically campaign against the new system and the Corn Laws.

Cobbett felt that the working class were being exploited, and that this led to a mass exodus from the countryside. Here Cobbett links to Dickens who was writing at the same time, but contrastingly to Cobbett, Dickens was writing about the conditions of the towns as a result of population increasing due to people from the country arriving looking for work, and therefore produced books such as ‘Oliver Twist’ who displays the high levels of poor people and crime in London.

However unfortunately Cobbett did not have an impact at all, and Rural rides is not considered a well known piece of writing. All the concerns Cobbett had, have come true; the cities have increased and the countryside as he knew it have disappeared. A new version of Rural rides on BBC, where  a man rode through the countryside the Cobbett visited, gained terrible views, and was hardly watched at all.