Rural Rides (Volume One) by William Cobbett (HQ280)

Circa 1940: Hardcover / Very Good Condition / Illustrated endpapers / Volume One

Original green cloth with gilt titles and decoration on the spine. 320 very clean and bright pages, mild speckled edges and endpapers. Boards slightly rubbed and faded with time consistent with age. (HQ280)

Postage €4.00.
An Post prepaid postage envelopes within the Republic of Ireland, with no weight restrictions from €6.95.

The distressed state of English farming was Cobbett's greatest concern in the 1820s. Rural Rides was based on a series of tours across Britain made on horseback and originally published as a series of letters in the Political Register, the weekly periodical Cobbett established in 1802 and ran until his death in 1835.

"The vividness and force of his writing, whether in describing the countryside or his encounters with those who worked in it, have made his work an enduring classic. In his accounts of the poverty caused by widespread enclosure he struck the first blow in the long struggle for improving the condition of labourers on the land, and the opinions he expresses in many ways anticipate the doctrine of the Young England group as led by Disraeli" (PMM). "The 'rides' have subsequently appeared in many different versions and editions on account of their accurate and colourful presentation of the English countryside and rural society of Cobbett's time" [Google Books]