Rural rides in the counties of Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Somersetshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Hertfordshire / by William Cobbett ... with ... observations relative to ... the state of those counties.

  • Cobbett, William, 1763-1835.
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rural rides in the counties of Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Somersetshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Hertfordshire / by William Cobbett ... with ... observations relative to ... the state of those counties. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at VVhiteflood ; but I am sure that he could not entirely escape it. It is curious to observe how llie clouds sail about in the hilly countries, and particularly, I think, amongst the chalk-hills. I have never observed the like amongst the sand- hills, or amongst rocks. From Whiteflood you come over a series of hills, part of which form a rabbit-warren, called l^ong- wood warren, on the borders of which is the house and estate of Lord Northesk. .These hills are amongst the most barren of the Downs of England; yet a part of them was broken up during the rage for improvements ,• during the rage for what empty men think was an augmenting of the capital of the country. On about twenty acres of this land, sown with wheat, I should not suppose that there would be twice twenty bushels of grain ! A man must be mad, or nearly mad, to sow wheat upon such a spot. However, a large part of what was in- closed has been thrown out again already, and the rest will be thrown out. in a very few years. The Down itself was poor; what then must it be as corn-land ! Think of the destruction which has here taken place. The herbage was not good, but it was something: it was something for every year, and without trouble. Instead of grass it will now, for twenty years to come, bear nothing but that species of weeds which is hardy enough to grow where the grass will not grow. And this was augmenting the capital of the F