The views above the hedges beyond the western flank of The Grange are of high cornfields ripening into the far distance, the sort of land Cobbett adored. Golf courses, one of the curses of modern Surrey, are few and far between. I cross the M3 between East and West Stratton and the southern main line from Bas ingstoke to Winchester at Micheldever. The road from here to Whitchurch is closed because of flooding. It would have taken me up by Freefolk Wood, a name to Cobbett's taste. I race down a section of the A303 dual carriageway instead. The general going seems to be 100mph despite a funereal procession of holiday caravans. It’s one of those that are simply off the scale both in terms of how good it is and the impact that it had. Pg i] CONTENTS. Rural Ride from London, through Newbury, to Burghclere, Hurstbourn Tarrant, Marlborough, and Cirencester, to Gloucester

Rural Ride from Kensington to St. Albans, through Edgware, Stanmore, and Watford, returning by Redbourn, Hempstead, and Chesham Drivers will be instructed NOT to take ride reservations other than those arranged through the to ride coordinator. We ask that our volunteers be available a minimum of 4 hours per month. However, none of our drivers are expected to devote long periods to this service or to disrupt their personal schedules. Drivers are community volunteers! no road there, and it is impossible for you to get through those woods.”“Thank you,” said I; “but through those woods we mean to go.” Just atdear good woman,” said I, “but you have been at [Pg 324] Ludgarshall?”—“No.”—“Nor at Andover?” (six miles another Rural Ride from Gloucester, to Bollitree in Herefordshire, Ross, Hereford, Abingdon, Oxford, Cheltenham, Burghclere, Whitchurch, Uphurstbourn, and thence to Kensington If the oath has been breached, the volunteer driver will be terminated. In the event of a lawsuit, Urban/Rural

FROM THE (LONDON) WEN ACROSS SURREY, ACROSS THE WEST OF SUSSEX, AND INTO THE SOUTH EAST OF HAMPSHIRE.

Magnificent in every way. One of the best travel books I have read, one of the best snapshot/state of the nation studies, a brilliant audit of the agriculture of southern England during the Corn Laws, a masterful account of the effects of government policy on the producers of food (and to some extent industry- especially textiles - there were many producers of cloth in the south west and quite a few mills), a brilliant and brilliantly biassed history of the period and a must for any student of UK politics in the post Napoleonic era. On top of that an entertaining read. First stop is the pretty Fox and Hounds pub at Highclere, where I swap the Jag for a 24-speed bicycle, and then on to Burghclere to see the Sandham Memorial Chapel, with its anti-war paintings by Stanley Spencer. I come upon Greenham Common, the scene of more recent anti-military protests. It is being turned into a business park. Perhaps the local church might be renamed St Andrew Undershaft in honour of George Bernard Shaw's cynical "guns are good for us" armaments tycoon in Major Barbara. Mark Steel's review of reporters' journeys round Britain, starting with William Cobbett, the great English journalist and radical campaigner who was born 250 years ago. Mark talks to veteran horseman Dylan Winter and analyses a classic radio and TV genre that owes more than it realises to Cobbett - the tradition of going out and taking a look at Britain. Rural Rides is the book for which the English journalist, agriculturist and political reformer William Cobbett is best known. Not always factually accurate but I’ll happily sacrifice that in return for some of the best rants against some of the most deserving targets...including the often sainted Wilberforce.