William Cobbett in Wateringbury (1823)

Post date: Sep 15, 2018 8:8:46 PM

My thanks to a gentleman, living in Old Road, Wateringbury but whose name I unfortunately did not get, who speculated to me at a recent event that William Cobbett rode along Old Road as part of his Rural Rides. Although Wateringbury does not get a mention by name in this book I think it is quite possible that he rode along Old Road and quite certain that he came through Wateringbury on 5th September 1823. On his journey from Maidstone to Merryworth (Mereworth) he mentions passing through Teston (because of Lord Barham). Whether he went along Old Road or followed the Turnpike (now A26) is unfortunately uncertain.

William Cobbett (1762-1835) was born at Farnham , Surrey the son of an agricultural labourer; he became a soldier then satirist. His views changed from monarchist Tory to Radical; he spent periods of time in France and the United States and he undertook his rides for the purpose of establishing the real state of the countryside after the Napoleonic wars. The book was first published in 1830. He was elected M.P for Oldham in 1832 (after Great Reform Act). He died in 1835.

Extract from Rural Rides pages 211/2 of Penquin Classics edition.

At the foot of the hill of which I have been speaking is the village of Hollingbourne; thence you come on to Maidstone. From Maidstone to this place (Merryworth) is about seven miles, and these are the finest seven miles that I have ever seen in England or anywhere else. The Medway is to your left, with its meadows about a mile wide. You cross the Medway, in coming out of Maidstone, and it goes and finds its way down to Rochester, through a break in the chalk ridge. From Maidstone to Merryworth, I should think that there were hop-gardens on one half of the way on both sides of the road. Then looking across the Medway, you see hop-gardens and orchards two miles deep, on the side of a gently rising ground: and this continues with you all the way from Maidstone to Merryworth. The orchards form a great feature of the country; and the plantations of ashes and of chestnuts that I mentioned before, add greatly to the beauty. These gardens of hops are kept very clean, in general, though some of them have been neglected this year owing to the bad appearance of the crop. The culture is sometimes mixed: that is to say, apple-trees or cherry-trees or filbert-trees and hops, in the same ground. This is a good way, they say, of raising an orchard. I do not believe it; and I think that nothing is gained by any of these mixtures. They plant apple-trees or cherry-trees in rows here; they then plant a filbert-tree close to each of these large fruit-trees; and then they cultivate the middle of the ground by planting potatoes. This is being too greedy. It is impossible that they can gain by this. What they gain one way they lose the other way; and I verily believe that the most profitable way would be never to mix things at all. In coming from Maidstone I passed through a village called Teston, where Lord Barham has a seat.