WALK IN RURAL ENGLAND. 15 



army at the sounding of the bugle. The 

 sight was enough to stir the blood of the most 

 indifferent of poachers I 



Grass grew avidly in the middle of the 

 road. It had time to grow, apparently, 

 between the going of one cart and the coming 

 of the next. Needless to say, no motors 

 vexed this highway. 



I was not surprised to find, when I reached 

 Hurstbourne Tarrant, that all available accom- 

 modation had been taken up by the " shooters 

 from London." 



Hurstbourne Tarrant, it will be remembered, 

 became the favourite resting-place of William 

 Cobbett during his famous " Rural Rides." 

 He preferred to call, indeed he insisted upon 

 calling, the place by its old-fashioned name of 

 Uphusband, and it was here that he wrote 

 many of those articles in that virile English 

 which have bequeathed to us so vivid a picture 

 of the rural England of the first part of the 

 nineteenth century. 



The farmhouse of the Rookery where 

 Cobbett always found a warm welcome from 

 his farmer friend Blount, is passed as you 

 cross the bridge to mount the steep hill on the 

 way to Andover. 



