16 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



Blount was a Roman Catholic, and however 

 much Cobbett may have attacked ministers of 

 the Established Church (who, by the way, 

 attacked him virulently the moment he came 

 out of prison), he always had a good word to 

 say for Roman Catholics. As you pass the 

 Rookery you will notice a low wall with a 

 flat, broad top to it, dividing the garden from 

 the road. On this Blount used to place a 

 plate of pork and bread for any Irish tramp 

 who asked alms of him. No wonder this 

 man attracted a character like Cobbett, for in 

 the churchyard I found a great flat stone as 

 big as a billiard-table laid over his grave. It 

 was to be large enough, he gave instructions 

 in his will, for the village boys to play marbles 

 on ; and he paid the old women of the village 

 many sums of money to pick up baskets of 

 flints to fill up a disused pit so that it could be 

 converted into a playground for boys. 



I noticed a crop growing at Rookery farm 

 that would have astonished and delighted 

 Cobbett and reminded him strongly of his 

 visit to America. This was a crop of maize 

 growii to give a wealth of green fodder to 

 cows when the pastures are bare. If this crop 

 were more generally grown in the south of 



