47^ History of the English Landed Interest. 



Dutch fashion in geometrical flower beds ; a fountain and a 

 basin have been constructed, and a rustic bridge thrown over 

 the brook. A runnel of water issues from a lion's mouth at 

 one end, and the rustic arch with the empty saint's niche at 

 the other leads upwards to the house. The inventor of this 

 microscopic paradise is called " an honest person from the 

 'Change," who has surrounded himself with evidences of the 

 Romanist religion 'the crosses on the gable ends, and the niche 

 in the arch, forsooth), in order to figure as one of ancient 

 lineage. Because the waterspout into the basin is not larger 

 than the pour from a leapot, and the brook bridged over could 

 be leaped by a child of four, the whole construction is con- 

 demned as foolery. It is worth while to keep this picture in 

 view before we go deeper into Cobbett's writings, in order that 

 we may be prepared for exaggerated abuse whenever the 

 writer falls foul of his subject. 



He rides on and reaches Highclere, where the herd of Gal way 

 cows grazing on the lofty downs compensates his vision for the 

 disgust but recently generated by the ginger-bread architecture. 

 He admires the stately oaks in Lord Carnarvon's coverts, but 

 anxious, possibly, to prevent the erection of further arches, he 

 regrets that he cannot burn the larches and firs. Then, true 

 to his crusade against the landed system, he begins to picture 

 the Jew in possession of all this wealth of scenery, judging 

 from the depressed condition of the pork market that his lord- 

 ship's rent days are numbered and himself on the verge of 

 insolvency. 



One cold frosty morning in November he rides down on to 

 the more level country of South Wilts, " where the flints 

 cease, and the chalk comes nearer the surface." Here his 

 quick eye takes in the farmhouses, with their twenty ricks, 

 " besides those standing in the flelds." He glances at tracts 

 of wheat, 50, 60, or 100 acres apiece, and then a group of 

 women, awaiting the measurement of their reaping work, 

 arrests his attention. " Such an assemblage of rags,'' he tells 

 us, "as I never before saw, even amongst the Farnham 

 hoppers, many of whom are common beggars." " There were 

 some pretty girls, but ragged as colts, and pale as ashes. The 



