84 THE PINE AND HEATHER COUNTRY 



ever printed, rode back to London to bombard his 

 enemies in the Political Register, and denounce Pitt 

 and paper-money. Sometimes the temptation came to 

 him to abandon his warfare, not for a life of con- 

 templation, like White's, but for one of rural progress 

 and business success, the secret of which none knew 

 better than Cobbett ; and some such thought was 

 probably in his mind when he remarked, on his visit 

 to Selborne, that " people ought to be happy there, for 

 that God had done everything for them." But the 

 memory of private wrongs and hope of public reforms 

 thrust the thought aside. " The delight of seeing 

 Prosperity Robinson hang his head for shame ! the 

 delight of beholding the tormenting embarrassments 

 of those who have so long retained crowds of base 

 miscreants to revile me ! ... Shall Sidmouth then 

 never again hear of his Power of Imprisonment Bill, 

 his Circular, his Letter of Thanks to the Man- 

 chester Yeomanry ? I really jumped up when the 

 thought came across my mind, and without thinking 

 of breakfast, said, ' Go, George, saddle the horses/ 

 for it seemed to me that I had been meditating some 

 crime ! " 



Selborne to-day is little changed since Cobbett visited 

 it after a reader of his paper had sent him White's 

 book ; and the village itself can scarcely have altered 

 since White wrote, except that his house has been 

 enlarged, and there is a new rectory. To a visitor the 

 first impressions of the village are perhaps disappoint- 

 ing, though the lofty beech-covered hill above it, and 



