1821-1831. “I HAVE PLEADED THE CAUSE OF THE WORKING-PEOPLE, AND I SHALL NOW SEE THAT CAUSE TRIUMPH” 249 CHAPTER XXVI. 1832-1835. “I NOW BELONG TO THE PEOPLE OF OLDHAM” 275 CHAPTER XXVII. 1835. “I HAVE BEEN THE GREAT ENLIGHTENER OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND” 291 APPENDIX: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF WILLIAM COBBETT’S PUBLICATIONS 305 INDEX 321 WILLIAM COBBETT: A BIOGRAPHY. CHAPTER XIV. “I NEVER SAT MYSELF DOWN ANYWHERE, WITHOUT MAKING THE FRUITS AND FLOWERS TO GROW.” The summer of 1805 finds Mr. Cobbett again at Botley with his family. A letter to Wright, dated 5th July, says, “I have found here a most delightful house and a more delightful garden.” Preparations are being made for a prolonged stay, and for the occasional entertainment of his correspondent: “I have given you a deal of trouble, and hope that you will find hereafter some compensation during the time you will spend at Botley.” The carpets are to be taken up (in Duke Street), and all the bedding, &c., to be “removed upstairs, packed in mats or something.” On the 28th of July Cobbett writes-- “I am glad that you are like to close your labours so soon, for I really wish very much to see you here, and so do all the children and their mother, all of whom have delightful health; and Mrs. Cobbett is more attached to Botley than I am--one cause of which is, she has made her servants humble, and she bakes good bread. I shall have made it a delightful place before you will have finished your volume.”[1] There is a good deal about Botley and its neighbourhood to charm the tastes of men like Cobbett. A fine open country, which was then to a great extent unenclosed--it was a genuine agricultural and sporting district, of which the little town was the centre. It was quiet enough, not being on the road to anywhere; and the people were as quiet as the village. “… Two doctors, one parson. No trade, except that carried on by two or three persons, who bring coals from the Southampton water, and who send down timber. All the rest are farmers, farmers’ men, millers, millers’ men, millwrights, publicans who sell beer to the farmers’ men and the farmers; copse-cutters, tree-strippers, bark-shavers, farmers’ wheelwrights, farmers’ blacksmiths, shopkeepers, a schoolmistress; and, in short, nothing but persons belonging to agriculture, to which, indeed, the two doctors and the parson belong as much as the rest.”