William Cobbett (1763-1835), the great reformer, held forceful opinions on many issues - the British army (which he denounced as corrupt), London, which he detested, and lazy gardeners. This blunt, practical book first published in 1929 was widely considered by many, including Cobbett himself, as the best book on the subject. He approached it with the zeal of one devising a military campaign, outlining his intentions by quoting Proverbs: "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyards of the man void of understanding; and lol, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles covered the face thereof . . ." On purchasing a model farm at Botley in Hampshire in 1800, he ran it for some ten years. On fleeing England following a period in gaol, he returned to North America, where he had served as a soldier in his youth, and farmed in Long Island. He reflections on rural life and farming practices contained in Rural Rides (1830) initially began life as articles published from 1821 onwards. The aesthetics of gardening did not concern him; propagation and cultivation did. It is difficult to resist a book which considers growing potatoes as a replacement for bread as "a thing mischievous to the nation". Cobbett had no doubts as to the seminal importance of gardening: "it is far better to be in the greenhouse than to be blubbering over a stupid novel." Another addition to the excellent Bloomsbury Gardening Classics series, this grufflly charming book remains robust and informed in the face of advanced gardening techniques and the passage of 169 years.