Huntley, between Gloucester and Ross - Tuesday 12th September 1826
From STROUD I came up to PITCHCOMB, leaving PAINSWICK on my right. From the lofty hill at PITCHCOMB I looked down into that great flat and almost circular vale, of which the city of Gloucester is in the centre. To the left I saw the SEVERN, become a sort of arm of the sea; and before me I saw the hills that divide this county from Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The hill is a mile down. When down, you are amongst dairy-farms and orchards all the way to Gloucester, and, this year, the orchards, particularly those of pears, are greatly productive. I intended to sleep at Gloucester, as I had, when there, already come twenty-five miles, and, as the fourteen, which remained for me to go, in order to reach BOLLITREE, in Herefordshire, would make about nine more than either I or my horse had a taste for. But, when I came to Gloucester, I found, that I should run a risk of having no bed if I did not bow very low and paid very high; for, what should there be here, but one of those scandalous and beastly fruits of the system, called a ‘MUSIC-MEETING’! Those who founded the CATHEDRALS never dreamed, I dare say, that they would have been put to such uses as this! They are, upon these occasions, made use of as Opera-Houses; and, I am told, that the money, which is collected, goes, in some shape or another, to the Clergy of the Church, or their widows, or children, or something. These assemblages of player-folks, half rogues and half fools, began with the small paper money; and with it they will go. They are amongst the profligate pranks which idleness plays when fed by the sweat of starving people. From this scene of prostitution and of pocket-picking I moved off with all convenient speed, but not before the ostler made me pay 9d. for merely letting my horse stand for ten minutes, and not before he had begun to abuse me for declining, though in a very polite manner, to make him a present in addition to the 9d. How he ended I do not know; for, I soon set the noise of the shoes of my horse to answer him. I got to this village (Huntley – EH), about eight miles from Gloucester, by five o’clock:: it is now half past seven, and I am going to bed (The Red Lion? – EH) with an intention of getting to BOLLITREE (six miles only) early in the morning to catch my sons in bed if they play the sluggard.
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The above text is from ‘Rural Rides’ by William Cobbett - 1830 (publisher: Penguin Classics)
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Key words: Bollitree, Gloucester, Herefordshire, Huntley, Painswick, Pitchcomb, Ross, Severn, Stroud, Worcestershire
William Cobbett, Rural Rides, The Red Lion
Cathedrals, Church, clergy, dairy-farms, horse, music-meeting, opera-houses, orchards, ostler, pears, player-folks, pocket-picking, prostitution, rogues
