Sir Walter Gilbey (1831 to 1914)

Introduction: The early history of the horse in the British Islands is obscure. The animal is not indigenous to the country, and it is supposed that the original stock was brought to England many centuries before the Christian era by the Phoenician navigators who visited the shores of Cornwall to procure supplies of tin.

From the text: The demand for New Forest ponies increased, and the commoners took advantage of the higher prices obtainable to sell the best of their young stock, thus the breed steadily degenerated, until the late Prince Consort sent a grey Arab stallion to stand at New Park.
 

Charles Chadwicke Jones (1800 to 1852)

Preface: From numerous diaries, memoirs, histories of particular reigns, state papers, private MSS, and other scarce and authenticated sources of historical information, much new light has been thrown upon many hitherto mysterious, controversial, and confused affairs of state, during particular periods of English history.

From the text: William (surnamed Rufus), the third son of the Conqueror, succeeded his father on the throne of England; but inherited neither his wisdom, nor his steady greatness. No marked alteration for the better in the general state of England, characterizes his reign, though the seeds of national improvement sown by the Conqueror were gradually but silently unfolding themselves.

William Gilpin (1724 to 1804).

During summer months, Gilpin travelled around the country, making watercolours and keeping journals in which he crystallised his personal theories about picturesque landscapes. 

Editor's Preface: In illustrating the present edition of the Forelt Sceneery, it has been our endeavour to interfere as little as possible with the arrangement originally adopted by Mr Gilpin. We have therefore considered it best to introduce each respective portion of our observations immediately after the original matter to which it refers and to distinguish our remarka the more perfectly. The reader will observe that they are printed in a smaller type than those of Mr Gilpin.

Whilst we have retained the most essential of Mr Gilpin's delineations, we have deemed it advisable to change, or to improve, several of them. A number of illustrations have been added from original sketches, by Mr Kidd and Mr For bes, both of them celebrated artists in their respective departments, whose labours, we trust, will be found to have considerably improved the value of Mr Gilpin's book.

William Gilpin (1724 to 1804).

During summer months, Gilpin travelled around the country, making watercolours and keeping journals in which he crystallised his personal theories about picturesque landscapes. 

Editor's Preface: In illustrating the present edition of the Forelt Sceneery, it has been our endeavour to interfere as little as possible with the arrangement originally adopted by Mr Gilpin. We have therefore considered it best to introduce each respective portion of our observations immediately after the original matter to which it refers and to distinguish our remarka the more perfectly. The reader will observe that they are printed in a smaller type than those of Mr Gilpin.

Whilst we have retained the most essential of Mr Gilpin's delineations, we have deemed it advisable to change, or to improve, several of them. A number of illustrations have been added from original sketches, by Mr Kidd and Mr For bes, both of them celebrated artists in their respective departments, whose labours, we trust, will be found to have considerably improved the value of Mr Gilpin's book.

VOLUME ! - "There is no better way of rediscovering a lost but still not forgotten England than to turn to the colourful pages of William Cobbett's Rural Rides," writes Asa Briggs in the Introduction to this volume.

Already when Cobbett began to write the accounts of his journeys in 1821, the England which he had known as a boy was beginning to look and to feel different. The landscape was changing as a result of the double impact of agricultural enclosure and the growth of towns: society too was changing as a result of the combined influences of industry, finance and war.

To many of Cobbett's contemporaries the changes were good, visible signs of the " march of improvement"; to Cobbett and his followers they were bad, but it still seemed that there was time enough to reverse them. "Events are working together".

Cobbett wrote in 1825, "to make the country worth living in which, for the great body of the people, is at present hardly the case." It was for the sake of discovering the true state of affairs and appealing to others to help promote the proper remedies that Cobbett began to travel round England.