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.”
As Cobbett himself described them a few years later. The creek of the little river Hamble touches the end of the principal street; and here was a tiny wharf, and a miller’s house. On the farther side of the creek stood the “delightful house and more delightful garden,” which promised such bliss. Here is one of the first resulting joys:—
“Now, I am going to give you a commission that you must do us the favour to execute with the least possible delay. It is to find out where fishing-nets are sold, and to buy us a net called a Flue or Trammel net. It must be five feet deep, and fifteen yards long; with plenty of linnet, and not too coarse. We have a river full of fish sweeping round the one side of our little lot of land; but for want of such a net, we catch comparatively but few. It will not cost above three or four pounds, and we shall gain that in fish in a month. But the salmon-peel are now coming up with the spring tides, and we hope you will be able to send us the net by the Southampton night coach of Monday, to be left at the coach-office till called for. If you should miss that coach pray get it off by the next after; for this is a subject with regard to which none of us have any patience. The net is for jack, trout, and salmon-peel, &c.”
“… The net is excellent. Plenty of fish. Nobody has such an one in this place!”
“… Since last Saturday morning we have caught nearly as many fish as would sell in London for as much as the net cost you. We have, indeed, famous sport; and I wish to know if Mr. Windham be in town, that I may send him some of this excellent fish. When you come yourself we will show you what we can do; and I really hope that you will be able to get here soon.”