"In 1821 a committee proposed certain remedies to alleviate the persistent agricultural depression. Cobbett disagreed with their conclusions, and 'made up his mind to see for himself, and to enforce by actual observation of rural conditions, the statements he had made in answer to the arguments of the landlords before the Agricultural Committee'. His method was to make a series of tours on horseback up and down the land, and to publish accounts of them in the [Weekly Political] Register (they were subsequently collected and published in the book here cited."--PMM 294.