A ‘rural ride’ passing through Shardeloes

I’d been idly wondering whether any of William Cobbett’s rural rides passed through Amersham. An initial scan through didn’t bring up the name at all, but when I looked for Chesham, I realised he had actually passed through the Shardeloes estate in June of 1822 on his way between Chesham and High Wycombe. It just goes to show that sometimes it’s worth a second look from another angle if you don’t seem to find what you want at first.

This is the abridged text:

“After quitting Chesham, I passed through a wood, resembling, as nearly as possible, the woods in the more cultivated parts of Long Island, with these exceptions, that there the woods consist of a great variety of trees, and of more beautiful foliage.  … The road through the wood is winding and brings you out at the corner of a field, lying sloping to the south, three sides of it bordered by wood and the field planted as an orchard. … On quitting the wood I crossed the great road from London to Wendover, went across the park of Mr. Drake, and up a steep hill towards the great road leading to Wycombe. Mr. Drake’s is a very beautiful place, and has a great deal of very fine timber upon it. I think I counted pretty nearly 200 oak trees, worth, on an average, five pounds a-piece, growing within twenty yards of the road that I was going along. Mr. Drake has some thousands of these, I dare say, besides his beech; and, therefore, he will be able to stand a tug with the fundholders for some time.”

The ‘Mr Drake’ he refers to would, in 1822, have been Thomas Tyrwhitt-Drake, who was an MP for Amersham alongside his brother, William. Thomas inherited the family seat at Shardeloes, which Cobbett refers to above as the park of Mr Drake, on the death of his father, the somewhat ridiculously named Thomas Drake Tyrwhitt-Drake, in 1810.

It seems his route took him through the woods at the top of the hill, possibly Weedonhill Wood, and out across the road out of Amersham towards Aylesbury. He went through the Shardeloes estate, so although he didn’t pass through the old town, he still passed through the Amersham area, which I think still counts as local interest.

You can read the account of his ride in full on Project Gutenberg, the full text also includes a description of Chesham which he calls a ‘nice little town’. His focus is as usual on the labouring classes, and their houses, which he declares to be ‘not pretty, by any means, but they are good’, and he is impressed with the small gardens they cultivate.