I can't remember if, in Rural Rides, Cobbett ever made it to Seaford. I thought of this as I ran past fields of crops, broad beans, wheat, flax. Cobbett could go from a single onion to a fervent denunciation of the destruction of rural life by capitalism. I lack his intellectual breadth and agility. I see a field of beans and think, 'oh, a field of beans'.
However, I did wonder about walking, running, riding as a stimulus to writing. I've just been reading the most marvellous book, which everyone who lives in or knows Sussex should read, Olivia Laing's To the River, in which she walks the length of the Ouse.
I ran six miles, with stiff and painful legs.
