AN ECCENTBIC CAREER.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2850, 3 April 1878, Page 2

AN ECCENTBIC CAREER.

Poor old William Cobbett, says th* Gardener's Magaiine, .whose eoeentria career has been finally and so fitly closed within the preeinctsof a courtof k\w—•the place he seems to hare loved sp well—wsj < the eldest son of the late celebrated W«a.; Cobbett, of political and agricultural ■' notoriety. The last bearer of this nam* was up to just before his death uiap* parently hale old man, -tall, upright* :. looking every inch the gentleman he waf • born to be, bat to which estimable position his singularities and lore of litigation kept him from reaching. Though eighty yean of age, his back was straight and his eye rigorous,, and but for th» shadows of eccentricity, he was to th« last mentally a fine man. A few yean ago, when the celebrated trial, of the Tichborne Claimant was the rage of the day, old Cobbett, with his more vigorous wife, resided in a small eottag%jvthe Stanwell Boad at Belfont, where ha grew his well-known maize. Later on he iv* > moved to another cottage having a larger garden, adjoining the seed grounds, and . there the writer became intimate with this singular man, and learnt from him - something respecting the mode of cultivation of bis corn—facts that hare been published in full in these columns. Cob* bett claimed that, although his father enjoyed the merit of first introducing ft cultivable variety of maiffe in this country, yet it was truly his introduction, as ho sentit home from America in the first place. During the time of his residence at Belfont he endeavoured to popularise his maise. by issuing pamphlet* explanatory of the mode of cultivation, and eren offered it for sale; but the rentqre would seem tq hare been a failure, as he suddenly departed to another locality, and nothing respecting his corn has been heard since. Though accustomed to beard the Lord Chief Justice in his own den—and perhaps a more unflinching advocate for the release of the " unfortunate nobleman " than even the bold Kenealy— poor old Cobbett might yet often be seen gathering up the mauitre that fell on the highway. No game was too high or too low for him.