So, I was hunting around on LibriVox audio for something to listen to help me fall asleep one night. In the Public Domain there are a lot of light and easy books to listen to that are almost ASMR in their narration, put that with a relaxing topic, and I am out like a light. I used to listen to the Bible on Audible, but it kept merging with my dreams, and no one wants that.

The quest for me is to find a topic that is interesting but with a narrator that is conducive for sleep. I generally like the ones on the home economics. There are cookbooks, how to run a house (how many and which types of servants are needed for a particular size home and how much they should be paid), and even ettiquite books (When introducing a younger person to an elder the younger person is always presented first "Mrs. Old, I would present to you Mr. Young")

So, this book was written by William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) who was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey, one of a popular agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restrain foreign activity and raise wages, to bring peace and ease poverty among farm labourers and smallholders. He was born and raised on a farm and from a young age was given chores and responsibilites. So, he knew of which he wrote about in this book.


You need to imaging that these passages are read in the very soothing English accent of Philippa (no last name given) who makes this recording so great to listen to on an iPod snugged under the pillow at night before falling asleep. The following gives you some idea of what I am talking about. Apparently, casual racism against the Irish was very popular at the time, so don't get upset at me, this was just an example of the times. Well, since he was for restraint on "forign activity" it makes sense.

This was about the time Tea became popular, and began surpassing beer as the drink of choice:

"The drink which has come to supply the place of beer has, in general, been tea. It is notorious that tea has no useful strength in it; that it contains nothing nutritious; that it, besides being good for nothing, has badness in it, because it is well known to produce want of sleep in many cases, and in all cases, to shake and weaken the nerves. It is, in fact, a weaker kind of laudanum, which enlivens for the moment and deadens afterwards."

And so he then spends two chapters on exactly how to make and brew beer which is much better.

Don't get me started on the very in depth way he laid out the differences in price per bushel to make vs price per bushel in yielded income on potatoes vs grain for bread, and the amount of time and energy to produce both. It seems he is in favor of the bread:

"The thirty-two bushels of wheat, supposing a bushel to be baked at a time, (which would be the case in a large family,) would demand thirty-two heatings of the oven. Suppose a bushel of potatoes to be cooked every day in order to supply the place of this bread, then we have nine hundred boilings of the pot, unless cold potatoes be eaten at some of the meals; and, in that case, the diet must be cheering indeed! Think of the labour; think of the time; think of all the peelings and scrapings and washings and messings attending these nine hundred boilings of the pot! For it must be a considerable time before English people can be brought to eat potatoes in the Irish style; that is to say, scratch them out of the earth with their paws, toss them into a pot without washing, and when boiled, turn them out upon a dirty board, and then sit round that board, peel the skin and dirt from one at a time and eat the inside. Mr. Curwen was delighted with “Irish hospitality,” because the people there receive no parish relief; upon which I can only say, that I wish him the exclusive benefit of such hospitality."

William Cobbett wrote this book as a way of providing an education to the men/women who were the backbone of the country at the time. This book served as an instruction on how to live good, not in richness of money, but having food, raiment, and health.

I am not too sure of who this man was but he seemed to have a very good grasp on the economy of the times, knowing to the penny and shilling how much a person should spend to do some kind of activity that should be done at home rather than being bought elsewhere. The point was to help a small land leaser with a cottage and a bit of land get the absolute most out of what he has with the least amount of actual money spent and in the best amount of time and which is the most healthful and beneficial to the family. He covers pretty much every aspect from the raising of animals, the types of harvest he should plant, the types of furniture and clothing that should be made/bought down to candles and rushes for lighting. I found the opinion that mustard is much more easily made than purchased.

"Why buy this, when you can grow it in your garden? The stuff you buy is half drugs; and is injurious to health. A yard square of ground, sown with common Mustard, the crop of which you would grind for use, in a little mustard-mill, as you wanted it, would save you some money, and probably save your life. Your mustard would look brown instead of yellow; but the former colour is as good as the latter: and, as to the taste, the real mustard has certainly a much better than that of the drugs and flour which go under the name of mustard. Let any one try it, and I am sure he will never use the drugs again. The drugs, if you take them freely, leave a burning at the pit of your stomach, which the real mustard does not."

And to top it all off - details on how to build an ice house for keeping ice.

" First begging the reader to read again paragraph 149, I proceed here, in compliance with numerous requests to that effect, to describe, as clearly as I can, the manner of constructing the sort of Ice-houses therein mentioned.

Hugh Grant is narrating that particular sentence in my mind...

Anyhow, since it is in the Public Domain, you can attempt to read the book online (good luck in that venture) or you can download it from any of the free audiobook apps. The content is very interesting from a historical perspective since it was written in the Regency period of 1820. Again the audio book version is something that shouldn’t be listened to while operating heavy machinery but it is something that will definitely help take you mind of whatever modern day problems we are facing and help you sleep at night. The narrator – Phillipa is the best part of it. It took me almost 3 months to finish it because I kept falling asleep within 15 minutes of listening. ( )

"Information relative to the brewing if beer, making of bread, keeping of cows, pigs, bees, ewes, goats, poultry and rabbits, and relative to other matters deemed useful in the conducting of the affairs of a labourer's family Etc etc..." ( )

Plough boy, soldier, political refugee, farmer, Cobbett knew what he was talking about - by no means can this book be dismissed as "the rich advising the poor on how they should cope".

Cottage Economy aims to help labourers achieve a decent standard of living for themselves and their families - "I lay it down as a maxim, that for a family to be happy, they must be well supplied with food and raiment". Cobbett uses his experience as a farm labourer, farmer, and nurseryman, backed by experimental results, to give instruction on brewing, baking, keeping livestock, making rushlights (to avoid the tax on candles), raising crops, and a host of related matters. His prose is clear and lively, his anger at the promises of a paradise in the next life to those suffering in this ("A couple of flitches of bacon are worth fifty-thousand Methodist sermons and religious tracts"), his love of England and his belief that unless families are happily off the nation can never be great, all shine through. ( )

a book written by the rich advising the poor on how they should cope ( )

Another book in the de facto Reading List on how poor people cope. ( )