(This tour—and Oliver’s tours in 1817—remind us that we are too ready to emphasise the difficulties of communication before the coming of the railways.) At each of these centres there was a nucleus of reformers who had undertaken arrangements for the meeting. Cartwright placed himself at their service, no matter whether they were gentlemen, small tradesmen, artisans or weavers; and he presented a correct cold shoulder to the tepid gentry and large Whig employers who were scandalised at the rabble with which he associated.
