Publisher's Synopsis
A Victorian squire with a social conscience, the Tory Radical MP and social reformer W.B. Ferrand represented a strand of Tory activism which is often neglected, since those who write about such topics as factory exploitation prefer, in general, to find their heroes on the left rather than on the maverick right. Ferrand is frequently mentioned in histories of the factory hours movement, the Young England group and the Protectionist Party. John Ward sets him in his Yorkshire as well as his parlimentary context, whether battling on the hustings, struggling with the poachers who attacked his gamekeepers, or taking on Bradford corporation as they busily poisoned the trout streams for miles around.
