There is no great mystery about how Richard obtained books. Besides those he may have found at home and those which, almost certainly, he borrowed from Thomas Susan, he must have purchased many. This would not have been difficult for a keen young reader even in 18^th century Sussex, especially if, as in Richard’s case, he had parents who could afford to encourage him.In the year he was born an intelligent, open-minded German, C.P. Moritz, visited England and observed: “German authors are hardly read outside learned circles except by a few of the middle class. Yet the common people of England read their English authors! You can tell it, among other things, from the number of editions of their works.”[2]  Moritz went on to describe how the works of classical English authors were published in cheap, convenient editions, sometimes small enough to fit into the pocket, often neatly bound; and how he had met second-hand dealers in the street selling odd copies of Shakespeare and other authors for as little as a penny, or even a half-penny. He himself bought both volumes of Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield for sixpence.

This was Moritz’ experience in London, but there is no reason to suppose that books were not also readily available in a county town, especially one like Lewes which had long been a centre for lively political, religious and philosophical discussion. (Thomas Paine, the American revolutionary and author of the Rights of Man, used to expound his views in “The White Hart”, at the eastern edge of High Street, just across from the site where the Protestant martyrs were burnt in Queen Mary’s reign). Alfriston was – still is, for that matter – only eight miles from Lewes, whilst in the village itself, the hundreds of soldiers stationed there around the turn of the century would have included a considerable number who brought both books with them and attracted itinerant booksellers. These men would also have brought into the boy Richard’s like ways of speech that differed from the Sussex way: the Hampshire dialect, the Cockney or near-Cockney of the Westminster men, and the educated tones of the officers.

Richard’s family was not one whose horizons, like those of so many Sussex villagers, were bound by the limits of the parish into which they had been born. Henry’s malting business, John’s barge business and the Parish Clerk’s affairs of both must have taken these men at least as far as towns like Lewes and Newhaven, whilst Sarah Reeds’ family came from Bishopstone, a hamlet just outside Seaford. Her relatives - and therefore also Richard’s – still lived there and it was a place for which he long retained pleasant memories. As a boy, then, he went outside the parish. One of his favourite occupations was wandering over the Downs.