I believe that he based the Shire on the county of Oxfordshire. As a young boy he lived in the countryside outside Birmingham and then as an adult he enjoyed exploring around his Oxford home. He did not approve of the growing industrialisation of the area, disliking the factories and the increased traffic on the roads. his descriptions of the Shire harkened back to the days before the industrial Revolution.
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"Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
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