Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

ARTHUR YOUNG

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_Walker & Boutell, phot._

_From a Miniature in the possession of Alfred Morrison Esq.^r_

London Published by Smith Elder & Co 15 Waterloo Place
]

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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

ARTHUR YOUNG

WITH

SELECTIONS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE

‘That wise and honest traveller“’—JOHN MORLEY

EDITED BY

M. BETHAM-EDWARDS

WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1898

[All rights reserved]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

An apology for these Memoirs is surely not needed. Whilst Arthur Young’s famous ‘Travels in France’ have become a classic, little is known of the author’s life, a life singularly interesting and singularly sad. Whether regarded as the untiring experimentalist and dreamer of economic dreams, as the brilliant man of society and the world, or as the blind, solitary victim of religious melancholia, the figure before us remains unique and impressive. We have here, moreover, a strong character portrayed by himself, an honest piece of autobiography erring, if at all, on the side of outspokenness. In his desire to be perfectly frank, the writer has laid upon his editor the obligation of many curtailments, the Memoirs from beginning to end being already much too long. From seven packets of MS. and twelve folio volumes of correspondence I have put together all that a busy public will probably care to know of Arthur Young—his strength and weakness, his one success and innumerable failures, his fireside and his friends. One striking and instructive feature in this man’s history is his cosmopolitanism, his affectionate relations with Frenchmen, Poles, Russians, Danes, Italians, Scandinavians. Never Englishman was more truly English; never Englishman was less narrow in his social sympathies.

The religious melancholia of his later years is explicable on several grounds: to the influence of his friend, the great Wilberforce; to the crushing sorrow of his beloved little daughter ‘Bobbin’s’ death; lastly, perhaps, to exaggerated self-condemnation for foibles of his youth. Few lives have been more many-sided, more varied; few, indeed, have been more fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.

The Memoirs, whilst necessarily abridged and arranged, are given precisely as they were written—that is to say, although it has been necessary to omit much, not a word has been added or altered. Whenever a word or sentence needed explanation or correction, the editorial note is bracketed. The foot-notes, unless when otherwise stated, are all editorial.

For the use of Memoirs and letters, &c., I am indebted to Mrs. Arthur Young, widow of the late owner of Bradfield Hall, the last of Arthur Young’s race and name, a gentleman alike in his public and private life well worthy of his distinguished ancestry.

Mr. Arthur Young, who died last year, is buried beside the author of the ‘Travels in France,’ in the pretty little churchyard of Bradfield, near Bury St. Edmunds.

M. B.-E.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 1741-1759

PAGE

Ancestry—Anecdotes—Childhood—School life—Inoculation—The 1
paternal character—Mrs. Kennon—Letters to a schoolboy—A
mercantile apprenticeship—A youthful love affair—Family
troubles—A gloomy outlook

CHAPTER II

FARMING AND MARRIAGE, 1759-1766

The gay world—A call on Dr. Johnson—A venture—Offer of a 26
career—Farming decided upon—Garrick—Marriage—Mr.
Harte—Lord Chesterfield on farming—Literary
work—Correspondence—Birth of a daughter

CHAPTER III

IN SEARCH OF A LIVING, 1767-1775

Home travels—A move—Anecdote of a cat—Disillusion—‘A 44
Farmer’s Letters’—Another move—‘In the full blaze of her
beauty’—Hetty Burney and her harpsichord—‘Scant in
servants’—Maternal solicitude—Money difficulties—More
tours—Lord Sheffield—Howard the
philanthropist—Correspondence

CHAPTER IV

IRELAND, 1776-1778

The journey to Ireland—Characteristics—Residence at 66
Mitchelstown—Intrigues—A strange bargain—Departure—Letter
to his wife—A terrible journey

CHAPTER V

FARMING AND EXPERIMENTS, 1779-1782

Corn bounties—A grievance—Reading—Hugh Boyd—Bishop 83
Watson—Howlett on population—Irish Linen
Board—Experiments—Correspondence

CHAPTER VI

FIRST GLIMPSE OF FRANCE, 1783-1785

Birth of Bobbin—Ice baths—‘The Annals of Agriculture’—A 110
group of friends—Lazowski—First glimpse of France—Death of
my mother—The Bishop of Derry—Fishing parties—Rainham

CHAPTER VII

FIRST FRENCH JOURNEY, 1786-1787

Death of my brother—Anecdotes of his character—Dr. Burney on 138
farming—Greenwich _versus_ Eton—Blenheim—Correspondence
with Dr. Priestley—County toasts—French projects—First
French journey

CHAPTER VIII

TRAVEL AND INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIPS, 1788-89-1790

The Wool Bill—Sheridan’s speech—Count 163
Berchtold—Experiments—Second French journey—Potato-fed
sheep—Cost of housekeeping—Chicory—Burnt in
effigy—Correspondence—Third French journey—With Italian
agriculturists—Bishop Watson and Mr.
Luther—Correspondence—Literary work—Illness—The state of
France

CHAPTER IX

PATRIOTIC PROPOSALS, 1791-92

Illness—Correspondence with Washington—The King’s gift of a 189
ram—Anecdotes—Revising MSS.—Patriotic proposals—Death of
the Earl of Orford—Agricultural schemes—Correspondence

CHAPTER X

THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 1793

The Board of Agriculture—Secretaryship—Residence in 219
London—Twenty-five dinners a month—The King’s bull—The
Marquis de Castries—‘The Example of France’—Encomiums
thereof—Correspondence

CHAPTER XI

THE SECRETARYSHIP, 1794-95-1796

The Secretaryship and its drawbacks—Social 241
compensations—Illness and death of Elizabeth Hoole—Letters
of Jeremy Bentham and others—A visit to Burke—Home
travels—Enclosures

CHAPTER XII
ILLNESS AND DEATH OF BOBBIN, 1797

Illness of Bobbin—Letters of Bobbin and her father’s 263
replies—Dress minutes at the opera—Hoping against
hope—Bobbin’s death—Seeking for
consolation—Retrospection—Beginning of
diary—Correspondence

CHAPTER XIII

DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE, 1798, 1799, 1800

Assessed taxes—Society—Mr. Pitt and the Board of 312
Agriculture—A foolish joke—Dinners to poor
children—Interview with the King—Royal
farming—Correspondence—Bradfield—Incidents of home
travel—Portrait of a great lady—Correspondence

CHAPTER XIV

DIARY CONTINUED, 1801-1803

Public affairs and prophecy—The divining rod—The 347
appropriation of waste lands—The word ‘meanness’
defined—South’s sermons—Projected theological
compendia—Correspondence—Journalising to ‘my
friend’—Anecdote of Dean Milner and Pitt—Death of the Duke
of Bedford—Napoleon and Protestantism

CHAPTER XV

APPROACHING BLINDNESS, 1804-1807

A great preacher—Arthur Young the younger goes to 391
Russia—Cowper’s letters—Mrs. Young’s illness—Dr.
Symonds—Novel reading—Skinner’s ‘State of Peru’—Death of
Pitt—Burke’s publishing accounts—Literary
projects—Approaching blindness

CHAPTER XVI

LAST YEARS, 1808-1820

Gradual loss of sight—Illness and death of Mrs. Oakes—Daily 441
routine—A disappointment—Riots—Death of Mrs.
Young—Anecdotes of Napoleon—A story of the Terror—National
distress—Close of diary—The end

INDEX 475

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR YOUNG _Frontispiece_ BRADFIELD HALL AS IN ARTHUR YOUNG’S TIME _to face p._ 127 FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM ARTHUR YOUNG TO MISS YOUNG ” 188 PORTRAIT OF ‘BOBBIN’ (MARTHA YOUNG) ” 265 ARTHUR YOUNG’S TOMB AT BRADFIELD ” 472

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

ARTHUR YOUNG