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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The
autobiography of Arthur Young
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: The autobiography of Arthur Young

with selections from his correspondence

Author: Arthur Young

Editor: Matilda Betham-Edwards

Release date: April 19, 2024 [eBook #73426]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Smith, Elder & Company, 1898

Credits: Andrew Sly, MFR, KD Weeks and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ARTHUR YOUNG ***
 Transcriber’s Note:
Footnotes have been collected at the end of each
chapter, and are linked for ease of reference.
A multi-page manuscript letter was included between
page 188 and 189, which are reproduced here. A
transcription of the contents is provided in the
transcriber’s notes at the end of the text.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been
corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note for details
regarding the handling of any other textual issues
encountered during its preparation.
Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will
navigate the reader to the corresponding entry in the
corrections table in the note at the end of the text.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

ARTHUR YOUNG
 Walker & Boutell, phot.

From a Miniature in the possession of Alfred

Morrison Esq.r
London Published by Smith Elder & Co 15
Waterloo Place
 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— 1
Inoculation—The 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 26

a 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 44

—‘A 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— 83

Bishop 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. 138

Burney on 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 Berchtold— 163
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 189

of a 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 replies 263

—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— 441

Daily 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 ” 188
Miss Young
Portrait of ‘Bobbin’ (Martha Young) ” 265
Arthur Young’s Tomb at Bradfield ” 472

AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF

ARTHUR YOUNG
 CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 1741-1759

Ancestry—Anecdotes—Childhood—School life—Inoculation—The paternal

character—Mrs. Kennon—Letters to a schoolboy—A mercantile
apprenticeship—A youthful love affair—Family troubles—A gloomy outlook.

I was born at Whitehall, London, on September 11, 1741, many

years after my brother John and my sister Elizabeth Mary. In
examining the family papers from which the following detail is drawn,
I should observe that difficulties often occurred by reason of the
ancient hand-writing of many documents, and from several being
written in the Latin language not easily deciphered; but the
circumstances relative to the following dates were clearly
ascertained as far as they are noted. The principal object is the
possession of the Manor of Bradfield Combust, which is traced in the
family of Canham till it came by marriage into that of Young.
Bartholomew Canham the elder had two sons and two daughters. In
1672 he transferred Bradfield Hall, manor and lands to Arthur Young,
married to Elizabeth, his daughter. The Young shield bears a Field
Argent, three Bends sable and a Lyon rampant; that of Canham a
Field Gule, Bend Argent charged with a cannon ball sable, the Bend
cotised with Or. The estate had been purchased in 1620 by my
ancestor of Sir Thomas, afterwards Lord Jermyn of Rushbrooke,
being part of the great possessions of that family. The steward who
acted for Sir Thomas was Martin Folkes, ancestor of the present Sir
Martin Folkes. And here it is curious to observe the different results
affecting the posterity of the private gentleman who purchases, and
of the steward of the great man who sells—I am a poor little
gentleman, and Sir Martin Folkes owner of an estate not far short of
10,000l. a year. My father, Dr. Arthur Young, inherited Bradfield from
my grandfather, Bartholomew Young, Esq., called Captain from a
command in the Militia, and it is remarkable that with only a part of
the present Bradfield estate he lived genteely and drove a coach and
four on a property which in these present times just maintains the
establishment of a wheel-barrow.
Dr. Arthur Young, my father, was educated at Eton and admitted to
Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in 1710, afterwards settling at Thames
Ditton, Surrey. He was so much liked by the inhabitants that they
elected him, against a violent opposition of the inferior classes,
minister of that parish. Whether the ladies of the place had a
particular influence I know not, but he was a remarkably handsome
man and six feet high. It was here he became acquainted with Miss
Anne Lucretia de Cousmaker, to whom he was afterwards married.
She was the daughter of John de Cousmaker, Esq., who came to
England with King William III., bringing with him a fortune of 80,000l.,
the greater part of which he was deprived of by the imprudence of
one or two of his sons. If ever there existed in human form an
Israelite without guile, it was this worthy man; and it gives me great
pleasure to reflect on the extreme respect and affection which were
always felt for him and my dear mother. Mr. de Cousmaker, my
maternal grandfather, was executor and residuary legatee to a Mrs.
Keene, on which account he could have legally possessed himself of
an estate left by her. With an honesty unexampled he would not take
one penny of it, but exerted himself with incredible industry to
discover some distant relation to whom he might transfer the
property. He did find one who had no legal claim, and he gave him
the estate. This Mr. Keene dying without issue, his widow told my
grandfather that out of gratitude she would provide for two of his
children. To a daughter she left an annuity of 300l. a year, to a son
an estate which passed on to his descendants.
My mother brought a fortune to my father, the amount I know not,
but it was sufficient to demand the settlement of the Bradfield estate
upon her for life. She was of a very amiable, cheerful disposition,
loved conversation, for which she had a talent, and read a great deal
on various subjects. The residence at Thames Ditton resulted in a
friendship with the Onslow family, which proved highly advantageous
to my father. General, then Colonel Onslow, appointed him chaplain
to his own regiment, and the General’s brother, Speaker of the
House of Commons, also named him chaplain, a step which
afterwards led to the prebendaryship of Canterbury. Mr. Speaker
Onslow and the Bishop of Rochester were my godfathers. Colonel,
afterwards General Onslow, was in the estimation of the world a
highly respectable character, in the formation of which it may easily
be supposed that religion formed no part from the following
anecdote. One Sunday morning his wife obtained his permission to
read a chapter of the Bible, but he first bolted the door lest the
servants should witness the performance. He was afraid that the
matter might reach the ears of his Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of
Cumberland, who to much brutality of character added the
abhorrence of a soldier troubling his head about religion.
In 1734 my father published his ‘Historical Dissertations on
Idolatrous Corruptions in Religion,’ a very learned work which is
quoted by Voltaire. In 1742 he was in Flanders acting as chaplain to
Colonel Onslow’s regiment, and I have found among his papers the
journal of a tour made through Brabant, Flanders, and a part of
Picardy; on the whole, it is interesting, and the cheapness of living
therein described is remarkable. The following letter is from my
father to his relation, his Excellency Governor Vassy, relating to the
conduct of General Ingoldsby (who married my mother’s sister) at
the battle of Fontenoy, and which throws a little additional light upon
that transaction, though at the expense of the Commander-in-Chief.

‘Bradfield Hall: July 22, 1745 (O.S.).

‘Dear Sir,—My last, which I wrote some time before our Parliament
broke up, was of such a length as I suppose has tired you of my
correspondence, since which I, having been here in the country,
have had nothing of news worth troubling you with. I make little
doubt but that our friend Ingoldsby’s behaviour has made much the
same figure in your publick papers as your Appius’s has done in
ours. But I can assure you, Sir, that, notwithstanding the account
published in our Gazette, he behaved like a good and a brave officer.
A court-martial has set upon him, but what the result of it is we know