Memoir of Arthur Young, Esq. 283 



sal, — and he embarked as a farmer. Young, eager, and totally 

 ignorant as he then was of every necessary detail, it is not 

 surprising, as he has since said, that he should have squan- 

 dered large sums, under golden dreams of improvements, 

 especially as he connected a thirst for experiment without a 

 knowledge of what it demanded for its success, or what were the 

 fallacies to which it was exposed in the execution. In the 

 following year he commenced a correspondence in the periodi- 

 cal work, entitled Museum Rusticum'^ ; this was his earliest 

 effort in agriculture, and in 1765, by the strong persuasion of 

 the well-known Walter Hart, the tutor of Mr. Stanhope, the 

 son of the celebrated Lord Chesterfield, he collected these 

 letters, and reprinted them, under the head of " SijIvcb," as an 

 appendix to his new publication of the Farmer's Letters, a 

 work in which he treats of several subjects, connected with the 

 farming interests, with much ability and success, as, on the 

 advantages of a general and extensive exportation of corn, and 

 on the balance of agriculture and manufactures, maintaining 

 that the former ought to flourish, to the full cultivation of the 

 land, before the latter should take place as articles of commerce. 

 In this year (1765) he married Miss Martha Allen, of Lynn, a 

 lady of a very respectable family, whose sister was the second 

 wife of the celebrated Dr. Burney of Chelsea ; she was the 

 great-grand-daughter of John Allen, Esq., of Lyng House, in 

 the county of Norfolk, who, according to the Count de Boul- 

 iainvilliers, was the first person who used marl as a manure, 

 in that county. Mrs. Young possessed all the attractions of 

 person, the accomplishments of mind, and the excellence of 

 heart, to have rendered her a suitable companion for Arthur 

 Young, but it proved to be the very reverse of a happy union ; 

 it would ill become one who has enjoyed the pleasures of her 

 society, and the advantages of her friendship, to offer any 

 comment upon the family circumstances that might have oc- 

 casioned so unfortunate an event ; nor is it the business of a 



* It ia a singular circumsUnce, that this work contains also the first 

 «8ay written by Mr. Cdgcwortb, when he was only 10 years of age, on the 

 iubj«ct of" Wheel Carriages." 



