Memoir of Arthur Young, Esq. 285 



lated to swallow, without return, all that folly or imprudence 

 could bestow upon it." It will be here naturally asked, why he 

 did not go to land decisively good ? He answers the question 

 very satisfactorily. " It was on account of the houses ; for 

 although I saw numerous farms that would have suited well, 

 they had wretched hovels on them." 



His " Six Weeks' Tour," excited a great sensation in the 

 agricultural community, and numerous and pressing were the 

 applications which he received, botli personally and by letter, 

 to undertake journeys through other districts, and to record the 

 result of them upon a similar plan ; he was accordingly in- 

 duced, in the year 1768, to perform a tour through the north of 

 England, during which he collected so much information, that 

 the publication occupied four volumes, octavo, and so eagerly 

 was it purchased, that the first edition was very shortly out of 

 print. In the succeeding year, he gave to the Public his ideas 

 upon " the Expediency of a free Exportation of Corn," a work 

 at which his late Majesty expressed the strongest marks of ap- 

 probation, as the Archbishop of Canterbury informed his brother, 

 Dr. John Young. In 1770, he proceeded on his eastern tour, 

 during which he formed an intimate acquaintance with John 

 Arbuthnot, Esq., the father of the present Secretary to the 

 Treasury; a circumstance which he always mentioned with 

 pleasure, and his memoranda abound with the strongest ex- 

 pressions of regard and friendship for him. This tour was also 

 published in four volumes octavo. As this was the last of his 

 English tours, and, unquestionably, the best, I shall beg leave 

 to pause in my narrative, to offer a few remarks upon the cha- 

 racter and importance of their composition, and the almost 

 magical influence which they produced upon the agriculture of 

 England ; and if it be true, that he who can point out and 

 recommend an innocent pleasure is to be esteemed an equal 

 benefactor to mankind with him who makes a useful discovery, 

 I claim for Mr. Young, from the hand of the moralist, an ad- 

 ditional laurel to decorate his well-earned wreath of popularity. 

 A taste for agricultural pursuits now became general; and it has 

 been said, and perhaps not without justice, that the writings of 



