294 Memoir of Arthur Young, Esq. 



cultivator of Petersham*, which is recorded in the seventh 

 volume of the annals, under the signature of Ralph Robinson. 

 The King regularly read this work, as it came out, and he took 

 occasion to thank Mr. Young for the pleasure which he received 

 from its perusal, on the terrace of Windsor ; upon which the 

 Queen observed, that his Majesty never travelled without a 

 volume of the Annals in his carriage. During the absence of 

 Mr. Young on the continent, it appears that an offensive paper 

 was inserted in the eleventh volume, " on the System of the 

 Universe," by the Earl of Orford, upon reading which, the 

 King exclaimed — "What! are the Annals of Agriculturehecoraing 

 the vehicle of infidel opinions ? If so, one of my strongest 

 supports has failed me." The matter was afterwards ex- 

 plained, and his Majesty expressed himself perfectly satisfied. 

 It deserves notice in this place, that, in 1803, the King of 

 Naples became a subscriber, and, at the same time, sent a 

 Neapolitan to be instructed by Mr. Young in agriculture. 

 Amongst the more valuable communications in this work, we 

 must not pass over unnoticed the Letters on the present State 

 of Agriculture in Italy, by Dr. Symonds, Professor of Modern 

 History in the University of Cambridge. 



The papers written by Mr. Young are of the most interesting 

 description, abounding with specimens of his original and 

 beautiful style of writing ; whenever he speaks of the pleasures 

 of agricultural pursuits, his pen is inspired ; if the strains of 

 Petrarch were modulated by the softness of the breeze and the 

 murmur of the fountains of Valclusa, with equal truth may it 

 be said, that the rural writings of Arthur Young breathe all the 

 freshness, and participate in the healthy vigour of that occu- 

 pation, which forms the subject of his researches, and the 

 theme of his panegyric. I cannot resist the temptation of 

 presenting the reader with a quotation from his Essay on the 

 Advantages of a Farmer's Life : after contrasting the other 

 pursuits of pleasure, he exclaims, " far different from these is 



♦ The King often visited the farm of this gentleman ; a circumstance 

 which contributed in no small degree to his zeal] for agriculture : he used 

 to say, that his Majesty's attention to his farm was as dew upon the giass. 



