94 History of the E7iglish Landed Interest. 



post-house, liave it safely conveyed thither by official collec- 

 tors ; who went round ringing small handbells for this special 

 purpose.^ 



Nothing could possibly exceed in importance to agriculture 

 these evidences of a time fast approaching, when the dissemi- 

 nation of knowledge would be so enormously expedited, as 

 to excuse no husbandman, however isolated, for farming badly, 

 on the plea of ignorance. The penny post and the penny 

 newspaper of the nineteenth century were to thoroughly 

 comj^lete the crusade against agricultural nescience, which had 

 been initiated by the monk, taken up by the Fleming, and 

 carried forward by the amateur. The practice and theory of 

 the last mentioned, as shown by the pamphlets and treatises of 

 the period, will indeed occupy a large portion of the ensuing 

 pages. 



* Kalin's Engla7id, p. 64. 



