1,92 AGRICULTURAL WRITERS. 



public benefit even by the wisdom gained from those failures, but still 

 more by diffusing agricultural knowledge among the cultivators of the 

 soil. "We will not assert," says one critic, "that in all cases his 

 conclusions were correct, or his judgment unimpeachable, but even his 

 blunders, if he committed any, have tended to the benefit of agriculture, 

 by exciting discussion and criticism." Let us add, that every gardener, 

 every farmer, and every amateur confers a benefit upon his fellow 

 cultivators by recording his failures as well as his successful experiments, 

 — just the same as a lighthouse is equally valuable whether it shows 

 the rock to be avoided or the harbour for which we are to steer. He 

 was descended from a very respectable family, who resided upon their 

 estate at Bradfield, Crowhurst, Bury St. Edmund's. His father was the 

 Rector there. He was educated at Lavenham and entered a merchant's 

 office at Lynn. From childhood Mr. Young had a great fondness for 

 farming, and exhibited at least an equal power for literary composition ; 

 yet the great mistake was made of spending some hundreds of pounds, 

 and as effectually wasting a still greater number of his days, in 

 endeavouring to break down his mind to the craft of a wine 

 merchant. 



Nature was invincible ; so that instead of devoting his thoughts to Ihe 

 topography of the European vineyards, and the art of rendering their 

 produce agreeable to British palates, he ^^■rote novels and a political 

 pamphlet, the reward for which — ten pounds' worth of books from the 

 publisher — was always remembered as causing a most memorable 

 pleasure. Now occurred the death of his father ; and he found himself, 

 his apprenticeship being expired, his own master, with a freehold of 20 

 acres, producing as many pounds annually, and his mother in possession 

 of 80 more acres, at Bradfield. She urged one willing to assent when 

 she asked him to reside with her, and undertake the cultivation of her 

 farm. He accepted her proposal, and the result may be told in his own 

 words : " Young, eager, and totally ignorant of every necessary detail, it 

 is not surprising that I squandered large sums under golden dreams of 

 improvement." It is the less surprising, because he had a thirst for 

 experiment without a knowledge of what is required to secure success. 

 Undaunted by failure, and uiisobered by experience, he married 

 unsuitably, and undertook the cultivation of Sampford Hall, in Essex. 

 It embraced 300 acres of good arable land, yet want of capital, want of 

 practical knowledge, and that still more bitter want — the want of 'a 

 help mete for him," drove him from the farm ; yet the tenant, to whom 

 he gave £100 to take the lease off his hands, realised upon it a fortune. 

 Still unshaken from his love of the soil, he sought for another farm and 

 the search furnished materials for his " Six Weeks' Tour through the 

 Southern Counties " — a work popular, and passing through several 

 editions, yet resulting to himself in no greater good at the t'me than 



