Introduction xix 



exchanging, in six weeks, a word with one or two persons out- 

 side his family. His manner of life at Bradfield during the 

 last act of his life is graphically portrayed in a letter written 

 to her brother in Russia by his daughter Mary and published in 

 Miss Betham-Edwards' edition of the Diary. His amanuensis. 

 Miss Francis, a granddaughter of Dr. Bumey, slept over the 

 ser\'ants' hall with a pack-thread tied round her wrist and 

 issuing through the key-hole. Awakened by four or five pulls 

 she would rise and accompany the blind author for a two hours' 

 walk, taking milk at a farmhouse, visiting cottagers and leaving 

 tracts. Returning at half past six, his secretary, Mr. St. Croix, 

 would rise for two-and-a-half hours' work, and, after break- 

 fast, all three would adjourn to the library till one when 

 Mr. St. Croix retired and Miss Francis and Young read, 

 wrote, or walked till three. Miss Francis used to read to 

 Young " in every language — Greek, Latin, Italian, Hebrew, 

 Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Dutch, etc., etc." How 

 many additional tongues the etceteras imply that this pente- 

 costal lady could command is left to the imagination. Evidently 

 Miss Francis might have qualified for an interpretership at 

 Tifiis where seventy languages are reputed to be spoken. On 

 Sunday afternoons, Young taught in the schools; in the 

 evenings, he preached to the village folk in Bradfield Hall, and 

 in his eager, passionate pleading for souls — a pathetic detail — 

 the blind preacher would sometimes move about until his back 

 was turned to his congregation, whereupon Miss Francis, or his 

 daughter, gently placing her hands on his shoulder, would 

 turn his face round again. For twenty-six years, until her 

 death in 1811, Young kept up an intimate friendship with a 

 former flame, the beautiful Betty Plampin, who became Mrs. 

 Oakes in 1794. He continued to receive visits from Lord 

 Winchelsea, Wilberforce, and others of his personal friends and 

 admirers in town and country, until the end came in Sackville 

 Street, London, April 20, 1820. 



The best extant portrait of Arthur Young, who gave the 

 painter many sittings, may be seen in one of Barry's pictures 

 that decorate the Great Room of the Society of Arts in London. 

 To the spectator's right, and over the platform, is the fifth of 

 the artist's large canvases entitled " The Society." At the 

 extreme left of this stands the figure in profile of the great 

 agriculturist, just above the seated figure of William Shipley, 

 the founder of the Society, who holds a MS. in his hand. 

 Young is one of a group of farmers carrjnng specimens of grain. 



