121 



liberal, and possibly might have thought public money well 

 disposed of, in promoting the improvement of Ireland ; 

 and of course would have granted abundance.— I call upon 

 Earl Talbot with different hopes and expectations ; — 

 money I scarcely want, a perfect pittance will answer all 

 my purposes : but should I be so fortunate, through my 

 compliance with the Arch-Duke's request, as to attract 

 Earl Talbot's notice, and to inlist his Excellency 

 in a new agricultural pursuit, I shall draw heavily on his 

 countenance, — his encouragement, — and even on his at- 

 tention. 



Nor am I without hopes of contributing to his amuse- 

 ment ; for the grounds upon which I propose to make the 

 experiments, by the success of which I expect to en- 

 courage practice on a larger scale, shall be all within the 

 reach of his morning ride, so that his Excellency himself 

 will not only be enabled to form his judgment of my mea- 

 sures with his own eyes, but also to take a distant view of 

 some of the extensive fields, whose present wildness does 

 not discourage me from expecting to see them soon clothed 

 with valuable crops of hay. 



From the sites which I hope to be allowed to choose as 

 the scenes of my experiments, his Excellency can look 

 down upon the wide field of highly-cultivated grounds, 

 (mostly meadow) beneath him, and on his Southern side 

 he will see the embrowned and desolate tracts, to which I 

 mean to transfer the meadows that in future shall supply 

 his capital with hay. He will probably be disposed to smile 

 at my Utopian speculations : but when he looks to the in- 

 calculable benefits that would be derived to the nation he 

 governs, from their success ; and when he is told of the 

 places, where similar measures have succeeded in similar 

 situations ; and above all, when he shall be shown the 

 vegetable 1 propose to cultivate, growing spontaneously 



