Jethro Tail : Jiis Life, l^imes, and Teaching. 
31 
courtier ; lie evidently mended his best pen when he wrote : 
" The reason there is no dedication to my essay is this: the 
Queen having done me the honour to subscribe to my book, 
I could not dedicate it to any other person, and her Majesty's 
royal virtues being too far above any panegyric I was able to 
write, I chose rather to leave it to the protection of the royal 
license and the laws." 
The first edition of the Horse-hoeing Husbandry in folio ^ 
appeared in 1733, and to this a supplement was added in 1739. 
The book was at once translated into French, and subsequently 
into various Continental languages. During literary gestation 
and delivery, poor TuU suffered infinite pain ; and immediately 
after delivery there was war to the knife. The fruit of his braiu 
and its author were, as we shall see hereafter, continuously ex- 
posed to the most cruel, unjust, and savage attacks of carping 
critics. 
" I was," says Tull in his preface, " so far from being 
inclined to the scribbling disease, that I had disused writing for 
above twenty years. I was too ill to assist when the MS. was 
transcribed for the printer ; I was never able to correct a proof ; 
my scribe misplaced my notes, and they did not appear in 
connection with the text they were intended to explain : " the 
scribe, ignorant of country affairs, often placed the cart before 
the horse. Tull groans over the trouble he underwent in 
connection, especially, with his plates of the implements, "with 
an infernal train of mechanics, scribes, printers, drawers, 
engravers, &c., &c., who, taking advantage of my confine- 
ment, put me to a double expense — towards which the sub- 
scriptions did next to nothing — also by delays, tricks, and 
fraudulent practices gave me such an embarrass that if I had 
foreseen I would not have underwent." Always in regard to 
his book Tull speaks with the modesty which is the characteristic 
of true greatness. " For my part, I pretend to no other merit 
but my endeavour to answer the desires of my friends." He 
writes touchingly of the inadvertencies that happen to the pen of 
a person in pain ; because he cannot write but in a hurry. 
Obviously the best commentary on Tull's book is the book 
itself, and in preference, as the voluminous notes are arranged 
' The following editions are thus noted in Alibone's BictionaryofAiitlwrs: 
"'Specimen of a Work on Horse-hoeing Husbandry.' Lond. 1731. 4to. 
' New Horse-hoeing Husbandry.' 1733. Folio. (Supp. 1739. Folio). 1739, 
Folio. 1751. Folio. 1753. Folio. 1762. 8vo. 1772. 8vo. In French by 
Duhamel. In English, nev.^ edition by Cobbett. 1822. 8vo. 1829." The 
French say Voltaire was a disciple of Tull. Voltaire was in England, 
1726-28. — Grand Dlciionnaire Larusse. Art., Tull, 
