26 Jethro Tull : his Life, Times, and Teaching. 
him on his way as far as Marlborough ; theuce to Bath. The roads 
were very bad onwards to Bristol, near which place he met Miss 
Vane, a lady well known in the memoirs of those days ' — " she 
pretended to be more ill than she really is " ! On horseback next 
morning, at half-past four a.m., to pass the Severn with the tide ; 
the traveller arrived too soon, and passed the time at a very nice 
inn. ,Terrible roads in Monmouthshire. He ai-rived at Ponty- 
pool at 8 in the evening of the 9th, thoroughly wet through, and 
slept in a miserable inn. Next day with Mr. Hanbury. Passing 
over a great deal that is interesting enough, but not of agri- 
cultural interest, the Diarist, after dinner, left his host on the 
12th, with much regret, having been treated with great good- 
ness. The Severn was impassable at New Passage, so the road 
to Chepstow was taken ; at Chepstow he took a guide to Lydney, 
arriving at Nymphsfield on Sunday the 13th : "Here," he says, 
" I changed my linen," and arrived at the house of Lord Ducie, 
who was in bad liealth and in bed. After seeing him, the Diarist 
supped witli Mr. Moreton, the son and heir of the liouse, who was 
most kind and obliging— it is pleasant to trace a family likeness 
in an old picture, and to observe how agricultural proclivities 
tend in some families to become hereditary. Next day my lord 
was much worse, and they considered him in great danger. Mr. 
Moreton, with Mr. Adderlie, their agricultural manager, showed 
all the undertakings, which were very satisfactory and much 
admired. The site of the house is admirably chosen, and the 
view of the Severn very beautiful. On the 15th, at 10 o'clock, 
the Diarist left Woodchester Park, and Lord Ducie, who was 
rather better. Mr. Moreton conducted him by a beautiful valley 
to Hampton. Near Cirencester the Diarist was picked up by 
Colonel Selwyn ^ in his chaise : "we went seven mortal miles 
over infamous roads to breakfast at Wanborough." On vSept. 17, 
again at Newbury, the Diarist wrote to young Tull, and, resuming 
his journey en chaise, arrived at Windsor at six o'clock in the 
evening. He dined witli the young Duke of Cumberland, and 
was received by him and by the princesses, his sisters, with great 
demonstrations of pleasure ; the Duke was greatly attached to 
the Diarist, whose own two boys were about the same age, and 
playmates. Next day the King and the Court received him 
well ; he says : " Lord Halifax paid me great compliments on 
the information I had gained concerning agriculture." 
' Horace Wal pole's Letter!:, vol. i. 
^ Colonel John Selwyn, equerry to the Queen, father of the better known 
George Selwyn, celebrated as a wit. The passion of this really tender-he.irted 
man was to see coffins, corpses, and executions, lie died in 1791, let. 72. — Seo 
Memoirs of Oeorge Selivyn, by Jesse and Horace Walpolc. 
