14 
Arthur Young. 
approaches, the architecture and arrangement of the hall, with 
the dimensions of the rooms. 
In examining the pictures he says he will rely on his readers’ 
candour, and express to them nothing but his own feelings. 
He will not be guided by the dictates of common fame. Excel- 
lent sense. So, therefore, without more ado, he proceeds to 
pass judgment on the works of the great masters as he took 
them in order. P. Cortona’s “Jacob and Esau” he declares 
“ dark and disagreeable.” Of Rubens’s “ Flight into Egypt ” his 
description is, “ A good picture, but the figures disagreeable, 
especially Mary’s, who is a female mountain. The drawing 
appears to be bad.” One wonders what was left to make of it 
“ a good picture.” Claude Lorraine, “ Pegasus,” “ Argus,” 
“Apollo keeping Sheep,” and so on. 
In Norfolk farms are large, rents low, though the large 
farmers, paying from 300?. to 000?'. a year, make a great secret 
of their rents. He thinks, however, they run from 2s. 6c?. to 6s. 
an acre. Marl is the great foundation of their wealth, applied 
at the rate of 100 loads per acre, costing 25s. for digging and 30s. 
for hauling. The crop after this, four quarters of wheat and five 
of barley. The turnips are fed off with sheep, and the surplus 
is expended in fatting Scotch cattle by stall-feeding. Where 
the marl is worn out the farmers have “ latterly got into a 
method of manuring with oil-cakes for their winter corn, which 
they import from Holland and spread on their fields, at the 
expense of about 15s. an acre.” Wheat he prices at 30s., barley 
at 16s., oats at 12s., peas at 24s. per quarter. He did not find 
a sprig of lucerne on the fields of a common farmer. 
Labourers Is. a day in winter, Is. 2c?. in spring. In harvest 
21. 12s. 6c?. or 3?. for the harvest, besides meat, drink, and 
lodging. It lasts from a month to six weeks. Turnip-hoeing 
3s. first time, 2s. second. Bread 2c?., butter 6c?., mutton 4c?., 
beef 4c?., veal 34c?., candles 7c?. per lb. 
The road into Bury lies for some miles over a wild heath, 
overrun with bushes, whins, and brake, but with a soil which 
“ would if cultivated produce corn in plenty.” 
The tour was continued through Suffolk, Essex, Kent, 
Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, and* 
Glamorganshire. A very considerable portion of this volume is 
taken up with descriptions of the most famous family seats and 
their contents. He even devotes several pages to a description 
of Northumbeiland House in London. The village industries 
are not forgotten, but very carefully recorded ; the condition of 
the roads, the causes influencing prices, and a variety of observa- 
tions of value to the political economist or historian. 
