2 
Arthur Young. 
the house, he found himself, on going to take his place at the 
table, in the company of a London lady of notoriety, fair and 
audacious, it is true, but of blemished reputation. Without a 
moment’s indecision, and deaf to the entreaties and explanations 
of his host, he left the hall for the stable, mounted his horse, 
and galloped off home — a divine of the last century, in evening 
dress. It is not out of place to mention these incidents as 
indicating the quality of blood that ran in Arthur’s veins. 
After John came a daughter, Elizabeth Mary, who married, and 
died before her father. The next child was Arthur, the subject 
of this memoir, 1 born September 7, 1741. 
In 1748, being then seven years of age, his education began 
at a school at Lavenham, six miles from home. There he stayed 
ten years, till 1758, when he was, at his mother’s desire, placed in 
the house of Messrs. Robertson, merchants, of King’s Lynn, 
devoting his time with avidity to reading and dancing. 
At seventeen his first work appeared in the form of a political 
pamphlet, The Theatre of the Present War in America , for 
which the London bookseller allowed him ten pounds in books. 
After this there came from his pen four novels — The Fair 
American ; Sir Charles Beaufort; Lucy Watson ; and Julia Benson , 
or, The Innocent Sufferer. In 1759 his father died, and about 
1761 apparently, his skill at chess was the means of introducing 
him to the notice of Sir Charles Howard, K.B., who offered him 
a pair of colours in his own regiment. His mother, however, 
interposed ; and the idea of entering any profession seems never 
afterwards to have been seriously entertained. Again he took 
up his pen, and started The Universal Museum , which Dr. 
Johnson persuaded him to abandon at the sixth number. He 
had been living with his uncle in London, but in 1763 he returned 
to his mother at Bradfield, without any pursuit or profession. 
His whole income during his mother’s life was derived from 
a copyhold farm of twenty acres, and, once settled under his 
mother’s roof, an offer she made him of the cultivation of a farm 
of eighty acres of which she held the lease, fixed the lines of his 
future career, and Arthur Yeung embarked as a farmer. As 
such he would probably never have been heard of as practically 
skilful, theoretically profound, or financially successful. But 
the conduct, or rather misconduct, of his business made him 
conversant with the methods and practices adopted by farmers 
about him, and with the recognised rules of management of land 
1 The picture which appears as the frontispiece to this article is from a 
portrait of Arthur Young published in the European Magazine of July 23, 1795, 
and is after a picture by J. Rising. 
