‘On his calling on me I lamented the loss—in which he joined warmly—spoke highly of my brother as his friend. I said that my bosom had all the feelings of affection for him, but that the loss to my poor boy was nothing short of ruin. He had no friend left. “No,” replied he, "don’t say that, for give me leave to say that, feeling as I do the obligations I have been under to Dr. Young, I must be allowed to call myself his friend. If I succeed in life I will be a friend to him, and I hope his progress in his learning will permit me to be so." He said more to the same purpose, and as he is a rising man in a situation that gives him power to act according to his feelings, I hope he will remember it. But the account Mr. Heath gives me is by no means satisfactory, and sorry I am to say that Arthur seems determined to do little for himself. He is now at a crisis, and sinks or swims. I gave Mr. Heath three guineas that he might encourage him with a crown now and then (as from himself) when he did well, but don’t write of that to him, and desired him to write me when he was negligent. My brother’s affairs turn out very badly; bills to the amount of 360l. now lie unpaid before me here, besides Worcester, and I can see no more than 260l. to pay it. I hear a bad account of the Rectory at Worcester, but suspend all judgment till the whole is before me.
‘A. Y.’
Two honours were this year added to my name, by being elected into the Patriotic Society of Milan and that of the Geographical Society of Florence. I had also a visit from a Polish nobleman, Count Kalaskowski, who spent some time with me at Bradfield. The letters I received this year were numerous, and many of them very interesting. From the number I have selected the following:—
From Dr. Burney, on reading my ‘Annals’ and a character of Handel. This was after he had been at Bradfield.
‘August 1, 1786.
‘What have I without an inch of land to do with farming? Is it the subject or manner of treating it, or both that fascinated me, when you first were so kind, my dear friend, as to send me some of your "Annals of Agriculture"? I was in the midst of my winter’s hurricane and immersed in other pursuits, but now, having conversed with some of your correspondents, seen your farm, and rubbed up my old rusticity, all my love for country matters returns, and I sincerely wish myself a villager. You seem to have worked yourself up to a true pitch of patriotism, and I think, besides the instructions the essays convey, that your knowledge on the subject, and animated reasoning, and admonitions, must have a national effect. Your book fastened on me so much on the road that I hardly looked on anything else. Mr. Symonds’ essays on “Italian Husbandry”[[107]] are extremely curious, and furnish a species of information totally different from what can be acquired from the perusal of any other author. Many of the communications in the three first volumes, of which I have almost read every word, seem to me instructive, amusing, and masterly. My countryman, Mr. Harris, of Hanwood, in Shropshire (the birthplace of my father and grandfather), seems a notable planter. As editor and chief of the Agricola family, I think you merit the thanks of every Englishman, not only who loves his country, but who loves his belly, for if your discoveries, improvements, and instructions are followed, we may certainly always find upon our own island de quoi manger.
‘Now I would not have you, my dear Arthur, put contempt upon my praises, as coming from a Londoner, whom you may regard as a mere Cock-neigh immersed in the vanities, follies, and dissipation of the Capital, for then I’d have you to know that I reckon myself a countryman born and bred as much as yourself. I never was within the smell of sweet London till I was eighteen, and then, you know, I lived during nine of the best years of my life in Norfolk among the best farmers in Europe. Indeed, if I were ten or a dozen years younger than I am, I believe I should take your white house and all the land about it you could spare, and enter myself for your scholar, and run for the give and take plate; you know that I have been giving lessons all my life; it is now high time I should take some. As to London, if it were not for a few friends whom I sincerely love, and for its vicinity to several branches of my family, I would take half a crown never to see its sights or hear its sounds again.
‘My friend, honest Arthur, who is a very ingenious, good-natured lad, will deliver to you a copy of my account of the “Commemoration of Handel;” it is not so good a one as I wish to send, though the best in my possession. I beg when you have nothing better to do that you will read it without too strong prejudices against Old Handel; for though he is called a Goth by fine travelled gentlemen, accustomed to more modern music and to posthumous refinements, yet candour and true knowledge must allow that he was the greatest man of his time, and that he had a force and majesty that suited our national character, and when you look at the list of his works you will allow that his resources were wonderful. His own performance on the organ was perhaps more superior than that of any inhabitant of this country, even than his compositions. Upon the whole, though I am far from wishing to put an extinguisher upon every other candidate for musical fame, yet it would be the height of injustice not to allow that this country was much obliged to his genius and talent, and that the late performances of his productions do honour to the cultivation of musick in this kingdom, as well as to our national gratitude.
‘I beg you will present my affectionate compliments to Mrs. Young, and best thanks for the hospitality and kindness with which she treated us at Bradfield; and pray give our hearty love to the gentle, sweet, and amiable Miss Bessy.
‘And believe me to be, with very sincere regard,