became known in London society as well as in agricultural
circles. He was a handsome and attractive man, a charming companion, and
widely recognised as an agricultural authority. The empress of Russia
sent him a snuff-box; 'Farmer George' presented a merino ram; he was
elected member of learned societies; he visited Burke at Beaconsfield,
Pitt at Holmwood, and was a friend of Wilberforce and of Jeremy Bentham.

Young had many domestic troubles. His marriage was not congenial; the
loss of a tenderly loved daughter in 1797 permanently saddened him; he
became blind, and in his later years sought comfort in religious
meditation and in preaching to his poorer neighbours. He died 20th April
1820. He left behind him a gigantic history of agriculture, filling ten
folio volumes of manuscript, which, though reduced to six by an
enthusiastic disciple after his death, have never found their way to
publication.

The _Travels in France_, Young's best book, owes one merit to the advice
of a judicious friend, who remarked that the previous tours had suffered
from the absence of the personal details which interest the common
reader. The insertion of these makes Young's account of his French tours
one of the most charming as well as most instructive books of the kind.
It gives the vivid impression made upon a keen and kindly observer in
all their freshness. He sensibly retained the expressions of opinion
made at the time. 'I may remark at present,' he says,[37] 'that although
I was totally mistaken in my prediction, yet, on a revision, I think I
was right in it.' It was right, he means, upon the data then known to
him, and he leaves the unfulfilled prediction as it was. The book is
frequently cited in justification of the revolution, and it may be
fairly urged that his authority is of the more weight, because he does
not start from any sympathy with revolutionary principles. Young was in
Paris when the oath was taken at the tennis-court; and makes his
reflections upon the beauty of the British Constitution, and the folly
of visionary reforms, in a spirit which might have satisfied Burke. He
was therefore not altogether inconsistent when, after the outrages, he
condemned the revolution, however much the facts which he describes may
tend to explain the inevitableness of the catastrophe. At any rate, his
views are worth notice by the indications which they give of the mental
attitude of a typical English observer.

Young in his vivacious