roduced turnips; Weston, who introduced clover; Lord Townshend and
Allen, who introduced 'marling' in Norfolk, were all country-gentlemen,
and it is from them that he expects improvement. He travels everywhere,
delighting in their new houses and parks, their picture galleries, and
their gardens laid out by Kent or 'Capability Brown'; he admires
scenery, climbs Skiddaw, and is rapturous over views of the Alps and
Pyrenees; but he is thrown into a rage by the sight of wastes, wherever
improvement is possible. What delights him is an estate with a fine
country-house of Palladian architecture ('Gothic' is with him still a
term of abuse),[52] with grounds well laid out and a good home-farm,
where experiments are being tried, and surrounded by an estate in which
the farm-buildings show the effects of the landlord's good example and
judicious treatment of his tenantry. There was no want of such examples.
He admires the marquis of Rockingham, at once the most honourable of
statesmen and most judicious of improvers. He sings the praises of the
duke of Portland, the earl of Darlington, and the duke of
Northumberland. An incautious announcement of the death of the duke of
Grafton, remembered chiefly as one of the victims of Junius, but known
to Young for his careful experiments in sheep-breeding, produced a burst
of tears, which, as he believed, cost him his eyesight. His friend, the
fifth duke of Bedford (died 1802), was one of the greatest improvers for
the South, and was succeeded by another friend, the famous Coke of
Holkham, afterwards earl of Leicester, who is said to have spent half a
million upon the improvement of his property. Young appeals to the class
in which such men were leaders, and urges them, not against their
wishes, we may suppose, and, no doubt, with much good sense, to take to
their task in the true spirit of business. Nothing, he declares, is more
out of place than the boast of some great landowners that they never
raise their rents.[53] High rents produce industry. The man who doubles
his rents benefits the country more than he benefits himself. Even in
Ireland,[54] a rise of rents is one great cause of improvement, though
the rent should not be excessive, and the system of middlemen is
altogether detestable. One odd suggestion is characteristic.[55] He
hears that wages are higher in London than elsewhere. Now, he says, in a
trading country low wages are essential. He wonders, therefore, that the
legislature