IRELAND, 1776-1778
The journey to Ireland—Characteristics—Residence at
Mitchelstown—Intrigues—A strange bargain—Departure—Letter to his
wife—A terrible journey.
The events which followed the close of this year carried a better
complexion than the preceding period, and therefore I shall in general
remark that the last four or five years of my life had been detestable,
my employments degrading, my anxiety endless, every effort unsuccessful,
exertion always on the stretch, and always disappointed in the result,
uneasy at home, unhappy abroad, existing with difficulty and struggling
to live, never out of debt, and never enjoying one shilling that was
spent. What would not a sensible, quiet, prudent wife have done for me?
But had I so behaved to God as to merit such a gift?
The only pleasant moments that I passed were in visits to my friend
Arbuthnot[54] at Mitcham, whose agriculture so near the capital brought
good company to his house. He was upon the whole the most agreeable,
pleasant and interesting connection which I ever made in agricultural
pursuits. He was brother of the present Rt. Honorable.
I had in 1775 determined on making the tour of Ireland, to which the
Earl of Shelburne[55] much instigated me, and I corresponded with
several persons on the subject, who urged me much to that undertaking,
but I was obliged to postpone it to the following year. The following is
a note from Mr. Burke on the subject:—
‘Mr. Burke sends the covers with his best compliments and wishes to Mr.
Young. He would be very glad to give Mr. Young recommendations to
Ireland, but his acquaintance there is almost worn out, Lord Charlemont
and one or two more being all that he thinks care a farthing for him.
However, if letters to them would be of any service to Mr. Young, Mr. B.
would with great pleasure write them.’
On June 19 of this year 1776 I embarked at Holyhead for Ireland, and in
consequence of this journey through every part of the kingdom, produced
in 1780 that tour which succeeded so well, and has been reckoned among
my best and most useful productions; and I have reason to believe had
considerable effect in enlightening the people of that country. I took
with me many letters of introduction, from the Earl of Shelburne, Mr.
Burke, and other persons of eminence in England; and on landing at
Dublin, was immediately introduced to Colonel Burton, afterwards Lord
Cunningham, aide-de-camp to the Earl of Harcourt, at that time Lord
Lieutenant, and well known to the whole kingdom. Colonel Burton, to whom
I was more indebted for letters of introduction than to any other man in
England, was a most remarkable character. He had great care and elegance
united with a measure of roughness, which may be attributed to a sort of
personal courage which was apt to boil over. This led him into many
quarrels, and not a few duels, one of which was fought across a table of
no great length from end to end, and, not strange to tell of in Ireland,
several of the party stood near enjoying the sport. He was a true friend
to the interests of Ireland, and far more enlightened upon it than the
greater part of well-informed people to be found there. He made immense
exertions to improve the fisheries on his estate at Donegal, but they
were unsuccessful. He was respectable[56] for general knowledge, and
possessed a great flow of animated conversation. He carried me to Lord
Harcourt’s villa at St. Woolstans, with whom I spent some days; and the
Colonel arranged the plan of my journey, giving me a multitude of
letters to those who were best able to afford valuable information. I
kept a private journal throughout the whole of this tour, in which I
minuted many anecdotes and circumstances which occurred to me of a
private nature, descriptive of the manners of the people, which, had it
been preserved, would have assisted greatly in drawing up these papers;
but, unfortunately, it was lost, with all the specimens of soils and
minerals which I collected throughout the whole kingdom. On returning to
England, I quitted my whisky[57] at Bath, and got into a stage, and sent
a new London servant, the only one I had, thither to bring the horse and
chaise to London, and the trunk containing these things. The fellow was
a rascal, stole the trunk, and pretended that he had lost it on the
road; in addition to the loss was the torment of hunting him out (for he
went away directly) through London for punishment. With great difficulty
I found him, and serving a warrant upon him, carried him to Bow Street,
where Fielding the magistrate at once dismissed the complaint, it being
only a breach of trust, as the robbery could not be proved; and all I
got for my pains was abuse from the fellow.
This was a very great loss to me, as the specimens I brought of soils
would have been of great use to me in the course of experiments which I
soon after began in the object of expelling gases from earths. In my
journey through Ireland I was received with great hospitality, which
characterises the nation, and with that particular attention which my
peculiar object excited in so many persons who rendered agriculture
either their profit or amusement.
I travelled four hundred miles _de suite_ without going to an inn.
Amongst those who were most desirous of my calling upon them was Sir
James Caldwell, of Castle Caldwell, on Lough Erne. One anecdote will
give some idea of his character.
The Marquis of Lansdowne, then Earl of Shelburne, being in Ireland, and
intending to call on Sir James, he, with an hospitality truly Irish,
thought of nothing night or day but how to devise some amusement to
entertain his noble guest, and came home to breakfast one morning with
prodigious eagerness to communicate a new idea to Lady Caldwell. This
was to summon together the hundred labourers he employed, and choose
fifty that, would best represent New Zealand savages, in order that he
might form two fleets of boats on the Lough, one to represent Captain
Cook and his men, the other a New Zealand chief at the head of his party
in canoes, and consulted her how it would be possible to get them
dressed in an appropriate manner in time for Lord Shelburne’s arrival.
Lady C., who had much more prudence than Sir James, reminded him that he
had 200 acres of hay down, and the preparations he mentioned would
occupy so much time that the whole would now stand a chance of being
spoiled. All remonstrances were in vain. Tailors were pressed into his
service from the surrounding country to vamp up, as well as time would
permit, the crews of men and fleets. The prediction was fulfilled: the
hay was spoiled, and what hurt Sir James much more, he received a letter
from Lord S. to put off his coming till his return from Kilkenny, and
that uncertain. To add to the mortification, after some weeks, Sir James
being on business at Dublin, Lord S. arrived without giving notice, and
Lady C., not presuming to exhibit the intended battle, but wishing to
amuse his Lordship as well as the place would afford, told him at
breakfast that the morning should be spent in fishing. Lord S. replied,
‘My dear Lady C., you look upon a fine lake out of your windows; but I
have often remarked—from the ocean to the pond—that where at the first
blush you have reason to expect most fish you are sure to find least.’
This made Lady C. exert herself—boats, nets, and all were collected, and
they caught such an immensity as really proved a most gratifying
spectacle to his Lordship, who confessed that his maxim failed him for
once. His stay was too short for Sir James’s return.
At Lord Longford’s I met a person of some celebrity at the time for
adventures not worth reciting, Mr. Medlicott. Lord L. and he gave me an
account of a gentleman of a good estate in that neighbourhood, but then
dead, whose real life, manners and conversation far exceeded anything to
be met with in ‘Castle Rackrent.’ His hospitality was unbounded, and it
never for a moment came into his head to make any provision for feeding
the people he brought into his house. While credit was to be had, his
butler or housekeeper did this for him; his own attention was given
solely to the cellar that wine might not be wanted. If claret was
secured, with a dead ox or sheep hanging in the slaughter-house ready
for steaks or cutlets, he thought all was well. He was never easy
without company in the house, and with a large party in it would invite
another of twice the number. One day the cook came into the breakfast
parlour before all the company: ‘Sir, there’s no coals.’ ‘Then burn
turf.’ ‘Sir, there’s no turf.’ ‘Then cut down a tree.’ This was a
forlorn hope, for in all probability he must have gone three miles to
find one, all round the house being long ago safely swept away. They
dispatched a number of cars to borrow turf. Candles were equally
deficient, for unfortunately he was fond of dogs all half starved, so
that a gentleman walking to what was called his bed-chamber, after
making two or three turnings, met a hungry greyhound, who, jumping up,
took the candle out of the candlestick, and devoured it in a trice, and
left him in the dark. To advance or return was equally a matter of
chance, therefore groping his way, he soon found himself in the midst of
a parcel of giggling maidservants. By what means he at last found his
way to his ‘shakedown’ is unknown. A ‘shakedown’ when I was in Ireland
meant some clean straw spread upon the floor, with blankets and sheets,
in what was called the barrack room, one containing several beds for
single men.
At Mr. Richard Aldworth’s, in the county of Cork, I met with an
instance, both in that gentleman and lady, of elegant manners and
cultivated minds. He had made the grand tour, and she had been educated
in that style which may be imagined in a person nearly related to a Lord
Chief Justice and an Archbishop. But it was evident that patriotic
motives alone made them residents in Ireland. A sigh would often escape
when circumstances of English manners were named, and they felt the
dismal vacuity of living in a country where people of equal ideas were
scarce. Mrs. Aldworth had in her possession one original manuscript
letter of Dean Swift, entrusted to her under a solemn promise that she
would permit no copy to be taken, nor ever read it twice to the same
people. It was without exception the wittiest and severest satire upon
Ireland that probably ever was written, and it was easy to perceive by
the manner in which it was read that the sentiments were not a little in
unison with those of the reader. This letter was equally hostile to the
nobility, the gentry, the people, the country, nay the very rivers and
mountains; for it declared the Shannon itself to be little better than a
series of marshes, that carried to the ocean less water than flows
through one of the arches of London Bridge.
From various other instances, as well as from this, I was inclined to
think that that degree of a polished and cultivated education, which
suits well enough for London or Paris, or a country residence in a good
neighbourhood of England, was ill-framed for a province in Ireland.
Persons of equal attainments may now and then come across them, but they
are compelled to associate with so many who are the very reverse that a
more certain provision of misery can scarcely be laid.
The preceding observation is in a measure applicable to Mr. and Mrs.
Jefferys and Mr. and Mrs. Trant, who lived in the vicinity of Cork. The
two former when I was there were actually embarking for France, after
great speculations in building a town and establishing manufactures,
which probably had proved too expensive. They were well informed and
cultivated, and spoke most modern languages. Mr. Trant was an instance
of a singularly retentive memory. It was never necessary for him to
consult the same book twice. All that he ever read in a variety of
languages was at his tongue’s end, and he applied these uncommon stores
with great judgment and propriety. The most beautiful description of
Kilkenny was written by him. It gave me pleasure to hear not long
afterwards that Mr. and Mrs. Jefferys were at Paris but a few days, and
then returned to England. The motive of the journey was reported to be
to get rid of a much too numerous establishment of servants, as they
started again on a much more moderate and comfortable plan.
As a feature of Irish manners, I may mention another circumstance which
astonished me. When upon my tour I spent a day or two with the Right
Hon. Silver Oliver, who had at that time much company in his house. The
table was well appointed, and everything wore an air of splendour and
affluence. Afterwards when I resided at Mitchelstown—Mr. Oliver was
either dead or absent, and everything in the house was advertised to be
sold by auction—I went over to that auction, which gave me an
opportunity of examining the whole house. I desired to be shown into the
kitchen, as I could not find it of myself. When pointed out I was in
utter amazement. There never was such a hole. I insisted upon it that it
could not be the kitchen, as I had myself partook of dinners which could
never have been dressed in such a pig-stye; but they assured me there
was no other. It was about eight feet wide and ten long. Scarcely any
light, and the walls black as the inside of the chimney. The furniture
was no better than the fitting up; dressers, tables, and shelves seemed
to have been laid aside as superfluous luxuries. It must have been an
effort of uncommon ingenuity to cook at a turf hearth, in such a cave as
this, the ample dinners I had seen in this house, and Etna or Vesuvius
might as soon have been found in England as such a kitchen. Its
existence for a single instant in the house of a man of fortune would be
a moral impossibility. No English farmer would submit to it for a week.
This strongly shows the manners of the people.
A family with whom I resided for some time, while waiting for the
Waterford packet, was that of Mr. Bolton, in a beautiful situation,
commanding the finest views. Mr. Bolton, the elder, was a respectable
man; but his son, the present proprietor of the estate, then in
Parliament, was a man of singular and genuine patriotism, and of so mild
and pleasing a temper that I much regretted I had him not for a
neighbour at Bradfield. I had the pleasure of sending him from Suffolk
many implements &c. for assisting him in his improved husbandry; and he
has proved to the present day one of the most enlightened friends that
Ireland has to boast, making an equal figure in my tour, and in the very
able work of Mr. Wakefield[58] published within an interval of thirty
years.
Among the persons who received me in the most agreeable and hospitable
manner I may be permitted to name the following: Earl of Harcourt (Lord
Lieutenant), Earl of Charlemont, Lord Chief Baron Forster, his Grace the
Lord Primate, the Archbishop of Tuam, Sir James Caldwell, &c.
1777.—This was the first favourable turn that promised anything after
ten years’ anxiety and misery, yet how little did I deserve from that
Providence I had so long neglected. The year was a remarkable one in the
events of my life.
Mr. Danby, of whom mention has already been inserted, was this spring in
London, and as Lord Kingsborough, son of the Earl of Kingston, was
intimately acquainted with Mr. D., and at that time there also, his
Lordship often complained of the sad state of neglect in which his
property remained in the hands of an Irish agent, who never saw an acre
of the estate but merely on a rapid journey once, or at most twice, a
year to receive the rents. For this purpose a clerk resided at
Mitchelstown, having a summer house in the Castle garden for his office,
and here the tenants came to pay their rents in a constant succession of
driblets the whole year round. His Lordship observed that it would be of
much importance to him to have a respectable resident agent who
understood agriculture, and might greatly contribute to the improvement
of the property. Mr. Danby entirely coincided in this opinion, and told
his Lordship that he knew a gentleman who possessed the unquestionable
knowledge and management of estates, and as he had known me for several
years he had every reason to believe in my integrity. He then named me.
Lord K. begged him to make the application to me immediately, which Mr.
Danby did, and invited me to meet Lord and Lady K. to dinner. I had a
good deal of conversation with Lord K., and the next day Mr. Danby made
an agreement with his Lordship for me to become his agent at an annual
salary of 500l., with an eligible house for my residence, rent free, and
a retaining fee, to be paid immediately, of 500l. more.
In consequence of this arrangement, to which I readily agreed, I
disposed of the lease of my farm in Hertfordshire, and sent my books and
other effects which I might want to Cork by sea, going myself to Dublin,
where I resided some time in a constant round of Dublin dinners, till I
was informed by Lord Kingsborough that the house at Mitchelstown was
ready in which I was to reside, whilst a new one was building on a plan
and in a situation approved of myself. In September I left Dublin for
Mitchelstown—130 miles off—making a detour through those counties which
I had not sufficiently seen the preceding year. And here I cannot avoid
inserting the following excellent advice from my ever affectionate
mother: ‘My memory begins to fail me, but no wonder at 72. That is not
the cause of yours doing so, but the multiplicity of business you are
engaged in. I attribute it also to being overburthened with your
affairs. I can get neither ploughman nor footman to go over to Ireland,
so you must see what you can do when you come yourself, which, I am
sorry to hear, is not till (next) September. God only knows if I shall
live so long as to see you once more. However, to hear you are well and
happy is a great comfort to me, and the only one I have left, for it is
my lot to be deprived of all those who to me are dearest. I hate now to
do anything but sit by the fire and write to you.... But the happiness
of this world, Arthur, is but of a short duration; I therefore wish you
would bestow some thoughts on that happiness which will have eternal
duration.[59]
1778.—The opening of this year found me at Mitchelstown, where Mrs.
Young joined me. On my arrival I busied myself incessantly in examining
and valuing the farms which came out of lease, and was so occupied
several months. I was most anxious to persuade Lord K. into the
propriety of letting his lands to the occupying cottar as tenant, and
dismissing the whole race of middlemen. I adhered steadily to this, and
had the satisfaction to find that Lord K. was well inclined to the plan.
But a distant relation of Lady K.’s, who had one farm upon the estate as
middleman, Major Thornhill, feeling the sweets of a profit rent upon
that one farm, was exceedingly anxious to procure from Lord K. the
profits of others upon the same terms, and in this respect I was placed
in an awkward situation. It was impossible for me, consistently with the
interest of Lord K., in any measure whatever to promote the success of
designs which struck at the very root of all my plans, as the Major had
his eye upon several of the most considerable farms. Lady K. had a high
opinion of the Major, who was a lively, pleasant, handsome man, and an
ignorant open-hearted duellist; she had of course favoured his plans,
and I as carefully avoided ever saying anything in favour of them. Thus
from the beginning it was not difficult to see an underground plot to
frustrate schemes commencing very early, but things in the meantime
carried a fair outward appearance. I dined very often at the Castle, and
generally played at chess with Lady Kingsborough for an hour or more
after dinner, and I learned by report that her Ladyship was highly
pleased with me, saying that I was one of the most lively, agreeable
fellows. Lord Kingsborough was of a character not so easily ascertained,
for at many different periods of his life he seemed to possess qualities
very much in contradiction to each other. His manner and carriage were
remarkably easy, agreeable, and polite, having the finish of a perfect
gentleman; he wanted, however, steadiness and perseverance even in his
best designs, and was easily wrought upon by persons of inferior
abilities. Mrs. Thornhill, the wife of the Major, was an artful
designing woman, ever on the watch to injure those who stood in her
husband’s way, and never forgetting her private interest for a moment. I
saw a fixed plan in her mind for dispossessing me of the agency and
procuring it for the Major, and I conceive it was by her
misrepresentations that a decisive use was made of an opportunity which
soon after offered for effecting her plan.
Lady K. had a Catholic governess, a Miss Crosby, relative to whom Mrs.
T. had inspired Lady K. with sentiments of jealousy, insomuch that she
was discharged, and I was employed to draw up an engagement to grant her
an annuity of 50_l._ per annum. This transaction and others connected
with it occasioned me to be much at the Castle, and in situations which
were converted by Mrs. Thornhill into proofs that I was in league with
Miss C. for securing the affections of Lord Kingsborough at the expense
of his wife, and, at the same time, it was carefully impressed into his
Lordship’s mind that I was in love with Lady K. Thus by a train of
artful intrigues and deceptions the ladies brought Lord K. to the
determination of parting with me, after which nothing remained but to
settle our accounts. This was done, and a balance being due to me of
about 600_l._ or 700_l._, I informed his Lordship that I waited only to
be paid in order to set off for England. Here was a demur, and Major
Thornhill came to inform me that his Lordship had not the money to pay
me; several days passed in which I was in a very awkward state of
uncertainty. It occurred to me as I saw no sign of payment to propose
that he should give me an annuity for life, which he at once agreed to.
What that annuity should be I was perfectly ignorant, but there was an
advertisement in a London paper offering terms, which I sent to his
Lordship, with a note, informing him that if he would give me an annuity
on the terms there specified I would agree to it and free him for the
present from all payment. This his Lordship at once acceded to, and
signed a bond granting me an annuity for life of 72_l._,[60] according
to the terms specified in the advertisement. This business being settled
to the satisfaction of both parties, and my books packed up and sent to
Cork, I stepped into my post-chaise, and, with a pair of Irish nags, set
off on a journey to Waterford on a visit to my excellent friend,
Cornelius Bolton, Junr. Esqr. M.P., where I waited for the packet to
sail for Milford Haven long enough to have gone round by Dublin and have
reached Rome or Naples. I had a miserable passage of three days and
nights, a storm blowing us almost to Arklow, but through the providence
of God we escaped the threatened dangers and landed safely in the
desired haven. I travelled post to London, and thus ended one of the
greatest speculations of my life, and I remember observing that in all
probability the providence of God was exerted to remove me from a
kingdom in which no unconnected motives could induce me to remain. The
transaction was not absolutely free from circumstances in a measure
favourable to my future ease and repose. I had received 500_l._, which
took me out of some difficulties, and had the addition of 72_l._ per
annum to my income, which was to me an object of some consideration. It
also removed me entirely from the farm in Hertfordshire, a most
unprofitable one, and, what was better, from a winter residence in
London. It also took me back to Bradfield to my aged mother, whose
health was daily declining, and whose memory, being much impaired,
subjected her to imposition by tenants and servants.
_To his Wife_
‘Haverford West: Oct. 23.
‘My Dearest,—It pleases God that I am once more to embrace you and my
children—a passage that is common in eight hours was from Sunday morn
eight o’clock till one o’clock this morning Wednesday, thirty-six hours
of which, a raging storm; we talk of them at land, but those who have
not seen them at sea know not what the very elements are. Pent up in the
Irish Channel, the ship ran adrift, wearing[61] to keep free from rocks
and sands—the wind did not blow, it was like volleys of artillery; part
of the sails were torn into fritters; the waves were mountains high,
while the ship was perfectly tossed on end of them; the cabin window
burst open, and deluged everything afloat; the horses kicked and
groaned, the dogs howled; six passengers praying, shrieking, and
vomiting; every soul sick but myself; the sailors swearing and storming;
and the whole—such a scene! The Captain, who has been many voyages, and
the pilot thirty-six years, never saw such a storm—to last so long.
‘It has worried and starved the horses so that I know not what I am to
do—shall go with them as far as I can, and if they knock up must leave
them and take some fly to be by you thirty-first; of which send
immediate notice to B.
‘I know not if Bath be my nearest way, so let me have a letter at
Nicoll’s in case I am not in Town, to the same purport as that to Bath,
to inform me what I am to do and when to go.
‘Adieu,
‘Most truly yours,
‘A. Y.
‘Thank God for me. Peter would not come over with me. My passage has
cost me between 7_l._ and 8_l._, which is the very devil, so that I
shall come home without a shilling, and the thoughts of coming full
swing upon poverty again make me miserable. Two ships were lost in the
storm.’
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_Note in memorandum-book._—‘Note of my being thirty-eight, and poetry in
my head.’
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Footnote 54:
Appears to have been brother to the Hon. Robert Arbuthnot, third son
of John, Viscount Arbuthnot, whose death is recorded in the _Annual
Register_ of 1801.
Footnote 55:
First Marquis of Lansdowne; took part in Lord Chatham’s Ministry.
Footnote 56:
This use of the word as respectworthy is noticeable.
Footnote 57:
Whisky: a light carriage built for rapid motion.—_Webster._
Footnote 58:
Edward Wakefield, _An Account of Ireland: Political and Stastical_.
1812.
Footnote 59:
Entries in memorandum-book ‘the year’s receipts, 1,145_l_. Wrote
_Alcon and Flavia_, a poem.’
Footnote 60:
This curious arrangement seems to have been faithfully kept, as will
be seen later on.
Footnote 61:
Wear: sea-term, to bring a ship on.—_Bailey’s Dictionary._
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