Messieurs les Comtes de la Rochefaucault, sons of the Duc de Liancourt,
when quite youths, were brought, at the desire of their father, to a
morning visit in St. Martin’s-street, with their English tutor, Mr.
Symonds, by Arthur Young; to whose superintending care and friendship
they had been committed, for the study of agriculture according to the
English mode.
The Duke had a passion for farming, for England, for improvement; and
above all, for liberty,—which was then rising in glowing ferment in
his nation; with little consciousness, and no foresight, of the bloody
scenes in which it was to set!