In this tour I learned that General Murray had 4,000 South Down sheep, and that he fed them with potatoes. This was sufficient. To come into the country on the search for sheep and potato intelligence, and not to see such a man, would not be to make a very wise figure when we returned home. But I had not the honour to be known to the General. No matter; 4,000 sheep fed on potatoes were an object before which form must give way. I wrote a card, stating our pursuit, and wishes to have it gratified, desiring leave to view his flock. Those who know the General’s liberality and passion for agriculture will not want to be told what the answer was. We spent five days in his house, and found it the residence of hospitality and good sense. Mrs. Murray had resided nine years in the island of Majorca, being the daughter of the English consul. She gave me many particulars relating to that island, and, among others, that the climate was by far the finest she had ever experienced. She never was for a single hour either too hot or too cold, nor ever saw a fog; but the people were unpleasant, ignorant and bigoted. I was always very regular in keeping accounts, but do not often mention them in this detail; I may, however, just observe that I seemed to have been no bad economist, as the total expense of house, garden, stable, servants, and keeping a postchaise with not a little company, cost in four months 97_l._ 2_s._ 3_d._, or at the rate of 291_l._ 6_s._ 9_d._ per annum; how it was done I forget. If such an expense be compared with the present times[128] it will show the enormous difference, arising principally from the desperate increase of taxation, which has crippled so many classes of the kingdom; but I had a large farm in my hands. On being at London, some time after, I went to Esher and spent a day with Mr. Ducket, examining his farm with great attention; he dined with me at the ‘Tun,’ and I had a very interesting conversation with him to a late hour, upon all the points of his husbandry. In this year I first introduced the cultivation of Cichorium Intybus[129] at Bradfield, and registered it in the ‘Annals of Agriculture;’ it was at first upon a small scale, but sufficient to convince me of the vast importance of the plant. I brought the seed from Lyons in France, and gradually extended the culture till I had above one hundred acres of it; the utter stupidity of the farming world was never more apparent than in their neglect of this plant, so repeatedly recommended in the ‘Annals.’ The Duke of Bedford kept ten large sheep per acre on a field of it. The following letters were among others received this year:— From B. H. Latrobe, Esq., on my being burnt in effigy at Norwich by the manufacturers (_in re_ Wool Bill), a very lively letter. ‘Stamp Office, Somerset Place: May 22, 1788.