1785.—This year I wrote a note in the ‘Annals’ relative to a great work I had long been engaged in, which it may not be here amiss to insert, viz.: to collect, under regular heads, all the well-ascertained facts that are scattered through books of agriculture, and, _inter alia_, in other works, with those to be deduced from the common practice of various countries; to interweave experiments made purposely to ascertain the doubtful points; and to combine the whole into regular elements of the Science is the great desideratum at present. It is a work more proper for an Academy on a Royal foundation than for any individual. But as no such Academy is to be looked for, and as all private societies pay their attention to desultory objects, as often to those already ascertained as to points in which we want information the most, I undertook the work myself more than ten years ago.[93] [Illustration: BRADFIELD HALL AS IN ARTHUR YOUNG’S TIME.] I had this year the misfortune to lose my mother, to whom I was most tenderly attached, and with the greatest reason, as her kindness and affection for me had never failed during the course of her whole life. She had been educated in the most religious manner by her father, Mr. de Cousmaker, of whom mention has already been made as a character eminently pious, but it was not till the loss of my sister, Mrs. Tomlinson, that deep affliction recalled in her heart those sentiments of religion which had been so assiduously cultivated in her youth. She was always extremely fond of me, and ever eager to do what could contribute to my satisfaction, both as to worldly views, but especially as to my eternal interests. The tranquil bosom of my good mother’s hermitage—my native Bradfield—once more opened its arms to receive us, little more than to come to close the eye and receive the last signs of that beloved parent. Blessed spirit!—may my hitherto restless days finish as thine did, who didst meet death with the tranquillity of a healthy life, and mightst have said with as much justice as an Addison, ‘See with what peace a Christian can die.’ Upon her death this patch of landed property[94] devolved to me by a previous agreement with my elder brother, and by my mother’s will, written at his desire with his own hand. But that agreement before it terminated cost me a mortgage of 1,200_l._ The transaction does my brother’s memory too much honour not to mention it. He was entitled to 2,000_l._, but knowing the smallness of the property, and humanely considering that I had a family unprovided for, that he had an ample income and no family at all, he generously demanded and took no more than 1,200_l._ Whether such things happen among relations or strangers, they should be mentioned for the credit of the human heart.