Mr. Gilpin knew Dr. Brown’s “Letter,” for in his Cumberland “Tour” (1772) he justified his own preference for Keswick by saying that this region had also been singled out by Dr. Brown, “who was a man of taste and had seen every part of this country.” Mr. Hutchinson quoted the whole of the “Letter.” Mr. West went to Keswick with the “Letter” in hand, trembling with eagerness to experience the joys it depicted. Certainly this “Letter from Keswick” in the delight with which it dwells on the wild and terrible elements of Nature, in its detailed observation, in its artistic appreciation of the accidental effects of atmospheric conditions, and in its sensitiveness to the spirit of the place, comes very close to the modern enthusiasm for mountains. The details are sometimes exaggerated and the author’s rapture may seem over-stated, but the genuineness of his feeling, and the reality of his knowledge of mountains and lake, must remain unquestioned. The “Letter” is one of the first, and the most considerable of the early contributions to the literature of the Lakes. The great period of English travels began in 1767 with Arthur Young’s “Six Weeks’ Tour in the Southern Counties of England and Wales.” In 1768 (June to November) he wrote his “Six Months’ Tour in the North of England.” His next important work, “A Farmer’s Tour through the East of England,” was published in 1771. His “Tour in Ireland” appeared in 1779. The professed design of these sketches was husbandry. Agriculture, industry, population, farming experiments, prices, laws--these were the topics on which he wished to inform himself and others. He had apparently, in his original plan, no thought of describing the country through which he passed. There is in this respect a significant difference between the books of 1767–68 and that of 1779. In the first two he kept the text rigorously free from all weakening admixture of landscape, the enthusiastic descriptions of scenery appearing as footnotes. In the last, the descriptions are boldly incorporated into the text, and form, what is more, a surprisingly large proportion of it. In 1767–68 he described such places as he happened to pass near. In 1779 he followed up one river and down another professedly in search of “wild and romantic landscapes.” In general character, however, the descriptions do not greatly vary in the three books. The most numerous descriptions are of gentlemen’s estates, perhaps in courteous repayment of hospitalities received. These accounts are always detailed and often tedious. Young apparently went about with the polite owner, sat in his seats, looked down his vistas, observed his temples, and took notes thereon. Our chief interest in these passages is the testimony they bear to Young’s own preference for estates where art had done the least and Nature most. “The owner has had the good judgment merely to assist nature,” or “merely to render natural beauties accessible” are characteristic words of praise.