‘Rode from Mr. Lesly’s to view the Giant’s Causeway. It is certainly a very great curiosity, as an object for speculation, upon the manner of its formation; whether it owes its origin to fire, and is a species of lava, or to chrystalization, or to whatever cause, is a point that has employed the attention of men much more able to decide upon it than I am.’ This is Arthur Young - who went on to become an early contributor to agricultural economy - writing in his diary exactly 250 years ago today.
From the 1760s, Young established himself as Britain’s leading agricultural writer. He published influential works including A Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties of England (1768), A Six Months Tour through the North of England (1770) and The Farmer’s Tour through the East of England (1771), combining detailed observations on farming methods with comments on land ownership, rural society and local economies. In 1784 he founded the Annals of Agriculture, which rapidly became the principal periodical devoted to agricultural improvement in Britain. His reputation brought him into contact with many of the leading scientific, political and landed figures of the age, while his extensive travels made him one of the best-informed observers of the British countryside.
Young’s interests extended beyond agriculture to economics, politics and social reform. Between 1787 and 1789 he travelled widely in France, recording the conditions that immediately preceded the French Revolution in the celebrated Travels in France. In 1793 he was appointed secretary to the newly established Board of Agriculture, a post he held for the remainder of his working life and through which he helped promote agricultural innovation across Britain. Increasing blindness restricted his activities during his later years, but he continued writing and advising until his death in 1820. He was buried at Bradfield Combust in Suffolk. Wikipedia has further information.
Young’s importance as a diarist lies in the remarkable body of journals and notebooks that underpinned his published tours. Although written to support books rather than for private introspection, his daily records capture the rhythms of late eighteenth-century travel with unusual precision. They preserve conversations with farmers, landlords, labourers and politicians, together with observations on crops, livestock, roads, markets, industry, prices and social conditions. Their combination of factual detail and immediate impressions makes them indispensable primary sources for historians of agriculture, rural life and the wider economic history of Britain and Europe.
Young’s Irish journal occupies a distinctive place within this corpus. He toured Ireland between 1776 and 1779, travelling thousands of miles through every province to examine farming practices, land tenure, manufacturing and the condition of the rural population. His observations were published in 1780 as A Tour in Ireland, one of the most detailed contemporary accounts of eighteenth-century Ireland. The journal on which the work was based led to several new editions - including Arthur Young’s Tour of Ireland (George Bell & sons, 1892) which is freely available at Internet Archive - and to modern scholarly editions. Here is Young writing about his day exactly a quarter of a century ago
4 August 1776
‘Accompanied Mr. Lesly to his brother’s at ——, within 3 miles of the Giant’s Causeway, where I had the pleasure of learning several particulars concerning the country upon the coast. They measure by the Cunningham-acre, and rents are on an average 12s. Along the coast there is a tract of clay at from 14s. to 20s. The courses of crops; 1. Potatoes. 2. Barley. 3. Oats. 4. Oats. Potatoes. 2. Barley. 3. Flax. 4. Oats. 5. Oats, and then lay out for 2 years.
Much of the country is in the rundale and likewise in the change-dale system. The little farmers are all weavers, who weave 10 or 1200 linen, and spin great quantities of yarn for the Derry market. Oatmeal and potatoes are the general food of the lower people, who reckon that one barrel of potatoes, to live on, is equal to 2 bushels of meal. One barrel will last a family of six eight days, and costs on an average 3s. 6d. or 4s. Oatmeal 1s. 2d. to 3s. 6d. the 20 lb. but 1½d. per lb. on an average. One bushel of oats yields 18 lb. of meal. The oats are dried at home with turf on kilns, which cost from £3 to £5; they are then sent to a mill to be shelled, in which operation they lose half; after which they are ground; the landlord appoints the mill, and they pay 22d. for it.
The average crop of potatoes is 300 bushels on the Cunningham acre, which is 259 to the English. [. . .]
They are, however, sometimes so low that, instead of profit, the account is a losing one; last year they were 4d. a bushel, and in Coleraine 3d. Oats are now 1s. a bushel; several thousand bushels have been exported from Coleraine to London at that price.
There is a considerable salmon fishery on the coast; the fish are cured in puncheons with common salt, and then in tierces of 42 gallons each, 6 of which make a ton; and it sells at present at £17 a ton, but never before more than £16; average for 10 years £14. This rise of price is attributed to the American supply of the Mediterranean with fish being cut off.
Rode from Mr. Lesly’s to view the Giant’s Causeway. It is certainly a very great curiosity, as an object for speculation, upon the manner of its formation; whether it owes its origin to fire, and is a species of lava, or to chrystalization, or to whatever cause, is a point that has employed the attention of men much more able to decide upon it than I am; and has been so often treated, that nothing I could say could be new. When two bits of these basaltes are rubbed together quick, they emit a considerable scent like burnt leather. Neither the scenery of the Causeway, nor of the adjacent mountains, is very magnificent, though the cliffs are bold; but for a considerable distance there is a strong disposition in the rocks to run into pentagonal cylinders, and even at —— Bridge, by Mr. Lesly’s, is a rock in which the same disposition is plainly visible. I believe the Causeway would have struck me more if I had not seen the prints of Staffa. Returned to Lesly Hill
There the Right Hon. Mr. Jackson assisted me with the greatest politeness in procuring the intelligence I wished about the salmon fishery, which is the greatest in the kingdom; and viewed both fisheries above and below the town, very pleasantly situated on the river Ban. The salmon spawn in all the rivers that run into the Ban about the beginning of August and, as soon as they have done, swim to the sea, where they stay till January, when they begin to return to the fresh water, and continue doing it till August, in which voyage they are taken; the nets are set the middle of January, but by Act of Parliament no nets nor weirs can be kept down after the 12th of August. All the fisheries on the river Ban let at £6000 a year. From the sea to the rock above Coleraine, where the weirs are built, belongs to the London Companies; the greatest part of the rest to Lord Donnegal. The eel fisheries let at £1000 a year; and the salmon fisheries at Coleraine, £1000. The eels make periodical voyages, as the salmon, but instead of spawning in the fresh water, they go to the sea to spawn, and the young fry return against the stream; to enable them to do which with greater ease at the leap, straw ropes are hung in the water for them; when they return to sea, they are taken: many of them weigh 9 or 10 lb. The young salmon are called grawls, and grow at a rate which I should suppose scarce any fish commonly known equals; for within the year some of them will come to 16 and 18 lb. but in general 10 or 12 lb. such as escape the first year’s fishery are salmon; and at 2 years old will generally weigh 20 to 25 lb. This year’s fishery has proved the greatest that ever was known, and they had the largest hawl, taking 1452 salmon at one drag of one net. In the year 1758 they had 882, which was the next greatest hawl. I had the pleasure of seeing 370 drawn in at once. They have this year taken 400 ton of fish; 200 sold fresh at 1d. and 1½d. a lb. and 200 salted, at £18 and £20 per ton, which are sent to London, Spain, and Italy. The fishery employs 80 men, and the expences in general calculated to equal the rent.
The linen manufacture is very general about Coleraine, coarse ten hundred linen. It is carried to Dublin in cars 110 miles, at 5s. per cwt. in summer, and 7s. 6d. in winter. Rents in Derry 10s. 6d. the Irish acre; and farms from 6 to 15 acres. The emigrations from this neighbourhood were in general of idle, loose, disorderly people. It is at present, I was informed, too populous; and if the emigrations are not renewed, the ill effects will be severely felt. The whole county of Derry belongs to the London Companies and the Bishop, except some trifling properties. There is a little trade at Coleraine in hides, butter, and fish, and some meal is imported, which sounds strange after hearing that so many oats had been exported.
Mr. Jackson has made great improvements to his house, which is situated in a very pretty domain of 85 acres on the banks of the river, and all the timber he has used is out of his bog; he gets very large oak and fir trees: they are found 20 feet deep, and all lie exactly east and west.’
