Arthur Young was a prominent agriculturalist during the reign of George III. He discovered a love of farming at the age of 22 after being given the tenancy of a farm on his mother’s estate at Bradfield Combust in Suffolk. It was at Bradfield that he began writing on agricultural matters and kept records of his experiments in farming.

Leaving Bradfield in 1767, Young travelled England inspecting farming practices in the countryside. These surveys led to the publication in 1768 of A Six Weeks’ Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales. He would follow the work with others on his tours in the north and east of England, his tour in Ireland, manuals on stocking farms, observations on the use of waste lands and guides on husbandry in general.

These works serve as important sources of farming practices in England and Ireland in the middle of the eighteenth century. The most significant of Young’s works however, would be his Annals of Agriculture, published in 45 volumes from 1784. The periodical accepted contributions from farmers across the country, including George III, who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Ralph Robinson’. The king was an admirer of Young and collected many of his books for the extensive agricultural library he had gathered at Kew and later, Windsor.