A Six Months Tour Through the North of England. Containing an account of the present state of Agriculture, Manufactures and Population, in several Counties of this Kingdom by Young, Arthur - 1967: In Four Volumes. The Second Edition, corrected and enlarged

Augustus M. Kelley. Reprints of Economic Classics. New York. 1967. Reprint of the Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. Originally Printed for W. Strahan; W. Nicoll, No. 51 in St Paul's Churchyard; T. Cadell, in The Strand; B. Collins, at Salisbury; and J. Balfour, at Edinburgh. 1771. 4 Volumes. Octavo. I: xxviii, 359, (1), Engraved Plates; II: (6), 459pp, Engraved Plates; III: vii, 464pp, Engraved Plates, Large Folding Map; IV: (5), 466pp, Pocket to rear containing six folding charts. Original faux leather, title lettering to spine faded. A few minor spots or marks. A clean, crisp, bright and tightly bound set of this nice reprint.

Arthur Young (1741-1820) A writer, social and political observer, opponent of reform, and collector of early works on agriculture such as Duhamel du Monceau, Jethro Tull and Hartlib. Close friend of Walter Harte, author of Essays on Husbandry.

The British Library features this important work: "George Eliot read A Six Months' Tour as research for her novel Adam Bede, in order to learn about farming life and practice in the late 18th century. An entry in her research notebook reads: '"All drink tea," says Arthur Young of the working people in a northerly parish, 1770' – and Eliot does have her characters drinking tea throughout the novel.
In Adam Bede, Eliot alludes to Young's enthusiasm for reform when she has the young squire Arthur Donnithorne tell Mr Irwine that,'I have been reading your friend Arthur Young's books lately, and there is nothing I should like better than to carry out some of his ideas in putting the farmers on a better management of their land; and, as he says, making what was a wild country, all of the same dark hue, bright and variegated with corn and cattle' (ch. 16)"