neration for whom he laboured and wrote were not ripe for their
reception and realization; and his voice sounded among the people like
that of one crying in the wilderness. But though his exhortations to
industry and his large plans of national improvement failed to work
themselves into realities in his own time, he broke the ground, he
sowed the seed, and it may be that even at this day we are in some
degree reaping the results of his labours. At all events, his books
still live to show how wise and sagacious Andrew Yarranton was beyond
his contemporaries as to the true methods of establishing upon solid
foundations the industrial prosperity of England.

[1] PATRICK EDWARD DOVE, Elements of Political Science. Edinburgh,
1854.

[2] A copy of the entries in the parish register relating to the
various members of the Yarranton family, kindly forwarded to us by the
Rev. H. W. Cookes, rector of Astley, shows them to have resided in that
parish for many generations. There were the Yarrantons of Yarranton,
of Redstone, of Larford, of Brockenton, and of Longmore. With that
disregard for orthography in proper names which prevailed some three
hundred years since, they are indifferently designated as Yarran,
Yarranton, and Yarrington. The name was most probably derived from two
farms named Great and Little Yarranton, or Yarran (originally
Yarhampton), situated in the parish of Astley. The Yarrantons
frequently filled local offices in that parish, and we find several of
them officiating at different periods as bailiffs of Bewdley.

[3] Journals of the House of Commons, 1st July, 1648.

[4] YARRANTON'S England's Improvement by Sea and Land. Part I.
London, 1677.

[5] There seems a foundation of truth in the old English distich--

The North for Greatness, the East for Health,
The South for Neatness, the West for Wealth.

[6] State Paper Office. Dom. Charles II. 1660-1. Yarranton afterwards
succeeded in making a friend of Lord Windsor, as would appear from his
dedication of England's Improvement to his Lordship, whom he thanks for
the encouragement he had given to him in his survey of several rivers
with a view to their being rendered navigable.

[7] The following is a copy of the document from the State
Papers:--"John Bramfield, Geo. Moore, and Thos. Lee, Esqrs. and
Justices of Surrey, to Sir Edw. Nicholas.--There being this day brought
before us one Andrew Yarranton, and he accused to have broken prison,
or