first time, in 1815 he was elected an associate and in 1817 he
received the full honours of the Academy. Although he was a Wesleyan
Methodist, Jackson was broad-minded in his religious opinions, for he made
a copy of Correggio's "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" (with the
figures increased to life size) for Lastingham parish church. The picture
is now on the north side of the apse but its original position was above
the communion table and in order to give the picture sufficient space and
light the apse of Transitional Norman date was very roughly treated.
Jackson contributed L50 towards the alterations, but the restoration at a
later date has fortunately wiped out these disfigurements.

Another boy destined to become a tailor was Francis Nicholson who was born
at Pickering in 1753. His father, who was a weaver, gave young Francis a
good education in Pickering, and wisely abandoning the tailoring idea the
boy was sent to Scarborough for instruction from an artist. After three
years he returned to Pickering and occupied himself in painting portraits
and pictures of horses, dogs and game for local patrons. Then followed a
period of study in London, where Nicholson made great progress and
eventually began to devote himself to water colours, for which in his long
life he was justly famous, well deserving the name generally given to him
as the "Father of water colour painting."

William Marshall, the agricultural expert and writer to whom we owe the
establishment of the Board of Agriculture was baptised at Sinnington on
28th July 1745. He was in his own words "born a farmer" and used to say
that he could trace his blood through the veins of agriculturists for
upwards of four hundred years. After fourteen years in the West Indies, he
undertook, at the age of twenty-nine, the management of a farm near
Croydon in Surrey. It was there, in 1778, that he wrote his first book. He
showed the manuscript to Dr Johnson who objected to certain passages
sanctioning work on Sundays in harvest time, so Marshall omitted them. His
greatest work was "A General Survey, from personal experience, observation
and enquiry, of the Rural Economy of England."

The country was divided into six agricultural divisions, the northern one
being represented by Yorkshire in two volumes. In the first of these, the
preface is dated from Pickering, December 21st, 1787, and the second
chapter is devoted to an exceedingly interesting account of the broad
val