William Ellis

Malcolm Thick's detailed study of the eighteenth-century agricultural writer William Ellis examines the work of the multifaceted, public-facing farmer through analyses of his personal life, rural work in Hertfordshire, and prolific agricultural publications and business ventures. The book traces Ellis's activities during a time of significant agricultural change in England. Drawing attention to Ellis's many accomplishments in his analysis, Thick argues that Ellis is worthy of far more historical attention than he has yet received, on the strength of his significant contributions to eighteenth-century agricultural literature.The book is organized topically into chapters that consider different aspects of Ellis's life and work. Chapter 1 introduces the book's contention that Ellis deserves greater attention from historians, while chapter 2 traces his early life, family, and work as a brewer in London. Chapter 3 is a thorough analysis of Ellis's agricultural writings and perspectives on questions such as soil fertility, while chapter 4 explores Ellis's business ventures, including his advertising techniques and sale of agricultural instruments. Chapter 5 considers Ellis's perspectives on food and drink and his collation of rural cooking and preserving methods, while chapter 6 examines Ellis's involvement in his adopted hometown of Little Gaddesden, where he was a churchwarden. Chapter 7 considers other elements of Ellis's life uncovered by Thick's research, including his engineering initiatives, his place within the larger improvement movement of the eighteenth century, and his posthumous reputation. Chapter 8 concludes briefly by pointing to the wealth of information available on multiple facets of Ellis's life. Also included is an appendix giving examples of Ellis's flyers advertising agricultural goods and services, as well as an annotated bibliography of Ellis's published works. The latter is one of the most useful aspects of Thick's work, even though Ellis's frequent republishing of his own writing and the multiple editions (some unauthorized) of his work makes creating a comprehensive bibliography quite complicated. Fourteen black-and-white figures offer useful illustrations of relevant agricultural methods, maps, and frontispieces of several of Ellis's works.Thick, an independent researcher and Fellow of the Royal Society who has published copiously on early modern English agriculture and gardening, wrote this book over the course of the lockdowns in 2020–21, spending what must have been an exhaustive amount of time poring over Ellis's complete published works. What results is an incredibly detailed close reading of Ellis's attitudes toward different agricultural methods, rural lifeways, and food production. The frequent use of block quotes from Ellis's works provides the reader with a sense of Ellis's style without detracting from Thick's analysis. Additional research into contemporary agricultural works by Ellis's peers and of other accounts of Ellis, such as Pehr Kalm's oft-cited recounting of his visit to Ellis's farm, are also employed, often as a foil to Ellis's views.Although Thick's close focus on Ellis's works is one of the book's strengths, such a perspective sometimes obscures the significance of his argument that Ellis's prolific writings make him worthy of more attention from historians. The unintended consequence of such a detailed treatment is that the reader is left wondering about the broader significance of this prolific, talented writer and businessman living and working during a period of profound agricultural and social change. Yet research into Ellis's broader world does not figure as prominently in the book. Allusions to colonialism, to broader improvement trends, and to other eighteenth-century matters that could augment our understanding of Ellis's work and period more broadly are scant, leaving the reader with a detailed understanding of Ellis himself but less of a picture of his role in eighteenth-century British agriculture writ large. Scholars working outside of Ellis's place and period may be frustrated that the significance of Ellis's writing to agricultural change in other locations and contexts receives minimal attention. Because Thick focuses so closely on Ellis, he touches only moderately on the central debates in early modern English agricultural history. Some editorial choices and sparse footnotes occasionally detract from an otherwise accessible work. Beyond Thick's admirable work, space remains for scholars to connect the life and work of William Ellis to other themes in agricultural history, including global, transregional, or other comparative perspectives.Such connections between Ellis and broader themes in the history of agriculture and improvement are made more possible by Thick's work, the most accessible and engaging portrait of Ellis yet. The book shines especially in its close readings of Ellis's equally detailed accounts of cultivation and food preparation methods, where Thick's delight in his subject matter is most apparent. Thick has penned a valuable reference work for specialists, yet his enthusiasm and rich analysis also has the potential to captivate nonspecialist readers. This study creates ample opportunities for scholars of agricultural history to connect Ellis's life and work to emerging themes in the field

Agriculture · Archaeology · Collation · Reputation · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Classics · Engineering · History · Philosophy · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology