PEHR KALM, a native of the Grand Duchy of Finland, was the favourite disciple of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. In 1748 he was sent on a botanical mission to North America. On his way he spent five months in England, for three weeks staying in Little Gaddesden. His purpose was to visit the agricultural writer William Ellis and to see something of the farming activities of the area. Kalm kept a diary of some 150 pages during his visit to Little Gaddesden.

This is a new translation based on the original manuscript. An introduction sets the diary in its mid­eighteenth century context and an epilogue considers some of the results for his native Finland of Kalm's sojourn in Britain and colonial North America.