The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER 171
tolerable share of business among the farmers and common people,
which enabled him to live in a decent manner. He had been scarce
ever seen to smile; was unaffectedly pious; and all the time he
could spare from the avocations of his employment he spent in
educating his daughter, and in studying for his own improvement.
—In short, the adventurer Fathom was, under the name of Grieve,
universally respected among the commonalty of this district, as
a prodigy of learning and virtue. These particulars I learned from
the vicar, when we quitted the room, that they might be under no
restraint in their mutual effusions. I make no doubt that Grieve
will be pressed to leave off business, and re-unite himself to the
count’s family; and as the countess seemed extremely fond of
his daughter, she will, in all probability, insist upon Seraphina’s
accompanying her to Scotland.
Having paid our compliments to these noble persons, we
returned to the ’squire’s, where we expected an invitation to pass
the night, which was wet and raw; but, it seems, ’squire Burdock’s
hospitality reached not so far for the honour of Yorkshire: we
therefore departed in the evening, and lay at an inn, where I caught
cold.
In hope of riding it down before it could take fast hold on my
constitution, I resolved to visit another relation, one Mr. Pim-
pernel, who lived about a dozen miles from the place where we
lodged. Pimpernel being the youngest of four sons, was bred an
attorney at Furnival’s-inn; but all his elder brothers dying, he got
himself called to the bar for the honour of his family, and soon after
this preferment, succeeded to his father’s estate, which was very
considerable. He carried home with him all the knavish chicanery
of the lowest pettifogger, together with a wife whom he had pur-
chased of a drayman for twenty pounds; and he soon found means
to obtain a dedimus as an acting justice of peace. He is not only a
sordid miser in his disposition, but his avarice is mingled with a
spirit of despotism, which is truly diabolical.—He is a brutal
husband, an unnatural parent, a harsh master, an oppressive land-
lord, a litigious neighbour, and a partial magistrate.—Friends he
has none; and in point of hospitality and good breeding, our cousin
Burdock is a prince in comparison of this ungracious miscreant,
whose house is the lively representation of a gaol. Our reception
was suitable to the character I have sketched. Had it depended
upon the wife, we should have been kindly treated.—She is really