The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

322 TOBIAS SMOLLETT
inconsiderable article of house-keeping, than to have those articles
produced on his own ground.
These objections did not deter Mr. Dennison, because they
were chiefly founded on the supposition, that he would be obliged
to lead a life of extravagance and dissipation, which he and his
consort equally detested, despised, and determined to avoid—The
objects he had in view, were health of body, peace of mind, and the
private satisfaction of domestic quiet, unallayed by actual want,
and uninterrupted by the fears of indigence—He was very moder-
ate in his estimate of the necessaries, and even of the comforts of
life—He required nothing but wholesome air, pure water, agree-
able exercise, plain diet, convenient lodging, and decent apparel.
He reflected, that if a peasant without education, or any great share
of natural sagacity, could maintain a large family, and even become
opulent upon a farm, for which he paid an annual rent of two or
three hundred pounds to the landlord, surely he himself might
hope for some success from his industry, having no rent to pay,
but, on the contrary, three or four hundred pounds a-year to
receive—He considered, that the earth was an indulgent mother,
that yielded her fruits to all her children without distinction. He
had studied the theory of agriculture with a degree of eagerness and
delight; and he could not conceive there was any mystery in the
practice, but what he should be able to disclose by dint of care and
application. With respect to household expence, he entered into
a minute detail and investigation, by which he perceived the asser-
tions of his friends were altogether erroneous—He found he should
save sixty pounds a-year in the single article of house-rent, and
as much more in pocket-money and contingencies; that even
butcher’s-meat was twenty per cent, cheaper in the country than
in London; but that poultry, and almost every other circumstance
of house-keeping, might be had for less than one half of what they
cost in town; besides, a considerable saving on the side of dress, in
being delivered from the oppressive imposition of ridiculous
modes, invented by ignorance, and adopted by folly.
As to the danger of vying with the rich in pomp and equipage,
it never gave him the least disturbance. He was now turned of forty,
and, having lived half that time in the busy scenes of life, was well
skilled in the science of mankind. There cannot be in nature a more
contemptible figure than that of a man, who with five hundred a
year presumes to rival in expence a neighbour who possesses five