The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER 327
dances a hornpipe with surprising agility.—He and I walked, and
rode, and hunted, and fished together, without minding the vicissi-
tudes of the weather; and I am persuaded, that in a raw, moist
climate, like this of England, continual exercise is as necessary as
food to the preservation of the individual.—In the course of two
and twenty years, there has not been one hour’s interruption or
abatement in the friendship subsisting between Wilson’s family
and mine; and, what is a rare instance of good fortune, that friend-
ship is continued to our children.—His son and mine are nearly
of the same age and the same disposition; they have been bred up
together at the same school and college, and love each other with
the warmest affection.
‘By Wilson’s means, I likewise formed an acquaintance with a
sensible physician, who lives in the next market-town; and his
sister, an agreeable old maiden, passed the Christmas holidays at
our house.—Meanwhile I began my farming with great eagerness,
and that very winter planted these groves that please you so much.
—As for the neighbouring gentry, I had no trouble from that
quarter during my first campaign; they were all gone to town
before I settled in the country; and by the summer I had taken
measures to defend myself from their attacks.—When a gay
equipage came to my gates, I was never at home; those who visited
me in a modest way, I received; and according to the remarks I
made on their characters and conversation, either rejected their
advances, or returned their civility.—I was in general despised
among the fashionable company, as a low fellow, both in breeding
and circumstances; nevertheless, I found a few individuals of
moderate fortune, who gladly adopted my stile of living; and many
others would have acceded to our society, had they not been
prevented by the pride, envy, and ambition of their wives and
daughters.—Those, in times of luxury and dissipation, are the
rocks upon which all the small estates in the country are wrecked.
‘I reserved in my own hands, some acres of ground adjacent to
the house, for making experiments in agriculture, according to the
directions of Lyle, Tull, Hart, Duhamel, and others who have
written on this subject; and qualified their theory with the practi-
cal observations of farmer Bland, who was my great master in the
art of husbandry.—In short, I became enamoured of a country
life; and my success greatly exceeded my expectation.—I drained
bogs, burned heath, grubbed up furze and fern; I planted copse