The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

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Tobias Smollett. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

To Mr HENRY DAVIS, Bookseller, in London

To the Revd. Mr JONATHAN DUSTWICH, at—

THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER

To Dr LEWIS

To Mrs GWYLLIM, house-keeper at Brambleton-hall

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Mrs JERMYN at her house in Gloucester

To Miss LAETITIA WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Dr LEWIS

To Miss LYDIA MELFORD

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Miss LETTY WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS. BATH, April 23. DEAR DOCTOR,

To Miss WILLIS at Gloucester. BATH, April 26. MY DEAREST COMPANION,

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

To Mrs GWYLLIM, house-keeper at Brambleton-hall

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Miss LAETITIA WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Miss LAETITIA WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Miss LAETITIA WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall, &c

To Mrs GWYLLIM, house-keeper at Brambleton-hall. MRS GWYLLIM,

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart of Jesus college, Oxon

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. at Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Dr LEWIS

To Miss LAETITIA WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. at Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Mrs GWILLIM, house-keeper at Brambleton-hall

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. at Oxon

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

To Miss LAETITIA WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. of Jesus college, Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. at Oxon

To Miss LAETITIA WILLIS, at Gloucester

To Mrs JERMYN, at her house in Gloucester

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

To Dr LEWIS

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. at Oxon

To Dr LEWIS

To Mrs GWYLLIM, at Brambleton-hall

To Mrs MARY JONES, at Brambleton-hall

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I received yours in course of post, and shall be glad to treat with you for the M.S. which I have delivered to your friend Mr Behn; but can by no means comply with the terms proposed. Those things are so uncertain—Writing is all a lottery—I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age—I could mention particulars, and name names; but don’t choose it—The taste of the town is so changeable. Then there have been so many letters upon travels lately published—What between Smollett’s, Sharp’s, Derrick’s, Thicknesse’s, Baltimore’s, and Baretti’s, together with Shandy’s Sentimental Travels, the public seems to be cloyed with that kind of entertainment—Nevertheless, I will, if you please, run the risque of printing and publishing, and you shall have half the profits of the impression—You need not take the trouble to bring up your sermons on my account—No body reads sermons but Methodists and Dissenters—Besides, for my own part, I am quite a stranger to that sort of reading; and the two persons, whose judgment I depended upon in those matters, are out of the way; one is gone abroad, carpenter of a man of war; and the other, has been silly enough to abscond, in order to avoid a prosecution for blasphemy—I’m a great loser by his going off—He has left a manual of devotion half finished on my hands, after having received money for the whole copy—He was the soundest divine, and had the most orthodox pen of all my people; and I never knew his judgment fail, but in flying from his bread and butter on this occasion.

By owning you was not put in bodily fear by Lismahago, you preclude yourself from the benefit of a good plea, over and above the advantage of binding him over. In the late war, I inserted in my evening paper, a paragraph that came by the post, reflecting upon the behaviour of a certain regiment in battle. An officer of said regiment came to my shop, and, in the presence of my wife and journeyman, threatened to cut off my ears—As I exhibited marks of bodily fear more ways than one, to the conviction of the byestanders, I bound him over; my action lay, and I recovered. As for flagellation, you have nothing to fear, and nothing to hope, on that head—There has been but one printer flogged at the cart’s tail these thirty years; that was Charles Watson; and he assured me it was no more than a flea-bite. C— S— has been threatened several times by the House of L—; but it came to nothing. If an information should be moved for, and granted against you, as the editor of those Letters, I hope you will have honesty and wit enough to appear and take your trial—If you should be sentenced to the pillory, your fortune is made—As times go, that’s a sure step to honour and preferment. I shall think myself happy if I can lend you a lift; and am, very sincerely,

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The spirits and good humour of the company seemed to triumph over the wreck of their constitutions. They had even philosophy enough to joke upon their own calamities; such is the power of friendship, the sovereign cordial of life—I afterwards found, however, that they were not without their moments, and even hours of disquiet. Each of them apart, in succeeding conferences, expatiated upon his own particular grievances; and they were all malcontents at bottom—Over and above their personal disasters, they thought themselves unfortunate in the lottery of life. Balderick complained, that all the recompence he had received for his long and hard service, was the half-pay of a rear-admiral. The colonel was mortified to see himself over-topped by upstart generals, some of whom he had once commanded; and, being a man of a liberal turn, could ill put up with a moderate annuity, for which he had sold his commission. As for the baronet, having run himself considerably in debt, on a contested election, he has been obliged to relinquish his seat in parliament, and his seat in the country at the same time, and put his estate to nurse; but his chagrin, which is the effect of his own misconduct, does not affect me half so much as that of the other two, who have acted honourable and distinguished parts on the great theatre, and are now reduced to lead a weary life in this stew-pan of idleness and insignificance. They have long left off using the waters, after having experienced their inefficacy. The diversions of the place they are not in a condition to enjoy. How then do they make shift to pass their time? In the forenoon they crawl out to the Rooms or the coffeehouse, where they take a hand at whist, or descant upon the General Advertiser; and their evenings they murder in private parties, among peevish invalids, and insipid old women—This is the case with a good number of individuals, whom nature seems to have intended for better purposes.

About a dozen years ago, many decent families, restricted to small fortunes, besides those that came hither on the score of health, were tempted to settle at Bath, where they could then live comfortably, and even make a genteel appearance, at a small expence: but the madness of the times has made the place too hot for them, and they are now obliged to think of other migrations—Some have already fled to the mountains of Wales, and others have retired to Exeter. Thither, no doubt, they will be followed by the flood of luxury and extravagance, which will drive them from place to place to the very Land’s End; and there, I suppose, they will be obliged to ship themselves to some other country. Bath is become a mere sink of profligacy and extortion. Every article of house-keeping is raised to an enormous price; a circumstance no longer to be wondered at, when we know that every petty retainer of fortune piques himself upon keeping a table, and thinks it is for the honour of his character to wink at the knavery of his servants, who are in a confederacy with the market-people; and, of consequence, pay whatever they demand. Here is now a mushroom of opulence, who pays a cook seventy guineas a week for furnishing him with one meal a day. This portentous frenzy is become so contagious, that the very rabble and refuse of mankind are infected. I have known a negro-driver, from Jamaica, pay over-night, to the master of one of the rooms, sixty-five guineas for tea and coffee to the company, and leave Bath next morning, in such obscurity, that not one of his guests had the slightest idea of his person, or even made the least inquiry about his name. Incidents of this kind are frequent; and every day teems with fresh absurdities, which are too gross to make a thinking man merry.

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