Transcribed from Tobias Smollett's " Humphry Clinker " - a hilarious 18th C account of life in the grand metropolis.

***

With the sharp sensitivity of " a man without skin" Tobias Smollett humorously attacked the frivolity and foibles of eighteenth-century England. Humphrey Clinker is his mirthful tale of a tour by coach and four through cities and countryside. as misadventure follows misadventure, each character reveals his true self by giving his own conflicting view of the incidents, places, and people encountered along the way. The result is an entertaining and realistic picture of that wonderful age when gentlemen duelled, ladies swooned, and servants rose from rags to riches.

...continued from Pt 4 (previous page).

... if you pick up a diverting original by accident, it may be dangerous to amuse yourself with his oddities - He is generally a tartar at bottom; a sharper, a spy, or a lunatic.
Every person you deal with endeavours to over-reach you in the way of business; you are preyed upon by idle medicants, who beg in the phrase of borrowing, and live upon the spoils of the stranger - Your tradesmen are without conscience, your friends without affection, and your dependents without fidelity. ( hmm .. slightly familair - ed )

My letter would swell into a treatise, were I to particularize every cause of offence that fills up the measure of my aversion to this, and every other crowded city - Thank Heaven! I am not so far sucked into the vortex that I can disengage myself without any great effort of philosophy - From this wild uproar of knavery, folly, and impertinence, I shall fly with double relish to the serenity of retirement, the cordial effusions of unreserved friendship, the hospitality and protection of the rural gods; in a word, the jucunda oblivia vitoe, which Horace himself had not taste enough to enjoy. -

I have agreed for a good travelling-coach and four, at a guinea a day, for three months certain; and next week we intend to begin our journey to the North, still hoping to be with you by the end of October - I shall continue to write from every stage where we make a considerable halt, as often as any thing occurs, which I think can afford you the least amusement. In the mean time, I must beg you will superintend the economy of Barnes, with respect to my hay and corn harvests; assured that my ground produces nothing but what you may freely call your own - On any other terms I should be ashamed to subscribe myself
Your unvariable friend,
Matt. Bramble.

London, June 8.

***
That's it for the London mention from the book, which in itself is truly an education on the full read.

Hope the account met with your amusement,

M St.M