illegitimate son of a member of parliament, and the surrounding
farmers and labourers. All were grossly illiterate, but I soon
observed that a common ignorance does not prevent, but rather tends
to establish artificial distinctions. Inferiority by a single
degree in the social scale becomes not only a barrier to
intercourse, but a sufficient reason for contempt. The squire and
his lady spent their days in vain attempts to secure invitations to
my Lord's at the Abbey and revenged themselves by patronising the
captain, who in his turn nodded to the surveyor but would on no
account permit intimacy. The surveyor could not for his life have
condescended to enter a farmhouse, and yet was never weary of
denouncing as intolerably stuck-up the behaviour of those above him.
He consoled himself by the reflection that they were the losers, and
that, poor creatures, their neglect of him was due to a lamentable
misapprehension of the dignity of H. M. Custom-house Service. I can
assure you I thought the comedy played at A. very ridiculous, and
often laughed at it.

It was soon quite clear to me that if I was to live in peace I must
take to myself a wife. The squire and the surveyor had daughters.
The squire's would each have a hundred a-year apiece, a welcome
addition to my small income. They were good-looking, and by repute
were virtuous and easy of temper, but when I became acquainted with
them I found that I must not expect from them any entertainment save
the description of visits to the milliner, or schemes for parties,
or the gossip of the country-side. I did not demand, Mr. Rambler,
the critical acumen of Mrs. Montagu, or the erudition of Mrs.
Carter, but I believe you will agree with me that a wife, and
especially the wife of a clergyman and a scholar, should be able to
read a page of Dr. Barrow's sermons without yawning, and should not