"You must know that I myself, though a child, was his companion in all
these excursions. He took a liking to me on account of my being his
godson, and gave me more money than I knew what to do with. He had
always plenty of cash for the asking, as my father was ordered to supply
him liberally, the knight thinking that a command of money might help to
raise his thoughts to a proper consideration of his own importance. He
never could endure a common beggar, that was not either in a state of
infancy or of old age; but, in other respects, he made the guineas fly in
such a manner, as looked more like madness than generosity. He had no
communication with your rich yeomen, but rather treated them and their
families with studied contempt, because forsooth they pretended to assume
the dress and manners of the gentry.

"They kept their footmen, their saddle horses, and chaises; their wives
and daughters appeared in their jewels, their silks, and their satins,
their negligees and trollopees; their clumsy shanks, like so many shins
of beef, were cased in silk hose and embroidered slippers; their raw red
fingers, gross as the pipes of a chamber organ, which had been employed
in milking the cows, in twirling the mop or churn-staff, being adorned
with diamonds, were taught to thrum the pandola, and even to touch the
keys of the harpsichord! Nay, in every village they kept a rout, and set
up an assembly; and in one place a hog-butcher was master of the
ceremonies.

"I have heard Mr. Greaves ridicule them for their vanity and awkward
imitation; and therefore, I believe, he avoided all concerns with them,
even when they endeavoured to engage his attention. It was the lower
sort of people with whom he chiefly conversed, such as ploughmen,
ditchers, and other day-labourers. To every cottager in the parish he
was a bounteous benefactor. He was, in the literal sense of the word, a