assures me is the mode here! Now really all this is very bad; very bad
indeed, and as he says wants reforming.

But as for the game laws, as I was saying, Aby, they are excellently
enforced; and your poor rascals here are kept in very proper
subjection. They are held to the grindstone, as I may say. And so they
ought to be, Aby. For, I have often heard you say, what is a man but
what he is worth? Which in certain respects is very true. A gentleman
of family and fortune, why he is a gentleman; and no insolent beggar
ought to dare to look him in the face, without his permission. But you,
Aby, had always a very great sense of propriety, in these respects. And
you have found your advantage in it; as indeed you ought. It is a pity,
considering what a learned young man you have made your son, that you
did not teach him a little of your good sense in this particular. He is
too full of contradiction: too confident by half.

Let me have a long and full and whole account of what you are doing,
Aby. Tell me precisely how forward your work is, and the exact spot
where you are when each letter comes away. I know I need not caution
you to keep those idle fellows, the day labourers, to it. I never knew
any man who worked them better. And yet, Aby, it is surprising the sums
that they have cost me; but you are a very careful honest fellow; and
they have done wonders, under my planning and your inspection.

I do not wish that the moment I receive a letter it should be known to
every lacquey; especially here; where it seems to be one entire city of
babblers. The people appear to have nothing to do but to talk. In the
house, in the street, in the fields, breakfast, dinner, and supper,
walking, sitting, or standing, they are never silent. Nay egad I doubt
whether they do not talk in their sleep! So do you direct to me at the