I beg only to attend you in the quality of your servant: nil desperandum est Teucro duce et auspice Teucro." But to this generous proposal concerning the money, Jones would by no means submit. It was resolved to set out the next morning, when a difficulty arose concerning the baggage; for the portmanteau of Mr Jones was too large to be carried without a horse. "If I may presume to give my advice," says Partridge, "this portmanteau, with every thing in it, except a few shirts, should be left behind. Those I shall be easily able to carry for you, and the rest of your clothes will remain very safely locked up in my house." This method was no sooner proposed than agreed to, and then the barber departed, in order to prepare every thing for his intended expedition. CHAP. VII. Containing better reasons than any which have yet appeared for the conduct of Partridge; an apology for the weakness of Jones; and some farther anecdotes concerning my Landlady. THOUGH Partridge was one of the most superstitious of men, he would hardly perhaps have desired to accompany Jones in his expedition, merely from the omens of the joint-stool and white mare, if his prospect had been no better than to have shared the plunder gained in the field of battle. In fact, when Partridge came to ruminate on the relation he had heard from Jones, he could not reconcile to himself that Mr Allworthy should turn his son (for so he most firmly believed him to be) out of doors, for any reason which he had heard assigned. He concluded, therefore, that the whole was a fiction, and that Jones, of whom he had often from his correspondents heard the wildest character, had in reality run away from his father. It came into his head, therefore, that if he could prevail with the young gentleman to return back to his father, he should by that means render a service to Allworthy, which would obliterate all his former anger; nay, indeed, he conceived that very anger was counterfeited, and that Allworthy had sacrificed him to his own reputation. And this suspicion, indeed, he well accounted for, from the tender behaviour of that excellent man to the foundling child; from his great severity to Partridge, who, knowing himself to be innocent, could not conceive that any other should think him guilty; lastly, from the allowance which he had privately received long after the annuity had been publicly taken from him, and which he looked upon as a kind of smart-money, or rather by way of atonement for injustice; for it is very uncommon, I believe, for men to ascribe the benefactions they receive to pure charity, when they can possibly impute them to any other motive. If he could by any means, therefore, persuade the young gentleman to return home, he doubted not but that he should again be received into the favour of Allworthy, and well rewarded for his pains; nay, and should be again restored to his native country; a restoration which Ulysses himself never wished more heartily than poor Partridge. As for Jones, he was well satisfied with the truth of what the other had asserted, and believed that Partridge had no other inducements but love to him, and zeal for the cause; a blameable want of caution and diffidence in the veracity of others, in which he was highly worthy of censure. To say the truth, there are but two ways by which men become possessed of this excellent quality; the one is from long experience, and the other is from nature; which last, I presume, is often meant by genius, or great natural parts; and it is infinitely the better of the two, not only as we are masters of it much earlier in life, but as it is much more infallible and conclusive: for a man who hath been imposed on by ever so many, may still hope to find others more honest; whereas, he who receives certain necessary admonitions from within, that this is impossible, must have very little understanding indeed, if he ever renders himself liable to be once deceived. As Jones had not this gift from nature, he was too young to have gained it by experience; for at the diffident wisdom which is to be acquired this way, we seldom arrive till very late in life: which is perhaps the reason why some old men are apt to despise the understandings of all those who are a little younger than themselves. Jones spent most part of the day in the company of a new acquaintance. This was no other than the landlord of the house, or rather the husband of the landlady. He had but lately made his descent down stairs, after a long fit of the gout, in which distemper he was generally confined to his room during one half of the year; and during the rest he walked about the house, smoked his pipe, and drank his bottle with his friends, without concerning himself in the least with any kind of business. He had been bred, as they call it, a gentleman, that is, bred up to do nothing, and had spent a very small fortune, which he inherited from an industrious farmer his uncle, in hunting, horseracing, and cock-fighting, and had been married by my landlady for certain purposes which he had long since desisted from answering; for which she hated him heartily. But as he was a surly kind of fellow, so she contented herself with frequently upbraiding him by disadvantageous comparisons with her first husband, whose praise she had eternally in her mouth; and as she was for the most part mistress of the profits, so she was satisfied to take upon herself the care and government of the family, and, after a long successless struggle, to suffer her husband to be master of himself. 68 we have any thing good in their house (which indeed very seldom happens) to produce it only to persons who travel with great equipages. Secondly, to charge the same for the very worst provisions, as if they were the best. And, lastly, if any of their guests call but for little, to make them pay a double price for every thing they have, so that the amount by the head may be much the same. The bill being made and discharged, Jones set forward with Partridge, carrying his knapsack; nor did the landlady condescend to wish him a good journey: for this was, it seems, an inn frequented by people of fashion; and I know not whence it is, but all those who get their livelihood by people of fashion, contract as much insolence to the rest of mankind as if they really belonged to that rank themselves. CHAP. VIII. In the evening, when Jones retired to his room, a small dispute arose between this fond couple concerning him. "What," says the wife, you bave been tippling with the gentleman I see."-"Yes," answered the husband, have cracked a bottle together, and a very gentleman-like man he is, and hath a very pretty notion of horse-flesh. Indeed he is young, and hath not seen much of the world; for I believe he hath been at very few horse-races."-"O bo! he is one of your order, is he?" replies the landlady; "he must be a gentleman to be sure, if he is a horse-racer. The devil fetch such gentry; I am sure I wish I had never seen any of them. I have reason to love horse-racers truly." -"That you have," says the husband; "for I was one, you know."- Yes," answered she, you are a pure one indeed. As my first husband used to say, I may put all the good I have ever got by you in my eyes, and see never the worse."-"D-n your first husband," cries he. -"Don't d-n a better man than yourself," answered the wife; "if he had been alive you durst not have done it."-" Then you think," says he, "I have not so much courage as yourMR JONES and Partridge, or Little Benjamin, self; for you have d-d'd him often in my hear- (which epithet of Little was perhaps given him ing."-"If I did," says she, "I have repented of ironically, he being in reality near six feet high,) it, many's the good time and oft. And if he was having left their last quarters in the manner beso good to forgive me a word spoken in haste, fore described, travelled on to Gloucester, withor so, it doth not become such a one as you to out meeting any adventure worth relating. twitter me. He was a husband to me, he was; and if ever I did make use of an ill word or so in a passion, I never called him rascal; I should have told a lie, if I had called him rascal." Much more she said, but not in his hearing; for having lighted his pipe, he staggered off as fast as he could. We shall therefore transcribe no more of her speech, as it approached still nearer and nearer to a subject too indelicate to find any place in this history. Early in the morning Partridge appeared at the bedside of Jones, ready equipped for the journey, with his knapsack at his back. This was his own workmanship; for besides his other trades, he was no indifferent tailor. He had already put up his whole stock of linen in it, consisting of four shirts, to which he now added eight for Mr Jones; and then packing up the portmanteau, he was departing with it towards his own house, but was stopt in his way by the landlady, who refused to suffer any removals till after the payment of the reckoning. The landlady was, as we have said, absolute governess in these regions; it was therefore necessary to comply with her rules; so the bill was presently writ out, which amounted to a much larger sum than might have been expected from the entertainment which Jones had met with. But here we are obliged to disclose some maxims which publicans hold to be the grand mysteries of their trade. The first is, if they Jones arrives at Gloucester, and goes to the Bell; the character of that house, and of a Pettifogger which he there meets with. Being arrived here, they chose for their house of entertainment the sign of the Bell, an excellent house indeed, and which I do most seriously recommend to every reader who shall visit this ancient city. The master of it is brother to the great preacher Whitefield; but is absolutely untainted with the pernicious principles of methodism, or of any other heretical sect. He is indeed a very honest plain man, and, in my opinion, not likely to create any disturbance either in church or state. His wife hath, I believe, had much pretension to beauty, and is still a very fine woman. Her person and deportment might have made a shining figure in the politest assemblies; but though she must be conscious of this, and many other perfections, she seems perfectly contented with, and resigned to that state of life to which she is called; and this resignation is entirely owing to the prudence and wisdom of her temper; for she is at present as free from any methodistical notions as her husband. I say at present; for she freely confesses that her brother's documents made at first some impression upon her, and that she had put herself to the expense of a long hood, in order to attend the extraordinary emotions of the spirit ; but having found, during an experiment of three weeks, no emotions, she says, worth a farthing, she very wisely laid by her hood, and abandoned the sect. To be concise, she is a very friendly, good-natured woman; and so industrious to ob lige, that the guests must be of a very morose disposition who are not extremely well satisfied in her house. Mrs Whitefield happened to be in the yard when Jones and his attendant marched in. Her sagacity soon discovered, in the air of our hero, something which distinguished him from the vulgar. She ordered her servants, therefore, immediately to shew him into a room, and presently afterwards invited him to dinner with herself; which invitation he very thankfully accepted; for indeed much less agreeable company than that of Mrs Whitefield, and a much worse entertainment than she had provided, would have been welcome, after so long fasting, and so long a walk. Besides Mr Jones and the good governess of the mansion, there sat down at table an attorney of Salisbury, indeed the very same who had brought the news of Mr Blifil's death to Mr Allworthy, and whose name, which I think we did not before mention, was Dowling: there was likewise present another person, who styled himself a lawyer, and who lived somewhere near Lidlinch in Somersetshire. This fellow, I say, styled himself a lawyer, but was indeed a most vile pettifogger, without sense or knowledge of any kind; one of those who may be termed train-bearers to the law; a sort of supernumeraries in the profession, who are the hackneys of attornies, and will ride more miles for half a crown than a post-boy. During the time of dinner, the Somersetshire lawyer recollected the face of Jones, which he had seen at Mr Allworthy's; for he had often visited in that gentleman's kitchen. He therefore took occasion to enquire after all the good family there, with that familiarity which would have become an intimate friend or acquaintance of Mr Allworthy; and indeed he did all in his power to insinuate himself to be such, though he had never had the honour of speaking to any person in that family higher than the butler. Jones answered all his questions with much civility, though he never remembered to have seen the pettifogger before, and though he concluded, from the outward appearance and behaviour of the man, that he usurped a freedom with his betters, to which he was by no means entitled. As the conversation of fellows of this kind is, of all others, the most detestable to men of any sense, the cloth was no sooner removed than Mr Jones withdrew, and a little barbarously left poor Mrs Whitefield to do a penance, which I have often heard Mr Timothy Harris, and other publicans of good taste, lament, as the severest lot annexed to their calling, namely, that of being obliged to keep company with their guests. Jones had no sooner quitted the room, than the pettifogger, in a whispering tone, asked Mrs Whitefield, if she knew who that fine spark was? She answered, she had never seen the gentle man before. "The gentleman, indeed!" replied the pettifogger; a pretty gentleman truly! Why, he's the bastard of a fellow who was hanged for horse-stealing. He was dropt at Squire Allworthy's door, where one of the servants found him in a box so full of rain-water, that he would certainly have been drowned, had he not been reserved for another fate." -“ Ay, ay, you need not mention it, I protest; we understand what that fate is very well," cries Dowling, with a most facetious grin.—“ Well,” continued the other," the squire ordered him to be taken in; for he is a timbersome man, every body knows, and was afraid of drawing himself into a scrape; and there the bastard was bred up, and fed and clothified all to the world like any gentleman; and there he got one of the servant-maids with child, and persuaded her to swear it to the squire himself; and afterwards he broke the arm of one Mr Thwackum, a clergyman, only because he reprimanded him for following whores; and afterwards he snapt a pistol at Mr Blifil behind his back; and once, when Squire Allworthy was sick, he got a drum, and beat it all over the house, to prevent him from sleeping, and twenty other pranks he hath played; for all which, about four or five days ago, just before I left the country, the squire stripped him stark naked, and turned him out of doors." 66 "And very justly too, I protest," cries Dowling; "I would turn my own son out of doors, if he was guilty of half as much. And pray what is the name of this pretty gentleman?" "The name o'un!" answered the pettifogger; why, he is called Thomas Jones." "Jones!" answered Dowling, a little eager ly; "what, Mr Jones that lived at Mr Allwor thy's! was that the gentleman that dined with us?"-" The very same," said the other.—“ I have heard of the gentleman," cries Dowling, " often; but I never heard any ill character of him."- -"And I am sure," says Mrs Whitefield, "if half what this gentleman hath said be true, Mr Jones hath the most deceitful countenance I ever saw; for sure his looks promise something very different; and I must say, for the little I have seen of him, he is as civil a well-bred man as you would wish to converse with." The pettifogger calling to mind that he had not been sworn, as he usually was, before he gave his evidence, now bound what he had declared with so many oaths and imprecations, that the landlady's ears were shocked, and she put a stop to his swearing, by assuring him of her belief. Upon which he said, "I hope, madam, you imagine I would scorn to tell such things of any man, unless I knew them to be true. What interest have I in taking away the reputation of a man who never injured me? I promise you every syllable of what I have said is fact, and the whole country knows it." As Mrs Whitefield had no reason to suspect that the pettifogger had any motive or temptation to abuse Jones, the reader cannot blame her for believing what he so confidently affirmed with many oaths. She accordingly gave up her skill in physiognomy, and henceforwards conceived so ill an opinion of her guest, that she heartily wished him out of her house. This dislike was now farther increased by a report which Mr Whitefield made from the kitchen, where Partridge had informed the company, that though he carried the knapsack, and contented himself with staying among servants, while Tom Jones (as he called him) was regaling in the parlour, he was not his servant, but only a friend and companion, and as good a gentleman as Mr Jones himself. Dowling sat all this while silent, biting his fingers, making faces, grinning, and looking wonderfully arch; at last he opened his lips, and protested that the gentleman looked like another sort of man. He then called for his bill with the utmost haste, declared he must be at Hereford that evening, lamented his great hurry of business, and wished he could divide himself into twenty pieces, in order to be at once in twenty places. The pettifogger now likewise departed, and then Jones desired the favour of Mrs Whitefield's company to drink tea with him; but she refused, and with a manner so different from that with which she had received him at dinner, that it a little surprised him. And now he soon perceived her behaviour totally changed; for, instead of that natural affability which we have before celebrated, she wore a constrained severity on her countenance, which was so disagreeable to Mr Jones, that he resolved, however late, to quit the house that ever.ing. He did indeed account somewhat unfairly for this sudden change; for, besides some hard and unjust surmises concerning female fickleness and mutability, he began to suspect that he owed this want of civility to his want of horses; a sort of animals which, as they dirty no sheets, are thought, in inns, to pay better for their beds than their riders, and are therefore considered as the more desirable company; but Mrs Whitefield, to do her justice, had a much more liberal way of thinking. She was perfectly well bred, and could be very civil to a gentleman, though he walked on foot. In reality, she looked on our hero as a sorry scoundrel, and therefore treated him as such; for which not even Jones himself, had he known as much as the reader, could have blamed her; nay, on the contrary, he must have approved her conduct, and have esteemed her the more for the disrespect shown towards himself. This is indeed a most aggravating circumstance which attends depriving men unjustly of their reputation; for a man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him; but ought rather to despise such as affect his conversation, unless where a perfect intimacy must have convinced them that their friend's character hath been falsely and injuriously aspersed. This was not, however, the case of Jones; for as he was a perfect stranger to the truth, so he was with good reason offended at the treatment he received. He therefore paid his reckoning and departed, highly against the will of Mr Partridge, who, having remonstrated much against it to no purpose, at last condescended to take up his knapsack, and to attend his friend. CHAP. IX. Containing several dialogues between Jones and Partridge concerning love, cold, hunger, and other matters; with the lucky and narrow escape of Partridge, as he was on the very brink of making a fatal discovery to his friend. THE shadows began now to descend larger from the high mountains; the feathered creation had betaken themselves to their rest. Now the highest order of mortals were sitting down to their dinners, and the lowest order to their suppers. In a word, the clock struck five just as Mr Jones took his leave of Gloucester; an hour at which (as it was now mid-winter) the dirty fingers of night would have drawn her sable curtain over the universe, had not the moon forbid her, who now, with a face as broad and as red as those of some jolly mortals, who, like her, turn night into day, began to rise from her bed, where she had slumbered away the day, in order to sit up all night. Jones had not travelled far before he paid his compliments to that beautiful planet, and, turning to his companion, asked him, if he ever had beheld so delicious an evening? Partridge making no ready answer to his question, he proceeded to comment on the beauty of the moon, and repeated some passages from Milton, who hath certainly excelled all other poets in his description of the heavenly luminaries. He then told Partridge the story from the Spectator, of two lovers who had agreed to entertain themselves, when they were at a great distance from each other, by repairing, at a certain fixed hour, to look at the moon; thus pleasing themselves with the thought that they were both employed in contemplating the same object at the same time. "Those lovers," added he, "must have had souls truly capable of feeling all the tenderness of the sublimest of all human passions."-" Very probably," cries Partridge; "but I envy them more, if they had bodies incapable of feeling cold; for I am almost frozen to death, and am very much afraid I shall lose a piece of my nose before we get to another house of entertainment. Nay, truly, we may well expect some judgment should light for the solemn gloom which the moon casts on all objects, is beyond expression beautiful, especially to an imagination which is desirous of cultivating melancholy ideas."-" Very probably," answered Partridge; "but if the top of the hill be properest to produce melancholy thoughts, I suppose the bottom is the likeliest to produce merry ones, and these I take to be much the better of the two. I protest you have made my blood run cold with the very mentioning the top of that mountain, which seems to me to be one of the highest in the world. No, no, if we look for any thing, let it be for a place under ground, to screen ourselves from the frost.""Do so," said Jones, "let it be but within hearing of this place, and I will halloo to you at my return back."- Surely, sir, you are not mad," said Partridge." Indeed I am," answered Jones, "if ascending this hill be madness: but as you complain so much of the cold already, I would have you stay below, I will certainly return to you within an hour."-" Pardon me, sir," cries Partridge, "I have determined to follow you wherever you go." Indeed he was now afraid to stay behind; for though he was coward enough in all respects, yet his chief fear was that of ghosts, with which the present time of night, and the wildness of the place, extremely well suited. At this instant Partridge espied a glimmering light through some trees, which seemed very near to them. He immediately cried out in a rapture, "Oh, sir! Heaven hath at last heard my prayers, and hath brought us to a house; perhaps it may be an inn. Let me beseech you, sir, if you have any compassion either for me or yourself, do not despise the goodness of Frovidence, but let us go directly to yon light. Whether it be a public-house or no, I am sure, if they be Christians that dwell there, they will not refuse a little houseroom to persons in our miserable condition." Jones at length yielded to the earnest supplications of Partridge, and both together made directly towards the place whence the light issued. They soon arrived at the door of this house or cottage for it might be called either, without much impropriety. Here Jones knocked several times, without receiving any answer from within; at which Partridge, whose head was full of nothing but of ghosts, devils, witches, and such like, began to tremble, crying, "Lord have mercy upon us! sure the people must be all dead. I can see no light neither now, and yet I am certain I saw a candle burning but a moment before.- -Well! I have heard of such things."-" What hast thou heard of?" said Jones: "the people are either fast asleep, or, probably, as this is a lonely place, are afraid to open their door." He then began to vociferate pretty loudly and at last an old woman opening an upper casement, asked, who they were, and what they wanted? Jones answered, they were : travellers who had lost their way; and, having seen a light in the window, had been led thither, in hopes of finding some fire to warm themselves. "Whoever you are," cries the woman," you have no business here; nor shall I open the door to any body at this time of night." Partridge, whom the sound of a human voice had recovered from his fright, fell to the most earnest supplications to be admitted for a few minutes to the fire, saying, he was almost dead with the cold, to which fear had indeed contributed equally with the frost. He assured her, that the gentleman who spoke to her was one of the greatest squires in the country; and made use of every argument save one, which Jones afterwards effectually added, and this was the promise of half a crown: a bribe too great to be resisted by such a person, especially as the genteel appearance of Jones, which the light of the moon plainly discovered to her, together with his affable behaviour, had entirely subdued those apprehensions of thieves which she had at first conceived. She agreed, therefore, at last, to let them in, where Partridge, to his infinite joy, found a good fire ready for his reception. The poor fellow, however, had no sooner warmed himself, than those thoughts which were always uppermost in his mind, began a little to disturb his brain. There was no article of his creed in which he had a stronger faith than he had in witchcraft, nor can the reader conceive a figure more adapted to inspire this idea, than the old woman who now stood before him. She answered exactly to that picture drawn by Otway in his Orphan. Indeed, if this woman had lived in the reign of James I. her appearance alone would have hanged her, almost without any evidence. Many circumstances likewise conspired to confirm Partridge in his opinion. Her living, as he then imagined, by herself, in so lonely a place, and in a house, the outside of which seemed much too good for her; but where the inside was furnished in the most neat and elegant manner. To say the truth, Jones himself was not a little surprised at what he saw; for, besides the extraordinary neatness of the room, it was adorned with a great number of nicknacks and curiosities, which might have engaged the attention of a virtuoso. While Jones was admiring these things, and Partridge sat trembling with the firm belief that he was in the house of a witch, the old woman said, "I hope, gentlemen, you will make what haste you can; for I expect my master presently, and I would not for double the money he should find you here."-" Then you have a master?" cried Jones; “indeed you will excuse me, good woman, but I was surprised to see all those fine things in your house."—" Ah, sir!" said she, " if the twentieth part of these things were mine, I should think myself a rich woman: but pray, sir, do not stay much longer; for I look |