He tells the story of his going to reside in the country and set up a carriage, horses, and liveried servants in his own quaint and self-complacent style. "My country _lodging_ by regular gradation was transformed into a country _house_, and the inconveniences attending a _stage-coach_ were remedied by a _chariot_." This house was taken at Merton in Surrey. Referring to the captious remarks of his neighbors, he says: "When by the advice of that eminent physician, Dr. Lettsom, I purchased a horse and saved my life by the exercise it afforded me, the old adage, '_Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil_,' was deemed fully verified; they were very sorry to see people so young in business run on at so great a rate!" The occasional relaxation enjoyed in the country was censured as an abominable piece of pride; but when the carriage and servants in livery appeared, "they would not be the first to hurt a foolish tradesman's character, but if (as was but too probable) the _docket_ was not already struck, the Gazette would soon settle that point." It appears that some of these wiseacres speculated as to the means by which the fortunate bookseller had made his large fortune. Some spoke of a _lottery_ ticket, and others were sure that he must have found a number of "banknotes in an old book to the amount of many thousand pounds, and if they please can even tell you the title of the old book that contained the treasure." "But," he jocosely remarks, "you shall receive it from me, which you will deem authority to the full as unexceptionable. I found the whole of what I am possessed of, in--SMALL PROFITS, _bound_ by INDUSTRY, and _clasped_ by ECONOMY." It is curious to notice the frank and simple manner in which he speaks of his profits, and of the way in which he did his business. "The profits of my business the present year [1791] will amount to four thousand pounds," he writes, and goes on to say that "the cost and selling price of every book was marked in it, whether the price is sixpence or sixty pounds, is entered in a day-book as they are sold, with the price it cost and the money it sold for; and each night the profits of the day are cast up by one of my shopmen, as every one of them understands my private marks. Every Saturday night the profits of the week are declared before all my shopmen, etc., the week's profits, and also the expenses of the week, then entered one opposite another; the whole sum taken in the week is also set down, and the sum that has been paid for books bought. These accounts are kept publicly in my shop, and ever have been so, as I never saw any reason for concealing them." He speaks in the same letter of selling more than one hundred thousand volumes annually, and adds, in his own complacent manner, "I believe it is universally allowed that no man ever promoted the sale of books in an equal degree!"