The Expedition of Humphry ClinkerSmollett, T. (Tobias)
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The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Epistolary fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Travelers -- Fiction
Now, mark the contrast at London--I am pent up in frowzy lodgings, where
there is not room enough to swing a cat; and I breathe the steams
of endless putrefaction; and these would, undoubtedly, produce a
pestilence, if they were not qualified by the gross acid of sea-coal,
which is itself a pernicious nuisance to lungs of any delicacy of
texture: but even this boasted corrector cannot prevent those languid,
sallow looks, that distinguish the inhabitants of London from those
ruddy swains that lead a country-life--I go to bed after midnight, jaded
and restless from the dissipations of the day--I start every hour from
my sleep, at the horrid noise of the watchmen bawling the hour through
every street, and thundering at every door; a set of useless fellows,
who serve no other purpose but that of disturbing the repose of the
inhabitants; and by five o’clock I start out of bed, in consequence
of the still more dreadful alarm made by the country carts, and noisy
rustics bellowing green pease under my window. If I would drink water,
I must quaff the maukish contents of an open aqueduct, exposed to all
manner of defilement; or swallow that which comes from the river
Thames, impregnated with all the filth of London and Westminster--Human
excrement is the least offensive part of the concrete, which is
composed of all the drugs, minerals, and poisons, used in mechanics and
manufacture, enriched with the putrefying carcasses of beasts and men;
and mixed with the scourings of all the wash-tubs, kennels, and common
sewers, within the bills of mortality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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