 the House and Gardens, and in projecting many other Schemes, as well for
Improvement of the Estate, as of the Grandeur of the Place. For this Purpose he
applied himself to the Studies of Architecture and Gardening, and read over many
Books on both these Subjects; for these Sciences, indeed, employed his whole
Time, and formed his only Amusement. He at last completed a most excellent Plan;
and very sorry we are, that it is not in our Power to present it to our Reader,
since even the Luxury of the present Age, I believe, would hardly match it. It
had, indeed, in a superlative Degree, the two principal Ingredients which serve
to recommend all great and noble Designs of this Nature: For it required an
immoderate Expence to execute, and a vast Length of Time to bring it to any Sort
of Perfection. The former of these, the immense Wealth of which the Captain
supposed Mr. Allworthy possessed, and which he thought himself sure of
inheriting, promised very effectually to supply; and the latter, the Soundness
of his own Constitution, and his Time of Life, which was only what is called
Middle Age, removed all Apprehension of his not living to accomplish.
    Nothing was wanting to enable him to enter upon the immediate Execution of
this Plan, but the Death of Mr. Allworthy; in calculating which he had employed
much of his own Algebra; besides purchasing every Book extant that treats of the
Value of Lives, Reversions, etc. From all which, he satisfied himself, that as
he had every Day a Chance of this happening, so had he more than an even Chance
of its happening within a few Years.
    But while the Captain was one Day busied in deep Contemplations of this
Kind, one of the most unlucky, as well as unseasonable Accidents, happened to
him. The utmost Malice of Fortune could indeed have contrived nothing so cruel,
so mal-a-propos, so absolutely destructive to all his Schemes. In short, not to
keep the Reader in long Suspence, just at the very Instant when his Heart was
exulting in Meditations on the Happiness which would accrue to him by Mr.
Allworthy's Death, he himself - died of an Apoplexy.
    This unfortunately befel the Captain as he was taking his Evening Walk by
himself, so that no Body was present to lend him any Assistance, if indeed any
Assistance could have preserved him. He took, therefore, Measure of that
Proportion of Soil, which was now become adequate to all his future Purposes,
and he lay dead on the Ground, a great
