 Subject, than in the Author's Skill in well dressing it up. How pleased
therefore will the Reader be to find, that we have, in the following Work,
adhered closely to one of the highest Principles of the best Cook which the
present Age, or perhaps that of Heliogabalus, hath produced. This great Man, as
is well known to all Lovers of polite eating, begins at first by setting plain
Things before his hungry Guests, rising afterwards by Degrees, as their Stomachs
may be supposed to decrease, to the very Quintessence of Sauce and Spices. In
like manner, we shall represent Human Nature at first to the keen Appetite of
our Reader, in that more plain and simple Manner in which it is found in the
Country, and shall hereafter hash and ragoo it with all the high French and
Italian Seasoning of Affectation and Vice which Courts and Cities afford. By
these Means, we doubt not but our Reader may be rendered desirous to read on for
ever, as the great Person, just above-mentioned, is supposed to have made some
Persons eat.
    Having premised thus much, we will now detain those, who like our Bill of
Fare, no longer from their Diet, and shall proceed directly to serve up the
first Course of our History, for their Entertainment.
 

                                   Chapter II

 A short Description of Squire Allworthy, and a fuller Account of Miss Bridget
                             Allworthy his Sister.
 
In that Part of the western Division of this Kingdom, which is commonly called
Somersetshire, there lately lived (and perhaps lives still) a Gentleman whose
Name was Allworthy, and who might well be called the Favourite of both Nature
and Fortune; for both of these seem to have contended which should bless and
enrich him most. In this Contention, Nature may seem to some to have come off
victorious, as she bestowed on him many Gifts; while Fortune had only one Gift
in her Power; but in pouring forth this, she was so very profuse, that others
perhaps may think this single Endowment to have been more than equivalent to all
the various Blessings which he enjoyed from Nature. From the former of these, he
derived an agreeable Person, a sound Constitution, a solid Understanding, and a
benevolent Heart; by the latter, he was decreed to the Inheritance of one of the
largest Estates in the County.
    This Gentleman had, in his Youth, married a very worthy and beautiful Woman,
of whom he had been extremely fond: By her he had three Children, all of whom
died in their Infancy. He had likewise had the Misfortune of burying this
beloved Wife herself
