Where
government in the first instance is made subservient to the advantage of all
& where money & not knowledge is made the pass of the second where idleness
grows rich by dishonesty & labour remains poor by oppression
Pet MS A46 p110
Clare's prose is particularly helpful in introducing us to his influences, culture and village background. It reveals his knowledge of folk-customs, sports and games, music, story, popular religion, nature, agricultural practices, and the language of the village street, fairs and fields, and his surprisingly wide reading. He might have mixed with the gentry and literati of his day, yet Clare is a bone-of-the-bone English labourer, clear in his opinions. His prose takes us into another world.
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