Introduction
Radical MP William Cobbett was a man of strong emotions. Among them was a rooted objection to the Revd Thomas Malthus, who in a learned study on population begged Government to dampen the birth-rate among the working classes, or else the planet would soon be stalked by famine, war and pestilence. Cobbett faced the prospect of impending catastrophe without anxiety.
IN riding once, about five years ago, from Petworth to Horsham, on a Sunday in the afternoon, I came to a solitary cottage which stood at about twenty yards distance from the road. There was the wife with the baby in her arms, the husband teaching another child to walk, while four more were at play before them.
I stopped and looked at them for some time, and then, turning my horse, rode up to the wicket, getting into talk by asking the distance to Horsham. I found that the man worked chiefly in the woods, and that he was doing pretty well. The wife was then only twenty-two, and the man only twenty-five. She was a pretty woman, even for Sussex, which, not excepting Lancashire, contains the prettiest women in England. He was a very fine and stout young man.
Précis
In a book of Advice to young suitors, William Cobbett recalled an occasion five years before, when he had met a young Sussex man and his wife outside their rural cottage, and watched them with their six small children. Still in their early twenties, husband and wife made a handsome couple, and the family seemed financially solvent. (57 / 60 words)
In a book of Advice to young suitors, William Cobbett recalled an occasion five years before, when he had met a young Sussex man and his wife outside their rural cottage, and watched them with their six small children. Still in their early twenties, husband and wife made a handsome couple, and the family seemed financially solvent.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, despite, just, unless, whereas, whether, who.
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