Husbandry in Humphry Clinker, Tobias Smollett's Georgic Novel

In The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Tobias Smollett shows his understanding of the "new husbandry" movement, which revolutionized agricultural practices in eighteenth-century England. This article examines writers such as Walter Harte, whose Essays on Husbandry appeared in 1764, seven years before the publication of Humphry Clinker. Toward the end of the novel, Smollett describes a community of like-minded gentleman farmers, who embrace the ethical values of traditional georgic poetry as well as the technical and practical concerns of the "new husbandry." This article also explores the contradictions and tensions that arise from the collocation of these two georgic modes, the new and the old.