Chapter III: Introduction: By the Earl of Sheffield (3)

If my own laziness did not deprive me of any right to complain, I should say perhaps that it was a great while since I had heard either from you or my father. I have indeed the satisfaction of knowing my father was well the 26th of May, and I hope he is by this time one of the Honorable Verdurers of the forrest of Beer. Pray, a propos of English and county news, who is our Lord Lieutenant? I had the mortification of seeing in the paper that the Duke of Bolton was turned out (I mean had resigned) and that the Marquis of Caernarvon was appointed in his room. _I hope_ it is not true.

[Sidenote: HIS OLD LOVE FOR SUZANNE CURCHOD.]

You have often heard me talk of Lausanne and of the pleasure I should have in seeing it again. Our imagination generally improves upon those agreable prospects; but I can assure you, my ideas had not heightened any part of this. A beautifull country, great leisure for study, and a very agreable society, make me pass my time very much to my satisfaction. I have found all my old friends here very glad to see me, and my countrymen, who only know the outside of the companies, are amazed at the number of family parties I am asked to every day. Those countrymen (whom I do not reckon as a very important part of my happiness) consist only in a Mr. Sidney and a Mr. Guise.[52] The former (Mrs. Perry's son) is a meer boy, and the second (a Sir John Guise of Gloucestershire's son) is a very sensible well-bred man. Pavillard and I were really glad to see one another. He shewed me his snuff-box which he always carries in a wooden case for fear of spoiling it. I was at first uneasy about my lodging. I did not chuse to see the leg of mutton roasted a second time with a gash in it, and yet I was afraid of disobliging my old friend. Luckily he had got into a new house and had no room for me; so that he himself assisted me in settling in a very agreable family which I was very well acquainted with before. The Husband[53] who is much of a gentleman keeps the Academy, his wife is a charming woman; and the apartments and table are both cheap and good. I should like extremely to pass the winter here, if my father would give me leave. Give me leave to add (for I am sensible you may have suspicions) that no woman is the least concerned in my desire, and that as to any old inclinations,[54] they are so far from subsisting that no one can be more opposite to them at present than myself. This I assure you of upon my word of honor. I hope after that I need say nothing more.

I have just drawn a bill of fifty pounds sterling upon my father. I shall do my utmost to endeavour at Economy, and I hope here my endeavours will be successfull.

Present, Dear Madam, my love and duty to my father and my sincerest compliments to your brothers. Pray let me hear from you or my father soon.

I am, Dear Madam,
Most affectionately yours,
E. GIBBON.

[52] William (afterwards Sir William) Guise, subsequently M.P.
for Gloucestershire, only son of Sir John Guise, Bart., died
without issue, April 6, 1783.

[53] M. de Mesery.

[54] In Gibbon's Journal at Lausanne, in June, 1757, occurs the
entry: "I saw Mademoiselle Curchod--_Omnia vincit amor, et nos
cedamus amori_." He was, in fact, shortly afterwards engaged
to Suzanne Curchod, daughter and only child of the Minister of
Crassy, a hamlet at the foot of the lower slopes of the Jura,
between Geneva and Lausanne. Both the lovers were born in 1737,
and were in their twenty-first year. At Lausanne, at the _Société
du Printemps_ and the _Académie de la Poudrière_, of which
Suzanne Curchod was the founder and the president, she frequently
met Gibbon, and the attachment, on her side at least, was strong
and genuine; on his it seems to have always had a touch of
affectation. The account given by Julie von Bondeli (E. Bodemann,
_Julie von Bondeli_, pp. 217, 218: Hanover, 1874) of Gibbon's
passion has the exaggeration of unreality. He was seen, says
this friend of Wieland and Rousseau, stopping the country people
near Lausanne, and demanding, at the point of a naked dagger,
whether a more adorable creature existed than Suzanne Curchod.
Gibbon wrote her several letters, some of which are quoted by M.
d'Haussonville in his _Salon de Madame Necker_, and addressed
to her indifferent verses. The following lines seem to be an
expansion of the entry in his Journal:--

"Tôt ou tard il faut aimer,
C'est en vain qu'on façonne;
Tout fléchit sous l'amour
Il n'exempte personne,

Car Gib. a succombé en ce jour
Aux attraits d'une beauté
Qui parmi les douceurs d'un tranquil silence
Reposait sur un fauteuil," etc., etc.

They became engaged, and Gibbon implored her to marry him
without waiting for the sanction of his father. This, however,
she refused to do. When Gibbon left Lausanne in 1758, she wrote
to him once; then all correspondence between them seems to have
ceased, though Gibbon says that he wrote to her twice on his
journey and once on his return to England. He also sent her his
_Essai_ with a dedicatory letter in 1761. In August, 1762, he
wrote to break off the engagement, on the ground of his father's
opposition, in a letter quoted by M. d'Haussonville (_Le Salon de
Madame Necker_, pp. 57, 58). In 1763 Gibbon came to Lausanne, and
there received from Mademoiselle Curchod a letter in reply, which
showed, so far as words could prove anything, that she had never
ceased to love him. Her friend, the Pastor Moultou, endeavoured
to interest J. J. Rousseau in the story, and to make him speak
to Gibbon on the subject. But Rousseau declined to interfere,
saying that Gibbon was too cold-blooded a young man for his taste
or for Mademoiselle Curchod's happiness. In Gibbon's unpublished
diary, he thus comments on the receipt of this letter, September
22, 1763: "J'ai reçu une lettre des moins attendûes. C'etoit de
Mademoiselle C. Fille dangereux et artificielle! Elle fait une
apologie de sa conduite depuis le premier moment, qu'elle m'a
connû, sa constance pour moi, son mepris pour M. de Montplaisir,
et la fidelité delicate et soutenue qu'elle a cru voir dans la
lettre où je lui annoncois qu'il n'y avoit plus d'espérance.
Ses voyages à Lausanne, les adorateurs qu'elle y a eû, et la
complaisance avec laquelle elle les a ecouté formoient l'article
le plus difficile à justifier. Ni d'Eyverdun (dit elle), ni
personne n'ont effacé pendant un instant mon image de son cœur.
Elle s'amusoit à Lausanne sans y attacher. Je le veux. Mais ces
amusements la convainquent toujours de la dissimulation la plus
odieuse, et, si l'infidelité est quelquefois une foiblesse, la
duplicité est toujours un vice. Cette affaire singulière dans
toutes ses parties m'a été très utile; elle m'a ouvert les yeux
sur le caractère des femmes, et elle me servira longtemps de
preservatif contre les seductions de l'amour." Mademoiselle
Curchod came to Lausanne in February, 1764, and again met Gibbon;
"Elle me badine sur mon ton de petit maître. Elle a du voir cent
fois que tout étoit fini sans retour." "Nous badinons," he says
again in the same month, "trés librement sur nôtre tendresse
passée, et je lui fais comprendre tout clairement que je suis
an fait de son inconstance." Gibbon's continued coldness at
length convinced Mademoiselle Curchod that his affection for her
was entirely extinguished, and she took her leave of him in an
indignant letter, quoted by M. d'Haussonville, as she undoubtedly
thought, for ever. In this farewell letter she repudiates the
suggestion of her inconstancy: "Si l'on vous a dit que j'aie
écouté un seul moment M. d'Eyverdun, j'ai ses lettres, vous
connoissez sa main, un coup d'œil suffit pour me justifier."
Mademoiselle Curchod married, at the end of 1764, Jacques Necker,
and became the mother of Madame de Stäel-Holstein.

27.

_To his Stepmother._

Lausanne, August the 6th, 1763.

DEAR MADAM,

I hope I need not assure you how agreable your letters are to me. Letters such as you write would be highly pleasing from an indifferent person, judge of the pleasure they must give me when I receive them from a friend and a mother: I put the friend first and I believe you will not blame me for it. I should be very glad to hear somewhat oftener from my father; But tho' his dislike to letter-writing is _inconceivable_ to me, I see I must be contented with hearing from you that he is well. At this time especially I have no hopes. He must be now (according to my reckoning) in the very midst of Harvest, and I am very sensible, that

When Harvest is in the case
All other business must give place.

You will hardly expect news from me. We are buried in a quiet Solitude, and seem separated from the rest of the universe by a Wall of mountains, whose summits are at this instant covered with snow. I have found most of my old friends well, and made some new ones, and between the society of both, I lead a very agreable life. I could talk to you with great pleasure about them did I not know how very uninteresting an account of people you know nothing of must be to you. I should be glad to know soon whether my father has any objection to my passing the winter here. I do not dissemble that my inclination would make me desire it; but I have a much better tho' as real a motive to alledge to him; a considerable work I am engaged in, which will be a most usefull preparation to my tour of Italy and which I shall not be able to finish sooner. It is a Description of the ancient Geography of Italy, taken from the Original writers. If I go into Italy with a work of that kind tolerably executed, I shall carry every where about with me an accurate and lively idea of the country, and shall have nothing to do but to insert in their proper places my own observations as they tend either to confirm, to confute, or to illustrate what I have met with in books. I should not even despair, but that this mixture of study and observation, properly digested upon my return to England, might produce something not entirely unworthy the eye of the publick on a subject, upon which we have no regular or compleat treatise.

[Sidenote: VOLTAIRE AS HOST AND ACTOR.]

I made a little excursion some days ago to Geneva, not so much for the sake of the town which I had often seen before, as for a representation of Monsieur de Voltaire's. He lives now entirely at Fernay, a little place in France, but only two leagues from Geneva. He has bought the estate, and built a very pretty tho' small house upon it. After a life passed in courts and Capitals, the Great Voltaire is now become a meer country Gentleman, and even (for the honor of the profession) something of a farmer. He says he never enjoyed so much true happiness. He has got rid of most of his infirmities, and tho' very old and lean, enjoys a much better state of health than he did twenty years ago. His playhouse is very neat and well contrived, situated just by his Chappel, which is far inferior to it, tho', he says himself, _que son Christ est du meilleur faiseur de tout le pays de Gex_. The play they acted was my favourite Orphan of China. Voltaire himself acted _Gengis_ and Madame Denys _Idamè_; but I do not know how it happened: either my taste is improved or Voltaire's talents are impaired since I last saw him.[55] He appeared to me now a very ranting unnatural performer. Perhaps indeed, as I was come from Paris, I rather judged him by an unfair comparaison, than by his own independent value. Perhaps too I was too much struck with the ridiculous figure of Voltaire at seventy, acting a Tartar Conqueror with a hollow broken voice, and making love to a very ugly niece of about fifty. The play began at eight in the evening and ended (entertainment and all) about half an hour after eleven. The whole Company was asked to stay and set Down about twelve to a very elegant supper of a hundred Covers. The supper ended about two, the company danced till four, when we broke up, got into our Coaches and came back to Geneva just as the Gates were opened. Shew me in history or fable, a famous poet of Seventy who has acted in his own plays, and has closed the scene with a supper and ball for a hundred people. I think the last is the more extraordinary of the two.

You may imagine how glad I am to hear of the fall of our Tyrant[56] and the accession of a just and righteous prince. Lord ____[57] was always our utmost wish, and I have so very good an opinion of him as to believe he will not even plague our enemies to oblige us. I am very glad to hear the battalion addressed him, as you style it, and as I could not sign the general letter, I apprehend a particular compliment to his Lordship cannot displease him. I have accordingly wrote to him this post. My father had formerly some thoughts of resigning the Majority to me. It is a matter of great indifference at present, but if he has a mind to provide against a future storm, I suppose it would be very easily settled at present, and that my friend Poussy (who has never answered me any more than Sir Thomas[58]) would have the Company of course. I wish my father would consider too, whether changes of much greater consequence might not be effected, such as the incorporation of both battalions, &c. But these are only hints.

Present, Dear Madam, my love and duty to my father, my sincerest Compliments to your Brothers, and believe me ever

Most affectionately and entirely yours,
E. GIBBON, JUNIOR.

[55] At Monrepos in 1757-58, when Voltaire was living at _les
Délices_, Gibbon had heard him in his tragedies of _Zaïre_,
_Alzire_, _Zulime_, and his sentimental comedy _L'Enfant
Prodigue_. Voltaire settled at Ferney in 1758.

[56] Charles Paulet, fifth Duke of Bolton, who committed suicide
in 1765, was succeeded in the Lord Lieutenancy of Hampshire by
James Brydges, Marquess of Carnarvon. Lord Carnarvon resigned the
post in 1764, because Mr. Stanley was appointed Governor of the
Isle of Wight (_Grenville Correspondence_, vol. ii. pp. 399-403).

[57] Name illegible. Probably Lord Northington.

[58] Sir Thomas Worsley, Bart.

28.

_To his Father._

Lausanne, September the 10th, 1763.

DEAR SIR,

This morning I received your letter, and according to your desire prepared myself immediately to answer it.

I hardly thought it possible, any letter of yours could have given me so much uneasiness. I am very sensible how many obligations I have to you, and that in this affair you continue to act with your usual goodness to me. If there is any fault it is partly my own and partly that of unhappy circumstances. My expences have been too great for our fortune. I was afraid of it at the time; and tho' I cannot yet see that relative to my situation of travelling and being at Paris I have launched into any extravagancy, the consequences are equally disagreable. But what is past cannot be recalled. With regard, Dear Sir, to the proposal mentioned in your letter; if your own ease or happiness had depended upon it, I should not have hesitated an instant, but as the advantages resulting from it relate only to me you will give me leave to canvass it freely.

I need not say any thing of the great inconvenience of mortgages nor how much they eat up an estate piece meal. We feel it but too sensibly: Sir T. R.'s is particularly disagreable, since he has it in his power to distress us whenever he pleases by calling for his money. I own the thought of increasing it hurts me very much.

[Sidenote: DECLINES TO ENTER PARLIAMENT.]

The advantages for me would be, your being able to bring me into Parliament, increasing my annuity and enabling me to continue my travels. Give me leave to say, Dear Sir, that the first has very little weight with me. I find my ambition diminish every day, and my preference of a quiet studious life to hurry and business grow upon me. Besides I should imagine the thing almost impossible in the middle of a parliament and at such an interesting period:[59] and if I was in, what could I do? Whether I consulted principle or prudence, every thing seems so unsettled that I might find myself very soon at the tail of an opposition; (and as a total change seems to be the modern maxim of every new Ministry,) in case I had got any thing, I should be reduced to my former situation, with the additional mortification of having just tasted a little more power and plenty. The encreasing my annuity would be certainly very agreable, but as it would be only the difference of passing four or six months every winter in London, I should not think it equivalent. The continuing my travels is the great object. When I am just in view of Italy, to be obliged to give up a scheme which has been always a favourite, would afflict me to the greatest degree.

Would it not be possible, Dear Sir, to think of another scheme? One has come into my head which would set me entirely at my ease without costing you a shilling. It would be to change my annuity into a perpetual rent charge upon the Estate: this I would sell immediately for an annuity upon my own life, which would certainly give me Six hundred pounds a year, would enable me to travel (at least with a small addition) and to live afterwards in a very agreable manner in England. I think I may venture to say I shall never marry, and even supposing that possibility and afterwards the possibility of children; Would this scheme hurt them more than the other? But I submit it entirely to you. In case this proposal should be disagreable to you, you have my full consent to the other. Only give me leave, Dear Sir, to mention one thing. I should be a monster, If I could distrust either your honor or your goodness to me; but I am afraid (excuse the freedom) that Œconomy is not the virtue of our family. A variety of schemes would offer, old incumbrances would appear, and you yourself would be the first surprised to find the sum almost sunk to nothing. I should think that the dividing it might equally suit us both. I should have a fund for my extraordinary expences, which I should be the more interested to husband, as I should know that I could have no pretence to ask for any thing more. You on the other hand, Dear Sir, would be likewise at a certainty with regard both to your expences and mine.

I shall end here, Dear Sir; for I am too much agitated to talk of any thing else: only begging you to excuse the liberty I have taken. Your goodness has encouraged me to it and I think our mutual interest requires it. In case you should approve of my first proposal, I suppose my going over in the Spring will be sufficient. Otherwise, I should be glad to hear from you as soon as possible, that I might set out before winter.

My love and duty are always Mrs. Gibbon's and my sincere compliments wait upon the Brothers.

I am, Dear Sir,
With the greatest affection sincerely yours,
E. GIBBON, JUNIOR.

[59] On April 7, 1763, Lord Bute resigned, and was on the same
day succeeded by George Grenville, as First Lord of the Treasury.
During the autumn recess, George III. opened negotiations with
Pitt to take Grenville's place. But no change was made, and
Grenville was preparing to meet Parliament in November, 1763, as
Prime Minister.

[Sidenote: WAYS AND MEANS.]

29.

_To his Father._

Lausanne, October the 15th, 1763.

DEAR SIR,

Give me leave to begin with the part of my letter which has given you the most uneasiness, and which is entirely owing to a mistake. As I have no copy of my letter, I cannot exactly recollect my expressions, tho' I am perfectly sure of my meaning. When I mentioned _unhappy circumstances_ I meant only that my expences, tho' not excessive in themselves, appeared great, and were in fact more than what the _unhappy circumstances_ of our estate allowed you to support. That I assure you, Dear Sir, was my only meaning; if my expression was doubtfull, attribute it solely to the agitation of spirits I was in when I wrote. When I reflect on my expences, I do not see, that were I to live last winter over again at Paris, I could, according to the almost necessary extravagance of the age, spend less than I have done. I do not pretend to say that a man of a more exact economy might not have done sometimes the same things for less money, but I am sure there was no one blamable or ridiculous expence. Play in particular, Dear Sir, must have occurred to you, tho' you do not mention it. I give you _my word of honor_, that since I have left England I have not lost twenty pounds.

I will say no more of my scheme, since you disaproove of it. I own I thought it might have made me very easy without any additional expence to you. But you do not mention, Dear Sir, my other proposal supposing we borrowed the five thousand; that of giving me half of it, and making no addition to my allowance whatsoever. Unless you want the whole sum, I should still think it must be more, or at least as eligible to you as any other. I own it would be highly agreable to me, to have always a sum of money lying by me, besides my income; for I do assure you, Sir, that it is much more a scheme of economy than of expence. I should employ about seven or eight hundred of it to encrease my annuity during a year and a half and to enable me to travel agreably. The remainder I should put into the stocks, and spend only the interest, reserving the Capital, for any uses that might appear to both of us worthy of it, for I would promise, Dear Sir, not to touch any part of it without your knowledge and consent. In case you want the greatest part of the sum, I should beg at least that, instead of the two Hundred a year you design adding to my annuity, you would only add one hundred a year and a thousand pounds. If the whole is necessary, I am far from contesting it with you, Dear Sir, but after thanking you for the very handsome encrease of my annuity, you must give me leave to say that six hundred pounds a year will not enable me to travel. In this age, it would be almost impossible for me to do it under 9 or 8 hundred; every thing is much altered since you were abroad, and I believe if you consult those who have travelled lately, they would name scarcely less than a thousand. After the experience I have had, it would be deceiving both myself and you to talk in another strain.

I own the thoughts of a mortgage frighten me. The diminution of the estate, the weight of the interest, the uncertainty of paying which we have already felt in the old one, give me the greatest repugnance to encreasing it. Tho' it would hurt me excessively, I could wish we could avoid it. I would return to England and wait for a more favorable opportunity. This I speak merely for myself. If it is necessary to make you easy, I have nothing more to say.

At all events, Dear Sir, you may depend upon my being in England a few days before the 30th of December. As I should be glad to return to this place as soon as the business is over (in case you still chuse it) I was thinking that so short an apparition might set the world a talking and guessing at the reasons, and as it would be better they should know nothing of them, it might be as well if I came over incognito. I could see you and Mrs. Gibbon in London, appear very little in publick and go back immediately. But as I can hear from you again before my departure, you will settle every thing as you please.

I am surprised that Mrs. Gibbon has not received the Arquebusade water I sent her four months ago, tho' I forgot to mention it.--A propos upon reflexion, I directed it to Becket and neglected giving him any directions about it. If you will write a line to him, I dare say it lies at his shop, near Somerset house in the Strand. I shall endevour to get you some Lucerne myself, unless you chuse to stay till next [autumn].

I beg my love and duty to Mrs. Gibbon and sincere compliments to all friends.

I am, Dear Sir,
Most affectionately and most sincerely yours,
E. GIBBON, JUNIOR.

[Sidenote: HIS SIX MONTHS AT LAUSANNE.]

30.

_To his Stepmother._

Lausanne, December the 7th, 1763.

DEAR MADAM,

I am afraid I have made you wait a little. But let me tell you without any reproach that I have imitated your example in proclaiming the arrival of my letter about two months before it really begins its march. I must acknowledge your letters deserve waiting for better than mine. However I flatter myself you are as well pleased with hearing from me as I can be in hearing from you, and that is saying a great deal.

After having assured you how much I love and respect you, Dear Madam, which I hope you are convinced of without my saying it, I should give an account of my method of passing my time here, but the happiness the most difficult to be described is perhaps the truest in reality. If I was in a place where I could fill pages with accounts of balls, reviews, Court assemblies, &c., the conclusion would perhaps be only that I had spent a great deal of time and money with very little genuine satisfaction. Here every day is an agreable mixture of books and good company, & consequently every day resembles the day that preceded it; I have passed six months at Lausanne, but tho' the sum of my pleasures has been very pleasing I cannot pick out any single event that I think worthy your attention. You would hardly be entertained with minute characters of people you are not acquainted with & will probably never see.

We have some English here; most of them raw boys just escaped from Eaton. Mr. Guise--I do not reckon him in the number of them. He is about my age, has seen a good deal of the world, & without being a profound scholar is far from wanting either parts or knowledge. As far as I can judge of him he seems to be a prudent worthy young man. If I can go into Italy with him I should like it extremely. Lord Palmerston[60] passed thro' some time ago. He seems to have a very right notion of travelling and I fancy will make very great improvements.

[Sidenote: GIBBON A MAJOR.]

As we have the English papers here, we are by no means strangers to what passes at home, and many an insignificant piece of news which we should not have minded in England, gives us great pleasure at this distance. I was very glad to hear of my friend Wilkes's deserved chastisement,[61] and if the law could not punish him, Mr. Martin could. After all the noise of faction, the numbers in the first division seem to have shewn that the court still preserves a very great superiority.

Will you be so good, dear Madam, as to assure my father of my constant love and duty, and to acquaint him that I have just drawn a bill of a hundred pounds upon him. I beg my best compliments to the brothers. I hope poor David has destroyed his old ennemy the gout. As to Billy [Patton] (do not tell it to him) I hope he is no longer at Beriton, and that he has got the better of a enemy still more dangerous--_Laziness_.

I am, Dear Madam,
Ever yours most affectionately,
E. GIBBON.

[60] Henry Temple, second Viscount Palmerston (1739-1802), a man
of artistic tastes, and, in after-years, a frequent resident in
Italy. He was at this time M.P. for Hastings. He married, as his
second wife, January 3, 1783, Miss Mee, by whom he was the father
of the Prime Minister, born 1784.

[61] In Gibbon's Journal for September 23, 1762, written at
Southampton, occurs the following entry which explains the words
"my friend Wilkes:"-- "Colonel Wilkes of the Buckinghamshire
Militia dined with us, and renewed the acquaintance Sir Thomas
and myself had begun with him at Reading. I scarce ever met
with a better companion; he has inexhaustible spirits, infinite
wit and humour, and a great deal of knowledge: but a thorough
profligate as well in principle as in practice; his character is
infamous, his life stained with every vice, and his conversation
full of blasphemy and bawdy. These morals he glories in, for
shame is a _weakness_ he has long since surmounted. He told
us himself that, in this time of public dissension, he was
resolved to make his fortune. Upon this noble principle he has
connected himself with Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt, commenced a
public adversary to Lord Bute whom he abuses weekly in the _North
Briton_, and other political papers in which he is concerned.
This proved a very debauched day; we drank a good deal both
after dinner and supper, and when at last Wilkes was retired,
Sir Thomas and some others (of whom I was not one) broke into
his room and made him drink a bottle of claret in bed." Wilkes
had been challenged by Mr. Samuel Martin, M.P. for Camelford,
formerly Secretary of the Treasury under both the Duke of
Newcastle and Lord Bute, for speaking of him in the _North
Briton_ as a low fellow and dirty tool of power. Wilkes was
dangerously wounded in the duel, which was fought in November,
1763. In the preceding April he had been arrested under a General
Warrant on suspicion of being the author of No. 45 of the _North
Briton_. He applied for a writ of Habeas Corpus, and the case
came before Lord Chief Justice Pratt in the Court of Common
Pleas. He was discharged from custody, the judges unanimously
holding that the arrest was a breach of his privilege as a member
of Parliament.

31.

_To his Father._

Lausanne, February the 1st, 1764.

DEAR SIR,

I had the pleasure of your letter last saturday, & found with great satisfaction that you & Mrs. Gibbon were very well, and that everything went on as usual in our part of the world. I am very proud of my new dignity,[62] tho' I have not as yet communicated my promotion to my countrymen here. We have three or four honest regulars in the house with whom I am in a constant state of war, which I have tolerably maintained as yet notwithstanding their great superiority of number: I hope you continue to be well-pleased with our Lord Lieutenant, and that he is in every thing the reverse of his predecessors.

I am much obliged to you, Dear Sir, for your goodness in paying the bill I drew upon you in December last, but am sorry to find you are so much dissatisfied at my expenses, which I endeavour to moderate as much as I can: keeping up the kind of figure which you would desire your son should. In case I leave this place about the end of next month, I am afraid that reckoning the several bills I have to pay, the purchase of a chaise, and some money to carry me on to the next place, I shall want about two Hundred pounds more, or at least one hundred and fifty. I am very much concerned I have already drawn for above half your income, and the more so, as I see no possibility of my expences being less when I am moving about in Italy. We have here a young Englishman and his governor, who is a very sensible sedate man. I have questioned him very much about Italy; he has assured me that it was not possible for an Englishman to keep good company in Italy, and to go thro' the country in an agreable manner, under 800 or at the lowest under 700 pounds a year. If it was possible for you, Dear Sir, to make such an effort for _only one year_, I should consider it as an obligation which it ought to be my study to repay by the most exact œconomy upon all other occasions, and by coming (if necessary) into any schemes which might be thought of to make us both easy. But in case you cannot do it, I had rather give up a scheme (I have indeed always set my heart upon) than it should be the occasion of perpetual unneasinesses and inconveniences to us both.

Upon reading over what I have wrote, I am afraid, Dear Sir, you will suspect me of murmuring and being out of humor. Such sentiments are far from me. I am convinced there is nothing occasions your complaints but your not being able to support it, and in that case, tho' I cannot lessen my expence, I can put an entire stop to it. May I beg, Dear Sir, your speedy directions for my conduct. If I am to pass the mountains (which I wish and hope still) I must not wait for the month of April as it is the very worst in the year.

I beg my love and duty to Mrs. Gibbon. I shall write to her very soon, though I have little more to say than what I have just said. My Aunt Porten---- Indeed I am much in the wrong, but I will not be so longer, and I hope very soon to clear score with all my friends. S^{r} Thomas is the only one with whom I have a C^{t} account; creditor indeed in more than one sense of the word. If he and George Dux, my other creditor, would pay me, it would be a little help.

I am, Dear Sir,
Most affectionately yours,
E. GIBBON, JUNIOR.

[62] Gibbon refers to his promotion to the rank of major in the
Hampshire Militia.

[Sidenote: LETTERS OF LADY M. W. MONTAGUE.]

32.

_To his Stepmother._

Lausanne, February 17th, 1764.

DEAR MADAM,

You are very good to take notice of my owing you a letter. I am afraid I am too apt to depend upon my friends knowing me, and upon their being convinced that there is not the least connection between my regard for them and my putting pen to paper to assure them of it.

My laziness as to writing is but too natural to me; but no place is so apt to encourage it as this, where my way of life is so agreable but at the same time so uniform, that a month or two are elapsed before I know any thing of the matter. Pleasant weather, (I am forced to draw the curtain this moment to exclude the sun) study in the morning, and company in the afternoon. Books you are not perhaps acquainted with, and people that I am sure you do not know, make up my occupations, and notwithstanding all the pleasure I hope for in Italy, I own I shall quit this place with some unwillingness. My health is very good, only about two months ago I found my blood thickening, and was forced to be bled. I have since taken some gentle physick once or twice, and am now well and in very good spirits.

The only book I have read lately that you can have any knowledge of, is the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague.[63] They have entertained me very much. What fire, what ease, what knowledge of Europe and of Asia! Her account of the manners of the Turkish women is indeed different from any thing we have yet seen. One should have hardly suspected, that a Turkish husband with his four wives and twenty concubines, is very far from being absolute.

Will you be so good, Dear Madam, as to excuse the shortness of this letter. The post is _really_ just going out and I have barely time to seal it. My love and duty to my father. I have just drawn a bill for fifty pounds at fifteen days after date.

I am, Dear Madam,
Most truly & affectionately yours,
E. GIBBON.

[63] Lady Mary died in 1761. A surreptitious edition, said to be
edited by John Cleland, of her letters written during her travels
in Europe, Asia, and Africa, was published in three volumes at
London in 1763.

33.

_To his Father._

Lausanne, April the 14th, 1764.

DEAR SIR,

The reason which has made me defer some time answering your last obliging letter was our waiting every post for Mr. Guise's last instructions. As he has never received them, and we have settled the time of our departure, I take the first opportunity of laying before you our plan of operations.

[Sidenote: PASSAGE OVER MONT CENIS.]

We propose moving from hence next Wednesday the 18th instant, and passing by Geneva and Mont Cenis to Turin, which we shall reach in about ten days. After some stay at that place, which I hope our old camp acquaintance Pitt[64] will make very agreable to us, we intend going by the Boromean Islands, Milan, Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, and Padua to Venice, which we must reach by the 30th of May to be present at the great ceremonies of Ascension day, where we shall have an opportunity of paying our court to the Duke of York.[65] I hope we shall have seen Venice in about a fortnight, after which we shall have nothing to prevent our setting out from thence, passing thro' Ferrara and Bologna and reaching Florence by the latter end of June. We intend from thence to retire to Sienne or some other quiet town, and pass about six weeks in the study of Italian. When we get back to Florence, that place with Leghorn, Pisa, Luca, &c., will furnish us ample matter for between two and three months till the latter end of October, when we propose going to Rome, pushing on directly to Naples and returning again to Rome the latter end of November. If we pass there about three months I shall be ready to come out of Italy the beginning of next March, and hope to bring back some improvement, as I had pretty well prepared myself in England, and as I hope I have not lost my time here. I think I know my fellow-traveller very well, and that knowledge convinces he is a very sensible good-natured prudent young man.

I wish, Dear Sir, I could have followed your Directions, but it was impossible for me to leave the town after paying all my bills without Drawing for £200, the remainder of which will barely carry me to Turin. I shall endeavour during my tour to live with the most exact æconomy and not to exceed the sum you have mentioned. I give you my word of honor that neither play nor women shall form any part of my expence, and I hope our being two will still contribute to diminish it. I am very sensible that it is often rather negligence than extravagance that runs away with my money, and I do assure that I will be as exact as I can. Consider, Dear Sir, that this is a sacrifice you make once in my life, and that a hundred pounds now are of more service to me than three times as much at any other time.

The passage of the mountains is very easy at present, and we have the advantage of going with a Sardinian officer who is very well acquainted with the country. As soon as I get to Turin I shall have the pleasure of writing to you. In the mean time I beg my compliments to the brothers, and my love and duty to Mrs. Gibbon, from whom I had a letter the other day.

I am, Dear Sir,
Most truly yours,
E. GIBBON.

[64] George Pitt, first Lord Rivers (cr. 1776), served as Envoy
at the Court of Turin from 1761 to 1768, in which latter year he
was elected M.P. for Dorsetshire. He died in 1803, at the age of
eighty-two.

[65] Edward Augustus, Duke of York, third child and second son of
Frederick, Prince of Wales, born March 14, 1739, died September
17, 1767, at Monaco.

34.

_To his Father._

Turin, April 28th, 1764.

DEAR SIR,

After a very tedious journey of nine days from Lausanne, I got safe to Turin the night before last. The roads thro' Savoy are very bad, but nothing could surpass the pleasantness of our passage over Mont Cenis. A very fine day, a most romantick variety of prospects, and a perfect consciousness that there could not be the smallest danger. I was carried over the mountain in a small chair by four men, who relieved each other during about five leagues. The uphill work was very hard, but upon the plain, &c., downhill, they went a kind of a trot which I can only compare to our double time. I am sure you will not blame me for having added a Guinea to the half crown at which the King has taxed this hard day's work.

Upon my arrival at Turin, I was much disapointed to find Mr. Pitt was to set out for England as to-day. I saw him however yesterday, and nothing could be civiler than he was. He talked very much of you and of Winchester Camp, and has recommended me to his Chargé d'Affaires a Mr. Dutems,[66] as well as to the Count de Virry, a Minister of State, for whom likewise Lord Mountstuart had given me a letter. We are (I believe) to be presented at Court to-morrow. We shall see some company and visit the King's palaces and manufactures, but I hardly think we shall extend our stay here beyond the fortnight we talked of at first. Every thing follows the example of the Court, which from one of the most polite in Europe is become bigotted, gloomy and covetous. Guise and I seem as yet very well satisfied with each other. Such a society is desirable both as to entertainment and lessening the expence. As I mentioned in my last letter that my draught at Lausanne would little more than send me out of the town, you will not be surprised, Dear Sir, at my having drawn for £100 here. As near as I can calculate at a distance, I shall be obliged to take another Hundred at Venice, two in Tuscany, and three at Rome and Naples as well as to get out of Italy, which will make up all the 700 which you have been so good as to mention, & which I am determined if possible not to exceed, but to watch with as scrupulous an attention over every expences as your goodness requires of me. Thus, Dear Sir, you will in the two years and half I may be abroad, have sacrificed about a thousand pounds extraordinary to the most agreable part of my life; a sacrifice I shall endeavour to repay by the behavior of my whole future life.

I propose writing next post to Sir Matthew Fetherston.[67] Could not I make my peace for my Paris neglect, which is however excusable by my care and attention to his commands in Italy?

My love and duty attend Mrs. Gibbon and my best compliments the brothers. I shall not forget the Wax Candles. Shall I send you any Florence Wine? I fancy we shall move towards the 10th to be at Venice some time before the 31st, and in Tuscany towards the end of the month. Our direction will be, _recommended to Mr. Schalkhauser and Hughell at Venice, and to Mr. Joseph Frescobaldi et fils Bankers at Florence_.

I am, Dear Sir,
Most truly yours,
E. GIBBON.

I was forced to draw at fifteen days sight; the Banker did not chuse to give me more and wanted to have had only eight.

[66] Louis Dutens (1730-1812), chaplain to the Embassy at Turin
in 1758, had, in the absence of the Envoy (the Hon. Stuart
Mackenzie), acted as _chargé d'affaires_. He retained the post
till the appointment of George Pitt in 1762. In 1764 he was once
more acting as _chargé_. The Count de Viry had been Sardinian
Minister in London, where his services to Lord Bute gained him
from George III. a pension of £1000 a year, and a promise of
the post of minister for his son. Viry was at this time Foreign
Secretary to Charles Emanuel III.

[67] Sir M. Featherstonhaugh, Bart., F.R.S., M.P. for Portsmouth,
died March, 1774.

[Sidenote: THE BORROMEAN ISLANDS.]

35.

_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq.,[68] at Lausanne._

Borromean Islands, May 16th, 1764.

DEAR LEGER,

Most certainly, I am a puppy for not having wrote to you sooner: it is equally certain that you are an ass if you expected it. *Hurry of running about, time taken up with seeing places, &c. &c., are excellent excuses; but I fancy you will guess that my laziness and aversion to writing to my best friend are the real motive, and I am afraid you will have guessed right.

We are at this minute in a most magnificent palace, in the middle of a vast lake; Ranging about suites of rooms without a soul to interrupt us, and secluded from the rest of the universe. We shall sit down in a moment to supper attended by all the Count's houshold. This is the fine side of the medal. Turn to the reverse. We are got here wet to the skin; we have crawled about fine gardens which rain and fogs prevented our seeing; and if to-morrow does not hold up a little better, we shall be in some doubt whether we can say we have seen these famous islands. Guise says yes, and I say no. The Count is not here; we have our supper from a paultry hedge alehouse, (excuse the bull,) and the Servants have offered us beds in the palace, pursuant to their master's directions.

[Sidenote: LIFE AT TURIN.]

I hardly think you will like Turin; the Court is old & dull;[69] and in that country every one follows the example of the court. The principal amusement seems to be driving about in Your Coach in the evening & bowing to the people you meet. If you go when the royal family is there, you have the additional pleasure of stopping to salute them every time they pass. I had that advantage fifteen times one afternoon. We were presented to a Lady who keeps a public assembly, and a very mournfull one it is. The few women that go to it are each taken up by their Cicisbeo; and a poor Englishman, who can neither talk Piedmontese nor play at Faro, stands by himself, without one of their haughty nobility doing him the honor of speaking to him. You must not attribute this account to our not having staid long enough to form connections. It is a general complaint of our countrymen, except of Lord Berkely, who has been engaged for about two years in the service of a Lady, whose long nose is her most distinguishing fine feature.

The most sociable women I have met with are the King's daughters. I chatted for about a quarter of an hour with them, talked about Lausanne, and grew so very free and easy, that I drew my snuf-box,[70] rapped it, took snuff twice (a Crime never known before in the presence-chamber,) & continued my discourse in my usual attitude of my body bent forwards, and my fore finger stretched out. As it might however have been difficult to keep up this acquaintance, I chiefly employ my time in seeing places, which fully repaid me in pleasure the trouble of my journey. What entertained me the most, was the Museum and the Citadel. The first is under the care of a M. Bartoli, who received us without any introduction, in the politest manner in the world, and was of the greatest service to us, as I dare say he will be to you. The Citadel is a stupendous work; & when you have seen the suterraneous part of it, you will scarcely think it possible such a place can ever be taken. As it is however a regular one, it does not pique my curiosity so much as those irregular fortifications hewn out of the Alps, such as Exiles, Fenestrelles, & the Brunette[71] would have done, could we have spared the time necessary.* The last of these places you may see.

I mentioned you to M. Dutems, Chargé des Affaires de sa Majestè Brittanique, in Pitt's absence. He cannot send you so unlimited a permission as you wanted, but if you will write to him some days before you set out, specifying the time you shall pass, & the names of the peoples to be inserted, he will take care to have one sent to Suze.

[Sidenote: GENOA.]

*Our next stage from Turin has been Milan, where we were mere Spectators, as it was not worth while to endeavour at forming connection for so very few days. I think you will be surprised at the great Church, but infinitely more so at the regiment of Baden-Baden, which is in the Citadel. Such steadiness, such alertness in the men, & such exactness in the officers, as passed all my expectations. Next Friday I shall see the Regiment reviewed by General Serbelloni. Perhaps I may write a particular letter about it. From Milan we proceed to Genoa, & from thence to Florence. You stare--But really we find it so inconvenient to travel like mutes, and to lose a number of curious things for want of being able to assist our eyes with our tongues, that we have resumed our original plan, and leave Venice for next year. I think I should advise you to do the same.*

Milan, May 18th, 1764.

*The next morning was not fair, but however we were able to take a view of the islands, which, by the help of some imagination, we conclude to be a very delightfull though not an enchanted place. I would certainly advise you to go there from Milan, which you may very well perform in a day and half. Upon our return, we found Lord Tilney[72] and some other English in their way to Venice. We heard a melancholy piece of news from them; Byng[73] died at Bologna a few days ago of a feaver. I am sure you will all be very sorry to hear it.

We expect a volume of news from you in relation to Lausanne, and in particular to the alliance of the Dutchess with the frogs. Is it already concluded? How does the Bride look after her great revolution? Pray embrace her and the adorable, if you can, in both our names; and assure them, as well as all the spring,[74] that we talk of them very often, but particularly of a Sunday; and that we are so disconsolate, that we have neither of us commenced Cicisbeos as yet, whatever we may do at Florence. We have drank the Dutchess's health, not forgetting the little woman[75] on the top of Mont Cenis, in the middle of the Lago Maggiore, &c. &c. I expect some account of the said little woman. Whether she talks ---- as much as usual and who is my successor? I think Montagny had begun to supplant me before I went.* Salute all our friends in both our names. The Count, the Queen's own, Buch Tysen, The foot Guards & the Oxford stage (& Mr. George Hyde Clarke). I am sorry to hear from Grand, that the last was ill. I heard likewise that your military list was augmented by a Hanoverian: I dare say the canonading of _Amenebourg_ has often been fought over. As to people of the town, embrace Grand, Pavillard, and the Mesery, make some Compliments to a great many more, and don't forget to kick Constant & Dittermanches before you come away. *I expect your answer at Florence, and your person at Rome; which the Lord* of his infinite mercy *grant. Amen.*