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irregularly dotted with two-and-forty line of battle ships. In plants, indeed, we are deficient; and though all the gentlemen now attend to posterity, the country will for a long time be very naked. We have spent several days agreeably enough in little parties; but in general our time rolls away in complete uniformity. Our landlord possesses neither a pack of hounds, nor a stable of running horses, nor a large farm, nor a good library. The last only could interest me; but it is singular that a man of fortune, who chooses to pass nine months of the year in the country, should have none of them. According to our present design, Mrs. G. and myself return to Bath about the beginning of next month. I shall probably make but a short stay with her, and defer my Derbyshire journey till another year. Sufficient for the summer is the evil thereof, viz. one distant country excursion. Natural inclination, the prosecution of my great work, and the conclusion of my Lenborough business, plead strongly in favour of London. However, I desire, and one always finds time for what one really desires, to visit Sheffield-place before the end of October, should it only be for a few days. I know several houses where I am invited to think myself at home, but I know no other where I seem inclined to accept of the invitation. I forgot to tell you, that I have declined the publication of Lord Chesterfield's Letters. The public will see them, and upon the whole, I think with pleasure; but the family were strongly bent against it; and especially on Deyverdun's account, I deemed it more prudent to avoid making them my personal enemies.

XLII. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO J. HOLROYD, ESQ.

January, 1774.

I have a letter from Hugonin, a dreadful one I believe, but it has lain four days unperused in my drawer. Let me turn it over to

you.

Foster is playing at what he calls whist; his partner swearing inwardly. He would write to you to-night, but he thinks he had rather write next post; he will think so a good while. Every thing public, still as death. Our Committee of the Catch Club has done more business this morning than all those of the house of commons since their meeting. Roberts does not petition. This from the best authority, and perhaps totally false. Hare married to Sir Abraham Hume's daughter. You see how hard pressed I am for news. Besides, at any time, I had rather talk an hour, than write a page. Therefore adieu. I am glad to hear of your speedy removal. Řemember Bentinck-street.

XLIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME.

January 29th, 1774.

I am now getting acquainted with authors, managers, &c. good company to know, but not to live with. Yesterday I dined at the British Coffee-house, with Garrick, Colman, Goldsmith, Macpher

son, John Hume, &c. I am this moment come from Colman's Man of Business. We dined at the Shakespeare, and went in a body to support it. Between friends, though we got a verdict for our client, his cause was but a bad one. It is a very confused miscellany of several plays and tales; sets out brilliantly enough, but as we advance the plot grows thicker, the wit thinner, till the lucky fall of the curtain preserves us from total chaos.

Bentinck-street has visited Welbeck-street. Sappho is very happy that she is there yet: on Sheffield-place she squints with regret and gratitude. Mamma consulted me about buying coals; we cannot get any round ones, Quintus is gone to head the civil war. Of Mrs. **** I have nothing to say. I have got my intelligence for insuring, and will immediately get the preservative against fire. Foster has sent me eight-and-twenty pair of Paris silk stockings, with an intimation that my lady wished for half-a-dozen. They are much at her service; but if she will look into David Hume's Essay on National Characters, she will see that I durst not offer them to a Queen of Spain. Sachez qu'une reine d'Espagne n'a point de jambes. Adieu.

XLIV. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO J. HOLROYD, ESQ.

1774.

We have conquered; *** was amazed at the tempest just ready to break over his head. He does not desire to go to law, wishes to live in peace, has no complaints to make, hopes for a little indulgence. Hugonin is now in the attitude of St. Michael trampling upon Satan; he holds him down, till Andrews has prepared a little chain of adamant to bind the foul fiend. In return, receive my congratulation on your Irish victory. Batt told me yesterday, as from good authority, that administration designed a second attempt this session; but to-day I have it from much better, that they always discouraged it and that it was totally an Hibernian scheme. You remark that I saw Batt. He passed two hours with me; a pleasant man! He and Sir John Russell dine with me next week: you will have both their portraits; the originals are engaged.

XLV. THE SAME TO THE SAME.

February, 1774.

Did you get down safe and early? Is my lady in good spirits and humour? You do not deserve that she should, for hurrying her away. Does Maria coquet with Divedown?* Adieu. Bentinck-street looks very dismal. You may suppose that nothing very important has occurred since you left town; but I will send you some account of America after Monday, though indeed my anxiety about an old manor takes away much of my attention from a new Continent. The mildness of Godfrey Clarke is roused into military fury; but he is an old Tory, and you only suppose yourself an old Whig. I alone am a true Englishman, Philosopher, and Whig.

* Dr. Downes.

XLVI. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO J. HOLROYD, ESQ.

Boodle's, Wednesday Evening, March 16th, 1774.

I was this morning with * * *. He was positive that the attempt to settle the preliminaries of arbitration by letters, would lead us on to the middle of the summer, and that a meeting was the only practicable measure. I acquiesced, and we blended his epistle and into one, which goes by this post. If you can contrive to suit to it your Oxford journey, your presence at the meeting would be received as the descent of a guardian angel.

yours

Very little that is satisfactory has transpired of America. On Monday Lord North moved for leave to bring in a bill to remove the customs and courts of justice from Boston to New Salem; a step so detrimental to the former town, as must soon reduce it to your own terms; and yet of so mild an appearance, that it was agreed to, without a division, and almost without a debate. Something more is, however, intended, and a committee is appointed to inquire into the general state of America. But administration keep their secret as well as that of freemasonry, and, as Coxe profanely suggests, for the

same reason.

Don't you remember that in our pantheon walks we admired the modest beauty of Mrs. ****? Eh bien! alas! she is ***. You ask me with whom? With ****, of the guards; both the *** 's; ***, a steward of * * * *'s, her first love, and half the town besides. A meeting of ****'s friends assembled about a week ago, to consult of the best method of acquainting him with his frontal honours. Edmund Burke was named as the orator, and communicated the transaction in a most eloquent speech.

N. B. The same lady, who, at public dinners, appeared to have the most delicate appetite, was accustomed, in her own apartment, to feast on pork steaks and sausages, and to swill porter till she was dead drunk. *** is abused by the *** family, has been bullied by***, and can prove himself a Cornuto, to the satisfaction of every one but a court of justice. O rare matrimony!

XLVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME.

March 29th, 1774.

America. Had I written Saturday night, as I once intended, fire and sword, oaths of allegiance and high treason tried in England, in consequence of the refusal, would have formed my letter. Lord North, however, opened a most lenient prescription last night; and the utmost attempts towards a new settlement seemed to be no more than investing the governors with a greater share of executive power, nomination of civil officers, (judges, however, for life,) and some regulations of juries. The Boston port bill passed the Lords last night; some lively conversation, but no division.

Bentinck-street.-Rose Fuller was against the Boston port bill, and against his niece's going to Boodle's masquerade. He was

laughed at in the first instance, but succeeded in the second. Sappho and Fanny very indifferent (as mamma says) about going. They seem of a different opinion. Adieu.

XLVIII. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO J. HOLROYD, ESQ.

April 2nd, 1774.

Dear Holroyd,-You owe me a letter; so this extra goes only to acquaint you with a misfortune that has just happened to poor Clarke, and which he really considers as such, the loss of a very excellent father. The blow was sudden; a thin little man, as abstemious as a hermit, was destroyed by a stroke of apoplexy in his coach, as he was going to dinner. He appeared perfectly well, and only two days before had very good-naturedly dined with us at a tavern, a thing he had not done for many years before. I am the only person Clarke wishes to see, except his own family; and I pass a great part of the day with him. A line from you would be kindly received.

Great news, you see, from India. Tanjore four hundred thousand pounds to the company. Sujah Dowlah six hundred thousand. Adieu.

XLIX, THE SAME TO THE SAME.

April 13th, 1774.

At length I am a little more at liberty. Godfrey Clarke went out of town this morning. Instead of going directly into Derbyshire, where he would have been overwhelmed with visits, &c. he has taken his sister, brother, and aunts, to a villa near Farnham, in which he has the happiness of having no neighbourhood. If my esteem and friendship for Godfrey had been capable of any addition, it would have been very much increased by the manner in which he felt and lamented his father's death. He is now in very different circumstances than before; instead of an easy and ample allowance, he has taken possession of a great estate, with low rents and high incumbrances. I hope the one may make amends for the other: under your conduct I am sure they would, and I have freely offered him your assistance, in case he should wish to apply for it.

In the mean time I must not forget my own affairs, which seem to be covered with inextricable perplexity. ***, as I mentioned about a century ago, promised to see and his attorney, and to

oil the wheels of the arbitration. As yet I have not heard from him. I have some thoughts of writing myself to the jockey, stating the various steps of the affair, and offering him, with polite firmness, the immediate choice of chancery or arbitration.

For the time, however, I forgot all these difficulties, in the present enjoyment of Deyverdun's company; and I glory in thinking, that, although my house is small, it is just of a sufficient size to hold my real friends, male and female; among the latter my lady holds the very first place.

We are all quiet.-American business is suspended, and almost forgot. The other day we had a brisk report of a Spanish war. It

was said they had taken one of our Leeward Islands. It since turns out, that we are the invaders, but the invasion is trifling.

Bien obligé non (at present) for your invitation. I wish my lady and you would come up to our masquerade the third of May. The finest thing ever seen. We sup in a transparent temple that costs four hundred and fifty pounds.

L. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO J. HOLROYD, ESQ.

April 21st, 1774. Dear Holroyd,-I begin to flag, and though you already reproach me as a bad correspondent, I much fear that I shall every week become a more hardened sinner. Besides the occasional obstructions of Clarke and Deyverdun, I must entreat you to consider, with your usual candour, 1. The aversion to epistolary conversation, which it has pleased the demon to implant in my nature. 2. That I am a very fine gentleman, a subscriber to the masquerade, where you and my lady ought to come, and am now writing at Boodle's, in velvet coat, with ruffles of my lady's choosing, &c. 3. That the aforesaid fine gentleman is likewise an historian; and, in truth, when I am writing a page, I do not only think it a sufficient reason for delay, but even consider myself as writing for you, and that much more to the purpose than if I were sending you the little tattle of the town, of which indeed there is none stirring. With regard to America, the minister seems moderate, and the house obedient.

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's last letter, by some unaccountable accident, had never reached me; so that yours, in every instance, amazed me. I immediately dispatched to him groans and approbation. gives me very little uneasiness. I see that he is a bully, and that I have a stick. But the cursed business of Lenborough, in the midst of study, dissipation, and friendship, at times almost distracts me. I am surely in a worse situation than before I sold the estate, and what distresses me is, that

"His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono."

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Both Deyverdun and Clarke wish to be remembered to you. The former, who has more taste for the country than could wish to visit you, but he sets out in a few days for the Continent with Lord Middleton. Adieu.

LI. THE SAME TO THE SAME.

May 4th, 1774.

Dear Holroyd,-Last night was the triumph of Boodle's. Our masquerade cost two thousand guineas; a sum that might have fertilized a province, (I speak in your own style,) vanished in a few hours, but not without leaving behind it the fame of the most splendid and elegant fête that was perhaps ever given in a seat of the arts and opulence. It would be as difficult to describe the magnificence of the scene, as it would be easy to record the humour

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