Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2)

159.

To J. B. Holroyd, Esq

Dear H.,

I am sorry at not hearing from you to-night, because I apprehended that if our poor little friend had been perfectly recovered you would have been impatient to have told me so. Mrs. Clive has had your note and I suppose has separated in consequence: but I don't myself think the house will do, – the street! You may have coach-house and stables in the neighbourhood, but the man (who is impatient for a positive answer) cannot keep the house (as to the commencement of rent) longer than the 10th of January. I tried this morning a house in Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square – lett the day before – I have just heard of another in Dover Street, a charming situation, not less than six months certain, seven Guineas a week. I will see it Monday morning. Several things about my house and another unexpected affair will not allow me dine at S. P. before Thursday, when you may positively expect me. I called at Payne's the other day, he has secured such of your members as remained. The next time I call I will mention Lord B. Adieu.

160.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

SETTLED IN BENTINCK STREET.

I should be very uneasy at your prolonged silence, especially at this critical juncture, if I had not heard from Mr. Scott that you are arrived at Bath safe, though not perfectly well. I hope, as indeed I have hoped for several posts past, that a letter is now on the road to tell me that you have got the better of your fatigues and indisposition, that you begin to relish the new scene, and that you have seen a house to your mind. For me, I have at last pitched on Lady Rouse's house in Bentinck Street, which I have only taken till I find whether the place, situation, &c., will suit me. My upholsterer is hard at work, and whilst he is employed, I shall set out next Thursday for Holroyd's, stay about a fortnight, send up for my books and young Housekeeper about the middle of next month, and get into my new Habitation towards the end of it; in which last article I possibly flatter myself too lightly. I think I shall be comfortable, and when I have shaken off the load of Lenborough dirt, not unhappy, which in this life is saying a great deal. In the meantime I have absolutely settled with Clark and Rout, and got a discharge for £900 less than I at first expected. I am rather vain of my conduct of that intricate business. Adieu, Dear Madam, Mrs. Porten begs her love and Compliments to you. I desire you would present mine (though love is rather too strong) to Mrs. Gould.

The Jolliffes have advanced and I have retreated almost by equal steps.

161.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

I have nothing about myself to add to my letter of last night, except to answer your obliging anxiety about my Gout, which Mr. Scott took the trouble of mentioning to you. A sprain in the same foot as last year brought on a kind of inflammation which was suspected to be that dignified disorder; but I much doubt the fact, and be it as it may, the whole was over in four or five days, and I am now strong and well.

You know, dear Madam, how many various calls I have upon me, but yours will always stand the first, and will be answered whenever it is most convenient to you.

162.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

DEATH OF A FRIEND.

I am called upon to perform a melancholy office, and to acquaint you with what I am sure you will esteem a loss, whatever accession of fortune you may derive from it.

Last Sunday sevennight I dined with our friend Mr. Scott at Mrs. Porten's, and thought him remarkably well and in spirits. On Thursday I went down into Sussex, and the bad foggy weather we had in town prevented my calling upon him in the mean time. He was however already very much out of order, with a bad cold apparently and a general weakness; his Apothecary however thought him in no danger, till Dr. Fothergill, who was sent for, apprehended there was a great deal, though he would not suffer the people of the House to acquaint him with it. They, on the Monday 28th instant, thought it incumbent on them to inform Mr. Oliver, the only friend of his they knew, of his dangerous situation. Mr. Oliver, on the receipt of their very pressing letter, immediately dispatched a Post Office Express to Mr. Gibbon of Petersfield, and the Express (returned by the care of Mr. Bayley and Griffiths of the Cocoa Tree) reached me last night very late at Sheffield Place. I came up to Town this morning, but was too late. Your kinsman and my friend had already terminated a blameless and happy life by a very easy death about three o'clock Tuesday afternoon. There was so little appearance of a visible illness that Dr. Fothergill could only call it a sudden but general decay of Nature.

After consulting with Sir Stanier Porten[182] we both judged it would be right to take no steps with regard to his Effects till you could be informed of what had happened. We went to his Lodgings this afternoon, and in the presence of the Landlord, the Apothecary and Mr. Newton's Clerk, we examined every probable place in search of a Will but found none. All the papers that seemed of any moment we locked up in a trunk and put our Seal upon it. The principal one is a bond of £1980 from me to Mr. Scott only a few days ago to pay off the Clarkes. I heartily wish that you may be my Creditor. I suppose it will be necessary and proper for you immediately to examine Mr. Scott's Lodgings at Bath, which I think was more his regular residence than London. If no Will should be found anywhere, you are his natural heir, nor do I understand that it will be necessary for you to come to town to administer unless you chuse it.

As I do not see that I can be of any immediate use to you, I propose returning to Sheffield to-morrow for about ten or twelve days more, but if I am wanted sooner, shall be ready at an hour's warning either to attend you in London or to execute any of your directions. Sir Stanier, who sincerely laments our old friend, proposes to undertake what requires the most immediate care, but it will be necessary for him to know whether, in case of a Will, Mr. Scott has left any orders concerning his funeral, or whether you would chuse to give any particular ones yourself. If the matter is left to him, we had agreed that it should be in the Parish Church plain, decent and private. Tuesday next is the last day, and it would, I should think, be better to send your letter to Sir Stanier by a Post Office Express under cover to the Earl of Rochefort, Cleveland Row, which franks the Express.

The nature of the subject and the length of this letter prevents me from adding any more than that I most sincerely wish you every happiness of the next and of many succeeding years.

163.

To J. B. Holroyd, Esq

Dear H.,

Mrs. G. fastened upon me as soon as I got to town, and was in some measure the cause of some of the blessings you might possibly honour me with when Yesterday's post arrived at Sheffield. Mrs. G. succeeds without a Will to Mr. Scott, and though she certainly finds a sum of money, yet I believe it turns out very short of her expectations. She means to return to Bath, but you will still I fancy find her here.

I have not as yet got you either footman or stables. The latter seems almost impossible. In at least twenty yards, my man Henry has received the same answer; that it is not worth their while to let them for less than a year: so that I fear you will be reduced to a livery stable. In consequence of the Advertisement I had five or six Candidates at my Lever, but none tolerable. We shall see enough. Goose or Couse (what do you call him?) waited on me yesterday morning; but although the Sultan referred us to his Vizier, he had not signified to him that the House was agreed for. I assured him it was; he believed me, and on the morning after your landing will wait on you with the Inventory and a short paper. The maid, a most usefull Servant as he says, is apprized of your coming and expects your servants. So much for business, and indeed so much for everything, for I have kept so close to Mrs. G. that I don't know a syllable of news. – If the Fosters are still with you salute them. Tell Mr. Harry that Mrs. G. has not the honour of being acquainted with any Monkey whatsoever. Mrs. H.'s watch is in the hands of Trajan, some relation I presume of the Emperor.

Tandis que tristement sur ce globe qui balance,

J'appercois à pas lents la mort qui s'avance;

Le Francois emporté par de legers desirs,

Ne voit sur ce cadran qu'un circle de plaisirs.

Mrs. H. when in town will, I fancy, be of the Frenchman's way of thinking. Ainsi soit il. Adieu – Yorkshire arrived in town very gratefull and not entirely dislocated.

164.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

COMFORTS OF HIS NEW HOUSE.

Though I cannot applaud your punctuality in giving me one line the first night of your arrival, yet a very excellent Cheese had already informed me that you had reached Marlborough, and were not unmindful of me. I still waited from post to post till I could date my thanks from my own house in Bentinck St. After some expence of temper occasioned by the cursed delays of upholsterers, I am got into the delightfull mansion and already enjoy the long wished comforts of it. May you soon be settled as much to your satisfaction at Bath as I am in London. Sir Matthew is expected here to-morrow, but I hear nothing of Eliotts; I suppose they will come up for the winter about the beginning of May. I am so unfashionable as not to have fought a duel yet. I suppose all the Nation admire Lord B.'s behaviour.[183] I will give you one instance of his – call it what you please. L. T.'s pistol was raised, when he called out, "One moment, my Lord – Mr. Dillon, I have undertaken a commission from the French Embassador – to get him some Irish poplins – should I fall, be so good as to execute it. Your Lordship may now fire." L. B. is certainly quite out of danger, but the cure will be long and painful.

165.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

THE DELIGHTS OF HIS OWN HOME.

After having been silent longer perhaps than I ought to have been, suffering post after post to slide away with a firm resolution to write the very next (and what is one day's difference?), I am now as usual driven to the sound of the bell and the verge of eleven. Will you for once accept as a letter the information that I am perfectly well, and that I only wish you as happily settled in a house at Bath as I am in London? Holroyd admires Brook Street, but not the side where his father lives.[184] The opposite side has a fine prospect from the back rooms.

Adieu! Dear Madam, and either in long or short letters, believe me,

166.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

You are clearly in the right. If seldom, long letters: if short ones, often. 'Tis perfectly equitable, but now to my old reasons there is a new one added, – this abominable fine weather which will not allow me a quiet hour at home, without being liable to the reproaches of my friends and of my own conscience. It is the more provoking as it drives me not out of a stinking Apothecary's, but from my own new clean comfortable dear house, which I like better every week I pass in it. I now live, which I never did before, and if it would but rain, should enjoy that unity of study and society, in which I have always placed my prospect of happiness. Though I do not find my expences rise higher than I calculated that they would, I have not yet practised much of that Economy with which the voice of Fame has complimented me: but at least I keep (in general) better hours than I ever yet could bring about in London.

With regard to the Cornish journey. I will fairly lay before you the state of my mind. As we are often tempted to sacrifice propriety to inclination, I am afraid that I should have deferred it another summer in favour of Derbyshire. Your company has fixed me, but I thought when you was in town we had settled it for the autumn. If you wish to be early in your visit, I will calculate that the Autumn begins with August, and will then attend you at Bath, or if you chuse to go still earlier, I will bring you back; for I fancy my stay at Port Eliott will hardly be so long as yours. I hear nothing of the Lord of it, but I know that the copper Lockwood impatiently expect him in town.

Holroyd, who begs to be remembered to you, has got a new scheme of regulating the Tythe-laws, holds meetings, writes declarations and employs his great soul and his little body entirely on the business. Mrs. Porten is, I much fear, in a very bad way: her old complaint, but the fits more violent and more frequent. We shall not possess her long.

This morning, the fact is certain, an Address was delivered to Lord B[ellamont] from the Grand Jury of the County of Dublin, thanking him for his proper and spirited behaviour. Incomparable Hibernians! A Judicial Body appointed to maintain and execute the Laws publicly applaud a man for having broke them.

167.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

Your kind letter and just reproaches, instead of making me do immediately what I had resolved to do every post-night for a fortnight before, put off my letters two or three days longer. The Snail of Love-lane, I saw this morning, and he tells me that he had sent you a satisfactory explanation of his conduct; if it appears otherwise to you, and that his delays are still inconvenient to you, I beg that you would draw upon me, and hope you are persuaded that, as I have two hundred pounds in Fleet Street, you are welcome to one of them.

With Holroyd's assistance, who is determined to extricate me out of all my troubles, the sale of Lenborough by auction at Buckingham is fixed for the 24th of this month. He goes down with me, and the Estate has been carefully divided into four lots, rising successively in value above each other, so that, if any parts should remain upon my hands a while longer, they will be the best. These precautions are requisite in the present scarcity of money, which gives me little hopes of selling the whole together, and even the sanguine Holroyd is apprehensive that I shall be obliged to buy it in again and provide for the mortgage by some other measures, at least of the procrastinating kind.

A HAPPY MAN.

Were it not for these worldly cares, I should be a very happy man. I never formed any great schemes of avarice, ambition or vanity: and all the notions I ever formed of a London life in my own house, and surrounded by my books, with a due mixture of study and society, are fully realised. I have seen the Eliotts several times, and think he and I take to one another very well this year. They both express great pleasure at the thoughts of seeing us in Cornwall. I shall be glad to know whether the time I mentioned will suit. I am obliged to you for your invitation to Bath, and am lost in admiration at the size of your house, which enables you to spare a bed-chamber and drawing-room; tho' after all, I can offer you the same apartment in my little Palace, which is absolutely the best house in London. The Waste-coats are sincerely pretty, without gratitude or compliment. The Madeira I have got from Oliver; it is incomparable, but saddled with nine or ten pounds due for cellarage ever since Mr. Scott's arrival in England. Where was the Rum, for Oliver knows nothing about it? Apropos the Beriton pictures; should you think it worth while to frame and put them up at Bath? They will not suit my rooms and will be soon spoilt in a Lumber-room. If you do not chuse them, I believe I shall let them take their choice at Christie's, though I find by a very good painter's opinion that we much over-rated their value. My compliments to the Goulds, &c. Poor Mrs. Porten has long and frequent attacks, but her spirits are still good.

168.

To J. B. Holroyd, Esq

Dear H.,

I hope you got safe to S. P.; that the most amiable Ram, and the less admirable Bull, are both in health and spirits; that Maria remembers me; and that Mrs. H. is quietly metamorphosed from a Lady of the town (an awkward expression) into a country Gentlewoman. We dined to-day at the Romans, seven, who all talked of you – Lord A. was very happy to meet Holroyd, and enquired whether Wilbraham was gone into Sussex. Is your plan settled? when do you come? and are you resolved to take a bed in Bentinck Street? You will disapoint me extremely if you do not, for it is a point of ambition I have set my heart upon.

*I am full of worldly cares, anxious about the great 24th, plagued with the public Advertiser, and distressed by the most dismall dispatches from Hugonin. Mrs. Lee claims a million of repairs which will cost a million of money.

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

The House of Commons sat late last night. Burgoyne made some spirited motions "that the Territorial acquisitions in India belonged to the State" (that was the word); "that grants to the servants of the Company (such as jaghires) were illegal; and that there could be no true repentance without restitution."[185] Wederbourne[186] defended the Nabobs with great eloquence but little argument. The motions were carried without a division; and the hounds go out again next Friday. They are in high spirits; but the more sagacious ones have no idea they shall kill. Lord North spoke for the enquiry, but faintly and reluctantly. Lady C. is said to be in town at her mother's, and a separation is unavoidable; but there is nothing certain. Adieu.*

169.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

I find that I am not the only lazy being in the Universe, and my friends without any diminution of regard can leave me at least three weeks without a line, and totally at a loss what to answer when I am questioned whether they are got into their new house, &c. However, as you will be in suspence about the 24th instant, I must for once break an old rule and tell you that Holroyd accompanied me to Buckingham in his way to Ireland. The auction was very cold, as all auctions are at present, and the highest sum that was bid was £19,000 by an Agent of Lord Temple. By the advice of H., my faithfull friend and Minister, I was immoveably fixed at £20,000, which, all things considered, is not amiss. The Agent had gone to the utmost of his instructions, but I have very good reasons to believe, that either from him or some other person I shall get the money very soon. Till that event happens I shall not be easy.

The Snail of Aldermanbury has promised to send you down the Deed transferring from Bucks. to Hampshire. I hope it will be satisfactory to you.

170.

To J. B. Holroyd, Esq

Dear H.,

A BUYER FOR LENBOROUGH.

*Lenborough is no more. – Lrd. Temple acted like a Jew, and I dare say now repents of it. In his room Way found me a better man, a rich brutish honest horse Dealer, who has got a great fortune by serving the cavalry. On Thursday he saw Lenborough, on Friday came to town with R. W., and this morning at nine o'clock we struck at £20,000, after a very hard battle, in which he squeezed from me a promise of throwing him back a hundred for trouble, &c. As times go I am not dissatisfied; the worst of it is the time of payment, which I could not prevail on him to fix sooner than November, though he gave me hopes of getting it somewhat earlier. Gosling must wait till then. R[ichard] W[ay] and the new Lord of Lenborough (by name Lovegrove) dined with me; and though we did not speak the same language, yet by the help of signs, such as that of putting about the bottle, the natives seemed well satisfied.

The whole world is going down to Portsmouth,[187] where they will enjoy the pleasure of smoke, noise, heat, bad lodgings, and expensive reckonings. For my own part, I have firmly resisted importunity, declined parties, and mean to pass the busy week in the soft retirement of my bocage de Bentinck Street.

Yesterday the East India Company positively refused the Loan, – a noble resolution, could they get money anywhere else.[188]

They are violent, and it was moved, and the motion heard with some degree of approbation, that they should instantly abandon India to Lord North, Sujah Dowlah, or the Devil, if he chose to take it.*

My respectfull salutations wait on Madame. If with the handkerchiefs she was to bring me over some Irish linnen for shirts, it would be an action worthy of her humanity. Adieu.

171.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

At length the Buckinghamshire transaction is at an end. Lord T., after tormenting himself or me to very little purpose, absolutely refused to give more than £19,000, but a Mr. Lovegrove, an Oxfordshire man, who has made his own fortune, applied to Mr. Richard Way, viewed the Estate, and after a long altercation agreed with me at £20,000, and an excellent purchase he has made, though the weight of interest, the importunity of the Goslings and the scarcity of money oblige me to be satisfied with what I have been able to get for it. By Michaelmas I shall be a clear, though a poor man; since, when I have discharged the Mortgage and cancelled the bond which I gave Mr. Scott for the Clarke's money, very little indeed that I can call my own will remain of that noble estate. My only comfort, and a very cold one, is that, though these incumbrances must be paid at my expence, they were not contracted by my imprudence. But to leave these melancholy reflections on a subject which is now irretrievable.

Newton will I believe send you down the Deed engrossed in a day or two. The confidence, Dear Madam, which you express in me, pleases without surprizing me, and I hope the business will be settled to your satisfaction. Apropos you forget your half-year, which now at least you must allow to be due. Do you chuse to draw upon me, or shall I send you the money in Bank Notes?

By what I can collect at Spring Gardens, Mrs. E. will go into Cornwall in a few days, but will not pass through Bath in her way. Eliott stays something longer, but, as well as I can judge, the beginning of August will suit them perfectly well. I therefore still persist in my design of attending you about that time, and am impatient to see both your new house and its owner. I wish you could see how comfortable I am established in mine.

172.

To his Stepmother

Dear Madam,

A VISIT FROM DEYVERDUN.

You will excuse my silence when I tell you I have a friend with me, who takes up the greatest part of my last Friday se'nnight. Mr. d'Eyverdun most agreeably surprized me by walking into my library. His young Lord Chesterfield has come over for a few weeks, and as he went down almost immediately with Lovel Stanhope to the Duke of Chandos, my friend has established himself in my house during the too short period of his visit. You may easily suppose how much I think he embellishes my little habitation. I carry him about, we converse, read and write, and are together almost every hour in the day without the least constraint on either side. The town is growing empty and what is commonly called dull, but with such a companion and my books you will believe me when I say that I do not regret the pleasures of the winter. Even the latter would be sufficient, and were it not to see you, the charms of Cornwall would scarcely induce me to leave London in one of the hottest summers that we have felt for a great while.

The Eliott family is moving away by different detachments. Mrs. Eliott and William, Miss and Edward have already reached Cornwall, but it is impossible to discover when the Lord of St. Germains means to follow them. I have sounded him, and by his dark equivocal hints can only learn that he is certainly not upon the point of his departure. His slowness will I fear retard our intended visit and derange my subsequent operations. He will surely not be in Cornwall till the beginning of next month, and the decent time we must give him to settle himself will soon carry us to the end of it. I will send the earliest intelligence I can obtain of his motions, for I know by experience that a state of suspense even in trifles is painfull.