How many thanks have I to return you! I shall wait upon Sir William
Milner[20] as soon as he is in town, and do not doubt of liking that
family, at least the lady: to say she is your friend is a sufficient
enconium.
[Sidenote: WANT OF MONEY]
But, Madam, I am really concerned my father has not sent me a
draught. I am really distressed for money. I have hardly a guinea
left, and you know the unavoidable expences of London. I have tryed
to borrow of Mrs. Porten and of Harvey, my father's lawyer. But
without success. Could not you send me a bank-note by the Hastings
Post of Monday? I would run all the risks of its being lost; for upon
my word I shall hardly know what to do in three or four days.
Will you admit my excuse? I am just going to see Garrick, _alias_ Sir
John Brute.[21] It will be a _vilaine bête_.
I am, Dear Madam,
Yours most sincerely,
E. GIBBON.
P.S.--The author of Eurydice[22] (who greeted me at the Smyrna
Coffee-house) asked much after you and my father. What can you mean
about Miss Allen?
[20] Sir William Milner, Bart. (1719-1774), for many years
receiver-general of the Excise, married Elizabeth, youngest
daughter of the Hon. and Rev. George Mordaunt, brother of the
third Earl of Peterborough. She died a year after her husband.
[21] Sir John Brute, the surly, drunken husband of Lady Brute in
Vanbrugh's play of _The Provoked Wife_.
[22] Mallet's tragedy _Eurydice_, written in 1731, was revived in
1759. The Smyrna Coffee-house in Pall Mall stood on the site now
occupied by Messrs. Harrison, the booksellers. It was famous in
the days of the _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_.
15.
_To his Father._
London, December the 21st, 1758.