Knowing you as I do I can easily judge of the effect my father's
accident must have produced upon you. Besides, I can guess at it by
the impression it made upon me, though I heard of the danger and
the escape at the same time. I thank God it was no worse. I hope my
father is now thoroughly recovered. I shall remember the Arquebusade
this week.
Of myself and my situation at the Devizes I have little to say,
and that little not very agreeable. A great deal of noise and no
conversation, a great many people and no society, a most excessive
familiarity and no friendship; in a word, the usual scene, only I
think we are not so quarrelsome as we used to be.
I wrote to my father who by this time must have received my letter.
However I must just mention to him two or three things relative to
the battalion. He will see by the enclosed return, our strength and
what we have done, which is nothing to what we might do had we money.
The Blacks[26] now grow so numerous that I think they must drive
us out of town, they desire it so strongly, & Lord Shelbourne[27]
has such powerful interest. I believe Sharrock[28] will get an
ensign, one Hall,[29] near this place, a very pretty lad of sixteen
with a good qualification, though not in our county. He expects an
answer from Durnford, who, by the bye, has not yet wrote either to
Harrison[30] or me.
How does your pupil go on? I hope soon to have an account of him, as
William is very clamourous for a new livery.
You say nothing of your brother. I hope he is sailed. Surely it must
by this time be determined. I beg you would present my love and duty
to my father, and believe me,
Dear Madam,
Most affectionately yours,
E. GIBBON, JUNIOR.
[26] The Black Musqueteers of Colonel Barré were raised in 1761-2
as the 106th Regiment of Foot (or Black Musqueteers.) See List of
General and Field Officers for 1763, p. 175.
[27] William, Lord Fitzmaurice, M.P. for Chipping Wycombe,
afterwards Prime Minister (1782), and first Marquess of
Lansdowne, succeeded his father as second Earl of Shelburne
in the spring of 1761. He acted as the go-between in the
negotiations between Bute and Fox, which led to the cessation of
the Seven Years' War and the Treaty of Paris.
[28] Robert Sharrock was a captain in the South Battalion of the
Hampshire Militia.
[29] James Hall received his commission as ensign in February,
1762.
[30] John Butler Harrison, lieutenant in the South Battalion,
was Gibbon's chief friend in the regiment. In his journal Gibbon
speaks of the disagreeable society in which he was compelled
to live. "No manners, no conversation, they were only a set
of fellows, all whose behaviour was low, and most of whose
characters were despicable. I must, however, except Sir Thomas
and Harrison out of this society. Harrison is a young man of
honour, spirit, and good nature. The virtues of his heart make
amends for his having none of the head."
[Sidenote: FOREIGN TOUR.]
20.
_To his Father._
Boulogne, January the 25th, 1763.