I staid four or five days at Besançon longer than I intended, so that
I got here only the 25th. It was even with some difficulty that I
could disengage myself so soon from Mr. Acton's civilities. Indeed
nothing could exceed them. Not only they insisted upon my lodging in
the house, but during the time I passed in it, the sole business of
the family seemed to be finding out amusements for me. They carried
me to the best houses in the place, showed me whatever was worth
seeing, and made several parties for me in the country. What I saw of
Besançon pleased me so much, that, could I have stayed there without
being an inconvenience to them, I should have liked to have stayed
a few days or even weeks longer. Mr. Acton is the best sort of man
in the world, and is bent on doing everything most agreable. He has
a great deal of business, many friends and a very high reputation.
He has indeed unluckily been too long out of England to remember his
own language, and not long enough in France, to have learnt that of
the country. He talked a vast deal of you, and tho' it is so long
since you have been there, I have found your memory very fresh & many
people who have enquired after you. The two sisters in particular of
your _écuyer_ (I have forgot their names) talked to me by the hour
of their old friend Monsieur de Guibon. As to Acton's wife, you know
the character Mrs. Darrel gives of her, and I was sorry to find it
is pretty well established at Besançon; but she is certainly a very
agreable and sensible woman, and I should have taken her for a very
good-natured one. If she is a termagant I never saw such a Wolf in
sheep's cloathing.
At last, Dear Sir, I am got to Lausanne and established very agreably
among my old acquaintance, and in a way of life I like extremely,
a moderate mixture of society and study. News from a place so very
quiet and obscure you cannot expect. I have however seen an old
friend of ours who has just left us; Sir Willoughby Aston.[51] He
had been here about a twelfmonth with Lady Aston and his numerous
[family], and are just gone to Tours in France. Nobody could guess
why. They lived very cheap here; Lady Aston had as many rubbers of
Whist, and Sir Willoughby as many bottles of wine every day as they
wanted. What could they have more? Sir Willoughby asked much after
you, and was glad to see me to talk over Winchester camp and Reading
court martial.
A propos of our militia, I have seen that of Switzerland. Their
General review (of the Lausanne Battalion) was last Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday. I attended all three from beginning to end, and making
all proper allowances saw them with great pleasure. They are only
exercised twelve days in the year, and tho' many of them have been in
foreign services, yet you know, Dear Sir, how very easy it is for a
soldier to forget. They went through the manual, fired by divisions
and platoons, formed the column, and square, a General discharge and
charge: all very decently, and some (especially the Grenadiers) very
prettily. I do not compare them to our militia. As we were embodied
two or three years, the comparaison would be an affront.
[Sidenote: LAUSANNE]
I took credit from Mr. Foley upon a Lausanne banker, who is likewise
a brother captain of Grenadiers. I have not made use of it yet, and
when I do, it shall be as sparing as possible. I have got a few books
together, and am busy upon the ancient Geography of Italy and the
reviewing my Roman history and antiquities. If you have no objection
to leaving me here till the spring, I should like it very much and
think it might be of use to me. But I submit the thing entirely to
you.
You will be so good, Dear Sir, as to present my sincerest love and
duty to Mrs. Gibbon, and my most affectionate compliments to her
brothers, and to believe me
Most truly yours,
E. GIBBON, JUNIOR.
[51] Sir Willoughby Aston was returned M.P. for Nottingham in
1754, and was appointed Colonel of the Berkshire Militia in 1759.
Lady Aston was a Miss Pye, of Farringdon, Berks. His "numerous"
family consisted of his only son and successor, and of six
daughters. He died August 24, 1772.
26.
_To his Stepmother._
Lausanne, June the 18th, 1763.