The reason which has made me defer some time answering your last
obliging letter was our waiting every post for Mr. Guise's last
instructions. As he has never received them, and we have settled the
time of our departure, I take the first opportunity of laying before
you our plan of operations.
[Sidenote: PASSAGE OVER MONT CENIS.]
We propose moving from hence next Wednesday the 18th instant, and
passing by Geneva and Mont Cenis to Turin, which we shall reach in
about ten days. After some stay at that place, which I hope our old
camp acquaintance Pitt[64] will make very agreable to us, we intend
going by the Boromean Islands, Milan, Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, and
Padua to Venice, which we must reach by the 30th of May to be present
at the great ceremonies of Ascension day, where we shall have an
opportunity of paying our court to the Duke of York.[65] I hope we
shall have seen Venice in about a fortnight, after which we shall
have nothing to prevent our setting out from thence, passing thro'
Ferrara and Bologna and reaching Florence by the latter end of June.
We intend from thence to retire to Sienne or some other quiet town,
and pass about six weeks in the study of Italian. When we get back
to Florence, that place with Leghorn, Pisa, Luca, &c., will furnish
us ample matter for between two and three months till the latter end
of October, when we propose going to Rome, pushing on directly to
Naples and returning again to Rome the latter end of November. If we
pass there about three months I shall be ready to come out of Italy
the beginning of next March, and hope to bring back some improvement,
as I had pretty well prepared myself in England, and as I hope I
have not lost my time here. I think I know my fellow-traveller very
well, and that knowledge convinces he is a very sensible good-natured
prudent young man.
I wish, Dear Sir, I could have followed your Directions, but it
was impossible for me to leave the town after paying all my bills
without Drawing for £200, the remainder of which will barely carry
me to Turin. I shall endeavour during my tour to live with the most
exact æconomy and not to exceed the sum you have mentioned. I give
you my word of honor that neither play nor women shall form any part
of my expence, and I hope our being two will still contribute to
diminish it. I am very sensible that it is often rather negligence
than extravagance that runs away with my money, and I do assure that
I will be as exact as I can. Consider, Dear Sir, that this is a
sacrifice you make once in my life, and that a hundred pounds now are
of more service to me than three times as much at any other time.
The passage of the mountains is very easy at present, and we have
the advantage of going with a Sardinian officer who is very well
acquainted with the country. As soon as I get to Turin I shall have
the pleasure of writing to you. In the mean time I beg my compliments
to the brothers, and my love and duty to Mrs. Gibbon, from whom I had
a letter the other day.
I am, Dear Sir,
Most truly yours,
E. GIBBON.
[64] George Pitt, first Lord Rivers (cr. 1776), served as Envoy
at the Court of Turin from 1761 to 1768, in which latter year he
was elected M.P. for Dorsetshire. He died in 1803, at the age of
eighty-two.
[65] Edward Augustus, Duke of York, third child and second son of
Frederick, Prince of Wales, born March 14, 1739, died September
17, 1767, at Monaco.
34.
_To his Father._
Turin, April 28th, 1764.