I have the pleasure of assuring you that my Rheumatism (or what else
you chuse to call it) has again sounded a retreat & left me quite
well. However I do still intend to consult a physician by way of
precaution, & I think that Physician shall be Heberden.[98] I have
seen a number of servants, but believe I shall pitch upon one who
seems very clever without having anything of the fine Gentleman, &
whose demands surprize me only by their reasonableness. I wrote to
his last master at Bath four or five days ago, & expect an answer
with some impatience.--I believe I mentioned in my last that I was to
introduce d'Eyverdun to Miss C. at the play. They saw each other: the
Lady with some apparent pleasure; the Gentleman with as little horror
as could be expected. I presented him, proposed a visit, pressed for
time & place; & am by her own appointment to carry him to pass the
evening with her next Monday. The rest must depend on himself. As
to myself; I hardly know myself as yet, in this immense City; & to
speak honestly am not as yet very highly entertained. I have had some
invitations & expect more, but I must acknowledge, I sometimes regret
the small parties where an acquaintance may pass the evening & sup
without form or invitation. I have however candor enough to lay these
defects rather upon the confined circle of my friends than on the
general manners of the Metropolis. Society (no doubt) may be very
agreable here, but the avenues to it are fortified with some care,
and I wish I may be able to muster up that modest assurance which is
so necessary to force them. Several more of my acquaintance Up park,
Port Elliott, Hartley,[99] are however come or coming to town & may
serve to enliven it. The public diversions are a great ressource,
and the Cocoa Tree[100] serves now and then to take off an idle
hour. I am not even without hopes of being enrolled in the School of
Vice which, notwithstanding the terrors of its name, is as agreable
and I believe as innocent a Club as any in this Metropolis. What I
want the most, is to be taken off the town and to get into private
keeping. You may guess I mean my old scheme of boarding in a genteel
family. You know I have talked of Toriano. I wish it may succeed,
but the very situation of the man which makes it so agreeable makes
it likewise very difficult. Things must be treated with a degree of
delicacy. An acquaintance must be formed, and I shall not think this
winter ill-spent if it lays a good foundation for next. In the mean
time I am looking out for something to stay my stomach. I have heard
of a house near Leicester fields which appears tolerable, and of
another near Soho whose very situation excludes it.
We wait for Tuesday Sevennight with impatience. Mr. Pitt is in Town
and spoke a great while last Tuesday. He is the declared Advocate
of the Colonies, but a very equivocal one of the present ministry;
tho' great compliments passed between him & Conway.[101] The debate
yesterday (which lasted till nine in the evening) was on printing
the American papers. The friends to secresy, thought it much better
only to leave them upon the table for the inspection and copies of
about 500 people.--Almost all the separations come to nothing except
that of L. & Lady B. which has taken place already.
I forgot upon the study table some maps which I want to make up into
an atlas. Will you be so good, Dear Madam, as to collect all the
French or Latin loose maps in the study and send them to me by the
first opportunity. Pray do not despise me so far as to give me no
commissions.
I am, Dear Madam,
Most truly your's and my father's,
E. GIBBON.
[98] Dr. William Heberden (1710-1801), one of the most famous
physicians of the century, and a distinguished scholar. He was
called by Dr. Johnson "Ultimus Romanorum" (a title which might
be as justly applied to Sir H. Halford), as being "the last of
our learned physicians." He is hailed by Cowper as "virtuous and
faithful," perhaps because, as Dr. G. B. Hill suggests, he bought
and destroyed an unpublished manuscript by Dr. Middleton on _The
Inefficacy of Prayer_.
[99] Up Park, near Stansted in Sussex, the seat of Sir Matthew
Featherstonhaugh, F.R.S., formerly M.P. for Morpeth, at this time
M.P. for Portsmouth; Port Eliot, St. Germans, Cornwall, that of
Gibbon's cousin, Mr. Edward Eliot, M.P. for Liskeard, afterwards
for Cornwall, created in 1784 Baron Eliot of St. Germans; and
Hartley Manduit that of Sir Simeon Stuart, M.P. for the county of
Southampton.
[100] Under Lord Bute, the Ministerial Club, as it was at first
called, used to meet at the Cocoa Tree Tavern, in St. James's
Street. In 1745 it had been the great resort of the Jacobites.
Gibbon describes a supper at the club in his Journal for
November, 1762. [_Memoirs of My Life and Writings--Miscellaneous
Works_, vol. i. p. 154 (second edition, 1814).] By the "School of
Vice" it is more than probable Gibbon meant White's Club, formed
in 1736, at this time the great Tory gaming club. It contained
within its walls an Old and a Young Club, the Old being recruited
from among the members of the Young. Hence, perhaps, arose its
name of the "School of Vice."
[101] The Stamp Act, charging stamp duties on all legal documents
executed in the Colonies, received the royal assent March 22,
1765, and came into operation November 1, 1765. When Parliament
reassembled on January 14, 1766, Pitt attacked the policy of
the Act. General Conway, one of the Secretaries of State, who
replied to him, said that the sentiments which he had expressed
were substantially those of the ministers, and that, for his own
part, he would gladly resign his office if Pitt would take it.
Grenville, who followed, defended the Act, and it was in reply
to him, on the same evening, that Pitt delivered one of the most
eloquent and famous of his speeches. Ireland took a keen interest
in the question, and the debate happens to be fully reported
by two Irish gentlemen, Sir Robert Dean and Lord Charlemont;
otherwise, like many others of the time, it might have passed
without record. In the same session, February 24 to March 17, two
resolutions were carried in both Houses, one declaring the right
of Great Britain to tax the Colonies, the other repealing the
Stamp Act. Two Acts of Parliament expressed these resolutions in
legislative form.
[Sidenote: MARRIAGE OF MR. HOLROYD.]
49.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
Beriton, April 29th, 1767.