Some particular and very urgent reasons, oblige me as well in my
own name as in those of my father, and Mrs. Gibbon, to request your
immediate presence at Beriton. Your own interest is deeply concerned,
but what (I am convinced) will be a much more powerfull inducement,
you will have an opportunity of adding a most essential obligation to
those which your friendship has already conferred on our Family. As
we have now a very pressing occasion for your advice and assistance,
we shall flatter ourselves with the hopes of seeing you Friday
evening.
I am, Dear Sir,
With the truest regard,
Your most sincere Friend and obedient humble Servant,
EDWARD GIBBON, JUNIOR.
[121] The bulk of the letters for the years 1768 and 1769 relate
to the pecuniary affairs of the Gibbon family. Mr. Gibbon was
the owner of estates at Maple Durham, in the parish of Beriton
near Petersfield, at Lenborough in Buckinghamshire, and a house,
garden, and lands at Putney. He had also inherited shares in the
New River Company, and other investments. But he had for years
lived beyond his income, and it was only to the wreck of this
fortune that the historian succeeded in 1770.
[Sidenote: FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES.]
54.
_To his Father._
January the 2nd, 1769.