I wish you would believe, what is really the case, that before I
received your letter I intended to have written this very post. It is
true that I had the same intention for many posts before, and that
the glorious spirit of procrastination always told me that the next
would do just as well: I do not mean as to your franks, for those I
must confess I had absolutely and irrecoverably forgotten. *Deyverdun
had left me just before your letter arrived, which I shall soon have
an opportunity of conveying to him. Though, I flatter myself, he
broke from me with some degree of uneasiness, the engagement could
not be declined. At the end of the four years he has an annuity of
£100 for Life, and may, for the remainder of his days, enjoy a decent
independence in that Country, which a Philosopher would perhaps
prefer to the rest of Europe. For my own part, after the hurry of
the town and of Parliament, I am now retired to my Villa in Bentinck
Street, which I begin to find a very pleasing Solitude, at least as
well as if it were two hundred miles from London; because when I am
tired of the Roman Empire, I can laugh away the Evening at Foote's
Theatre, which I could not do in Hampshire or Cornwall.* You know I
am not a writer of news, but I cannot forbear telling you that the
Dutchess of Bedford made regular proposals of marriage to the young
Earl Cholmondely, and was as regularly refused. Poor as he was (he
replied to Mr. Fitzpatrick the Embassador) he was not quite poor
enough to accept them.
I am, Dear Madam,
Most truly Yours,
E. GIBBON.
[Sidenote: PRINTING THE HEAD BEFORE THE TAIL.]
257.
_To Mrs. Holroyd._
Boodle's, Thursday Evening, 13th July, 1775.
The parsimony of your spouse, who rather chuses to build Gateways
than to buy books, has hitherto _deprived you of Hume_. Having just
got the best Edition, I have sent you a good one. By this time you
have probably _received Sevigné_. Enclosed Mr. H. will _find Aunt's
letter_. I have not read it, as I never read more business than is
absolutely necessary. You will please to inform him that a letter
on his plan has been sent to Lovegrove. _I write no news_, 1st
because there are none authentic, and 2dly because you will see dear
MacFoster to-morrow.
_How does sweet Maria?_ You have both used me ill in sending me no
intelligence about her. I shall soon write again to the Baron and
inform him of the reasons _which may delay my_ Journey. Those that
would hasten it you will know.
Your slave,
E. G.
258.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
July 20th, 1775.
Do you believe that my inclination leads me to S. P.? If you do not,
you are a D---- fool to give yourself the trouble of asking me. If
you do, you may as well believe that I am giving you reasons and not
pretences. I am just now in the most busy moment of my life, nor is
it so small a work as you may imagine to destroy a great Empire. I
do not merely mean correcting the sheets from the press: that might
certainly be performed at S. P., as both Printer, Strahan,[299]
and Author, an odd circumstance, are Senators. But from a natural
impatience, as you well know, I have begun to _print the head before
the tail_ was quite finished; some parts must be composed, and, as
I proceed in the reviewing, so many emendations and alterations
occur, which require the neighbourhood of my Library, that in any
other region of the Earth, I should find myself every day at a full
stop. As well as I can see before me, I think that I may give you
September: _but I promise nothing_. As soon as I find it within my
power, I shall order my chaise. Therefore be silent and resigned.
_General Frazer,[300] with whom_ I dined to-day at _the British_,
talks of visiting you next month. _Do you remember my Aunt whom you
invited, and who is much disposed to accompany me?_ I was thinking
that your mother's illness might render that _less convenient_. _If
it does you may give her a civil Epistle._ You recollect de Salis;
he is in town, and asked after you.--As to public affairs, we are in
hourly expectation of a battle, and flying reports arrive but do not
prevail. They are certainly premature. What do you think of £1700 a
year for 31 years on poor Ireland to gain Flood, and to pay some of
the C. F's debts without making a friend of him, but only to buy his
place at an extravagant price?[301] My domestic affairs seem calm;
the Wintons are quiet, and the other brute has graciously accepted
the Arbitration of Palmer and will mention it to him in a few days.
Booth Gray, to whom I wrote about Brown, is silent. _Duane was so
till this morning_, when he sent me a note that he had been ill and
could not visit the Tythes of Newhaven till September. Your projects
are vast; but the essential thing seems to be a _present_ decent
increase of rent for Aunt Gibbon.