Volume 1

The Farington diary / edited by James Greig.

  • Joseph Farington
Date:
[1922?-1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Farington diary / edited by James Greig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    74/464 (page 34)
    Had Lord Hood committed equal destruction under different circum¬ stances, it would have been celebrated as a capital victory. January 16.—This day died, Edward Gibbon, Esqre., Professor of ancient History in the Royal Academy.* He was in his 57th. year. On January 24 Farington wrote,] Lysons told us Ld. Orford was with Gibbon two days before he died. That at the time He was in good spirits, and had no apprehension of his approaching end. Gibbon died of a mortification, occasioned by a Hydrocele, of 16 years growth. It had increased without his noticing the apparent distension, and he noticed with surprise at last people looking towards that part, not being sensible of the size, which was equal to that of a man’s head. It became necessary to open it at last, but the parts were then in such a state as to cause a mortification. Gibbon by will bequeathed the whole of his fortune to a young Swiss man. He did not even mention in his will, Lord Sheffield, his particular friend, or any, of the few relations he left behind.f Mr. Anson of Shuckburgh in Staffordshire, is engaged to be married to the second daughter of Mr. Coke of Norfolk.! She is only 14 years old and is to be married next year when she is 15. Mr. Anson is about 28. This acct. Marchant reed, from Lady Hunloke, Mr, Cokes sister, who is at Holkham. Mr. Anson is nephew to the late Lord Anson, the circumnavigator. He has, Lady Hunloke says, ^22,000 a year. Mr. Rose of the Treasury was a Scotch Schoolmaster. Afterwards Purser of a Man of War. Lord Thurlow brought him forward into a political line. They are now at variance. Rose is towards 60 years of age. Mr. Knight told Marchant that He had rendered all the service He could to Lawrence [R.A.] and introduced him to be a member of the Dilettanti Society. He owed this for election services rendered him at Ludlow, by Old Lawrence, and his family. Fuseli told Lawrence a few days ago that He would probably become President of the Royal Academy—and ironically laughing while telling it to Marchant, said “ He bore it.” January 17.—From various accts. I receive I believe there is a considerable ferment prevailing in the minds of many people, which has a democratic tendency. Norwich, is particularly mentioned as being very violent. * Gibbon returned to London on January 15 from a visit to Lord Sheffield at Sheffield Place, and said he thought himself “ a good life for ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty years.” He took ill that night, and died in the afternoon of the 16th, as stated. t This is contrary to fact. Gibbon left his fortune to his cousins, the two children of his uncle, Sir Stanier Porten. His papers, left to Lord Sheffield, were sold by the third Earl to the British Museum in 1895. Adam Smith said of the three last volumes of “ The Decline and Fall ” that they placed Gibbon at the “ very head of the literary tribe ” in Europe, and the Duke of Gloucester, on accepting a volume, in good humour exclaimed : “ Another damned thick book ! ” Boswell, who disliked Gibbon, referred to him as an “ ugly, affected disgusting fellow,” who “ poisons the literary club [founded by Dr. Johnson in 1764] to me.” He is also described as “ a thin little figure, with a large head, disputing and urging with the greatest ability.” We are told his “ mouth, mellifluous as Plato’s, was a round hole nearly in the centre of his visage.” In later years Gibbon’s small bones took on flesh, and he grew grotesquely fat. J Coke was known in Rome as “ the handsome Englishman,” and Horace Walpole thus referred to him on his return to England in 1774 : “ The young Mr. Coke is returned from his travels, in love with the Pre¬ tender’s Queen, who has permitted him to have her picture.” After having twice refused a peerage, he was created Earl of Leicester and Viscount Coke in 1837. A fine portrait of him is at Holkham, inscribed Thomas William Coke. Gainsborough.