BY JAMES COTTER MORISON, M.A. LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD. LELAN London MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1904 All rights reserend RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND First Edition, May, 1878. Reprinted, October, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1887, 1895, 1904. Library Edition, 1902. 97074 GIBBON CHAPTER I. GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD. EDWARD GIBBON1 was born at Putney, near London, on 27th April in the year 1737. After the reformation of the calendar his birthday became the 8th of May. He was the eldest of a family of seven children; but his five brothers and only sister all died in early infancy, and he could remember in after life his sister alone, whom he also regretted. He is at some pains in his Memoirs to show the length and quality of his pedigree, which he traces back to the times of the Second and Third Edwards. Noting the fact, we pass on to a nearer ancestor, his grand Gibbon's Memoirs and Letters are of such easy access that I have not deemed it necessary to encumber these pages with references to them. Any one who wishes to control my statements will have no difficulty in doing so with the Miscellaneous Works, edited by Lord Sheffield, in his hand. Whenever I advance anything that seems to require corroboration, I have been careful to give my authority. E B |