GIBBON. 307 



made a prolongation of his life not desirable either for 

 himself or for those to whom he was dear. At his death, 

 a year after, he was found to have given Gibbon by his 

 will the option of purchasing the house and garden, or of 

 holding it for life at an easy price ; and he preferred the 

 latter arrangement, which allowed him with prudence to 

 lay out a considerable sum in improvements. To Dey- 

 verdun, whose loss left him solitary when he had been 

 accustomed to domestic comfort, there succeeded in his 

 friendship and intimacy the family of the Severys; but 

 though their intercourse was close, and their meeting- 

 daily, he sighed over the loss of a domestic society still 

 more constant. His chief enjoyment continued to be in 

 his books; nor does his time during the latter years of 

 his life appear to have hung heavy on his hands. The 

 society of Lausanne was select and agreeable; his cir- 

 cumstances were easy for the scale of expense in that 

 country, and must have been improved by the sale of his 

 History, though he nowhere gives us any intimation 

 of the sums which he received, and his editor Lord 

 Sheffield has not supplied the omission ; but he probably 

 was about the wealthiest person in Lausanne, and could 

 indulge, as he liked to indulge, in the pleasures of a 

 constant though modest hospitality. Occasional visits of 

 strangers varied the scene; and such as were distin- 

 guished, from what country soever, failed not to present 

 themselves at his house. He describes the visit of 

 Prince Henry of Prussia in autumn, 1784, as having 

 proved "both flattering from his affability, and enter- 

 taining from his conversation/' A yet more illustrious 

 name occurs in his account of 1788, when " Mr. Fox, 

 escaped from the bloody tumult of the Westminster 



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