Our attention is now very much taken up with a very grand Masquerade, which Boodle's is going to give at the Pantheon. We have a great deal of money and consequently of taste. Flying bridges, transparent temples and eighteen thousand lamps in the Dome are the general subject of conversation. For my own part I subscribe, but am very indifferent about it. A few friends and a great many books may entertain me, but I think fifteen hundred people the worst company in the world.
I am still in very perplexing suspence about Bucks.
Adieu, Dear Madam,
Most truly yours,
E. Gibbon.
197.
To J. B. Holroyd, Esq.
May 4th, 1774.
Dear H.,
Most sincerely do I condole with you on the effects of Fanaticism. That furious principle which has sometimes overturned Nations has in this instance indeed been contented with unsettling the reason of a Cook: but the domestic Calamity must have been attended with very unpleasant circumstances, and I shall think it a very happy Catastrophe when the poor Wretch is safely and quietly lodged in Bedlam.