Dear Madam,
I have now the pleasure of informing you that the gout has quite left me, and from the general state of my health and spirits, I am much inclined to believe many of the things that are reported in its favour. I wish it were in my power to embrace your scheme of Lord Mulgrave's lodging: but my two great chains the press and the house chain me by either foot.
I am,
Most truly yours,
E. Gibbon.
390.
To his Stepmother.
Bentinck Street, Monday Evening, April, '80(?).
Dear Madam,
RECOVERY FROM THE GOUT.
I should not have left you in suspense, if the Gout had not treated me exactly in the same manner. My journal (had I sent one every post) could only have specified its irregular motions from one place and from one foot to another; swelling, inflammation, weakness, pain increasing, diminishing, shifting, &c.: and the alternative of good and bad nights; sometimes forcing myself out of doors and sometimes nursing myself at home. However the real violence of the fit such as it was during the first week or ten days has never returned, there has not at any time been the slightest symptom or most distant hint in any part except the feet, and I now hope that it is seriously and finally going away. The short interval of the holidays (short indeed, for Parliament meets again to-morrow Sennight) may give me strength and spirits to support a scene which I am heartily tired of. We must again submit to our common disappointment, and if the decline and fall make you any amends you will be glad to hear that the continuation (two quarto volumes) goes to the press in May and will certainly appear next winter.