[69] Charles Emanuel III., Duke of Savoy and second King of Sardinia, came to the throne on the abdication of his father in 1730. He died in 1773. "He is the most insignificant looking fellow I ever saw; but he has so much good-nature, and such obliging manners, that one is soon reconciled to his appearance" (Scrope to George Selwyn, January 12, 1752).
[70] This was a characteristic habit of Gibbon's throughout life. In 1780 some verses were written by Richard Tickell, which purport to be addressed by Charles James Fox to his friend the Hon. John Townshend on his election to Parliament by the University of Cambridge. They contain the following lines:—
"Soon as to Brookes's thence thy footsteps bend,
What gratulations thy approach attend!
See Gibbon rap his box: auspicious sign
That classic compliment and wit combine."
Another description is given of Gibbon in "The Luminous Historian; or, Learning in Love," written by George Colman the Younger (Eccentricities for Edinburgh, pp. 73, 74).
"His person look'd as funnily obese
As if a Pagod, growing large as Man,
Had, rashly, waddl'd off its chimney-piece,