Travis, George

Letters to Edward Gibbon

London By C. F. and J. Rivington 1785 Author of the History of the Decline and Fall, of the Roman Empire. The Second Edition, Corrected, and Considerably Enlarged. 8vo. [214 x 135 x 35 mm]. vi, [ii], 376, 61, [1], iv pp. Bound in contemporary tree calf, the covers with a gilt chain roll border. Smooth spine divided into six panels by a gilt pallet and fillets, lettered in the second panel on a red goatskin label, the others tooled with an alternating vase and a large unopened flower-head surrounded by stars, the edges of the boards hatched in gilt, marbled endleaves, yellow edges. (Two small patches of insect activity on the spine and front cover). A very good copy in a handsome binding. There are a few small holes caused by faulty press work, and two words have been added in manuscript on p.2. There are a number of other contemporary manuscript corrections. The title page has been signed by E. Baker, and the facing page is covered with his notes, beginning "This excellent performance was Presented by the Author, to his Admiring and Zealous Friend. E. Baker". Mr. Baker seems to have been somewhat obsessed with death. He mourns his friend, who died in 1797: "Archdeacon Travis is gone to that silent shore, where he will be no longer buffeted by the billows of controversy", and he goes on to relate the detail of Gibbon's death, somewhat gleefully, adding that "he has left every thing indiscriminately to a young Swiss gentleman to whom he was attached and who accompanied him last year to England". There is also an inserted slip of paper on which Baker has written down the order of the procession at Captain Alexander Hope's funeral. Travis's Letters to Edward Gibbon, in defence of the genuiness of the disputed verse in St. John's First Epistle, v.7, were first published at Chester in 1784. This second edition was much expanded, and was followed by a third edition in 1794. He was answered by Porson, whose Letters to Travis first appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1788-9. Gibbon himself said "the brutal insolence of Mr. Travis's challenge can only be excused by the absence of learning, judgement, and humanity". In contrast he considered Porson's answer to be "the most acute and accurate piece of criticism which has appeared since the days of Bentley".

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