Edward Gibbon.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
In Childe Harold Byron described the sceptical Gibbon as
“Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.”
REFERENCES TO:
John Whishaw to Thomas Smith, 8 January 1814 in The “Pope” of Holland House: Selections from the Correspondence of
John Whishaw and his Friends 1813-1840. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906).