'Tis a very fine thing to be father-in-law To a very magnificent three-tailed Bashaw! - George Colman the Younger

Says he, 'I am a handsome man, but I'm a gay deceiver.'

Oh, London is a fine town, A very famous city,
Where all the streets are paved with gold, And all the maidens pretty.

Johnson's style was grand and Gibbon’s elegant; the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the polish of the latter was occasionally finical. Johnson marched to kettle-drums and trumpets. Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys. Johnson hewed passages through the Alps, while Gibbon levelled walks through parks and gardens.