(1749 - 1820), s. of 8th E. of Leven [S]; sty. Ld. Balgonie 1754 - 1802 when suc. fa. as 9th E.; m. 1784 Jane Thornton.
1774 - 5 Turin (late 1774), Florence (by 24 Jan. 1775), Rome (30 Jan. - Apr.), Naples (6 May - Jun.) with visit to Paestum; Rome (by Jul.), Padua, Venice (23 Sep.) [Strasbourg by Dec.]
Lord Balgonie was in France accompanied by Dr Andrew Marshall, either his tutor or companion, who appears to have returned to Scotland when Balgonie went on to Italy in 1774.1 Balgonie arrived in Turin via Mont Cenis towards the end of the year. In Florence on 24 January 1775 he met the Young Pretender and his wife, both of whom he knew well, and Cardinal York, 'who is immensely rich, weak and a bigot'; he also mentioned the 'stinginess of the Grand Duke [Leopold]'. By the end of January he had reached Rome where he remained three months, the Abb? Grant describing him as 'extremely prudent, uncommonly accomplished, [and] universally beloved', and he was admitted to the Arcadian Society on 10 April.2 He spent May and June in Naples where he met Sir Roger Newdigate and his family3 and visited Pompeii and Paestum, but he carried back to Rome a strong impression of 'beggary and cruelty to animals'. In Rome Grant guided him around the festivities held in honour of the Archduke Maximilian, but Balgonie suffered from heat and fatigue. On 23 September he arrived in Venice, where he stayed with 'milord Plegol' [J.C. Pleydell?] and 'milord Satter'[?],4 and had two narrow escapes from drowning; in Padua he was nearly bitten by a scorpion in his bed.5 He had returned home by October 1776.
1. See W. Fraser, Melvilles and the Leslies, 1:353 - 9. 2. Leven and Melville MSS, SRO, GD 26/11/90. 3. Newdigate MSS, B 3012/47 (Balgonie, 24 Jun.[1755]). 4. ASV is 760. 5. Black 1992, 186.
