Beaufort, Elizabeth (Berkeley), Duchess of
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- Beaufort, Elizabeth (Berkeley), Duchess of
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(1719 - 99), dau. of John Symes Berkeley of Stoke Gifford, Glos.; m. 1740 4th D. of Beaufort (d. 1756); lived at Stoke Park, Wilts, inherited from her bro. Norborne Berkeley.
1771 - 4 [dep. England Oct. 1769; Nice, Oct. 1770 - May 1771] Turin (by 25 Nov. 1771 - ), Milan, Parma, Bologna, Siena, Rome (by 11 Dec. 1771 - ), Pisa and Florence (25 Apr. 1772 - Dec.), Siena, Rome, Capua (11 Dec.), Naples (Dec. 1772 - 6 May 1773), Rome (11 May - Jun.), Florence (by 3 Jul. - Nov.), Siena, Rome (by 23 Nov. 1773 - 10 May 1774), Spoleto, Foligno, Loreto, Ancona, Pesaro, Rimini, Forli, Bologna, Venice (14 Jun.), Vicenza, Milan (by 27 Jun.), Turin (by 1 Jul.) [Dover 17 Sep. 1774]
The widowed Duchess took with her to Italy her only surviving daughter (out of five), Lady Mary Somerset, and her orphaned grand-daughter, Lady Elizabeth (Betty) Compton, then nine years old.1 She was concerned about the health of both, and had asked Dr Middleton 'whether going into a warmer climate with these young people is likely to be of use'. He had recommended a winter in Nice, where they stayed from October 1770 until May 1771. Once in Italy the Duchess settled down to a punishing routine of visiting houses, gardens and collections. Her daughter and grand-daughter were seldom mentioned in her diaries during these visits, and may well have been closeted with governess and tutors.
The Duchess had arrived in Turin by 25 November 1771. She visited the Palazzo Reale where she saw the Royal Family of Savoy, and remarked on the pictures, dwelling on the famous Gerrit Dou of the dropsical woman. The sculpture and paintings she preferred depended on force of narrative or sentimental power. Donato Bagone was her guide in Bologna and M. L'Auditeur Bertolini in Siena. Rome was reached by 11 December 1771, but a volume of her diary is missing from 12 December 1771 to 18 June 1772. They had arrived to stay at Horace Mann's house in Pisa on 25 April,2 and they stayed on at Florence until December 1772. The Duchess was fascinated by the 'coup D'oeil' of the procession at the Palazzo Vecchio on the feast of St John, and she described the Loggia dei Lanzi.
They were in Naples in December 1772, having passed through Capua on the 11th.3 They visited Pompei with 'Ld Tylney, Baron Tuyll[?], Mr [the Rev. William] Preston, [Thomas] Chase, Mr Stoppard, Mrs Dolben & the Young ladies'; she commented on the columns 'none of wch are of good architecture, they are of brick cover'd with plaister and fluted'. She thought the Palace of Capo di Monte 'heavy and exceedingly ugly', but the pictures 'noble'. There was a March visit to Herculaneum and the Royal Palace where 'is a room lin'd with china made at Naples'.
Throughout the diaries the Duchess mentioned the books she and the girls read. She quoted copiously from Winckelmann '4 epochas and 4 stiles of ye Grecian Art' and Cochin's 'Voyage d'Italie'. In April she visited 'Ly Hamilton's' and one evening 'we went to Sir Wm Hamilton's where we saw several Electrical Experiments & an Representation of M. Vessuvius as it appeared at the Eruption of 1767'. On 6 May 1773 they left Naples for Rome meeting up with Thomas Jenkins, (whose collection she saw), Mrs Dolben and Mr Stopford [Stoppard?]. At her lodgings she received 'Mr Mansell Talbot, Mssrs. [Valentine] Quin Palmer & Brown and ye Abbot Grant'. But throughout her journey her company was equally French and Italian. In June she met Mengs at M. de St-Odile's and then 'went to his house & saw Ld Cowper's Picture'. The next day she visited '[William] Miller's a young english Painter.' She visited the Palazzo Colonna with Jenkins, and on 28 June she 'went with Mr byers to see a Chimney Piece afterward to ye ancient Temple of Claudius'.
By 3 July 1773 the party was back in Florence dining at Horace Mann's, but they had returned to Rome by 23 November. She continued to see a great deal of both James Byres and Thomas Jenkins. In January 1774 she visited St Peter's with Byres, and her diary reflects the pedagogue's manner; in February she saw in Byres's house 'a beautiful Assumption of the Virgin by Guido/£;100/ the Adoration of the Kings by Rubens admirable/£;100', and in March Byres 'came to read over Architecture with ye young ladies'. In April she visited more churches and houses with Byres and even went to conversations where 'Mr Byres gave a small lecture on Architecture first'. On 23 April 'Mr Maron came to draw Lady Betty's Picture' (of which Byres reported on 25 April 1775 it was 'esteem'd very like and extremely well finished by those who have seen it').4 With Byres again the entire party went to 'Minellis a sculptor and then to Hew[et]sons. They are both very good artists'. Father Thorpe meanwhile was observing that the Duchess took great care of her 'daughters', of whom Lady Mary, it was rumoured, was to marry the young Prince Bracciano; there were 'great disgusts' between the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland who were then in Rome;5 'the Duchess of Beaufort is disgraced by her imprudent refusal to wait upon them at their arrival', George Grenville confirmed to William Hamilton.6
They left Rome on 10 May 1774, going to Etruria and across the Appenines, stopping to see the Falls of Terni. They passed through Bologna where they met Donna Basso who 'often disputes in the Schools'. On 14 June they arrived in Venice;7 they visited 'Mrs [Joseph] Smith', and toured the city with George Grenville and John Udny (Joseph Smith's successor as consul), the Duchess finding St Mark's 'old & gloomy in a very bad stile of Architecture'. They proceeded to Vicenza ('the Olimpick Theatre a most beautiful Building'), and by 27 June were back in Milan inspecting buildings and silk factories. They met Sir William Lynch and a Mr G. Cooke in Turin on 1 July, before finally setting off home.
The Duchess had exercised her patronage in Italy. She commissioned two views of Florence from Patch (which were nearly finished in April 1774), and copies from Raphael and Guido Reni by William Parry. Mengs painted Lady Mary (received by Mann in April 1774). Byres designed a chimneypiece for her (Badminton), his original design having been shown to the Duchess by Mengs in Florence in July 1773. All these, with prints, casts and marble-topped tables, were shipped back to England through Byres. Five cases were acknowledged by the Duchess on 30 May 1775: 'they all arriv'd but some of the scagliola figures are miserably mained & defac'd', and five more were to be dispatched in April 1775, with the chimneypiece and the Maron portrait.
1. See her diary and letters, Badminton MSS, fmk 1/1/1 - 3, fmk 1/3/8,9. 2. Wal. Corr., 23:397n19. 3. ASN cra 1259. 4. Badminton MSS. 5. Thorpe letters MSS (12 Feb., 26 Mar., 9 Apr. 1774). 6. Add.41197, f.265 (Apr. 1774). 7. ASV IS 760.
L. A.S.