Berwick, Thomas Noel (Hill), 2nd Baron
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- Berwick, Thomas Noel (Hill), 2nd Baron
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(1770 - 1832) of Attingham Hall, Salop, e. s. 1st B. Berwick; Jesus Camb. 1789; suc. fa. 1789 as 2nd B.; FSA 1801; m. 1812 Sophia Dubochet; d. Naples.
1792 - 4 [dep. Dover Jul. 1792] Turin (by 15 Oct. 1792), Genoa, Parma, Bologna, Florence, Siena, Viterbo, Rome (Nov.), Naples (Dec. 1792 - 29 Mar. 1794) with visits to Rome (Apr. 1793, Apr. 1794) [Harwich 8 Jun. 1794]
1797 Naples (spring 1797), Rome (by 9 Nov.)
Lord Berwick and his knowledgable near contemporary Edward Clarke travelled to Italy in 1792 with Henry Tufton (some five years their junior). By 15 October they were in Turin but, considering it uncomfortably close to the French, they promptly set out for Rome and Naples. They were in Rome in November 1792, and Berwick immediately set about commissioning works of art; he 'is employing Angelica Kauffman in painting, and I am now selecting passages from the poets for her to paint for his house at Attingham', wrote Clarke; 'he has left me to follow my own taste in painting and sculpture. I have ordered for him two superb copies of the Venus de Medicis and the Belvedere Apollo, as large as the originals; they will cost near 1000 £;. In painting I have selected two passages from Euripides, to be executed by Grignion; Freedom, from Chatterton's Ode, by Angelica Kauffman; his portrait, and another allegorical painting by the same artist. The sculpture will be executed by an English artist [Deare], in marble brought from Carrara'.1 Later in Rome (April 1793) Sir William Forbes met Deare 'at breakfast at Lord Berwick's, who had given him a commission for copies of the Venus of Medicis, and the Apollo Belvedere at the price of £;700. ... I saw Lord Berwick give him a draught on his Banker in London for one half the sum to begin with.'2 Deare remarked he had been preferred in spite of all Thomas Jenkins's attempts to promote Hewetson.3 Deare's Venus never reached England, being captured by the French en route, but his Apollo arrived safely, remaining at Attingham until the sale of 1827.
Lord Berwick reached Naples at the end of December 1792, meeting there his mother and sisters. He gave two balls, on 5 and 23 March 1793, possibly to mark the engagement of his sister Henrietta to Lord Bruce5 (they were married on 21 May at La Quercia), see Charles, Lord Bruce. Although Tufton may have left Naples on his own soon after the winter of 1793 - 4, (when Robert Parker saw him there4), Berwick stayed on until March 1794, increasingly attentive to Lady Plymouth. Lady Webster observed this growing attachment in May 1793; Palmerston called them Cymon and Iphigenia, for 'until their attachment began Ld. B. was never heard to speak'.6 On 30 September 1793 Berwick announced a scheme to travel in Egypt and the Holy Land, but it had been cancelled by December.7 Lady Webster saw him again in Naples early in 1794, observing that he then 'behaved shockingly to poor Ly. Plymouth: she is very unhappy. He speaks to her and of her with the most disrespectful familiarity'.8 Lord Berwick finally left Naples with Clarke on 29 March 1794 (Lady Plymouth left Naples the same month) and after spending the month of April in Rome they landed at Harwich on 8 June.9 For a further account of this tour, see Edward Clarke.
On the death of his mother in Italy in March 1797, Lord Berwick returned to escort his sisters home. He probably travelled out with his uncle Leveson Vernon. From Rome in November William Artaud noticed that, 'not discouraged by his former misfortune, [he] has purchased some very fine antique statues';10 on 9 November he bought two pieces from Pacetti (apparently a statue of Iris and a bust of a girl).(11) See Leveson Vernon.
The cost of Lord Berwick's subsequent alterations to Attingham led to the sale of 1827 in which Deare's Apollo and other Italian acquisitions were sold, including an antique statue of Aesculapius and a candelabrum (both repaired by Deare) and a circular sarcophagus. A number of paintings survived however, testifying Lord Berwick's Italian patronage: grisailles of classical sculpture (some dated 1792 - 5) by Fagan (who also acted as his agent in Rome); Angelica Kauffman's portrait of Lord Berwick (1793), Cupid's Wound (1793) and Bacchus and Ariadne (1794); eight pictures by Philipp Hackert (1792 - 7), two views by Van Loo, one dated 1794, and a set of landscapes by G.A. Wallis, the artist with whom Lord Berwick had intended to travel to Egypt. After the sale Lord Berwick retired to Italy, where he died at Naples in 1832.
1 Clarke, Life, 1:131 - 2. 2. Forbes jnl.MSS. 3. Add.36497, f.288 (Deare, 1 Mar. 1794). 4. Parker list MSS. 5. Attingham MSS. Parker list MSS. 6. Holland Jnl., 1:29. 7. Clarke, Life, 1:171, 184. 8. Holland Jnl., 1:123. 9. Clarke, Life, 1:229, 234, 245. 10. Artaud letter bk.MSS (20 Nov. 1797). 11. Pacetti giornale.