Blackett, William
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
- Title
- Blackett, William
- Full Text of Entry
-
(1759 - 1816), s. of Sir Edward Blackett of Newby Hall, Yorks; m. 1801 Mary Ann Keene; suc. fa. 1804 as 5th Bt.
1784 - 5 Turin (by 13 Oct. 1784), Bologna (20 Oct. 1784), Florence, Naples (by 8 Jan. 1785 - Feb.), Rome (21 Feb. - 20 Apr.), Venice (1 - 25 May), Mantua (29 May), Milan (16 Jun.), Turin
William Blackett's tour is partly described in fourteen letters to his father dated between 4 January and 16 June 1785 (Blackett letters MSS), from which his itinerary is taken. 'Blackit' was noticed at Turin on 13 October 17841 and was then presented at Court; on 20 October he was with Sir James Hall in Bologna.1 In Florence he acquired three crayon pictures from H.D. Hamilton: his own portrait ('he takes the strongest likenesses ever I saw'), copies of Raphael's Madonna della sedia and 'a fine picture' by Dolci.
He went on to spend two months in Naples where he met Sir James Douglas, the consul, Lady Clarges, Lady Hampden and the 10th Earl of Pembroke, as well as his unfortunate namesake Mrs Blackett (see Captain William Blackett). Neapolitan society, from the King to the lazzaroni, offended him with its vulgarity and ignorance; he saw a man stabbed in front of his window and commented that 'the streets are so full of these rascals that in the day time you are obliged to walk with your hands in your pockets[;] if you offer to make any resistance ... they whip a knife into you immediately'. His presentation at Court by Sir William Hamilton with more than twenty other English was not impressive: 'the King never speaks to any presented[,] you stand round the table while he & the Queen are at dinner'. Later he attended a Grande Chasse given by the King who gave each stranger a wild boar.
In Rome he stayed at Margherita's with Mark Davis, Richard Myddelton and a Mr Hesketh with their tutors. They took turns to give dinners near the Piazza di Spagna, and Blackett described playing whist with Lord Hampden, Lord Downe and the Welldons (who became his particular friends). He was entertained by Cardinal de Bernis, 'a very plain honest kindly man [who] looks like an Engl. Justice of peace'. He followed a six-week course of antiquities every day from ten o'clock till past three, which was cheaper, at a sequin a week, than those given by James Byres, which were thirty. Rome, however, was expensive, and he intended 'to go no further than some prints & drawings & perhaps a cameo'. He sent his sister some shell bracelets made by the best workmen in Rome. Thomas Jenkins told him that, although there were more English in Rome than he could remember, yet there was not a third of the money being spent that there used to be, so that 'the artists here await for our arrival just as we do in England for a flight of woodcock'. Blackett thought the English superior in painting, Jacob More and Gavin Hamilton 'being the best landscip & history painters'. He commissioned a dozen drawings from More, believing that 'after his death his landscips will be nearly as valuable as Clauds'. After passing Holy Week in Rome he moved on to Venice to see the Ascension Day festivities. In Venice he was again with Davis, as well as a Mr Sumner and a Mr Dumbleton whom he had met in Naples. On 29 May he was in Mantua, thence to Milan (where the Emperor of Austria, Joseph II, unexpectedly arrived to meet his brother, Peter Leopold, the Grand Duke of Tuscany). Blackett made an excursion to the Borromean Islands before proceeding to Turin. He intended staying with the Welldons in Switzerland during the summer, and seeing Vienna on his return journey.
1. Hall jnl.MSS 6326, f.126v.