(1736 - 1818), traveller and scientist, s. of Robert Brydone of Coldingham, Ber.; spent much time in Switzerland 1765 - 79; FRS, FSA; m. by 1786 Mary Robertson.
1769 - 70 Florence (Nov. 1769); Naples (May 1770), Sicily [and Malta] (14 May - 1 Aug.), Naples (Aug.), Rome
Brydone had spent much of his time in Switzerland from 1765, experimenting with electricity. In 1769 - 71 he travelled in Italy as bear-leader to William Fullarton. They were in Florence in November 17691 and in Naples the following May. Between 14 May and 1 August they toured Sicily and Malta, accompanied by a Mr Glover. On returning to Naples on 1 August 1770 Brydone was proposing to spend the winter in Rome before returning to Switzerland via 'Loreto, Bologna, &c & c; the old beaten track'.2
In 1773 Brydone published his Tour through Sicily and Malta describing his journey in the form of letters addressed to William Beckford of Somerley, who 'had ever neglected the island of Sicily'. Brydone explained how he had been 'animated' by a similar journey undertaken by William and Mrs Hamilton with Lord Fortrose in the summer of 1769.3 His Tour, a careful compilation with copious classical references and scientific data, contained several descriptions of the wild landscape; from the top of Mount Etna 'no imagination has dared to form an idea of so glorious and magnificent a scene. Neither is there on the surface of the globe any one point that unites so many awful and sublime objects ..'. The Tour achieved great popularity, despite which both the 10th Earl of Pembroke4 and Charles Parker5 pronounced it unreliable. George Tatem, a former consul in Sicily, called it 'a romance' which, by publishing unguarded conversations with priests and others, had done harm, making Sicilians afraid to speak with travellers.6 Some of Brydone's travel journals are among the Blair Adam MSS (SRO).
1. Gazz.Tosc. 2. Brydone, Tour, 2:353. 3. Ibid., 1:2. 4. Blackett letters MSS (8 Jan. 1785). 5. Parker letters MSS, b 2100 (19 Nov. 1783). 6. Farington Diary (20 Oct. 1805).