(1739 - 1827), dau. of Dr Ralph Bourchier, niece and h. of John Bourchier; m. 1761 Giles Earle (1732 - 1811), s. of Giles Earle MP of Eastcourt Ho., Wilts, and possibly the 'George Earle' Dilettanti 1776.
1770 - 1 Rome (by Nov. 1770 - Sep. 1771) with visits to Castel Gandolfo and Naples
In November 1770 Mr and Mrs Earle were in Rome, where Dr Burney noted a Kirckman harpsichord (one of the three harpsichords in Italy) belonging to the 'Hon Mrs Earl'.1 They were at Castel Gandolfo by 20 May 1771, passing the summer in Cardinal Albani's villa2 where, wrote James Byres, 'considering the heats and Mr Earls loose frame [there] must be a good Bracing Air, for he dates Mrs Earls pregancy from there. They are, I really think good natured wellmeaning People, and had they not lived at Paris some time [presumably on their way to Italy] they would have done very well'.3 Byres said they left Rome early in September, and at some point they were in Naples, as Earle mentioned in an undated letter.4 He had 'prolonged his stay in Rome purely to oblige Mrs Earle' who 'applies to her music most assiduously ... from a Tom-tit she is become very near a nightingale'; she had spent, with Papal dispensation, a day in a convent, and the Pope 'has shown us both many marks of the most condescending distinction'; but otherwise he found Rome 'a horrid city with regard to diversions and public places', and its society generally he thought lacked 'manners & education'; they had seen St Peter's illuminated but the attendant Roman processions were 'more striking for their singularity than magnificence'; Naples he considered to be 'the sink of profligacy & vice'. It is likely that the Earles acquired on their visit Hewetson's bust of Pope Clement XIV which is dated 1771 (Beningbrough),5 a set of views of Naples by Pietro Antoniani, and landscapes by H.P. Dean and Delane.6 A Mr Earle gave 100 sequins for a copy by Stern of Volterra's Deposition in 1771,7 and Piranesi dedicated plates in his Vasi, Candelabri, Cippi [1778] to each of them ('Sir Egidio' and 'Lady Margherita').
1. Tour, 299. See J. Simon, Beningbrough Hall, [1992], 19 - 20. 2. Byres letters MSS c (20 May 1771). 3. Ibid. (30 Sep.). 4. Hull U., Brynmor Jones Lib., ddbh/26/31. 5. Treasure Houses, 190. 6. See Simon (at n1), 27n5. 7. Thorpe letters MSS (23 Mar., 25 May 1771).
