Fox, Hon. Charles James
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- Fox, Hon. Charles James
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(1749 - 1806), statesman, 2nd surv. s. of 1st B. Holland; educ. Eton and Hertford Oxf. 1764; L.Inn 1764; m. 1795 Elizabeth Armitstead; MP 1768 - 1806.
1766 - 8 [dep. England Sep. 1766] Naples (11 Nov. 1766 - 14 Mar. 1767), Rome (29 Mar.), Florence (by 13 Apr.), Milan, Turin (26 Apr.), Genoa (Apr. - May), Venice, Florence (Aug. - 17 Oct.), Turin (by 27 Oct. 1767) [France] Genoa (Apr. 1768), Bologna, Parma, Florence (15 Apr.), Rome (late Apr. - mid May), Terni, Loreto, Venice, Turin (12 Jul.)
1788 [dep. London Aug.] Parma, Cento, Venice (by 17 Oct.), Bologna (by mid-Nov.)
Interrupting his Oxford studies, Fox left England in September 1766 to meet his parents, Lord and Lady Holland, in Lyons in October. He then sailed with his father and his cousin Lord Offaly (who became the Marquess of Kildare in November 1766) from Marseilles to Naples, where they spent the following winter, together with Stephen Fox, Charles's older brother, and Stephen's wife, Lady Mary, see Henry, 1st Baron Holland.1
Fox left the rest of his family in Turin on 26 April 1767 and went on to Genoa to meet the 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam and Uvedale Price, Eton schoolfriends. Together they went to Venice for Ascension and then passed the summer in Florence. On 6 August Fox wrote 'I read nothing but Italian, which I am immoderately fond of, particularly of the poetry'. Kildare noticed that Fox 'has persuaded himself that he is in love', but he was very neglectful of the lady who appeared to have 'fixed her eye upon' Fitzwilliam.2 Fox told his parents on 22 September that he and Lord Fitzwilliam 'live a great deal together'. He was still in Florence with Kildare on 17 October, but by the 27th they had arrived together at Turin; by 4 November Fox had left for France.3 He left Paris later the same month for the Riviera with the 5th Earl of Carlisle,4 and in December he was with his parents (who had returned to France) spending the winter in Nice.
In April 1768 he sailed from Nice to Genoa where he again met Carlisle. They travelled through Bologna and Parma to Florence and by the end of April they had reached Rome. There Carlisle left him, but Fox remained to see the arrival of Maria Carolina, the new Queen of Naples, on 14 May. He then intended to return home via Terni, Loreto, Venice and Turin. He met Kildare, Fitzwilliam and Price in Turin in July,5 and with Price he visited Voltaire at Ferney in August.
Twenty years later, when he was the conspicuous leader of the opposition in Parliament, Fox returned to Italy with Mrs Armitstead, whom he was to marry in 1795. They left London in August 1788 and were in Venice in October staying at Pedrillo's. James Hare, a celebrated wit and Fox's close friend, was seen with Fox in Venice on 17 October and was perhaps travelling with them.6 Their brief tour ended at Bologna when a messenger brought news of George III's insanity and Fox, having received the news with 'great signs of exaltation',7 returned to England within nine days. Mrs Armitstead accompanied him as far as Lyons and then proceeded alone at a more leisurely pace.
In 1794 Fox wrote several letters recalling his own travels to his nephew, young Lord Holland (see Henry, 3rd Baron Holland), who was then in Italy.8 He had had no Italian master in Naples, 'so I taught myself'; in Florence 'I advise you to have a master and to read Dante and other difficult books'; he had 'always been partial' to Titian and Tintoretto, and considered Titian's Paul III in the Pitti 'by far the finest portrait in the world', while 'to doubt about Correggio, seems to me just as if a man were to doubt about Homer, or Shakespeare, or Ariosto'.
1. See Fox, Mem.and Corr., 1:27 - 45. 2. Leinster Corr., 3:486 (22 Aug. 1767). 3. Leinster Corr., 3:492 - 3, 496. 4. Jesse, Selwyn, 2:200. 5. Leinster Corr., 3:529 (13 Jul. 1768). 6. Abbot jnl.MSS. 7. Danby jnl.MSS (Nov. 1788). 8. Fox, Mem.and Corr., 3:68, 75, 86.