(1762 - after 1834), s. of Rev. Harry Gordon; Aberdeen U.; an officer in D. of Gordon's regt. 1792; Sicily 1811 - 13; Brussels 1815 - d.
1797 - 1801 Florence (Oct. - Nov. 1797), Pisa (Dec. 1797 - Mar. 1798), Florence (Apr. - Jun. 1798), Naples (Mar. - Apr. 1799), Sicily (Apr. - Sep., with visit to Malta), Leghorn, Rome, Tuscany, Venice [England May 1801]
Pryse Gordon went to Italy in 1797 with his friend Lord Montgomerie, and their travels furnish part of his raffish Memoirs, in which a strict chronology is not observed.1 It was not a particularly good time to travel, with the French invasion of Italy under way, but this was a circumstance from which ultimately they profited. They first spent nine months in Florence and Pisa. In Florence 'in 1799' [perhaps 1798] Gordon met the daughter of the enamellist 'Gregory' [i.e. MacPherson] and bought a collection of his works for fifty crowns (1:444). With Montgomerie's health improving, they proceeded to Naples (having heard of King Ferdinand's march on Rome). They stayed six weeks, and left for Palermo in April 1799 as the French approached Capua (1:191, 200). Gordon later alleged he acted as interpreter for Nelson's forces at the suppression of Ruffo's lazzaroni (2:343 - 4, see William Hamilton). Gordon visited Malta and explored Sicily (1:229) before they sailed in September to Leghorn, whence they passed straight to Rome.
'At this time there was not a single Englishman in Rome, except two or three artists' (1:230) - of whom he named his uncle Mr [Colin] Morison (1:444), 'who had lived more than half a century at Rome' (2:11), Alexander Day (2:12) and Angelica Kauffman (2:55), to whom Montgomerie sat in highland costume.2 Despite the desertion of the city, they undertook a six-week course on the antiquities from John Rushout and a Mr More which, however, they found 'irksome' and gave up (1:230). Gordon observed that since they 'were the first Englishmen who visited Rome after the counter revolution' they could have acquired many works of art very cheaply, for since the French had abrogated the Roman law by which family pictures were regarded as heirlooms, they were being sold off by impoverished families. Gordon managed to acquire a Titian and an Annibale Carracci, which he mentioned 'to show what bargains, if one had funds, might have been picked up at this time; but shortly after hordes of English arrived, and the market rose 500%' (2:11 - 15). Lord Montgomerie developed an interest in architecture and pictures on which he laid out a few hundred pounds (2:37). Gordon also bought portfolios of drawings in Florence (some of which he sold to William Ottley), and in Sicily he had acquired 'nearly 2000 Greek medals chiefly in copper'.
They returned to Tuscany in April 1800 and left Italy through Venice. After travelling through Germany they arrived back in England in May 1801 (1:233 - 4).
1. Gordon, Personal Memoirs; page refs. in brackets. 2. Kauffman 1924, 187.