Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of
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- Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of
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(1735 - 1811), statesman, 1st surv. s. of Ld Augustus Fitzroy; sty. E. of Euston 1747 - 57 when suc. gd.-fa. as 3rd D. of Grafton; educ. Westminster and Peterhouse, Camb. 1751; m. 1 1756 Hon. Anne Liddell, dau. of 1st B. Ravensworth (div.1769), 2 1769 Elizabeth Wrottesley; MP 1756 - 7; KG 1769; BM Trustee 1793 - 1811.
1753 - 4 Turin (by 28 Nov. 1753), Florence, Rome, Naples ( - 26 Mar. 1754), Rome (Mar.), Florence
1761 - 2 Genoa, Turin (Nov. - 30 Dec. 1761), Milan, Rome (1 Feb. 1762 - 11 Apr.), Florence (15 Apr. - 8 May), Bologna, Turin ( - 19 May) [London 1 Sep.]
After leaving Cambridge he first went to Italy in 1753, as the Earl of Euston, but little is recorded of his tour. He had with him a Swiss tutor, All?on, 'a real gentleman ... more fitted to form the polite man than to assist or encourage, any progress in literary pursuits'.1 He was in Turin in November 17532 and went on to Rome via Florence; in March 1754 he visited Naples where he was presented to the Queen, but he stayed only a few days before setting out for Rome on 26 March.3
As the 3rd Duke of Grafton he returned to Italy in 1761 - 2, allegedly for the sake of his Duchess's health, but the motif was more probably an attempt to retrieve a floundering marriage.4 They took with them their four-year-old daughter Georgiana (later Mrs John Smyth). Walpole, an admirer of the Duchess, announced her visit to Horace Mann: 'She is one of our first great Ladies. She goes first to Genoa - an odd place for her health, but she is not very bad. The Duke goes with her, and as it is not much from inclination that she goes, perhaps they will not agree whither they shall go next. He is a man of strict honour, and does not want sense, nor good breeding; but is not particularly familiar, nor particularly good-humoured, nor at all particularly generous'.5 They were next in Turin, where the Duke was privileged to wear the royal hunting uniform, an uncommon distinction, accorded because he was a distant relative of the King of Sardinia. Louis Dutens made a great fuss of them, 'procuring so many amusements, that instead of eight days, as they at first proposed, they remained at Turin eight weeks'.6 They left on 30 December and stayed briefly in Milan, where the Duke was able to renew his acquaintance with the Count de Firmian (whom he had met on his youthful tour in Naples). They travelled down the Adriatic coast to Rome, where they arrived on 1 February 1762. They stayed at Leoncilli's hotel on the Via Babuino (see above, p.xxiii), intending 'to pass some months with us', wrote the Abb? Grant, who had eased their passage through the Roman Custom House, and had observed that the Duchess was served 'by the amiable Princess Colonna'.7 The Duke sat to Batoni (NPG; Clark/Bowron 255) and met John Hinchliffe, who became a lifelong friend. In March he went with the 3rd Duke of Roxburghe, the Marquess of Tavistock, Sir Richard Lyttelton and others to the Vatican library, to examine Egyptian characters.8 His Duchess meanwhile indulged a love of cards9 and Walpole reported in March that she was one of those 'miraculously' preserved in Rome 'by being at loo, instead of going to a grand concert, where the palace fell in'.(10)
They left Rome on Easter Sunday, 11 April 1762, and came to Florence on 15 April.(11) There the Duchess, who made some study of Italian and music, was attended by the Countess Marianna Acciaioli, and fussed over by Mann.(12) They left Florence on 8 May, intending to pass a day in Bologna and two in Turin, before passing two months in Geneva and returning to England in August; the Duchess was 'certainly harried out of Italy contrary to her inclinations', wrote Mann.(13) They were in England on 1 September, when Walpole found the Duchess changed, thinner and 'not dressed French, but Italian, that is, over-French'.14
1. See Grafton's Autobiography, 3 - 4, 17 - 19. 2. SP 105/310, f.192 (Rochford, 28 Nov. 1753). 3. SP 93/13 (Gray, 12 Mar. 1754). SP 105/310, f.270 (Gray, 26 Mar. 1754). 4. See B. Fothergill, Strawberry Hill Set, 244ff. 5. Wal.Corr., 21:506 (14 May 1761). 6. Dutens, Memoirs, 1:251. 7. W. Fraser, Chiefs of Grant, 534 (6 Feb. 1762). See also Wal.Corr., 21:557, 565n11. 8. Lyttelton letters mss (24 Mar. 1762). 9. Wal.Corr., 10:23. 10. Wal.Corr., 10:23. 11. Wal.Corr., 22:20. 12. Ibid., 27, 29. 13. Ibid., 34, 39. 14. Ibid., 80.