(1747 - 1809) of Gorhambury, Herts, e. s. of 2nd Vct. Grimston [I]; educ. Eton and Trin.Hall Camb.1766; suc. fa. 1773 as 3rd Vct.; m. 1774 Harriot Walter (d. 1786); MP 1783 - 90; FSA and FRS 1786; cr. B. Verulam 1790.
1770 - 2 Turin (by 8 Dec. 1770 - 18 May 1771), Vicenza, Pavia (by 30 May), Milan (Jun.), Bologna, Florence, Siena (Aug.), Rome (by 10 Nov. 1771 - 18 Jan. 1772), Naples (Jan. - Mar.), Padua
Grimston travelled with his Eton and Cambridge contemporary Thomas de Grey. They attended the Academy at Turin, where they arrived on 8 December 1770,1 Grimston paying for six month's residence on the 18th.2 Sir William Lynch had told Horace Mann on 15 December that de Grey and Grimston were 'the only two English' in Turin.3 De Grey, and presumably Grimston, left Turin on 18 May 1771. They were introduced to society at Vicenza through a letter from Thomas Lyttelton to 'Madame la Comtesse Tresina', written at Turin on 15 May.4 On 30 May 1771 de Grey was called back to England from Pavia, and the companions were separated.
Grimston was in Milan in June and progressed through Bologna to Florence and Siena, where he had an affair with one Caterina Azzoni, the daughter of the family with whom he was staying. In Rome he stayed from at least 10 November 1771 to 18 January 1772 with the merchant Barazzi's family; it was on 10 November that he received an audience from the Pope, 'one of the most affable men'.5 He was much taken by the 'exceedingly clever' Piranesi, and on 1 December he paid 300 livres for 'les Estampes de Piran?se';6 he sat to Batoni (Clark/ Bowron 342; Gorhambury), to whom he paid 410 sequins on 14 January and 43 ducats on 18 February, by which time he was in Naples. He stayed until at least 2 March, before returning home via Padua. In Naples he appears to have purchased works by Pietro Fabris.7
1. Moore 1985, 65. 2. N. King, Grimstons of Gorhambury, 61. 3. SP 105/320, f.258. 4. King (at n2), 61 - 5; Grimston's accts. and letters are at Gorhambury, and his jnl. in the Hertford CRO. 5. Verulam 1935, 294. 6. W. Rieder, Burl.Mag., 117[1975]:586. 7. F. Russell, CL, 30 May 1985, 1508.