Hamilton, Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
- Title
- Hamilton, Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of
- Full Text of Entry
-
(1756 - 99), 2nd s. of 6th D. of Hamilton [S]; educ. Eton; suc. bro. 1769 as 8th D.; m. 1778 Elizabeth Burrell (div. 1794); KT 1785.
1775 - 6 [Geneva, Aug. 1772 - Jun. 1774; Germany, 1774 - 5; Vienna, Sep. 1775] Venice (31 Oct. - ), Rome (by 2 Dec. 1775), Naples (5 Mar. - 7 May 1776), Rome ( - 19 May), Florence (21 May - 14 Jun.), Bologna (two nights), Milan (19 Jun.), Turin [Geneva, by 30 Jun.]
Of a delicate constitution, the young 8th Duke of Hamilton resided on the Continent for four years with Dr John Moore as his 'tutor, preceptor, friend & physician'. Dr Moore's young son John (who was to become the hero of Corunna) also accompanied them, his father explaining that 'having now got a commission in the army, [Jack] considers himself no longer as a boy'. The Doctor had originally been summoned by the Duchess of Hamilton to attend her older son, the consumptive 7th Duke who had died in 1769.1
They visited Paris and spent two years in Geneva (where they were painted together in 1774 by Preud'home; Royal Museum of Scotland), before going on to Germany. In September 1775 Hamilton, who had shown himself susceptible to feminine charm, assured his mother from Vienna that it was not for 'Men or Women I wish to go to [Italy], but for the sake of the country itself', adding that he had 'not read the Roman classics with so very little feeling as not to wish to view the Country which they describe, and where they were written'.2
They arrived in Venice on 31 October 17753 and were in Rome by 2 December, when Patrick Home wrote that he had seldom seen a tutor 'whose manner with his Pupil pleases me so much'.4 Hamilton began to sit to Batoni for a whole-length portrait which is dated 1775 (Clark/Bowron 388; priv. coll.), although the head alone was complete in May 1776. By 6 January he had bought a large statue of Venus from Gavin Hamilton5 (who had previously painted Hamilton's mother). The Duke also commissioned from Gavin Hamilton the large history picture, Hector's farewell to Andromache (Holyrood) and sat for his portrait with Dr Moore and his son (priv. coll.) - an elaborate picture, including a view stretching from the Forum to the Alban Hills, which was not finished until the summer of 1777.6 Hamilton was prepared to spend further on virt?, but Moore restrained him: 'with infinite difficulty I got him turned from giving two hundred and fifty pounds for a little cameo of Caligula', and there was a necklace of antiques intended as a present for his mother which was 'ugly in itself', which he gave up 'after much persuasion'.7 They were attended in Rome by James Byres, and encountered the Countess of Albany and the Young Pretender who, doubtless recalling the Hamilton's previous Jacobite sympathies, 'kept his eyes fixed upon the Duke in a most remarkable manner'.7
On 5 March 1776 they arrived in Naples8 where Hamilton became involved with a lady, apparently Lady A - n, about whom he corresponded with Sir William Hamilton.9 Sir H F [Harry Fetherstonhaugh] became 'the Duke's inseparable companion', although Moore did not entirely approve.7 When they left on 7 May they were 'proposing to be home in a few months'.(10) They spent a week in Rome, which would have been less, explained Moore, but for 'his Grace's sitting to Pompeio'; the 'Face only' was finished of the 'large full length' when they left. Leaving Fetherstonhaugh in Rome, they reached Florence in two days, arriving in some style with 'four footmen in crimson laced with silver'; 'the number of Horses Requisite is Inconvenient in Italy', wrote Moore, but 'there is no help for this; with the Duke's disposition and at his age conveniency is generally sacrificed to show'.7 On 1 June Moore reported that Hamilton was 'not blind to the charms of the Countess of Albany', but they had left Florence within two weeks. At Bologna they met Sir William and Lady Hamilton and stayed briefly in Milan and Turin before arriving in Geneva by 30 June. On 11 July 1776 Moore wrote from Geneva that Hamilton was undecided as to whether to spend a further winter abroad. In 1781 Dr Moore published his View of Society and Manners in Italy, which further described their tour.
1. See R.B. Ford, Burl.Mag., 97[1955]:376 - 8. 2. 10 Aug. 1775. For Moore's letters, see Argyll, Intimate Society Letters of the 18th cent., 2:413 - 16. 3. ASV is 760. 4. Home letter bk.MSS (2 Dec. 1775). 5. Michaelis, 300. 6. Pelham letters MSS, f.287 (2 Aug. 1777). 7. Moore, 24 May 1776. 8. SP 93/31 (Hamilton). 9. Morrison, 1:45 - 8 (nos.64 - 8). 10. SP 93/31 (Hamilton, 7 May).