(1724 - 79), 2nd s. of John, B. Hervey of Ickworth, Suff.; educ. Westminster; naval officer, lt. 1740, cdr. 1746, capt.1747, c.-in-c. Mediterranean 1763, v.-adml. 1778; m. 1744 in secret Elizabeth Chudleigh (see Ds. of Kingston); MP 1757 - 75; Dilettanti 1760; suc. bro. 1775 as 3rd E. of Bristol.
1747 Savona ( - 8 Oct.), Turin
1748 Leghorn (20 Feb. - 7 Mar.), Vado (10 Mar.), Savona (11 Mar.), Leghorn (27 Mar. - 23 Apr.), Vado (26 Apr. - 10 May), Leghorn (24 Jun.), Florence (26 Jun. - 1 Jul.), Leghorn (9 Jul.), Genoa (15 Jul.), Leghorn (late Jul.), Vado (30 Jul. - 8 Aug.)
1752 - 3 Genoa (27 Nov. - 30 Dec. 1752), Naples (4 Jan. - 21 Feb. 1753), Genoa (6 Jun.), Leghorn (10 Jun. - 20 Jul.), Naples (22 - 31 Jul.)
1754 Genoa (21 Aug. - 13 Sep.), Leghorn (16 - 23 Sep.), Genoa (24 - 29 Sep.)
1755 Genoa (2 Feb. - 11 Mar.; 27 Jul. - 7 Sep.)
1757 Genoa (18 Jul.), Leghorn (27 Jul. - 5 Aug.)
1758 Leghorn (21 - 30 Jul.), Genoa (4 - 20 Aug.)
A competent naval officer and a dedicated ladies man, Augustus Hervey's Journal describes his brief stays on the Italian mainland while he was serving with the Mediterranean fleet. He stayed principally at Leghorn, Genoa and Naples.1
At Leghorn his friends were the merchant John Birtles and the British consul Burrington Goldsworthy, with whom he visited Florence in June 1748. Horace Mann then gave him 'a conversationi in his gardens which he had illuminated in the manner of Vauxhall' (having been compelled to light the dark walks to avoid notoriety). In Genoa he was favoured by Mme de la Pietra Grimaldi, and in Naples by the Countess de Palena and the Princess of Francavilla, the Neapolitan carnival of 1753 being 'one continued round of dining, supping, dancing and - '. But his greatest affair was with Pellinetta Brignole-Sale whom he met in August 1754 in Genoa: 'here that intimacy began which lasted all the while I was in the Mediterranean, and which friendship can only finish with myself'. While most of his energies ashore were spent in the pursuit of pleasure, he did not entirely neglect Italian culture. He saw the collections in Florence; in 1753 he sketched the Temple of Baiae; he inspected the antiquities at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and in Naples he bought 'a great deal of the chinay of the King's manufactory ... 'tis bad chinay, but the painting and gilding is very fine'. It was also at Naples that he succeeded in smuggling out an Englishman, Mr Vernon, who was being detained on a charge of rape.
Hervey held no high opinion of Italian society which allowed a 'great princess [to stroll] round the streets for amusement and in a continual conversation with her own footmen'; he noticed that the Neapolitan nobility 'hate the Spaniards abominable, and love the Germans and the English', but overall he held the Neapolitans in low esteem.
1. Hervey (Aug.) Jnl., 57, 64 - 73, 131 - 42, 144 - 7, 171 - 3, 176 - 8, 181 - 4, 253 - 5, 288 - 90.