Holland, Henry Richard Fox, 3rd Baron
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- Holland, Henry Richard Fox, 3rd Baron
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(1773 - 1840), only s. of 2nd B. Holland; suc. fa. 1774 as 3rd B.; educ. Eton and Ch.Ch. Oxf. 1790; m. 1797 Elizabeth Vassall, div. w. of Sir Godfrey Webster; FRS 1811.
1793 - 6 Naples (1793) [Gibraltar] Leghorn (23 Jan. 1794), Pisa, Florence (29 Jan. - ), Naples (Feb. - Mar.), Rome (May), Florence, Venice (27 May), Brescia, Bergamo (14 - 15 Jun.), (Florence (Jul. - Sep.), Pisa, Rome (Oct.), Naples ( - 28 Oct.), Rome, Florence (Nov. 1794 - May 1795), Venice (23 May), Lucca (Jun.), Pisa, Leghorn, Genoa (Jul.), Turin, Florence (Aug.), Bologna (Nov. 1795), Turin, Florence ( - 9 Feb. 1796), Rome (18 Feb. - 1 Mar.), Naples (Mar.), Rome, Florence ( - 11 Apr.), Rovigo (22 Apr.), Padua (23 - 24 Apr.) [England Jun.]
By the age of five Lord Holland had lost both his parents and he was brought up by his uncles, Charles James Fox and Lord Ossory. After leaving Oxford he went abroad in 1791, spending some time in Spain. He was in Italy in 1793 when he met Sir William Hamilton in Naples.1 In December 1793 he met Lord Granville Leveson-Gower at Majorca and they sailed together to Leghorn, arriving on 23 January 1794; 'he is really a very good and pleasant fellow', said Lord Granville, adding that he spoke Spanish very well.2 On 29 January they arrived in Florence, where Holland first met Lady Webster, the intelligent but discontented young wife of a comparatively elderly husband. Their relationship dominated his subsequent movements.3
'He is not in the least handsome', wrote Lady Webster on first seeing him; 'he has, on the contrary, many personal defects, but his pleasingness in manner and liveliness of conversation get over them speedily. He is just returned from Spain, and his complexion partakes of the Moresco hue. He is now in better health. He has a complex disorder, called an ossification of the muscles in his left leg'. She liked his 'gaiety beyond anything I ever knew' and he was 'full of good stories'. Holland and Lord Granville with Charles Beauclerk, 'silent and sulky', met the Websters in Naples that spring; Holland was 'sometimes too boisterous, and may occasionally overpower one, but he is good-humoured enough to endure a reproof', wrote Lady Webster. In May 1794 they were all in Rome, Lord Holland introducing Lady Webster to the verse of William Cowper and earning the name of sal volatile for his liveliness. Holland and Beauclerk saw the Websters briefly at Florence (where the Websters' last child was then born), as they went to Venice, where they arrived on 27 May.4 Holland was in Bergamo on 14 - 15 June,5 but he was soon back in Florence, awaiting the arrival of his friend Lord Wycombe, who came in July. Together these two went off to Rome and Naples in October, returning to Florence in November. There Holland gave a great ball on 21 November to celebrate his majority. The winter was passed in Florence, and on 25 March 1795 he gave Lady Webster verses for her birthday.
Her husband, Sir Godfrey Webster, returned to England alone in May 1795 and in June Holland and Lady Webster were together in Lucca. According to Lady Berwick, Lord Holland spent the summer there with Lady Webster (who, however, left in July), Lord Wycombe and 'a Frenchman', 'turning to ridicule religion and Government'.6 The Frenchman was doubtless one of the French painters Gauffier or Fabre. In 1795 Gauffier painted Lord Wycombe (Bowood), Sir Godfrey and Lady Webster (priv. coll.) and Lord Holland, while Fabre painted six portraits of Lord Holland (NPG; Eton College, etc.).7 Lord Holland even commissioned a small portrait of Napoleon from Gauffier, which he received in 1797.8 There was an excursion to Pisa and Leghorn with Mrs Frances Wyndham (the estranged wife of the Hon. William Wyndham) and Lady Webster, and they later went to Genoa. Holland visited Turin on his own. He was reading Pope's Iliad to Lady Webster at Florence in August 1795. In November they accompanied Mrs Wyndham to Bologna, and then Holland and William Wyndham went on to Turin. The winter was again passed in Florence, and in February Holland accompanied Lady Webster and her children to Rome.
Morritt saw them in Naples early in March 1796, commenting that Lady Webster was 'travelling' with Lord Holland, 'for that is the phrase', he explained, adding that there were 'four or five more of these 'travelling' couples'.9 In March Holland paid Angelica Kauffmann in Rome for a picture of three girls singing.(10) In April they were in Florence, Lord Holland driving Lady Webster to Prato on 11 April; he returned alone to Florence, where he asked Thomas Penrose to act as his agent for the works of art he had bought or commissioned in Florence, principally the portraits by Gauffier and Fabre (the list included the 'petit portrait en pied de Mylord Holland par Gauffier, celui de Milady Webster, celui du Chevalier Webster, un portrait de femme [Lady Bessborough]').(11)
Holland was in Rovigo on 22 April 1796 and he caught up with Lady Webster in Padua the next day.(12) They left on 24 April and proceded to Trieste, thence to Vienna and England. In November 1796 Lady Webster gave birth to their son, and they married the following year. They were to become the leaders of Whig society at Holland House in London.
1. See Morrison, 1:195 (no.247). 2. Granville Letters, 1:75, 81, 85, 89. 3. See Holland Jnl., 1:116 - 47. 4. ASV is 767. 5. ASV is 225. 6. Attingham MSS (Ldy. Berwick, 23 Dec. 1795). 7. See R.J. Walker, Regency Portraits (NPG), 256. 8. F. Russell, Burl.Mag., 136[1994]:443. 9. Morritt, Letters, 289. 10. Kauffman 1924, 168. 11. See P. Bordes, Minneapolis Inst.of Fine Arts Bull., 60[1971 - 3]:73 - 5. 12. ASV is 777, 783.