(1704 - 81), s. of 1st E. of Hopetoun [S]; sty. Ld. Hope - 1742 when suc. fa. as 2nd E.; FRS 1728; m. 1 1733 Ldy. Anne Ogilvy (d. 1759), dau. of 5th E. of Findlater [S], 2 1762 Jean Oliphant (d. 1767), 3 1767 Ldy. Elizabeth Leslie, dau. of 5th E. of Leven [S].
1725 - 6 Florence ( - 11 Dec. 1725), Rome (by 22 Dec. 1725 - Sep. 1726), Florence, Bologna, Venice (late Sep. - Oct.), Padua (11 Oct. 1726) [England May 1727]
On 11 December 1725 Lord Hope and his governor William Dundas had left Florence for Rome.1 'Lord Hope, eldest son of Lord Hopton, a Scot, with his Governor Dundas' was among the 'Several English' in Rome to see the ceremony of the closing of the Holy Door in December.2 He benefited from several letters from his uncle, the 2nd Marquess of Annandale (see James, Lord Johnston), who urged him to cultivate 'the acquaintance and favour of the learned and ingenious men': 'I would rather hear of this, with some of your observations upon Raphael, Bramante, Michelangelo, Bernini and Borromini & ca., than know where you lodge'.3 Hope got to know several antiquarians in Rome, including Ficoroni and the caricaturist P.L. Ghezzi, who thought Milord 'Opp' a 'dilettante molto di cose antiche'; he also met the Marchese Niccolini (whom Robert Adam and Charles Hope-Weir were to meet much later in Pisa).4 Hope undertook several commissions for his uncle and sat for his (unattributed) portrait (priv. coll.; now labelled 'Done in Roma after an illness'), before leaving Rome apparently early in September 1726. He passed through Florence and Bologna (where he made drawings for his uncle of the Villa Albergatti) to Venice where he saw a Carnival and regatta given by Cardinal Ottobani towards the end of September. He stayed on in October to meet the poet Scipio Maffei, and was in Padua on 11 October.5 He then made his leisurely way home through Munich and Paris.
He may have returned to Italy in 1737 - 8. George Sinclair met a Lord Hope in Rome in December 1737.6
1. SP 98/25 (Colman, 11 Dec. 1725). 2. SP 85/15, f.519 (Walton, 22 Dec. 1725). 3. See Fleming, Adam, 9 - 13. 4. Fleming, Adam, 128. 5. Brown 1825. 6. Sinclair jnl.MSS.