(c.1705 - 71) of Moulsham Hall, Essex, Emmanuel Camb. 1721; M.Temple 1723, called 1729; cr. Bt. 1765; m. Anne Mildmay.
1730 - 1 [Marseilles 25 Jul. 1730] Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Rome, Naples (by 20 Nov. 1730), Rome (by 14 Dec. 1730), Venice
Mildmay described his travels in Italy in a long letter written from Naples on 20 November 1730.1 He was accompanied by his 'good friend and relation Mr Wycke'. They sailed from Toulon to Genoa and thence to Leghorn, where 'there are computed to be about 43 English families at present & our language is as frequently heard in the streets & coffee houses, as the Italian itself'. They came through Pisa and Lucca to Florence, where, apart from remarking that in the Venus de Medici 'Art had produced what nature never yet has, a woman without faults', Mildmay described the last of the Medici Grand Dukes, Giovanni Gastone, passing his time in 'perpetual drunkenness, that vice rendering him incapable of executing Himself any other, his pleasure is to see others do it, particularly tis said that he takes great delight in seeing the sin of Sodomy acted before his eyes'. Spending only a day in Rome, they came to Naples where they evidently spent several weeks, to judge by the sights Mildmay describes (frequently with quotations from Virgil). His letter ends as they were about to return to Rome. On 14 December they called on Stosch in Rome,2 and on 22 December Mildmay wrote to the Earl of Westmoreland from Rome, describing how the Pretender and his Irish adherents were very 'diligent in intrudeing themselves into the company of all travellers' by offering to lend them the English newspapers; Mildmay said he intended leaving in a few days for Venice.3
1. Mildmay jnl.mss. 2. SP 98/32, f.130 (Walton, 14 Dec. 1730). 3. HMC 10th Rpt., 4:32 (the letter misdated 1720).