Parker, Hon. George
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
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- Parker, Hon. George
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(c.1697 - 1764) of Shirburn Castle, Oxon, o. surv. s. of Thomas, 1st B. Parker, cr. E. of Macclesfield 1721; Clare Camb. 1715 and Corpus Camb. 1718; sty. Vct. Parker 1721 - 32 when suc. fa. as 2nd E.; m. 1 1722 Mary Lane (d. 1753), 2 1757 Dorothy Nesbitt (d. 1779); MP 1722 - 7; PRS 1752 - 64; FSA 1752.
1719 - 22 Venice (by 15 Dec. 1719) Reggio d'Emilia, Parma, Modena (Jul. 1720), Verona, Vicenza, Padua (22 Sep.), Bologna (by 25 Nov. - 10 Dec. 1720), Venice ( - Feb. 1721), Ferrara (three days), Rimini, Loreto, Rome (12 - 17 Mar.), Naples, Rome (late Mar. - 23 Oct.), Leghorn, Pisa, Lucca (by 29 Nov.), Pistoia, [Bologna (7 Dec.)] Florence (by 22 Dec. 1721), Trevi (two months before Mar. 1722), Modena, Reggio d'Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Milan (Easter 1722), Bergamo, Brescia, Verona [London 17 Jul. 1722]
'Mr Parker, my Lord Chancellor's son' and 'Mr Moore a son of ye late Bishop of Ely's' were reported in Venice on 15 December 1719.1 It would appear that in 1720 the antiquary Edward Wright was sent out from England to accompany Parker elsewhere in Italy and he subsequently published a learned but laborious account of his travels with George Parker as Some Observations made in travelling through France, Italy, &c. in the years 1720, 1721, and 1722 [1730, 2nd ed. 1764 (refs. cited in brackets)]. It appears Wright travelled alone until he reached Reggio d'Emilia in the summer of 1720, but thereafter his Observations refer constantly to 'we'. Wright had arrived in Calais on 12 March 1720 and 'did but just pass thro' France', before leaving San Remo on 12 May for Genoa. 'Being obliged to pursue my journey onwards with what convenient speed I could', Wright travelled down through Pisa and Leghorn and, 'after a short stay in Rome,' travelled to Reggio d'Emilia in company with a Milanese Baron, with whom he conversed in Latin (27).
Parker and Wright then went through Parma and Modena in July (35) and thence through Verona, Vicenza and Padua, where they were recorded on 22 September.2 Parker was in Bologna on 25 November3 and wrote to his father describing the city on 10 December 17204 (although Wright does not describe the city until, apparently, December 1721). To judge from Wright's detailed descriptions, they stayed at Venice during the Carnival, early in 1721. From Venice they travelled to Ferrara and passed down the Adriatic coast, Wright describing how they took with them 'a double fede [or testimonial] one to certify we were well, the other that we were sick', to ensure they were not required to undergo quarantine (the plague was then prevalent in France) nor to forgo meat during Lent; 'twas necessary in our case to shuffle our cards right' (112). At Loreto both travelers were disconcerted, Wright describing 'the crawling of the pilgrims round the holy house on their hands on knees, saying over their beads, every now and then kissing the ground as they creep along' (123), and Parker, in a letter to his father of 15 March 1721,4 regretting the huge discrepancy between the 'vast treasure of jewels and other riches' at the Santuario della Madonna and the poverty of the inhabitants. They were briefly in Rome from 12 to 17 March when they set out for Naples. Wright described Naples as 'the finest [city] in Italy - the streets large, strait, and excellently well pav'd ... The Strada di Toledo is the principal street, and is the noblest I ever saw' (149). They returned to Rome for Holy Week, to discover that the death of Pope Clement XI (on 19 March) had curtailed the ceremonies.
They apparently stayed in Rome through the summer, since on 16 October 1721 Parker called on Rawlinson in Rome, having just learned of his father's elevation to the peerage (as the Earl of Macclesfield, so that Parker himself now became Viscount Parker). A week later he and Wright departed,3 going north through Leghorn, Pisa and Lucca (which Parker described to his father in a letter of 29 November),4 and from Pistoia to Florence, where Rawlinson recorded them on 22 December.3 From the Uffizi Parker acquired casts taken by Pietro Cipriani 'in copper' of the Venus de Medici and the Dancing Faun (both had recently been cast by Soldani, Cipriani's master, for the Duke of Marlborough) and additional casts of busts of Plautilla and Geta; Parker also took away the mould of the former, the Grand Duke not wishing it to be left in Florence (412; some casts remain at Shirburn Castle today). According to Wright, they had been in Bologna on 7 December, and afterwards passed through Modena, Reggio d'Emilia, Parma and Piacenza to Milan. There, he said, there were 'three entire galleries of pictures (several of them very fine) to be sold; they were General Martin's, General Aresi's, and Count Airoldi's'. His account also indicates they were still in Milan on Maunday Thursday and Good Friday 1722 (472). They left Italy through Bergamo, Brescia and Verona, thence 'we came by way of the Tirol, and so thro' Germany to Holland', finally reaching London on 17 July 1722.
Wright does not, of course, record Lord Parker's amorous propensities, but by February/March 1722 he had spent 'nearly two months at Trevi with a woman of Venice, not very beautiful, but much beloved by him. He lavished so much attention upon her that he scandalized his servants, some of whom wished to leave him'. He went with her from Trevi to Verona, to the annoyance of his father, who tried to have him stopped and directed that the lady should be secured 'either in a monastery, or where [his son] may not know how to find her'.5
1. SP 99/62, f.403 (Burges, 15 Dec. 1719). 2. Brown 1668 - 9. 3. Rawlinson jnl.MSS (25 Nov. 1720; 12, 17 Mar., 16, 23 Oct., 22 Dec. 1721). 4. Letters (BL, Stowe MSS 750) cited by Black 1984, 144, 147, 151. 5. HMC Var.Colls., 8:335.