Pembroke, Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of
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- Pembroke, Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of
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(1734-94), s. of 9th E. of Pembroke; sty. Ld. Herbert - 1750 when suc. fa. as 10th E.; educ. Eton; army officer, capt. 1st Drag.Gds. 1754, lt.-col. 1st Ft. 1756, maj.-gen. 1761; Dilettanti 1759; m. 1756 Ldy. Elizabeth Spencer (1737 - 1831), dau. of 3rd D. of Marlborough.
1753 - 5 Venice (7 Mar. 1753 - ), Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Rome (by 14 Apr.), Florence (Jun. - Aug. 1753) with visits to Pisa (17 Jun.) and Siena ( - 8 Aug.); Rome, Florence ( - Aug. 1754), Genoa (1 Sep.), Leghorn (16 Sep.1754), Florence [England Dec. 1755]
1768 - 9 [Paris Nov. 1768] Rome (Nov. - ), Naples (13 Dec. 1768 - 17 Jan. 1769), Rome (8 Mar.), Naples ( - 12 Apr.) [Corsica Apr.] Florence (end Apr.), Venice (3 May - ), Florence (by 3 Jun.), Leghorn (21 Jun.), Turin (Aug.), Milan (Dec. 1769) [England early 1770]
1784 - 6 [dep. London 20 Oct. 1783] Naples, Sicily, Naples (Jan. 1785), Leghorn, Naples (Sep.), Rome, Florence (Oct. 1785), Rome (by Jan. 1786), Leghorn ( - Jun. 1786) [England summer 1787]
1789 Venice (3 Jan.), Rome (6 Apr.), Leghorn (21 Apr.), Venice (20 May - 8 Jun.) [England by 12 Sep.]
At the age of seventeen Lord Pembroke set out for the Continent and, after spending some time in France and Germany, he arrived in Italy early in 1753.1 During his first four months in Italy he was accompanied by a tutor, Antoine des Cloires. He reached Venice on 7 March, Lord Essex writing that he [Pembroke] 'proposes staying here but a week and then we shall set off together for Rome, we propose going by Padoua, Vincense, and Verone'.2 By 14 April Essex, and presumably Pembroke, were settled in Rome,3 where Pembroke sat to Batoni (Wilton; Clark/Bowron 175) and commissioned a copy of the Dying Gladiator from Vierpyl.4 In June Pembroke was in Florence. With Horace Mann and Lord Tylney he visited Pisa on 17 June5 and on 8 August the same party were reported to have left Siena to return to Florence6 where the 'comtessa' La Rena was soon Pembroke's mistress.7 By October 1753 a case of paintings sent from Milan to Turin was awaiting his instructions.8 In 1754, with Lords Bolingbroke, Essex and Thanet, he was said to have been in Tivoli observing Richard Wilson drawing9 and a distinguished group of Wilsons at Wilton confirms his admiration for this artist. On 1 September 1754 he arrived with La Rena in Genoa from Florence, and he then sailed with Augustus Hervey to Leghorn, arriving on 16 September and setting off directly for Florence.(10) He returned to England in December 1755, having spent time in Switzerland and France.
On his second visit, principally occasioned by the wish to meet General Paoli in Corsica, Pembroke travelled with Captain Charles Medows (later Lord Manvers) and they left Paris in November 1768.(11) Pembroke was in Rome in November12 and stayed in Naples between 13 December and 17 January 1769.(13) He was a close friend of William Hamilton, but there were, nonetheless, diplomatic difficulties over his visit to Corsica (and Pembroke had returned briefly to Rome in March14). The French ambassador in Naples had expressed surprise that 'a Peer of England, a General Officer shou'd be going to Corsica merely from a motive of private curiosity'.15 Pembroke eventually went on 12 April, accompanied by Sir Thomas Tancred and the marchese Fagnani, and he met Paoli, of whom he commissioned a portrait from a painter he had taken with him.16 On their return they spent two days in Florence before setting out for Venice,17 where Pembroke and Tancred arrived on 3 May.18 Horace Walpole (who was no admirer) alleged that Pembroke carried off a young Venetian bride on her wedding night.19 Pembroke returned to Florence early in June before returning home via Turin and Milan.20
On his third visit, occasioned by the poor health of his daughter Charlotte, Pembroke left London on 20 October 1783.21 The entire family went by different routes to the south of France where Charlotte died at Aix on 21 April 1784. Pembroke then set off on his own for Italy, according to Horace Walpole in pursuit of an Italian actress, possibly Clementina Chiavacci.22 His surviving letters to his son from Italy principally address English affairs. In January 1785 he had returned to Naples from a visit to Sicily, condemning Brydone's Tour through Sicily as an unreliable and superficial guide.23 He was intending to return home in the summer of 1785 and to sail with Captain Blankett to Gibraltar. He returned to Florence, but then sailed with Blankett from Leghorn to Naples in September 1785, only to return to Rome and go on to Florence in October. In January 1786 he was staying in the Hotel Minerva in Rome.24 On 30 June 1786 John Udny wrote from Leghorn that Pembroke had left for England 'a few weeks ago',25 but his journey was leisurely, via Lisbon, Madrid and Paris, and he arrived back in England in the summer of 1787.
On his last visit to Italy in 1789, Pembroke found Venice in January 'frozen, & this country another Holland; the Lagunes Ice, & covered with people & carriages, etc.'26 He tried to meet his (illegitimate) son, Augustus Reebkomp/Montgomery, then commanding officer of the Mercury, at Leghorn.
Pembroke was a difficult man and his domestic life was fractious, but in 1779 he took the trouble to give vigorous and stimulating instructions to his son concerning travel in Italy.27 'At Parma, I know nothing half as curious as the Arch Dss. [Maria Amelia]. I had rather see her than than all the Paintings of Correggio put together. ... At Florence, Ten Thousand Things. Examine attentively the superb Chapel where repose the Medicis. ... Go every morning to the Gallery ... At Terni, in God's name go and see the Cataract of the Nera ... Naples & its Environs are inexhaustible ... Mind to have an order to see the Satyr f - g the Goat'. Another set of instructions28 were somewhat hypocritical: 'Avoid Drink, Gaming, & all improper Connections, & move away directly, if necessary on their account'.
1. See Pembroke Papers, 1:28 - 9. 2. Hanbury Williams MSS, 78:247 - 50 (Essex, 7 Mar. 1753). 3. Ibid. (14 Apr. 1753). 4. Wicklow mss (J. Russel, 25 Dec. 1753). 5. Hervey (Aug.) Jnl., 145. 6. HMC Charlemont, 1:85. 7. Wal.Corr., 21:156; 23:106n. 8. SP 105/310 (Charles, 10 Oct. 1753). 9. Constable, Wilson, 34 - 5. 10. Hervey (Aug.) Jnl., 172. 11. See Wal.Corr., 4:116. Pembroke Papers, 1:38 - 41. 12. Thorpe letters MSS (22 Dec. 1768*). 13. SP 105/319, f.305 (Hamilton, 13 Dec. 1768). 14. Drake letters MSS (Townson, 8 Mar. 1769). 15. SP 93/24 (Hamilton, 10 Jan. 1769). Wal.Corr., 23:124n. 16. Wal.Corr., 23:138n12. Thorpe letters MSS (15 Apr. 1769*). Verri, Cart., 2:296 - 7. 17. Gazz.Tosc. 18. ASV IS 759 (in error as 1768). 19. Wal.Corr., 23:152nn12, 14. 20. Gazz.Tosc. Wal.Corr., 23:124, 138. SP 105/319, ff.622, 685, 740 (Lynch, 24 Aug., 24 Oct., 27 Dec. 1769). 21. Pembroke Papers, 2:212; and see 256, 264 - 306. 22. Wal.Corr., 25:497 and n7. 23. Blackett letters MSS (8 Jan. 1785). 24. Childe-Pemberton, 2:383. 25. Add.35536, f.368. 26. Pembroke Papers, 2:400 (3 Jan. 1789). 27. Ibid., 1:196 - 7. 28. Ibid., 51 - 3.