(1723 - 92) of Coleby, Lincs, 5th s. of Gervase Scrope; Ch.Ch. Oxf. 1740; MP 1768 - 74; m. 1780 Eliza Clay.
1751 - 4 Turin, Milan, Rome (Dec. 1751 - Apr. 1752), Naples (21 May 1752 - ), Rome (by 9 Mar. - Apr. 1754), Siena, Pisa, Lerici, Genoa
Scrope arrived in Rome in December 1751, after spending two months in Paris and having passed through Turin, Milan and 'all the remarkable towns'. At Turin he had joined in the celebrations for the birth of the Duke of Burgundy and had met the King of Sardinia [Charles Emmanuel III] 'the most insignificant fellow I ever saw, and more like the late Lord Rockingham than anybody I can now think of'. From Milan to Rome he passed through 'prodigious and rich fertile countries, with most wretched and miserably poor inhabitants'.1 He intended to stay in Rome for three months: on 20 April 1752 he witnessed a wager between Lord Charlemont and Sir Thomas Kennedy,2 and he was one of several who suppported Charlemont's venture to establish an academy in Rome for British students of painting and sculpture.3 In the spring he visited Tivoli, Palestrina and Antium with James Russel, Benjamin Lethieullier, Lascelles Iremonger, Lord Bruce and Sir Thomas Kennedy; by the beginning of June this party (less Russel) was in Naples,4 Scrope and Kennedy having passed through Capua on 21 May.5
In March 1754 a 'Mr Scroup', probably the same, was involved in an affray with a Neapolitan in Rome,6 an incident which accords well enough with Scrope's subsequent intemperate character. On 20 April Scrope was about to leave Rome, determined to go straight to Genoa via Siena.7
1. Jesse, Selwyn, 1:148 - 53 (12 Jan. 1752). 2. HMC Charlemont, 1:184. 3. GM, 22[1752]:288. 4. Wicklow MSS (J. Russel, 6 Jun. 1752). 5. ASN cra 1257. 6. SP 105/310, f.259 (Albani,
9 Mar. 1754). 7. Charlemont MSS, 12.r.12, 14 (Abb? Grant, 30 Apr. 1754).