(1760 - 1830), 1st. surv. s. of 2nd E. of Ashburnham; sty. Vct. St Asaph - 1812 when suc. fa. as 3rd E.; Trin. Camb., MA 1780; m. 1 1784 Ldy. Sophia Thynne (d. 1791), dau. of 1st M. of Bath, 2 1795 Ldy. Charlotte Percy, dau. of 1st E. of Beverley; BM Trustee 1810; FSA 1827; KG 1829.
1782 - 3 [dep. England Mar. 1781] Venice (4 Apr. - Jun. 1782), Padua (5 Jun.), Vicenza, Padua, Verona (3 Jul.), Brescia (4 Jul.), Milan (6 Jul.), Como (19 Jul.), Pavia (29 Jul.), Milan, Turin (4 - 11 Aug.), Genoa (13 - 22 Aug.), Leghorn, Pisa, Florence (28 Aug. - 21 Oct.), Perugia, Rome (26 - 30 Oct.), Velletri, Terracina, Naples (4 Nov. - ), Rome (1 Dec. 1782 - 5 Apr. 1783), Tivoli, Albano (3 May), Rome, Bologna (15 May), Modena, Parma, Verona (3 Jun.)
A pleasant man who could nevertheless be silent for days,1 St Asaph was accompanied by a Mr St Germain for at least part of his grand tour. His travel diary (St Asaph jnl.MSS.) supplies his itinerary and lists his extensive social engagements. In Venice he dined with John Strange and [William?] Wynne; in Turin he and St Germain were presented at Court by Mountstuart on 11 August,2 and in Milan he was presented to the Archduke. In Florence he appears to have been particularly sociable, dining with Robert Merry and Louis Dutens (10 September) and being presented to the Grand Duke; he was received by Sir Horace Mann and he met John Udny, Lord Cowper, Lord Algernon Percy and Lord Cholmondeley on several occasions. In Rome he mentioned the artists Volpato, Angelica Kauffman and Christopher Hewetson (17 December) and he followed a course of antiquities with James Byres, beginning on 12 December. He was with Sir George and Lady Beaumont and the Abb? Grant at Colonel Clark's on 20 February 1783, and attended a masque with William Bromley, Charles Parker and the Beaumonts on 26 February. The following day he was in the Corso with the Beaumonts and Parker, and on 29 March he was at Mrs Hamilton's [Mrs Hugh Hamilton, wife of the artist?] with the Beaumonts and a Miss Copley.3 He did not return through Venice.4
St Asaph returned to Florence c.1825 to live in the Villa Pasquale until the end of his life. The Ashburnham Collection (which was sold in 1953, Sotheby's, 24 Jun.) already included many fine old masters and it is impossible to establish what St Asaph added from his tour.
1. Farington Diary (20 Oct. 1812). 2. AST cf. 3. Ramsay jnl.MSS. 4. Add.1970, f.124.
F. O.