(1747 - 68), o. s. of Thomas Tracy, MP, of Sandywell Hall, Glos.
1766 - 7 [dep. Dover 19 Jun.] Mont Cenis (30 Sep. 1766), Turin (1 - 23 Oct.), Genoa (25 - 29 Oct.), Piacenza, Parma (30 Oct.), Reggio, Bologna (4 - 8 Nov.), Florence ( - 1 Dec.), Pisa (2 Dec.), Leghorn (3 - 6 Dec.), Siena (9 - 11 Dec.), Viterbo, Rome (13 - 15 Dec.), Naples (17 Dec. 1766 - Feb. 1767 - ), Venice ( - 4 Jun.)
Tracy travelled in Italy with a Swiss companion, Dentand, and their travel journal describes a nine-month tour.1 They descended Mont Cenis in six hours in chairs carried by men running 'like Cats'. At Turin they saw a kill at Stupinigi, 'the whole hunt standing in a circle round and the French Horns playing'. They noticed the fruit groves at Genoa, and in Florence despised the Italian Comedy ('the worse kind'). Stopping at Rome only to get a passport, they went straight to Naples. Having previously been delayed between Bologna and Florence by Lady Holland taking all the horses, in Naples they had to stay at an inn 'in a horrid situation where we could see nothing as Lord Holland's Family had taken possession of that that has a view of the sea'. The music at Naples, however, was enjoyable, 'better than in any Part of Italy'. At a concert given at the Teatro di San Carlo for King Ferdinand's coming of age 'the celebrated Gabrieli covered with Diamonds added highly by her surprising Voice to the grandeur of the Spectacle'. There were also the Friday concerts given by the British envoy William Hamilton. They called on the 'great Chymist', the Prince of San Severo. The journal contains accounts of the Catacombs of S.Gennaro, Caserta, Portici, Herculaneum, Vesuvius, Salerno and Paestum, but ends in Naples. Tracy left Venice four months later, on 4 June 1767.2
1. 'A Journal kept by Mr Tracy and Mr Dentand during their Travels through France & Italy &c.', Bodl. MS 29617. 2. ASV is 759.