(1706 - 84) of Frogmore, Berks, 2nd s. of 1st E. of Orford; educ. Eton and King's Camb. 1725; L.Inn 1723, called 1727; MP 1730 - 68 [I], 1737 - 60; unm.
1730 - 1 Venice (by 20 Jan. - Mar. 1730), Piacenza, Padua (11 Jul.), Bologna (by 18 Jul.), Rome (by 27 Jul. - Aug.), Naples (Aug.), Rome ( - 26 Aug.), Florence (by 29 Sep.) [Genoa, Turin,. Milan] Padua (by 3 Nov.), Venice (by 1 Dec. 1730 - 12 Jan. 1731), Genoa [England Jan. 1731]
'Mr Walpole, Sr Robert's 2nd son' had arrived in Venice for the Carnival by 20 January 1730. On 12 March Elizeus Burges reported that he had been 'extremely ill' and had been 'in so bad a way that nobody expected he would recover', and as he was 'a very pretty young Gentleman, everybody was under ye greatest concern imaginable for him' but he was now abroad again. With Lord Boyne he then decided to attend the opera at Piacenza.1 On 11 July they were together in Padua,2 and on 18 July in Bologna.3 By 27 July they were in Rome, where they became 'entirely taken up with seeing the antiquities'; they paid a brief visit to Naples and left Rome for Florence on 26 August.4 On 29 September Burges reported that Walpole and Boyne were in Florence intending to come to Venice via Genoa, Turin and Milan. On 3 November he said they were in Padua 'after having seen all ye great Towns in Italy', but that a Mr Stuart who had been travelling with them had died at Padua, and Walpole was intending to set out in less than a fortnight for France. But Walpole did not leave Venice until 12 January 1731, setting out for Genoa with Colonel William Kennedy and Captain Jasper Clayton.5 On one of his visits to Venice he sat to Rosalba Carriera for a pastel portrait (Houghton).
1. SP 99/63, ff.123, 133, 135 (Burges, 20 Jan., 12, 17 Mar. 1730). 2. Brown 1880 - 1. 3. R.B. Peake, Memoirs of the Colman Family, 1:17. 4. SP 98/32, ff.87, 89, 91, 101 (Walton, 27 Jul., 3, 10, 31 Aug. 1730). 5. SP 99/63, ff.141, 145, 151.