(1750 - 1810), statesman and mathematician, o. s. of William Windham of Felbrigg, Norf.; educ. Eton, Glasgow U. 1766, and Univ. Coll. Oxf. 1767; MP 1784 - 1810; m. 1798 Cecilia Forrest.
1779 - 80 [dep. England Nov. 1779] Florence ( - by 3 Jan. - Apr. 1780), Rome (by 29 Apr. - ), Venice, Milan (Jul.), [England Sep. 1780]
'Obliged to go to Italy for the recovery of his health', he was, wrote Horace Walpole, 'young, but full of virtues, knowledge, and good sense'.1 He set out for Italy in November 1779,2 and by 3 January 1780 had met Horace Mann in Florence.3 But Walpole's warm recommendation did not ensure compatibility. 'He seldom calls on me', wrote Mann; 'he is very retired, and applies to the two languages, the want of which has made him decline being presented at Court or associating with the Italians' (31 Mar. 1780). 'Imbibed with the morose notions of his Spartan teachers,' Windham was critical of George III and his government; he had a certain 'sourness' of temper and, said Mann, 'if I am not mistaken he will go grumbling through Italy for want of amusement' (20 May). Windham had left Florence in April for Rome, where he had arrived by the 29th.4 He was at Milan in July, when he wrote to John Strange,5 indicating he had already been in Venice (his visit is further confirmed by an inscription on a copy of Cronaca Veneta Sacra e Profana [1777] at Felbrigg). He returned to England in September 1780.6
1. Wal.Corr., 24:521, 524. 2. Ibid., 527. 3. Mann's letters are Wal.Corr., 25:2 - 3, 33, 50, and see 523 - 4. 4. Bankes MSS. 5. Eg.1970, f.42 (1 Jul. 1780). 6. R.W. Ketton-Cremer, Early Life and Diaries of William Windham, 204.