Wyndham, Henry Penruddocke
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
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- Wyndham, Henry Penruddocke
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(1736 - 1819), topographer, of St Edmund's Coll., Salisbury, Wilts, 1st s. of Henry Wyndham; educ. Eton and Wadham Oxf. 1755 - 9; m. 1768 Caroline Hearst; FSA 1777; FRS 1783; MP 1795 - 1812.
1765 - 7 [dep. London 2 Sep. 1765] Genoa (24 Nov.), Sestri, Lerici, Pisa, Siena, Viterbo, Rome (29 Dec. 1765 - 3 Apr. 1766), Naples (Apr. - 5 Jun.), Sicily (Jun. - 19 Jul.), Naples (23 Jul. - ), Rome ( - 10 Dec. 1766), Terni, Spoleto, Foligno, Assisi, Perugia, Cortona, Florence (two months), Bologna (28 Feb. - 27 Mar. 1767), Modena, Cento, Ferrara, Argenta, Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, Ancona, Pola, Trieste Venice ( - 10 Jun.), Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, Parma, Piacenza, Pavia, Milan, Turin, crossing the Alps (8 Jul.) [Orfordness 4 Sep. 1767]
Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, known as Pen, travelled to Italy with Joseph Windham of Earsham and William Benson Earle of Salisbury. They took their own post-coach, 'in every way superior to the travelling vehicles on the continent'.1 They travelled across France in two months, then sailed from Antibes for Leghorn via Genoa. But the weather was awful and progress slow, so that Joseph Windham and Earle set out on mules from Ventimiglia to Genoa, while Wyndham and Earle's servant walked to San Remo and rejoined the felucca. They all met at Genoa on 24 November. Their journey from Sestri to Lerici was made on foot and then by mule. The felucca landed their coach at Lerici and they then drove to Pisa, where they met Edward Wortley Montagu and Pen measured the leaning tower. At Siena Pen found the cathedral 'rather gawdy and affected than elegant and fine'. From Viterbo they were escorted by three Papal soldiers as protection against banditti and they reached Rome on 29 December.
They lodged with an Irishman in the Piazza di Spagna for seven guineas a month. Three days after their arrival the Pretender died and Pen attended the funeral ceremonies. He met Lord Hillsborough, Lord Tylney, Laurence Sterne and Peter Beckford, and encountered an exiled [John] Wyndham now a barber; but Pen was careful to avoid too much association with his countrymen lest 'the ends of the travel should be lost'. On 3 April Pen and Earle left for Naples, leaving Joseph Windham in Rome studying antiquities. Joseph 'studied and measured the remains of ancient Architecture there, particularly the Baths, with a precision which would have done honour to the most able professional Architect', and his drawings were later engraved for Cameron's Baths of the Romans Explained [1775].2 Before he left Rome Pen sold their coach at a £3 profit to Lord Tylney (who sold it to a Spanish grandee at a £45 profit) and he proceded by vetturino to Naples.
Within a day of their arrival William Hamilton was introducing them to Neapolitan society, but Pen found conversazioni 'jolly groanings' and was not much amused. He was shown the museum at Portici, was presented to the King and dined with the chief minister, Bernardo Tanucci. On 5 June he sailed to Sicily: he climbed Mount Etna and enjoyed 'a week of idleness, madness, and folly' during the Feast of S. Rosalia at Palermo. He returned to Naples on 23 July and soon after was pleased to leave 'the horrid Neapolitans - devils incarnate inhabiting an earthly paradise'.
They stayed in Rome, reunited with Joseph Windham, until 10 December, then set out for Florence without Joseph, who stayed on in Rome. Amongst the architectural drawings Pen acquired in Italy was one of the entrance to St Peter's by Piranesi dated 31 December 1769 [sic] and inscribed: 'Piranesi Drawn at Rome in the presence of Joseph Windham Esqr'.2 At Spoleto Pen measured the acqueduct and found Joseph Addison (in his Remarks) to have been at fault. They passed two months in Florence, Pen having an adventure with an heiress (and his father in Salisbury marking Pen's relevant letters 'not to be showed'). They passed a month in Bologna and then travelled up the Adriatic coast to Venice.3 Pen did not like it; 'one may call it a large prison, and I shall be happy when I am once again on terra firma. At present I fancy myself on board a large fleet in a dead calm'; he even thought the gondolas were like hearses. They left Venice on 10 June and went on to Turin through Padua, Vicenza, Verona and Parma and on 8 July began their crossing of the Alps. Pen's tour had cost about £450; he had sent home a crate of books from Naples and seven boxes from Rome (some belonging to Joseph Windham) and another box from Venice.
1. See H.A. Wyndham, Family History 1688 - 1837, 191 - 214. 2. See Moore 1985, 150 - 1. 3. ASV is 759.