1784? - 86 Florence (autumn 1784?), Naples (Jan. - Feb. 1785), Rome (21 Feb. - 20 Apr.), Venice (1 - 25 May), Florence (by 26 Nov.), Rome (by 30 Dec. 1785), Naples (Jan. 1786), Rome (Feb.)
Davis was sharing lodgings with William Blackett, 'Mr Myddleton of Chirk Castle' [Richard Myddelton] and a Mr Hesketh at Margherita's hotel at Rome in March 1785.1 Blackett's letters suggest that Davis had been with him in Florence (presumably in 1784) and Naples, before they came to Rome on 21 February. They spent most of May in Venice (see William Blackett).
Davis, like Blackett, had admired the work of Jacob More in Rome. More wrote to Davis from Rome on 10 December 1785 saying he had just received back Durno's Falstaff mustering Recruits, which the artist had been copying for Lord Bristol; both this and a Storm by More himself appear to have been reserved for Davis, who paid 100 guineas for the Storm on 6 December (Jacob More addressed him as Mark Davis).2 He also acquired a carved sardonyx from Nathaniel Marchant.3 Davis was in Florence on 26 November 17854 and must have been the Mr Davis writing on 30 December 1785 to Sir Robert Keith from Rome,5 where he was much in the company of Lord Bulkeley, with whom he was subsequently in Naples in January 1786 and again in Rome in February, see Thomas, 7th Viscount Bulkeley.
1. Blackett letters MSS. 2. More letters MSS, 21 - 23, 30. 3. Marchant 1987, 51, no. 50. 4. Wal.Corr., 25:618n1. 5. Add. 35535, f.331.