Strathmore, John Lyon, 7th Earl of
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- Title
- Strathmore, John Lyon, 7th Earl of
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(1737 - 76), e. s. of 6th E. of Strathmore [S]; sty. Ld. Glamis - 1753 when suc. fa. as 7th E.; Pembroke Camb. 1755; m. 1767 Mary Eleanor Bowes and changed name from Lyon to Bowes.
1760 - 3 Genoa, Venice (by 4 Nov. 1760), Milan (Feb. 1761), Parma (by 20 Jun.), Florence (by 15 Aug. - Oct.), Rome (Oct.), Naples (late Oct. - 1 Nov.), Rome (Nov. 1761 - Mar. 1762), Parma (by 10 Apr. - ), Florence (Jun.), Lucca (Aug.), Parma (by 9 Oct. 1762 - Apr. 1763), Venice (6 - 9 Apr.) [England by 30 Jun.]
Lord Strathmore left England for Spain in February 1760 with Thomas Pitt (later Baron Camelford), but soon left him 'on account of his health in Spain'.1 By 4 November 1760 Strathmore had passed through Genoa to Venice.2 In February 1761 he was describing the pleasures of life in Milan where he was finding the women 'greatly inferior to those of Turin, but what they want in Beauty, they make up in Good Will toward men'. Meanwhile hopes of meeting his friend William, Marquess of Titchfield, in Florence were receding.3 In the summer of 1761 he was detained for some time in Parma by the charms of the Countess Sanvitale [Costanza Scotti, c.1736 - 94, m. 1756 Alessandro Sanvitale] and Thomas Pitt had briefly rejoined him there by 20 June. In August, having 'broken the chain that held him so long', Strathmore came to Florence, asking Horace Mann where Pitt then was.4 By 17 October he had set out for Rome,5 where he stayed some two weeks before paying a brief visit to Naples with Pitt.6 They left Naples on 1 November7 and returned to Rome, Pitt then proceeding straight home.
Strathmore spent the winter in Rome, sharing the tutelage of the Abb? Grant with Sir William and Lady Stanhope between November 1761 and January 1762. Grant said Strathmore left Rome on 5 January to return to England, but he evidently changed his mind.8 James Adam described Strathmore mediating in a row between the Abb? and Robert Mackinlay concerning the architectural merits of the Adam brothers and Robert Mylne,9 and Strathmore was also patronising British artists in Rome. By 3 February 1762 Nathaniel Dance was painting his whole-length portrait (a half-length version is at Glamis Castle), describing him as 'a Scotch Nobleman of very considerable fortune & one of the most good natur'd genteel Gentlemen I ever saw'; he was then 'very much my friend, & has promised me all the service in his power'.(10) In February 1762 Strathmore's generous patronage of James Nevay began, with commissions for two large history pieces and an annual retainer, see Nevay. In March Richard Lyttelton noticed that Strathmore had 'taken a violent prejudice against poor Jenkins from the lyes had been told him by the Abb? Grant and others, and his Lordship's evil reports among others had done him much harm'.(11)
By 10 April he had spent some time in Parma waiting, according to Mann, for a passport to travel home through France.(12) But again he changed his mind, for in June he was near Florence with the Countess Sanvitale; in August they were at the baths at Lucca, Strathmore then intending to call on Mann before returning home.(13) But on 9 October he was still in Parma; on 27 November the Abb? Grant decided Strathmore would be spending the winter in Parma,14 and in May 1763 Mann wearily told Walpole 'I have often told you that your letters were in the hands of Lord Strathmore, and he in the hands of the Countess San Vital. However, he is now set off for England'.15 Strathmore ('milord Stramon Scozzese') had then already spent four days in Venice from 6 to 9 April,16 and he was back in England by 30 June.17
1. Wal.Corr., 21:364, 500 - 1. 2. Robinson letters MSS, vr12330 (4 Nov. 1760). 3. A.S. Turberville, History of Welbeck Abbey, 2:36f. (10 Feb. 1761). 4. Wal.Corr., 21:512n15, 524
(15 Aug. 1761). 5. Wal.Corr., 21:543. 6. SP 93/19 (Gray, 27 Oct. 1761). 7. Fleming, Adam, 375n. 8. Seafield MSS, gd 248/99/3 (Abb? Grant, 20 Jan. 1762). 9. Fleming, Adam, 296. 10. Dance letters MSS, (3 Feb., 4 Dec. 1762). See F. Russell, Burl.Mag., 130[1988]:854 - 5. 11. Lyttelton letters MSS (20 Mar. 1762). 12. Wal.Corr., 22:22 - 3. 13. Ibid., 45, 69. 14.
Seafield MSS, gd 248/99/3 (Abb? Grant, 27 Nov. 1762). 15. Wal.Corr., 22:88, 145 (28 May 1763). 16. ASV is 758. 17. Wal.Corr., 22:152.