Author:
Jeremy Black
Report:
15
Page:
91
Year:
1988
Subject Matter:
Travellers
Excerpt:
Thre British Library contains a valuable hitherto unpublished account of Portugal in 1760 describing the travels of two British tourists,Thomas Pitt and John 7th Earl of Strathmore. Pitt, first Baron Camelford, (1737-93) was the nephew of William Pitt the Elder, in 1760 effectively Britain's war minister and, as Secretary of State for the Southern Department, responsible for British relations with Portugal. The nephew, who had recently left Clare Hall, Cambridge, was therefore an important visitor. Plagued with poor health as an undergratuate, Pitt chose to start his Grand Tour by visiting Lisbon, a popular destination for Britons in search of a health cure, but also the obvious point of departure for a tour of Iberia and the Mediterranean at a time when much of the Continent was rendered hazardous by the Seven Years' War. Pitt was accompanied by Strathmore, a college companion, and by Philip Francis. Entering the Tagus on 7 March 1760 and leaving Lisbon on 21 May 1760 they then travelled via Barcelona and Genoa to Florence where Pitt received the news of his father's death in July 1761.
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