Thomas Steavens (c.1718–1759). Grand Tour Letters Ten autogr...

Thomas Steavens (c.1718–1759). Grand Tour Letters Ten autograph letters signed by Colonels Charles Perry, Thomas Plunkett and R. Phelps, 1749–1751, Ten autograph letters signed to Thomas Steavens, 1749–1751, together sixteen manuscript pages on ten bifola, with contemporary dockets and later reference numbers. Five from Colonel Charles Perry (7 pp.), Milan, 16 July [1749] and 23 July 1749, Genoa, 27 August [1749] N.S., Rome, 19 April 1750, and Padua, 20 September 1750. Four from Colonel Thomas Plunkett (6 pp.), Rome, 28 March 1750, [Rome], undated, both docketed 3 April 1750, and Florence, 19 May and 2 June 1750. One from R. Phelps (3 pp.), undated, docketed 20 March 1751. Several Perry letters retain their integral address panels, with red wax seals or remnants. The Padua letter bears a circular red "POSTA DI VENETIA" handstamp. Old folds, light toning and soiling chiefly to the outer panels, occasional creasing, small marginal and seal-opening tears, and some ink show-through. Ink pale in places, generally well preserved and legible. (10) Writing from Milan in July 1749, Colonel Charles Perry commissions spectacles for Steavens from Baillou, "the only man famous for that work," who keeps none ready-made and requires six weeks to finish them. "The maker's name is Baillou, I have order'd a dozen at 4 Chequins a piece," he adds in a postscript. Perry sums up Milanese society as "Play, good eating & Drinking, & late hours," admitting a week later that he has been "sick with eating & Drinking." From Genoa he confirms that the glasses will be held in Milan until Steavens arrives, outlines his route to Naples and ends with the request, "Pray buy me a Spanish Padlock & Dildo if possible." His later letters concern his health, the baths and plans to reach Venice for Ascension Day, alongside news from Berlin that Lord Malton and Watson had departed "(both clap'd)." Colonel Thomas Plunkett writes from Rome of the Holy Week ceremonies and asks Steavens to have music copied for the Prince of Baden. He is less taken with Roman society, complaining of "the damndest dullest formal assemblys" and offering little hope of diversion "unless you have a peculiar taste for paint and sculpture." With "some few thousands of Statues and Pictures to examine," he looks forward to Naples, where he hopes to make up for his Roman "pennance." In two letters from Florence he presses for the remittance of 123 sequins, without which he cannot leave for Vienna. R. Phelps explains that a six-week loss of sight has kept him from writing and that his letter to Steavens is among the first he has attempted since recovering. He recommends Mr Freeman as a physician and ends with a prediction for St Patrick's Day, when "all the World will be drunk at Lord Charlemont's."

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