Philip Stanhope (1732–1768), son of the 4th Earl of Chesterf...

Philip Stanhope (1732–1768), son of the 4th Earl of Chesterfield and pupil of Walter Harte. Eight Grand Tour letters to Thomas Steavens, written during his continental education under Harte's tutorship, 1748–1750. Eight autograph letters signed "P. Stanhope", addressed to Thomas Steavens (c.1718–1759), comprising thirty-one manuscript pages on nine folded sheets or bifolia; principally in English, in brown and black ink, with one substantial letter predominantly in French and occasional passages of Latin verse. Several retain integral panels bearing contemporary dockets and later collection references. Original mailing folds, light toning and occasional minor marginal wear or splitting at the folds; generally clearly written and well preserved. Written from Leipzig, 20 July, 27 July (docketed 31 July), 19 August (docketed 20 August) and 4 November 1748 (docketed 8 November); Laibach (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 10 June (docketed 14 June) and 6 August 1749 (docketed 8 August); Florence, 29 November–7 December 1749, begun on the former date and completed on the latter; and Rome, 12 April 1750 (docketed 26 April). (8) The letters record Stanhope's travels and education with Walter Harte, his travelling tutor, through correspondence with their mutual friend Thomas Steavens. Practical requests for maps, books, medicines and an amber knotting shuttle mingle with accounts of travel, health, society and politics. The most substantial letter contains a French essay, Réflexion sur la nature des Préliminaires en général, examining peace negotiations and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which Stanhope asks Steavens to show to "no court living". Other letters offer candid assessments of the English and Jacobite communities in Rome and mention Harte, George Lyttelton, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams and Sir James Gray. His literary humour appears in a mock-heroic elegy for his dead bullfinch: "In vain I sing, in vain I mourn, / My bird who never to return / Is fled to happier shades." Stanhope was the natural son of Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, whose letters to him offered advice on education, manners and advancement in society. Published by Philip's widow, Eugenia Stanhope, as Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to His Son, Philip Stanhope, Esq. (London: J. Dodsley, 1774, 2 vols.), they became one of the best-known accounts of a gentleman's education. The present letters to Steavens offer a complementary perspective: the young man receiving that advice writes freely to a friend, revealing his own interests, opinions and humour. References for Chesterfield's published letters: ESTC T136181; Gulick 2; Rothschild 596.

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