After attending St. Andrews University, he went abroad as travelling tutor or companion (colloquially known as a bearleader), with William Beckford and some other gentlemen. In 1767 or 1768, soon after his return from Switzerland, he went abroad again with Beckford and two others as travelling preceptor. In 1770, he made a tour with these gentlemen through Sicily and Malta, the former island being but little known to travellers of that time.[citation needed]
This tour forms the subject of his book, A Tour through Sicily and Malta, in a Series of Letters to William Beckford, Esq., of Somerly in Suffolk, published in 1773. His work became popular for its descriptions of Italy. It was favourably reviewed, and so well received by the reading public, that it went through seven or eight editions in England in his lifetime, and was also translated into French and German. In Italy, nine years after its publication, Count Borch published a volume of Letters to serve as Supplement to the Voyage in Sicily and Malta of Mr. Brydone.[2]
In 1783 he became a founder member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He held the appointment of Comptroller of the Stamp Office, a fore-runner of the Inland Revenue. The latter part of his life was spent in retirement and he died on 19 June 1818 at Lennel House in Berwickshire.[2]
Family
In 1785 he married Mary Robertson, the daughter of Prof William Robertson.[4] They had three daughters the eldest of whom, Mary, married Gilbert Elliot who became the 2nd Earl of Minto.[5]
Chaney, Edward (2000). The Evolution of the Grand Tour. London: Routledge.
Fussell, Paul (1963). "Patrick Brydone: The Eighteenth-Century Traveler As Representative Man". Literature As a Mode of Travel. New York: New York Public Library. pp. 53–67. OCLC83683507.
