2nd Duke of Gordon and the part he played at the battle of Sheriffmuir

Though reference is often made to these travels,
we know very little about them at present. C.
A. Gordon, in his little book on tihe family of
Gordon, tells us vaguely about the tour (Munro's
edition, p. 118): —
While his father was alive ["the Marquis of
Huntly 1 went abroad and visited several of the
Courts of Europe, and figured considerably in
them. He was honourably entertained by the
sovereigns, and contracted friendship with
several of them, in particular with the King of
Prussia and Cosmo de Medicis, Great Duke of
Tuscany. This grand dulke asked of him when
he left his Court, to give him the compliment of
the name of the first son he should have ; and,
for that reason, when the Marquis of Huntly was
christened, he receiver! the name Cosmo. . . .
The Great Duke of Tuscany [Cosmo III. | sent
him his bust in white marble [still in Gordon
Castle |, and to his god-son, the Marquis of
Huntly, he sent a silver fount for his christen-
ing, and a very fine suite of steel armour gilt ;
This friendship with the Medici gratified the
Marquis much, for he wrote to his friend the
Earl of Strafford on May 14, 1711 (Add. MSS.,
22,221 f. 47&1): —
The Duke of Florance still continus to honor
mee with his remembrance and heaps new favors
on mee by having sent for a Spanish Ihors owt of
Spain for mee to Florance, and has now forwar-
ded him with his own servant to a marehant at
Amsterdame. The bearer I have sent from hence
for the liors, and have ordered him to receive yr.
lo[rdshi]p's commands, which would and will be
on all occasions most acceptable and most wil-
lingly obeyed.
This is apparently the animal referred to in a
sardonic poem, ' Advice to a Painter," quoted in
the Mar and Kellie papers (Hist. MSS. Com., i.,
557) : —
Near to him [Athol] let His Grace of Gordon
stand ;
For these two Dukes may well <yo hand in hand.
And, if you mount him on his Tuscan steed,
Pray leave him room to gallop off with speed.
The Marquis probably visited the Pope during
his Italian visit, thou'Jh the statement that
Clement XII. " sent him his picture with several
other presents of great value " may be doubted,
for Clement XII. did not become His Holiness
till two years afteir the Marquis's death. It
must have been Clement XL (1700-21) whom he
saw. He was certainly in Florence in November