In 1810, Mr. Stanhope left England on board H.M. Ship "Vestal” to visit those parts of the Peninsula which were then independent of France, intending to proceed by way of Sicily to Greece. After many adventures in Spain, he took ship at Valencia for Majorca: "but," he says in the Preface to his Work, "after spending three days on "board of this miserable vessel, I was treacherously carried into Barcelona and delivered as a prisoner into the hands of the French." At Barcelona he took fencing lessons of a master who became implicated in a discovered plot for delivering the place up to the Spaniards, and was himself suspected and thrust into a cell in the citadel and threatened with death. After being removed to the great fortress of Verdun, he was allowed to spend three months in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of many members of the Institute. Through their interest, application was made to allow him to continue his travels on parole. The great Napoleon set him altogether at liberty without any conditions in a Passport still preserved at Cannon Hall in the Study:
"PasseportL' EtrangerSignalementAge de 24 an. taille d'un metre 70 centimetres cheveux chataines front ordinaireyeux bleus nez ordinaire bouche moyenne barbe brune &c, &c Police Generale de l'Empire.Laissez passer librement Mr. John Spencer Stanhope, savant Anglais, prisonnier de guerre sur parole a Paris Natif de LondresDemeurant a (blank) Allant en Greceet donnez-lui aide et protection en case de besoin.Le present passe-port accorde par decision de S. M. I. R. qui degage cet etranger de sa parole comme prisonnierde guerre, et lui permet d'apres la demande de l' Institut Imperiel deFrance de passer en Grece qu' il desire visiter pour l'interest des sciences"Fait delivre a Paris le quatorze Mai, 1813. "(Signed by) Le Ministre de La Guerre.
Mr. Stanhope returned to England through Germany, and afterwards went through Germany to Greece, where he made his researches
