[1] They then visited "Bourdeaux, Thoulouse, Montpelier, Marseilles, Leghorn, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Venice, Padua, Verona, Milan, Lyons, and again Paris"; such expeditions are often known as the Grand Tour.

[citation needed] On his return in late summer 1751, Nash took up a post as Vicar of Eynsham through his friend and future brother-in-law, John Martin.

A bottle of aqua-fortis, which was in the waggon, being ill corked, opened, and the spirit running over some deal boxes which took fire and set the whole in a flame, property to the amount of 2000 l.[pounds] belonging to Dr. Nash, was unfortunately burnt, besides a good collection of books, and a very curious and valuable selection of drawings and prints, which he and his brother had purchased in France and Italy.

He later related that: Above twenty years ago, coming into possession of a considerable real estate in this my native county, I determined, as far as was consistent with a proper attention to my own affairs, to serve my countrymen and neighbours by every means in my power.

Thus, I became a mere provincial man, confining my ambition within the ancient province of Wiccia, now commonly known by the name of Worcestershire.

Failing in success in all my applications, I offered my own shoulders, however unequal to the burthen, reflecting that though very little had been published, yet this work was in some degree made easy, because materials had been collecting for near 200 years.

Like a sinuous but unnavigable river wandering through a great extent of country, that would form an excellent reservoir to a canal, so the Doctor's work, though itself unreadable, might be made the source of a very interesting volume.

[7]Nash produced a volume with a "literary memoir" of Samuel Butler's Hudibras, a satirical poem about Cromwell's Protectorate written after the Restoration.