The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Eleanor Creevey, 5 October 1812
“Cambridge, Monday, 5th Oct.
“You will be somewhat surprised to see Diddy’s handwriting from his favorite
University. The accompanying letter from Wm.
Roscoe will explain this movement. . . . Bernard Howard has been as good to me as
possible, and you would delight in his suspicions of
Brougham. . . . Come, Mr.
John Horn, where are my eels and mutton-chops?—Here they
are, by Jingo, and the said John, who is an old friend of
mine of five and twenty years’ standing, says he can give me an excellent
bottle of port.—No such thing: I never tasted worse. The chops were,
however, damned fair. . . . I send for the approbation of yourself and my
dears, Diddy’s colours at Thetford. . . . To
Diddy himself they produce most agreeable sensations;
they constitute to him a certain seat in parliament, and they remind him of a
connection really virtuous, without propitiating a capricious bitch, and
without Villain [Brougham] always frightful. So I am as
happy as a grig with little Thet, and don’t care a
damn for Liverpool my little Pet.”
Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the
Edinburgh
Review in which he chastised Byron's
Hours of Idleness; he
defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University
(1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).
Thomas Creevey (1768-1838)
Whig politician aligned with Charles James Fox and Henry Brougham; he was MP for Thetford
(1802-06, 1807-18) Appleby (1820-26) and Downton (1831-32). He was convicted of libel in
1813.
Bernard Edward Howard, twelfth duke of Norfolk (1765-1842)
Educated at the English College at Douai, in 1815 he succeeded his third cousin, Charles
Howard, eleventh duke (d. 1815), and took his seat in Parliament after passage of the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill of 1829.
William Roscoe (1753-1831)
Historian, poet, and man of letters; author of
Life of Lorenzo di
Medici (1795) and
Life and Pontificate of Leo X (1805). He
was Whig MP for Liverpool (1806-1807) and edited the
Works of Pope,
10 vols (1824).
