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The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 20 October 1824
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Introduction
Vol. I. Contents
Ch. I: 1793-1804
Ch. II: 1805
Ch. III: 1805
Ch. IV: 1806-08
Ch. V: 1809
Ch. VI: 1810
Ch. VII: 1811
Ch. VIII: 1812
Ch. IX: 1813-14
Ch X: 1814-15
Ch XI: 1815-16
Ch XII: 1817-18
Ch XIII: 1819-20
Vol. II. Contents
Ch I: 1821
Ch. II: 1822
Ch. III: 1823-24
Ch. IV: 1825-26
Ch. V: 1827
Ch. VI: 1827-28
Ch. VII: 1828
Ch. VIII: 1829
Ch. IX: 1830-31
Ch. X: 1832-33
Ch. XI: 1833
Ch. XII: 1834
Ch XIII: 1835-36
Ch XIV: 1837-38
Index
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“Lambton, Oct. 20.

“. . . I got here on Monday night, the company being at dinner, and in the second course. However King Jog, hearing I was arrived, left his throne, and came out, and took me in with him. I found nearer 30 than 20 people there, in a very long and lofty apartment—the roof highly collegiate, from which hung the massive chandeliers—the curtain drapery of dark-coloured velvet, profusely fringed with gold, and much resembling palls. The company, sitting at a long and

* This marriage turned out badly, and was dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1830. “Aurora” consoled herself by three subsequent marriages, and died at Damascus in 1881.

1823-24.]A VISIT TO LAMBTON.81
narrowish table, never uttered a single, solitary sound for long and long after I was there; so that it really might have been the family vault of the Lambtons, and the company the male and female Lambtons who had been buried in their best cloaths and in a sitting position. Grey and Ly. Elizabeth and Lord Howick are here, the Milbanks, the Wiltons and Bob Grosvenor, the Cavendishes and Henry and his wife, the Dundas’s, the Normanbys, Mr. Hobhouse, Sir Hedworth Williamson, young Liddel, Mat Ridley, [illegible] three deep, Capt. Berkley and other captains and majors who ride at our races, not omitting John Mills. To-day, too, my Lord and Lady Londonderry, with Sir Something and Lady Something Gresley,* come. The place is really a fine one, considering how confined it is by coal-pits and smoke, and part of the house quite unrivalled. . . . The capricious young tyrant and devil† is all graciosity to myself. . . . Mrs. Taylor had caught fresh cold before I left Cantley, so that she was bled on Sunday morning and fainted away. . . . We’ll go to our races of to-day. Grey had over and over again expressed to me his nervousness about 14 or 15 of these young men starting for the Cup; the course being very slippery and not wide enough for such a number. You may judge, then, what cause there was for his apprehension when three horses out of the number came in without their riders. . . . Lady Wilton was standing up as white as a sheet, whilst Lady Augusta Milbank fell to the bottom of the coach as if she had been shot. Just then, however, the good-natured Mat Ridley came galloping up with all his might and main to announce that all was safe. . . . Milbank is the only one hurt . . . he has been bled, and is somewhat bruised. . . . Well—all being over, we came home and dined pretty punctually at seven—and such a dinner I defy any human being to fancy for such an occasion. . . . I handed Mrs. Dundas out (Miss Williamson that was) and a pretty good laugh I had out of her at our fare. A round of beef at a side table was run at with as much keenness as a banker’s shop before a stoppage. . . . Was there ever such an

* Sir Roger and Lady Sophia Gresley.

† Mr. Lambton

82 THE CREEVEY PAPERS [Ch. III.
instance of derangement, with all this expense in other subjects and all his means? I have just been saying to Mills that it is a low Crockford’s, and he admits it is so; but he adds that it is certainly better than last year, for then there was no beef at the side table, but only a sucking-pig! Oh dear, oh dear! it is a neat concern: and yet the comfort of these rooms is beyond. I have got my book I was in search of, and his civility about it makes me almost ashamed of thinking him such a stingy, swindling, tyrannical kip as he certainly is.

“Well, as to kips, I think this Lord Wilton* must certainly be a decided one. He has the worst countenance, I think, I ever saw, and he appears a sulky, selfish chap: but she seems very happy . . . and there is a great charm in all she does. . . .”