LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES

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The Creevey Papers

Countess Grey to Frances Ann Taylor, [February 1826]

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

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

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“. . . Things are worse and worse in the City. I have just had a note from thence, and this day all the things in the Stocks have fallen worse than ever. Every soul to whom a shilling is due comes to ask for it. In short, it is a fearful time. As to the opinions on the £1 and £2 notes business, people are so divided that it is impossible to come at the truth. Sir Robert Wilson, Brougham, Lord Lansdowne are with Ministers, and even Lord Dacre; then others—the strongest of the Tories—are against them. Lord Auckland thinks it ruin to us all, and even those who vote for it say that it will make things worse for the present. Ld. Dacre says that he makes up his mind to get no rents for 2 or 3 years, but that he thinks it will eventually do good. I understand nothing about it, but dislike it if it will prevent us receiving rents, which seems allowed on all hands.

“There is a strong report of the Chancellor [Eldon] going out. Gifford, it is supposed, cannot be Chancellor, as all the Bar declare him incompetent, and he himself feels it. Copley is trying, but they say it is impossible, as he is not a Chancery man.* Some say

* Nevertheless, he became Chancellor [Lord Lyndhurst] in the following year.

96

THE CREEVEY PAPERS

[Ch. IV.

that our Leach must get it, as he is the only one who can do the business. I think it more likely that the Seals will be put in commission. If Leach gets it, Mr. Vane is sure to get the best thing going. He told me so long since. To be sure, we won’t get all the best things for all our friends, and if he don’t obey we will neither dine with him nor allow him to play at écarté. Lady Elizabeth [Conyngham’s] marriage still drags on. She now says she cannot think of fixing a time for it, as she cannot make up her mind to quit her mother; that is—Lady C[onyngham] puts this into her mouth, and then says:—‘It is so, is it not, Tissy?’—‘Yes, mama,’ answers she. . . . I hear from those who have been there that the Cottage* is more dull than ever: that Lady C. throws herself back on the sofa and never speaks; and the opinion is (which I don’t believe) that she hates Kingy. We have just got over Shoenfeld, the man who fought with Cradock about Mme. de G[enlis] and Mme. de Firmacon. The Dauphine at Lady Granville’s ball said to him:—‘Monsieur, quand partezvous?’ which was reckoned a congé, and he was in consequence sent here as attaché to Esterhazy. He is all whiskers and white teeth, and evidently means to be a ladykiller, and, if I am not mistaken, will succeed. I find that he was with Esterhazy at the very time we were living so much with the Princesse, and that he used to dine every day with us all, at the bottom of the table. So little effect did he make, that we never saw the animal; but he has now gotten a new applique in the shape of a top knot, and passes off for a youth à bonnes fortunes, which is very amusing. . . . I am happy to tell you that a serious phalanx is arranging for the Age newspaper. About 6 or 7 people are going to prosecute—Mr. Fox Lane for his wife, who they chose to say ‘had exposed herself in her box at the Opera with Poodle Byng’ She had not seen him even by accident for 8 months, and then only in the streets; and on the very night mentioned she was sitting over her own fire with her father and brother!

“Lord Kirkwall,† it is said, marries Lord Boston’s

* George IV.’s cottage at Virginia Water, where Lady Conyngham resided. † Afterwards 5th Earl of Orkney.

1825-26.]

LORD J. RUSSELL ON REFORM.

97

daughter. The Belfasts have bought Lord Boston’s house in my street. . . . Houses are dearer than ever. Their’s will stand them furnished in £400 a year. . . . If I dared, I would entreat of you to take no more blue pill. I think that you are ruining yourself, but I know that you have no faith in my knowledge of medicine; but what can be so bad as to take medicine to that excess as to bring on such misery as to affect the mouth.* . . .”