The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 21 March 1826
“London, March 21.
“Never did I see anything like the town for dulness.
. . . The only thing going on is at Ly.
Tankerville’s and a few other houses, where ladies of easy
virtue meet every night, and as many dandies as the town can supply.
Écarté is the universal go
with them—the men winning and losing hundreds a night; and as the ladies
play guineas, their settlement each night cannot be a small one. I met
Vesuvius‡ yesterday, who came
up to me open-mouthed about my work. He said a review of it would appear very
shortly in the Westminster Review. . . . I saw little white-faced
Lord John [Russell] too, but not a word
of compliment from him. . . .”
Emma Bennet, countess of Tankerville [née Colebrooke] (1752-1836)
The daughter of the banker Sir James Colebrooke, first baronet; in 1771 she married
Charles Bennet, afterwards fourth Earl of Tankerville. She was the cousin of the Sanskrit
scholar Henry Thomas Colebrooke.
John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878)
English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author
of
Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and
Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).
The Westminster Review. (1824-1914). A radically-inclined quarterly founded by James Mill in opposition to the
Edinburgh Review and
Quarterly Review.
