“. . . Sefton said before dinner yesterday:—‘So Charles Dix‡ is dead!’ and scarce an observation was made from any quarter upon this event . The first year you and I, Barry, were at Knowsley, I saw the said Charles Dix with his son and Berri and their respective gentlemen, going in two coaches and four to Croxteth. They did this for years. When the restoration in France took place, there was nothing that Charles Dix and his family did not do to show their gratitude to the Seftons for past kindness. . . . I was present in Arlington Street when the French Ambassador brought, by command of Charles Dix, as a present to Lady Sefton, his picture, with the prettiest note possible, saying it was great vanity in so old a man for him to send his picture to a lady, but hoping she would receive it as an acknowledgment of all the kindness he had received from her. When the last Revolution took place in 1830, and Charles Dix came here, Sefton shewed me a letter from Sir Arthur Paget (who had likewise been a personal friend of Charles Dix), saying he considered it his duty to go and pay his respects to him, and asking Sefton to
* The Duke of Wellington. † There is some justice in this criticism: at the same time it must be remembered that Wellington’s despatches were contemporaneous; whereas Napier was writing years afterwards, and with knowledge gained from the enemy’s secret correspondence. ‡ King of the French. |
| 316 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch XIII. |
