“. . . I was charmed with my day at my Lord Lieutenant’s, notwithstanding the settled gloom of Lady Anglesey and the forbidding frowns of the Lady Pagets. The party at dinner and their position was as follows. Berkeley Paget* at the top: on his right, Chief Justice Burke, Lord Plunket, a Lady Paget, Lord Anglesey, another Lady Paget, Lord Howth, Col. Thornhill. At the bottom—Burton, aide-de-camp and secretary, 3rd Lady Paget, Corry, 4th Lady Paget, Lord Francis Leveson,† Lady Anglesea, Lord Clanricarde, Mr. Creevey, and Mr. Solicitor-General Dogherty. I have left out somebody that I forget. Altho’ I had never been introduced to Clanricarde‡ I threw off directly with—‘The last time I had the pleasure of seeing you, my lord, was at the Race ball at Chelmsford.’—‘Yes,’ said he, ‘and I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you there next year, too, for I
* Younger brother of the Marquess of Anglesey. Died in 1842. † Created Earl of Ellesmere in 1846. ‡ Fourteenth Earl and 1st Marquess of Clanricarde. Died in 1874. |
| 1828.] | THE VICEREGAL LODGE. | 189 |
“I had no notion Lord Anglesey could have been so gay in manner: it was really quite agreeable to see him in such spirits. . . . During dinner, he said across the table to me:—‘Why, Mr. Creevey, you have quite taken root in Ireland.’—‘I have been very much delighted with it, my lord,’ I replied.—‘Have you seen Donoughmore lately?’—‘Not since I met your lordship at Lyons.’—‘Have you been in the North at all?’—‘No, my lord, I had not courage to go into that disturbed part of Ireland. I prefer the tranquillity of the South.’ Upon which the two Chief Justices were pleased to smile; so did my Lord Lieutenant, and keeping his eyes fixed upon me he concluded:—‘Will you drink a glass of wine with me, Mr. Creevey?’—‘With great pleasure, my lord;’ and I had the same favor shown me by the two Judges and Mr. Solicitor. So it was all mighty well, you know.
“After a perfectly easy, conversational dinner, we drank coffee, had the billiard room open, and people playing and others walking about and jawing, just as they liked. I can’t think now it was that, in talking of heat and cold in rooms, Lord Anglesey said he preferred the canopy of Heaven to any other covering, . . . to which I said I had been greatly surprised at a proof of that, when I saw him sitting out in the park at Brussells, 3 or 4 days after the battle of Waterloo.—‘Ah,’ said he, ‘did you see me? It was so certainly. I was at Madame [illegible]’s house, and very kind to me they were.’—‘I knew your house too at Waterloo,’ said I, ‘and well remember the trees in the garden.’—‘Why, do you know,’ said he, ‘the people of that house have made the Lord knows what by people coming to see the grave of my leg which was buried in the garden!’ and he said this in a manner as much as to say—‘What damned fools they must be!’
“I had a good deal of jaw in private with Plunket during the evening; and when I asked
him his opinion as to anything being done in the approaching session about the
Catholics, he gave a most decided one that
| 190 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. VII. |
