The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 15 March 1831
“15th.
“. . . Lord
Dacre said to me one day lately:—‘Do you know,
Creevey, how Brougham came to take the title of Vaux?
because, you know, it is my title; but as I don’t care about such
things, I have never done or said anything about it. The title, however, is
mine.’ . . . As Vaux has not enough upon his
hands, he has opened his batteries in the Times of to-day against Lady Jersey in a longish and bitter article. She
is mad in her rage against our Reform, and moves heaven and earth against it
wherever she goes according to her powers; but those powers are by no means
what they used to be. In short, she is like the rotten boroughs—going to
the devil as fast as she can.”
Thomas Brand, twentieth lord Dacre (1774-1851)
Of The Hoo, Hertfordshire; the son of Thomas Brand; he was a Whig MP for Hertfordshire
(1807-19) and married as his second wife, the poet Barbarina, Lady Dacre, in 1819—the same
year he succeeded his mother in the title.
Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the
Edinburgh
Review in which he chastised Byron's
Hours of Idleness; he
defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University
(1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).
Thomas Creevey (1768-1838)
Whig politician aligned with Charles James Fox and Henry Brougham; he was MP for Thetford
(1802-06, 1807-18) Appleby (1820-26) and Downton (1831-32). He was convicted of libel in
1813.
The Times. (1785-). Founded by John Walter, The Times was edited by Thomas Barnes from 1817 to 1841. In the
romantic era it published much less literary material than its rival dailies, the
Morning Chronicle and the
Morning
Post.
