The Creevey Papers
Lord Sefton to Thomas Creevey, [1820]
“. . . Have you heard of the competition about the
inscription for Fox’s monument?
Nothing can be more ridiculous than the intrigues about it at Holland House.
Mackintosh’s was preferred
there to Grey’s, tho’ by all
accounts it was great trash and Grey’s very good.
Lady H. found fault with the latter,
and it was agreed that Mrs. Fox’s
opinion should be asked. She answered in Ly. H.’s
words, and showed plainly she had been prepared with a reply. The end is, the
monument is to be without any inscription but C. J. Fox.
Can you conceive, in times like these, such stuff being made of
importance?”
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
Elizabeth Bridget Armistead Fox [née Cane] (1750-1842)
English courtesan who succeeded Mary Robinson in the affections of the Prince of Wales;
she was secretly married to Charles James Fox in 1795; the marriage was publicly
acknowledged in 1802.
Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845)
In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey
Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in
Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and
MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).
