The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 7 September 1822
“Cantley, Sept. 7, 1822.
“. . . Maria
Copley has read me a letter from Lady
Francis Leveson from her new and noble parents’ Cock Robin
Castle,* at the other extremity of Scotland. It is really not amiss as an
exhibition of the tip-top noble domestic. Lord
Francis† had left Edinbro immediately upon Lord Stafford’s† illness, and
Lady Francis followed immediately to pass a month
there [at Dunrobin]. She says—‘Figure to yourself my
introduction into a room about 12 feet square, the company being Lord and
Lady Stafford, Lord and Lady
Wilton, Lord and
Lady Elizabeth Belgrave, Lord and Lady
Surrey, and Lord Gower. A table in the
midst of the room, highly polished, I admit, but not a book nor a piece of
work to be seen: the company formed into a circle, and every man and his
wife sitting next each other, after the manner of the Marquis of
Newcastle’s family in the picture in his
book.’”
Francis Egerton, first earl of Ellesmere (1800-1857)
Poet, statesman, and Tory MP; a younger son the second marquess of Stafford, he was
educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, was chief secretary for Ireland (1828-30), and
translated Goethe and Schiller and contributed articles to the
Quarterly
Review.
George Granville Leveson- Gower, first duke of Sutherland (1758-1833)
The son of the first marquess of Stafford (d. 1803); he was one of the wealthiest men in
Britain with an annual income of £200,000; his program for Scottish clearances and
resettlement was widely unpopular. He was created duke in 1833.
Lady Maria Grey [née Copley] (1803-1879)
The daughter of Captain Sir Joseph Copley, third baronet; in 1832 she married Henry
George Grey, afterwards third earl Grey.
Robert Grosvenor, first marquess of Westminster (1767-1845)
Of Eaton Hall, one of William Gifford's early patrons; he was a connoisseur of painting,
a Whig MP, and commissioner of the Board of Control. He was created Marquess of Westminster
in 1831.
