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The Creevey Papers

Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 3 November 1828

INTRODUCTION & INDEXES

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

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Introduction

Vol. I. Contents

Ch. I: 1793-1804

Ch. II: 1805

Ch. III: 1805

Ch. IV: 1806-08

Ch. V: 1809

Ch. VI: 1810

Ch. VII: 1811

Ch. VIII: 1812

Ch. IX: 1813-14

Ch X: 1814-15

Ch XI: 1815-16

Ch XII: 1817-18

Ch XIII: 1819-20

Vol. II. Contents

Ch I: 1821

Ch. II: 1822

Ch. III: 1823-24

Ch. IV: 1825-26

Ch. V: 1827

Ch. VI: 1827-28

Ch. VII: 1828

Ch. VIII: 1829

Ch. IX: 1830-31

Ch. X: 1832-33

Ch. XI: 1833

Ch. XII: 1834

Ch XIII: 1835-36

Ch XIV: 1837-38

Index

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Produced by CATH

“. . . I really think a more worthy, amiable and obliging young person is not to be found than this Lady Louisa Tighe.* I had heard from every one before how much beloved she was by all around her, and I have no doubt it is so. She is quite in Lady Duncannon’s line as to her devotion to her poorer nibbers,† and quite as successful, but then I daresay Mrs. Tighe had done much, and there has always been a resident family here. . . She tells me her sister Lady

* Fifth daughter of the 4th Duke of Richmond; married in 1825 the Right Hon. W. F. Tighe of Woodstock. It has often been told of this lady that she buckled the Duke of Wellington’s sword-belt when he left her mother’s ball-room on the morning of Quatre-Bras; but this she always emphatically denied. She died 2nd March, 1900. † Neighbours.

1828.]

THE TIGHES OF WOODSTOCK.

185

Sarah* in America has 6 children and Lady Mary† at the Cape four. . . . She [Lady Louisa] has a plain face, but a most agreeable expression in it. She read [prayers] uncommonly well last night, which I was surprised at, as their education was never considered of the best. . . . We are to have the Lord knows who to-day in the way of company to stay in the house; amongst others, Fred Berkeley‡ and his wife, who is a sister of Lady Louisa’s. They come from Cork, where he has a ship.

“What think you of old Dowr. Richmond being here for 3 months, and never once during the time speaking to Tighe? Was there ever such impudence? He being, not only the most gentlemanlike, well-bred person possible, and evidently he and his wife the happiest [couple] with each other. All the nibbers, of which there are shoals, say his behaviour under this outrage was perfect. Do you know that this is the house from which those chiennes Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby,§ the heroines of Llangollen, escaped to that retreat they have occupied ever since. Lady Eleanor Butler,§ aunt to

* Second daughter of the 4th Duke of Richmond; married in 1815 to General Sir Peregrine Maitland, G.C.B., and died in 1873. † Eldest daughter of the 4th Duke of Richmond; married Sir Charles Fitzroy, K.C.B., and died in 1847. ‡ Afterwards Admiral the Right Hon. Sir Maurice Frederick Berkeley, G.C.B., created Baron Fitzhardinge in 1861; married Lady Charlotte Lennox, 6th daughter of the 4th Duke of Richmond, and died in 1867. § Youngest daughter of the 16th Earl of Ormonde [de jure]. Writing from Llangollen to his son on 24th August, 1829, Mr. John Murray has the following:— “We had a great treat yesterday in being invited to introduce ourselves to the celebrated Miss Ponsonby, of whom you must have heard as becoming early tired of fashionable life, and having withdrawn, accompanied by a kindred friend, Lady Eleanor Butler, to a delightful, and at that period unfrequented, spot a quarter of a mile from Llangollen, overhanging the rapid and beautiful river Dee. Lady Eleanor died there a few months ago at the age of 91, after having lived with Miss Ponsonby in the same cottage upwards of 50 years. It is very singular that the ladies intending to retire from the world, absolutely brought all the world to visit them; for, after a few years of seclusion, their strange story was the universal subject of

186

THE CREEVEY PAPERS

[Ch. VII.

the present Lord Ormonde, got over their castle wall that I have seen in the town of Kilkenny, broke her arm and was caught. When she escaped the second time, she and Miss Ponsonby found their way here. Tighe’s grandmother, Lady Betty Ponsonby (that had been) from Besborough, being then mistress of Woodstock, concealed the runaways till they and a faithful housemaid from the place got away in safety to their [illegible]. The said Miss Ponsonby has a brother living in the county now, having changed his name to Walker for a fortune of £15,000 a year. His wife seems to have been quite as neat an article as his sister or her friend Lady Eleanor Butler; for, as they were riding out on horseback one day, she pointed out a good stiff hurdle to him, and said—‘Now, go over that to please me.’ To which he replied—‘I thank you; but I am not going to break my neck for any such nonsense.’—‘Then, said she, ‘you are not the man for me, and if you won’t go over it, I will:’ and over it she flew. To this hour, he has never seen her face since: so Kilkenny’s the county for fun and fancy. . . .”