The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 19 August 1834
“19th.
“. . . Besides Duncannon yesterday at Essex’s, we had Rogers and Miss Rogers, Lord and Lady
William Russell and another or two. I have never seen a woman
that I hate so much as Lady William Russell,* without
knowing her or ever having exchanged a word with her. There is a pretension,
presumption and a laying down the law about her that are quite insufferable.
Then her base ingratitude to those who formerly fed and cloathed
her—Fanny Brandling, the
Fawkes’s and others—sink her still lower
in my hatred of her. . . .”
John William Ponsonby, fourth earl of Bessborough (1781-1847)
The son of Frederick Ponsonby, third earl of Bessborough (d. 1844) and elder brother of
Lady Caroline Lamb; he was a Whig MP (1805-34), home secretary (1834-35), and
lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1846-47).
Lord George William Russell (1790-1846)
The second son of John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford; wounded at Talavera, he was
aide-de-camp to Wellington (1812), whig MP for Bedford (1812-30), and ambassador at Berlin
(1835-41).
