The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 23 December 1834
“Greenwich Hospital, Dec. 23rd.
“Our party at dinner on Sunday at Lord Holland’s was the Duchess of Bedford, Duke
of Devonshire, Mulgrave,
B. Thompson, Bickersteth and some one else I forget. I never was acquainted
with the Duchess of Bedford, and since I delivered her of
her London Bedford House in 1808, have always been glad not to come in her way.
However, on Sunday she began before dinner, . . . and when there was an opening
after dinner she said—‘Well, tho’ I have never had a house
in London fit to live in since that disappointment, I quite forgive you;
and I hope you will come and see me at Woburn at any time you
like.’ . . . I dine at the Hollands again on
Xmas day—again to meet that lively man, the Duke of
Devonshire! But we shall have no want of vivacity on that jolly
day, as the Duke of Norfolk dines there
likewise. . . . I had two conversations yesterday, each with a
Hume—the first, ‘Joe’—the second, Wellington’s doctor whom you will
remember. The first was quite positive that Peel could not number 200 supporters. My other friend, to my
surprise, turned about with me, and expressed to me his fixed conviction that
every attempt of the Duke and
Peel to procure a favorable House of Commons would
fail.”
Henry Bickersteth, baron Langdale (1783-1851)
Son of a physician of the same name; he studied at Caius College, Cambridge and the Inner
Temple, was a friend of Sir Francis Burdett and Jeremy Bentham, and was appointed master of
the rolls and created Baron Langdale in 1836. In 1835 he married Lady Jane Elizabeth
Harley, daughter of the Earl of Oxford.
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
Bernard Edward Howard, twelfth duke of Norfolk (1765-1842)
Educated at the English College at Douai, in 1815 he succeeded his third cousin, Charles
Howard, eleventh duke (d. 1815), and took his seat in Parliament after passage of the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill of 1829.
John Robert Hume (1781 c.-1857)
Scottish physician who after education at Glasgow and Edinburgh and service in the
Peninsular War became the personal physician to the Duke of Wellington.
Joseph Hume (1777-1855)
After service in India he became a radical MP for Weymouth (1812), Aberdeen (1818-30,
1842-55), Middlesex (1830-37), and Kilkenny (1837-41); he was an associate of John Cam
Hobhouse and a member of the London Greek Committee. Maria Edgeworth: “Don't like him
much; attacks all things and persons, never listens, has no judgment.”
Constantine Henry Phipps, first marquess of Normanby (1797-1863)
The son of Henry Phipps, first earl of Mulgrave; educated at Harrow and Trinity College,
Cambridge, he was a Whig MP, governor of Jamaica (1832-34), lord privy seal (1834),
lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1835), and ambassador at Paris (1846-52).
Georgiana Russell, duchess of Bedford [née Gordon] (1781-1853)
The daughter of Alexander Gordon, fourth duke of Gordon; in 1803, after first being
engaged to his brother, she became the second wife of John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford
and became a prominent Whig hostess. Sydney Smith described her as “full of amusement
and sense.”
