The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 18 May 1834
“Stoke, 18th.
“. . . I hope never again to assist at such a blue dinner as at Rogers’s on Friday. Bobus
Smith and old Sharpe*
were really too—not a moment’s
intermission—not even little John
Russell could get in his little observations, much less his
brother William, whom I would willingly
have examined as to affairs in Portugal, where he has so long resided, and
latterly as our ambassador. I never was so sick of learning as
Bobus and the Hatter made me that
day. . . . Our Earl and Countess [of Sefton] have left about an hour ago
in a gig, on a visit to the Duke and Duchess of Bedford
at Woburn, 38 miles off; having two horses stationed on the road besides the
one they started with. Since they went, it has rained cats and dogs,
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| 276 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. XII. |
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and they in a gig without a head! This, as I say to
Lady Louisa, is ennui in fine people tired of being at the top of the tree, and
wanting to see what is at the bottom. How the servants must grin!”
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
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).
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.”
John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878)
English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author
of
Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and
Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).
Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835)
English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published
Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (1781-1851)
Scottish poet, painter, editor, antiquary, and eccentric; he edited James Kirkton's
Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland (1817) with
elaborate notes mocking his author.
Robert Percy Smith [Bobus Smith] (1770-1845)
The elder brother of Sydney Smith; John Hookham Frere, George Canning, and Henry Fox he
wrote for the
Microcosm at Eton; he was afterwards a judge in India
and MP.
