The Creevey Papers
Lady Louisa Molyneux to Thomas Creevey, 17 January 1838
“Arlington St., Jan. 17th, 1838.
“. . . Papa has found some amusement in a book that
occupies everybody now—more, it appears, from its atrocity than from any
merit it has—Memoires et correspondence of Queen Caroline, edited by Lady
Charlotte Bury, in which there are so many bad stories ill told,
and so many personal remarks on living people, that I cannot imagine anybody
ever speaking to her again. Her name is not to the book, but everybody knows it
is hers.
“Poodle Byng,
&c., have tried, it seems, rather a dangerous experiment with the [new]
House of Commons, by which they lighted it so brilliantly that you could read
the smallest print; and if you held a candle to the paper it added no light to
the dazzling glare, which came from 5000 apertures in gas-pipes between the
roofs, where the thermometer was at 120, and kept rising! They had fire engines
in attendance, and a hose laid along every gas-pipe for fear of accidents; but
they will not venture to try it again. . . . Think of Lord Foley having sold Witley to Ld.
Ward* for £890,000! He was some little time
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in making up his mind to part with the place they were
all so fond of; but he will now have £19,000 a year without any debt, instead
of being the wretched impoverished man he was.* I have had a letter from
Alava, who says of Sir John
Colborne†:—‘J’ai grande
confiance dans Colborne—officier du premier
ordre, très aimé et tres estimé tant de Sir
J. Moore comme du Duc de
Wellington, et quel bel éloge! Il est non seulement
excellent militaire, mais qualified pour toute espèce de commandement,
et d’une moralité et probité dignes d’autres
temps.’
“The burning of the Royal Exchange has put the City
in great dismay. They are very quiet, and were to give £16,000 this morning at
9 o’clock for a house in Lombard Street, to go on with at present, and
meet there at twelve. I hope the poor bells chiming their death song brought
tears into your eyes.”
Miguel de Alava (1770-1843)
A Spanish officer and statesman who fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular
War and at Waterloo.
Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Bury [née Campbell] (1775-1861)
Scottish novelist, daughter of John Campbell, fifth duke of Argyll; in 1791 she married
John Campbell of Shawfield and Islay (1796) and in 1818 Edward John Bury; she was
lady-in-waiting to Queen Caroline (1809) and published
Diary illustrative
of the Times of George IV (1838). Thomas Creevey described her as “a very handsome
woman and somewhat loose.”
Frederick Gerald Byng [Poodle] (1784-1871)
Son of John Byng, fifth viscount Torrington; he was a dandy acquaintance of the Prince
Regent and a clerk at the Foreign Office.
Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821)
Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted
unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as
queen.
Sir John Moore (1761-1809)
A hero of the Peninsular Campaign, killed at the Battle of Corunna; he was the son of Dr.
John Moore, the author of
Zeluco.
John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833)
The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and
Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who
suffered from insanity in his latter years.
William Ward, first earl of Dudley (1817-1885)
The son of William Humble Ward, tenth Baron Ward of Birmingham; educated at Eton and
Christ Church, Oxford, he was a trustee of the National Gallery, created Earl Dudley in
1860.
