The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 21 April 1823
“April 21st.
“On Saturday I dined at Harry
Martin’s, with the Admiral and his wife, Lord Erskine, old
Alexander the Master in Chancery, &c., &c. Poor Erskine
at last looks very old and forlorn, tho’ his etherial spark is by no
means extinct. Somebody was talking about old Cochon’s† powers of eating, upon which
Erskine said he wished ‘the damned scoundrel
wd. eat his words.’ . . . He talks for
both Spaniards and Greeks with all the enthusiasm of youth.”
Sir William Alexander (1755-1842)
Educated at the Middle Temple, he was King's Counsel (1800) and Lord Chief Baron of the
Exchequer (1824-31).
Thomas Erskine, first baron Erskine (1750-1823)
Scottish barrister who was a Whig MP for Portsmouth (1783-84, 1790-1806); after defending
the political radicals Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall in 1794 he was lord chancellor in the
short-lived Grenville-Fox administration (1806-07).
Louis XVIII, king of France (1755-1824)
Brother of the executed Louis XVI; he was placed on the French throne in 1814 following
the abdication of Napoleon.
