The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 2 April 1824
“April 2.
“. . . In talking with Lady Derby about young Gill
Heathcote’s duel, she put me in mind that young
Gill and Mrs.
Johnson are cousins—their two grandmothers, Ly. Louisa Manners and Lady Jane Hallyday, having been sisters. So,
as the Countess justly observed, after Gill had received
Lord Brudenel’s shot for
maltreating his sister, he ought to have said—‘Now, my lord, I
must beg you to receive my shot for your conduct to my cousin!’
Damned fair, I think. . . . At night I am sorry to say I went with Lord Sefton into that famous, or rather infamous,
salon in St. James’s Street, where all the world at present assembles. It
far surpasses the salon at Paris in splendor, tho’ nothing like so large
nor so agreeable. To me it appears inevitable that all the young ones must be
ruined there. I found Sir Colin Campbell
at the hazard table, young Lord William
Lennox, Lord Bury and
various others whom I knew—all in the face of day—no concealment,
but in the great and principal apartment of the house. . . . On Sunday,
Sefton and I go to hear Irving,* and I am engaged to dine with him, altho’
Sussex has since asked me to dine with
him to meet Mina.”
James Thomas Brudenell, seventh earl of Cardigan (1797-1868)
The man who led the charge of the Light Brigade; he was the son of the sixth earl (d.
1837), educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, and was a Tory MP for Marlborough
(1818-29), Fowey (1830-32), and North Northamptonshire (1832-37).
Sir Colin Campbell (1776-1847)
After service in the Peninsular War and Waterloo he was governor of Nova Scotia (1833-39)
and Ceylon (1839-47). He was a friend of the Duke of Wellington.
Elizabeth Farren, countess of Derby (1759-1829)
Comic actress; she was courted by Charles James Fox but became the lover and later the
wife of the Earl of Derby upon the death of Elizabeth Hamilton in 1797.
Lady Jane Halliday [née Tollemache] (1750-1802)
The daughter of Lionel Tollemache, fourth Earl of Dysart; in 1771 she married Major John
Delap Halliday, and in 1802 George David Ferry.
Gilbert John Heathcote, first baron Aveland (1795-1867)
Of Normanton Park. the son of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, fourth baronet; he was educated at
Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a Whig MP for Boston (1830-30, 1831-32,
Lincolnshire (1832-41), and Rutland (1841-56).
Edward Irving (1792-1834)
Popular Presbyterian preacher in London; he was a friend of Coleridge and author of
The Oracles of God and the Judgement to Come (1823).
Augustus Frederick Keppel, fifth earl of Albemarle (1794-1851)
The son of the fourth earl (d. 1849); he fought as a captain at Waterloo, joined Brooks’s
Club in 1815, and was a Whig MP for Arundel (1820-26). He was frequently in debt and spent
his later days confined as a lunatic.
Lord William Pitt Lennox (1799-1881)
The fourth son of Charles Lennox, fourth duke of Richmond; after education at Westminster
School he pursued a military career, married an actress, and wrote for the popular press.
He published
The Story of my Life, 3 vols (1857).
