The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 23 May 1826
“23rd.
“. . . I dined with poor Kinnaird yesterday, and the sight of such persons as him and
her in their present condition is as striking a moral lesson as the world can
furnish. He is the only man of real ![]()
| 102 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. IV. |
![]()
genuine vivacity I
know left in the world; and, wreck as he is, he still preserves the lead in
that department. He is doomed to death, and his sufferings are dreadful.
Sefton drove down Alava, Douglas
Kinnaird and myself; we were shown into his bedroom, where he
lies upon a couch, with a covering over every part of him but his head and
arms; and then he was wheeled in to dinner. . . . Then to look at her—a
perfect shadow, living, as it were, by stealth likewise; and to think of what
she was when the whole play-house at Dublin used to rise and applaud whenever
her sister, Lady Foley, and herself used to
enter the house, in admiration of their beauty only, and not their rank, for
they did so to no others of the Leinster family. . . . It is just 20 years
since I saw old Fox with his white favor
in his hat upon the marriage of his cousin Lady Olivia
Fitzgerald with Kinnaird.’
Miguel de Alava (1770-1843)
A Spanish officer and statesman who fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular
War and at Waterloo.
Charles Kinnaird, eighth baron Kinnaird (1780-1826)
The son of George Kinnaird, seventh baron Kinnaird; he was Whig MP for Leominster
(1802-05) before he succeeded to the title. He was the elder brother of Byron's friend,
Douglas Kinnaird.
