The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 14 April 1827
“Holkham, April 14th.
“This is a damned bore, you must know, not having
the London letters and newspapers till four o’clock in the afternoon.
It’s all mighty fine for King Tom* to
have his own house the post-house, which it is; but give me a professional one
in preference to a squirearchy postmaster. . . . I was more delighted with my
approach to this house than ever, and so I am now with everything both within
it and without it—except the company, who, God
knows, are rum enough, and totally unworthy of all Lord Chief Justice Coke has done for them in creating the
estate, and the Earl of Leicester in
building and furnishing the house. Our worthy King Tom is
decidedly the best; but—without offence be it said—he by no means
comes up to his ancestor the Chief Justice. . . . Digby and Lady
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Andover* are both speechless [erased]; Stanhope
and Mrs. Stanhope are worthy, honest,
absent, lackadaisical bodies that don’t seem to know where they are or
who they are with; and this is our present stock, except a young British Museum
artist, who is classing manuscripts, and a silent parson without a name! But
then—what have we not in reserve? Do not we expect Lord John Russell, the Knight of Kerry, Spring Rice, and various other great and publick
men? We do indeed! tho’ during the different times I have been here, I
have known many expected who never came. But you’ll not quote me. In the
mean time, it’s all the same to me whether they come or not. I came to
see the place. I doat upon it. . . . I was not sufficiently struck when I have
been here before with the furniture of the walls in the three common living
rooms, which is Genoa velvet, and what is more, it has been up ever since the
house was built, which is eighty years ago; and yet it is as fresh as a
four-year-old. To be sure, the said Earl of Leicester was
no bad hand at finishing his work: never was a house so built outside and in.
The gilded roofs of all the rooms and the doors would of themselves nowadays
take a fortune to make; and his pictures are perfect, tho’ not
numerous.”
Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
Attorney general and speaker of the House of Commons under Queen Elizabeth; he published
Institutes of the Lawes of England, or, A Commentarie upon
Littleton (1628).
Sir Henry Digby (1770-1842)
The son of William Digby; he was a naval captain who fought at Trafalgar.
Lady Jane Elizabeth Digby [née Coke] (d. 1863)
The daughter of Thomas William Coke, first Earl of Leicester; in 1796 she married Charles
Nevinson Howard, son of the Earl of Suffolk; after his death she married in 1806 Admiral
Sir Henry Digby.
Thomas Spring Rice, first Baron Monteagle (1790-1866)
The son of Stephen Edward of Limerick; he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and
was MP for Limerick City (1820-32) and Cambridge borough (1832-39). He was chancellor of
the exchequer (1835-39) and contributed to the
Edinburgh
Review.
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).
John Spencer Stanhope (1787-1873)
Of Cannon Hall, the son of Walter Spencer Stanhope; a scholar and traveller, he was the
father of the painter John Roddam Spencer Stanhope.
Edward Stanley, first Baron Monteagle (1460 c.-1523)
The son of Thomas Stanley, first earl of Derby; fighting under Thomas Howard, earl of
Surrey, he was instrumental in the English victory at Flodden Field.
George Townshend, second Marquess Townshend (1753-1811)
The son of the first marquess (d. 1807), he was educated at Eton and St John's College,
Cambridge; he held political offices and was president of the Society of Antiquaries. He
disinherited his son George, afterwards third marquess.
