The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 6 October 1827
“Oct. 6th.
“. . . It should be a rule in coming to this house
not to exceed 3 days, when the party is purely domestic, because the artificial
situation of the Marchioness becomes much more striking. The delusion
can’t last: it becomes low comedy—low life above stairs. The scenes
are magnificent, the dresses superb, but still it is the part of the Marchioness of Cleveland by Miss Tidswell. . . . The Marquis himself, too, is quite a different man
from when I was last here. He is always civil, but there is no spring in him, one might almost say no utterance. He
seems absorbed in thought and by no means happy. We had, to be sure, a little
conversation last night, when he was kind enough to admit Mrs. Taylor and myself to an inspection of a
new pattern for his livery buttons! . . . Good God! how I write. I mean so
badly. It is now after dinner; I am sure I am not drunk, but the pens are the
very devil. . . . Lord Charles Somerset
complains that he could not sleep either of the three nights at Wynyard, never
having slept before in cambrick sheets, and that the Brussels lace with which
the pillows were trimmed tickled his face so he had not a moment’s peace.
. . . Grey says he would not dress Lady Londonderry for £5000 a year: her
handkerchiefs cost 50 guineas the dozen; the furniture of her boudoir cost
£3000. Alnwick Castle is the place for real comfort! You ladies are handed out
to breakfast, as well as at dinner; and, that entertainment over, the sexes are
separated as at a cathedral; so much so that Tankerville was arrested by the coatflap for attempting to
invade the seraglio. Cornwall, a London flash, was there
lately, and was so bored that, having consented to be one of the Duke’s male riding party (for here again
the sexes are kept separate) he hid himself; but in an unguarded moment looked
out of the window to enjoy their being off without him; when the Duke, looking
back, saw him, and they returned and took him.”
Charles Augustus Bennet, fifth earl of Tankerville (1776-1859)
Son of Charles Bennet, the fourth earl (d. 1822); educated at Eton, he was Whig MP for
Steyning (1803-06), Knaresborough (1806-18), and Berwick-on-Tweed) (1820-22); in 1806 he
married Armandine Sophie Leonie Corisande de Gramont.
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
Barbara Palmer, duchess of Cleveland [née Villiers] (1640-1709)
The daughter of William Villiers, second viscount Grandison (1614-1643) and mistress of
Charles II, who granted her the title in 1670. Her sexual adventures were detailed in
Delarivier Manley's
The New Atalantis (1709).
Hugh Percy, third duke of Northumberland (1785-1847)
The son of the second duke (d. 1817), he was educated at Eton and St John's College,
Cambridge, and before succeeding to the title was a Tory MP for Buckingham (1806),
Westminster (1806), Launceston (1806-07), and Northumberland (1807-12). He was
lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1829-30).
Lord Charles Henry Somerset (1767-1831)
The son of the fifth duke of Beaufort; educated at Westminster and Trinity College,
Oxford, he was MP for Scarborough (1796-1802) and Monmouth (1802-13) and a notoriously
autocratic governor of the Cape Colony (1814-25).
Frances Ann Taylor [née Vane] (d. 1835)
Whig hostess, the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, first baronet (1729–1794); in 1789 she
married the politician Michael Angelo Taylor.
Charlotte Tidswell (1759 c.-1846)
Actress at Drury Lane who specialized in chambermaid roles. At one time mistress to the
duke of Norfolk, she raised Edmund Kean, by some thought to be her son. Charles Lamb
described her as “the worst actress ever seen or heard.”
William Harry Vane, first duke of Cleveland (1766-1842)
The son of Henry Vane, second earl of Darlington (d. 1792); educated at Christ Church,
Oxford, he was a lifelong friend of Henry Brougham and a notable sportsman.
