“What a difference it makes when one has a room to
write in with all one’s little comforts about one. I never, to my mind,
had one so made for me as my present one. It is a fat, lofty, square,
moderate-sized room on the ground floor—French to
the backbone in its furniture, gilt on the roof, gilded looking-glasses in all
directions, fancy landskapes and figures in pannells, a capital canopy bed,
furniture—white ground with bouquets of roses of all colours, and the
bouquets as large as a small hat. Armchairs ditto: chests of drawers, 2 quite
new and might be from Paris. My own escritoire in a recess with paper lighters before me of all colours, and in another corner
of the room another recess that shall be nameless, through a door, quite
belonging to itself and to no other apartment; the whole to conclude with a
charming fire which woke me by its crackling nearly an hour ago, whilst my maid
thought, of course, she was making it without waking the gentleman. . . . I
flew my kite at the Duke per
Saturday’s post. . . . I left Dublin in my post-chaise about ½ past
two—the distance 12 Irish miles, i.e. 15 English,
and it was too dark when I arrived to see anything of the exterior. I was shown
into a long, most comfortable library, with a door half open into a fat
drawing-room, and was told his Grace should know I had come. Presently a
gentleman and the Duke’s two fine boys came in, and I soon found that the
former was the parlez-vous tutor to
the others. After a certain time, the Duke appeared: he was all kindness and
good humor, as he always is. . . . After a good deal of jaw, and telling me
they
| 1828.] | CARTON. | 191 |
“All this time it appeared to me likely that I was the only stranger in the house: and what of that? Tant mieux. . . . However, upon returning to the drawing-room, there were men there, and the Duke said—‘Captain —— (I forget his name)—Mr. Creevey: my brother Augustus Stanhope,*—Mr. Creevey: my Napoleon Mr. Henry. . . . Do you know Lord Seymour,† Mr. Creevey? Do you know Lord Acheson‡?’ and in this way I was introduced to these youths. Augustus Stanhope is the one that was dismissed the army by court martial for doing Lord Yarmouth out of a large sum at play. . . . Then entered the Duchess, and from the prettyness of her manner it was quite impossible not to feel at home with her from that moment; but she is not nearly so pretty as I expected. . . . Well of course one of the quality lads handed her out: the others were on her other side, and I pitched my tent with my right ear to her,§ next Lord Seymour, and brought her into action in the first 3 minutes. She evidently was all for ‘de laugh,’ and two more demure, negative striplings could not well be than her neighbours appeared. . . . They seemed somewhat astonished at the free and easy position that I took up; however I took the lead and kept it till we all went to bed at 11½. . . .
“This morning, breakfast punctually at ½ past nine . . . the nobility sprigs still mute, and everything to be done by Mr. Thomas.
“After breakfast, I walked with the Duchess and her brother, and when the latter left us, she proposed showing me her cottage and flower-garden. . . . Whilst we were there, the Duke arrived with the lordlings, being on his way to show them Maynooth College,
* Eleventh son of the 3rd Earl of Harrington, and brother of the Duchess of Leinster. † Eldest son of 11th Duke of Somerset: succeeded as 12th Duke on his father’s death in 1855. ‡ Succeeded his father in 1849 as 3rd Earl of Gosford. § Mr. Creevey was very deaf in the left ear. |
| 192 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. VII. |
“However, I have been thro’ the college, and seen a good many of these 380 precious blackguards that are now in college there, and of all the disgusting concerns for filth the Maynooth business stands preeminent. And yet these are the men that are to guide and controul the whole Catholic population of Ireland. Maynooth Castle in its ruins is an immense concern. It was the residence of this family [the Fitzgeralds] and joins the ground which was let by the late Duke for the college.
“In returning thro’ the town of Maynooth, which belongs to the Duke entirely, I was sorry to see how inferior it was in neatness to Piltown and Lady Louisa Tighe’s town; nor did the Duchess seem to know any of the people at their doors as we passed. I have no doubt that both he and she are excellent people, but somehow they don’t seem to have hit off the art of having a neat neighbourhood. And yet they both praise the Irish people extremely.”
