The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 18 November 1829
“Croxteth, Nov. 18th.
“. . . I am sure you would not wish me to miss
Lady Foley. It is very nearly the
direct road to London. Then to see a noble novel-writer, who has never been
known in the midst of all their ruin to degrade herself by putting on either a
pair of gloves or a ribbon a second time, and who has always 4 ponies ready
saddled and bridled for any enterprise or excursion that may come into her
head! To say ![]()
| 1829.] | A SPENDTHRIFT PEER. | 205 |
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nothing of Foley, who, without a halfp’orth of income
keeps the best house and has planted more oak trees than any man in England,
and by the influence of his name and popularity returns two members for
Droitwich and one for the county. Then he is to get his next neighbour
Lord Dudley to meet me, so we shall have
Jean qui pleure et
Jean qui
rit—Ward [Lord
Dudley] being in a state of lingering existence under the
frightful pressure of £120,000 a year.”
Thomas Foley, third baron Foley (1780-1833)
Whig peer, the son of the second baron (d. 1793); educated under Samuel Parr at Hatton
and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was a privy councillor and Lord-Lieutenant of
Worcestershire (1831-33).
John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833)
The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and
Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who
suffered from insanity in his latter years.
