My blood beginning to boil, I said: 'Lambton, I wish you could tell me what quarter I am to apply to for some fish.' To which he replied in the most impertinent manner: 'The servant, I suppose.' I turned to Mills and said pretty loud: 'Now, if it was not for the fuss and jaw of the thing, I would leave the room and the house this instant'; and dwelt on the damned outrage. Mills said: 'He hears every word you say': to which I said: 'I hope he does.' It was a regular scene.

A few days later, however, Mr. Creevey was consoled by finding himself in a very different establishment, where 'everything is of a piece—excellent and plentiful dinners, a fat service of plate, a fat butler, a table with a barrel of oysters and a hot pheasant, &c., wheeled into the drawing-room every night at half-past ten.'

It is difficult to remember that this was the England of the Six Acts, of Peterloo, and of the Industrial Revolution. Mr. Creevey, indeed, could hardly be expected to remember it, for he was utterly unconscious of the existence—of the possibility—of any mode of living other than his own. For him, dining-rooms 50 feet long, bottles of Madeira, broiled bones, and the brightest yellow satin were as necessary and obvious a part of the constitution of the universe as the light of the sun and the law of gravity. Only once in his life was he seriously ruffled; only once did a public question present itself to him as something alarming, something portentous, something more than a personal affair. The occasion is significant. On March 16, 1825, he writes:

I have come to the conclusion that our Ferguson is insane. He quite foamed at the mouth with rage in our Railway Committee in support of this infernal nuisance—the loco-motive Monster, carrying eighty tons of goods, and navigated by a tail of smoke and sulphur, coming thro' every man's grounds between Manchester and Liverpool.

His perturbation grew. He attended the committee assiduously, but in spite of his efforts it seemed that the railway Bill would pass. The loco-motive was more than a joke. He sat every day from 12 to 4; he led the opposition with long speeches. 'This railway,' he exclaims on May 31, 'is the devil's own.' Next day, he is in triumph: he had killed the Monster.

Well—this devil of a railway is strangled at last.... To-day we had a clear majority in committee in our favour, and the promoters of the Bill withdrew it, and took their leave of us.

With a sigh of relief he whisked off to Ascot, for the festivities of which he was delighted to note that 'Prinney' had prepared 'by having 12 oz. of blood taken from him by cupping.'

Old age hardly troubled Mr. Creevey. He grew a trifle deaf, and he discovered that it was possible to wear woollen stockings under his silk ones; but his activity, his high spirits, his popularity, only seemed to increase. At the end of a party ladies would crowd round him. 'Oh, Mr. Creevey, how agreeable you have been!' 'Oh, thank you, Mr. Creevey! how useful you have been!' 'Dear Mr. Creevey, I laughed out loud last night in bed at one of your stories.' One would like to add (rather late in the day, perhaps) one's own praises. One feels almost affectionate; a certain sincerity, a certain immediacy in his response to stimuli, are endearing qualities; one quite understands that it was natural, on the pretext of changing house, to send him a dozen of wine. Above all, one wants him to go on. Why should he stop? Why should he not continue indefinitely telling us about 'Old Salisbury' and 'Old Madagascar'? But it could not be.

Le temps s'en va, le temps s'en va, Madame; Las! Le temps non, mais nous, nous en allons.

It was fitting that, after fulfilling his seventy years, he should catch a glimpse of 'little Vic' as Queen of England, laughing, eating, and showing her gums too much at the Pavilion. But that was enough: the piece was over; the curtain had gone down; and on the new stage that was preparing for very different characters, and with a very different style of decoration, there would be no place for Mr. Creevey.

1919.



INDEX

Algarotti, 144, 145, 152 Anne, Queen, 106 Arnold, Matthew, 10 Arouet. See 'Voltaire'

Bailey, Mr. John, 4-7, 9-12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22 Balzac, 220, 221, 225, 226, 227 Barres, M., 220, 21, 234 Beddoes, Dr. Thomas, 194-196 Beddoes, Thos. Lovell, 193-216 Beethoven, 237 Berkeley, 106 Bernhardt, 23 Bernieres, Madame de, 96, 107 Bernstorff, 76 Berry, Miss, 67, 68 Beshyr, Emir, 247 Bessborough, Lady, 243 Bevan, Mr. C.D., 196 Beyle, Henri, 219-238 Blake, 36, 63, 179-190 Bluecher, 255 Boileau, 62 Bolingbroke, 99, 101, 103, 104, 111 Bonaparte, 222 Boswell, 59 Boufflers, Comtesse de, 76 Boufflers, Marquise de, 75 Bourget, M., 220, 221 Brandes, Dr., 43, 51 Brink, Mr. Ten, 43 Broome, Major, 101 Brougham, 255 Browne, Sir Thomas, 27-28 Buffon, 80, 154 Burke, 76 Butler, Bishop, 29, 106

Canning, George, 243, 247, 255 Canning, Stratford, 243, 247 Caraccioli, 76 Carlyle, 93, 137, 144, 160 Caroline, Queen, 256 Carteret, 106 Castlereagh, 255 Cellini, 68 Chasot, 152, 153 Chateaubriand, 225 Chatelet, Madame du, 113, 141-143 Chatham, Lady, 242 Chatham, Lord, 241 Chesterfield, Lord, 63 Choiseul, Duc de, 79 Choiseul, Duchesse de, 70, 85, 86 Chuquet, M., 220, 221, 223, 238 Cicero, 68 Cimarosa, 230 Claude, 17 Coleridge, 16, 30, 62, 63 Colles, Mr. Ramsay, 194, 195 Collins, Anthony, 110, 111 Collins, Churton, 93, 98, 103 Condillac, 230 Congreve, 101 Conti, Prince de, 96 Corneille, 80, 129 Correggio, 231 Cowley, 196 Creevey, Mr., 253-260

D'Alembert, 70, 75, 131, 162, 166 Dante, 10 d'Argens, 152 d'Argental, 72 Darget, 152 Daru, 222 Davy, Sir Humphry, 195 Deffand, Madame du, 67-89, 97 Degen, 203 d'Egmont, Madame, 72 Denham, 62 Denis, Madame, 149, 150 d'Epinay, Madame, 165, 167, 168, 169, 171-174 Descartes, 113 Desnoiresterres 93 Devonshire, Duchess of, 247 d'Houdetot, Madame, 171 Diderot, 70, 166-175 Diogenes, 115 Donne, 62 Dowden, Prof., 42, 43, 45, 49, 51 Dryden, 4, 22, 29, 62 Durham, Lord, 255

Ecklin, Dr., 203, 204 Edgeworth, Miss, 195, 196 Euler, 154, 155

Falkener, Everard, 98 Fielding, 80, 197 Flaubert, 220, 221 Fleury, Cardinal, 112 Fontenelle, 73, 222 Foulet, M. Lucien, 93, 94, 96, 98, 103, 105 Fox, Charles James, 76, 78 Frederick the Great, 137 Fry, Mrs., 243, 244, 247 Furnivall, Dr., 42, 43

Gautier, 225 Gay, 102 George III, 247, 255 Gibbon, 29, 76, 80 Gide, M. Andre, 219, 220, 227 Goethe, 237 Gollancz, Sir I., 43, 49 Goncourts, De, 10 Gosse, Mr., 27-31, 35, 115, 204, 205 Gramont, Madame de, 79 Granville, Lord, 242 Gray, 60, 62 Grey, Lord, 255 Grimm, 166-174

Hardwicke, Lord, 248 Hegetschweiler, 202 Helvetius, 230 Henault, 72, 75 Herrick, 38 Higginson, Edward, 100 Hill, Dr. George Birkbeck, 59, 63 Hill, Mr., 243 Hugo, Victor, 62, 225 Hume, 30, 112, 114, 167, 169 Huskisson, 255

Ingres, 3

Johnson, Dr., 22, 28-30, 32, 59-63, 103, 221 Jordan, 140 Jourdain, Mr., 154

Keats, 211 Kelsall, Thomas Forbes, 200, 203, 204, 209 Klopstock, 186 Koenig, 155

La Beaumelle, 154 Lamb, Charles, 30, 188, 194 Lambton, 258 La Mettrie, 152-154, 158 Lanson, M., 93, 100 Latimer, 31 Lecouvreur, Adrienne, 95 Lee, Sir Sidney, 43 Leibnitz, 155 Lemaitre, M., 4-6, 17, 18 Lemaur, 70 Lespinasse, Mlle. de, 70, 71, 75, 86, 238 Leveson Gower, Lord Granville, 242 Locke, 29, 110, 112, 113, 115 Louis Philippe, 222 Louis XIV., 71 Lulli, 70 Luxembourg, Marechale de, 77, 83

Macaulay, 137 Macdonald, Mrs. Frederika, 164-173 Maine, Duchesse du, 71, 74 Malherbe, 62 Marlborough, Duke of, 105 Marlborough, Duchess of, 101 Marlowe, 197 Massillon, 74 Matignon, Marquis de, 84 Maupertuis, 153-156, 158, 159, 161 Mehemet Ali, 244 Merimee, Prosper, 223 Meryon, Dr., 243, 247, 248 Middleton, 111 Milton, 10, 16, 211 Mirepoix, Bishop of, 142 Mirepoix, Marechale de, 76 Moliere, 134 Moncrif, 72 Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 241 Montespan, Madame de, 74 Montesquieu, 78, 107, 230, 238 Moore, Sir John, 243 Morley, Lord, 110, 167, 172 Moses, 115 Mozart, 23, 230 Musset, 225

Napoleon, 67, 230, 231, 234, 238 Necker, 84 Nelson, 221 Newton, Sir Isaac, 100, 106, 112, 113

Pascal, 36, 112 Pater, 31 Peterborough, Lord, 102, 103 Pitt, William, the younger, 241-243, 247 Plato, 185 Poellnitz, 152 Pompadour, Madame de, 143 Pont-de-Veyle, 72, 75 Pope, 4, 22, 34, 38, 103, 106, 211 Prie, Madame de, 71, 94, 96 Prior, 63 Proctor, Bryan Waller, 200, 203 Puffendorf, 76

Quinault, 70

Racine, 3-24, 80, 129-131, 225, 237 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 45, 179, 183, 185 Regent, the Prince, 255 Reni, Guido, 231 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 30, 186, 188 Richardson, 80 Richelieu, 73 Rohan-Chabot, Chevalier de, 94, 96, 98 Rossetti, 183 Rousseau, 85, 165-175, 230 Rubens, 34 Russell, Lord John, 255

Sainte-Beuve, 10, 12, 18, 61, 167, 220 Saint-Lambert, 172 Saint-Simon, 80, 179-183 Sampson, Mr. John, 179-183 Sanadon, Mlle., 84 Shaftesbury, 110 Shakespeare, 3, 4, 14, 34, 41-56, 80, 112, 132, 221, 225 Shelley, 23, 38 Sheridan, 257 Sophocles, 132 Spenser, 211 Stanhope, Lady Hester, 241-249 'Stendhal.' See Beyle, Henri Stephen, Sir James, 211 Sully, Duc de, 95, 105 Swift, 29, 101, 104, 106 Swinburne, 184

Taine, 220, 221 Thevenart, 70 Thomson, 63 Tindal, 111 Toland, 110, 111 Tolstoi, 228 Toynbee, Mrs. Paget, 67-69, 75 Turgot, 70, 169

Velasquez, 34 Vigny, 225 Virgil, 14, 23 Voltaire, 69, 70, 72, 75, 79-81, 83, 93-117, 121-134, 137-162, 174, 188

Walpole, Horace, 30, 63, 67, 68, 69-71, 75, 76, 78-80, 86-89, 103, 104, 106 Webster, 36 Wellington, Duke of, 255 White, W.A., 180 Winckelmann, 237 Wolf, 138 Wollaston, 111 Woolston, 111 Wordsworth, 16, 62, 63, 184 Wuertemberg, Duke of, 156

Yonge, Miss, 134 Young, Dr., 101

Zola, 220, 227, 228

THE END