Ilchester, Earl (ed) 1923. The Journal of the Hon. Edward Fox, 1818–1830. London: Thornton Butterworth.

Lady Jersey on the Dukedom

28 March 1822

[…] Poor Lady Jersey does talk and write most foolishly about the Buckingham Dukedom, and is laughed at for it by her enemies most justly. I hate her to do what is ridiculous, as there is no fine lady I love so much. The D. of Buck. has given up his second course from economy and as an example, which is, the wise ones say, the most foolish thing an defeats every object. […]

The Bedford Duel

2 May 1822

2^d May. More and Washington Irving came to breakfast. The D. of Bedford afterwards came to ease my father’s mind about a duel he had this morning at seven o’clock with the D. of Buckingham, about some foolish, hot phrases at Bedford. It took place in Kensington Gardens. They fired at the same moment, Buckingham missed and Bedford fired in the air. L^d Lynedoch and Sir W. W. Wynne were the seconds. I went with my lady to Buckingham House to see the Library.[1] His Majesty it is said means to sell. There are very valuable Caxtons, a curious Indian book full of illuminations—quite beautiful. We went to call on the D^ss of Bedford, who was still very much flurried, but yet talked very sensibly and with great feeling. The correspondence began a week ago. She knew nothing about it, nor had the slightest suspicion that anything unpleasant was going on. Last night they settled he should breakfast at Holland House, so she was not surprized at his going early out. After Almack’s he sent for her and Eliza Russell, under pretence of seeing their dresses, kissed them both and wished them goodnight. He has had this on his mind so long, and only L^d Jersey and L^d Lynedoch were his confidants. He betrayed no sort of uneasiness; and L^y Morley said she sat next to him on Wednesday at dinner and never knew him so full of conversation. While the seconds were measuring the ground the principals had a long conversation, and the D. of B-m asked the other Duke whether his Duchess knew anything about it, at which people are furious, as it was unfeeling. It was certainly ill-judged and thoughtless.

The Arundells

4 August 1828

Monday, August 4. We left Rome very early and reached Frascati at about 8 o’clock. In the evening the Arundels and Colyars came from Albano to stay a few days with us. They are acquisitions, on the whole […] Lord Arundel has nothing but extreme good humour and a total absence of affection to recommend him. He is extremely bigoted and has no talents. He does not disguise his dislike for his fat brother-in-law, the D. of Buckingham, of whose meanness he seems quite aware, tho’, as is sometimes the case, it is wedded to the greatest and most expensive ostentation. His affairs are now in such a state that he left England to avoid his creditors, and even at his departure they pursued his yacht down the river in order to seize it. Some years ago when L^d A. was poorer (even than he is now), as it was before his father’s death, the Duke pressed them very much to spend a few months with him at Paris, to which they unwillingly consented. At the end of their residence L^d, or as he was then, M^r Arundel found to his great dismay that the Duke intended to pay half the house accounts, which, in consequence of the large dinners his Grace had given, were much more than he could well afford.

It is so melancholy to see a man so amiable as Lord Arundel, so well calculated for a domestic country gentleman’s life in England, entirely thrown out of all occupations that would suit his talents and character owing to an unfortunate difference in his creed. The education he has received has tended to narrow his mind and confine his ideas. The other evening he told me with some complacency that Wiltshire men despised and never visited their Wiltshire neighbours, who were less aristocratic. In talking to him sometimes I cannot help thinking that if the old joke be true about the Western counties in England, he ought to come from one much farther to the westward than even Wiltshire. Lady Arundel is well-bred and tolerably well-informed. Her temper, I suspect, by nature is very violent, and she has many bitter feelings, especially towards her own family. Of the Orange violence of her nephew, Lord Chandos, which he has inherited from his mother, who was brought up with a horror for the religion of her mother, the old Duchess of Chandos, Lady A. can hardly speak without temper. His conduct towards her and L^d A. is not calculated to conciliate their good will. He never speaks of them; and one day at dinner with his wife, seeing his brow clouded because she was laughing and joking, begged Lord A. not to speak to her “as Chandos was looking.” the mean tergiversation of the Duke was first effected by the offer of the Garter: an offer L^d A. says, he did not at all expect, and that he took some hours to think about accepting or refusing. Sir B. Bloomfield came to make the proposal while he and L^d A. were téte a téte at dinner. The Duke, when he returned form the conference, asked L^d A’s advice. The advice he gave was not taken, and his Grace soon went over to Ministers with the rest of the Grenvilles.  Even on the Catholic Question L^d A. thinks he would have changed his opinion, or at least his vote, had it not been for the artful manner in which some of the Whigs contrived to have resolutions drawn up in his house and called them the Buckingham House Resolutions, which, by flattering his vanity in appearing to place him at the head of the some sort of party, presents what Lord Arundell terms “his utter perdition,” i.e., his voting against the Catholic claims. Lady Arundell is a harsh woman to all of her sex who from weakness or folly have yielded to temptation. She speaks of them with cruelty and of almost every one slightingly. She is found of gossip and ill-natured jokes, like all her family. The want of children, her change of religion, the persecution of her husband’s faith in England, their poverty, and a variety of disappointments and annoyances, have contributed to sour her temper, not naturally very sweet; while upon him the effect has been to check all the natural good-humour of his character, and to render him more narrow-minded and contracted than he might otherwise have been.