wickedshifts

Updated: May 22, 2025

There are no great names in his vocabulary only nicknames: George III. is 'Old Nobs, the Regent 'Prinney, Wellington 'the Beau, Lord John Russell 'Pie and Thimble, Brougham, with whom he was on friendly terms, is sometimes 'Bruffam, sometimes 'Beelzebub, and sometimes 'Old Wickedshifts'; and Lord Durham, who once remarked that one could 'jog along on £40,000 a year, is 'King Jog. The latter was one of the great Whig potentates, and it was characteristic of Creevey that his scurrility should have been poured out with a special gusto over his own leaders.

Lytton Strachey - Books and Characters: French and English