LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
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In Whig Society 1775-1818
Introduction
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
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Contents
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Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Index
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IN WHIG SOCIETY

1775—1818

COMPILED FROM THE HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED
CORRESPONDENCE OF ELIZABETH, VISCOUNTESS
MELBOURNE, AND EMILY LAMB, COUNTESS
COWPER, AFTERWARDS VISCOUNTESS PALMERSTON



BY
MABELL, COUNTESS OF AIRLIE



















HODDER AND STOUGHTON LTD.
TORONTO LONDON NEW YORK
ST. PAUL’S HOUSE WARWICK SQUARE E.C.
MCMXXI

 
Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld.,
London and Aylesbury.


TO

MY DAUGHTER KITTY
INTRODUCTION

In giving some of the letters of my great-great-grandmother to the world, I have been actuated by a desire that they may perhaps serve some useful purpose in drawing a parallel between the condition of England during and after the Napoleonic Wars and the England of the present time.

They may also, I hope, reawaken interest in one who exercised a great influence over the society of her time. The letters have never been published before.

The habit of the letter-writers of that time was only to date their letters by the day of the week, so that the stamped date on the envelope has sometimes been the only clue to the month and year. The full stop seems to have been the only one known, the other stops being superseded by dashes, as if the writers paused to take breath.

The modern system of punctuation has, therefore, been introduced to a certain extent for the convenience of the reader. The writers abbreviated where they could because of the length of their letters, and when names are only given
viiiINTRODUCTION 
under an initial the full name has in most cases been supplied.

I have to thank Mrs. Laing for sorting the letters, and Mr. Mainwaring, of the London Library, for helping me with the notes. My thanks are also due to Lord Ilchester for giving me copies of some of Lady Melbourne’s letters to Lady Holland; and to Mr. Henry Cavendish for aiding me to disentangle a difficult question. There are but few interesting letters from Lady Cowper; but in later life her correspondence with her brother, Sir Frederick Lamb, afterwards Lord Beauvale, who succeeded his brother, Viscount Melbourne, in the title and estates in 1848, would form a volume in itself.

Airlie Castle,
Alyth.
August 1921.
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