Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Lady Caroline Lamb to Lady Morgan, September 1823
September, 1823.
My dear and most amiable Lady Morgan,
I thank you from my heart for what you said Sir Charles would do; and now, as you say, for
business. It is a disagreeable thing to recommend any one, and in particular
when the education of children is a point at stake. I therefore shall write you
word for the inspection of Lord and
Lady Cloncurry, all I know ![]()
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of Miss Bryan, although the
knowledge that my letter is to be seen by strangers will prevent my writing as
fully as I otherwise should. Pray tell me something of Lady Charlemont. I feel very much interested for her. My
dearest mother liked her. Lady Abercorn admired her, and so did Lord Byron. She has, I am sure, suffered very,
very much. Sometime or other, tell me how Lord
Caulfield came to die, and how Lady
Charlewood is. Pray, in your prettiest manner, remember me to
her. I enclose you, upon trust, a letter of Miss Bryan;
but as there are two or three trifling mistakes in grammar, do not show it.
Only see what her feelings are. I feel interested for her; yet she and I are
not “congenial souls.” She is more dignified, tranquil, calm,
gentle, and self-possessed, than I am; and therefore, if she is made to be all
she can be, she will do better to bring up others. Now as every one must, will,
and should fall in love, it is no bad thing that she should have a happy,
Platonic, romantic attachment to an old mad mathematician several thousand
miles off. It will keep her steady, which, in truth, she is—beyond her
years. Added to this, she plays perfectly; can draw quite well enough to teach;
do beauty work; paint flowers; write and read well; and teach the harp. For
manner, dress, arrangement, appearance, exactness,—do well. What I do not
know about her is this,—I do not know if she is able to impart her
knowledge. I do not know if she is religious, although I presume she is.
Lady Cloncurry must guide her; she is yet but young,
and I advise most particularly ![]()
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that she should begin as
she intends to proceed. Miss Bryan is very gentle,
although proud, and can bear being spoken to; but she requires to be told the
plain truth, whole truth, and all the truth.
She has, certainly, good abilities and considerable
knowledge. Of the latter, perhaps rather too much, as it makes her somewhat
positive; but there is no conceit: her presumption is in her manner. It appears
to me that there is a good chance of her doing well; but Lady Morgan must be aware that the power of
instructing is almost a gift of nature; that many of the best instructed
themselves are very deficient in it. She must also be aware that much temper
and management is necessary to enable a person to like well the situation of a
governess, which, in every family, will be beset by some of the difficulties
and annoyances which Lady Morgan has well described in
O’Donnel.
With great regard,
Anne Jane Hamilton, marchioness of Abercorn [née Gore] (1763-1827)
Daughter of the earl of Arran; in 1783 she married Henry Hatton (d. 1793), in 1800 John
James Hamilton, first marquess of Hamilton. She entertained literary figures at her villa
at Stanmore, among them Lady Morgan.
Lady Caroline Lamb [née Ponsonby] (1785-1828)
Daughter of the third earl of Bessborough; she married the Hon. William Lamb (1779-1848)
and fictionalized her infatuation with Lord Byron in her first novel,
Glenarvon (1816).
Emily Lawless [née Douglas] (d. 1841)
The daughter of Archibald Douglas and Mary Crosbie; she married first the Hon. Joseph
Leeson (d. 1811) and in 1811 Valentine Browne Lawless, second baron Cloncurry.
Valentine Browne Lawless, second baron Cloncurry (1773-1853)
The son of the first baron (d. 1799), he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and was
imprisoned for treason in 1799; upon his release in 1801 he entered Irish politics as a
supporter of Catholic Emancipation.
Sir Thomas Charles Morgan (1780-1843)
English physician and philosophical essayist who married the novelist Sydney Owenson in
1812; he was the author of
Sketches of the Philosophy of Morals
(1822). He corresponded with Cyrus Redding.
