Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Lady Caroline Lamb to Lady Morgan, 16 October [1825]
October 16.
My dear Lady Morgan,
I have a great deal to say to you, and to explain to
you, and I will write soon; but I have not been well. Lady Cowper called soon after you left me at Thomas’s
Hotel, and promised to call on you and say that I could not. I have seen her
since, and found she did not; but she wished to do so much, and I now send you
her card; pray see William and my son, and write and tell me all you think about
them, and Ireland, and when you next will be out. I write this solely to fulfil
my engagement—saying, I leave you when I
die Lord
Byron’s picture, now
under the care of Goddard—the original
by Saunders. Pray excuse one more word
until I hear from you, and believe me
Ever most sincerely yours,
Emily Mary Cowper, countess Cowper [née Lamb] (1787-1869)
Whig hostess, the daughter of Sir Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne; she married
(1) in 1805 Sir Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Cowper, fifth Earl Cowper, and (2) in
1839, her long-time lover, Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston.
Dr. Goddard (1827 fl.)
The physician who treated Lady Caroline Lamb. Lady Morgan's
Memoirs (1863) transcribes his signature as “G. Goddard” and as “B.
Goddard”.
Augustus Frederick Lamb (1807-1836)
The only surviving child of William and Caroline Lamb; he was mentally deficient and kept
at home.
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).
William Lamb, second viscount Melbourne (1779-1848)
English statesman, the son of Lady Melbourne (possibly by the third earl of Egremont) and
husband of Lady Caroline Lamb; he was a Whig MP, prime minister (1834-41), and counsellor
to Queen Victoria.
George Sanders (1774-1846)
Scottish portrait painter, educated in Edinburgh; he made several portraits of Lord
Byron.
