Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Lady Caroline Lamb to Lady Morgan, [8 August 1827]
Brockett Hall,
Wednesday.
My dear Lady Morgan,
In consequence of a carrier coming this way, I have
heard to my excessive horror that Mr.
Canning is either dying or dead. I am coming to town in
consequence to know the truth, and if I can, to see the Duke of Devonshire; in the mean time, will you
call upon me to-morrow (Thursday) the moment you are up, and pray let it be
early; you never said good bye, you never said thank you for my sweet scent.
You never brought me the portrait. I take this note to town to-night, scarcely
hoping to see you. I have two or three notes from William, evidently not knowing this disastrous news.
Yours most truly,
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
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.
