Lady
Caroline Lamb Portrait Gallery
TEXT ON THIS PAGE IS FROM MAD, BAD AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW © SEAN MANCHESTER, 1992
On 13 November 1785 a
diminutive, fragile daughter was born at the Bessborough home in Cavendish
Square. The child barely survived. She was christened Caroline and immediately
nicknamed “Caro” by her mother. The wilful eccentricity that would come to
characterise their only daughter was evinced in neither parent. But baby Caro
delighted everyone when she appeared. … She believed that the world was
populated equally by dukes and beggars, all of which left her illiterate at the
age of ten. Her time in England was often spent in the opulent surroundings of
her grandmother where there were seventy servants.
A pencil sketch by M A Knight of Lady Caroline Lamb.
Caro, at the
time of her marriage, by John Hoppner.
Lady Caroline Lamb in page’s costume (a style she sometimes
adopted for
her own amusement, Byron’s pleasure or as disguise) by Thomas
Hayter.
Lord Byron ~
the object of Caro’s fatal passion.
Infatuated by his image before
ever she met him, Caroline beheld the air of melancholy surrounding his finely
chiselled countenance wherein those beautifully formed, sensual lips moved to
frame poetic words in a low and caressing voice. At last she could admire his
clear complexion and the profusion of chestnut curls that fell upon his high
forehead, over his small ears and down the nape of his neck. Yet all this was
only discovered afterwards, for at this moment the brightness of his sensitive,
blue-grey eyes and their deep expression fixed the whole of her attention. She
returned his ardent gaze as though hypnotised by what she saw. From that moment
Caroline’s heart and soul would belong to Lord Byron.
In
her journal she wrote: “That beautiful pale face is my fate.”
Seán Manchester, Byron descendant and biographer of Lady
Caroline Lamb,
alongside St Etheldreda’s Church ~ where the Lamb Family Vault
is located.
Lady Caroline
Lamb on horseback, by Joshua Reynolds.
U
little coffin of Caroline and paid homage over the remains
of the most celebrated poet in English literature.
- Seán Manchester