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Lady Caroline Lamb

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Frances Arabella Rowden , later Frances de St Quentin , (1774 – c.  1840 ) was a British schoolmistress and poet. Her students included Emma Roberts , Anna Maria Fielding , Letitia Elizabeth Landon , Frances Anne Kemble and Rosina Bulwer Lytton .

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64-481: Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby ; 13 November 1785 – 25 January 1828) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for Glenarvon , a Gothic novel . In 1812, she had an affair with Lord Byron , whom she described as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". Her husband was the Honourable William Lamb , who after her death became 2nd Viscount Melbourne and British prime minister . Lamb

128-491: A Gothic novel that was released in 1816 just weeks after Byron's departure from England. Although published anonymously, Lady Caroline's authorship was an open secret. It featured a thinly disguised pen-picture of herself and her former lover, who was painted as a war hero who turns traitor against Irish nationalism . The book was notable for featuring the first version of the Byronic hero outside of Byron's own work as well as

192-511: A Wellesley born in Dublin to the Earl of Mornington , head of a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Dublin; and in the 20th century Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke , Field Marshal Lord Alexander of Tunis , General Sir John Winthrop Hackett , Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson and Field Marshal Sir Garnet Wolseley . (see also Irish military diaspora ). Others were prominent officials and administrators in

256-729: A detailed scrutiny of the Romantic period and, more specifically, the Ton . Lady Caroline included scathing caricatures of several of those prominent society members. One of them, the Countess of Jersey , cancelled Lady Caroline's vouchers to Almack's in retribution for her characterisations. This was the opening salvo in a backlash that found Lady Caroline outcast from fashionable society: although her sister-in-law, Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper , got Lady Caroline readmitted to Almack's in 1819, her reputation never fully recovered. Byron responded to

320-474: A head at a ball in honour of the Duke of Wellington when Byron publicly insulted Lady Caroline, who responded by breaking a wine glass and trying to slash her wrists. She did not seriously injure herself, and it is most unlikely that she had any suicidal intentions, but her reputation was damaged and her mental stability was questioned. Byron himself referred to it as a theatrical performance: "Lady Caroline performed

384-400: A measure which a minority of this nation considers to be grossly oppressive. I am proud to consider myself a typical man of that minority. We against whom you have done this thing, are no petty people. We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke ; we are the people of Grattan ; we are the people of Swift , the people of Emmet , the people of Parnell . We have created

448-629: A merciless wit and talent for mimicry. Lady Caroline was exceptionally well educated at home. She also attended a school in Hans Place , Knightsbridge, London, the successor to Reading Abbey Girls' School , where she was taught by Frances Arabella Rowden . Rowden was not only a published poet, but also, according to another pupil, Mary Russell Mitford , "she had a knack of making poetesses of her pupils". In her early adult years, Lady Caroline not only wrote prose and poetry, but also took to sketching portraiture. She spoke French and Italian fluently,

512-472: A political settlement with Irish nationalists. Anglo-Irish politicians such as Sir Horace Plunkett and Lord Monteagle became leading figures in finding a peaceful solution to the 'Irish question'. During the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921), many Anglo-Irish landlords left the country due to arson attacks on their family homes . The burnings continued and many sectarian murders were carried out by

576-458: A portrait of Byron. It worked, and the tone and substance of her request fooled them into sending the painting. She used that skill to respond to Byron's " Don Juan I and II ". Lady Caroline was most concerned with the allusions Byron had made about her; for example, the line "Some play the devil—and then write a novel" from "Don Juan II". In "A New Canto", Lady Caroline wrote—as Byron—"I'm sick of fame; I'm gorged with it; so full I almost could regret

640-533: A special governess to control her. Lady Morgan reported in her memoirs that Lady Caroline told her that she had grown up as a tomboy and was unable to read or write until adolescence. As a child, Lady Caroline considered being able to wash a dog one of her most satisfying accomplishments. While many scholars have accepted that (and other melodramatic claims made by Lady Morgan), published works of correspondence about her family members make it extremely unlikely. The grandmother she shared with her Cavendish cousins,

704-596: A staunch Irish Republican , saw the Anglo-Irish as Ireland's leisure class and famously defined an Anglo-Irishman as "a Protestant with a horse". The Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Bowen memorably described her experience as feeling "English in Ireland, Irish in England" and not accepted fully as belonging to either. Due to their prominence in the military and their conservative politics,

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768-600: A strong civic sense did exist – but mainly amongst Protestants and especially Anglicans". Henry Ford , the American industrialist and business magnate , was half Anglo-Irish; his father William Ford was born in Cork to a family originally from Somerset , England. The Anglo-Irish, as a class, were mostly opposed to the notions of Irish independence and Home Rule . Most were supporters of continued political union with Great Britain , which existed between 1800 and 1922. This

832-531: A wide range of political views, with some being outspoken Irish Nationalists , but most overall being Unionists . And while most of the Anglo-Irish originated in the English diaspora in Ireland, others were descended from families of the old Gaelic nobility of Ireland . The term "Anglo-Irish" is often applied to the members of the Church of Ireland who made up the professional and landed class in Ireland from

896-590: Is a genuine desire on the part of those who have long differed from us politically to welcome our co-operation. We should be wrong politically and religiously to reject such advances. In 1925, when the Irish Free State was poised to outlaw divorce , the Anglo-Irish poet W. B. Yeats delivered a famous eulogy for his class in the Irish Senate : I think it is tragic that within three years of this country gaining its independence we should be discussing

960-908: The Irish Times , the Irish Railways, and the Guinness brewery , Ireland's largest employer. They also controlled financial companies such as the Bank of Ireland and Goodbody Stockbrokers . Prominent Anglo-Irish poets, writers, and playwrights include Oscar Wilde , Maria Edgeworth , Jonathan Swift , George Berkeley , Sheridan Le Fanu , Oliver Goldsmith , Laurence Sterne , George Darley , Lucy Knox , Bram Stoker , J. M. Synge , W. B. Yeats , Cecil Day-Lewis , Bernard Shaw , Augusta, Lady Gregory , Samuel Beckett , Giles Cooper , C. S. Lewis , Lord Longford , Elizabeth Bowen , William Trevor and William Allingham . The writer Lafcadio Hearn

1024-415: The 6th Duke of Devonshire ); and by his mistress and second wife, Lady Elizabeth Foster , two children, Augustus Clifford and Caroline St Jules, later wife of George Lamb . During childhood, she became particularly close to Lady Harriet, who was only three months older than her. Her behaviour reportedly grew increasingly troublesome to her family, and she experimented with sedatives like laudanum and had

1088-845: The Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War . Considering the Irish State unable to protect them, many members of the Anglo-Irish class subsequently left Ireland forever, fearing that they would be subject to discriminatory legislation and social pressures. The Protestant proportion of the Irish population dropped from 10% (300,000) to 6% (180,000) in the Irish Free State in the twenty-five years following independence, with most resettling in Great Britain . In

1152-675: The British Empire , such as: Frederick Matthew Darley , the Chief Justice of New South Wales; Henry Arthur Blake , Antony MacDonnell and Gavan Duffy . Others were involved in finding better ways of managing it, heading the Donoughmore Commission or the Moyne Commission . Sir John Winthrop Hackett emigrated to Australia where he became the proprietor and editor of many prominent newspapers. He

1216-580: The Dowager Lady Spencer , was zealously dedicated to promoting education and later employed their governess as her own companion. The governess was Miss Selina Trimmer, the daughter of Mrs Sarah Trimmer , a well-known and respected author of moral tales for children. She taught them an extensive curriculum, considerably beyond mere literacy. There is a published letter that Lady Caroline wrote on 31 October 1796 (just before her eleventh birthday) that not only demonstrates her literacy but also shows

1280-647: The Georgian Era , titles in the peerage of Ireland were often granted by the British monarch to Englishmen with little or no connection to Ireland, as a way of preventing such honours from inflating the membership of the British House of Lords. A number of Anglo-Irish peers have been appointed by Presidents of Ireland to serve on their advisory Council of State . Some were also considered possible candidates for presidents of Ireland, including: Pat : He

1344-555: The Kingdom of England and Great Britain were in a real union with the Kingdom of Ireland for over a century, before politically uniting into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. The term is not usually applied to Presbyterians in the province of Ulster , whose ancestry is mostly Lowland Scottish , rather than English or Irish, and who are sometimes identified as Ulster-Scots . The Anglo-Irish hold

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1408-570: The Plantations of Ireland . The rights of Roman Catholics to inherit landed property were severely restricted. Those who converted to the Church of Ireland were usually able to keep or regain their lost property, as the issue was considered primarily one of allegiance. In the late 18th century, the Parliament of Ireland in Dublin won legislative independence, and the movement for the repeal of

1472-595: The Test Acts began. Not all Anglo-Irish people could trace their origins to the Protestant English settlers of the Cromwellian period; some were of Welsh stock, and others descended from Old English or even native Gaelic converts to Anglicanism. Members of this ruling class commonly identified themselves as Irish, while retaining English habits in politics, commerce, and culture. They participated in

1536-514: The 17th and 19th centuries (although enforced with varying degrees of severity), Roman Catholic recusants in Great Britain and Ireland were barred from holding public office, while in Ireland they were also barred from entry to Trinity College Dublin and from professions such as law, medicine, and the military . The lands of the recusant Roman Catholic landed gentry who refused to take the prescribed oaths were largely confiscated during

1600-562: The 17th century up to the time of Irish independence in the early 20th century. In the course of the 17th century , this Anglo-Irish landed class replaced the Gaelic Irish and Old English aristocracies as the ruling class in Ireland. They were also referred to as " New English " to distinguish them from the "Old English", who descended from the medieval Hiberno-Norman settlers. Under the Penal Laws , which were in force between

1664-655: The 20th century, scientists John Joly and Ernest Walton were also Anglo-Irish, as was the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton . Medical experts included Sir William Wilde , Robert Graves , Thomas Wrigley Grimshaw , William Stokes , Robert Collis , Sir John Lumsden and William Babington . The geographer William Cooley was one of the first to describe the process of globalization . The Anglo-Irishmen Richard Brinsley Sheridan , Henry Grattan , Lord Castlereagh , George Canning , Lord Macartney , Thomas Spring Rice , Charles Stewart Parnell , and Edward Carson played major roles in British politics. Downing Street itself

1728-627: The Anglo-Irish class in particular, were by no means universally attached to the cause of continued political union with Great Britain. For instance, author Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), a clergyman in the Church of Ireland, vigorously denounced the plight of ordinary Irish Catholics under the rule of the landlords. Reformist politicians such as Henry Grattan (1746–1820), Wolfe Tone (1763–1798), Robert Emmet (1778–1803), Sir John Gray (1815–1875), and Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891), were also Protestant nationalists , and in large measure led and defined Irish nationalism. The Irish Rebellion of 1798

1792-494: The Anglo-Irish have been compared to the Prussian Junker class by, among others, Correlli Barnett . At the beginning of the 20th century, the Anglo-Irish owned many of the major indigenous businesses in Ireland, such as Jacob's Biscuits , Bewley's , Beamish and Crawford , Jameson's Whiskey , W. P. & R. Odlum , Cleeve's , R&H Hall , Maguire & Patterson , Dockrell's , Arnott's , Goulding Chemicals ,

1856-855: The British Isles – all factors which encouraged political support for unionism . Between the mid-nineteenth century and 1922, the Anglo-Irish comprised the bulk of the support for movements such as the Irish Unionist Alliance , especially in the southern three provinces of Ireland. During World War I , Irish nationalist MP Tom Kettle compared the Anglo-Irish landlord class to the Prussian Junkers , saying, "England goes to fight for liberty in Europe and for junkerdom in Ireland ." However, Protestants in Ireland, and

1920-745: The English victory in the Nine Years' War (1594–1603), the " Flight of the Earls " in 1607, the traditional Gaelic Irish nobility was displaced in Ireland, particularly in the Cromwellian period. By 1707, after further defeat in the Williamite War and the subsequent Union of England and Scotland, the aristocracy in Ireland was dominated by Anglican families who owed allegiance to the Crown. Some of these were Irish families who had chosen to conform to

1984-530: The country. She travelled with her mother and other family to Italy, where she recovered from an illness caused by worms that nearly ended her life. After returning with her mother to England, she rejoined a lively group of children who lived at Devonshire House and Roehampton , her cousins, the children of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire : by his first marriage, to Lady Georgiana Spencer , three children, Lady Georgiana ("Little G"), Lady Harriet Cavendish ("Hary-o"), and Lord Hartington ("Hart", later

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2048-437: The dagger scene" (a reference to Macbeth ). Lady Caroline's obsession with Byron would define much of her later life, as well as influencing both her and Byron's works. They would write poems in the style of each other about each other and even embed overt messages to one another in their verse. After a thwarted visit to Byron's home, Lady Caroline wrote "Remember Me!" into the flyleaf of one of Byron's books. He responded with

2112-742: The established Church of Ireland , keeping their lands and privileges, such as the Dukes of Leinster (whose surname is FitzGerald , and who descend from the Hiberno-Norman aristocracy), or the Gaelic Guinness family . Some were families of British or mixed-British ancestry who owed their status in Ireland to the Crown, such as the Earls of Cork (whose surname is Boyle and whose ancestral roots were in Herefordshire , England). Among

2176-521: The following months. Byron referred to Lamb as "Caro", which she adopted as her public nickname. After Byron ended the affair, her husband took Lady Caroline to Ireland. The distance did not cool Lady Caroline's interest in the poet, and she and Byron corresponded constantly during her exile. When Lady Caroline returned to London in 1813, however, Byron made it clear that he had no intention of restarting their relationship. That spurred increasingly-public attempts to reunite with her former lover. Matters came to

2240-462: The happier hour; When northern oracles proclaimed me dull." Byron never publicly responded to the poem. A reviewer of the time opined, in part; "The writer of this lively nonsense has evidently intended it as an imitation of Lord Byron. It is a rhapsody from beginning to end." Lady Caroline published three additional novels during her lifetime: Graham Hamilton (1822), Ada Reis (1823), and Penruddock (1823). Byron's confidante and close friend

2304-568: The hate poem: "Remember thee! Remember thee!; Till Lethe quench life's burning stream; Remorse and shame shall cling to thee, And haunt thee like a feverish dream! Remember thee! Ay, doubt it not. Thy husband too shall think of thee! By neither shalt thou be forgot, Thou false to him, thou fiend to me!" Her cousin Harriet (now Lady Granville ) with whom Lady Caroline's relationship had deteriorated after childhood, visited her in December 1816 and

2368-494: The most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence. Yet I do not altogether regret what has happened. I shall be able to find out, if not I, my children will be able to find out whether we have lost our stamina or not. You have defined our position and have given us a popular following. If we have not lost our stamina then your victory will be brief, and your defeat final, and when it comes this nation may be transformed. Following

2432-431: The novel; "I read Glenarvon too by Caro Lamb….God damn!" The book was a financial success that sold out several editions but was dismissed by critics as pulp fiction . However, Goethe deemed it worthy of serious literary consideration. In 1819, Lady Caroline mimicked Byron's style in the narrative poem "A New Canto". Years before, Lady Caroline had impersonated Byron in a letter to his publishers to have them send her

2496-523: The pair enjoyed a happy marriage. In 1809, his brother George married her namesake cousin Caroline St Jules. Caroline gave birth to a stillborn child in January 1806, and she and William later had a son, George Augustus Frederick, born on 11 August 1807, and a premature daughter, born in 1809, who died within 24 hours. Lady Caroline suffered long recovery periods after each birth. Her son

2560-434: The phrase "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" soon after she had met the poet. It became his lasting epitaph, but there is no contemporary evidence to prove that she coined the famous phrase at the time. She wrote him a fan letter . His response was to visit her because of her high social status and then to pursue her passionately. Lady Caroline and Lord Byron publicly decried each other as they privately pledged their love over

2624-478: The popular English sports of the day, particularly racing and fox hunting , and intermarried with the ruling classes in Great Britain. Many of the more successful of them spent much of their careers either in Great Britain or in some part of the British Empire . Many constructed large country houses , which became known in Ireland as Big Houses , and these became symbolic of the class' dominance in Irish society. The Dublin working class playwright Brendan Behan ,

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2688-797: The prominent Anglo-Irish peers are: Until the year 1800, the peers of Ireland were all entitled to a seat in the Irish House of Lords , the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland , in Dublin . After 1800, under the provisions of the Act of Union , the Parliament of Ireland was abolished and the Irish peers were entitled to elect twenty-eight of their number to sit in the British House of Lords , in London, as Irish representative peers . During

2752-409: The start. Their lifelong enmity was reportedly a great cause of unhappiness to Caroline. From March to August 1812, Lady Caroline embarked on a well-publicised affair with Lord Byron . He was 24, and she was 26. She spurned his attention on their first meeting, which was at a society event at Holland House . According to the memoirs of her friend Sydney, Lady Morgan , Lady Caroline claimed she coined

2816-565: The title role and Camilla Power as Lady Caroline Lamb. [REDACTED] Media related to Caroline Lamb at Wikimedia Commons Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people ( Irish : Angla-Éireannach ) denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland , which

2880-542: The whole of Ireland the percentage of Protestants was 26% (1.1 million). The reaction of the Anglo-Irish to the Anglo-Irish Treaty which envisaged the establishment of the Irish Free State was mixed. J. A. F. Gregg , the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin , stated in a sermon in December 1921 (the month the Treaty was signed): It concerns us all to offer the Irish Free State our loyalty. I believe there

2944-688: Was also influential in the founding of the University of Western Australia and was its first chancellor. Prolific art music composers included Michael William Balfe , John Field , George Alexander Osborne , Thomas Roseingrave , Charles Villiers Stanford , John Andrew Stevenson , Robert Prescott Stewart , William Vincent Wallace , and Charles Wood . In the visual arts , sculptor John Henry Foley , art dealer Hugh Lane , artists Daniel Maclise , William Orpen and Jack Yeats ; ballerina Dame Ninette de Valois and designer-architect Eileen Gray were famous outside Ireland. William Desmond Taylor

3008-574: Was an Anglo-Irishman. Meg : In the name of God, what's that? Pat : A Protestant with a horse. Ropeen : Leadbetter. Pat : No, no, an ordinary Protestant like Leadbetter, the plumber in the back parlour next door, won't do, nor a Belfast orangeman , not if he was as black as your boot. Meg : Why not? Pat : Because they work. An Anglo-Irishman only works at riding horses, drinking whiskey, and reading double-meaning books in Irish at Trinity College . Frances Arabella Rowden Rowden

3072-502: Was an early and prolific maker of silent films in Hollywood . Scriptwriter Johanna Harwood penned several of the early James Bond films, among others. Philanthropists included Thomas Barnardo and Lord Iveagh . Confederate general Patrick Cleburne was of Anglo-Irish ancestry. Discussing what he considered the lack of Irish civic morality in 2011, former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald remarked that before 1922: "In Ireland

3136-581: Was born with severe mental problems. Although most aristocratic families typically sent such relatives to institutions , the Lambs cared for their son at home until his eventual death in 1836, eight years after Lady Caroline's death. The stress of their son's ill health, combined with William Lamb's consuming career ambitions, drove a wedge between the couple. A further difficulty was that William's siblings all detested Caroline, whom they called "the little beast", and she and her mother-in-law had hated each other from

3200-498: Was for many reasons, but most important were the economic benefits of union for the landowning class, the close personal and familial relations with the British establishment, and the political prominence held by the Anglo-Irish in Ireland under the union settlement. Many Anglo-Irish men served as officers in the British Army , were clergymen in the established Anglican Church of Ireland or had land (or business interests) across

3264-667: Was his wife's maternal aunt, William Lamb's own mother, the colourful Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne . Lady Melbourne had been instrumental in bringing about the politically-advantageous marriage of her son to Lady Caroline, despite disliking both her and her mother. However, once Lady Caroline had begun her affair with Byron, her mother-in-law began a long and blatant campaign to rid her son of his wife. As Lord David Cecil remarks, she had long since concluded that Caroline deserved all her misfortunes. William Lamb refused to submit and regretted that his mother had conspired against his wife with Byron. Calling Byron treacherous, William Lamb

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3328-482: Was later buried within the church. The 1905 novel The Marriage of William Ashe by Mary Augusta Ward was based on Lady Caroline and her husband. The 1964 historical novel This for Caroline by Doris Leslie is based on her life. In 1972, the film Lady Caroline Lamb was released with Sarah Miles in the lead role and Richard Chamberlain as Byron. In 2003, the BBC broadcast Byron with Jonny Lee Miller in

3392-400: Was led by members of the Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots class, some of whom feared the political implications of the impending union with Great Britain. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, Irish nationalism became increasingly tied to a Roman Catholic identity. By the beginning of the twentieth century, many Anglo-Irishmen in southern Ireland had become convinced of the need for

3456-549: Was named after Sir George Downing . In the Church, Bishop Richard Pococke contributed much to C18 travel writing. The Anglo-Irish were also represented among the senior officers of the British Army by men such as Field Marshal Earl Roberts , first honorary Colonel of the Irish Guards regiment, who spent most of his career in British India ; Field Marshal Viscount Gough , who served under Wellington , himself

3520-450: Was of Anglo-Irish descent on his father's side but was brought up as a Catholic by his great-aunt. In the 19th century, some of the most prominent mathematical and physical scientists of the British Isles, including Sir William Rowan Hamilton , Sir George Stokes , John Tyndall , George Johnstone Stoney , Thomas Romney Robinson , Edward Sabine , Thomas Andrews , Lord Rosse , George Salmon , and George FitzGerald , were Anglo-Irish. In

3584-507: Was related to other leading society ladies and was the niece of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire , and cousin (by marriage) of Annabella, Lady Byron . She was related to Sarah Ponsonby, one half of the Ladies of Llangollen , and Diana, Princess of Wales . She was never Viscountess Melbourne because she died before Melbourne succeeded to the peerage. As a small child, Lamb was considered delicate and for her health spent much time in

3648-424: Was skilled at Greek and Latin and also enjoyed music and drama. In June 1805, at the age of nineteen, Lady Caroline Ponsonby married William Lamb , a rising politician and heir to the 1st Viscount Melbourne . Although their meeting had been shrewdly orchestrated by William Lamb's mother, theirs was a love match. The couple had become "mutually captivated" during a visit to Brocket Hall in 1802 and for many years

3712-467: Was so incredulous at her unrepentant behaviour that she ended her description of the visit in a letter to her sister, "I mean my visits to be annual". Lady Caroline Lamb was noted to have been involved in a few different literary circles that met in the Holland House, Lady Charleville's, Lord Ward's, Lord Lansdowne's and others of similar repute. Lady Caroline's most famous work is Glenarvon ,

3776-459: Was supportive of his wife to her death. Ultimately, it was Lady Caroline who prevailed on her husband to agree to a formal separation in 1825. Both parties had had numerous extramarital affairs by then, and Lamb had long been known to eschew duplicity. She took up permanent residence at Brocket Hall . Her struggle with mental illness became more pronounced in her last years and was complicated by her abuse of alcohol and laudanum . By 1827, she

3840-456: Was the established church of Ireland until 1871, or to a lesser extent one of the English dissenting churches, such as the Methodist church , though some were Roman Catholics . They often defined themselves as simply "British", and less frequently "Anglo-Irish", "Irish" or "English". Many became eminent as administrators in the British Empire and as senior army and naval officers since

3904-429: Was the first of four daughters born to Frances and Robert Rowden. She was born in 1774 and in 1779 her family moved to Henley-on-Thames where her father borrowed money from her aunt who ran a school (where she was educated). Her father who been a dealer is spirits and drugs died in 1782 in debt. Rowden went on to work at Reading Abbey Girls' School which was run by the principal Dominique de St Quentin and Ann Pitts who

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3968-557: Was the only daughter of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough , an Anglo-Irish peer, and Henrietta, Countess of Bessborough . She was known as the Honourable Caroline Ponsonby until her father succeeded to the earldom in 1793. While her brother, Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby , was severely injured in the Battle of Waterloo , in the days after the battle, she had an affair with the Duke of Wellington . She

4032-495: Was the senior mistress and his wife. The school's former pupils included Jane Austen . In 1801 she published A Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany which was unusual in that it broke up the facts about botany with poems. Her book may have been seen as an uncontroversial alternative to Erasmus Darwin . During Rowden's eventful career she had a number of notable pupils. These included actress Frances Anne Kemble , and

4096-489: Was under the care of a full-time physician as her body, which had always been frail, began to shut down and she retained fluids (a condition then known as dropsy , and now known as oedema ). William Lamb was now Chief Secretary for Ireland and made a perilous crossing to be by her side when Lady Caroline died on 25 January 1828. Lady Caroline was buried in the graveyard of St Etheldreda's Church in Hatfield ; her husband

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