Letter from Lady Caroline Lamb to Henry Colburn, undated

Taken from the National Portrait Gallery.

By: Scott Postulo

Introduction

Lady Caroline Lamb’s letter is addressed on the envelope side to a Mr. Colburn, a prominent 19th century British publisher. One of Henry Colburn’s most notable publications was Lamb’s scandalous 1816 novel Glenarvon, and we can therefore establish a relationship between the two individuals. While there is no date included for this particular letter, based on William Upcott’s dating of his collection as being from 1824, the letter can safely be dated to around the years 1815-1824, if we assume that the 19th century publication process of a novel took no longer than a year to accomplish, and that the two had no correspondance prior to its publication. The contents of the letter itself are quite vague, with Lady Caroline Lamb merely requesting an immediate audience with Colburn.

Description

Physically, the letter contains a large amount of white space and appears to have been folded twice, suggesting a hand-delivery as opposed to having been sent through the postal service. Further evidence of this is offered by the absence of a postal stamp. The handwriting of the letter is quite legible and consistent. Additionally, a light ink transfer resembling a portrait is visible, although the letter itself does not proceed or supersede any portraits in Upcott’s presented collection. It is possible then that the portrait was once included in Upcott’s collection but later removed, as evidenced by an erasure in the table of contents. Included here is a photograph of a stipple engraving of Lady Caroline Lamb taken from the National Portrait Gallery that appears to match the ink transfer. The portrait was created by Henry Meyer, and originally published by Henry Colburn in 1819, which suggests that Upcott may have acquired it from him along with the letter.

Analysis

Lady Caroline Lamb writes this letter in the third person, and signs it not with her name, but instead as “Melbourne House.” She was married to William Lamb, who was titled Viscount Melbourne, a title of nobility in the Cavan County of Ireland given by the English Monarchy. The line stating that Lamb has “just returned from the country” implies that this note may have been written in response to one that Colburn had sent to her during her absence. According to Lamb’s Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry, she and her husband “resided either in Melbourne House, Whitehall, or Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire” after their marriage in 1805, and so if it were her practice to sign letters according to her current residence, this would place her at Melbourne House, Whitehall in Central London.

The letter contains few of the typical flatteries of the time other than mentioning that Lamb “presents her compliments to Mr. Colburn.” Due to the usage of the word “immediately” twice in the letter, the purpose of the letter was clearly urgent, and Lamb may have felt it expedient to skip standard formalities in order to have the letter delivered without delay. If this were the case, then we may speculate the letter to have been possibly written in regards to the publication of Glenarvon (or perhaps the ensuing scandal), dating it more specifically to 1815-1817. According to Caroline Lamb’s Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry, the novel was a source of public humiliation for her husband William Lamb, who tried unsuccessfully to halt its publication. That said, Lamb and Colburn maintained a working relationship until at least 1822, so the aforementioned scenario is, as stated, merely speculation.