Page:Wives of the prime ministers, 1844-1906.djvu/27

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WIVES OF THE PRIME MINISTERS



I


LADY CAROLINE LAMB[1]


"A creature of caprice and impulse and whim, her manner, her talk, her character shifted their colours as rapidly as those of a chameleon."


LADY CAROLINE PONSONBY, daughter of the third Lord Bessborough, was born on 13th November 1785. When she was three years old, her mother, a daughter of the first Earl Spencer and sister of the famous Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, fell ill and was ordered to Italy. She took the little girl with her, but being obliged to return to England herself, as her condition became worse, she left the child in Italy for some years, chiefly in charge of a servant. Caroline was then sent to her aunt, the Duchess of Devonshire, to be brought up with her

  1. Her husband was William Lamb, afterwards Lord Melbourne. He was Prime Minister in 1834 and 1836–41.

1