Biography of Caroline Ponsonby 1785-1828

Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville. To Lady G. Morpeth (age 26). London. 1810.

I went to Devonshire House last night and found the remains of a very dull dinner. Bessboroughs¹, W. Spencers², Lord John Townshend (age 52)³, and Mr. Chinnery. Lord John and Mr. Spencer whispering in a corner of the room, Mrs. Spencer acting nine years old with great success, and Mr. Chinnery faisant les frais⁴ with the rest of us. "We dine there to-day, with probably a second edition of yesterday. Je ne m'en fais pas une fete⁵, but we thought it right the last day.

Miss Berry⁶ was with me yesterday, looking wretchedly ill and talking in the' most melancholy way of her own existence and prospects.

Lady Oxford (age 36) and Caroline William Lamb (age 24)⁷ have been engaged in a correspondence, the subject whether learning Greek purifies or inflames the passions. Caro. seems to have more faith in theory than in practice, to judge at least by those she consults as to these nice points of morality. The letter she repeats as having received from Lady Oxford is almost too good to be true. After a great many maxims and instances, she ends, ' All the illiterate women of Athens were bad, but what does my sweet friend think of her virtuous Aspasia?'

I have been to try and make Granville get up, and to quarrel with him for saying he will not go to-morrow if it rains. God bless you, my dearest sister.

Note 1. [her father] Lord (age 51) and [her mother] Lady Bessborough (age 48). She was daughter of the first [her grandfather] Lord Spencer and aunt to Lady Granville.

Note 2. He was a relation of Lord Spencer and well known for his clever society verses.

Note 3. He was the son of the first Marquis of Townshend and father of the fourth Marquis (age 11).

Note 4. "Bearing the cost", "Covering the expenses", "Taking responsibility for", or "Paying the price" (figuratively).

Note 5. "I'm not looking forward to it.", "I'm not excited about it.", "I'm not thrilled about it." or "I don't expect it to be fun."

Note 6. She and her sister Miss Agnes were in their early youth intimate friends of Horace Walpole. He expressed his fear that, being so delicate, they would not live long, but both of them survived him fifty-five years. Miss Berry told her maid, who is still living, that Horace "Walpole said he had offered his hand and heart to her, and his hand and coronet to her sister. Their salon in London was considered very agreeable and was attended by the best society. Some ill-natured person nicknamed them Blackberry and Gooseberry. Lady Theresa Lewis wrote an interesting life of the elder sister.

Note 7. She was a daughter of Lady Bessborough, Lady Granville's aunt. She entertained a violent passion for Lord Byron, but her conduct was so eccentric that she could hardly have been in her right mind. She married Mr. William Lamb, who became Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister.

Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville. To Lady G. Morpeth (age 28). Trentham. September 18, 1811.

Hartington (age 21) goes to-morrow, in an agony lest I should spoil the pleasure he has of telling things by writing them to you first. I am therefore tongue-tied on many subjects.

Is it possible that the Duchess has written to you in her own name to ask you to lie in at Chiswick? It is too hard, as that dear angel Hart, says, to rob him of the pleasure of doing those things himself. I may boast to you of his affection for us; we really are at present his great objects. It is in everything, and a wish to be with us beyond all others. He is to be at Tixal the end of October again, and I will, if I possibly can, keep him there for you.

We go to Tixal the day after to-morrow. I must take Mr. Vernon (age 26)¹ away to flirt with my beauties there. It will not be dangerous for Lady Harriet, and Corise (age 28) bears a charmed life. He will be proud beyond measure and fancy both are in love with him.

I have had a very affectionate letter from Caroline² since the one I mentioned to you, and a very odd one from her namesake, Caroline William (age 25)³, wishing the learned could explain the incongruity of her behaviour. They would be put to it indeed.

Note 1. Eldest son of the Archbishop of York (age 53). Assumed the name of Harcourt at the same time as his father.

Note 2. Caroline St Jules, illegitimate daughter of William Cavendish 5th Duke Devonshire and Elizabeth Christiana Hervey Duchess Devonshire (age 53) born before her parents married, i.e. Mrs. [her brother-in-law] George Lamb (age 27)

Note 3. Lady Caroline Lamb, daughter of [her father] Lord Bessborough (age 53) and wife of [her husband] Lord Melbourne (age 32).

Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville. To the Duke of Devonshire (age 21). London: May 10, 1812.

Granville is gone to vote against Reform¹, and G. is at Spencer House. I am quite alone, very tired, have seen nobody, heard nothing, and it is therefore only upon the score of brotherly love that you can be glad to hear from me. My last gaiety was at Lady Essex's on Sunday, where Lady Hamilton (age 47) did attitudes in a shawl of Lady Essex's (age 52), who looked inspired and will I hope shortly take to doing them herself.

I was at Mrs. Gordon's on Monday. It was very pleasant. She did the honours so sturdily and goodhumouredly, that it made everything go off well. I saw my Aunt Spencer, grunting and elbowing through the crowd and afterwards squatting down with a bevy of respectable women about her. It must be dull for Georgiana², who seems to have no acquaintance but Lady Cork, the Dowager Lady Pembroke (age 75), and Mrs. Howe.

Dear Rawdon was pushing about in a fury, her shawl upon her arm and in her countenance 'I will endure it no longer.' The daughter very pretty, but her blooming little face quite lost in curls and nosegays. Lady Sandon, with her eyes shut, steered about between them.

Lord Byron (age 24) is still upon a pedestal and Caroline William (age 26) doing homage. I have made acquaintance with him. He is agreeable, but I feel no wish for any further intimacy. His countenance is fine when it is in repose, but the moment it is in play, suspicious, malignant, and consequently repulsive. His manner is either remarkably gracious and conciliatory, with a tinge of affectation, or irritable and impetuous, and then I am afraid perfectly natural.

Note 1. Mr. Canning and his Mends had gradually adopted Liberal opinions on most questions except Beform. After his death they most of them supported, Lord Grey in his Reform policy.

Note 2. Her daughter.

Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville. To Lady G. Morpeth (age 31). Paris: 1815.

I have been more hurried and less amused since the last courier went, which has made me put off writing to the last moment. The fact is the novelty of the sight was its charm, and I am very glad to set off for England at four on Wednesday morning. In politics there is nothing new. Fouché is said to look very grave. The Emperor, whom Granville saw this morning, says the state of affairs is quite inexplicable. Our military seem much amused, tearing up the Boulevards in the morning, filling the theatres at night, and losing their money at the Salon.

Of sights I have seen the Halle au Blé, the Marche de Legumes, the model of the Hôtel des Invalides, service performed at Notre Dame and the Duke of Rutland in it, talking in a style prophetic of another Jour. 'This is indeed a most striking and a most curious sight. It is indeed a state of things in which,' etc., his eyes in a tame phrenzy rolling.

I have seen Talma and Mlle. Georges act very finely in 'Œdipe' and Mile. Mars delightfully in the 'Misanthrope,' but the theatres are intolerably hot. The carriages rattle more than ever or than anything but Lady Castlereagh, whose society is now settled in Lady Camden and suite. Lady Grantham and EngUsh red coats. Madame de Coigny has difiiculty in re-uniting people chez elle, and if one meets a Frenchman there, he draws into his shell and sits in gloomy silence. Hart has seen and bought all that Blücher has left, and intends to be at Saltram the 28th.

Sovereigns, wits, Pozzo, Metternich never show the tips of their little fingers. The dandies are broken in hearts and fortunes. Lord Alvanley has taken a lodging at Versailles, Henry Pierrepoint has hurried back to. England, Baron Tripp gives us his honour that it is very good taste in us to go away, and P. Lamb has taken to his bed.

Nothing is agissant¹ but Caroline William (age 29) in a purple riding habit, tormenting everybody, but I am convinced ready primed for an attack upon the Duke of Wellington, and I have no doubt but that she will to a certain extent succeed, as no dose of flattery is too strong for him to swallow or her to administer. Poor [her husband] William (age 35) hides in one small room, while she assembles lovers and tradespeople in another. He looks worn to the bone. She arrived dying by her own account, having had French apothecaries at most of the towns through which she passed. She sent here immediately for a doctor, but by mistake they went for the Duke of Wellington.

God bless my own best of sisters. I pine for a pure air and country life in England, but I am glad to have been here.

Lady HoUand, you may have heard, has had seven hundred pounds' worth of goods ripped from a featherbed.

Monday night. — I have just come from seeing Potier in the 'Ci-devant Jeune Homme' and 'Je fais mes Farces' Hart is gone to win a few parting pounds at Eoberts'.

I trust my letters have reached you. I have never missed a post or opportunity.

Note 1. "Acting", "Taking action", "Behaving", "Operating", "Effective", in some contexts.

Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville. To Lady G. Morpeth (age 32). Saltram: September 1, 1815,

I went yesterday to the slate quarry and all over the beautiful wood in which it is. The day was delicious, and this part of the country is beautiful. It puts me in mind of Bolton and some of the valleys between Theux and Spa.

We had a dinner, Sir John Duckworth, another Sir Something, and a sensible, pleasing physician whom they swear by here.

The Boringdons saw the Pole who has been allowed to go with Buonaparte. He seems really attached to him. Amongst other things he said of him, ' Mais il ne pense jamais k lui,' a new view of his character. There are different versions of all the stories of him and his companions. Some say that Madame Bertrand¹ is very much in love with him, others that she detests him, and never calls him anything but I'homme.

Borino (age 43)² is so long manoeuvring and marshalling us that I have time to tell you that I had a letter from my aunt. She had just seen the Hollands, Lady H. in grief at the failure of some presents she wanted to send to Buonaparte and Madame Bertrand.

No women were present at the Duchess of Cumberland's (age 37) marriage. The Dowager Lansdowne proposed herself, and was refused. Caroline William (age 29) writes me word that she detests Paris, which she says is gay without interest, noisy beyond bearing; that she is magnificently but uncomfortably lodged, alone or in a crowd; and that every countenance bears the stamp of suppressed ill-humour if native, pique if Austrian or Russian, open insolence or vulgar wonder if English, with the only exception of Hart, who sees everything couleur de rose and enjoys himself extremely. The Louvre, she says, is the prey of the spoiler, and Denon³ looking as Jenny's mother did when 'she looked in her face till her heart was nigh to break.' Good-bye.

Note 1. Wife of Comte Bertrand, Buonaparte's secretary. They both accompanied him to St. Helena and were present at his death.

Note 2. Lord Boringdon.

Note 3. Celebrated for his knowledge of art. He accompanied Buonaparte to Egypt, and was on his return named Director- General of the Museums, and retained the place till 1815. He had collected in the conquered countries a great number of works of art, with which he enriched the museums of France.