Beschreibung:

LAMB, Lady Caroline (1785 - 1828). Autograph letter signed (a draft?) to Lord Byron, n.p., n.d. [shortly after 2 January 1815] , writing on hearing of his marriage, 'I hope it is no wrong to any one if at such a moment I intrude one line upon you....Ah refuse not to one who for so very long has held your Image [as] the dearest thing in life to her heart if I venture also to breathe one prayer for your happiness. May God bless and protect you L[or]d Byron. May you be very happy'; continuing on the loyalty shown to her not by the friends of her early years but by William [Lamb] and his sister and mother 'who never have & will never turn from me though all the world may justly scorn me & reproach me'; concluding 'God Bless you Lord Byron' with the hope that he will 'excuse & forget every part of my former conduct', subscribing herself 'ever with respect & attachment your friend etc Caroline', 2 pages, 4to , on ivory paper (ink blot on first page obscuring one word, slight discolouration, integral leaf cut away). This emotional letter was written when Caroline Lamb, whose affair with Byron had ended in 1813, learned 'from that dear friend Lady Cowper' of his marriage to Annabella Milbanke on 2 January 1815. Emily Cowper, wife of the fifth Earl Cowper, was the sister of William Lamb and daughter of Lady Melbourne. Byron wrote to the latter on January 3rd to inform her of his marriage ( Letters and Journals , ed. L. Marchand, IV 1975). Caroline is known to have written to Byron on his engagement the previous September when, writing to Miss Milbanke, he described her letter as 'quiet and rational enough'. It had been widely feared that when Caroline received the news of the engagement she might take some violent action. It seems possible that the present unrecorded letter, with its heavy ink blot, was composed as a draft on first receiving the news that the marriage had taken place and perhaps shown or given to Lady Cowper. There is no evidence that it was rewritten and the text does not correspond with Byron's description, in a letter to Lady Melbourne dated 7 January 1815, of 'an epistle of Caro's about her [Annabella's] present which of course she will be very glad to receive - I wonder C. should think it necessary to make such a preface'. On January 22nd he informed Lady Melbourne, 'I have sent C an answer - which produced no rejoinder thus all is right - at least I hope so'. The likelihood of the letter being a draft is also suggested by its provenance, for it was preserved among the papers of Emily, Countess Cowper (who may have dissuaded Caroline from sending it), from whom it descended to its present owner.