Lord Byron & Lady Caroline

The Regency period in England has been oft used as a backdrop for modern love novels; sometimes known as “bodice rippers.”  Frankly, among the aristocracy it had a certain “Sodom and Gomorrah” style.  Two still famous individuals from that era were Lord Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb.  For a year or so they turned London on its head.  Of course it ended badly.  Both Lord Byron and Lady Caroline were actually “psycho” but the masses were entertained.  Aniston, Pitt and Jolie couldn’t hold a candle to Byron and Lamb.  

What is amazing is this; 2 centuries later we still know all about them and much is still written about them.  Ah,  Hollywood’s been around for ever actually.

Read all about it  HERE

The effect upon Caroline was brutal.  She was physically ill and had to seek rest in Cornwall, where she was also bled.  Upon her arrival in London, she began to write Lady Oxford as well, threatening to tell Lord Oxford of the affair.  The countess laughed at the threat but Byron was understandably troubled. 
    Byron soon returned to London and saw Caroline at various social events.  Face-to-face, the poet could not be particularly nasty.  They had a few brief civil conversations.  Caroline was still torn by jealousy and regrets.  In the last year, with Byron safely away, she had struggled to repair her marriage but heartbreak and indecision left their mark.  She was now emotionally agitated and her figure increasingly emaciated.  Byron remarked to Lady Melbourne that he was 'haunted by a skeleton.'  He was both repulsed and fascinated by her devotion.  During the Christmas season, while Byron stayed with the Oxfords, Caroline held a dramatic bonfire at the Melbourne country home in Hertfordshire.  Village girls dressed in white danced while Caroline threw copies of his letters and other tokens into the fire.  A figure of Byron was even burned in effigy while her page recited lines she had written:  'Burn, fire, burn, while wondering boys exclaim,/ And gold and trinkets glitter in the flame.'