Lord Melbourne
The drawing (by an unknown artist) shows – from left to right – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Queen Victoria and Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, on horseback in 1837, the year that Victoria ascended the throne. Grey had been Whig prime minister just prior to Lord Melbourne, and this drawing pointedly shows how the young monarch was initially surrounded by Whigs, to the detriment of her early reign.
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The drawing (by an unknown artist) shows – from left to right – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Queen Victoria and Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, on horseback in 1837, the year that Victoria ascended the throne. Grey had been Whig prime minister just prior to Lord Melbourne, and this drawing pointedly shows how the young monarch was initially surrounded by Whigs, to the detriment of her early reign.
When Victoria's uncle, William IV, asked Melbourne to take Grey's place as prime minister, he accepted but only with reluctance, saying, 'I think it's a damned bore.' Once Victoria became queen, however, the old rake (whose wife, Lady Caroline Lamb, had a notorious affair with poet Lord Byron) began to enjoy himself.
Where to go?
Brocket Hall
Welwyn
Hertfordshire
AL8 7XG
Tel: (01707) 335 241
Website: www.brocket-hall.co.uk
Email: events@brocket-hall.co.uk
Brocket Hall
Welwyn
Hertfordshire
AL8 7XG
Tel: (01707) 335 241
Website: www.brocket-hall.co.uk
Email: events@brocket-hall.co.uk
What to see?
Now a privately owned 'golf and residential country estate', this eighteenth-century house was the seat of the Lamb family where Lord Melbourne was born in 1805.
Now a privately owned 'golf and residential country estate', this eighteenth-century house was the seat of the Lamb family where Lord Melbourne was born in 1805.
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