Contrasting Cousins

October 4, 2023 Comments Off

Michael Duncan gives us a sample of some of the characters from his Style and Scandal in St James’s tour which he will next be running on 8th October. There is a link at the bottom of the post if you want to join him to hear more!

If you take a walk round St James’s, the Spencer family seems to pop up everywhere.

The beginning of their association with the area came with the building Spencer House, by the first Earl. It remains one of the great houses of London with a prime position overlooking the park. It is still owned by the Spencers (the current Earl is Princess Diana’s brother) but has been leased since 1986 to the Rothschilds.

The first Earl’s eldest daughter Georgiana was raised in Spencer House. Reportedly her mother’s favourite, she was a force of nature in Georgian Society.

Hardly lacking in social status at her birth she was catapulted further up the ranks through her marriage to England’s most eligible bachelor, the Duke of Devonshire.

Her story is well known mostly through the book and the film starring Keira Knightly. She had big hair, big gambling debts, an affair – and a child – with a Prime Minister (Earl Grey).

She also had a controversial and for her, a deeply unsatisfactory marriage after her husband asked his mistress to move in with them. And of course, there was at the time a shocking interest in politics through her active campaigning for her distant cousin Charles James Fox.

She also had two very contrasting cousins. Both with links to St James’s.

Lady Caroline Lamb (the daughter of Georgiana’ younger sister) married William Lamb who was later to become Prime Minister as Lord Melbourne. So her affair with Lord Byron shook society in 1812.

Despite coining the phrase “mad bad and dangerous to know” about England’s rock star poet, she pitched up dressed as a page boy at his flat in St James’s demanding to see him. She was reluctantly let in – a small crowd seeking entertainment had already gathered outside. Inside she found Byron packing his bags to flee to rural Harrow to escape her attentions but he had clearly mis-timed his getaway.

Things started to spin out of control and when she was told to leave she grabbed a knife and tried to stab herself. Byron’s friend Hobhouse restrained her and finally got her to go, we can assume to the delight of gawking Londoners on St James’s Street.

Four years later she published a Gothic novel, Glenarvon, which went into lurid details about her marriage as well as her affair. She was shunned by many who read the book who’d spotted thinly disguised and unflattering versions of themselves in its pages.

Her far lesser-known cousin Sarah Lyttleton was in huge contrast a pillar of society.

She lived in a house which now forms part of the discreet and luxurious Stafford Hotel, tucked away in a side street just behind Spencer House.

She was the daughter of 2nd Earl Spencer, (Georgiana’s brother) and granddaughter of the first Earl Lucan.

As far as we can tell she was the first of the Lucan family to have an interest in nannies, becoming one herself after the death of her husband. Perhaps slightly more of a super-nanny, she was the governess to Queen Victoria’s children. She was reported to be hugely popular with them and was loved by Victoria and Albert. She resigned her post when her youngest daughter died in childbirth to spend more time with her grandchildren.

Michael’s next Style and Scandal in St James’s tour is on 8th October, ticket details below: