Editing Lady Caroline Lamb (section)

==Youth and education==
[[Image:Angelica Kauffmann, Portrait of Henrietta, Countess of Bessborough (1793).jpg|thumb|left|Lady Caroline's mother, [[Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough|Henrietta]], Countess of Bessborough, by [[Angelica Kauffman]] in 1793]]
[[File:Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) - William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne - NPG 5185 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Lord Melbourne (Lawrence)|Portrait of Lord Melbourne]]'' by [[Thomas Lawrence]], 1805.]]
As a small child, Lamb was considered delicate and for her health spent much time in the country. She travelled with her mother and other family to Italy, where she recovered from an [[Parasitic worm|illness caused by worms]] that nearly ended her life.<ref name="Douglassbio">{{cite book|last=Douglass|first=Paul|title=Lady Caroline Lamb: A Biography|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan, 354 pp.|date=2004|isbn=1-4039-6605-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ladycarolinelamb00doug_0}}</ref> After returning with her mother to England, she rejoined a lively group of children who lived at [[Devonshire House]] and [[Roehampton]], her cousins, the children of [[William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire]]: by his first marriage, to [[Lady Georgiana Spencer]], three children, [[Georgiana Howard, Countess of Carlisle|Lady Georgiana]] ("Little G"), [[Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville|Lady Harriet Cavendish]] ("Hary-o"), and Lord Hartington ("Hart", later the [[6th Duke of Devonshire]]); and by his mistress and second wife, [[Lady Elizabeth Foster]], two children, [[Augustus Clifford]] and Caroline St Jules, later wife of [[George Lamb (politician and writer)|George Lamb]]. During childhood, she became particularly close to Lady Harriet, who was only three months older than her.<ref name=Hary-O>Leveson-Gower, Sir George (Ed.), ''Hary-O:  the Letters of Lady Harriet Cavendish 1796–1809'', London:  John Murray (1940).</ref> Her behaviour reportedly grew increasingly troublesome to her family, and she experimented with sedatives like [[laudanum]] and had a special [[governess]] to control her.<ref name="Douglassbio" />

[[Lady Morgan]] reported in her memoirs that Lady Caroline told her that she had grown up as a [[tomboy]] and was unable to read or write until adolescence.<ref name=Morgan>{{cite book
|title=Lady Morgan's memoirs autobiography, diaries and correspondence
|url=https://archive.org/details/ladymorgansmemoi01morguoft
|author=Owenson, Sydney ([[Lady Morgan]])
|publisher=Wm. H. Allen & Co
|year=1862
|isbn=0-404-56793-2
|editor=Dixon, William Hepworth
|editor-link=William Hepworth Dixon
}}</ref> 
As a child, Lady Caroline considered being able to wash a dog one of her most satisfying accomplishments.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} While many scholars have accepted that (and other melodramatic claims made by Lady Morgan),<ref name=LitEnc>"Lady Caroline Lamb," [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2597 The Literary Encyclopedia]</ref> published works of correspondence about her family members make it extremely unlikely. The grandmother she shared with her Cavendish cousins, the [[Georgiana Spencer, Countess Spencer|Dowager Lady Spencer]], was zealously dedicated to promoting education and later employed their governess as her own companion. The governess was Miss Selina Trimmer, the daughter of Mrs [[Sarah Trimmer]], a well-known and respected author of moral tales for children. She taught them an extensive curriculum, considerably beyond mere literacy. There is a published letter that Lady Caroline wrote on 31 October 1796 (just before her eleventh birthday) that not only demonstrates her literacy but also shows a merciless wit and talent for mimicry.<ref name=Hary-O/>

Lady Caroline was exceptionally well educated at home. She also attended a school in [[Hans Place]], Knightsbridge, London, the successor to [[Reading Abbey Girls' School]], where she was taught by [[Frances Arabella Rowden]]. Rowden was not only a published poet, but also, according to another pupil, [[Mary Russell Mitford]], "she had a knack of making poetesses of her pupils".<ref>{{cite book|last1=eds|first1=Lilla Maria Crisafulli & Cecilia Pietropoli|title=The languages of performance in British romanticism|date=2008|publisher=P. Lang|isbn=978-3039110971|page=301|location=Bern |chapter=appendix}}</ref>

In her early adult years, Lady Caroline not only wrote [[prose]] and poetry, but also took to sketching portraiture. She spoke French and Italian fluently, was skilled at Greek and Latin and also enjoyed music and drama.