Brocket Hall early held variously of Hatfield Manor and the Bishop of Ely. Sir Matthew Lamb's son was Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne and he was often visited at Brocket Hall by the Prince Regent, who had a liaison with Lady Melbourne. The next owner was William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who was Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister from 1835–41, when she regularly visited. His wife, Lady Caroline, infamously had an affair with Lord Byron causing Lord Melbourne much embarrassment. For one of his birthdays she held a state banquet in the Saloon, at which she had herself served from a large
Lady Caroline Lamb Lady Caroline Lamb Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby; 13 November 1785 – 25 January 1828), known as the Honourable Caroline Ponsonby until her father succeeded to the earldom in 1793, was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for her work Glenarvon, a Gothic novel. She is also known for her affair with Lord Byron in 1812. Her husband was The Hon. William Lamb, who later became Viscount Melbourne and Prime Minister. However, she was never the Viscountess Melbourne because she died before Melbourne succeeded to the peerage. She was the only daughter of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough,