Page:The Letters Of Queen Victoria, vol. 1 (1908).djvu/53

CHAPTER IV 1821-1835

[The first letter ever received by Queen Victoria appears to be the following little note, written by the Duchess of Clarence, afterwards Queen Adelaide, in May 1821, when the Princess entered upon her third year. It is pathetic to recollect that the Duchess’s surviving child, Princess Elizabeth, had died, aged three months, in March of the same year. ]

My DEAR LITTLE HEART,—I hope you are well and don’t forget Aunt Adelaide, who loves you so fondly.

Loulou and Wilhelm! desire their love to you, and Uncle William also.

God bless and preserve you is the constant prayer of your most truly affectionate Aunt, ADELAIDE.

The Duchess of Clarence to the Princess Victoria. 24th May 1822.

Uncle William and Aunt Adelaide send their love to dear little Victoria with their best wishes on her birthday, and hope that she will now become a very good Girl, being now three years old. Uncle William and Aunt Adelaide also beg little Victoria to give dear Mamma and to dear Sissi ? a kiss in their name, and to Aunt Augusta,? Aunt Mary * and Aunt Sophia > too, and also to the big Doll. Uncle William and Aunt Adelaide are very sorry to be absent on that day and not to see their

1 Princess Louise and Prince William of Saxe-Weimar, children of Duchess Ida of Saxe-Weimar (sister of the Duchess of Clarence). They were the eldest brother and sister of Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar.

2 Princess Feodore, the Queen’s half-sister.

3 Augusta, daughter of Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, wife of the Duke of Cambridge.

4 Princess Mary, a daughter of George III., married to her cousin the Duke of Gloucester. 5 Princess Sophia, daughter of George ILI.

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