Queen Victoria | Seven autograph letters signed, to the Hon. Caroline Lyttelton, 1850-73

Queen Victoria

Seven autograph letters, signed 'VRI', to the Hon. Caroline Lyttelton,

relating principally to her correspondent's mother, Lady Lyttelton, governess to the royal children, expressing concern about her health ("...I own I felt very uneasy yesterday, & I can truly say that she was not out of my mind almost for a moment..."), also with condoldences on the death of Caroline's sister Lavinia in childbirth ("...the sight of those poor dear motherless little ones most heartbreaking..."), and the final letters written after Lady Lyttelton's death, 27 pages, 8vo, Windsor Castle, Osborne, Balmoral, and Claremont, final two letters on mourning stationery, 26 March to 8 October 1850 and 25 March to 4 December 1873

These letters begin towards the end of Lady Lyttelton's tenure as royal governess. She was ill in the spring of 1850 and forced to leave court, leading Victoria to write with concern, and to ask Caroline to assure her mother that the court is managing in her absence:

"...If Lady Lyttelton shd. express any anxiety as to my exerting myself, or the younger children learning their lessons, pray tell her that neither is the case, & also that Miss Hildyard & I are preparing for Alice's birthday & will do the same for Helena's shd. LY Lyttelton not yet be strong enough to do so herself..."

In October of the same year came the death of Lady Lyttelton's daughter Lavinia, which led to her retirement from court. The Queen writes to Caroline again following her mother's death ("...I need not say how our elder children & I will ever gratefully cherish her memory...") and requests extra copies of the photograph of Lady Lyttelton which Mrs Gladstone had given her; in the final letter she thanks Caroline for the volume of her mother's letters, which remind her of Lady Lyttelton's "charming and lively conversation and of her great kindness."

PROVENANCE:

Papers of George, fourth Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876); Sotheby's London, The Lyttelton Papers: The Property of the Viscount Cobham, 12 December 1978, lot 181