Duchess Adelaide of Clarence's letter to Princess Victoria of Kent, dated August 14, 1829

Source:

The letters of Queen Victoria: a selection from Her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1831 and 1861: published by authority of His Majesty the King, edited by Arthur Christopher Benson and Viscount Reginald Baliol Brett Esher, 1907

https://archive.org/details/lettersofqueenvi01victuoft/page/32/mode/2up

Above: Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess of Clarence, lithograph attributed to Samuel William Reynolds.

Above: Princess Victoria of Kent, future Queen of the United Kingdom, lithograph after James Holmes.

The letter:

BUSHEY PARK, 14th August 1829.
A thousand thanks to you, dear Victoria, for your very nice and well-written letter full of good wishes, which I had the pleasure to receive yesterday; and many thanks more for the pretty gifts your dear Mamma has sent me in your name. I wore them last night for your sake, dearest child, and thought of you very often.

It gives me great satisfaction to hear that you are enjoying the sea air and like the place which you now occupy. I wish I could pay your Mamma a visit there and see you again, my dear little niece, for I long to have that pleasure, and must resign myself at being deprived of it some time longer. Your Uncle desires to be most kindly remembered to you, and hopes to receive soon also a letter from you, of whom he is fond as I am. We speak of you very often, and trust that you will always consider us to be amongst your best friends....

God bless you, my dear Victoria, is always the prayer of your most truly affectionate Aunt,
ADELAIDE.