Excerpt from Princess Feodore of Leiningen's letter to her half-sister, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, about their childhood, year 1843

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/18/mode/2up

Above: Feodore of Leiningen, painted by William Essex.

Above: Queen Victoria, in an engraving by Edwin Dalton.

Princess Feodore of Leiningen, full name Anna Feodora Auguste Charlotte Wilhelmine (born December 7, 1807, died September 23, 1872), was the only daughter of Emich Carl, Prince of Leiningen, and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Feodore and her older brother, Carl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen, were maternal half-siblings to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Feodore is a matrilineal ancestress of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and of King Felipe VI of Spain.

The letter excerpt:

Many, many thanks, dearest Victoria, for your kind letter of the 7th from dear Claremont. Oh I understand how you like being there. Claremont is a dear quiet place; to me also the recollection of the few pleasant days I spent during my youth. I always left Claremont with tears for Kensington Palace. When I look back upon those years, which ought to have been the happiest in my life, from fourteen to twenty, I cannot help pitying myself. Not to have enjoyed the pleasures of youth is nothing, but to have been deprived of all intercourse, and not one cheerful thought in that dismal existence of ours, was very hard. My only happy time was going or driving out with you and Lehzen; then I could speak and look as I liked. I escaped some years of imprisonment, which you, my poor darling sister, had to endure after I was married. But God Almighty has changed both our destinies most mercifully, and has made us so happy in our homes — which is the only real happiness in this life; and those years of trial were, I am sure, very useful to us both, though certainly not pleasant. Thank God they are over! ... I was much amused in your last letter at your tracing the quickness of our tempers in the female line up to Grandmamma, but I must own that you are quite right!

Notes: Lehzen = Baroness Louise Lehzen, who served as the child Victoria's governess and companion.

"Grandmamma" = Augusta Caroline Sophie, Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (born 1757, died 1831).