Third-person ALS, five pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.5 x 7, black-bordered Balmoral letterhead, October 5, 1871. Letter in the Queen’s difficult to decipher hand to Colonel Maude. In part: “The Queen writes a line to Colonel Maude being that she has engaged the young man she spoke of as 2d. Piper—but who is also himself generally useful. He wd be on the Master…of the House’s establishment. She also thinks she had better order and pay for his clothes which she intends should be just the same as F. Clarke’s the Highland Servant who has charge of the Queen’s dogs.” She continues “The Queen is thankful to say she hopes she is really recovering now from her long & severe illness of nearly two months—& hopes to benefit soon from the pure bracing Highland air. She trusts this illness will have opened the eyes of those who were always attacking & abusing her for not doing every sort of thing. But it is hardly so severe an illness & such great suffering were necessary for this.” In fine condition, with a bit of light creasing and wrinkling.
While republican sentiment in Britain stirred in the early 1870s, Queen Victoria spent a great deal of time in seclusion, mourning the loss of her husband nearly ten years prior and suffering from a severe abscess in her arm. During this time especially, she found great comfort in her canine companions; since receiving her first Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in 1833, the Queen’s love of dogs only grew, with her kennels often holding over thirty at a time. Shortly after beginning her recovery at Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands in October of 1871, her son contracted typhoid fever. With her illness followed so closely by her son’s, public sentiment towards the royal family became less critical, and when the Prince of Wales finally recovered, the public rejoiced. Her misfortunes during these years served well to endear her to the hearts of her people. This letter to Sir Frederick Maude, who the Queen had known since presenting him with the Victoria Cross for his bravery in the Crimean War decades earlier, provides a quiet picture of the queen’s private side during this turbulent time in her epic reign. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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