Third-person ALS, signed within the text, “The Queen,” three pages both sides, 4.5 x 7.25, Windsor Castle letterhead, March 28, 1866. Letter to noted philanthropist George Peabody, in part: "The Queen hears that Mr. Peabody intends shortly to return to America & she would be sorry that he should leave England without being assured by herself how deeply she appreciates the noble act of more than princely munificence by which he has sought to relieve the wants of the poorer class of her subjects residing in London. It is an act as the Queen believes wholly without parallel, & which will carry its best reward in the consciousness of having contributed so largely to the assistance of those who can little help themselves. The Queen would not however have been satisfied without giving Mr. Peabody some public mark of her sense of his munificence, & she would gladly have conferred upon him either a Baronetcy of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, but she understands Mr. Peabody to feel himself debarred from accepting such distinctions." Includes the original transmittal envelope, addressed in Queen Victoria's hand, "George Peabody Esq.," and franked in the lower left, "The Queen." In very good to fine condition, with scattered creasing and edge toning. Accompanied by a leather binder in which the letter was once contained, and a small note stating that Peabody gave this letter to his friend, St. John B. L. Skinner. In April 1862, Peabody had established the Peabody Donation Fund, which continues to this day as the Peabody Trust, to provide housing of a decent quality for the 'artisans and labouring poor of London.'
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