Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight, lady companion to the Princess Charlotte of Wales, Volume 1 (of 2) / with extracts from her journals and anecdote books

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
The Princess Charlotte. Sir Tho s Lawrence pinx t J. A. Vinter, lith. Day & Son, Lith rs . to the Queen
LADY COMPANION TO THE
PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES.
WITH EXTRACTS FROM HER JOURNALS AND ANECDOTE BOOKS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
THIRD EDITION .
LONDON:
W. H. ALLEN AND CO., 7, LEADENHALL STREET.
MDCCCLXI.
A book of this kind scarcely needs a sponsor. It carries the impression of its authenticity on every page. A few words, however, may be said about the circumstances of its publication. In the expectation that I should find in them materials for an interesting work, the papers from which these volumes have been compiled were given to me, some years ago, by the family into whose hands they passed on Miss Knight’s death. On examining them, I found that they consisted of a considerable number of journal-books, the dates of which covered more than half a century, and an unfinished autobiographical memoir, written principally on loose sheets of paper. The latter had obviously been commenced at a very late period of life, and had been interrupted by death. The Journals, however, supplied all that was needed to complete the Memoir to the very end of the writer’s life. Indeed, the continuous Memoir had been written from the Diaries, with only occasional additions supplied by the recollection of the writer, and was, in many places, little more than a transcript of them.