Within the last few years the death of two or three trusted couriers and upper servants accounts for the sale of a great many papers of this kind, including whole bundles of telegrams in the handwriting of their employers. From a similar source came one of the last letters Queen Victoria ever penned, and a very touching relic it is, showing the care for others and deep womanly sympathy which characterised the whole of her life. I have since learned that it is customary to retranscribe the originals of telegrams penned by illustrious personages. If this is so the practice is most reprehensible. The telegrams from H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught to the late Queen Victoria have nothing in them of a confidential character. The first telegram is reproduced by permission of the Editor of The Country Home; the second runs as follows:—
The Duke of Connaught at Moscow to Queen Victoria, Balmoral.
Moscow, May 31 1896
Queen, Balmoral, England,—Very deplorable accident occurred at beginning of yesterday's fête hours before arrival of Emperor many peasants crushed to death Accident due over eagerness and entirely fault of people themselves 700,000 people on ground. Very sad.
Arthur.
ONE OF THE LAST LETTERS WRITTEN BY QUEEN VICTORIA, ADDRESSED TO GENERAL SIR GEORGE WHITE, OF LADYSMITH.
The autograph of the late Prince Albert Victor will some day become exceedingly rare and costly. The only example I have of his writing is the telegram he sent to his grandmother, Queen Victoria, at Darmstadt, from that caravanserai of kings, the Hôtel Bristol, in the Place Vendôme, Paris. It is not often that Royalty honours one of those irritating social tortures entitled "An Album of Confessions to Record Thoughts and Feelings." The late Duke of Coburg (Prince Alfred of England) fell a victim to the possessor of one thirty-seven years ago, and the results figured at the modest price of £1 in a London catalogue:—