In April 1859, therefore, a letter was written to Her Most Gracious Majesty, by her very dutiful and humble servant E. M. M. Gilbert, to which the following reply was received:
Buckingham Palace, 7th May 1859.
Madam—In reply to your letter of the 29th April, I have now the pleasure to inform you that Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to grant her patronage to the Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind, for which you have shown so much sympathetic interest and so large and liberal a benevolence.—I have the honour to be, madam, your obedient humble servant,
C. B. Phipps.
Miss Gilbert.
Bessie returned very dutiful acknowledgments and grateful thanks to the Queen, who had for the second time granted her petition and rendered signal service to her cause.
Henceforward, on the first page of annual reports, and on all bills and notices, appear the magical words—
Patroness. Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen.
They were doubtless, as Bessie believed them to be, a tower of strength to her, inspiring confidence, securing friends, bringing custom and money.
Proud and happy too were the blind workmen as they sat round their little table, cautiously dipping fibre into the boiling pitch. They could reply to inquirers that orders had been received from Buckingham Palace, from Osborne, and from Windsor Castle, and that they were "making brooms for the Queen."