The Queen was also much pleased at seeing four of the crew of the Emerald again whom she knew so well nine years ago! The Prince was delighted with all he saw, as were also our Uncle and Cousins; these last, we are sorry to say, leave us on Monday,—and we go up to Town on Tuesday, where the Queen hopes to see Lord Melbourne soon.
The Queen sends Lord Melbourne a letter from the Queen of Portugal, all which tends to show how wrong it is to think that they connive at the restoration of the Charter....
Lady Dunmore is in waiting, and makes an excellent Lady-in-Waiting. Lord Hardwicke the Queen likes very much, he seems so straightforward. He took the greatest care of the Queen when on board ship.
Was not his father drowned at Spithead or Portsmouth?17
The Queen hopes to hear that Lord Melbourne is very well.
Footnote 17: "His father, Sir Joseph Yorke," Lord Melbourne replied, "was drowned in the Southampton River, off Netley Abbey, when sailing for pleasure. The boat was supposed to have been struck by lightning. His cousin, Lord Royston, was drowned in the year 1807 in the Baltic, at Cronstadt" [according to Burke in 1808, off Lubeck, æt. twenty-three], "which event, together with the death of two younger sons of Lord Hardwicke, gave the earldom ultimately to the present Lord."
Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
Pavilion, 7th March 1842.
My dear Uncle,—As I wrote you so long a letter yesterday, I shall only write you a few lines to-day, to thank you for your kind letter of the 4th, received yesterday. Our dear Uncle and dear Cousins have just left us, and we are very sorry to see them go; for the longer one is together the more intimate one gets, and they were quite become as belonging to us, and were so quiet and unassuming, that we shall miss them much, particularly dear Leopold, whom poor Uncle Ferdinand recommended to my especial care, and therefore am really very anxious that we should settle something for his future. Uncle Ferdinand likes the idea of his passing some time at Brussels, and some time here, very much, and I hope we may be able to settle that. Uncle and Cousins were sorry to go.
You will have heard how well our Portsmouth expedition went off; the sea was quite smooth on Tuesday, and we had a delightful visit to the Queen, which is a splendid ship. I think it is in these immense wooden walls that our real greatness exists, and I am proud to think that no other nation can equal us in this....