LORD MELBOURNE ON SCOTLAND
Brocket Hall, 29th September 1842.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has to acknowledge your Majesty's letter of the 25th inst., which he had the honour and pleasure of receiving here on the 27th. Lord Melbourne is well aware how much your Majesty's time must have been occupied by the number of visitors at the Castle. We are much rejoiced here that your Majesty saw the Prince and Princess Liechtenstein.92 The latter is a great favourite of Lady Beauvale's, to whom she was always very kind, and who describes her exactly as your Majesty does, as being very "amiable and unassuming," and though one of the first, if not the first lady at Vienna, as not at all partaking of the insolence and hauteur which is by some ascribed to the society of that capital. As a beauty, she is perhaps upon too large a scale, except for those who admire women of all shapes and sizes; but her eyes and brow are very fine, and there is a very peculiarly soft and radiant expression about them. Lord Melbourne had heard of his Sovereignty, but understands that his territory is extremely limited. His possessions as a subject of Austria are worth a good deal more than his German principality.
Lord Melbourne greatly congratulates your Majesty upon the happy progress and termination of the expedition to Scotland. He is very glad of three things—that your Majesty returned by sea, in the steamer, and that the passage was a good one....
The country is indeed most interesting, full of real picturesque beauty and of historical and poetical associations and recollections. There is nothing to detract from it, except the very high opinion that the Scotch themselves entertain of it. Edinburgh is magnificent—situation, buildings, and all—but the boasting of the articles in the newspapers respecting it almost inclined one to deny its superiority. It is also, as your Majesty says, most striking to contemplate in the Clans the remains of feudal times and institutions. It is quite as well, however, particularly for Monarchy, that they are but remains, and that no more of them have been left.
Lord Melbourne thanks your Majesty much for your kind enquiries after his health. He thinks that he is getting better and stronger than he has been, and has a notion of trying a little shooting in October.
Lord Melbourne begs to be respectfully remembered to the Prince.
Footnote 92: Prince Aloysius Joseph of Liechtenstein (1796-1858) and his wife, Princess Françoise-de-Paule, Countess Kinsky.
Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
Windsor Castle, 18th October 1842.