VICTORIA, Queen of England (1819-1901). Autograph letter signed in the third person, to Lord Bridport, Windsor Castle, 14 December 1878.

Four pages on mourning stationery, 176 x 113mm, bifolium. Housed in a custom clamshell case.

Thanking Lord Bridport for his condolences on the death of Princess Alice. Writing in the third person, Victoria writes that her “sorrow is deep & great, for her daling Child was so good and such a noble, self sacrificing character, such a good daughter, wife and mother, so beloved by her family. We must try to follow her example & say: ‘thy will be done’ as she did when her dear little girl, her favorite love forever was taken, & husband & children were lying between life and death; but it is a dreadful blow coming too when all danger seemed past on this very day, when 17 years she stood exceedingly & ably by her poor mother.” On the seventeenth anniversary of her father Prince Albert's death, Alice died from diphtheria. Victoria twice denotes the unlikely timing of "14" December and conveys her sorrow: "...the Queen's heart bleeds especially for the poor, poor Grand Duke & bereaved children... she is overwhelmed with kind expressions of sympathy that have touched her more than that of her own subjects." Provenance: Phillips, 13 June 1991, lot 35.