Description

Harcourt (Elizabeth Sophia, Mme d'Harcourt, wife of General Amadée d'Harcourt, Marquis d'Harcourt, daughter of Richard Bard Harcourt, of Pendley, Hertfordshire, 1771-1846) & others, including: Henry Lambton, Elizabeth Cavendish, William Bernard Harcourt etc. [Correspondence etc.], c. 200 letters, numerous pp., 8vo & v.s., St. Leonard's Hill, Windsor & elsewhere, 1837 - 50s, conversational letters on everyday matters and society, including: from Paris, the abdication of King Louis Philippe I of France, "Affairs took such a strange turn yesterday one can hardly believe it. The King abdicated in favour of his g[ran]dson but the people will not have any King, & at this moment there is no ministry or settled & at this moment there is no ministry, no chambers & no power but the National Guard"; relating scandal, the elopement of Lady Rose Somerset and Captain Francis Lovell, "... as Lord Worcester told it to the officers, there can be no doubt of it - The Duke & Ds had objected to the match it seems for sometime past & Mr. Lovell took the opportunity of their being away in Wales to to go down to Badminton & entice the young lady away - They say she got out of the drawing room window about 7 in the morning & took nothing at all with her, but a shawl - & it is supposed they went to Bath to be married - Georgey also tells me there is a shocking story in London about Dorothy & Mr Smythe [George Smythe, seventh Viscount Strangford and Lady Dorothy Walpole]. It is bad enough that she should give any one cause to speak lightly of her - which I am afraid is but too easy", seeing Queen Victoria [1851], "... the review in the little Park & it was a very pretty sight - I went at 1/2 past 9 with Caroline & my three chicks to Mrs. Grey's who took us on the terrace - The Queen & Prince & the 7 children & courtiers stand just below us in the Park - the troops fired... & marched past 3 times", folds, slightly browned, housed in 2 leather covered cases (1 with domed lid), lined with printer's waste, rubbed; and 2 others, comprising: George III. Letters Patent to Charles Amadée Harcourt appointing him "a Colonel in our service", engraved portrait of George III, remains of Great Seal in the original metal skippet, 475 x 630mm., 25th October 1817; the Harcourt family book of Common Prayer, from Pendley Chapel, engraved frontispiece, ruled in red, contemporary panelled calf, original red morocco label on upper cover: "Pendley Chappell 1728", John Baskett, 1724 (qty).