saw. Scone
Palace (where we slept on Tuesday night) is fine, but gloomy; Perth is
beautiful.

The Queen hopes Lord Melbourne is very well. The Prince begs to be
remembered to him.

Dalkeith is a fine good house, and the park and grounds very pretty.

[Footnote 81: The seat of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby.]

[Footnote 82: It should be written Auchmore.]

[Footnote 83: The seat of the Duke of Buccleuch.]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _20th September 1842._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--Pray accept my best thanks for your kind letter of
the 15th, which I received on Saturday, the day of our arrival here.
Dearest Louise will have told you what I wrote to her. We had a speedy
and prosperous voyage home of forty-eight hours, on board a fine large
and very fast steamer, the _Trident_, belonging to the General Steam
Navigation Company. We found our dear little Victoria so grown and so
improved, and speaking so plain, and become so independent; I think
really few children are as forward as she is. She is quite a dear
little companion. The Baby is sadly backward, but also grown, and very
strong. I am so distressed about dearest Louise's still coughing,
but she tells me it is decreasing. Only pray let her give way to her
grief; much crying, even if it makes her cough for the moment, can
do her no real harm, but stifling and swallowing _grief_ (which she
_cannot_ repress) gnaws at the very roots of life and undermines
health. Ostend and sea-baths would, I should think, do her good.

I am very glad that you went to see the King of Prussia, and saw so
many old friends; Fritz of Mecklenburg[84] is, you know, Albert's very
dear friend; he is just arrived here.

Alexandrine's brother everybody praises; the whole family are handsome
and well brought up.

The Archduke Frederic[85] comes here to-morrow for a week's visit.
Everybody praises him, and Ferdinand liked him very much; all Archduke
Charles's[86] sons are said to be very well brought up. How I wish
Archduke John[87] had come over here!

Now, dearest Uncle, adieu! and pray believe me, always, your most
affectionate Niece,

VICTORIA R.

It would be _very_ kind of you if you would tell me if there is a
chance of Augustus's marrying Clementine.[88] Don't believe I should
say a word _against_ it; but I have heard so much about it that I
should be really and sincerely glad to know a _little_ of the _truth_
from _you_.

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