Add MS 63172

CAROLINE, QUEEN CONSORT OF GEORGE IV: letters, etc., written as Princess of Wales and signed 'Amélie', to 'Télémaque', i.e. Hon. Keppel Richard Craven; 1811-1814, n.d. Autograph. Mostly French and Italian. The sequence begins in December 1811 after the departure of Craven on 20 November to accompany his intimate friend Sir William Gell, the classical antiquary, on a journey to the Eastern Mediterranean, and continues with decreasing frequency until July 1814, just before Keppel and Gell were to act briefly as Princess Caroline's Chamberlains on her departure from Britain in August 1814. The letters which show evidence of the Princess's considerable affection for Craven

she calls him 'cher cousin' and 'bien aimê'are exceedingly indiscreet and couched in an exaggerated style, recalling Gell's remarks about the sixty or so letters from her in his possession, 'what curious things they are' (DNB, XXI, p. 116). In an attempt to safeguard the privacy of her correspondence the Princess has employed French versions of the pseudonyms in common use in her circle. Craven and Gell, both of whom were to give evidence in her favour before the House of Lords in 1820, were Telemachus and Anacharsis respectively; see Lady Charlotte Bury, The Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting (1908), I, pp. 200, 385; Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., ed. A. Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1888), I, pp. 356, 397, 401, 417; II, pp. 15, 55, 62; for letters of Craven and Gell signed 'Telemachus' and 'Anacharsis', see Phillips' sale cat., 2 July 1981, lot 306. The Princess uses her own second name, Amelia. The letters are on paper with heavily embossed borders, incorporating neo-classical designs. Included are an 'amulet' (f. 4) which she sent to Craven bearing a seal with the words, 'Noubliez Jamais', [1811?], a small coloured sketch (f. 27) in her own hand of the child, 'Gustave', probably Craven's son, Augustus (Sharpe, op. cit., I, p. 412; II, pp. 16, 59), 1812; and a letter (f. 61) to her from her brother-in-law, Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, 1813. For a transcript by Augustus Craven of another letter in this sequence dated 29 July 1814, see Add. 63614 A, f. 1. Purchased from John Wilson, Cat. 54, items 23-25, April 1984.

Paper; ff. iii+68. British Library arrangement.