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162 MISS CORNELIA KNIGHT.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* " Her The Tee Journals One Autobiograp...
asking what he ( Lord Eldon ) would have done as a father , he is said to have answered e If she had Ibeen my daughter , I would
have locked her up . ' Princess , Charlotte heard all this ( which took lace "before her grandmother , her aunt the Princess Mary , and
Lad p y de Clifford ) with great dignity , and answered not a word : but she afterwards went into the room of one of her auntsIburst into
, tears , and exclaimed , ' What would the king say if he could know that his granddaughter had been compared to the granddaughter
of a collier ? ' " A most sad and uncomfortable picture is that hinted at , rather
than detailed , by Miss Knight , of the royal family at this juncture . The young princess appeared to live in perpetual suspicion and
terror that people were plotting * against her ; the queen did not like her granddaughter , and considered her dignified behaviour to
be hardness of heart ; the aunts were determined to induce Miss Knight to go and help to take care of their niece , and letters , notes ,
and interviews appear to have succeeded each other , thick as hail , as in all other family jars . It ended , as we said before , in Cornelia
leaving Windsor ; but the last tiling she did before quitting her old lodgings to enter on her new duties , ' was to write a respectful
letter to the queen expressive of the deepest regret at having ' offended her , and of the sincerest attachment . This letter was never
answered . Behold-, then , Miss Knight established in Warwick House , close to
St . James ' s Park , a residence " far from being uncomfortable , though anything rather than royal . " It was delightful to Princess
Charlotte , compared to the Lower Lodge at Windsor and the vicinity of her grandmotherand she was anxious to be in town as much as
, possible . Her father , however , sacrificed every other consideration to the keeping her a child as long as possible ; and even in London
the poor young princess appears to have led a life of perpetual worry : and we soon hear of her having " a little nervous fever
, occasioned by all she had gone through , and particularly the scene with the Chancellor . "
Miss Knight was extremely anxious that she should be carefully trained for a whilesince " her character was such as not to promise
mediocrity , " and she , was " certainly capable of becoming a blessing to her country or the reverse ; and much would depend on the
discipline of the next year or two . Measures such as had been recently pursued -with her must drive her , I urgedto despairand spoil her
, , disposition , if not counteracted by affection and tenderness . Talents and genius must be encouraged to become useful ; if endeavors are
made to lower or extinguish them , what must be the result ? " Even on the eve of her first ball " Princess Charlotte's spirits were worn
, out with anxiety respecting her mother . She had heard that her visits at Kensington were to be dismissed for the future , and her
h mind our of dressing harassed approached by various , b things ut came . ou She t looking felt nervous beaut iful , and the
162 Miss Cornelia Knight.
162 MISS CORNELIA KNIGHT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1861, page 162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111861/page/18/
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