[ Sophie of Württemberg, Queen of the Netherlands; Tsar's daughter ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Sophia') to 'Lord Stratford', expressing deep grief and regret on the occasion of the Battle of Inkerman in the Crimean War.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. The letter begins: 'My dear Lord Stratford | The 5th November, the day of Inckerman, [sic] is passed – I had not the courage to write. There was such a weight of grief in my heart, it was very difficult to give any utterance to it. Yet I will not let this disastrous year come to its close, without sending you a few words of remembrance, of sincere friendship. Since I left you in London, how many are gone! One, whom I will regret as long as I live, who might, perhaps, by personal influence have prevented or at least shortened the dreadful strife.' She thought of him 'when those news from Russian startled us', and refers to 'the Russian war! 15 years ago & already gone! - A new one is beginning, in which no other power will be known, but brutal force.' The letter ends with a paragraph of warm wishes for Stratford and his family, whom she hopes to see 'some future day […] It is one of the hopes I may still indulge in'.