[‘A Princess instead of a Queen’: Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, as Dean of Windsor and Queen Victoria’s domestic chaplain.] Long Autograph Card Signed and Secretarial Letter Signed, both to Canon Jacob, the card regarding a royal visit.

In 1883 Queen Victoria appointed Davidson Dean of Windsor and her domestic chaplain. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items in good condition, lightly aged; the letter folded for postage. Both addressed to ‘My dear Jacob’ and both signed ‘Randall T Davidson’. ONE: Autograph Card Signed. Marked ‘Private’. Eighteen lines of text, covering both sides. Begins: ‘I talked the whole matter over so fully last night with Sir H. Ponsonby that I think I shd only do harm by now sending in your further letter received this morning.’ Ponsonby ‘is himself greatly disappointed at the obstacles which seem to stand across the path, and it will not be his fault if you have to receive a Princess instead of a Queen. But the Queen might regard a further letter now as undue pressure and it wd I fear be likely to defeat its own object.’ Ponsonby has informed him that he intends to write to Jacob, ‘though whether finally or not, I cannot tell.’ Although he is ‘much vexed & disappointed’, he is afraid he can do no more. TWO: Letter in secretarial hand, with salutation and valediction in Davidson’s autograph. He sees no objection to Jacob inserting in his parish magazine ‘such a notice as you have sent me’.