‘The nursery establishement was headed by Lady Dashwood, who had been Lady of the Bedchamber to the King’s daughters. She was a charming, gentle character; “I never saw anybody,’ wrote Princess Elizabeth to the Prince, “more truly anxious to fulfill conscientiously the situation in which you have been so very very good as to place her.” She was probably too conscientious, for after six months she became ill, worn out by the difficulties of a job, which, as well as keeping a careful watch over the health of the baby princess, involved diplomacy, tact and strict attention to Court etiquette. She had to remember, for instance, that the nurse, important as she was for the provision of nourishment, might never, owing to her lowly station, be in the same room with the King and Queen; and also to bear in mind that Buckingham House could be icy cold, even in July. “I beg her Royal Highness may be covered up entirely,’ she wrote to her assistant, “as the wind on the staircase…is very great.’
[an extract from ‘Prinny’s Daughter: A Biography of Princess Charlotte of Wales’ by Thea Home]
Picture: Mary, Lady Dashwood and her son Henry by Joshua Reynolds
Princess Charlotte of Wales 