Letter from Lord Munster, Brighton, to Mary Georgiana Dawson-Damer, 1837 October 4 : autograph manuscript signed with initial.

Describing the events of the Queen's arrival at Brighton and reflecting on his regrets over the last 8 years; describing the entrance gate that was built for her saying "They have built an amphitheatre in front & touching the Pavilion Gate from London thro which she must pass to get to bed...a trap on a great Scale - into which they drive wild Elephants for their capture - with a door at each end - after Her Majesty has driven in, she is to be properly received, by shuttering the Gate & then stopped, & the Royal address read to her in the Arena - with 2000 persons staring at her, at half a Guinea a Head - & after being properly tamed by the [illegible], she is to be let out at the other door, to go to her own Den - I never saw a more strange or more ingenious mode of turning a Queen to account - & think it highly improper - If I was her, I would [illegible] them & go in by the Back door - Do not fancy I write this lightly, from Spirits...to get rid of myself & my thoughts & a bitter ridicule is a safely Valve. Tho, to day pains me, it is not - one day - but a past Life, of disappointment & troubles that gives a tinge to the medium through which I see everything & the last 7 or 8 years, & late events, particularly - have & will, ever press on my mind - I feel as if I would give the world to brush off - a weight, in the brain & heart - but there it is - and I often say to myself I would be cheerful - if I could - Fortunately - my regrets here, lay more with the Steyne House, than the Pavilion & God knows - in which of the two (as, bye the bye, do you, my dear & kind Friend) my agreable recollections are connected - Hence I am not likely to feel - what any of my Brothers & Sisters would - as I, slept, but 3 nights, at the Pavilion during the whole Kings reign - I do not expect to be noticed by the Queen & [illegible] says the cause of her having no Book for Visitors is to allow her being quiet & having no dinner Parries - but the Inmates of the Pavilion. You know how little I care for Courts - but she ought not to overlook me - I hope to go to Lord Egremont in the middle of next week as He wishes me, not to run away, too soon after she arrives, least it should be construed with disrespect - Letters in a kindly strain, such as those I have lately received from Petworth - are of a kindly & healing nature to a wounded spirit - I wish I could write à cœur ouvert - but you know the difficulty of so doing in that Quarter - However, I feel there is a truly kind interest & good feeling towards me in that Quarter;" encouraging her to ride to improve her spirits; adding "The Queen has arrived...a very pretty sight & all went off with great eclat & no accident - She stopped at the first arch, at the entrance of the town where God Save the Queen was played & she only stopped at the amphitheatre to hear it sung - The Batteries & a little Fleet of Cutters & Yachts fired a salute - we missed her by accident - for which I am not sorry - I hear she was terribly pale - & did not look well - no Minister is come...The Illuminations are very handsome & I am doomed to walk all over the Town with the children to night - No news."