BOOK Louisa Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria and Alexandra Personal Diaries

BOOK Louisa Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra Personal Diaries and Photographs Hardcover with dust jacket Elizabeth Longford These diaries of a Victorian and Edwardian Lady in Waiting disclose a uniquely feminine and intimate view of the reigns of two Queens, as seen from the Royal Bedchamber as well as the formal Rooms of State. Presented here in one magnificently produced volume with all the immediacy and sensitivity that Elizabeth Longford brought to her bestselling biographies of Byron, Wellington and Queen Victoria, they provide us with an irresistible insight into a world of pomp and splendor that has almost passed from living memory. A great many admirable qualities were required of a Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria. She must be an excellent companion — sympathetic in private yet profoundly discreet in public — a handsome vision on State occasions, a gracious hostess to visitors at Windsor, a writer of innumerable notes and memoranda on behalf of the Queen who poor vision made their legibility no insignificant issue, a reasonably accomplished and willing musician and watchdog of Maids of Honour lest they go out walking alone with gentlemen. She must also be fit enough to stand — often for interminable hours