The Library of the Duke of Kent
Mollie Gillen describes how Queen Victoria’s father was a bibliophile as well as a military commander and a colonial governor.
When the young Prince Edward, fourth son of King George III, received notice of posting from Gibraltar to Quebec early in 1791, he asked his next-eldest brother the Duke of Clarence for some books: Rousseau’s works, the dramatic works of Destouches, Molière and Crébillon, Bell’s English Theatre, ‘a small collection of the best French novels’, and maps of North America, ‘roads mark’d’.
In 1820, nearly thirty years later, ‘the valuable library of his late Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, deceased’ was offered for sale: the auctioneer James Denew’s 51-page catalogue strikes today’s reader with its close reflection of the Duke’s youthful taste.
The unexpected death of the 52-year-old Duke the previous January had shocked the nation. ‘He was the strongest of the strong,’ wrote John Wilson Croker, ‘...and now to die of a cold, when half the kingdom had colds with impunity, is very bad luck indeed.’ His devoted duchess had not changed her clothes for five nights at the end: and the nation was touched by the innocence of the baby princess Victoria, fatherless at the age of eight months.
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