Alix's letter to Madgie Jackson, dated June 3, 1893

Alix wrote this letter to her old governess Madgie Jackson on June 3, 1893.

Source:

The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden.

Chapter 4, Engagement, 1894

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/2006alix/chapter_IV.html

https://archive.org/details/lifetragedyofale00sofi/page/30

The letter:

DARMSTADT,
June 3, 1893
DARLING MADGIE, — I send you my most loving thanks for your dear letter and the sweet little book. I ought not to have opened the packet till the 6th — but I could not resist the temptation, I enjoy the little books you send me always so much.

We have come into town for Ernie's audiences and I have been writing, trying on, eating cherries and picking flowers in the Herrengarten, which I have been arranging in the Schloss Kirche, as Toni von Homberg is going to be married to Pfarrer Erhardt there to-day, and the church looked so bare without any plants or flowers — now it looks quite friendly. It is still warm, sunny and bright. We have been rowing on the pond at Kranichstein and fishing. Frau von Westerveller and Marie von Biegeleben came out to us yesterday for a few hours, the visit of the Grand Duke of Baden went off very well last Tuesday. When the Saxons and Austrians come there will be more to do, and I dread it.

To-night we came in again for a large concert in the theatre, on account of the 25 (or 50) years' existence of the Mozartverein here, and the first time we go to the theatre again, I feel quite upset at the idea. Oh Madgie dear, if you only knew how too terribly I miss my own Darling* — it is too hard to believe that we shall never meet again in this world. But I must not make you sad. I am glad that you are going to Folkestone and so will be near Victoria.

A good long kiss.

Ever your very loving
P.Q. No. III*,
ALIX.

Don't you wish "The Old Man"* on a cherry tree? ...

Above: Alix, year 1892.

Notes: Alix's father had died in 1892, and she did not want to go to the theater even months after his death.

P.Q. No. III was an abbreviation of "Poppet Queen Number 3", which was Madgie's nickname for Alix.

"The Old Man" = a Mr. Gladstone.