“Novr. 16, 1819.”

“Jany. (illegible).

“If this paper meets my dear Alexandria’s eye, my dear
cousin Olive will present it, whom my daughter will, for my
sake, I hope, love and serve should I depart this life. 

          
                                                                          EDWARD.”

“I sign this only to say that I am very ill, but should I
not get better, confide in the duchess, my wife, who will,
for my sake, assist you until you obtain your royal rights.

“God Almighty bless you, my beloved cousin, prays
EDWARD.”

“To Olive my cousin, and blessing to Lavinia.”

Mrs. Ryves then went on to state that, after the death of the Duke of Kent and his father, the Duke of Sussex paid a visit to herself and her mother.  On that occasion, and subsequently, he examined the papers, and declared himself satisfied that they were genuine.

In her cross-examination, and in answer to questions put by the court, Mrs. Ryves stated that her mother, Mrs. Serres, was both a clever painter and an authoress, and was appointed landscape painter to the court.  She had been in the habit of writing letters to members of the royal family before 1815, when she had no idea of her relationship to them.  Her mother might have practised astrology as an amusement.  A letter which was produced, and described the appearance of the ghost of Lord Warwick’s father, was in her mother’s handwriting—­as was also a manifesto calling upon “the Great Powers, Principalities, and Potentates of the brave Polish nation to rally round their Princess Olive, grand-daughter of Stanislaus,” and informing them that her legitimacy as Princess of Cumberland had been proved.  Her mother had written a “Life of Dr. Wilmot,” and had ascribed the “Letters of Junius” to him, after a careful comparison of his MS. with those in the possession of Woodfall, Junius’s publisher.  She had also issued a letter to the English nation in 1817, in which she spoke of Dr. Wilmot as having died unmarried; and Mrs. Ryves could not account for that, as her mother had heard of his marriage two years previously.

A document was then produced in which the Duke of Kent acknowledged the marriage of his father with Hannah Lightfoot, and the legitimacy of Olive, praying the latter to maintain secrecy during the life of the king, and constituting her the guardian of his daughter Alexandrina, and directress of her education on account of her relationship, and also because the Duchess of Kent was not familiar with English modes of education.  Mrs. Ryves explained that her mother refrained from acting on that document out of respect for the Duchess of Kent, who, she thought, had the best right to direct the education of her own daughter (the present queen).  She also stated that her mother had received a present of a case of diamonds from the Duke of Cumberland, but she did not know what became of them.