Descendants of the Stuarts

or THE STUARTS. 167
IV.
ELIZABETH CHARLOTTE,
DUCHESS OY OELEANS,
Nee Princess Palatine.
The life of Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine
of the Rhine, presents greater facilities for the pen
of her autobiographer than that of any of her
cotemporaries, for with such naivete has this lady
pourtrayed herself in her writings, that little doubt
can remain as to the genuineness of her character.*
When we inform our readers that this Princess
spent nearly the whole of her time in letter writing,
some idea may be formed of her voluminous cor-
respondence. Every day witnessed a regular series
emanate from her pen, which she divided between
her aunt Sophia, Electress of Hanover, to whom she
wrote on Sundays and Thursdays; her step-daughters,
Mary Louisa, Queen of Spain, and Anne, Queen of
Sardinia, to whom she devoted Mondays; her
daughter, Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Lorraine,
who engrossed Sundays, Tuesdays, and Eridays ; and
her grand-daughter, Charlotte, Duchess of Modena,
for whom she reserved Wednesdays ; on Satiu'days
she brought up the arrears of the week. " Some-
times," she says, " after having written twenty
sheets to the Princess of Wales, f ten or twelve to
* See Memoirs of the Duchc^ss of Orleans.
•j- Afterwards Queen Caroline, wife of George 11.