Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians

Windsor Castle, 26th November 1861.

My beloved Uncle,— ... Albert is a little rheumatic, which is a plague—but it is very difficult not to have something or other of this kind in this season, with these rapid changes of temperature; unberufen, unberufen, he is much better this winter than he was the preceding years. ...

Footnote 57: The Prince had been unwell, even before the receipt of the distressing news from Portugal, and began to suffer from a somewhat continuous insomnia. On the 22nd of November, he drove to Sandhurst to inspect the new buildings in progress there. The day was very wet, and, though he returned in the middle of the day to Windsor, the exertion proved too severe for him; on the 24th he complained of rheumatic pains, and of prolonged sleeplessness.