'Thinking Upon Paper': Lady Sarah Lyttelton’s Journey to the Baltic

Lady Sarah Lyttelton, best‑known for her late roles as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria (1837‑1842) and Governess of the Royal Children (1843‑1850), is notable for having travelled to Sweden and Russia on her honeymoon in 1813, a period still beset by the conflicts and tensions caused by the Napoleonic Wars. Although her presence in the historical context of the Baltic has been largely neglected, her personal correspondence and travel diary, both of which were partially published by her niece Maud Mary Lyttelton Wyndham in 1912 as Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, Lady Lyttelton, 1787‑1870, offer a unique and interesting perspective on Anglo‑Swedish and Anglo‑Russian relations during this tumultuous period. By examining Lady Lyttelton’s journey and unpublished correspondence, I aim to reconstruct her narrative within the Baltic region and to grant her mostly overlooked written account recognition in the field of travel writing. Indeed, Lady Lyttelton’s remarks provide an insight into the political and social situation of the time. The very route of her honeymoon is telling. She and her husband travelled directly to Gothenburg, bypassing Denmark, Napoleon’s ally, recently defeated by Britain at the Battle of Lyngør (1812). The couple then crossed the Baltic Sea to Finland, recently annexed to Russia, now a safe destination after the latter’s changes of allegiance. After a wintry sojourn in St Petersburg, they made their way back by land, through the recently besieged and burned Riga (1812) and the weakened Prussian provinces.