The future Catherine II was thus described by a lady of rank who knew her when she was a young girl:
"Her deportment was good; her figure large for her years; her countenance, to which her gaiety and courtesy gave an additional charm, without being beautiful, was agreeable. Her education had been conducted wholly by her mother, who, watching her strictly, carefully repressed that propensity to pride which she early discovered. She was, from her childhood, taught to salute the ladies who visited the Princess, 'with those marks of respect which became her years."
Further reading:
La Belle Assemblée, Volume 2