IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 V 
 
 <^A 
 
 /. 
 
 fU/ 
 
 
 ^\%> ids 
 
 :/ 
 
 
 II 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 ':,m lllliM 
 ■ m |||||22 
 
 ;!• li^ |||||20 
 
 mm 
 
 14 III 1.6 
 
 V] 
 
 <^^ 
 
 ^W 
 
 
 <p^ 
 
 ^ >' 
 
 /. 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 y 
 
 /J. 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREIT 
 
 WEBSTER, NY 14SB0 
 
 (716) 872-4303 
 
'A^ c?< 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
 1980 
 
 1 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, arr checked below. 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 Covers damaged/ 
 Couverture endommagee 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaurde et/ou pelliculde 
 
 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 I I Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes gdographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre d6 couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reli6 avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La reliure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intdrieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas ^t6 film^es. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppl^mentaires: 
 
 L'lnstitut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la m^thode normale de filmage 
 sont indiqu6s ci-dessous. 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommag^es 
 
 Pages restored and/oi 
 
 Pages restaur6es et/ou pellicul^es 
 
 I I Pages damaged/ 
 
 I — I Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 □ Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages ddcolordes, tachetdes ou piqu6es 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages d6tach6es 
 
 I I Showthrough/ 
 
 D 
 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Qualitd indgale de I'impression 
 
 Includes supplementary materii 
 Comprend du materiel supplementaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 I I Includes supplementary material/ 
 
 I — I Only edition available/ 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6t6 filmdes 6 nouveau de fapon d 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. 
 
 10X t4X 18X 22X 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 26X 
 
 30X 
 
 ] 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
tails 
 
 du 
 adifier 
 
 une 
 Tiage 
 
 The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Library of the Public 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — ♦- (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Mips, plates, cnarts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grAcj d la 
 g6n4rositA de: 
 
 La bibliothdque des Archives 
 publiques du Canada 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6x6 reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettetd de I'exemplaire film6, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprimde sont filmds en commenpant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impre^sion ou d'illustration, soit par le second 
 plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont film6s en commen9ant par la 
 premidre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 la dernidre page qui compcrte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la 
 dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le 
 symbole V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 film^s d des taux de reduction diffdrents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir 
 de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche d droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mithode. 
 
 irrata 
 to 
 
 pelure, 
 in d 
 
 n 
 
 32X 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
n^ 
 
 I 
 
 V 
 
 
 V^ \-K,\/ ^ 
 
 "^X^. "LXih • 
 
 i 
 
 / . 
 
 I 
 
^1 
 
 QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 HER 
 
 GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 
 
 /■ 
 
 BY 
 
 GRACE GREENWOOD, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HAPS AND MISHAPS OF A TOUR I.V FUROPF," "NEW 
 UFE IN NEW LANDS," " HISTORy OF MY PETS," ETC, 
 
 
 MONTREAL: 
 DAWSON BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 
 
 1S83. 
 
L /^ 
 
 2130 
 
 Entered accnnliiiK to Act of r.irliamrnt i.f Cannila, in tlic year 1883, 
 in the Oflice of Uie Miuiblur of Agriculture. 
 
 WITNESS PRINTINO M0V8E, 
 
 \j 
 
1 
 
 A DEDICATORY LETTER 
 
 To Camilla Toulmin (Mrs. Newton Crosland), 
 Linton Lodge, Blackheath Park : 
 
 Permit me, my dear friend, to inscribe to you 
 this very imperfect Life of your beloved Queen, 
 in remembrance of that dear old time when the 
 world was brighter and more beautiful than it is 
 now (or so it seemeth to me), and things in gen- 
 eral were pleasanter; — when better books were 
 written, especially biographies, and there were 
 fewer of them ; — when the " gentle reader " and 
 the "indulgent critic" were extant ;— when Real- 
 ism had not shouldered his way into Art ; — when 
 there were great actors and actresses of the fine 
 old school, like Macready and the elder Booth — 
 Helen Faucit and Charlotte Cushman ; and real 
 orators, like Daniel O'Connell and Daniel Web- 
 ster ; — when there was more poetry and more ro- 
 mance in life than now ; — when it took less silk 
 to make a gown, but when a bonnet was a bon- 
 
9 
 
 A DEDICATORY LETTER. 
 
 net;— when there was less east-wind and fog, 
 more moonlight to the month, and more sunlight 
 to the acre ;— when the scent of the blossoming 
 hawthorn was sweeter in the morning, and the 
 song of the nightingale more melodious in the 
 twilight ;— when, in short, you and I, and the 
 glorious Victorian era, were young. 
 
 Grace Greenwood. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I SEND this book out to the world with many 
 misgivings, feeling that it is not what I would 
 like it to be — not what I could have made it with 
 more time. I have found it especially difficult to 
 procure facts and incidents of the early life of the 
 Queen— just that period which I felt was of most 
 interest to my younger readers. So much was I 
 delayed that for the actual arrangement and 
 culling of my material, and the writing of the 
 volume, I have had less than three months, and 
 during that time many interruptions in my work 
 —the most discouraging caused by a serious 
 trouble of the eyes. 
 
 I am aware that the book is written in a free 
 and easy style, partly natural, and partly formed 
 by many years of journalistic work — a style new 
 for the grave business of biographical writing, 
 and which may be startling in a royal biography, 
 —to my English readers, at least. I aimed to 
 make a pleasant, simple fireside story of the life 
 and reign of Queen Victoria— and I hope I have 
 
 (3) 
 
TREFACE. 
 
 not altogether failed. Unluckily, I had no friend 
 near the throne to furnish me with reliable, un- 
 published personal anecdotes of Her Majesty. 
 
 I have made use of the labor of several 
 English authors ; first, of that of the Queen her- 
 self, in the books entitled, " Leaves from the 
 Journal of Our Life in the Highlands," and "The 
 Early Years of His Royal Highness the Prince- 
 Consort"; next, of that of Sir Theodore Martin, 
 K.C.B., in his " Life of the Prince-Consort." For 
 this last appropriation I have Sir Theodore Mar- 
 tin's gracious permission. I am much indebted 
 to Hon. Justin McCarthy, in his " History of Our 
 Own Times." I have also been aided by vari- 
 ous compilations, and by Lord Ronald Gower's 
 " Reminiscences." 
 
 I have long felt that the wonderfttl st«ry of 
 the life of the Queen of England — of her exam- 
 ple as a daughter, wife and mother, and as the 
 honored head of English society could but have, 
 if told simply, yet sympathetically, a happy and 
 ennobling influence on the hearts and minds of 
 my young countrywomen. I have done my 
 work, if lightly, with entire respeot, though 
 always as an American and a republican. I 
 could not do otherwise ; for, though it has made 
 
 u. 
 ■ ■"?' I 
 
 vif: 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 s 
 
 me in love with a few royal people, it has not 
 made me in love with royalty. I cannot but 
 think that, so far from its being a condition of 
 itself ennobling to human character, those born 
 into it have often to fight to maintain a native 
 nobility, — as Queen Victoria has fought, as 
 Prince Albert fought, — for I find the " blameless 
 Prince" saying: "To my mind the exaltation of 
 royalty is only possible through the personal 
 character of the sovereign." 
 
 It suits England, however, ''excellent well," 
 in its restricted constitutional form ; she has all 
 the venerable, splendid accessories — and I hope 
 "Albert the Good " may have founded a long 
 race of good kings ; but it would not do for 
 us, — a race cradled in revolution, and nurtured on 
 irreverence and unbelief, as regards the divine 
 right of kings and the law of primogeniture. 
 To us it seems, though a primitive, an unnatural 
 institution. We find no analogies for it, even 
 in the wildest venture of the New World. It 
 is true the buffalo herd has its kingly com- 
 mander, who goes plunging along ahead, like a 
 flesh-and-blood locomotive ; the drove of wild 
 horses has its chieftain, tossing his long mane, 
 like a banner, in advance of his fellows ; even 
 
6 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the migratory multitudes of wild-fowl, darkening 
 the autumn heavens, have their general and 
 engineer, — but none of these leaders was born, 
 or hatched into his proud position. They are 
 undoubtedly chosen, elected, or elect them-, 
 selves by superior will or wisdom. Entomol" 
 ogy does, indeed, furnish some analogies. The 
 sagacious bees, the valiant wasps, are monarch- 
 ists, — but then, they have only queens. 
 
 G. O. 
 
 London, October 20///, 1883. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 Childhood and Girlhood, 
 
 PART III. 
 Wifehood and Motherhood, 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Widowhood, 
 
 IX 
 
 PART II. 
 Womanhood aj:d Queenhood, «. 
 
 ' • • • of 
 
 167 
 
 339 
 
 (7) 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 I. The Princess Victoria. 
 
 2. Queen Victoria at the Age of i8. 
 
 3. The Duchess of Kent, Mother of the Queen. 
 
 4. The Queen at the Age of 64. 
 
 5. Prince Albert, Husband of the Queen. 
 
 m 
 
PART T. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
!. ! 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 By grace greenwood. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Sketch of the Princoss Charlotte - Her Love for her Mother- 
 Anecdotes - Her Happy Girlhood-Her Marriage with Prince 
 Leopold-Her Beautiful Life at Claremont-Daron Stockmar, the 
 Coburg Mentor— Death of the Princess Chariotte. 
 
 It seems to me that the hfe of Queen 
 Victoria cannot well be told without a prefac- 
 ing sketch of her cousin, the Princess Charlotte, 
 who, had she lived, would have been her Queen, 
 and who was in many respects her prototype. 
 It is certain, I think, that Charlotte Augusta of 
 Wales, that lovely miracle-flower of a loveless 
 marriage, blooming into a noble and gracious 
 womanhood, amid the petty strifes and dis- 
 graceful intrigues of a corrupt Court, by her vir- 
 tues and graces, by her high spirit and frank 
 and fearless character, prepared the way in 
 
 (II) 
 
It 
 
 JJFE OF QUEKX VICTORIA. 
 
 the loyal hearts of the British people, for the 
 fair young kinswoman, who, twenty-one years 
 after her own sad death, reigned in her stead. 
 .Through all the bright life of the Priiicess Char- 
 lotte — from her beautiful childhood to her no 
 less beautiful maturity — the English people had 
 regarded her proudly and lovingly as their sov- 
 ereign, who was to be ; they had patience with 
 the melancholy madness of ^he poor old King, 
 her grandfather, and with the scandalous irregu- 
 larities of the Prince Regent, her father, in look- 
 ing forward to happier and better things, under 
 a good woman's reign ; and after all those fair 
 hopes had been coffined with iier, and buried 
 in darkness and silence, their hearts naturally 
 turned to the royal little girl, who might possi- 
 bly fill the place left so drearily vacant. Eng- 
 land had always been happy and prosperous 
 under Queens, and a Queen, please God, they 
 would yet have. 
 
 The Princess Charlotte was the only child of 
 the marriage of the Prince Regent, afterwards 
 George IV., with the Princess Caroline of Bruns- 
 wick. Her childhood was overshadowed by the 
 hopeless estrangement of her parents. She 
 
-vi^^S'Mi^siasassEgit 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 t$ 
 
 seems to have especially loved her mother, and 
 by the courage and independence she displayed 
 in her championship of that good-hearted but 
 most eccentric and imprudent woman, endeared 
 herself to the English people, who equally ad- 
 mired her pluck and her filial piety — on the ma- 
 ternal side. They took a fond delight in relat- 
 ing stories of rebellion against her august papa, 
 and even against her awful grandmamma, Queen 
 Charlotte. They told how once, when a mere 
 slip of a girl, being forbidden to pay her usual 
 visit to her poor mother, she insisted on going, 
 and on the Queen undertaking to detain her by 
 force, resisted, struggling right valiantly, and 
 after damaging and setting comically awry the 
 royal mob-cap, broke away, ran out of the pal- 
 ace, sprang into a hackney-coach, and promising 
 the driver a guinea, was soon at her mother's 
 house and in her mother's arms. There is an- 
 other — a Court version of this hackney-coach 
 story — which states that it was not the Queen, 
 but the Prince Regent that the Princess ran 
 away from — so that there could have been no 
 assault on a mob-cap. But the common people 
 of that day preferred the version I have given, 
 
H 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ¥ 
 
 as more piquant, especially as old Queen Char- 
 lotte was known to be the most solemnly grand 
 of grandmammas, and a personage of such pro, 
 digious dignity that it was popularly supposed 
 that only Kings and Queens, with their crown? 
 actually on their heads, were permitted to sit in 
 her presence. 
 
 As a young girl, the Princess Charlotte was 
 by no means without faults of temper and man-r 
 ner. She was at times self-willed, passionate, 
 capricious, and imperious, though ordinarily 
 good-humored, kindly, and sympathetic. A 
 Court lady of the time, speaking of her, says : 
 " She is very clever, but at present has the man- 
 ners of a hoyden school-girl. She talked all 
 sorts of nonsense to me, but can put on dignity 
 when she chooses." This writer also relates 
 that the royal little lady loved to shock her at- 
 tendants by running to fetch for herself articles 
 she required — her hat, a book, or a chair — and 
 that one summer, when she stayed at a country- 
 house, she would even run to open the gate to 
 visitors, curtsying to them like a country lassie. 
 The Earl of Albemarle, who was her playmate in 
 childhood, his grandmother being her governess, 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 15 
 
 relates that one time when they had the Prince 
 Regent to lunch, the chop came up spoiled, and 
 it was found that Her Royal Highness had de- 
 scended into the kitchen, and, to the dismay of 
 the cook, insisted on broiling it. Albemarle 
 adds that he, boy-liice, taunted her with her culi- 
 nary failure, saying: ''Vou would make a pretty 
 Queen, wouldn't you ? " At another time, some 
 years later, she came in her carriage to make a 
 morning-call at his grandmother's, and seeing a 
 crowd gathered before the door, attracted by 
 the royal liveries, she ran out a back-way, came 
 round, and mingled with the curious throng un- 
 recognized, and as eager to see the Princess as 
 any of them. 
 
 Not being allowed the society of her mother, 
 and that of her father not being considered 
 wholesome for her, the Princess was early ad- 
 vised and urged to take a companion and coun- 
 sellor in the shape of a husband. The Prince 
 of Orange, afterwards King of the Netherlands, 
 was fixed upon as a good parti by her royal 
 relatives, and he came courting to the English 
 Court. But the Princess did not altogether 
 fancy this aspirant, so, after her independent 
 
i6 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 fashion, she declined the alliance, and " the 
 young man went away sorrowing." 
 
 One of the ladies of the Princess used to tell 
 how for a few minutes after the Prince had call- 
 ed to make his sad adintx^ she hoped that Her 
 Royal Highness had relented because she walk- 
 ed thoughtfully to the window to see the last 
 of him as he descended the palace steps and 
 sprang into his carriage, looking very grand in 
 hirs red uniform, with a tuft of green feathers 
 in his hat. But when the Princess turned away 
 with a gay laugh, saying, " How like a radish 
 he looks," she knew that all was over. It is an 
 odd little coincidence, that a later Prince of 
 Orange, afterwards King of the Netherlands, had 
 the same bad luck as a suitor to the Princess or 
 Ouccn Victoria. 
 
 Charlotte's next lover, Leopold of Saxe-Co- 
 burg, an amiable and able Prince, was more for- 
 tunate. He won the light but constant heart 
 of the Princess, inspiring her not only with ten- 
 der love, but with profound respect. Her high 
 spirit and imperious will were soon tamed to 
 his firm but gentle hand ; she herself became 
 more gentle and reasonable, content to rule the 
 
CllII.DIIOOI) AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 ijr 
 
 kingdom of his heart at least, by her womanly 
 charms, rather than by the power of her regal 
 name and lofty position. This royal love-mar- 
 riage took place in May, 1816, and soon after 
 the Prince and Princess, who had little taste for 
 Court gaieties, went to live at Clarcmont, the 
 beautiful country residence now occupied by 
 the young Duke of Albany, a namesake of 
 Prince Leopold. Here the young couple lived 
 a life of much domestic privacy and simplicity, 
 practicing themselves in habits of study, method- 
 ical application to business, and wise economy. 
 They were always together, spending happy 
 hours in work and recreation, passing from law 
 and politics to music and sketching, from the 
 study of the British Constitution to horticulture. 
 The Princess especially delighted in gardening, 
 in watering with her own hands her favorite 
 plants. 
 
 This happy pair had an invaluable aid and ally 
 in the learned Baron Stockmar, early attached to 
 Prince Leopold as private physician, a rare, good 
 man, on whom they both leaned much, as after- 
 wards did Victoria and Albert and their children. 
 Indeed the Baron seems to have been a perma- 
 
i8 
 
 LIFE OF QU KEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ■:,<\ 
 
 ncnt pillar for princes to lean upon. From 
 youth to old age he was to two or three royal 
 households the chief "guide, philosopher, and 
 friend" — a Coburg mentor, a Guelphic oracle. 
 
 So these royal lovers of Claremont lived tran- 
 quilly on, winning the love and respect of all 
 about them, and growing dearer and dearer to 
 each other till the end came, the sudden death of 
 the young wife and mother, — an event which, on 
 a sad day in November, 1817, plunged the whole 
 realm into mourning. The grief of the people, 
 even those farthest removed from the Court, was 
 real, intense, almost personal and passionate. 
 It was a double tragedy, for the child too was 
 dead. The accounts of the last moments of 
 the Princess are exceedingly touching. When 
 told that her baby boy was not living, she said : 
 " I am grieved, for myself, for the English peo- 
 ple, but O, above all, I feel it for my dear hus- 
 band ! " Taking an opportunity when the 
 Prince was away from her bedside, she asked 
 if she too must die. The physician did not 
 directly reply, but said, " Pray be calm." 
 
 " I know what tkai means," she replied, then 
 added, " Tell it to my husband, — tell it with 
 
CHILDHOOD AND r.rRI.HOOD. 
 
 TQ 
 
 caution and tenderness, and be sure to say to 
 him, from me, that I am still the happiest wife 
 in England." 
 
 It seems, according to the Queen, that It was 
 Stockmar that took this last message to the 
 Prince, who lacked the fortitude to remain by 
 the bedside of his dying wife — that it was Stock- 
 mar who held her hand till it grew pulseless and 
 cold, till the light faded from her sweet blue 
 eyes as her great life and her great love passed 
 forever from the earth. Yet it seems that 
 through a mystery of transmigration, that light 
 and life and love were destined soon to be re- 
 incarnated in a baby cousin, born in May, 1819, 
 called at first "the little May-flower," and 
 through her earliest years watched and tended 
 as a irail and delicate blossom of hope. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Birth of the Princess Victoria— Character of her Father— Question 
 of the Succession to the Throne — Death of the Duke of Kent — 
 Baptism of Victoria — lienioval to Woolbrook Cilcn — Her first 
 Escaix; from Sudden Death — Picture of Domestic Life — Anecdotes. 
 
 After the loss of his wife, Prince Leopold left 
 for a time his sad home of Claremont, and re- 
 turned to the Continent, but came back some 
 time in 1819, to visit a beloved sister, married 
 since his own bereavement, and become the 
 mother of a little English girl, and for the sec- 
 ond time a widow. Lovingly, though with a 
 pang at his heart, the Prince bent over the cra- 
 dle of this eight-months-old baby, who in her 
 unconscious orphanage smiled into his kindly 
 face, and though he thought sorrowfully of the 
 little one whose eyes had never smiled into his, 
 had never even opened upon life, he vowed then 
 and there to the child of his bereaved sister, the 
 devoted love, the help, sympathy, and guidance 
 which never failed her while he lived. 
 
 This baby girl was the daughter of the Duke 
 
 of Kent and of the Princess Victoire Marie 
 (20) 
 
CinLDII0(3D AND CJIRMIOOI). 
 
 it 
 
 Louise of Saxc-Coburg Saalfickl, widow of 
 Prince Charles of Leiningen. Edward, Duke of 
 Kent, was the fourth and altogether the best son 
 of George III. Making all allowance for the ex- 
 aggeration of loyal biographers, I should say he 
 was an amiable, able, and upright man, generous 
 and charitable to a remarkable degree, for a 
 royal Prince of that time — perhaps too much so, 
 for he kept himself poor and died poor. He was 
 not a favorite with his royal parents, who seem 
 to have denied him reasonable assistance, while 
 lavishing large sums on his spendthrift brother, 
 the Prince of Wales. George was like the prod- 
 igal son of Scripture, except that he never re- 
 pented — Edward like the virtuous son, except 
 that he never complained. 
 
 On the death of the Princess Charlotte the 
 Duke of York had become heir-presumptive to 
 the throne. He had no children, and the Duke 
 of Clarence, third son of George HI., was there- 
 fore next in succession. He married in the 
 same year as his brother of Kent, and to him 
 also a little daughter was born, who, had she 
 lived, would have finally succeeded to the throne 
 instead of Victoria. But the poor little Princess 
 
 1 
 
22 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 stayed but a little wliile to flatter or disappoint 
 royal hopes. She looked timidly out upon life, 
 with all its regal possibilities, and went away 
 untempted. Still the Duchess of Clarence (aft- 
 erwards Queen Adelaide) might yet be the happy 
 mother of a Prince, or Princess Royal, and there 
 were so many probabilities against the accession 
 of the Duke of Kent's baby to the throne that 
 people smiled when, holding her in his arms, the 
 proud father would say, in a spirit of prophecy, 
 " Look at her well ! — she will yet be Queen of 
 England." 
 
 One rainy afternoon the Duke stayed out 
 late, walking in the grounds, and came in with 
 wet feet. He was urged to change his boots 
 and stockings, but his pretty baby, laughing and 
 crowing on her mother's knee, was too much for 
 him ; he took her in his arms and played with 
 her till the fatal chill struck him. He soon 
 took to his bed, which he never left. He had 
 inflammation of the lungs, and a country doc- 
 tor, which last took from him one hundred and 
 twenty ounces of blood. Then, as he grew no 
 better, a great London physician was called in, 
 but he said it was too late to save the illustrious 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 23 
 
 patient ; that if he had had charge of the case 
 at first, he would have '* bled more freely." 
 Such was the medical system of sixty years ago. 
 The Duke of Kent's death brought his uncon- 
 scious baby's feet a step— just his grave's width 
 —nearer the throne ; but it was not till many 
 years later— till after the death of her kindly 
 uncle of York, and her " fine gentleman " uncle, 
 George IV., and the accession of her rough 
 sailor-uncle, the Duke of Clarence, William IV., 
 an old man, and legally considered childless— 
 that the Princess Victoria was confidently re- 
 garded as the coming sovereign, and that the 
 momentous truth was revealed to her. She was 
 twelve years old before any clear intimation had 
 been allowed to reach her of the exceptional 
 grandeur of her destiny. Till then she did not 
 know that she was especially an object of na- 
 tional love and hope, or especially great or for- 
 tunate. She knew that she was a " Royal High- 
 ness," but she knew also, the wise child .'—that 
 since the Guelphs came over to rule the Eno-. 
 lish, Royal Highnesses had been more plentiful 
 than popular ; she knew that she was obliged to 
 wear, most of the time, very plain cotton gowns 
 
24 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ,ii 
 
 and straw hats, and to learn a lot of tiresome 
 things, and that she was kept on short allow- 
 ance of pin-money and ponies. 
 
 The wise Duchess of Kent certainly guarded 
 her with the most jealous care from all prema- 
 ture realization of the splendid part she might 
 have to play in the world's history, as a hope 
 too intoxicating, or a responsibility too heavy, 
 for the heart and mind of a sensitive child. 
 
 I wonder if her Serene Highness kept fond 
 motherly records of the babyhood and childhood 
 of the Queen? If so, what a rich mine it would 
 be for a poor bewildered biographer like me, re- 
 quired to make my foundation bricks with only 
 a few golden bits of straw. I have searched the 
 chronicles of the writers of that time ; I have 
 questioned loyal old people, but have found or 
 gained little that is novel, or peculiarly inter. 
 
 cstmg. 
 
 Victoria was born in the sombre but pictur, 
 esque old palace of Kensington, on May 24, 
 18 19, and on the 24th of the following June wa^ 
 baptized with great pomp out of the ^^dendid 
 gold font, brought from the Tower, by the Arch-, 
 bishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishop of 
 
 :'| 
 -'■-i 
 
 I 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 25 
 
 London. Her sponsors were the Prince Re- 
 gent and the Emperor of Russia (the last repre- 
 sented by the Duke of York), the Queen Dowa- 
 ger of Wiirtemburg (represented by the Princess 
 Augusta) and the Duchess Dowager of Coburg 
 (represented by the Duchess Dowager of Glouces- 
 ter), and her names were Alcxandrina Victoria, 
 the first in honor of the Emperor Alexander of 
 Russia. She came awfully near being Alcxan- 
 drina Georgiana, but the Prince Regent, at the 
 last moment, declared that the name of Georg- 
 iana should be second to no other ; then added, 
 " Give her her mother's name — after that of the 
 Emperor." The Queen afterwards decided that 
 her mother's name should be second to no 
 other. Yet as a child she was often called 
 '' little Drina." 
 
 The baby's first move from her stately birth- 
 place was to a lovely country residence called 
 Woolbrook Glen, near Sidmouth. Here Vic- 
 toria had the first of those remarkable narrow 
 escapes from sudden and violent death which 
 have almost seemed to prove that she bears a 
 " charmed life." A boy was shooting sparrows in 
 the vicinity of the house, and a charge from his 
 
1 
 
 26 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 carelessly-handled gun pierced the window by 
 which the nurse was sitting, with the little Prin- 
 cess in her arms. It is stated that the shot 
 passed frightfully near the head of the child. 
 But she was as happily unconscious of the 
 deadly peril she had been in as, a few months 
 later, she was of the sad loss she sustained in 
 the death of her father, who W9<^ laid away with 
 the other Guelphs in the Windsor Royal Vault, 
 never again to throne his little " Queen " in his 
 loyal, loving arms. 
 
 The Princess Victoria seems to have been 
 always ready for play, dearly loving a romp. 
 One of the earliest mentions I find of her i's 
 in the correspondence of Bishop Wilberforce. 
 After stating that he had been summoned to 
 the presence of the Duchess of Kent, he says : 
 " She received me with her fine, animated child 
 on the floor by her side busy with its playthings, 
 of which I soon became one." 
 
 This little domestic picture gives a glimpse 
 of the tender intimacy, the constant companion- 
 ship of this noble mother with her child. It is 
 stated that, unlike most mothers in high life, 
 the Duchess nursed this illustrious child at her 
 
 ■3 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 a/ 
 
 own breast, and so mingled her life with its life 
 that nothing thenceforth could divide them. 
 The wee Princess passed happily through the 
 perils of infantile ailments. She cut her teeth 
 as easily as most children, with the help of her 
 gold-mounted coral — and very nice teeth they 
 were, though a little too prominent according 
 to the early pictures. If the infant Prince Al- 
 bert reminded his grandmamma of a " weasel," 
 his " pretty cousin " might have suggested to 
 her a squirrel by " a little something about the 
 mouth." 
 
 An old newspaper writer gave a rather raptur- 
 ous and pompous account of the Princess Vic- 
 toria when she was about three years old. He 
 says : " Passing through Kensington Gardens a 
 few days since, I observed at some distance a 
 party consisting of several ladies, a young child, 
 and two men-servants, having in charge a don- 
 key, gayly caparisoned with blue ribbons, and 
 accoutred for the use of the infant." He soon 
 ascertained that the party was the Duchess of 
 Kent and her daughter, the Princess Feodore 
 of Leiningen, and the Princess Alexandrina Vic- 
 toria. On his approaching them the little one 
 
 SI 
 
 1 ^1 
 
 w 
 
 iiiii m iii ijjn 
 
1 
 
 28 
 
 LIFE OF OUFFN VICTORIA. 
 
 replied to his '* respectful recognition " with a 
 pleasant " good-morning," and he noted that 
 she was equally polite to all who politely greeted 
 her — truly one " to the manner born." This 
 writer adds : " Her Royal Highness is remarka- 
 bly beautiful,. and her gay and animated counte- 
 nance bespeaks perfect health and good temper. 
 Her complexion is excessively fair, her eyes 
 large and expressive, and her checks blooming. 
 She bears a striking resemblance to her royal 
 father." 
 
 A glimpse which Leigh Hunt gives of his 
 little liege lady, as she appeared to him for the 
 first time in Kensington Gardens, is interesting, 
 as revealing the child's affectionate disposition. 
 " She was coming up a cross-path from the 
 Bayswater Gate, with a little girl of her own 
 age by her side, whose hand she was holding as 
 though she loved her." And why not, Mr. 
 Poet ? Princesses, especially Princesses of the 
 bread-and-butter age, are as susceptible to joys 
 of sympathy and companionship as any of us — 
 untitled poets and title-contemning Repub- 
 licans. 
 
 Lord Albemarle, in his autobiography, speaks 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 M 
 
CIIII-DITOOI) AND GIRI.llODD. 
 
 29 
 
 of watching, in an idle hour, from the windows 
 of the old palace, " the movements of a bright, 
 pretty little girl, seven years of age, engaged in 
 watering the plants immediately under the win- 
 dow. It was amusing to see how impartially 
 she divided the contents of the watering-pot 
 between the flowers and her own little feet. 
 Her simple but becoming dress — a large straw 
 hat and a white cotton gown — contrasted fa- 
 vorably with the gorgeous apparel now worn by 
 the little damsels of the rising generation. A 
 colored fichu round the neck was the only orna- 
 ment she wore. The young lady I am describ- 
 ing was the Princess Victoria, now our Gracious 
 Sovereign." 
 
 Queen Victoria dressed her own cliildren in 
 the same simple style, voted quaint and old- 
 fashioned by a later generation. I heard long 
 ago a story of a fashionable lady from some 
 provincial town taking a morning walk in Wind- 
 sor Park, in the wild hope of a glimpse of roy- 
 alty, and meeting a lady and gentleman, accom- 
 panied only by two or three children, and all so 
 plainly dressed that she merely glanced at them 
 as they passed. Some distance further she 
 
30 
 
 LIKE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 walked in her eager quest, when she met an 
 old Scotch gardener, of whom she asked if there 
 was any chance of her encountering the Queen 
 anywhere on the domain. - Weel, ye maun, 
 turn back and rin a good bit, for you've passed 
 h^x Maivjcsty, the Prince, and the Royal bairns." 
 Ah, wasn't she spited as she looked back and 
 saw the joyous family party in the dim distance, 
 and realized what she had lost in not indulging 
 herself in a good long British stare, and what a 
 sin she had committed in not making a loyal 
 British obeisance. 
 
CITAPTRR in. 
 
 Victoria's early Kdncaticn— Anecdote— Routine of Life at Kensinp- 
 to-., Palace— Character and Circumstances of the Duchess of Kent 
 —Anecdote— Simple Mode of Life— Visits. 
 
 Queen Victoria tells little of her childhood, 
 but speaks of it as rather "dull." It seems, 
 however, to have never been empty or idle. 
 All her moments were golden — for study, or for 
 work, or healthful exercise and play. She was 
 taught, and perhaps was inclined, to waste no 
 time, and to be careful not to cause others to 
 waste it. A dear English friend contributes the 
 following anecdote, slight, but very significant, 
 obtained long ago from a lady whose young 
 daughters, then at school at Hammersmith, had 
 the same writing-master as the Princess Victo- 
 ria : " Of course," says my friend, " every inci- 
 dent connected with the little Princess was in- 
 teresting to the school-girls, and all that this 
 master (I think his name was Steward) had to 
 tell went to prove her a kind-hearted and con- 
 siderate child. 
 
 " She always mentioned to him in advance 
 
 t3i) 
 
32 
 
 LTFK OF QIIKKN VKTOI^IA. 
 
 the days on which she would not rc(|uirc a les- 
 son, saying : * I thought, perhaps, you would 
 like to know.' Sometimes she would say, * Wc 
 are going to Windsor to sec Uncle King,' or she 
 would name some other important engagement. 
 By * Uncle King ' she meant George IV. Mr. 
 Steward, of course, availed himself of the lib- 
 erty suggested by the little Princess, then about 
 eight years old, by whose thoughtful kindness 
 he was saved much time and trouble." 
 
 Lord Campbell, speaking of the Princess as a 
 little girl, says : ** She seems in good health, and 
 appears lively and good-humored." It may be 
 that the good-humor was, in great part, the re 
 suit of the good health. 
 
 The Princess was brought up after the wisest, 
 because most simple, system of healthful living : 
 perfect regularity in the hours of eating, sleep- 
 ing, and exercise ; much life in the open air, and 
 the least possible excitement. 
 
 She was taught to respect her own constitu- 
 tion as well as that of the British Government, 
 and to reverence the laws of health as the laws 
 of God. 
 
 An account which I judge to be authorita- 
 
CIFILDHOOD AM) GIKr.IIOOI). 
 
 33 
 
 tivc of the daily nnititic of the family life in 
 Kcnsin^^ton, runs thus : " Breakfast at 8 o'clock 
 in summer, the Princess Victoria having her 
 bread and milk and fruit put on a little table by 
 her mother's side. After breakfast the Princess 
 Feodore studied with her governess, and the 
 Princess Victoria went out for an hour's walk 
 or drive. PVom lo to 12 her mother instructed 
 her, after which she could amuse herself by run- 
 ning through the suite of rooms which extended 
 round two sides of the palace, and in which 
 were many of her toys. At 2 a plain dinner, 
 while her mother took her luncheon. Lessons 
 again till 4 ; then would come a visit or drive, 
 and after that a walk or donkey ride in the 
 gardens. At the time of her mother's dinner 
 the Princess had her supper, still at the side of 
 the Duchess; then, after playing witli her nurse 
 (?vlrs. Brock, whom she called * dear, dear Bop- 
 py'), she would join the party at dessert, and 
 at 9 she would retire to her bed, which was 
 placed at the side of her mother's." 
 
 We see regular study, regular exercise, sim- 
 ple food, plenty of outdoor air, plenty of play, 
 plenty of sleep. It seems that when this admi- 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF OUEFN VK'TOKIA. 
 
 I: 
 
 rablc mf)thcr laid her child away from her own 
 breast, it was only to hiy it on that of Nature, 
 and very close has Victoria, with all her state 
 and grandeur, kept to the heart of the great 
 all-mother ever since. 
 
 The Duchess of Kent was left not only with 
 very limited means for a lady of her station, but 
 also burdened by her husband's debts, which, 
 being a woman with a fine sense of honor, she 
 felt herself obliged to discharge, or at least to re- 
 duce as far and fast as possible. Had it not 
 been for help from her generous brother, Leo- 
 pold, she could hardly have afforded for her 
 daughter the full and fitting education she re- 
 ceived. So, had not her taste and her sense of 
 duty towards her child inclined her to a life of 
 quiet and retirement, the lack of fortune would 
 have constrained her to live simply and mod- 
 estly. As it was, privacy was the rule in the 
 life of the accomplished Duchess, still young 
 and beautiful, and in that of her little shadow ; 
 very seldom did they appear at Court, or in any 
 gay Court circle ; so, at the time of her acces- 
 sion to the throne, Victoria might almost have 
 been a fairy-princess, emerging from some en- 
 
CHILDHOOD AND CIRLITOOD. 
 
 35 
 
 chanted dell in Windsor forest, or a water- 
 nymph evoked from the Serpentine in Kensing- 
 ton Gardens by some modern Merlin, for all the 
 world at large — the world beyond her kingdom 
 at least — knew of her young years, of her char- 
 acter and disposition. Now few witnesses are 
 left anywhere of her fair happy childhood, or 
 even of her girlhood, which w<t3 like a silvery 
 crescent, holding the dim promise of full-orbed 
 womanhood and Queenhood. 
 
 As the Princess grew older, she found loving 
 and helpful companionship in her half-brother 
 and sister, Prince Charles and the Princess Fco- 
 dore of Lciningcn, the three children and their 
 mother forming a close family union, which 
 years and separations and changes of fortune 
 never destroyed. They are all gone from her 
 now ; the Queen, as daughter and sister, stands 
 alone. 
 
 A kind friend and a well-known English writ- 
 er, F. Aiken Kortright, for many years a resident 
 of Kensington, tells some pleasant little local 
 stories of the Princess Victoria. She says : ** In 
 her childhood the Princess Victoria was fre- 
 quently seen in a little carriage, drawn over the 
 
36 
 
 LIFE OF QUFKX VICrOKIA. 
 
 gravel-walks of the then rural Kensington Gar- 
 dens, accompanied by her elder and half-sister, 
 the Princess Feodore, and attended by a single 
 servant. Many elderly people still remember 
 the extreme simplicity of the child's attire, and 
 the quiet and unpretentious appearance and 
 manners of her sister, who was one day seen to 
 stop the tiny carriage: to indulge the fancy of 
 an unknown little girl by allowing her to kiss 
 her future Queen." 
 
 That " unknown little girl " was an elder sister 
 of Miss Kortright. My friend also says that the 
 Duchess of Kent and her daughters frequently 
 on summer afternoons took tea on the lawn, 
 '* in sight of admiring promenaders, with a de- 
 gree of publicity which now sounds fabulous." 
 
 It was then safe and agreeable for that quiet, 
 refined family, only because the London 
 " Rough " — that ugly, unwholesome, fungous 
 growth on the fine old oak of English char- 
 acter — had not made his unwelcome appearance 
 in all the public parks of the metropolis. Our 
 friend also states that so simple and little-girlish 
 was the Princess in her ways that, later on, she 
 was known to go with her mother or sister to a 
 
CIITLDTIOOD AND GIRLHOOn. 
 
 Kensington milliner's to buy a hat, stay to have 
 it trimmed, and then carry it (or more Hkely the 
 old one) home in her hand. I should like to 
 see a little Miss Vanderbilt do a thing of that 
 kind! 
 
 The Kcnts and Leiningens— if I may speak 
 so familiarly of Royal and Serene Highnesses— 
 when away from the quiet home in Kensington, 
 spent much time at lovely Claremont as guests 
 of the dear brother and Uncle Leopold. They 
 seem also to have travelled a good deal in Eng- 
 land, visiting watering-places and in houses of 
 the nobility, but never to have gone over to the 
 Continent. The Duchess probably felt that the 
 precious life which she held in trust for the peo- 
 ple of Zngland might possibly be endangered 
 by too long journeys, or by changes of climate ; 
 but what it cost to the true German woman to 
 so long exile herself from her old home and her 
 kindred none ever knew— at least none among 
 her husband's unsympathetic family — for she 
 was, as a Princess, too proud to complain ; as a 
 mother, cheerful in her devotion and self-abne- 
 gation. 
 
CM AFTER r, 
 
 Queen-makingf not a Lif^ht Task — Admirable Discipline of the 
 Duchess of Kent — Foundation of the Character and Habits of the 
 future Queen — Curious Extract from a Letter by her Grand- 
 mamma — A Children's Pall given by George IV. to the little 
 Queen of Portugal — A Funny Mishap — Death of George IV. — 
 Character of his Successor — Victoria's first appearance at a Draw- 
 ing-room — Her absence from the Coronation of William IV. 
 
 QUEEN-MAKiNG IS not a light task. It is no 
 fancywork for idle hours. It is the first diffi- 
 cult draft of a chapter, perhaps a whole volume, 
 of national history. 
 
 No woman ever undertook a more important 
 labor than did the widowed Duchess of Kent, 
 or carried it out with more faithfulness, if we 
 may judge by results. 
 
 The lack of fortune in the family was not an 
 unmixed evil ; perhaps it was even one of those 
 disagreeable -' blessings in disguise," which no- 
 body welcomes, but which the wise profit by, as 
 it caused the Duchess to impress upon her chil- 
 dren, especially the child Victoria, the necessity 
 of economy, and the safety and dignity which 
 one always finds in living within one's income. 
 (38) 
 
 If 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 39 
 
 Frugality, exactitude in business, faithfulness to 
 all engagements, great or small, punctuality, 
 that economy of time, are usually set down 
 among the minor moralities of life, more hum- 
 drum than heroic ; but under how many circum- 
 stances and conditions do they reveal them- 
 selves as cardinal virtues, as things on which 
 depend the comfort and dignity of life ! It 
 seems that these things were so impressed on 
 the mind and heart of the young Victoria by 
 her careful, methodical German mother, that 
 they became a part of her conscience, entered 
 so deeply into the rule of her life that no after- 
 condition of wealth, or luxury, or sovereign inde- 
 pendence ; no natural desire for ease or pleasure ; 
 no passion of love or grief; no possible exigen- 
 cies of imperial state have been able to overcome 
 or set them aside. The danger is that such 
 rigid principles, such systematic habits, adopted 
 in youth, may in age become, from being the 
 ministers of one's will, the tyrants of one's life. 
 
 It seems to be somewhat so in the case of the 
 Queen, for I hear it said that the sun, the moon, 
 and the tides are scarcely more punctual and 
 regular in their rounds and mighty offices, in 
 
40 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 their coming and going, than she in the daily 
 routine of her domestic and state duties and 
 frequent journeyings ; and that the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians are as naught in inexorable- 
 ness and inflexibility to the rules and regula- 
 tions of Windsor and Balmoral. 
 
 But the English people, even those directly 
 inconvenienced at times by those unbending 
 habits and irrevocable rules, have no right to 
 find fault, for these be the right royal results of 
 the admirable but somewhat unyouthful quali- 
 ties they adored in the young Queen. They 
 have no right to sneer because a place of honor 
 is given in Her Majesty's household to that med- 
 dlesome, old-fashioned German country cousin, 
 Economy ; for did not they all rejoice in the 
 early years of the reign to hear of this same 
 dame being introduced by those clever mana- 
 gers, Prince Albert p.n:\ Baron Stockmar, into 
 the royal palaces, wherein she had not been 
 seen for many a year ? 
 
 But to return to the little Princess. The 
 Duchess, her mother, seems to have given her 
 all needful change of air and scene, though al- 
 wavs maintaining habits of study, and an admi- 
 
 
CIIILDIIOOI) AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 rable system of mental and moral training ; for 
 the child's constitution seems to have strength- 
 ened year by year, and in spite of one or two 
 serious attacks of illness, the foundation was 
 laid of the robust health which, accompanied 
 by rare courage and nerve, has since so marked 
 and blessed her life. A writer of the time 
 speaks of a visit paid by her and her mother 
 to Windsor in 1829, when the child was about 
 seven years old, and states that George IV., her 
 " Uncle King," was delighted with her " charm- 
 ing manners." 
 
 It was about this visit that her maternal 
 grandmamma at Coburg wrote to her mamma : 
 ** I see by the English papers that Her Royal 
 Highness the Duchess of Kent went on Virginia 
 water with His Majesty. The little monkey 
 must have pleased and amused him, she is such 
 a pretty, clever child." 
 
 To think of the great Victoria, Queen of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of In- 
 dia, being called " a little monkey " ! Grand- 
 mammas will take such liberties. Three or four 
 years later, according to that spicy and irrever- 
 ent chronicler, Charles Greville, the little Prin- 
 
^ 
 
 42 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 \, 
 
 cess was not pretty. But she was just entering 
 on that ungracious period in which few little 
 girls are comely to look upon, or comfortable to 
 them '.'Ives. Grevillc saw her at a children's 
 oall, ^;iven by the King in honor of his little 
 guest, the child-Queen of Portugal Donna 
 Maria II., da Gloria, whom the King seated at 
 his '',\' ^i! .id, and was very attentive to. Gre- 
 villc say . . .- was fine-looking and very finely 
 dressed, " wiih '- ribbon and order over her 
 sii uldci, ' "nd 1-. o in.ust have seemed very 
 grand to the ctner caildren while she sat by 
 the King, but when she came to dance she 
 " fell down and hurt her face, was frightened 
 and bruised, and went away." Then he adds : 
 "■ Our little Princess is a short, plain child, not 
 so good-looking as the Portuguese. However, 
 if Nature has not done so much. Fortune is 
 likely to do a great deal more for her." 
 
 Victoria did not know that, but like any other 
 little girl she may, perhaps, have comforted her- 
 self by thinking, " Well, if I'm not so handsome 
 and grand and smartly dressed as that Maria, 
 I'm less awkward. I was able to keep my head 
 and not lose my feet." 
 
^ 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 43 
 
 As for her small Majesty of Portugal, she was 
 at that time a Queen without a crown and with- 
 out a kingdom. She had come all the way from 
 Brazil to take her grandfather's throne, a little 
 present from her father, Dom Pedro L, the 
 rightful heir, but only to find the place filled by 
 a wicked uncle, Don Miguel. She had a long 
 fight with the usurper, her father coming over 
 to help her, and finally ousted Miguel and got 
 into that big, uneasy arm-chair, called a throne, 
 where she continued to sit, though much shak- 
 en and heaved up and about by political con- 
 vulsions, for some dozen years, when she found 
 it best to step down and out. 
 
 It is said she did not gain, but lost in beauty 
 as she grew to womanhood ; so finally the Eng, 
 lish Princess had the advantage of her in the 
 matter of good looks even. 
 
 King George IV., though he was fond of his 
 amusing little niece, did not like to think of her 
 as destined to rule in his place. He is said to 
 have been much offended when, as he was pro- 
 posing to give that ball, his chief favorite, a gay 
 Court lady, exclaimed : " Oh, do ! it will be so 
 nice to see the iivo littk Queens dancing to- 
 
 n 
 
 SsSS 
 
44 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 1 'I* 
 (I 
 
 ^etlicr." Yet he disliked the Duchess of Kent 
 for keeping the child as much as possible away 
 from his disreputable Court, and educating her 
 after her own ideas, and often threatened to use 
 his power as King to deprive her of the little 
 girl. The country would not have stood this, 
 yet the Duchess must have suffered cruelly from 
 fear of having her darling child taken from her 
 by this crowned ogre, and shut up in the gloomy 
 keep of his Castle at Windsor. But it was the 
 Ogre-King who was taken, a little more than a 
 year after the children's ball — and not a day too 
 soon for his country's good — and his brother, the 
 Duke of Clarence, reigned in his stead. 
 
 William IV. had some heart, some frankness 
 and honesty, but he was a bluff, rough sailor, 
 and when excited, oaths of the hottest sort 
 flew from his lips, like sparks from an anvil. 
 Because of his roughness and profanity, and 
 because, perhaps, of the fact of his surround- 
 ing himself with a lot of natural children, the 
 Duchess was determined to persevere in her 
 retirement from the Court circle, and in keeping 
 her innocent little daughter out of its unwhole- 
 some atmosphere, as much as possible. She 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GHU.HOOD. 
 
 41 
 
 was, however, most friendly with Queen Ade- 
 laide, who, when her last child died, had written 
 to her: " My children arc dead, but yours lives, 
 and she is mine too." The good woman meant 
 this, and her fondness was returned by Victoria, 
 who manifested for her to the last, filial affection 
 and consideration. 
 
 The first Drawing-room which the Princess 
 attended was one given in honor of Her 
 Majesty's birthday. She went with her mother 
 and a suite of ladies and gentlemen in State 
 carriages, escorted by a party of Life Guards. 
 The Princess was on that occasion dressed 
 entirely in materials of British manufacture, 
 her frock being of English blonde, very sim- 
 ple and becoming. She stood at the left of 
 her aunt, the Queen, and watched the splen- 
 did ceremony with great interest, while every- 
 body watched her with greater interest. But 
 if the presence of the " heir-presumptive to 
 the throne" created a sensation at the Queen's 
 Drawing-room, her absence from the King's cor- 
 onation created more. Some said it was because 
 a proper place in the procession — one next to 
 the King and Queen— had not been assigned to 
 
ll i 
 
 46 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 her ; others, that the Duchess had kept her 
 away on account of her deHcate heahh, and no- 
 body knew exactly the truth of the matter. 
 Perhaps the great state secret will be revealed 
 some day with the identity of "Junius" and 
 the " Man in the Iron Mask." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 King William jealous of Public Honors to Victoria — Anecdote — The 
 unusual Studies of the Princess — Her Visits to the Isle of Wight 
 — Laughable Incident at Went worth House — Anecdote related by 
 her Mupic-teacher — Unwholesome adulation of the Princess — Re- 
 flections upon the curious isolation of her Social Position — Extract 
 from one of her later Letters. 
 
 The indifference of the Duchess of Kent to the 
 heavy pomps and heavier gayeties of his Court 
 so offended his unmajestic Majesty, that he final- 
 ly became decidedly inimical to the Duchess. 
 Though he insisted on seeing the little Princess 
 often, he did not like the English people to see 
 too much of her, or to pay her and her mother 
 too much honor. He objected to their little 
 journeys, calling them ** royal progresses," and 
 by a special order put a stop to the '* poppings," 
 in the way of salutes, to the vessel which bore 
 them to and from the Isle of Wight — a small 
 piece of state-business for a King and his Coun- 
 cil to be engaged in. The King's unpopular 
 brother, the Duke of Cumberland, was also sup- 
 posed to be unfriendly to the widow of a brother 
 whom he had not loved, and to the child whom, 
 
 C , (47) 
 
48 
 
 i,iir: nv ouff.n victoria. 
 
 i'^l ^1 
 
 accorcHiifj to that brother, he regarded from the 
 first as an " intruder," and who certainly at the 
 last, stood between His Royal Crossness and 
 the throne — the throne which would have gone 
 down under him. Yet, in spite of enmity and 
 opposition from high quarters, and jealousy and 
 harsh criticism from Court ministers and min- 
 ions, the Duchess of Kent, who seems to have 
 been a woman of immense firmness and resolu- 
 tion, kept on her way, rearing her daughter as 
 she thought best, coming and going as she felt 
 inclined. 
 
 Victoria's governess was for many years the 
 accomplished Baroness Lehzen, who had also 
 been the chief instructress of her sister, Feo- 
 dore. Until she w^as twelve years old, her mas- 
 ters were also Cerman, and she is said to have 
 spoken English with a Cerman accent. After 
 that time her teachers, in nearly all branches, 
 were English. Miss Kortright tells me a little 
 anecdote of the Princess when about twelve 
 years old, related by one of these teachers. She 
 had been reading in her classical history the 
 story of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi — 
 how she proudly presented her sons to the 
 
 .-._-i 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 49 
 
 ostentatious and muLh-bcdiamondccl Roman 
 dame, with the words, " These are my jewels." 
 '* She should have said my Cornelians^' said the 
 quick-witted little girl. 
 
 Victoria was instructed in some things not in 
 those days thought proper for young ladies to 
 learn, but deemed necessary for a poor girl who 
 was expected to do a man's work. She was 
 well grounded in history, instructed in Latin— 
 though she did not fancy it, and later, in the 
 British Constitution, and in law and politics. 
 Nor were light accomplishments neglected : in 
 modern languages, in painting and music, she 
 finally became singularly proficient. Gifted with 
 a remarkably sweet voice and a correct ear, she 
 could not well help being a charming singer, 
 under her great master, Lablache. She danced 
 well, rode well, and excelled in archery. 
 
 As I said, the brave Duchess, as conscientious 
 as independent, kept up the life of retirement 
 from Court pomps and gayeties, and of alternate 
 hard study and social recreation, which she 
 thought best for her child. 
 
 She quietly persevered in the ** progresses " 
 which annoyed the irascible and unreasonable 
 
LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 |(!i 
 
 old King, even visiting the Isle of Wight, though 
 the royal big guns were forbidden to " pop " at 
 sight of the royal standard, which waved over 
 her, and the young hope of England. Perhaps 
 recollections of those pleasant visits with her 
 mother at Norris Castie have helped to render 
 so dear the Queen's own beautiful sea-side home, 
 Osborne House. I remember a pretty little 
 story, told by a tourist, who happened to be 
 stopping at the village of Brading during one 
 of those visits to the lovely island. One after- 
 noon he strolled into the old church-yard to 
 search out the grave of Elizabeth Wallbridge, 
 the sweet heroine of Leigh Richmond's beauti- 
 ful religious story, " The Dairyman's Daughter." 
 He found seated beside the m.ound a lady and a 
 young girl, the latter reading aloud, in a full, 
 melodious voice, the touching tale of the Chris- 
 tian maiden. The tourist turned away, and soon 
 after was told by the sexton that those pilgrims 
 to that humble grave were the Duchess of Kent 
 and the Princess Victoria. 
 
 I am told by a Yorkshire lady another story 
 of the Princess, of not quite so serious a charac- 
 ter. She was visiting with her mother, of course, 
 
CHILDHOOD AND CIRLHOOD. 
 
 P 
 
 at Wcntworth House, the seat of Earl Fitzwill- 
 iam in Yorkshiro, and while at that pleasant 
 place delighted in running about by herself in 
 the gardens and shrubberies. One wet morn- 
 ing, soon after her arrival, she was thus disport- 
 ing herself, flitting from point to point, light- 
 hearted and light-footed, when the old gardener, 
 who did not then know her, seeing her about to 
 descend a treacherous bit of ground from the 
 terrace, called out, " Be careful, Miss ; it's 
 slape ! "~a Yorkshire word for slippery. The 
 incautious, but ever-curious Princess, turning 
 her head, asked, - What's slape ? " and the same 
 instant her feet flew from under her, and she 
 came down. The old gardener ran to lift her, 
 saying, as he did so, '' Thaf s slape. Miss." 
 
 There is nothing remarkable, much less in- 
 credible, in these stories of the young Victoria, 
 nor in the one related by her music-teacher, of 
 how she once rebelled against oO much practice, 
 and how, on his telling her that there was no 
 " royal road " in art, and that only by much 
 practice could she become '^ mistress of the 
 piano," she closed and locked the obnoxious in- 
 strument and put the key in her pocket, saying 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 playfully, " Now you see there is a royal way of 
 becoming * mistress of the piano.' " But not so 
 simple and natural and girlish are all the things 
 told of the Queen's young days. Loyal English 
 people have said to me, ** You will find few sto- 
 ries of Her Majesty's childhood, but those few 
 will all be good." 
 
 Yes, too good. The chroniclers of forty and 
 fifty years ago — the same in whose loyal eyes 
 the fifteen children of George III. were all 
 " children of light " — could find no words in 
 which to paint their worship for this rising star 
 of sovereignty. According to them, she was 
 not only the pearl of Princesses for piety and 
 propriety, for goodness and graciousness, but a 
 marvel of unchildlike wisdom, a prodigy of clev- 
 erness and learning ; in short, a purely perfect 
 creature, loved of the angels to a degree perilous 
 to the succession. The simplest little events of 
 her daily life were twisted into something un- 
 naturally significant, or unhealthily virtuous. If 
 she was taken through a cotton-mill at Man- 
 chester, and asked a score or two of questions 
 about the machinery and the strange processes 
 of spinning and weaving, it was not childish 
 
 i ' ii 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 53 
 
 curiosity — it was a love of knowledge, and a patri- 
 otic desire to encourage British manufactures. 
 
 If she gave a few pennies to a blind beggar 
 at Margate, the amiable act was heralded as one 
 of almost divine beneficence, and the beggar 
 pitied, as never before, for his blindness. The 
 poor man had not beheld the face of the '' little 
 angel " who dropped the coin into his greasy- 
 hat ! If, full of " high spirits," she took long 
 rides on a donkey at Ramsgate, and ran races 
 with other children on the sands, it was a proof 
 of the sweetest human condescension — the don- 
 key's opinion not being taken. 
 
 Of course all this is false, unwholesome sen- 
 timent, quite incomprehensible to nineteenth 
 century Americans, though our great-grandfa- 
 thers understood this sort of personal loyalty 
 very well, and gloried in it, till George the 
 Third drove them to the wall ; and our great- 
 grandmothers cherished it as a sacred religious 
 principle till their tea was taxed. I dare say 
 that if the truth could be got at, we should find 
 that little Victoria was at times trying enough 
 to mother, masters, and attendants ; that she 
 was occasionally passionate, perverse, and ** pes- 
 
LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I't 
 
 tering," like all children who have any great and 
 positive elements in them. I dare say she was 
 disposed, like any other " only child," to be 
 self-willed and selfish, and that she required a 
 fair amount of wholesome discipline, and that 
 she got it. Had she been the prim and pious 
 little precocity which some biographers have 
 painted her, she would have died young, like 
 the " Dairyman's Daughter"; we might have had 
 an edifying tract, and England a revolution. 
 
 One of her biographers speaks with a sort of 
 ecstatic surprise of the fact that the Princess 
 was " affable — even gay," and that she " laughed 
 and chatted like other little girls." And yet 
 she must early have perceived that she was not 
 quite like other little girls, but set up and apart. 
 Though reared with all "the simplicity practica- 
 ble for a Princess Royal, she must have been 
 conscious of a magic circle drawn round her, of 
 a barrier impalpable, but most real, which other 
 children could not voluntarily overpass. She 
 must have seen that they could not call out to 
 her to " come and play ! " that however shy she 
 might feel, she must propose the game, or the 
 romp, as later she had to propose marriage. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 55 
 
 
 She even was obliged to quarrel, if quarrel she 
 did, all alone by herself. Any resistance on the 
 part of her playmates would have been a small 
 variety of high treason. She must sometimes, 
 vvith her admirable good sense, have been wea- 
 ried and disgusted by so much concession, con- 
 ciliation, and consideration, and may have en- 
 vied less fortunate or unfortunate mortals who 
 can give and take hard knocks, for whom less is 
 demanded, and of whom less is expected. 
 
 She may have tired of her very name, with 
 its grand prefixes and no affix, and longed to be 
 Victoria Kent, or Somc^t/w^^r^] ones, Brown, or 
 Robinson. 
 
 She seems to have been a child of simple, 
 homely tastes, for in 1843, when Queen, she 
 writes to her Uncle Leopold from Claremont, 
 where she is visiting, with her husband and lit- 
 tle daughter : *' This place brings back recollec- 
 tions of the happiest days of my otherwise dull 
 childhood— days when I experienced such kind- 
 ness from you, dearest uncle ; Victoria plays 
 with my old bricks, and I see her running and 
 jumping in the flower-garden, as old (though I 
 feel still /////t') Victoria of former days used to do." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Princess opens the Victoria Park at Path — Becoming;; used to 
 Public Curiosity — Secret of her Destiny revealed to her — Royal 
 Pall on her Tliirteenth Birtliday — At the Ascot Races — Picture by 
 N. P. Willis — Anecdotes — Painful Scene at the King's last Birth- 
 day Dinner. 
 
 When she was eleven years old, the Princess 
 opened the Victoria Park at Bath. She began 
 the opening business thus early, and has kept 
 it up pretty diligently for fifty years — parks, 
 expositions, colleges, exchanges, law courts, 
 bridges, docks, art schools, and hospitals. Her 
 sons and daughters are also kept busy at the 
 same sort ■'>f work. Indeed these are almost 
 the only openings for young men of the royal 
 family for active service, now that crusades and 
 invasions of France have gone out of fashion. 
 It seems to me that the English people get up 
 all sorts of opening and unveiling occasions in 
 order to supply employment to their Princes 
 and Princesses, who, I must say, never shirk 
 such monotonous duties, however much they 
 may be bothered and bored by them. 
 
 Occasionally the Duchess of Kent and her 
 (£fO 
 
 
CIIir.DIIOOI) AND GIRUrOOD. 
 
 S5^ 
 
 ' 
 
 dau-htcr visited Brighton, and stopped in that 
 grotesque palace of George IV., called the Pavil- 
 ion. I have seen a picture of the demure little 
 Princess, walking on the esplanade, with her 
 mother, governesses, and gentlemen attendants, 
 the whole elegant party and the great crowd of 
 Brightonians following and staring at them, 
 wearing the absurd costumes of half a century 
 ago— the ladies, big br mets, big mutton-leg 
 sleeves, big collars, heelless slippers, laced over 
 the instep ; the gentlemen, short-waisted coats, 
 enormous collars, preposterous neckties, and in- 
 describably clumsy hats. 
 
 By this time the Princess had learned to bear 
 quietly and serenely, if not unconsciously, the 
 gaze of hundreds of eyes, admiring or criticis- 
 ing. She knew that the time was probably 
 coming when the hundreds would increase to 
 thousands, and even millions— when the world 
 would for.her seem to be made up of eyes, like 
 a peacock's tail. Small wonder that in her later 
 years, especially since she has missed from her 
 side the splendid figure which divided and justi- 
 fied the mighty multitudinous stare, this eternal 
 observation, this insatiable curiosity has become 
 infinitely wearisome to her. 
 
58 
 
 LIFE OF QUEExSl VICTORIA. 
 
 Several accounts have been given of the man- 
 ner in which the great secret of her destiny was 
 revealed to the Princess Victoria, and the man- 
 ner in which it was received, but only one has 
 the Queen's indorsement. This was contained 
 in a letter, written long afterwards to Her Maj- 
 esty by her dear old governess, the Baroness 
 Lehzen, who states that when the Regency Bill 
 (an act naming the Duchess of Kent as Regent, 
 in case of the King dying before his niece ob- 
 tained her majority) was before Parliament, it 
 was thought that the time had come to make 
 known to the Princess her true position. So 
 after consulting with the Duchess, the Baroness 
 placed a genealogical table in a historical book, 
 which her pupil was reading. When the Prin- 
 cess came upon this paper, she said : " Why, I 
 never saw that before." " It was not thought 
 necessary you should see it," the Baroness re- 
 plied. Then the young girl, examining the pa- 
 per, said thoughtfully : " I see I am nearer the 
 throne than I supposed." After some moments 
 she resumed, with a sort of quaint solemnity : 
 " Now many a child would boast, not knowing 
 the difficulty. There is much splendor, but 
 
riTILDIIOOD AND CIRTJIOOD. 
 
 19 
 
 h\ 
 
 there is also much responsibility." " The Prin- 
 cess," says the Baroness, " having hfted up the 
 forefinger of her right hand while she spoke, 
 now gave me that little hand, saying : ' I will 
 be good. I understand now why you urged me 
 so much to learn, even Latin. My aunts, Au- 
 gusta and Mary, never did, but you told me 
 Latin was the foundation of English grammar, 
 and all the elegant expressions, and I learned 
 it, as you wished it ; but I understand all better 
 no\f,' and the Princess again gave me her hand, 
 repeating, * I will be good.' " 
 
 God heard the promise of the child of twelve 
 years and held her to it, and has given her 
 strength ''as her day" to redeem it, all through 
 the dazzling brightness and the depressing shad- 
 ows, through the glory and the sorrow of her 
 life, as a Queen and a woman. 
 
 The Queen says that she " cried much " over 
 the magnificent but difficult problem of her des- 
 tiny, but the tears must have been April show- 
 ers, for in those days she was accounted a briHit, 
 care-free little damsel, and was ever welcome as 
 a sunbeam in the noblest houses of Endand— 
 such as Eaton Hall, the seat of the Duke of 
 
^ "wmim 
 
 60 
 
 LIFE OF QUEFX VICTORIA. 
 
 ill! 
 
 Westminster; Wentworth House, belonging to 
 Earl Fitzwilliam ; Alton Towers, the country 
 house of the Earl of Shrewsbury ; and Chats- 
 worth, the palace of the Duke of Devonshire, 
 where such royal loyal honors were paid to her 
 that she had a foretaste of the "splendor," with- 
 out the " responsibility," of Queenhood. 
 
 The King and Queen gave a brilliant ball in 
 honor of " the thirteenth birthday of their be- 
 loved niece, the Princess Victoria," and some- 
 what later, the little royal lady appeared at a 
 Drawing-room, when she is said to have charmed 
 everybody by her sweet, childish dignity — a sort 
 of quaint queenliness of manner and expression. 
 She was likewise most satisfactory to the most 
 religiously inclined of her subjects who were to 
 be, in her mien and behavior when in i:he Royal 
 Chapel of St. James, on the interesting occasion 
 of her confirmation. She is said to have gone 
 through the ceremony with ** profound thought- 
 fulness and devout solemnity." 
 
 The next glimpse I have of her is at a very 
 different scene — the Ascot races. A brilliant 
 American author, N. P. Willis, who then saw 
 her for the first time, wrote : " In one of the in- 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 6l 
 
 ' 
 
 tcrvals, I walked under the Kii.g's stand, and 
 saw Her Majesty the Queen, and the youn<^r 
 Princess Victoria, very distinctly. They were 
 leaning over the railing listening to a ballad- 
 singer, and seeming as much interested and 
 amused as any simple country-folk could be. 
 The Queen is undoubtedly the plainest woman 
 in her dominions, but the Princess is much bet- 
 ter-looking than any picture of her in the shops, 
 and for the heir to such a crown as that of Eng- 
 land, quite unnecessarily, pretty and interesting. 
 She will be sold, poor thing ! bartered away by 
 those great dealers in royal hearts, whose grand 
 calculations will not be much consolation to her 
 if she happens to have a taste of her own." 
 
 Little did the wise American poet guess that, 
 away in a little fairy principality of Deutschland, 
 there was a beautiful young fairy prince, being 
 reared by benevolent fairy godmother-grand- 
 mothers, especially to disprove all such doleful 
 prophecies, and reverse the usual fate of pretty 
 young Princesses in the case of the " little Eng- 
 lish mayflower." 
 
 Greville relates a little incident which shows 
 that the Princess, when between sixteen and 
 
HI 
 
 I 
 
 li "I 
 
 63 
 
 I.IKI', Ol' nUKKN VICTORIA. 
 
 seventeen, and almost in si'frht of the tlironc, 
 was still amenable to discipline. lie describes 
 a reception of much pomp and ceremony, ^iven 
 to the Duchess and the Princess by the Mayor 
 and other officers of the town of Bur^^hley, fol- 
 lowed by a great dinner, which "went off well," 
 except that an awkward waiter, in n spasm of 
 loyal excitement, emptied the contents of a pail 
 of ice in the lap of the Duchess, which, though 
 she took it coolly, " made a great bustle." ^ am 
 afraid the Princess laughed. Then followed a 
 magnificent ball, which was opened by the Prin- 
 cess, with Lord Exeter for a partner. After 
 that one dance she '* went to bed." Doubtless 
 her good mother thought she had had fatigue 
 and excitement enough for one day ; but it must 
 have been hard for such a dance-loving girl to 
 take her quivering feet out of the ball-room so 
 early, and for such a grand personage as she 
 already was, just referred to in the Mayor's 
 speech, as '* destined to mount the throne of 
 these realms," to be sent away like a c' -hi 
 mount a solemn, beplumed four-poster, J to 
 try to sleep, with that delicious dance-music 
 still ringing in her ears. 
 
 
 " fi 
 
CTTILDIIOOn AND flTRMIOOD. 
 
 63 
 
 Grcvillc also relates a sad Court story con- 
 nected with the young Princess, and describes a 
 scene v/hich would be too painful Tor me to re- 
 produce, except that it reveals, in a striking 
 manner, Victoria's tender love for and chisc 
 sympathy with her mother. It seems that the 
 King's jealous hostility to the Duchess of Kent 
 had grown with his decay, and strengthened 
 with his senility, till at last it culminated in a 
 sort of declaration of war at his own table. 
 The account is given by Greville second-hand^ 
 and so, very likely, over-colored, though d(jubt- 
 less true in the main. The King invited the 
 Duchess and Princess to Windsor to join in the 
 celebration of his birthday, which proved to be 
 his last. There was a dinner-party, called ** prir 
 vate," but a hundred guests sat down to the 
 table. The Duchess of Kent was given a place 
 of honor on one side of the King, and opposite 
 her sat the Princess Victoria. After dinner 
 Queen Adelaide proposed " His Majesty's health 
 and long life to him," to which that amiable 
 monarch replied by a very remarkable speech. 
 He began by saying that he hoped in God he 
 might live nine months longer, when the Prin- 
 
"WWIiHiBHHBiH!!"" 
 
 IH' 
 
 
 64 
 
 UFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 cess would be of age, and he could leave the 
 royal authority in her hands, and not in those 
 of a Regent,' in the person of a lady sitting near 
 him, etc. Afterwards he said : " I have particu< 
 larly to complain of the manner in which that 
 young lady (the Princess Victoria) has been 
 kept from my Court. She has been repeatedly 
 kept from my Drawing-rooms, at wliich she. 
 ought always to have been present, but I am 
 resolved that this shall not happen again. I 
 would have her know that I am Ki;ig; and am 
 determined to make my authority respected, 
 and for the future I shall insist and command 
 that the Princess do, upon all occasions, appear 
 at my Court, as it is her duty to do." 
 
 This pleasant and hospitable harangue, ut- 
 tered in a loud voice and an excited manner, 
 •' produced a decided sensation." The whole 
 company " were aghast." Queen Adelaide, who 
 was amiable and well-bred, "looked in deep dis- 
 tress "; the young Princess burst into tears at 
 the insult offered to her mother ; but that mo- 
 rhcr sat calm and silent, very pale, but proud 
 and erect — Duchess of Duchesses ! 
 
 /' 
 
 / 
 
 f 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 Victoria's first meetlnfr with Prince Albert— Slie comes of Ape — 
 Ball in honor thereof— Illness of King William— His Death— His 
 Habits PT.d Character— The Arciil.ishop of Canterbury and the 
 Lord Chancellor inform Victoria that she is Queen— Her beautiful 
 bearing under the ordeal. 
 
 In May, 1836, the Princess saw, for the first 
 time, her cousins, Ernest and Albert, of Saxe- 
 Coburg. These brothers, one eighteen and the 
 other seventeen, are described as charm in 
 young fellows, well-bred and carefully v,ducated, 
 with high aims, good, true hearts, and frank, 
 natural manners. 
 
 In personal appearance they were very pre- 
 possessing. Ernest was handsome, and Albert 
 more than handsome. They were much beloved 
 by their Uncle Leopold, then King of Belgium, 
 and soon endeared themselves to their Aunt 
 Kent and their Cousin Victoria. They spent 
 three weeks at Kensington in dnily intercourse 
 with their relatives, and with their father, the 
 Duke of Coburg, were much feted by the royal 
 family. They keenly enjoyed English society 
 and sights, and learned something of English 
 S (65) 
 
 / 
 
■■■ 
 
 m 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 life and character, which to one of them, at 
 least, proved afterwards useful. Indeed this ad- 
 mirable young Prince, Albert, seemed always 
 learning and assimilating new facts and ideas. 
 He had a soul athirst for knowledge. 
 
 On May 24, 1837, the Princess Victoria came 
 of age. She was awal^ened early by a matutinal 
 serenade — a band of musicians piping and harp- 
 ing merrily under her bedroom windows. She 
 received many presents and congratulatory vis- 
 its, and had the pleasure of knowing that the 
 day was observed as a grand holiday in London 
 and throughout England. Boys were let out of 
 school, and M.P.'s out of Parliament. At night 
 the metropolis was ** brilliantly illuminated " — 
 at least so thought those poor, benighted, ante- 
 electrical-light Londoners — and a grand state ball 
 w'as given in St. James' Palace. Here, for the 
 first time, the Princess took precedence of her 
 mother, and we may believe she felt shy and 
 awkward at such a reversal of the laws of nature 
 and the habits of years. But doubtless the 
 stately Duchess fell back without a sigh, except 
 it were one of joy and gratitude that she had 
 brought her darling on so far safely. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 67 
 
 This could hardly have been a very gay state 
 ball, for their Majesties were both absent. The 
 King had that very day been attacked with hay- 
 fever, and the Queen had dutifully stayed at 
 home to nurse him. He rallied from this attack 
 somewhat, but never was well again, and in the 
 small hours of June 2d the sailor King died 
 at Royal Windsor, royally enough, I believe, 
 though he had never been a very royal figure 
 or spirit. Of course after he was gone from his 
 earthly kingdom, the most glowing eulogies 
 were pronounced upon him in Parliament, in 
 the newspapers, and in hundreds of pulpits. 
 Even a year later, the Bishop of London, in his 
 sermon at the Queen's coronation, lauded the 
 late King for his " unfeigned religion," and ex- 
 horted his "youthful successor" to "follow in 
 his footsteps." Ah, if she had done so, I should 
 not now be writing Her Majesty's Life ! 
 
 It must be that in a King a little religion goes 
 a long way. The good Bishop and other loyal 
 prelates must have known all about the Fitz- 
 Clarences — those wild " olive branches about the 
 table " of His Majesty ; and they were doubtless 
 aware of that little unfortunate habit of pro- 
 
mm 
 
 68 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 fanity, acquired on tlie high-seas, and scarcely 
 becoming to the Head of the Church ; but they, 
 perhaps, considered that His Majesty swore as 
 the sailor, not as the sovereign. He certainly 
 made a good end, hearing many prayers, and 
 joining in them as long as he was able, and de- 
 voutly receiving the communion ; and what 
 is better, manifesting some tender anxiety lest 
 his faithful wife and patient nurse should do too 
 much and grieve too much for him. When he 
 saw her like to break down, he would say : " Bear 
 up ; bear up, Adelaide ! " just like any other good 
 husband. William was not a bad King, as Kings 
 went in those days ; he was, doubtless, an ortho- 
 dox churchman, and we may believe he was a 
 good Christian, from his charge to the new Bishop 
 of Ely when he came to '* kiss hands " on his pre- 
 ferment : " My lord, I do not wish to interfere 
 in any way with your vote in Parliament, ex- 
 cept on one subject — the Jews. I trust I m.ay 
 depend on your always voting against them ! " 
 
 When the soleni.i word went through the old 
 Castle of Windsor, "The King is dead!" his 
 most loyal ministers, civil and religious, added 
 under their breath : " Long live the Queen ! " 
 
 
! 
 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND Gn<LHOOD. 
 
 69 
 
 and almost immediately the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury and the Lord Chamberlain left Windsor 
 and travelled as fast as post-horses could carry 
 them, to Kensington Palace, which they reached 
 in the gray of the early dawn. Everybody was 
 asleep, and they knocked and rang a long time 
 before they could rouse the porter at the ^rate 
 who at last grumblingly admitted them. Then 
 they had another siege in the court-yard ; but at 
 length the palace door yielded, and they were 
 let into one of the lower rooms, " where," says 
 Miss Wynn's account, '* they seemed forgotten 
 by everybody." They rang the bell, called a 
 sleepy servant, and requested that the special 
 attendant of the Princess Victoria should in- 
 form her Royal Highness that they desired an 
 audience on "very important business." More 
 delay, more ringing, more inquiries and direc- 
 tions. At last the attendant of the Princess 
 came, and coolly stated that her Royal Mistress 
 was "in such a sweet sleep she could not vent- 
 ure to disturb her." Then solemnly spoke up 
 the Archbishop : " We are come on business of 
 State, to the Queen, and even her sleep must 
 give way." Lo it was out ! The startled maid 
 
Ii:| 
 
 70 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Hi. ;::! 
 
 flew on her errand, and so effectually performed 
 it, that Victoria, not daring to keep her visitors 
 waiting longer, hurried into the room with only 
 a shawl thrown over her night-gown, and her 
 feet in slippers. She had flung off her night-cap 
 (young ladies wore night-caps in those queer old 
 times), and her long, light-brown hair was tum- 
 bling over her shoulders. So she came to receive 
 the first homage of the Church and the State, 
 and to be hailed *' Queen ! " and she was Queen 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, of India and the 
 mighty Colonies ! It seems to me that the 
 young girl must have believed herself at that 
 moment only half awake, and still dreaming. 
 The grand, new title, " Your Majesty," must 
 have had a new sound, as addressed to her, — ■ 
 something strange and startling, though very 
 likely she may have often said it over to herself, 
 silently, to get used to it. The first kiss of abso- 
 lute fealty on her little hand must have thrilled 
 through her whole frame. Some accounts say 
 that as full realization was forced upon her, she 
 burst into tears ; others dwell on her marvellous 
 calm and self-possession. I prefer to believe 
 in the tears, not only because the assumption of 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 71 
 
 the " dangerous grandeur of sovereignty " was a 
 solemn and tremendous matter for one so young, 
 but because something of awe and sorrow on 
 hearing of the eternal abdication of that sover- 
 eignty, by her rough but not to her unlov- 
 ing old uncle, was natural and womanly, and 
 fitting. I believe that it has not been ques- 
 tioned that the first words of the Queen were 
 addressed to the Primate, and tha^ they were 
 simply, "I beg j-our Grace to pray for me," 
 which the Archbishop did, then and there. 
 Doubtless, also, as related, the first act of her 
 queenly life was the writing of a letter of condo- 
 lence to Queen Adelaide, in which, after ex- 
 pressing her tender sympathy, she begged her 
 " dear aunt " to remain at Windsor just as long 
 as she might feel inclined. This letter she adt 
 dressed to " Her Majesty, the Queen." Some 
 one at hand reminded her that the King's widow 
 was now only Queen Dowager. '* I am quite 
 aware of that," replied Victoria, "but I will not 
 be the first person to remind her of it." I can- 
 not say how much I like that. Wonderful is 
 the story told by many witnesses of the calmness 
 
 and gentle dignity of Mer Majesty, when a few 
 D 
 
72 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 M !: 
 
 !|r 
 
 hours later she met the high officers of the 
 Church and State, Princes and Peers, received 
 their oaths of allegiance and read her first 
 speech from an improvised throne. The Royal 
 Princes, the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex, 
 Her Majesty's uncles, were the first to be sworn, 
 and Greville says : " As they knelt before her, 
 swearing allegiance and kissing her hand, I saw 
 her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the con- 
 trast between their civil and their natural rela- 
 tions ; and this was the only sign of emotion 
 which she evinced." 
 
 When she first entered the room she had 
 kissed these old uncles affectionately, walking 
 toward the Duke of Sussex, who was very 
 feeble. 
 
 Greville says that she seemed rather bewil- 
 dered at the multitude of men who came to kiss 
 her hand and kneel to her, among them the 
 conqueror of Napoleon — soldier of soldiers — tJie 
 Duke ! — but that she did not make any differ- 
 ence in her manner, or show any especial respect, 
 or condescension in her countenance to any in- 
 dividual, not even to the Premier, Lord Mel- 
 bourne, for whom she was known to have a 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GH^LHOOD. 
 
 73 
 
 ^-reat liking, and who was long her trusted friend 
 and favorite Minister. 
 
 The Queen was also called upon to take an 
 oath, which was for " the security of the Church 
 of Scotland." This she has most faithfully kept ; 
 indeed, she has now and then been reproached 
 by jealous champions of the English Establish, 
 ment for undue gicciousness towards the Kirk 
 and its ministers. 
 
 For this grand but solemn ceremony at Ken- 
 sington—rendered the more solemn by the fact 
 that while it was going on the great bell of St. 
 Paul's was tolling for the dead King,— the young 
 Queen was dressed very simply, in mourning. 
 
 She seems to have thought of everything, for 
 she sent for Lord Albemarle, and after remind- 
 ing him that according to law and precedent she 
 must be proclaimed the next morning at lo 
 o'clock, from a certain window of St. James' 
 Palace, requested him to provide for her a suit- 
 able conveyance and escort. She then bowed 
 gravely and graciously to the Princes, Arch- 
 bishops and Cabinet Ministers, and left the 
 room, as she had entered it— alone. 
 
M 
 
 CHAPTER VTII. 
 
 The last day of Victoria's real pirlhood — Proclaimetl Queen from St. 
 James' Palace— She holds her first Privy Council — Coniinonts upon 
 her deportment by eye-witnesses — Fruits of her mother's care atid 
 training. 
 
 It seems to me that the momentous day- 
 just described was the last of Victoria's real 
 girlhood ; that premature womanhood was 
 thrust upon her with all the power, grandeur, 
 and state of a Queen Regnant. I wonder if, 
 weary and nervously exhausted as she must 
 have been, she slept much, when at last she 
 went to bed, probably no longer in her mother's 
 room. I wonder if she did not think, with a 
 sort of fearsome thrill that when the summer 
 sun faded from her sight, it was only to travel 
 all night, lighting her vast dominions and her 
 uncounted millions of subjects ; and that, like 
 the splendor of that sun, had become her life 
 — hers, the little maiden's, but just emerging 
 from the shadow of seclusion, and from her 
 mother's protecting care and wise authority, 
 and stepping out into the world by herself ! 
 (74) 
 
 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 
 
 n 
 
 The next day she went in state to St. Jame^ 
 Palace, accompanied by great lords and ladies, 
 ■ and escorted by squadrons of the Life Guards 
 and Blues, and was formally proclaimed from 
 the window of the Presence Chamber, looking 
 out on the court-yard: A Cou.rt chronicle states 
 thai Her Majesty vvore a black silk dress and a 
 little black chip bonnet, and that she looked 
 paler than usual. Miss Martineau, speaking of 
 the scene, says: " There stood the young creat- 
 ure, in simplest mourning, her sleek bands of 
 brown hair as plain as her dress. The tears ran 
 down her cheeks, as Lord Melbourne, standing 
 by her side, presented her to the people as their 
 
 ^°^^^^^g" In the upper part of the face 
 
 she is really pretty, and with an ingenuous, sin- 
 cere air which seems full of promise." 
 
 After the ceremony of proclamation was over, 
 the " little Queen " remained for a few moments 
 at the window, bowing and smiling through her 
 tears at that friendly and enthusiastic crowd of 
 her subjects, and listening to the National An- 
 them played for the first time for her, then re- 
 tired, with her mother, who had not been 
 •' prominent " during the scene, but who had 
 
I 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 been observed "to watch her daughter with 
 great anxiety." 
 
 At noon the Queen held a Privy Council, at 
 which it was said, " She presided with as much 
 ease as though she had been doing nothing else 
 all her life." At i r.M. she returned to Ken- 
 sington Palace, there to remain in retirement 
 till after the funeral of King WiHiam. 
 
 It is certain that the behavior of this girl- 
 queen on these first two days of her reign 
 ** confounded the doctors " of the Church and 
 State. Greville, who never praises except when 
 praise is wrung out of him, can hardly say 
 enough of her grace and graciousness, calmness 
 and self-possession. He says, also, that her 
 ** agreeable expression, with her youth, inspire 
 an excessive interest in all who approach her, and 
 which," he is condescending enough to add, " I 
 can't help feeling myself." He quotes Peel as say- 
 ing he was " amazed at her manner and behavior ; 
 at her apparent deep sense of her situation, her 
 modesty, and at the same time her firmness. 
 She appeared to be awed, but not daunted." 
 
 The Duke of Wellington paid a similar trib- 
 ute to her courage. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD. 77 
 
 Now, if these great men did not greatly ideal- 
 ize her, under the double glamour of gallantry 
 and loyalty, Victoria was a most extraordinary 
 young woman. A few days before the death of 
 the King, Greville wrote : - What renders specu- 
 lation so easy and events so uncertain is the ab- 
 solute ignorance of everybody of the character, 
 disposition, and capacity of the Princess. She 
 has been kept in such jealous seclusion by her 
 mother (never having slept out of her bedroom, 
 nor been alone with anybody but herself and 
 the Baroness Lehzen), that not one of her ac- 
 quaintance, none of the attendants at Kensing- 
 ton, not even the Duchess of Northumberland, 
 her governess, can have any idea what she is, or 
 what she promises to be." The first day of Vic- 
 toria's accession he writes : " She appears to act 
 with every sort of good taste and good feeling, 
 as well as good sense, and nothing can be more' 
 favorable than the impression she has made, and 
 nothing can promise better than her manner and 
 
 ^--^'"^^ do William IV. coming to the 
 
 throne at the mature age of sixty-five, was so 
 excited by the exaltation that he nearly went 
 "^^d The young Queen, who might well 
 
7S 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 be either dazzled or confounded with the gran- 
 deur and novelty of her situation, seems neither 
 the one nor the other, and behaves with a pro- 
 priety ai>d decorum beyond her years." 
 
 Doubtless nature was kind to Victoria in the 
 elements of character, but she must have owed 
 much, very much of this courage, calmness, 
 modesty, simplicity, candor, and sterling good 
 sense to the peculiar, systematic training, the 
 precept and example of her mother, the much- 
 criticised Duchess of Kent, so unpopular at the 
 Court of the late King, and whom Mr. Greville 
 had by no means delighted to honor. Ah, the 
 good, brave Duchess had her reward for all her 
 years of patient exile, all her loving labor and 
 watchful care, and rich compensation for all criti- 
 cisms, misrepresentations, and fault-finding, that 
 June afternoon, the day of the Proclamation, 
 when she rode from the Palace of St. James to 
 Kensington with her daughter; who had behaved 
 so well — her daughter and her Qiiccn / 
 
 I 
 
 <^ 
 
 
I 
 
 « 
 
 PART II. 
 
 WOMANHOOD AiND QUEENHOOD. 
 
■^wpwmuMi 
 
 J ' 
 
PART 11. 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The sovereignty of England and Hanover severed f.^rcver-Funeral 
 of King WiUiam IV. at Windsor-The Queen and her liouschold 
 remove to Buckingham Palace-She dissolves Parliament-Glow- 
 mg account of the scene by a contemporary Journal-Charles 
 Sumner a spectator-His eulogy of the Queen's reading. 
 
 Ever since the accession to the throne of 
 Great Britain of the House of Brunswick, the 
 Kings of England had also been Kings of Han- 
 over. To carry on the two branches of the 
 royal business simultaneously must have been a 
 little difficult, at least perplexing. It was like 
 riding a '^ two-horse act," with a wide space be- 
 tween the horses, and a wide difference in their 
 size. But the Salic law prevailed in that little 
 kingdom over there, so its Crown now gently 
 devolved on the head of the male heir-apparent, 
 the Duke of Cumberland, and the quaint old 
 principality parted company with England for- 
 ever. That is what Her Majesty, Victoria, got, 
 
 (81). 
 
i 
 
 82 
 
 LIFE OF QUKKN VJCIOIUA. 
 
 woman. A day 
 ncf Ernest called 
 
 or 
 
 at 
 
 or rather lost, by being a 
 two after her accession, Ki _ 
 Kensington Palace to take leave of the Queen, 
 and .ihe dutifully kissed her uncle and brother- 
 sovereign, and wished him God-speed and the 
 Hanoverians joy. 
 
 There is no King and no kingdom of Hano- 
 ver now. When Kaiser William was consoli- 
 dating so many German principalities into his 
 grand empire, gaily singing the refrain of the 
 song of the old sexton, *' / gaiJicr thcnt in ! I 
 gather tJicm in / " he took Hanover, and it has 
 remained under the wing of the great Prussian 
 eagle ever since. It is said that the last King 
 made a gallant resistance, riding into battle at 
 the head of his troops, although he was blind — 
 too blind, perhaps, to see his own weakness. 
 When his throne vv'as taken out from under him, 
 he still clung to the royal title, but his son is 
 known only as the Duke of Cumberland. This 
 Prince, like other small German Princes, made 
 a great outcry against the Kaiser's confiscations, 
 but the inexorable old man still went on piec- 
 ing an imperial table-cover out of iH>ckct-hand- 
 kcrchicfs. 
 
 w 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 
 
 S^ 
 
 The youiifT Queen's new Household was con- 
 sidered a very magnincent and unexceptionable 
 one-principally for the rank and character and 
 personal attractions of the ladies in attendance, 
 chief among whom, for beauty and stateh'ness', 
 ^vas the famous Duchess of Sutherland-cer- 
 tainly one of the most superb women in Eng- 
 land, or anywhere else, even at an age whai 
 most women are - falHng off," and when she 
 herself was a grandmother. 
 
 The funeral of King William took place at 
 Windsor in due time, and with all due pomp 
 and ceremony. After lying in state in the splen^ 
 did Waterloo chamber, under a gorgeous purple 
 pall, several crowns, and other royal insignia he 
 was borne to St. George's Chapel, followed' by 
 Prelates, Peers, and all the Ministers of State, 
 and a solemn funeral service was performed.' 
 But what spoke better for \vm than all these 
 things was the quiet weeping of a good woman 
 up in the Royal Closet, half hidden by the som- 
 b.e curtains, who looked and listened to the last, 
 and saw her husband let down into t-he Royal 
 Vault, where, in the darkness, his-their baby- 
 girl awaited him, that Princess with the short 
 
cS4 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 life and the long name — poor little Elizabeth 
 Georgina Adclando, whom the childless Queen 
 once hoped to hear hailed " Elizabeth Second 
 of England." 
 
 In midsummer the Queen, the Duchess of 
 Kent, and their grand Household moved from 
 Kensington to Buckingham Palace, then new, 
 and an elegant and luxurious royal residence 
 internally, but externally neither beautiful nor 
 imposing. But with the exception of Windsor 
 Castle, none of the English Royal Palaces can 
 be pointed to as models of architectural beauty, 
 or even sumptuous appointments. The palaces 
 of some of our Railway Kings more than rival 
 them in some respects, while those of many of 
 t. English nobility are richer in art-treasures 
 an . grander in appearance. Kensington Palace 
 was not beautiful, but it was picturesque and 
 his*:oric, which was more than could be said of 
 an}^ of the Georgian structures ; there was about 
 it an odor of old royalty, of poetr>' and romance. 
 The literature and the beauty of Queen Anne's 
 reign were especially associated with it. Queen 
 Victoria was, when she left it, at an age when 
 memories count for little, and doubtless the 
 
1 
 
 WOMAXIIOOI) AND QUEENHOOD. 85 
 
 flittin^T " o?a of the old home into the new " u-as 
 effected merrily enough ; but long afterwards her 
 orphaned and widowed heart must often have 
 gone back tenderly and yearningly to the scene 
 of many tranquilly happy years with her mother, 
 and of that f^rst little season of companionship 
 with her cousin Albert. 
 
 Hardly had she got unpacked and settled in 
 her new home when she had to go through a 
 great parade and ceremony. She went in Ttatc 
 to dissolve Parliament. The weather was fine 
 and the whole route from Buckingham Palace 
 to the Parliament House was lined with people, 
 shouting and cheering as the magnificent pro- 
 cession and that brilliant young figure passed 
 slowly along. A London journal of the time 
 gave the following glowing account of her as 
 she appeared in the House of Lords: ''At 20 
 minutes to 3 precisely, Her Majesty, preceded 
 by the heralds and attended by the great offi- 
 cers of state, entered the House— all the Peers 
 and Peeresses, who had risen at the flourish of 
 the trumpets, remaining standing. Her Majesty 
 was attired in a splendid white satin robe, with 
 the ribbon of the Garter crossing her shoulder 
 
86 
 
 IJFE OF OUEKN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 find a magni'" :cnt tiara of diamonds on her head, 
 and wore a necklace and a stomacher of hirgc 
 and costly brilliants. Having ascended the 
 throne, the royal mantle of crimson velvet was 
 placed on Her Majesty's shoulders by the Lords 
 in waiting." And this was the same little girl 
 who, six years before, had bought her own straw 
 hat and carried it home in her hand ! I wonder 
 if her own mother did not at that moment have 
 difficulty in believing that radiant and royal 
 creature was indeed her little Victoria ! 
 
 The account continues : " Her Majesty, on 
 taking her seat,* appeared to be deeply moved 
 at the novel and important position in which she 
 was placed, the eyes of the assembled nobility, 
 both male and female, being riveted on her per- 
 son." I would have wagered a good deal that 
 it was the * female ' eyes that she felt most 
 piercing'; " Then it goes on: ** Her emotion 
 was plainly discernible in the heavings of her 
 bosom, and the brilliancy of her diamond stom- 
 acher, which sparkled out like the sun on the 
 swell of the smooth ocean as the billows rise 
 and fall." So disconcerted was she, it seems, 
 by all this silent, intense observation, that she 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 87 
 
 forgot, nicely seated as she was, tl.at all those 
 
 LZ' ;'"" r."'"" ""'" ^'••""^'■"8- "" =''>= "•- 
 r m.ndcd of ,t by Lord Melbourne, who stood 
 
 close at her side. Then she graciously inclined 
 
 >cr head, and said in rather a low tone, ■ My 
 
 Lords, be seated -and they sat, and eke their 
 wives and dauglitcrs. 
 
 " ^^' -■ '''••d regained her self-possession when 
 she came to read her speech, and her voice also 
 
 for .t was heard all over the great elmmber." 
 And , ,s added : " Her demeanor was charac 
 tcr,zed by much grace and modest self-posses- 
 
 Among the spectators of this rare royal pa- 
 geant was an American, and a stiff republican a 
 young man from Boston, called Charles .Sumner 
 He was a scholar, and scholar-like, unda.zled by 
 diamonds, admired most Her Majesty's readM,. 
 
 I" a letter to a friend he wrote : " I ,vas asto,:: 
 .shed and delighted. Her voice is sweet and 
 finely modulated, and she pronounced every 
 word d,stn,etly, and with a just regard to its 
 meamng, I think I never heard anything better 
 read m my life than her speech, and I could but 
 respond to Lord Fitz-Williams remark to me 
 
41 
 
 .'I 
 
 Ml 
 
 88 
 
 LIFE OF QUFKN VICTORIA. 
 
 when the ceremony was over, * How beautifully 
 she performs!'" How strange it now seems 
 to think of that slight girl of eighteen coming 
 in upon that great assembly of legislators, many 
 of them gray and bald, and pompous and port- 
 ly, and gravely telling them that they might go 
 home ! 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Comments upon the young Queen by a contemporaneous writer fn 
 ///.. ....^^A new Throne erected for her in Buckingham pI e 
 
 -A touchrnp: A.,ecdoie related by the Duke of \\'elih,,^ton-The 
 Queen ms.sts on paying her FaHM^r's Debt^The roman icTml 
 pass,onate interest she evoked-Her mad lover-Atte:; uil 
 liti hfe-Siie takes possession of Windsor Castle. 
 
 A WRITER in Blackwood, speaking of the 
 Queen about this time, said: "She is ^vinning 
 golden opinions from all sorts of people ' by her af- 
 fability, the grace of her manners, and her pretti- 
 ness. She is excessively like the Brunswick's and 
 not like the Coburgs. So much the more in her 
 favor. The memory of George III. is not yet 
 passed away, and the people are glad to see his 
 calm, honest, and English physiognomy renewed 
 in his granddaughter." 
 
 Her Majesty's likeness to the obstinate but 
 conscientious old king, whose honest face is fast 
 fading quite away from old English half-crowns 
 and golden guineas, has grown with her years. 
 
 The same writer, speaking of her personal ap- 
 pearance, says: "She is low of stature, but well 
 formed; her hair the darkest shade of flaxen, 
 
 (89) 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 A 
 
 {./ 
 
 V- 
 
 fe 
 
 
 
 .^" t*. 
 
 f/. 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 |50 ""^" 
 
 25 
 
 12.0 
 
 1.4 11.6 
 
 V] 
 
 <? 
 
 /] 
 
 A 
 
 
 <9 
 
 i'> 
 
 
 7 
 
 y^ 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 ^ WEBSTER, NY. MS80 
 (716) 873-4S03 
 
 4^ 
 
 \ 
 
 :\ 
 
 ^q\^ 
 
 \ 
 
 

 <$> 
 
 
 
 
 6^ 
 
 A** 
 
mMHi 
 
 
 90 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 and her eyes large and light-blue." A friend 
 who saw her frequently at the time of her acces- 
 sion, said to me the other day : " It is a great 
 mistake to suppose that the Queen owed all the 
 charming portraits which were drawn of her at 
 this time, to the fortunate accident of her birth 
 and destiny. She was really a very lovely girl, 
 with a fine, delicate, rose-bloom complexion, large 
 blue eyes, a fair, broad brow, and an expression 
 of peculiar candor and innocence." 
 
 A few days later there was a sensation in 
 Buckingham Palace, at the setting up in the 
 Throne-room of a very magnificent new piece of 
 furniture — a throne of the latest English fash- 
 ion, but gorgeous enough to have served for the 
 Queen of Sheba, Zenobia, Cleopatra, or Semi- 
 ramis. It was all crimson velvet and silk, with 
 any amount of gold embroideries, gold lace, 
 gold fringe, ropes, and tassels. The gay young 
 Queen tried it, and said it would do ; that she 
 had never sat on a more comfortable throne in 
 all her life. 
 
 Two stories of the young Queen have touched 
 me especially — one was related by the Duke of 
 Wellington. A court-martial death sentence 
 
 ■11 
 

 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 91 
 
 was present ed by him to her, to be signed. She 
 shrank from the dreadful task, and with tears in 
 her eyes, asked : " Have you nothing to say in 
 behalf of this man ? " 
 
 "Nothing; he has deserted three times," re- 
 plied the Iron Duke. 
 
 " O, your Grace, think again ! " 
 
 " Well, your Majesty, he certainly is a bad 
 soldier, but there was somebody who spoke as 
 to his good character. He may be a good fel- 
 low in civil life." 
 
 " O, thank you ! " exclaimed the Queen, as 
 she dashed off the word, '' Pardoned," on the 
 awful parchment, and wrote beneath it her 
 beautiful signature. 
 
 This was not her last qct of the kind, and at 
 length Parliament so arranged matters that this 
 fatal signing business could be done by royal 
 commission, ostensibly to "relieve Her Majesty 
 of a painful duty," but really because they could 
 not trust her soft heart. She might have sud- 
 den caprices of commiseration which would in- 
 terfere with stern military discipline, and the 
 honest trade of Mr. Marwood. 
 
 The other incident was told by Lord Mel- 
 

 i. I;i 
 
 92 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I 
 
 s'j 
 
 
 bourne. Soon after her accession, in all the 
 dizzy whirl of the new life of splendor and ex- 
 citement, the young Queen, in an interview with 
 her Prime Minister, said : *' I want to pay all 
 that remain of my father's debts. I must do it. 
 I consider it a sacred duty." This was, of course, 
 done — the Queen also sending valuable pieces of 
 plate to the largest creditors, as a token of her 
 gratitude. Lord Melbourne said that the child- 
 like directness and earnestness of that good 
 daughter's manner when she thus expressed her 
 royal will and pleasure, brought the tears to his 
 eyes. It seems to me it was almost mission 
 enough for any young woman, to move the 
 hearts of hard old soldiers like Wellington, and 
 ^/<f2;j/ statesmen like Melbourne — mighty dealers 
 in death and diplomacy, and to bring something 
 like a second youth of romance and chivalrous 
 feeling into worn and worldly hearts everywhere. 
 I suppose it is impossible for young people of 
 this day, especially Americans, to realize the in- 
 tense, enthusiastic interest felt forty-six years 
 ago by all classes, and in nearly all countries, in 
 the young English Queen. The old wondered 
 and shook their heads over the mighty responsi- 
 
WOMANTIOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 93 
 
 bility imposed upon her— the young dreamed 
 of her. She almost made real to young girls 
 the wildest romances of fairy lore. She called 
 out such chivalrous feelings in young men that 
 they longed to champion her on some field of 
 battle, or in some perilous knightly adventure. 
 She stirred the hearts and inspired the imagina- 
 tions of orators and poets. The great O'Con- 
 ncll. when there was some wild talk of deposing 
 "the all but infant Queen," and putting the 
 Duke of Cumberland in her place, said in his 
 trumpet-like tones, which gave dignity to 
 brogue : " If necessary, I can get 500,000 brave 
 Irishmen to defend the life, the honor, and the 
 person of the beloved young lady by whom Eng- 
 land's throne is now filled." Ah, the difference 
 between then and now. " Brave Irishmen " of 
 this day, men who know not O'Connell, are 
 more disposed to blow up the English Queen's 
 palaces, throne and all. 
 
 Charles Dickens, who was then full of romance 
 and fancy, was, it is said, possessed by such un- 
 restmg, wondering thoughts of the fair maiden 
 sovereign, and her magnificent destiny, that for 
 a time his more prosaic friends regarded his 
 

 If 
 
 I 
 
 94 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 enthusiasm as a sort of monomania. Other im- 
 aginative young men with heads less "level" 
 (to use an American expression) than that of 
 the great novelist, actually went mad — "clean 
 daft " — the noble passion of loving loyalty end- 
 ing in an infatuation as absurd as it was un- 
 happy. Before the Queen left Kensington Pal- 
 ace she was much annoyed by the persistent at- 
 tentions of a provincial admirer, a respectable 
 gentleman, who labored under the hallucination 
 that it was his destiny and his duty to espouse 
 the Queen. He may have felt a preference for 
 private life and rural pleasures, but as a loyal 
 patriot he was ready to make the sacrifice. He 
 drove in a stylish phaeton every morning to the 
 Palace to inquire after Her Majesty's health ; 
 and on several days he bribed the men who had 
 charge of the gardens to allow him to assist 
 them in weeding about the piece of water oppo- 
 site her apartments, in the fond hope of seeing 
 her at the windows, and of her seeing him. 
 Every evening, however, he put on the gentle- 
 man of fortune and phaetons, and followed the 
 Queen and the Duchess in their airings. Drove 
 they fast or drove they slow, he was just behind 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 
 
 95 
 
 them. On their last drive before removing 
 from Kensington, they alighted in the Harrow 
 Road for a little walk, and were dismayed at 
 
 seeing this Mr. spring from his phaeton, 
 
 and come eagerly forward. The Duchess sent 
 a page to meet him and beg of him not to annoy 
 Her Majesty by accosting her ; but the page was 
 "no let" to him — a whole volume of remon- 
 strance would not have availed. He pressed on, 
 and the august ladies were obliged to re-enter 
 their carriage, and return to Kensington. When 
 on the next morning they removed from the old 
 
 home, Mr. was at the gate in his phaeton, 
 
 and drove before them to Buckingham Palace, 
 and was there to give them a gracious welcome. 
 He haunted Pimlico for a time, but his friends 
 finally got possession of him and suppressed him, 
 and so ended his " love's young dream." 
 
 It is likely that the merry young Queen 
 laughed at the absurd demonstrations and ama- 
 tory effusions of her demented admirers; but 
 when, after her marriage, and hei appearing 
 always in public with the handsomest Prince in 
 Christendom at her side, such monomaniacs 
 
 grew desperate and took to s'^ooting, the mat- 
 E 
 
96 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ter became serious. Then no more gentlemen 
 in phaetons menaced her peace ; her demented 
 followers were poor wretches — so poor that 
 sometimes, after investing in pistols, they had 
 not a six-pence left for ammunition. One, a 
 distraught Fenian, pointed at her a broken, 
 harmless weapon, charged with a scrap of red 
 rag. Another, a humpbacked lad, named Bean, 
 loaded his with paper and a few bits of an old 
 clay pipe. Bean escaped for a time, and it is said 
 that for several days there were •* hard lines ** 
 for all the poor humpbacks of London. Scores 
 of them were arrested. No unfortunate thus 
 deformed, could appear in the streets without 
 danger of a policeman smiting him on the 
 shoulders, right in the tender spot, with a rough, 
 " You are my prisoner." Life became a double 
 burden to the poor fellows till Bean was caught. 
 But to return to the young Queen, in her happy, 
 untroubled days. 
 
 In August she took possession of Windsor 
 Castle, amid great rejoicing. The Duchess, her 
 mother, came also; this time not to be re- 
 proached or insulted. They soon had company 
 — a lot of Kings and Queens, among them 
 
 !• 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 97 
 
 "Uncle Leopold" and his second wife, a 
 daughter of Louis Philippe of France. 
 
 The royal young house-keeper seems keenly 
 to have enjoyed showing to her visitors her new 
 home, her little country place up the Thames. 
 She conducted them everywhere, 
 
 " Up-stairs, down-stairs, and in my lady's chamber," 
 
 peeping into china and silver closets, spicy 
 store-rooms, and huge linen chests smelling of 
 lavender. 
 
 Soon after came a triumphal progress to 
 Brighton, during which the royal carriage pass- 
 ed under an endless succession of triumphal 
 arches, and between ranks on ranks of school- 
 children, strewing roses and singing paeans. 
 At Brighton there was an immense sacrifice of 
 the then fashionable and costly flower, the dahlia, 
 no fewer than twenty thousand being used for 
 decorative purposes. But a sadder because a 
 vain sacrifice on this occasion, was of flowers of 
 rhetoric. An address, the result of much classi- 
 cal research and throes of poetic labor, and 
 marked by the most effusive loyalty, was to 
 have been presented to Her Majesty at the 
 7 
 
98 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 gates of the Pavilion, but by some mistake she 
 passed in without waiting for it. 
 
 About this time the Lunatic Asylums began 
 to fill up. Within one week two mad men 
 were arrested, proved insane, and shut up tor 
 threatening the life of the Queen and the 
 Duchess of Kent. So Victoria's life was not 
 all arched over with dahlia-garlands, and strewn 
 with roses, nor were her subjects all Sunday- 
 school scholars. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Banquet in Guildhall— Victoria's first Christmas at Windsor Castle 
 as Queen — Mrs. Newton Crosland's reminiscences — Coolness 
 of Actors and Quakers amid the general enthusiasm — Issue of 
 the first gold Sovereigns bearing Victoria's head. 
 
 On Lord Mayor's Day, the Queen went in 
 state to dine with her brother-monarch, the King 
 of " Great London Town." It was a memora- 
 ble, magnificent occasion. The Queen was at- 
 tended by all the great ladies and gentlemen of 
 her Court, and followed by an immense train of 
 members of the royal family, ambassadors, 
 cabinet ministers, and nobility generally — in all, 
 tv. o hundred carriages of them. The day was 
 3 general holiday, and the streets all along the 
 line of the splendid procession were lined with 
 people half wild with loyal excitement, shout- 
 ing and waving hats and handkerchiefs. It may 
 have been on this day that Lord Albemarle 
 got off his famous pun. On the Queen saying 
 to him. " I wonder if my good people.of Lon- 
 don ire as glad to see me as I am to see them ? " 
 he replied by pointing to the letters " V. R." 
 
 (99) 
 
100 
 
 l.Il K OF QUEEN VI( TOFUA. 
 
 woven into all the decorations, and saying: 
 *' Your Majesty can see their loyal cockney 
 answer — ' Ve are' " 
 
 One account states that, " the young sov- 
 ereign was quite overcome by the enthusiastic 
 outbursts of loyalty which greeted her all along 
 the route," but a description of the scene sent 
 mc by a friend, Mrs. Newton Crosland, the 
 charming English novelist and poet, paints her 
 as perfectly composed. My friend says : " I well 
 remember seeing the young Queen on her way 
 to dine with the Lord Mayor, on the 9th of 
 November, 1837, the year of her accession. 
 The crowd was so great that there were con- 
 stant stoppages, and, luckily for mc, one of 
 them occurred just under the window of a house 
 in the Strand, where I was a spectator. I shall 
 never forget the appearance of the maiden-sov- 
 ereign. Youthful as she was, she looked every 
 inch a Queen. Seated with their backs to the 
 horses were a lady and gentleman, in full Court- 
 dress — (the Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of 
 the Robes — and the Earl of Albemarle, Mas- 
 ter of the Horse), and in the centre of the op- 
 posite seat, a little raised, was the Queen. All 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEKNHOOD. lOI 
 
 I saw of her dress was a mass of pink satin and 
 swan's-down. I think she wore a large cape or 
 wrap of these materials. The swan's-down en- 
 circled herthroat, from which rose the fair young 
 face — the blue eyes beaming with goodness and 
 intelligence — the rose- bloom of girlhood on her 
 cheeks, and her soft, light brown hair, on which 
 gleamed a circlet of diamonds, braided as it is 
 seen in the early portraits. Her small, white- 
 gloved hands were reposing easily in her lap. 
 
 " On this occasion not only were the streets 
 thronged, but every window in the long line of 
 the procession was literally filled, while men 
 and boys were seen in perilous positions on roofs 
 and lamp-posts, trees and railings. Loud and 
 hearty cheers, so unanimous they were like one 
 immense multitudinous shout, heralded the 
 royal carriage. 
 
 *' A little before this date, a story was toM 
 of the lamentations of the Queen's coachman. 
 He declared that he had driven Her Majesty for 
 six weeks, without once being able to see her. 
 Of course he could not turn his head or his 
 eyes from his horses." 
 
 At Temple Bar — poor, old Temple Bar, now 
 
102 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 1 - 
 
 I! -5 I 
 
 If 'I 
 
 
 |; t 
 
 a thing of the past ! — the Queen was met by the 
 I-ord Mayor, who handed her the city keys and 
 sword, which she returned to his keeping — a lit- 
 tle further on, the scholars of Christ's Hospital 
 — the " Blue-Coat Boys," offered her an address 
 of congratulation, saying how glad they were 
 to have a woman to rule over them, which was 
 a good deal for boys to say, and also sung the 
 National Anthem with a will. 
 
 The drawing-room of Guildhall was fitted up 
 most gorgeously. Here the address of the city 
 magnates was read and replied to, — and here in 
 the midst of Princes and nobles, Her Majesty 
 performed a brave and memorable act. She 
 knighted Sheriff Montefiore, the first man of his 
 race to receive such an honor from a British 
 sovereign, and Sir Moses Montefiore, now nearly 
 a centenarian, has ever since, by a noble life 
 and good works, reflected only honor on his 
 Queen. But ah, what would her uncle, the late 
 King, have said, had he seen her profaning a 
 Christian sword by laying it on the shoulders 
 of a Jew ! He would rather have used it on 
 the unbeliever's ears, after Peter's fashion. 
 
 After this ceremony, they all passed into the 
 
 
 «:4 
 
' * 
 
 - 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 103 
 
 Great Hall, which had been marvellously meta- 
 morphosed, by hangings and gildings, and all 
 sorts of magnificent decorations, by mirrors and 
 lusters, and the display of vast quantities of 
 gold and silver plate— much of it lent for the 
 occasion by noblemen and private gentlemen, 
 but rivalled in splendor and value by the plate 
 of the Corporation and the City Companies. 
 P>om the roof hung two immense chandeliers 
 of stained glass and prisms, which with the 
 flashing of innumerable gas-jets, lighting up 
 gorgeous Court-dresses, and the most superb 
 old diamonds of the realm, made up a scene 
 of dazzling splendor, of enchantment, which 
 people who were there, go wild over to this day. 
 Poets say it was like a vision of fairyland, 
 among the highest circles of that most poetic 
 kingdom— and they know. I think a poet must 
 have managed the musical portion of the en- 
 tertainment, for when Victoria appeared, sweet 
 voices sang — 
 
 " At Oriana's presence all things smile ! " 
 and presently — 
 
 " Oh happy fair ! 
 Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue's sweet air, 
 
104 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 < .i 
 
 IP 
 
 
 More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear, 
 
 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear." 
 
 There was a raised platform at the east end 
 of the hall, and on it the throne, a beautiful 
 state-chair, of dainty proportions, made ex- 
 pressly for that fairy Princess, who took her 
 scat thereon amid the most joyous acclamations. 
 On the platform before her, was placed the royal 
 table, decorated with exquisite flowers, and cov- 
 ered with a costly, gold-fringed damask cloth, 
 on which were served the most delicate viands 
 and delicious fruits, in season and out of season. 
 Ah, as the young Queen, seated up there, re- 
 ceived the homage of the richly-robed Alder- 
 men, and' the resplendent Sheriffs, and that efful- 
 gent Lord Mayor, she must have fancied herself 
 something more than a fairy Princess, — say, an 
 Oriental goddess being adored and sacrificed 
 to by gorgeous Oriental Princes, Sultans and 
 Satraps, Pashas, Padishas, and the Grand-Pan- 
 jandrum himself. 
 
 After the dinner, an imposing personage, call- 
 ed the Common Crier, strode into the middle 
 of the hall, and solemnly cried out : ** The 
 Right Honorable the Lord Mayor gives the 
 
 • 
 
 :, 
 
WOMANHOOD AM) OUEKXITOOD. 105 
 
 health of our Most Gracious Sovereign, Queen 
 Victoria ! " This, of course, was drunk with 
 all the honors, and extra shouts that made the 
 old hall ring. The Queen rose and bowed her 
 thanks, and then the Common Crier announced 
 —Her Majesty's toast : '' The Lord Mayor, and 
 prosperity to the City of London." The Queen, 
 it is stated, honored this toast in sherry one 
 hundred and twenty years old— liquid gold! 
 Very gracious of her if she furnished the jherry. 
 I hope, at all events, she drank it with reverence. 
 Why, when that old wine was bottled, Her 
 Majesty's grandfather lacked some twenty years 
 of being born, and the American Colonies were 
 as loyal as London ;— then the trunk of the 
 royal old Bourbon tree, whose last branch death 
 lopped away but yesterday at Frohsdorf, seem- 
 ed solid enough, though rotten at the core ; and 
 the great French Revolution was undreamed of, 
 except in the seething brain of some wild politi- 
 cal theorist, or in some poor peasant's night- 
 mare of starvation. When that old wine was 
 bottled, Temple Bar, under the garlanded arch 
 of which Her Majesty had just passed so smil- 
 ingly, was often adorned with gory heads of 
 
io6 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 T" 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 ' M 
 
 ri 
 
 traitors, and long after that old wine was bot- 
 tled, men and women could be seen of a Friday, 
 dangi'ng from the front of Newgate prison, and 
 swinging in the morning air, like so many 
 ghastly pendulums. 
 
 This year 1837, Victoria spent her first Christ- 
 mas as a Queen at Windsor, right royally I 
 doubt not, and I think it probable she received 
 a few presents. A few days before, she had 
 gone in state to Parliament, to give her assent 
 to the New Civil List Act — not a hard duty for 
 her to perform, it would seem, as that act 
 settled on her for life an annual income of 
 ;^385,ooo. Let Americans who begrudge our 
 President his $50,000, and wail over our taxa- 
 tion, just put that sum into dollars. The Eng- 
 lish people did not grumble at this grant, as 
 they had grumbled over the large sums de- 
 manded by Her Majesty's immediate predeces- 
 sors. They knew it would not be recklessly 
 and wickedly squandered, and they liked to 
 have their bonnie young Queen make a hand- 
 some appearance among crowned heads. She 
 had not then revealed those strong and admira- 
 ble traits of character which later won their 
 
 I 
 
 I' 
 
 li\ 
 
T 
 
 4* i 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. I07 
 
 respect and affection,— but they were fond of 
 her, and took a sort of amused delight in her, 
 as though they were all children, and she a 
 wonderful new doll, with new-fashioned talk'uvr 
 and walking arrangements. The friend from 
 whom I have quoted— Mrs. Crosland— writes 
 me: " I consider that it would be impossible to 
 exaggerate the enthusiasm of the English people 
 on the accession of Queen Victoria to the 
 throne. To be able at all to understand it, we 
 must recollect the sovereigns she succeeded— 
 the Sailor-King, a most commonplace old man, 
 with *a head like a pine-apple'; George IV., a 
 most unkingly king, extremely unpopular, ex- 
 cept with a small party of High Tories; and 
 poor George III., who by the generation Victo 
 ria followed, could only be remembered as a 
 frail, afflicted, blind old man— for a long period 
 shut up at Kew, and never seen by his people. 
 It was not only that Victoria was a really lovely 
 girl, but that she had the prestige of having 
 been brought up as a Liberal, and then she 
 kept the hated Duke of Cumberland from the 
 throne. Possibly he was not guilty of half 
 the atrocious sins attributed to him, but I do 
 
 I 
 
io8 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 not remember any royal personage so univer- 
 sally hated." 
 
 It was fear of this bogie of a Cumberland that 
 made the English people anxious for the early 
 marriage of the Queen, and yet caused them to 
 dread it, for the fate of poor Princess Charlotte 
 had not been forgotten. But I do not think 
 that political or dynastic questions had much 
 to do with the popularity of the young Queen. 
 It was the resurrection of the dead dignity of 
 the Royal House of Brunswick, in her fair per- 
 son — the resuscitation of the half-dead principle 
 of loyalty in the hearts of her people. Of Her 
 Majesty's subjects of the better class, actors 
 and quakers alone seem to have taken her ac- 
 cession with all its splendid accessions, coolly, — 
 the former, perhaps, because much moc'^ royalty 
 had somehow cheapened the real thing, and the 
 latter because trained from infancy to disregard 
 the pomps and show of this world. Macready 
 jots down among the little matters in his 
 " Diary," the fact of Her Majesty coming to his 
 theatre, and waiting awhile after the play to 
 see him and congratulate him. He speaks of 
 her as " a pretty little girl," and does not seem 
 
WOMANHOOD a?;d Qur.ENiioon. 109 
 
 -(• 
 
 t. 
 I 
 
 particularly "set up" by her compliments. 
 Joseph Sturgc, the eminent and most lovable 
 ph41anthropist of Birmingham, — a " Friend in- 
 deed " to all " in need," — waited on Her Maj- 
 esty, soon after her accession, as one of a dele- 
 gation of the Society of Friends. Soine years 
 after, he related the circumstance to me, and 
 simply described her to me as "a nice, pleasant, 
 modest young woman, — graceful, though a lit- 
 tle shy, and on the whole, comely." 
 
 *' Did you kiss her hand ? " I asked. ** O yes, 
 and found that act of homage no hardship, I as- 
 sure thee. It was a fair, soft, delicate little 
 hand." 
 
 I afterwards regretted that I had not asked 
 him what he did with his broad-brimmed hat 
 when he was about to be presented, knowing 
 that the principles of Fox and Penn forbade his 
 removing that article in homage to any human 
 creature ; but I have just discovered in a vol- 
 ume of Court Records, that " the deputation 
 from the Society of Friends, commonly called 
 Quakers, were uncovered, according to custom, 
 by the Yeoman of the Guard." As they were 
 all non-resistants, they doubtless bore the in- 
 
no 
 
 Liri: OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 dignity passively and placidly. Moreover, they 
 all bowed, if they did not kneel, before the 
 throne on which their Queen was seated, and 
 as I said kissed her hand, in token of their 
 friendly fealty. 
 
 In June, 1838, were issued the first gold sov- 
 ereigns, bearing the head of the Queen — the 
 same spirited young head that we see now on 
 all the modern gold and silver pieces of the realm. 
 That on the copper is a little different, but all 
 are pretty — so pretty that Her Majesty's loyal 
 subjects prefer them to all other likenesses, even 
 poor men feeling that they cannot have too 
 many of them. 
 
 i 
 
CHArTER XII. 
 
 
 The Coronation. 
 
 The coronation was fixed for June 28, 1838 
 —a little more than a year from the accession. 
 
 The Queen had been slightly troubled at the 
 thought of some of the antiquated forms of that 
 grand and complicated ceremony — for instance, 
 the homage of the Peers, spiritual and tem- 
 poral. As the rule stood, they were all re- 
 quired after kneeling to her, and pledging their 
 allegiance, to rise and kiss her on the left cheek. 
 She might be able to bear up under the salutes 
 of those holy old gentlemen, the archbishops 
 and bishops— but the anticipation of the kisses 
 of all the temporal Peers, old and young, was 
 enough to appall her-there were six hundred 
 of them. So she issued a proclamation excusing 
 the noble gentlemen from that onerous duty, 
 and at the coronation only the Royal Dukes, 
 Sussex and Cambridge, kissed the Queen's rosy 
 cheek, by special kinship privilege. The others 
 had to be content with her hand. The other 
 
 (in) 
 
J 
 
 112 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 J 
 
 omitted ceremony was one which formerly 
 took place in Westminster Hall — consisting 
 chiefly of the appearance of a knight armed, 
 mailed and mounted, who as Royal Cham- 
 pion proceeded to challenge the enemies of 
 the new Sovereign to mortal combat. This, 
 which had appeared ridiculous in the case of 
 the burly George IV., would have been some- 
 thing pretty and poetic in that of the young 
 maiden-Queen, but she doubtless felt that as 
 every Englishman was disposed to be her cham- 
 pion, the old form would be the idlest, melodra- 
 matic bravado. 
 
 The crown which had fitted George and Will- 
 iam was too big and heavy for their niece — so 
 it was taken to pieces, and the jewels re-set in a 
 way to greatly reduce the size and weight. A 
 description now before me, of the new crown is 
 too dazzling for me to transcribe. I must keep 
 my eyes for plainer work ; but I can give the 
 value of the bauble — £ii2,y6o\ — and this was 
 before the acquisition of the koh-i-noor. 
 
 Of the coronation I will try to give a clear, 
 if not a full account. 
 
 It was a wonderful time in London when that 
 
 M 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. II3 
 
 le 
 
 LS 
 
 - 
 
 day of days was ushered in, by the roar of can- 
 non from the grim old Tower, answered b)'' a 
 battery in St. James* Park. Such a world of 
 people everywhere! All Great Britain and 
 much of the Continent seemed to have emptied 
 themselves into this metropolis, which over- 
 flowed with a surging, murmuring tide of hu- 
 ni'^nity. Ah me, how much of that eager, noisy 
 life is silent and forgotten now ! 
 
 There may have before been coronations sur- 
 passing that of Victoria in scenic splendor, if not 
 in solid magnificence — that of the first Napoleon 
 and his Empress, perhaps — but there has been 
 nothing so grand as a royal pageant seen since, 
 until the crowning of the present Russian Em- 
 peror at Moscow, where the almost intolerable 
 splendor was seen against a dark background of 
 tragic possibilities. This English coronation 
 was less brilliant, perhaps, but also less barbaric 
 than that august, overpowering ceremony over 
 which it seemed there might hover " perturbed 
 spirits" of men slain in mad revolts against 
 tyranny — of youths and women done to death 
 on the red scaffold, in dungeons, in midnight 
 mines, and Siberian snows ; and about which 
 
114 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 there surely lurked the fiends of dynamite. But 
 this pure young girl, trusting implicitly in the 
 loving loyalty of her subjects — relying on 
 Heaven for help and guidance, lifted to the 
 throne by the Constitution and the will of a free 
 people, as conquerors have been upborne on 
 shields, what had she to fear ? A very different 
 and un-nihilistic " cloud of witnesses " was hers, 
 we may believe. If ever there was a mortal 
 state-occasion for the immortals to be abroad, 
 it was this. 
 
 The groat procession started from Bucking- 
 ham Palace at about lo o'clock. The first two 
 state carriages, each drawn by six horses, held 
 the Duchess of Kent and her attendants. The 
 Queen's mother, regally attired, was enthusi- 
 astically cheered all along the way. The Queen 
 was, of course, in the grand state coach, which 
 is mostly gilding and glass — a prodigiously im- 
 posing affair. It was drawn by eight cream- 
 colored horses — great stately creatures — with 
 white flowing manes, and tails like mountain 
 cascades. Many battalions and military bands 
 were stationed along the line, presenting arms 
 and playing the National Anthem, "And the 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 115 
 
 People, O the People ! '^ Every window, balcony, 
 and door-step was swarming, every foot of 
 standing room occupied — even on roofs and 
 chimneys. Ladies and children waved handker- 
 chiefs and dropped flowers from balconies, and 
 the shouts from below and the shouts from 
 above seemed to meet and break into joyous 
 storm-bursts in the air. Accounts state that 
 Her Majesty " looked exceedingly well, and that 
 she seemed in excellent spirits, and highly de- 
 lighted with the imposing scene and the enthusi- 
 asm of her subjects." One would think she 
 might have been. 
 
 She had a great deal to go through with that 
 day. She must have rehearsed well, or she 
 would have been confused by the multiform 
 ceremonials of that grand spectacular perform- 
 ance. The scene, as she entered Westminster 
 Abbey, might well have startled her out of her 
 serene calm, but it didn't. On each side of the 
 nave, reaching from the western door to the 
 organ screen, were the galleries, erected for the 
 spectators. These were all covered with crim- 
 son cloth fringed with gold. Underneath them 
 were lines of foot-guards, very martial-looking 
 
Ii6 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Ifl 
 
 fellows. The old stone floor, worn with the 
 tread of Kings' coronations and funeral proces- 
 sions, was covered with matting, and purple and 
 crimson cloth. Immediately under the central 
 tower of the Abbey, inside the choir, five steps 
 from the floor, on a carpet of purple and gold, 
 was a platform covered with clot.h of gold, and 
 on it was the golden " Chair of Homage." With- 
 in the chancel, near the altar, stood the stiff, 
 quaint old chair in which all the sovereigns of 
 England since Edward the Confessor have been 
 crowned. Cloth of gold quite concealed the 
 " chunk of old red sandstone," called the " stone 
 of Scone," on which the ancient Scottish Kings 
 were crowned, and which the English seem to 
 keep and use for luck. There were galleries on 
 galleries upholstered in crimson cloth, and splen- 
 did tapestries, wherein sat members of Parlia- 
 ment and foreign Princes and Embassadors. In 
 tlie organ loft were singers in white, and instru- 
 mental performers in scarlet — all looking very 
 fine and festive ; and up very high was a band 
 of trumpeters, whose music, pealing over the 
 heads of the people, produced, at times, a won- 
 derful effect. 
 
J 
 
 (^ 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 1 17 
 
 Fashionable people had got up early for once. 
 Many were at the Abbey doors long be/ore 5 
 o'clock, and when the Queen arrived at 11:30, 
 hundreds of delicate ladies in full evening-dress, 
 had been waiting for her for seven long hours. 
 The foreign Princes and Embassadors were in 
 gorgeous costumes ; and there was the Lord 
 Mayor in all his glory, blinding to behold. His 
 most formidable rival was Prince Esterhazy, who 
 sparkled with costly jewels from his head down 
 to his boots— looking as though he had been 
 snowed upon with pearls, and had also been 
 caught out in a rain of diamonds, and had come 
 in dripping. All these grand personages and the 
 Peers and Peeresses were so placed as to have a 
 perfect view of the part of the minster in which 
 the coronation took place— called, in tn. pro- 
 gramme, " the Theatre." 
 
 The Queen came in about the middle of the 
 splendid procession. In her royal robe of crim- 
 son velvet, furred with ermine, and trimmed 
 with gold lace, wearing the collars of her orders, 
 and on her head a circlet of gold-her immense 
 train borne by eight very noble young ladies, 
 she is said to have looked " truly royal," though' 
 
 1 
 
ii8 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 SO young, and only four feet eight inches in 
 height. As she entered the Abbey, the orchestra 
 and choir broke out into the National Anthem. 
 They performed bravely, but were scarcely heard 
 for the mighty cheers which went up from the 
 great assembly, making the old minster resound 
 in all its aisles and arches and ancient chapels. 
 Then, as she advanced slowly towards the choir, 
 the anthem, " / was glad^' was sung, and after 
 that, the sweet-voiced choir-boys of Westmin- 
 ster chanted like so many white-gowned, sleek- 
 headed angels, " Vivat Victoria Rcgina ! " Ah, 
 then she felt very solemnly that she was Queen ; 
 and moving softly to a chair placed between the 
 Chair of Homage and the altar, she knelt down 
 on the " faldstool '* before it, and meekly said 
 her prayers. 
 
 When the boys had finished their glad anthem, 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, with several 
 high officers of state, moved to the east side of 
 the theatre, when the Primate, in a loud voice, 
 said : " I here present unio you Queen Victoria, 
 the undoubted Queen of this realm, wherefore 
 all you who are come this day to your homage, 
 are you willing to do the same ? " 
 
 i 
 
i 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 1 19 
 
 It seems a little confused, but the people 
 understood it, and shouted, " God save Queen 
 Victoria ! " This " recognition," as it was called, 
 was repeated at the south, west, and north sides 
 of the " theatre," and every time was answered 
 by that joyous shout, and by the pealing of 
 trumpets and the beating of drums. The Queen 
 stood throughout this ceremony, each time turn- 
 ing her head towards the point from which the 
 recognition came. 
 
 One may almost v/onder if all those loyal 
 shouts and triumphant trumpetings and drum- 
 beatings did not trouble somewhat the long 
 quiet of death in the dusky old chapels in which 
 sleep the fair Queen Eleanor, and the gracious 
 Philippa, and valiant Elizabeth, and hapless 
 Mary Stuart. 
 
 Then followed a great many curious rites and 
 ceremonies of receiving and presenting offer, 
 ings; and many prayers and the reading of 
 the Litany, and the preaching of the sermon, 
 in which the poor Queen was exhorted to 
 "follow in the footsteps of her predecessor" — 
 which would have been to walk " sailor-fashion " 
 morally. Then came the administration of the 
 F 
 
120 
 
 T,TFE OF QUEEN VICTrU'lTA. 
 
 oath. After having been catechised by the Arch> 
 bishop in regard to the Estabhshed Church, 
 Her Majesty was conducted to the altar, where 
 kneeling, and laying her hand on the Gospels in 
 the great Bible, she said, in clear tones, silvery 
 yet solemn: *' The things which I have here be- 
 fore promised, I will perform and keep. So 
 help me God! " 
 
 She then kissed the book, and after that the 
 hymn, " Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,'' was 
 sung by the choir, the Queen still kneeling. 
 
 I read the other day that the Duke of Con- 
 naught (Prince Arthur), on visiting Norwich 
 Cathedral, was shown the very Bible on which 
 his mother took her well-kept coronation oath, 
 forty-five years ago. It was a most solemn 
 pledge, and yet it was all comprehended in the 
 little girl Victoria's promise to her governess, 
 " I will be good." 
 
 Her Majesty next seated herself in St. Ed- 
 ward's chair ; a rich cloth of gold was held over 
 her hea*"', and the Archbishop anointed her 
 with holy oil, in the form of a cross. Then fol- 
 lowed more prayers, more forms and ceremonies, 
 the presentation of swords and spurs, and such 
 
 .., 
 
WOMAMIOOD Axn QUEENOOOD. ,3, 
 Uko nttlc fcn,inine adornments, the .-nvcsting 
 
 Z tir "'""' ""''' "'^ -<="'- -«■ th: 
 
 c otn ,'°"""^"^" -"^ blessing of the now 
 crown, and at last the crowning. In this august 
 ceremony three Archbishops, two Bishop!, 'a 
 Dean, and several other clergymen were some, 
 how emp oyed. The task was most religiously 
 P rformed. It was the Primate of all England 
 who reverently placed the crown on that rever- 
 cm young head. The moment this was done all 
 the Peers and Peeresses, who. with their coronets 
 n he,r hands, or borne by pages at their side, 
 had been intently watching the proceedings' 
 crowned themselves, shouting, " God save the 
 Queen- while again trumpets pealed forth, and 
 drums sounded, and the far-off Tower and Parlc 
 guns, fired by signal, boomed over the glad 
 Capital. ^ 
 
 It is stated that the most magically beautiful 
 effect of ail was produced by the Peeresses, in 
 suddenly and simultaneously donning their cor 
 onets It was as though the stars had somehow 
 kept back their radiance till the young moon re- 
 vealed herself in all her silver splendor 
 Then came the exhortation, an anthem, and 
 
V. 
 
 122 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 a benediction, and after a few more forms and 
 pomps, the Queen was conducted to the Chair of 
 Homage. Before the next long ceremony be- 
 gan, the Queen handed her two sceptres to two 
 of the lords in attendance, to keep for her, as 
 quietly as any other girl might hand over to a 
 couple of dangling young gentlemen her fan and 
 bouquet to hold for her, while she drew on her 
 gloves. 
 
 The Lords Spiritual, headed by the Primate, 
 began the homage by kneeling, and kissing the 
 Queen's hand. Then came the Dukes of Sus- 
 sex and Cambridge, who, removing their cor- 
 onets, and touching them to the Crown, solemnly 
 pledged their allegiance, and kissed their niece 
 on the left cheek. Her manner to them was 
 observed to be very affectionate. Then the 
 other Dukes, and Peers on Peers did homage by 
 kneeling, touching coronet to crown, and kissing 
 that little white hand. When the turn of the 
 Duke of Wellington came, the entire assembly 
 bioke into applause ; and yet he was not the 
 :'. o of the day, but an older and far more in- 
 ii\' \ Peer, Lord Rolle, who mounted the steps 
 wi.i't '.ifficultyj and stumbling at the top, fell, 
 
 i. 
 
 f* 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. ,23 
 
 and ™„,, a h^ way back to the floor, where 
 he lay at the bottom of the steps, coiled up L 
 h-obes." AtsightoftheaccLtthegl 
 
 rose fro,„ her throne, and held out her handfa 
 
 ott; '""• ^'--P-«y--dent 
 
 not for the poor Peer, but as show/ng He 
 
 Ma esty s ,„,pu,sive kindness of heart. The old 
 
 nobleman was not hurt, but quicl-lv , , 
 
 himself r^= quickly unwound 
 
 smilinsj, trave him i, i, / ^ ^"'"'"' 
 
 with the f . "'' '° '^'^^' dispensing 
 
 "'th the form of touching her crown. Miss 
 
 M rtmeau, who witnessed the scene, states U a 
 a foreigner who was present was made to be 
 iicve by a wao- tint- th;. i ^- 
 
 pofther;grt::re;:rtrTh: 
 
 meaning roll. ""^^°'-°'"-'"°"'R°"o 
 
 This most tedious ceremony over, finishing 
 
 I thrr ""™^' '™"'P^'^' ''™-^. and 
 Quee ' ""/;.^"'"-' -s administered to the 
 yuee„-she discrowning herself, and kneeling 
 
124 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 while she partook of the holy elements. Then 
 a re-crowning, a re-enthronement, more anthems, 
 and the blessed release of the final benediction. 
 Passing into King Edward's chapel, the Queen 
 changed the Imperial for the Royal robe of pur- 
 ple velvet, and passed out of the Abbey, wearing 
 her crown, bearing the sceptre in her right hand, 
 and the orb in her left, and so got into her car- 
 riage, and drove home through the shouting 
 multitude. It is stated that Her Majesty did 
 not seem exhausted, though she was observed 
 to put her hand to her head frequently, as 
 though the crown was not, after all, a very com- 
 fortable fit. 
 
 After reigning more than a year, she had been 
 obliged to spend nearly five fatiguing hours in 
 being finished as a Queen. How strange it all 
 seems to us American Republicans, who make 
 and unmake our rulers with such expedition 
 and scant ceremony. 
 
 r 
 
 r 
 
. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 change o/l,crMi„k,o,s. "" ^'"'"■-•l l«l"v,„r ,„ ,he fc. 
 
 IN the Hall of the St. George'.s Society of 
 Ihiladelphia there is a very interesting picture 
 by the late Mr. Sully of Queen Victoria in her 
 coronation robes. It is life-size, and represents 
 her as mounting the steps of the throne, her 
 head slightly turned, and looking back over the 
 left shoulder. It seems to me that Her Majesty 
 should own this picture, for it is an exquisite 
 specimen of Mr. Sully's peculiar coloring, and a 
 very lovely portrait. Here is no rigidity, no 
 constraint, no irksome state. There is a springy 
 exultant vitality in the bearing of the graceful' 
 figure, and the light poise of the head, while in 
 the complexion there is a tender softness and a 
 freshness of tints belonging only to the dewy 
 morning of life. The princelincss of youth, the 
 glow of joy and hope overtop and outshine the 
 crown which she «ears as lightly as though it 
 were a May-qucen's coronal of roses ; and the 
 
126 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 dignity of simple girlish purity envelops her 
 more royally than velvet and ermine. The eyes 
 have the softness of morning skies and spring 
 violets, and the smile hovering about the red 
 lips, a little parted, is that of an unworn heart 
 and an eager, confident spirit. This was the first 
 portrait of the young Queen I ever saw, and 
 still seems to me the loveliest. 
 
 Another American artist, Mr. Leslie, painted 
 a large picture of the coronation, which Her 
 Majesty purchased. As he was to paint the 
 scene, he was provided with a very good seat 
 near the throne — so near that he said he could 
 plainly see, when she came to sign her corona- 
 tion oath, that she wrote a large, bold hand, 
 doing credit to her old writing-master, Mr. 
 Steward. 
 
 In his recollections he says: "I don't know 
 why, but the first sight of her in her robes of 
 state brought tears into my eyes, and it had this 
 effect upon many people; she looked almost 
 like a child." Campbell, the poet, is related to 
 have said to a friend : " I was at Her Majesty's 
 coronation in Westminster Abbey, and she con- 
 ducted herself so well during the long and 
 
 «L.'< 
 
4d^ 
 
 Vrn.\:.\NIlO()I) AND QlIFrNllODD. 12/ 
 
 fatiguing ceremony that I shed tears many 
 times." 
 
 Carlyle said at the time, with a shake of his 
 craggy, shaggy head: "Poor little Queen! she 
 is at an age at which a girl can hardly be trusted 
 to choose a bonnet for herself, yet a task is laid 
 upon her from which an archangel might shrink." 
 And yet, according to Earl Russell, this 
 "poor little Queen," over whom the painters 
 and poets wept, and the great critic " roared 
 gently" his lofty commiseration, informed her 
 anxious mother that she " ascended the throne 
 without alarm." Victoria, if reminded of this 
 in later years, might have said, " They who 
 know nothing, fear nothing"; and yet the very 
 vagueness, as well as vastness, of the untried life 
 would have appalled many spirits. 
 
 The Queen was certainly a very valiant little 
 woman, but there would have been something 
 unnatural, almost uncanny, about her had the 
 regal calm and religious seriousness which 
 marked her mien during those imposing rites, 
 continued indefinitely, and it is right pleasant to 
 read in the reminiscences of Leslie, how the 
 child in her broke out when all the magnificent 
 
 I 
 
128 
 
 IJFE OT- OUEEN VTCTORTA. 
 
 but tiresome parade, all the grand stafrc-busi- 
 ness with those heavy actors, was over. The 
 painter says: "She is very fond of dojjs, and 
 has one favorite little spaniel, who is always on 
 the lookout f o * her return wlien she is from 
 home. She had, of course, been separated from 
 him on that day longer than usual, and when 
 the state-coach drove up to the Palace steps she 
 heard him barking joyously in the hall, and ex- 
 claimed, ' There's Dash,' and was in a hurry 
 to doff her crown and royal robe, and lay down 
 the sceptre and the orb, which she carried in her 
 hands, and go and give Dash his bath." 
 
 I hope this story is literally true, for I have a 
 strong impression that it was this peculiar love 
 of pets, this sense of companionship with intel- 
 ligent, affectionate animals, especially dogs and 
 horses, that with an cver-frcsh delight in riding 
 and dancing, healthful sports and merry games, 
 was the salvation of the young Queen. With- 
 out such vents, the mighty responsibility of 
 her dizzy position, the grandeur, the dignity, 
 the decorum, the awful etiquette would have 
 killed her — or at least, puffed her up with pride, 
 or petrified her with formality. Sir John Camp- 
 
WOMANIlOOn AND ( )r KK MUX >! ). 
 
 IJ9 
 
 bell wrote of her at tliis time : ** She is as merry 
 and playful as a kitten."— I hope she loved kit- 
 tens ! A^ain he says: "The Queen was in i^reat 
 spirits, and danced with more than usual gaiety, 
 a romping, country-dance, called the Tempest." 
 
 In addition to this girlish gaiety, Victoria 
 seems always to have had a vein of un-Cluelph- 
 like humor, a keen sense of the ludicrous, a de- 
 licious enjoyment of fun, which are among 
 Heaven's choicest blessings to poor mortals, 
 royal or republican. Prince Albert's sympathy 
 with her love of innocent amusement, and her 
 delight in the absurdities and drolleries of ani- 
 mal as well as of human life and character, was 
 one and perhaps not the weakest of the ties 
 which bound her to him. 
 
 With the young Queen equestrian exercise 
 was more than a pastime, it was almost a pas- 
 sion. She rode remarkably well, and in her 
 gratitude for this beautiful accomplishment, — 
 rarer even in England than people think — she 
 wished as soon as she came to the throne, to 
 give her riding-master, Fozard, a suitable posi- 
 tion near her person, something higher than 
 tliat of a groom. She was told that there was 
 
I30 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VTCTOKTA. 
 
 I 
 
 no situation vacant that he could fill. *' Then I 
 will create one," she said, and dubbed him " 1 Icr 
 Majesty's Stirrup-holder." I would have done 
 more for him — made him Master of the Horse, 
 in place of Lord Albemarle, who always rolled 
 along in the royal carriage, or created for him 
 the office of Lord High Equerry of th? Realm. 
 
 N. P. Willis, in his delightful " Pencilings By 
 the Way," gives a bright glimpse of the Queen 
 on horseback. It was in Hyde Park, and he 
 says the party from the Palace came on so fast 
 that the scarlet-coated outriders had difficulty 
 in clearing the track of the other equestrians. 
 ITer Majesty has always liked to go fast by 
 hcrse or steam-power, as though determined not 
 to let Time get ahead of her, for all his wings. 
 
 The poet then adds : " Her Majesty rides 
 quite fearlessly and securely. I met her party 
 full gallop near the centre of Rotten Row. On 
 came the Queen, on a dun-colored, highly- 
 groomed horse, with her Prime Minister on one 
 side of her, and Lord Byron on the other ; her 
 cortege of Maids of Honor, and Lords and 
 Ladies of the Court checking their spirited 
 horses, and preserving ahva)'s a slight distance 
 
 4> 
 
 k 
 
 M 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEKXfr;',. ,:>. 134 
 
 between themselves and Her Majesty. . Vic 
 toria's round, plump figure looks exceedin^^Iy 
 well m her dark green riding-dress. . . s"he 
 rode with her mouth open, and seemed exhilara- 
 ted with pleasure." 
 
 This was in 1839. Some years later, a youn^r 
 American writer, who shall be nameless, bu^ 
 who was as passionate a lover of horses as the 
 Queen herself, wrote a sort of p^an to horse- 
 back-riding. She began by telling her friends, 
 all whom it might concern, that when she was 
 observed to be low in her mind-when she 
 seemed ''weary of life," and to ''shrink from its 
 strife "-when,, in short, things didn't go well 
 with her generally, they were not to rome *o 
 her with the soft tones or the tears of sympa- 
 thy ; then she went on thus, rather pluckily I 
 think: t^ yy '■ 
 
 " No counsel I ask. and no pity I need 
 But bring me. O bring me, my gallant young steed 
 
 wide • '^^'-'-^"^"^^ "-^ -d ^- nostrn sprtd 
 His eye full of fire, and his step full of pride 
 
 The strength to my spirit returneth again 
 
 The bonds are all broken that fettered my mind 
 
 And my cares borne away on the wings of the wind - . 
 
132 
 
 LIFE OF OUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 My pride lifts its head, for a season bowed down, 
 And the queen in my nature now puts on he 
 crown." 
 
 Now if the simple American girl prepared for 
 a lonely gallop through the woods, could so 
 have thrilled with the fulness, joy, and strength 
 of young life; could have felt so royal, mounted 
 on a half-broken, roughly-groomed western colt 
 (for that's what the "steed " really was), with few 
 fine points and no pedigree to speak of — what 
 must the glorious exercise have been to that 
 great little Queen, re-enthroned on thorough- 
 bred, "highly -groomed," magnificent English 
 horse-flesh? 
 
 Her Majesty has always been constant in her 
 equine loves. Six of her saddle-horses, splen- 
 didly caparisoned, walked proudly, as so many 
 Archbishops, in the coronation procession ; and 
 ill the royal stables of London and Windsor, 
 her old favorites have been most tenderly cared 
 for. When she could no longer use them, she 
 still petted them, and never .reproached them 
 for having "outlived their usefulness." 
 
 Another writer from America, James Gordon 
 Bennett, sent home, this coronation year, some 
 
 X^ 
 
T" 
 
 WOMANHOOD ANT) QUEZXIIOOI). 
 
 -Li) 
 
 very pleasant descriptions of the Queen. Ai 
 the opera he had his first sic^ht of her. "About 
 ten o'clock, when the opera was half throu^-h 
 the royal party entered. 'There! there! there!' 
 exclaimed a voung girl behind me— 'there's the 
 Queen!' looking eagerly up to the royal box. 
 I looked too, and saw a fair, light-haired little 
 girl, dressed with great simplicity, in white mus- 
 lin, with hair plain, a blue ribbon at the back, 
 enter the box and take her seat, half hid in the 
 red drapery at the corner remote from the 
 stage. The Queen is certainly very simple in 
 her appearance; but I am not sure that this 
 very simplicity does not set off to advantacre 
 her fair, pretty, pleasant, little round Dutch 
 face. Her bust is extremely well-proportioned, 
 and her complexion very fair. There is a slioi,t 
 parting of the rosy lips, between which you can 
 see little nicks of something like very white 
 teeth. The expression of her face is amiable 
 and good-tempered. I could see nothing like 
 that awful majesty, that mysterious something 
 
 which doth hedge a Queen Durincr the 
 
 performance, the Queen would now and then 
 draw aside the curtain and gaze back at the 
 
134 
 
 I,IFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 1\ 
 
 audience, with that earnestness and curiosity 
 which any young gid might show." 
 
 Mr. Bennett gave other descriptions of the 
 Queen as he saw her driving in the Park. He 
 wrote : " I had been taking a walk over the in- 
 terior of the Park, gazing Hstlessly at the crowd 
 of carriages as they rolled by. Just as I was 
 entering the arched gateway to depart, a sensa- 
 tion spread through the crowd which filled that 
 part of the promenade. *The Queen! the 
 Queen ! ' flew from lip to lip. In an instant two 
 outriders shot through the gate, near Apsley 
 House, followed by a barouche and four, carry- 
 ing the Queen and three of her suite. She sat 
 on the right hand of the back seat, leaning a 
 good deal back. She was, as usual, dressed very 
 simply, in white, with a plain straw, or Leghorn 
 bonnet, and her veil was thrown aside. She 
 carried a green parasol." 
 
 Ah, why grccn^ O Queen ? Later that after- 
 noon he saw her again, going at a slower rate, 
 holding up that green parasol, bowing right and 
 left and smiling, as the crowd saluted and 
 cheered. The Queen does not bow and smile 
 so much nowadays, but then she no longer car- 
 ries a green parasol. 
 
 A^ 
 
. 
 
 -¥ 
 
 ; X 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 135 
 
 N. P. Willis also saw the young sovereign at 
 the opera, and dashes off a poet's vivid sketch 
 of her : 
 
 " In her box to the left of me sat the Queen, 
 keeping time with her fan to the singing of Pau- 
 h'ne Garcia, her favorite Minister, Lord Mel- 
 bourne, standing behind her chair, and her 
 maids of honor grouped around her — herself 
 the youthful, smiling, admired sovereign of the 
 most powerful nation on earth. The Queen's 
 face has thinned and grown more oval since I 
 saw her four years ago as the Princess Victoria. 
 She has been compelled to think since then, and 
 such exigencies in all stations in life work out 
 the expression of the face. She has now what 
 I should pronounce a decidedly intellectual coun- 
 tenance, a little petulant withal when she turns 
 to speak, but on the whole quite beautiful enough 
 for a virgin Queen. She was dressed less gaily 
 than many others around her." 
 
 I have given much space to these personal 
 descriptions of Queen Victoria as she appeared 
 m those first two years of her Queenhood, be- 
 cause they are still to the world -the world of 
 young people, at least-the most interesting 
 
136 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 U 
 
 ul 
 
 !• 
 
 i{ 
 
 I 
 
 years of all her glorious reign. There was great 
 poetry about that time, and, it must be con- 
 fessed, some pfril. 
 
 Mrs. Olphuh., in her excellent little life of 
 the Queen, says : " The immediate circle of 
 friends around the young sovereign fed her 
 with no flattci'PF '" 
 
 It is difficult *-.-. i, ^'""ve such a statement of 
 any mortal Courc-circie. Tsut if gross adulation 
 was not Oliered- :• iic:-t of a! pabulum, which 
 the Queen's admirable good ^.ise would have 
 rejected, there was profound homage in the 
 very attitude of courtiers and in the etiquette 
 of Court life. The incense of praise and admi- 
 ration, " unuttered or exprest," was perpetually 
 and inevitably rising up about her young foot- 
 steps wherever they strayed ; it formed the very 
 air she breathed — about as healthful an atmos- 
 phere to live and sleep in as would be that of a 
 conservatory abounding in tuberoses, white lil- 
 ies, and jessamine. 
 
 Still, that she did not grow either arrogant or 
 artificial, seems proved by the pleasant accounts 
 given of her simple and gracious ways by the 
 painters of whom I have spoken — Thomas Sully 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 137 
 
 j'"d Charles Leslie. I remember particularly, 
 '.car,ng from a friend of Mr. Sully, of the gen- 
 erous interest she took in his portrait of her, 
 
 wh.ch, I think, was painted at Windsor. She 
 gave hi,„ ,„ J,,, ^.^^.^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ 
 
 I'er busy life would allow ; giving him free use 
 01 all the splendid paraphernalia neeessary for 
 ';- work. Between whiles the painter's youn. 
 oaughter stood for the pieture, being, of 
 course obliged to don the royal robes and 
 even the tiara. One day, while thus engaged 
 and arrayed, the Queen came suddenly into U,e 
 room. Miss Sully much confused was about to 
 descend from the steps of the throne, when the 
 Queen exclaimed, laughing: " Pray stay as you 
 are ; I hke to see how I look ! " 
 
 Leslie, whose picture of the Coronation 
 vas panned at Windsor, gave a pleasant ac 
 
 Z "^ ^2"'"'"^ ""'""'y -d easy ways 
 
 She .snow," he says, "so far satisfied with the 
 
 .keness tat she does not Wish me to touch it 
 aga,n^ She sat five times-not only for the 
 face but for as much as is seen of the figure 
 and or the hands, with the coronation-ring on 
 the finger. Her hands, by the by, are very 
 
138 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 pretty — the backs dimpled and the fingers deli- 
 cately shaped. She was particular to have her 
 hair dressed exactly as she wore it at the cere- 
 mony every time she sat." 
 
 The Queen in her writings says very little of 
 this portion of her " strange, eventful history," 
 — a time so filled with incident, so gilded with 
 romance, so bathed in poetry, so altogether 
 splendid in the eyes of all the world ; for to her, 
 life — or all which was most " happy and glori- 
 ous " in life — began and ended with Prince Al- 
 bert. She even speaks with regret of that pe- 
 riod of single queenliness, and says: "A worse 
 school for a young girl — one more detrimental 
 to all natural feelings and affections— cannot 
 well be imagined than the position of a Queen 
 at eighteen without experience and without a 
 husband to guide and support her. This the 
 Queen can state from painful experience, and 
 she thanks God that none of her own dear 
 daughters are exposed to such danger." 
 
 Human nature is rash and young-woman-nat- 
 ure ambitious and ill-disposed to profit by the 
 costly experience of eld, and I doubt not the 
 clever Princess Royal or the proud and fairPrin- 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 139 
 
 cess Louise would have mounted any throne in 
 Christendom "without alarm." Most of Her 
 Majesty's loyal subjects deny that any harm 
 came to her from her unsupported position as 
 Queen Regnant, or that she was capable of being 
 thus harmed— but the Queen knows best. 
 
 The Princess Victoria was a proud, high- 
 spirited girl, and it were no treason to suppose 
 that at the first she had a sense of relief when 
 the leading-strings, in which she had been so 
 long held, were cut, though by the scissors of 
 Atropos, and she was free to stand and go alone. 
 Her good mother, becoming at once an object 
 of political jealousy, removed herself from the 
 old close companionship, though retaining in 
 her heart the old tender solicitude— perhaps feel- 
 ing herself more than ever necessary to her 
 daughter. Mothers are so conceited. It is 
 small wonder if after her life of studious and 
 modest seclusion and filial subordination, the gai- 
 ety, the splendor, and the supremacy of the new 
 existence intoxicated the young sovereign some- 
 what. The pleasures of her capital and the 
 homage of the world captivated her imagina- 
 tion, while the consciousness of power and 
 
I40 
 
 LIFE OF QUEKN VICTORIA. 
 
 ^m. 
 
 K 
 
 wealth and personal loveliness inclined her to 
 be self-indulgent and self-willed. In spite of 
 the good counsel of the family Mentor, Baron 
 Stockmar, and of her sagacious uncle, Leopold, 
 she must have committed some errors of judg- 
 ment — fallen into some follies ; she was so 
 young and impulsive — so very human. Her 
 first independent political act seems to have 
 been a mistake, founded on a misunderstand- 
 ing. It was at all events an act more Georgian 
 than Victorian. The Whig party, to which she 
 was attached, had by a series of blunders and by 
 weak vacillation lost strength and popularity, 
 and Lord Melbourne's Ministry found itself so 
 hard-pressed that it struck colors and resigned. 
 -Then the Queen was advised by the Duke of 
 Wellington to invite the Conservative leader. 
 Sir Robert Peel, to form a new Ministry. She 
 did so, but frankly told that gentleman that she 
 was very sorry to lose Lord Melbourne and his 
 colleagues, whom she liked and approved — 
 which must have been pleasant talk to Sir Rob- 
 ert. However, he went to work, but soon 
 found that objections were made by his col- 
 leagues to certain Whig ladies in personal at- 
 
WOMANHOOD AND (JUKKXIKX )[ >. |.|r 
 
 tendance on the Ouccn, and likely to innuence 
 her. So it was proposed to Her Majesty to 
 make an important chanj^rc in her household. 1 
 believe that the Duchess of Sutherland and 
 Lady Normandy— the first the sister and the 
 second the wife of a prominent Liberal— were 
 especially meant ; but the Queen took it that 
 she was called on to dismiss all her ladies, and 
 flatly refused, saying- that to do so would be 
 "repugnant to her feelings ' —forgetting that 
 feeling was no constitutional argument. She 
 had got used to those Ladies of the Bed-Cham- 
 ber, and they to her. They knew just where 
 everything was, what colors became her, and 
 what gossip and games amused her. Doubtless 
 she loved them, and doubtless also she loved her 
 own way. Surely the right ot ner constitutional 
 advisers to dictate to her must have a limit 
 somewhere, and she drew the line at her bed- 
 chamber door. Then, as Sir Robert would not 
 yield the point, she recalled Melbourne and 
 went on as before. The affair created immense 
 excitement. Non-political people were amused 
 at the little Queen's spirit of independence. 
 Liberals applauded her patriotism and pluck in 
 
142 
 
 LIFZ Ol- QUKCN VICTORIA. 
 
 I 
 
 n 
 
 defeating the "wicked Red-Chambcr Plot," and 
 for her loyalty to her friends ; but the defeated 
 Tories were very naturally incensed, and, man- 
 like, paid Her Majesty back, when measures 
 which she had much at heart came before Par- 
 liament a year or so later — as we shall sec. 
 
 Many years later the Queen appears to have 
 thought that she was beginning to drift on to 
 rocks of serious political mistakes and misfor- 
 tunes as well as into rapids of frivolity, when 
 the good, wise Pilot came to take the helm of 
 her life-craft. 
 
 This pilot was, of course, the " Prince Charm- 
 ing," selected and reared for her av/ay in Saxe- 
 Coburg — that handsome Cousin Albert, once in 
 a letter to the good uncle Leopold tacitly ac- 
 cepted by her in girlish thoughtlessness, as she 
 would have accepted a partner in a joyous coun- 
 try-dance, and afterwards nearly as thoughtlessly 
 thrown over and himself sent adrift. 
 
 f\ 
 
 
 !i 
 
 i 
 

 ;^^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 ,»' 
 
 Prince Albert. 
 
 If the Princess Charlotte was the prototype 
 of her cousin Victoria, Prince Leopold was in 
 some respects the prototype of his beloved 
 nephew Albert, who was born in August, 1819, 
 at Rosenau, a charming summer residence of 
 his father, the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg- 
 Saalfield. The little 'Vince's grandmother, the 
 Dowager-Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, in writing to 
 her daughter, the Duchess of Kent, to announce 
 the happy event, says : " The little boy is to be 
 christened to-morrow, and to have the name of 
 Albert." 
 
 When the christening came off it appeared 
 that " Albert " was only one and the simplest of 
 several names, but he was always known and al- 
 ways will be known by that name. It has been im- 
 mortalized by his upright character, his rare in- 
 tellectual gifts, his goodness and grace ; by the 
 affection of his countrymen and his noble life- 
 ® (143) 
 
144 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 » .'■ 
 
 '• Ql 
 
 H 
 
 ti 
 
 ,*' 
 
 ill ' 
 
 t f 
 
 work in England; by the genius of England's 
 greatest living poet, and by the love and sor- 
 row of England's Queen. 
 
 While the Prince was yet a baby, his mother 
 wrote of him: "Albert is superb, — remarkably 
 beautiful, with large blue eyes, a delicate mouth, 
 a fine nose, and dimpled cheeks. He is lively 
 and always gay." 
 
 Albert was the second son of the Duke and 
 Duchess. Ernest, a year or two older, is thus 
 described by his mother: " Ernest is very strong 
 and robust, but not half so pretty as his brother. 
 He is handsome, though ; with black eyes." 
 
 Prince Leopold spent some time with his 
 brother at Coburc^ when Albert was about two 
 years old, and then began the tender, life-long 
 mutual affection which led to such happy and 
 important results. The young mother wrote : 
 " Albert adores his uncle Leopold; never quits 
 hirii for a moment ; looks sweetly at him ; is con- 
 stantly embracing him ; and is never happy ex- 
 cept when near him." 
 
 The grandmother also wrote : " Leopold is 
 very kind to the little bo}'s. Bold AlbcrtincJicn 
 drags him constantly about by the hand. The 
 
 «• 
 
 I 
 
••*■ 
 
 <• 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. I45 
 
 little fellow is the pendant to the pretty cousin 
 (Princess Victoria); very handsome, but too 
 slight for a boy; lively, very funny, all good 
 nature, and full of mischief. The other day he 
 did not know how to make enough of me, be- 
 cause I took him with me in the carriage. He 
 kept saying, 'Albert is going with grandmam- 
 ma!' and gave me his little hand to kiss. 
 ' There, grandmamma, kiss !' " 
 
 The little Princes were not long to enjoy the 
 care and society of their loving and lovely 
 mother. An unhappy estrangement between 
 their parents, followed by a separation and a 
 divorce, left them at seven and five years old 
 half-orphaned ; for they never saw ihclr mother 
 again. She died at St. Wendel, in Switzerland, 
 while still young and beautiful ; but doubtless 
 weary enough of life, which had brought her 
 such happiness, only to take it away. Two 
 words as holy as her prayers, were on her dying 
 lips—'' Ernest ! " " Albert ! " 
 
 But the boys were rich in grandmothers- 
 having two of the very tendcrcst and 
 dearest of Dowager-Duchesses to watch over 
 them (watching each other, perhaps, the while) 
 
 ^ 
 
f I 
 
 u 
 
 ,i s 
 
 \\i 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 146 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 and to minister to them for many a year. Ac* 
 cording to these venerable ladies, Albert, who 
 was certainly a delicate, nervous child, was one 
 of those " little angels " who are destined not to 
 survive the dimpled, golden-curled, lisping, and 
 croupy period ; being too good and sweet and 
 exquisite for this wicked and rough world. 
 But, according to certain entries in the Prince's 
 own diary — his first, begun in his sixth year — 
 he at that age happily revealed some hopeful 
 signs of saving naughtiness and healthful " orig- 
 inal sin." 
 
 " I ith February, 1825. 
 
 " I was told to recite something, but did not wish to 
 do so. That was not right — naughty ! " 
 
 " 20th February, 
 
 " I had left all my lesson books lying about in the 
 room, and I had to put them away ; then I cried." 
 
 " 28th February, 
 
 " I cried at my lesson to-day because I could not find 
 a verb, and the Rath (tutor) pinched me, to show me 
 what a verb was. I cried about it. " 
 
 " 9th A/>rt7, 
 
 " I got up well and happy ; afterward I had a fight with 
 my brother." 
 
 "loth Apr zV. 
 
 " I had another fight with my brother ; that was not 
 
 rifirht." 
 
it. 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 147 
 
 This almost baby-prince seems to have been 
 a valorous little fellow. When his blood was up 
 he seems to have given little thought to the 
 superior age or strength of his opponents, but 
 to have been always ready to " pitch in "; or, to 
 use the more refined and courtly language of 
 his tutor, M. Florschutz, "he was not, at 
 times, indisposed to resort to force, if his wishes 
 were not at once complied with." 
 
 For several years the young Princes, devoted 
 to each other, passed studious, yet active and 
 merry lives at the Coburg Palace, and in the 
 dear country home of Rosenau. They seem to 
 have corresponded with their cousin Victoria, 
 whom, it seems, the lad Albert was led by his 
 grandmamma Coburg to regard with an espcci- 
 ally romantic and tender interest. That grand- 
 mamma, the mother of Prince Leopold and the 
 Duchess of Kent, and who seems to have been 
 a very able and noble woman, died when her 
 darling Albert was about twelve years old ; but 
 the hope of her heart did not die with her, and 
 without doubt Prince Albert was educated with 
 special and constant reference to a far more 
 important and brilliant destiny than often falls 
 
w 
 
 T48 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 to the lot of the young sons of even Grand 
 Ducal houses. He was well instructed in many 
 branches of science, in languages, in music and 
 literature, in politics, and what seems a contra- 
 diction, in ethics, — his moral development being 
 most carefully watched over, while his physical 
 training was a pendant to that which made his 
 cousin Victoria one of the healthiest and hardi- 
 est of modern Englishwomen. With a delicate 
 constitution and a sensitive, nervous tempera- 
 ment, Prince Albert would scarcely have lived 
 to manhood, except for that admirable physical 
 training. As a child, he was braced up by much 
 life in the open air, simple diet, a good deal of 
 rough play — while as to sleep, he was allowed to 
 help himself, which he did plentifully, being 
 much given to somnolency. Asa lad and youth, 
 he hardened himself by all healthful, manly 
 sports and exercises ; in short, made a boy of 
 mamma's " angel," a man of grandmamma's 
 golden-haired darling. Nor was that great ele- 
 ment of a liberal education, travel, wanting. The 
 brothers paid visits to their uncle Leopold, now 
 King of Belgium, and after tours in Germany, 
 Austria, and Holland, visited England, and 
 
 *%, 
 
 -.t 
 
I 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEKXIIOOD. 149 
 
 their aunt Kent and their cousin Victoria, to 
 whom they were most warmly commended by 
 their uncle. 
 
 According to the Queen's books, with this 
 visit of three weeks began the personal ac- 
 quaintance of the cousins ; yet old Kensingtoni- 
 ans have a legend which they obstinately cling 
 to, that Prince Albert, when much younger, 
 spent three years in the old brick palace with 
 his aunt and cousin, in pursuance of the matri- 
 monial plans of the Duchess of Kent and Prince 
 Leopold; and I have seen in a quainfold juve- 
 nile book a wood-cut representing the little Vic- 
 toria in a big hat, riding on a pony in the park, 
 and little Albert in a visorcd cap and short 
 jacket running along at her side. But, of course, 
 it was all a mistake ; there was no such period of 
 childish courtship, and the boy in the queer 
 Dutch cap was an optical illusion, or a '' double," 
 in German a ddppd-gdngcr. During the real 
 visit, occurred the seventeenth birthday of the 
 Princess, and there were public rejoicings and 
 Court-festivities, preceded and followed for the 
 cousins by days of pleasant companionship, in 
 walking and riding, and evenings of music and 
 
 ^^ 
 
150 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I ill, 
 
 
 li 
 
 I ■ 
 
 ^t 
 
 ! : 
 
 dancing. But if the lad Albert, remembering 
 the promise of his garrulous nurse, and the 
 prophecy of his fond grandmamma, and the 
 wish of his father and uncle Leopold, sought 
 to read his destiny in the bafifling blue eyes of 
 the gay young girl, he seems to have failed, for 
 he could only write home : " Our cousin is most 
 amiable." Perhaps Victoria's own wonderful 
 destiny, now drawing near, left little room in her 
 heart or thought for lesser romances ; perhaps 
 the crown of England supended over her head 
 as by a single hair, the frail life of an old man, 
 outdazzled even the graces and merits of her 
 handsome but rather immature kinsman. Be- 
 sides, " Prince Charming " at that time was 
 short and stout, and he spoke our language too 
 imperfectly to make love (which he would have 
 pronounced /uf) in the future Queen's English ; 
 and so he went away without any exchange of 
 vows, or rings, or locks of fair hair or miniatures, 
 and returned to his studies, principally at the 
 University of Bonn. It is true that the Princess 
 wrote to her *' dearest uncle Leopold " soon 
 after this visit, begging him to take special care 
 of one now so dear to her, adding : " I hope 
 
 \l 
 
 if 
 
 4 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. ,5, 
 
 to me. Yet Kmg Leopold was a wise m^,, ,nrl 
 
 d.d not bund too secure,, on the fancy o, 
 of seventeen, though he Kept to wol, he ^ j 
 
 the Baron, on their Prince-Consort .-n bV „ 
 
 ^7;' '''^ °PP°--t- of old Kin, V C 
 and a>n.s brothers, and the candidat:s favl^ 
 
 PrLeTjT '"■■"' ^"■■'^' °''^^°"" '''^t 
 
 th throne , T^' " '"' '°"^''"" ^^--'■°" '» 
 n Ui h t ; "°"^ ''^"^^ °^ congratulation. 
 
 n wh ch there appeared not one word of cour 
 
 .c..hkeadu,ation-not a thought caieuiate;:' 
 
 to that g.ddy height overlooking the world 
 -th a thril, .f exultation or vainrglorioulc ' 
 
 Thus wrote this boy.„an of eighteen: "Now 
 you are Queen of the mightiest land of Eurt 
 - your hand iies the happiness of milhon .' 
 May Heaven assist you, and strengthen you 
 
 w.^h.tstrengthinthehigh,butdim!u,ttasl" 
 After leaving the University Prince Albert 
 
 Stockmar-eveo^where winning the ad.nira- 
 
'i 
 
 152 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I 411 
 
 '4t 
 It ' 
 
 i ■; 
 
 tion and respect of the best sort of people by 
 the rare princeliness of his appearance, his re- 
 fined taste, his thouj^htful and singularly recep- 
 tive mind. And so three years went by. They 
 were three years of uncertainty in regard to the 
 great projects formed for him, of happiness, and 
 a noble and useful, if subordinate career. King 
 Leopold, the good genius of the two families, 
 had not suffered his cousin to forget him, 
 but though she declared she cared for no one 
 else, she was not disposed to enter into any 
 positive engagement, even with Albert. She 
 enjoyed intensely her proud, independent posi- 
 tion as Queen Regnant. She was having such a 
 glorious swing at life, and very naturally feared 
 the possible restraints, and the inevitable sub- 
 ordination of marriage. She was " too young 
 to marry," and Albert was still younger — full 
 three months. She would remain as she was, 
 the gay, untrammeled maiden-Queen of Eng- 
 land, for at least three or four years longer, and 
 then think about it. The Prince was made 
 aware by his uncle Leopold of his royal cousin's 
 state of feeling, or unfeeling, and was in a very 
 doubtful and despondent state of mind when, 
 
 -^- 
 
 I ,«i 
 
 m 
 
'J' 
 
 woMANiToon AX]) oi;ET:\nf )nD. 
 
 153 
 
 > 
 
 -0^ 
 
 polished by study and travel, grown tall and 
 graceful, and " ideally beautiful," a veritable 
 " Prince Charming," he came over the sea, out 
 of fairyland, via Rotterdam, to seek his fortune 
 — to attempt, at least, to wake the grandeur- 
 enchanted Princess from her passionless dream 
 of lonely, loveless sovereignty. He came, was 
 seen, and conquered ! But not at once ; ah, no ; 
 for this charming royal idyl had its changing 
 strophes, marking deepening degrees of senti- 
 ment — admiration, interest, hope, assurance, 
 joyous certainty. 
 
 The Queen had resolved to receive both the 
 Princes with cousinly affection and royal honors, 
 but as though they had come on an ordinary 
 visit. As for Albert, she meant probably to 
 reason with him frankly, till he should be con- 
 vinced that they were *'ower young to marry 
 yet" — till he should realize his own exceeding 
 youthfulness. Then, as he must go away, and 
 " wait a little longer," she would sec as much of 
 him as possible — he was such a good, constant 
 fellow. But she must give due attention to her 
 other guests ; and then the State had some claim 
 on her time. But when the Cobiirg Princes ar- 
 
154 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I; t 
 
 1^ 
 
 e 
 
 It 
 
 
 't;f 
 
 I:!; 
 
 /ivcd at Windsor, and the Queen, with her 
 mother, met them at the head of the grand 
 staircase, somehow she had only eyes for the 
 younger brother; he had grown so manly, so 
 tall, quite out of the old objectionable stout- 
 ness; he had so improved in his English; he was 
 so handsome — so every way presentable ! So, 
 in spite of the gaieties and forms, and the com- 
 ings and goings of Windsor, so very much did 
 the royal maiden, hitherto so gay and " fancy- 
 free," see of her cousin Albert preparatory to 
 bidding him an indefinite adieu, that on the sec- 
 ond day even, cause for jealousy was given to 
 aspiring courtiers by smiles and words, especially 
 sweet and gracious, bestowed on the fair Saxon 
 Knight. On that second day the Queen wrote to 
 her uncle Leopold : ** Albert's beauty is rr Dst 
 striking, and he is most amiable and unaffected ; 
 in short, very fascinating." She then added, with 
 an exquisite touch of maiden coyness : " The 
 young men are dot/i amiable, delightful com- 
 panions, and I am glad to have them here." 
 
 When a few more days had passed in familiar 
 intercourse, in singing and walking, in dancing 
 and driving, and best of all, in riding together 
 
 U 
 
 I: 
 
 I 
 
WOMANHOOD AND OUT' KNII* )()D. 
 
 '55 
 
 I 
 
 (for there is no cradle to rock young Love in like 
 the saddle), the poor little Queen forsworn, 
 found she had no longer the courage to propose 
 to that proud young Prince to wait indefinitely 
 on her will— to tarry at Coburg for more wis- 
 dom and beard. At the thought of it she 
 seemed to see something of noble scorn about 
 his lips, and such grave remonstrance in his 
 gentle, pensive, forget-me-not eyes, that — the 
 words of parting were never spoken, or not till 
 after many happy years. 
 
 Alas for this fairy-Prince in an unfairylike 
 kingdom ! He could only declare his love, and 
 sound the heart of his beloved, with his eyes. 
 Etiquette put a leaden seal on his lips till from 
 hers should come the sweet avowal and the mo- 
 mentous proffer to rule the ruler— to assume 
 love' s sovereignty over the Sovereign. After 
 five days of troubled yet joyous waiting, it came 
 —the happy " climax," as the Prince called it in 
 a letter to Baron Stockmar — and then that per- 
 fectest flower of human life, whether in palace 
 or cottage, a pure and noble love, burst into full 
 and glorious bloom in each young heart. One 
 cannot, even now, read without a genuine 
 
ISO 
 
 LIFE OF QUFKN VICTORIA. 
 
 '5 'I 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 
 A 
 
 heart-thrill, and a mistiness about the eyes, the 
 simple touching story of that royal romance of 
 royal old Windsor. More than two-score years 
 have passed, and yet how fresh it seems! It 
 has the dew and the bloom of Paradise upon it. 
 
 What in all this story seems to me most 
 beautiful and touching, because so exquisitely 
 womanly, is the meekness of the young Queen. 
 Though as Queen she offered the Prince her 
 coveted hand — that hand that had held the 
 sceptre of sceptres, and which Princes and Peers 
 and the representatives of the highest powers 
 on earth, had kissed in homage, it w'as only as a 
 poor little woman's weak hand, which needed to 
 be upheld and guided in good works by a 
 stronger, firmer hand ; and her head, when she 
 laid it on her chosen husband's shoulder, had 
 not the feel of the crown on it. Indeed, she 
 seems to have felt that his love was her real 
 coronation, his faith her consecration. 
 
 To the beloved Stockmar, to whom but a 
 little while before she had communicated h^ 
 unalterable determination not to marry any oi 
 for ever so long, the newly betrothed wrote : " 1 
 do feel so guilty I know not how to begin my 
 
WOMAXTTOOn ANT) ()UM.:NII00I). 157 
 
 letter; but I think the news it will contain will 
 be sufficient to ensure your forgiveness. Albert 
 has completely won my heart, and all was 
 settled between us this mornin^r. j fed certain 
 he will make me happy. I wish I could feel as 
 certain of my makin- him hapj^y, but I will do 
 my best." 
 
 Among the entries in the Queen's journal arc 
 many like this: -Row I will strive to make 
 Albert feel as little as possible the great sacri- 
 fice he has made. I told him it 7C'as a great 
 sacrifice on his part, but he would not allow it." 
 Of course the Prince had too much manly 
 feeling and practical good sense to ''allow it." 
 He knew he was the most envied, not only of 
 all poor German Princes about that time, but of 
 all young scions of royalty the world over; and 
 besides, he loved his cousin. There is no 
 record or legend or hint of his having ever loved 
 any other woman, except his good grand- 
 mothers. To her of Gotha he wrote: "The 
 Queen sent for me alone to her room the other 
 day, and declared to me in a genuine outburst 
 of affection that I had gained her whole heart, 
 and would make her intensely happy if I would 
 
.■■'I ' 
 
 158 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 m 
 
 r, \ 
 
 li. ; 
 
 sr 
 
 make her the sacrifice of sharing her life with 
 her, for she said she looked on it as a sacrifice ; 
 the only thing which troubled her was that she 
 did not think she was worthy of me. The joy- 
 ous openness with which she told me this en- 
 chanted me, and I was quite carried away by it." 
 
 Still, and always the thought of " sacrifice ! " 
 This sentiment of tender humility, of deference 
 and reverence the Queen never lost. Indeed, it 
 seems to have grown with years, and as the 
 character of the Prince-Consort unfolded m.ore 
 and more in beauty, strength, dignity, and up- 
 rightness. 
 
 A month was passed by the lovers, in such 
 happiness as comes but once in life to the most 
 fortunate human beings — to some, alas ! never. 
 Then the Prince returned to Coburg, to settle 
 his affairs a'.d to take leave of his old home and 
 his kindred. Those partings seem to have 
 pulled hard on his heart-strings, and are dis- 
 tressing to read about. One would think he 
 was bound for the " under-world," to wed the 
 Queen of Madagascar. These Germans are 
 such passionate lovers of the fatherland, that 
 one wonders how they can ever bring them- 
 
 •^ 
 
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 
 
 159 
 
 '»V»t.' 
 
 '•^.• 
 
 selves to leave it, to make grand marriages in 
 England, or fortunes in America, to start a 
 royal house, or a kindergarten— to become a 
 Field Marshal or a United States Senator. 
 
 But all that grief at Coburg and Gotha 
 showed how dearly Prince Albert was loved, 
 and how he loved. 
 
 It seems that the fair cousin at Windsor was 
 scarcely gay, for the Prince, writing to her 
 mother, says : " What you say of my poor little 
 bride, sitting all alone in her room, silent and 
 sad, has touched my heart. Oh, that 1 might 
 fly to her side to cheer her ! " 
 
 But she could not have much indulged in 
 this solitary, idle brooding, for she had work to 
 do, and must be up and doing. First, she had 
 to summon a Privy Council, which met at Buck- 
 ingham Palace; — more than eighty Peers, mostly 
 solemn old fellows, w^ho had outlived their days 
 of romantic sentiment, if they ever had any, 
 yet to whom the Queen had to declare her love 
 for her cousin Albert, and her intention to marry 
 him, being convinced, she said, that this union 
 would "secure her domestic felicity, and serve 
 the interests of her country." It was a little 
 
i6o 
 
 LIFE OF OUEEX VICTORIA. 
 
 .'! 
 
 '5f 
 
 if 
 
 It . 
 
 I. 
 
 hard, yet a certain bracelet, containing a certain 
 miniature, which she wore on her arm, gave her 
 " courage," she said. Then came a yet more 
 trying ordeal, for a modest young lady — the an- 
 nouncement of her intended marriage, in a 
 speech from the throne, in the House of Lords. 
 With the utmost dignity and calmness, and with 
 a happiness which sparkled in her eyes and 
 glowed in her blushes, and made strangely 
 beautiful her young face, she read the announce- 
 ment in the clear, musical tones so peculiar to 
 her, and with an almost religious solemnity. 
 The glory of pure maidenly trust and devotion 
 resting on her head, outshone the jewels of 
 her tiara ; Love was enthroned at her side. 
 
 All was not sunshine, rose-bloom and soft 
 airs before the young German husband of the 
 Queen. Much doubt and jealousy and some 
 unfriendliness were waiting for him in high 
 places. The disappointed Tory party, and some 
 Radicals, opposed hotly the proposed grant for 
 the Prince of ;!^5o,ooo, and at last cut it down 
 to ^30,000. 
 
 Then came a discussion over a clause in the 
 Bill for the Naturalization of the Prince, em- 
 
 i -t 
 
Ir*^ 
 
 i 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEKNIIOOD. i6l 
 
 powering the husband of the Queen to take 
 precedence over even the Royal Princes, and to 
 be ever at her side, where he belonged, which, 
 though finally assented to by those most inter- 
 ested in England — the Dukes of Sussex and 
 Cambridge — was stoutly opposed by their elder 
 brother, the Duke of Cumberland, for Heaven 
 and Hanover had not relieved the English Gov- 
 ernment of " the bogie." In support of his 
 rights, Wellington and Brougham stood out, 
 and the clause was dropped. But the Queen, 
 by the exercise of her prerogative, gave the 
 Prince the title of Royal Highness, and made 
 him a Field Marshal in the British army ; and 
 about a month later, she settled the precedence 
 question, as far as concerned England, by pro- 
 claiming that by her royal will and pleasure her 
 husband should *' enjoy place, pre-eminence and 
 precedence, next to Her Majesty." 
 
 The amiable Prince is said never to have 
 cherished resentment towards Sir Robert Peel 
 and others who had voted to cut down his 
 allowance, or the Duke of Wellington, and Lord 
 Brougham, who had argued that those tiresome 
 old gentlemen, the Royal Dukes, should have 
 
 
II < 
 
 1 62 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ^11 
 
 Mf 
 
 the right to walk and sit next to his wife on 
 State occasions; but Victoria confesses that 
 she long felt " most indignant." She was hurt 
 not only in her wifely love, but in her queenly 
 pride. 
 
 Greville says of Kings : " The contrast be- 
 tween their apparent authority and the contra- 
 dictions which they practically meet with, must 
 be peculiarly galling — more especially to men 
 whose minds are seldom regulated by the bene- 
 ficial discipline of education, and early collision 
 with their equals." It must be yet more " gall- 
 ing " for Queens, because they always have been 
 more flattered, and are imaginative enough to 
 fancy that in grasping the symbols they hold 
 the power. 
 
 But I do not believe that the royal lovers 
 took deeply to heart these disagreeable matters 
 at this time. I hope they didn't mourn much 
 over the ;^20,ooo they didn't get. I hope that 
 Love lifted them far above the murky air of 
 party strife and petty jealc Msy into a clear, 
 serene atmosphere of its own. They knew — and 
 it was a great thing to know — that they had the 
 sympathy of all the true hearts of the realm, 
 
 •^ 
 W 
 

 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 163 
 
 whether beating under the "purple and fine 
 linen " of the rich and noble, or the rough and 
 simple garments of the poor and humble. 
 
 On the loth of February, 1840, Prince Al- 
 bert, always tenderly thoughtful of the dear old 
 Dowager of Saxe-Gotha, his '' licbc grosmama^' 
 who, when he had parted from her last, had 
 stood at her window, weeping, stretching out 
 her arms and so desolately calling after him, 
 "Albert! Albert !" sat down and wrote as no 
 beautifulest Prince of poetr>^ or romance ever 
 wrote to a feeble, old female relative on his 
 wedding-day: 
 
 " Dear Grandmamma : In less than three 
 hours, I shall stand at the altar, with my dear 
 bride. In these solemn moments, I must once 
 more ask your blessing, which I am well assured 
 I shall receive, and which will be my safeguard 
 and future joy. I must end. God be my stay ! 
 
 " Your faithful 
 
 "Albert." 
 
 This letter may seem a little too solemn and 
 ill-assured, but it shows in what a serious and 
 devout spirit this young Prince, not yet of age, 
 
164 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 entered on that auspicious and splendid union, 
 whose wedding -bells rang round the world. 
 Moreover, the young man's position was a rather 
 trying one. As yet, he was little known in Eng- 
 land, while it was well known that the Royal 
 Family had been from the first opposed to his 
 marriage with Victoria. Though the land of 
 the Teutons had so long been the nursery of 
 English Kings and Queens, the English common 
 people were jealous of Teutonic Princes — re- 
 garding them for the most part as needy advent- 
 urers, for whom England was only the great 
 milch-cow of Germany. Prince Albert had a 
 host of prejudices to live down ; and he did 
 live down most of them, but some have died 
 hard over his grave. 
 
 The Queen's wedding was second only to the 
 coronation, as a grand and beautiful pageant for 
 the privileged few who could witness it, for of 
 course the old Royal Chapel of St. James was 
 a much narrower stage for the great scene than 
 the Abbey. Still, royalty ail^ nobility turned 
 out in force, and all the greatest of the great 
 were there. The sombre chapel was made to 
 look very gay and gorgeous with hangings and 
 
 -«^ 
 
 -«> 
 
I*Y/' 
 
 WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD. 
 
 165 
 
 .i. 
 
 decorations ; even before the ladies in rich 
 dresses and with all their costliest jewels on, 
 and the gentlemen in brilliant uniforms and 
 Court-costumes arrived. The bridegroom, when 
 he walked up the aisle, between his father and 
 his brother, bowing affably right and left, drew 
 forth murmurs of admiration by his rare beauty 
 and grace — princeliest of Princes. 
 
 The Queen is described as looking unusually 
 pale, but very lovely, in a magnificent robe of lace 
 ove white satin trimmed with orange blossoms, 
 and with a most exquisite Honiton veil. In the 
 midst of her twelve bridesmaids, her face radi- 
 ant with happiness, she seemed like the whitest 
 of diamonds set in pearls — or so they say. 
 
 Her Majesty is also described as bearing her- 
 self with great dignity and composure, and to 
 have gone through the service very solemnly. 
 And yet I have heard a little story that runs 
 thus : When Prince Albert, in this last act of ''Le 
 Jciinc Homme Pauvrc^' came to repeat, as he 
 placed the ring on her finger, the words, "With 
 all my worldly goods I thee endow," the merry 
 girl-Ouecn was unable to suppress an arch smile. 
 
 The Duchess of Kent is described as lookinGf 
 
h .'f 
 
 Pii 
 
 166 
 
 
 ■Ml 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 " tearful and distressed." Ah, why will mothers 
 always cry at their daughters* weddings, even 
 when they have hoped and schemed for that 
 very match ; and why will brides, though ever 
 so much in love, weep, first or last, on the wed- 
 ding morning ? Lady Lyttlcton, in her corre- 
 spondence, said of the Queen — " Her eyes were 
 swollen with tears ; but," she adds, " there was 
 great happiness in her countenance, and her 
 look of confidence and comfort at the Prince, 
 when they walked away, as man and wife, was 
 very pleasant to see." 
 
 Ah, " when they walked away as man and 
 wife " — now simply and for always to each other, 
 " Albert " and " Victoria," the separate life of 
 our " Prince Charming " closed. Thenceforth, 
 the two bright life-streams seemed to flow on 
 together, completely merged, indistinguishable, 
 indivisible, but only seemed— ior, alas, one has 
 reached the great ocean before the other. 
 
 \r ',] 
 
 ,i^ 
 
 t 
 
PART III. 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 11 
 
jj» 
 
 ri ' 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 

 PART III. 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 -The Duchr:r£:. ;i 3 ai'zr °'^r"' ■'-•'-'"•-«; 
 presM. a. a ..... r. j^^r^^aSr o^rsifr^-f " 
 
 In this mere sketch of the great life of the 
 Queen of England, I can give little space to 
 the political questions and events of her reign 
 important and momentous as some of them 
 were even for other lands and other people than 
 the Enghsh. For a clear and concise account 
 of those questions and events, I refer my read- 
 ers to "A History of Our Own Times" by 
 Justin McCarthy. M.P. I know nothing so ad- 
 mirable of its kind. But mine must be some- 
 thmg less ambitious-a personal and domestic 
 history-light, gossipy, superficial, as regards 
 the profound mysteries of politics; in short 
 "pure womanly." 
 
 I shall not even treat of the great wars which 
 
 (169) 
 
170 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 1 ! . 
 
 a I 
 
 iH 
 
 stormed over the Continent, and upset and set 
 up thrones, except as they affected the life of 
 my illustrious subject. At first they seemed to 
 form a lurid background to the bright pictures 
 of peace and love presented by her happy mar- 
 riage and maternity, and afterwards in the deso- 
 lation and mourning they brought, seemed in 
 keeping with the sorrow of her widowhood. 
 
 Happily all was quiet and peace in the 
 United Kingdom, and in the world at large, 
 when the honeymoon began for that august but 
 simple-hearted pair of lovers, Victoria and 
 Albert ; or, as she would have preferred to write 
 it, Albert and Victoria. The fiery little spurt 
 of revolt in Canada, called rather ambitiously, 
 " The Canadian Rebellion," had ended in smoke, 
 and the outburst of Chartism, from the spontane- 
 ous combustion of sullen and long-smothered 
 discontent among the working classes, had been 
 extinguished, partly by a fog of misapprehen- 
 sion and misdirection, partly by a process of 
 energetic stamping out. The shameful Chinese 
 opium war, the Cabul disasters, and the fearful 
 Sepoy rebellion were, as yet, only slow, simmer- 
 ing horrors in the black caldron of the Fates. 
 
 I 
 
"' 
 
 WiriiHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. ,71 
 
 Irish starvation had not set in, in its acute form 
 and Ir sh sedition was, as yet, taking only the 
 form of words-the bold, eloquent, magnificent, 
 but not malignant and scarcely menacing words 
 of Daniel O'Connell. In the Infernal Council 
 Chamber below, the clock whose hours are 
 epochs of crime, had not yet struck for the era 
 of political assassination. France was resting 
 and cooling from the throes and fires of revolu- 
 t.on, and growing the vine over its old lava 
 courses. The citizen-King and his family were 
 settmg an example of domestic affection and 
 union, of morality, thrift, and forehandedness- 
 d'ligently making hay while the fickle sun of 
 French loyalty was shining. Italy was lying 
 deathly quiet under the mailed foot of Austria 
 and under the paternal foot of the old Pope' 
 shod with a velvet slipper, cross-embroidered, but 
 leadcn-soled ; Garibaldi was fighting for lib 
 erty m "the golden South Americas"; Mazzini 
 vvas yet dreaming of liberty-so was Kossuth. 
 Russia was quietly gathering herself up for new 
 leaps of conquest under her most imperial, in- 
 flex.ble autocrat-the inscrutable, unsmiling 
 ■Njcholas. ^ 
 
r. 
 
 172 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 \u 
 
 M 
 
 In England and America it was, though a 
 peaceful, a stirring and an eventful time. Eng- 
 lish manufacturers, not content with leveling 
 mountains of American cotton bales, converting 
 them into textile fabrics and clothing the world 
 therewith, were reaching deep and deeper into 
 the bowels of the earth, and pulling up sterner 
 stufT to spin into gigantic threads with which to 
 lace together all the provinces and cities of the 
 real<Ti, That captive monster. Steam, though in 
 the early days of its servitude, was working well 
 in harness, while in America Morse was after 
 the lightning, lassoing it with his galvanic 
 wires. In England the steam-dragon had be- 
 gun by killing one of his keepers, and was dis- 
 trusted by most English people, who still pre- 
 ferred post-horses and stage-coaches— -all the 
 good old ways beloved by hostel-keepers, Tony 
 Wellers, postilions and pot-boys. There was 
 something fearful, supernatural, almost profane 
 and Providence-defying in this new, swift, wild, 
 and whizzing mode of conveyance. Churchmen 
 and Tories were especially set against it ; yet I 
 have been told that later, that Prince of con- 
 servatives, F. M., the Duke of Wellington, did, 
 
 
Ji^*^ 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 173 
 
 on the occasion of one of Her Majesty's accouche 
 vicnts, travel from London to Windsor, at the 
 rate of seventy-f^ve miles an hour, in order to be 
 in at the birth ! What were the perils of Water- 
 loo to this darinjT, dizzying journey? 
 
 Just a month before the Queen's marriage 
 there occurred in London a union yet more 
 auspicious, not alone for England, but for all 
 Christendom. It was the wedding, by act of 
 Parliament, of Knowledge and Humanity in the 
 cheap postage reform— carried through with won- 
 derful ability, energy, persistence, and pluck by 
 Rowland Hill; blessed be his memory. The 
 Queen afterwards knighted him, but he did not 
 need the honor, though I do;,bt not it was 
 pleasant, coming from her hands. The simple 
 name of the dear old man was full of dignity, 
 and long before had been stamped-penny' 
 stamped, on the heart of the world. 
 
 So it seemed that life smiled on and around 
 the royal wedded pair on that winter afternoon, 
 so unwintry to them, when they took leave of 
 relations and wedding guests at Buckingham 
 Palace, and set out for Windsor Castle. Even 
 the heavens which had wept in the mornincr 
 
174 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 with those who wept, changed its mood, and 
 smiled on bride and bridegroom, as they drove 
 forth in an open carriage and four, followed by 
 other open carriages containing a picked suite 
 of friends and attendants — all with favor-decked 
 postilions and footmen in the royal red liveries, 
 and everything grand and gay. The Queen was 
 dressed in a white satin pelisse, profusely trim- 
 med with swan's-down. She seems, in those 
 days, to have been very fond of nestling down 
 Uiider that soft, warm, dainty sort of a wrap. 
 How like a white dove she must have looked 
 that day, for her bonnet was white, trimmed with 
 white plumes. Prince Albert wore a fur-trim- 
 med coat, with a high collar, and had a very high 
 hat, which for the most part was in his hand, 
 so much saluting was he obliged to do to the 
 saluting multitude. 
 
 All the world was abroad that day — great was 
 the flow of good feeling, and mighty was the 
 flow of good ale, while the whole air of the 
 Kingdom was vibrating with the peal of merry 
 marriage-bells. All through the land free din- 
 ners were provided for the poor — good roast 
 beef, plum-pudding — 'alf and 'alf fare — and 1 
 
 I 
 
J 
 
 V»*.' 
 
 wrri-rrooD and motherhood. 175 
 
 am afraid the Queen's pauper-subjects would 
 have been unwilling to have the occasion in- 
 definitely repeated, with such observances,— 
 would not have objected to Her Majesty prov- 
 ing a female Henry VIII. 
 
 Victoria and Albert drove that afternoon 
 more than twenty miles between ranks of fran- 
 tically loyal, rejoicing people,— past countless 
 festive decorations, and a world of " F"s and 
 "A "s— under arches so gay that one wondered 
 where and how at that season all the flowers 
 and foliage were produced,— if nature had not 
 hurried up her spring work, so as to be able to 
 come to the wedding. The Queen turned now 
 and then her happy face on her shouting? sub- 
 jects, in graceful acknowledgment of thejr sym- 
 pathy with her happiness ; but much of the time 
 she was observed to be regarding her husband, 
 intently or furtivel}^ So she had betrayed her 
 heart during the marriage ceremony, when, as 
 an eye-witness records, she ''was observed to 
 look frequently at Prince Albert,— in fact, she 
 scarcely ever took her eyes off him." I suppose 
 she found him " goodiy to look upon." It is 
 certain that she worshiped him with her eyes, 
 
I/O 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 y 
 
 as well as with her heart and soul, — then and 
 ever after. For the world, even for the Court, 
 he grew, as the pitiless, pilfering years went by, 
 a little too stout, and somewhat bald, while his 
 complexion lost something of its fine coloring 
 end smoothness, and his eyes their fulness, — 
 but for her, he seems to have always kept the 
 grace and glory of his youth. Even when he 
 was dying — when the gray twilight of the fast- 
 coming night was creeping over his face, cloud- 
 ing the light of his eyes, chilling the glow of his 
 smile — his beauty was still undimmcd for her. 
 She says in her pathetic account of those sad 
 moments — ** his beautiful face, more beautiful 
 than ever, is grown so thin." 
 
 But on this Ihcir wedding-day, death and 
 death-bed partings were far enough from the 
 thoughts of the royal lovers. Life was theirs, 
 — young life, in all its fulness and richness of 
 health, and hope, and joy, and that " perfect 
 love, which casteth out fear." 
 
 So essentially young and go light-hearted 
 were they, that they laughingly welcomed the 
 crowd of shouting, leaping, hat-waving, tiiad 
 Eton boys, who as they nearcd Windsor, turned 
 
•f - 
 
 *^* 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTIIERIIOOn. Ijy 
 
 out to receive them. The Queen jotted down 
 this jolly incident in her journal thus : " The 
 boys in a body accompanied the carriage to the 
 castle, cheering and shouting as only school- 
 boys can. They swarmed up the mound, as 
 the carriage entered the quadrangle, and, as the 
 Queen and the Prince descended at the grand 
 entrance, they made the old castle rinfr acrain 
 
 o o 
 
 with their acclamations." 
 
 What would Queen Charlotte, or any of the 
 stiff, formal Dutch Queens of any of the Georges 
 have thought of such a boisterous weddins" 
 escort, — of such a noisy welcome to stately 
 Windsor ? They would very likely have said, 
 " Go away, naughty poys / How dare you ! " 
 
 Alas, this royal piir, natural, joyous, girl-like 
 and boy-like as they were, s^ill were slaves to 
 their station. They could not long hide them- 
 selves from the million-eyed world. In a few days 
 the Court came down upon them from London. 
 " Mamma " came with them— and I hope that 
 she, at least, was welcome. Then followed show 
 and ceremony, and amusements of the common, 
 unpoetic, unparadisiacal, Courtly order. There 
 were " fiddling and dancing every night," and 
 
 I 
 
\v 
 
 h ' 
 
 I \< 
 
 ■1^ 
 
 I i ' 
 
 ^1 
 
 T7S 
 
 T.TFE OF QUFEN VICTORIA. 
 
 fcastinc^, and full-drcssin<^, and all that. Still 
 nothing seems to have interfered much with the 
 Queen's happiness and content, for Lady Lyt- 
 tleton wrote of her about this time, — " I under- 
 stand she is in extremely high spirits. Such a 
 new thing for her to dare to be unguarded in 
 conversing with anybody, and with her frank 
 and fearless nature, the restraints she has hither- 
 to been under, from one reason or another, with 
 everybody, must have been most painful." 
 
 Only the day after her marriage, the Queen 
 wrote to Baron Stockmar : " There cannot ex- 
 ist a purer, dearer, nobler being in the world 
 than the Prince." 
 
 She never took those words back — she never 
 had rause to take them back, to lie heavy on 
 licr lu irt. But such utter adoration persisted 
 in year after year, with cheerful obstinacy, even 
 against the modest protests of the object, would 
 have spoiled any man who was spoilable. 
 
 Her Majesty was soon obliged to return to 
 London, in order to hold Courts, to receive ad- 
 dresses of congratulation on her marriage. It 
 seemed that half the men of the Kingdom of 
 any standing, had formed themselves into dele- 
 
*"i< 
 
 // 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTIIERIIOOD. i^q 
 
 gations. So numerous were they, that Prince 
 Albert was obhged to - come up to the help of 
 the Queen against the mighty "—bore, for she 
 records that he in one day received and person- 
 ally answered no less than twenty-seven ad- 
 dresses ! In fact, he was nearly addressed to 
 death. 
 
 The Queen after receiving many members of 
 both Houses of Parliament, bearing addresses- 
 received large delegations from the State Church 
 —the General Assembly of the Church of Scot- 
 land—the English Non-Conformists, and the 
 Society of Friends— all walking peacefully 
 enough together to the throne of Victoria, but 
 having widely different ways to the - throne of 
 grace,"— all uniting in loyal prayers for the di- 
 vine blessing on t;.e fair head of their Sovereign, 
 and in the hope that the comely young man of 
 her choice might do virtuously, and walk hum- 
 bly and gingerly by her side— but a little in the 
 rear, as became him ; not, of course, as a hus- 
 band, Scripturally regarded, but as the German 
 Consort of an English Queen regnant. 
 
 This subordinate v\q\v of her husband's place 
 the Queen did not fully accept from anybod>'. 
 

 i8o 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 . I \ 
 
 at any time. At x.at period, it is probable she 
 would have gladly taken off the crown, to place 
 it on his dear head, and doffed the ermine man- 
 tle to put it on his manly shoulders, and would 
 have been the first to swear allegiance to " King 
 Albert." 
 
 She thought that he might, at least, have the 
 title of " King-Consort," and perhaps because 
 of this hope, she deferred for years — till 1857 — 
 conferring on him, by Royal Letters Patent, the 
 title of Prince-Consort. 
 
 Doubtless the English people, if they had 
 been on the lookout for a King, might have 
 gone farther and fared worse, — but the four 
 Georges had somehow got them out of conceit 
 with the word " King," and William, the Sailor, 
 had not quite reconciled them to it ; — then they 
 were jealous of foreigners, and last, but not 
 least, there were apprehensions that the larger 
 title would necessitate a larger grant. But the 
 Prince did not need the empty honor, which in 
 his position would have been " a distinction 
 without a difference." I do not believe he cared 
 much for it, though titles are usually dear to 
 the Teutonic soul, determined, as he always so 
 
 .>^* 
 
 ':^ .£ 
 
,A'.} 
 
 ;<». 
 
 WIFKirOOn AND MOTIIERTIOOD. igj 
 
 wisely was, to "sink his individuality in that of 
 the Queen," and when at last, the second best 
 title of Prince-Consort, that by which the peo- 
 pic already named him, was made liis len-al 
 right, by his fond wife, grieved to have kept 
 
 — " the best man under the sun, 
 So many years from his due," 
 
 he was well content, because it pleased her. 
 
 The Queen certainly did all she constitution- 
 ally could to confer honors on her husband, 
 who after all outdid her, and best honored 
 himself. 
 
 Before their marriage, she had invested him 
 with the noble order of the Garter, and given 
 him the Star, and the Badge, and the Garter 
 itself set in diamonds. She now invested him 
 with the insignia of a Knight Grand Cross of 
 the Order of the Bath. It amused her, this in- 
 vesting— she would have liked to invent a few 
 orders, for royal Albert's sake— he became the 
 insignia so well ! She also made him Colonel 
 of the nth Regiment of Light Dragoons— he 
 rode so well .'—and she had the name changed 
 to '' Prince Albert's Own Hussars." 
 
 ^'Mi 
 
1 82 
 
 T.IFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Everywhere the Queen and Prince appeared 
 tofTcthcr — at reviews and art exhibitions, at 
 church and at the theatre (for the Queen was 
 very fond of the drama in those days), at draw- 
 ing-rooms and at races — and everywhere the 
 people delighted in their beauty and their hap- 
 piness. 
 
 Early in April, the Duchess of Kent, in pur- 
 suance of what she deemed her duty, and best 
 for the young people, parted from her darling 
 daughter, and took up her residence in a sepa- 
 rate home in London — Ingestric House. She 
 afterwards occupied Clarence House, the pres- 
 ent residence of the Duke of Edinburgh. When 
 the Court was at Windsor, the Duchess resided 
 at Frogmore, a very lovely place, belonging to 
 the royal estate, and so near the Castle that 
 she was able to dine and lunch with Victoria 
 almost daily. Still the partial separation was 
 a trial for a mother and daughter so closely 
 and tenderly attached, and they both took it 
 hard, — as did, about that time, Prince Albert 
 his separation from his brother Ernest, whose 
 loncf visit was over. The Queen's account 
 o( the exceeding sorrowfulness of that part- 
 
 -i 
 
n 
 
 ,jLr 
 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 183 
 
 ing must now bring to the lips of the most 
 sentimental reader, though " a man and a broth- 
 er," an unsympathetic smile— unless he happens 
 to remember that those were the earliest da}'s 
 of steam on sea and land, and that journeys 
 fro;vi England to any part of the Continent were 
 no light undertakings. So the brothers suno- 
 together a mournful college song, and em- 
 braced, kissing one another on both cheeks, 
 doubtless, after the German fashion,—*' poor 
 Albert being pale as a sheet, and his eyes full 
 of tears." Ah, what would he have said could 
 his " prophetic soul " have beheld his son, Al- 
 bert Edward, skipping from London to Paris in 
 eight hours— dashing about the Continent, from 
 Copenhagen to Cannes, from Brussels to Berlin 
 —from Homburg to St. Petersburg— taking it 
 all as lightly and gaily as a school-boy takes a 
 "jolly lark" of a holiday trip to Brighton or 
 Margate! That was not the day of peregri- 
 nating Princes. Now they are as plenty as 
 commercial travelers. 
 
 Early in June the Queen and Prince and their 
 Court left busy, smoky London for a icw days 
 of quiet and pure air at lovely Clarcmont. They 
 

 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-S) 
 
 A 
 
 ^^ <% 
 
 
 V . V 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 '" 1^ III 2.2 
 12.0 
 
 \i^ 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1-25 1.4 III 1.6 
 
 
 .^ 6" 
 
 ► 
 
 \ 
 
 V] 
 
 <^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 o 
 
 /,. 
 
 
 >(^ 
 
 / 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 73 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
 « 
 
 S55 
 
 \ 
 
 \\ 
 
 ^9) 
 
 .V 
 
 ^^ 
 
 <^ 
 
 % 
 
 V 
 
 
 O^ 
 

 
1 84 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 spent part of that restful time in going to the 
 Derby, in four carriages and four with outrid- 
 ers and postilions — a brave sight to see. 
 
 On the first of June, Prince Albert was in- 
 vited to preside at a great public meeting in 
 Exeter Hall, for the abolition of the Slave 
 Trade — and he did preside, and made a good 
 speech, which he had practiced over to the 
 Queen in the morning. That was an ordeal, 
 for he spoke in English for the first time, and 
 before a very large and distinguished audience. 
 It was a very young " Daniel come to judg- 
 ment " on an ancient wrong — for the Prince 
 was not ye^ of age. 
 
 That sweet Quakeress, Caroline Fox, thus 
 speaks of the Prince on this interesting occa- 
 sion, in her delightful " Memories ": — ** Prince 
 Albert was received with tremendous applause, 
 but bore his honors with calm and modest dig- 
 nity. He is certainly a very beautiful young 
 man, — a thorough German, and a fine poetical 
 specimen of the race." 
 
 Ah, what would that doughty champion of 
 the Slave Trade, William IV., have said, could 
 he have seen his niece's husband giving royal 
 
 ^V ' 
 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 1 85 
 
 -v» 
 
 --J i 
 
 countenance to such a fanatical, radical gather- 
 ing ! It was enough to make him stir irefuUy 
 in his coffin at Windsor. 
 
 But for that matter, could our ancestors gen- 
 erally, men and women who devoutly believed 
 in the past, and died in the odor of antiquity, 
 know of our modern goings-on, in political and 
 humanitarian reforms — know of our "Science 
 so called," and social ethics, there would be " a 
 rattling among the dry bones," not only in royai 
 vaults, but in country churchyards, where " The 
 rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep:* 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Death passes by— Life comes. 
 
 1 
 
 On the loth of June, 1840, occurred the first 
 mad attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria — 
 made as she and Prince Albert were driving up 
 Constitution Hill, near Buckingham Palace, in 
 a small open phaeton. Prince Albert, in a let- 
 ter to his grandmamma, gives the clearest ac- 
 count of it. He says: "We had hardly pro- 
 ceeded a hundred yards from the Palace, when 
 I noticed, on the foot-path on my side, a little, 
 mean-looking man, holding something toward 
 us, and, before I could distinguish what it was, 
 a shot was fired, which almost stunned us both, 
 
 it was so loud — barely six paces from us 
 
 The horses started, and the carriage stopped. 
 I seized Victoria's hands and asked if the fright 
 had not shaken her, but she laughed." 
 
 Almost immediately the fellow fired a second 
 shot, from which the Queen was saved probably 
 by the presence of mind of the Prince, who 
 (186) 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 187 
 
 drew her down beside him. He states that the 
 ball must have passed just over her head. The 
 wretch was at once arrested and taken away, 
 and soon after committed for trial, on the charge 
 of high treason. The Queen was seen to be 
 very pale, but calm. She rose in the carriage 
 to show the excited people that she was not 
 hurt, and then ordered the postilions to drive 
 at once to Ingestrie House, that the Duchess 
 of Kent might hear of the startling incident 
 first from her and not be frightened by wild 
 rumors. It was a thoughtful and filial act, and 
 brave, moreover, for there were those about her 
 who suspected that there might be a revolution- 
 ary conspiracy, and that Oxford was only one 
 of many banded assassins. These alarmists 
 advised her and her husband to show them- 
 selves abroad as little as possible. How they 
 heeded this advice is shown in another passage 
 of Prince Albert's letter: "We arrived safely 
 at Aunt Kent's. From thence we took a drive 
 through the Park, to give Victoria a little air,— 
 also to show the people that we had not, on 
 account of what had happened, lost confidence 
 in them." 
 
■py 
 
 I88 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 i 
 
 The Prince does not mention a very pretty 
 incident which I find recorded elsewhere. As 
 the Queen's carriage reached the Park, it was 
 received with enthusiastic cheers, smiles, and 
 tears by crowds of people, equestrians and pe- 
 destrians, and the gay world on wheels ; and as 
 they neared the Marble Arch, the gentlemen 
 and ladies on horseback followed them as with 
 one impulse — all Rotton Row turned out, and 
 escorted them to Buckingham Palace. It is said, 
 too, that for several days this was repeated — 
 that whenever the Queen and Prince drove out 
 they were escorted by this singular volunteer 
 body-guard. 
 
 Of course, the whole country was excited, and 
 the Queen, whose life had been menaced, was 
 more popular than ever. They say that her 
 first visit to the opera after this shocking at- 
 tempt was a most memorable occasion. Her 
 reception was something almost overwhelming. 
 The audience were all on their feet, cheering 
 and shouting, and waving handkerchiefs and 
 hats, and there was no quieting them till the 
 National Anthem was sung — and even then, 
 they broke in with wild cheers at the close of 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 189 
 
 every verse. Her Majesty stood throughout 
 these demonstrations, bowing and smiling, her 
 heart melted within her, I doubt not. 
 
 Of course there was no conspiracy, and Ox- 
 ford the pot-boy, "a pot-boy was, and nothing 
 more." He was acquitted on the ground of in- 
 sanity, but ordered to be confined " during Her 
 Majesty's pleasure," which he was in Bedlam 
 for some years. Then he was sent to Australia 
 as cured, and where he went into better busi- 
 ness than shooting Queens, and earned an hon- 
 est living, they say. He always declared that 
 he was not insane, except from a mad passion 
 for notoriety — which he got. 
 
 The five or six successors of Oxford who 
 have shot at Her Majesty, and that wretched 
 retired officer, Robert Pate, who waylaid her in 
 1850, and struck her a cruel blow across the 
 face with a walking-stick, were pronounced in- 
 sane, and confined in mad-houses merely. The 
 English are too proud and politic to admit that 
 a sane man can lift his hand against the Consti- 
 tutional Sovereign of England. When there 
 arrived in London the news of the shooting of 
 President Garfield, a distinguished English gen^ 
 
r 
 
 190 
 
 LIFE rp QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 tleman said to me, " I think we will not be an- 
 nexed to the United States while you shoot 
 your Presidents." 
 
 I replied by reminding him of the many at- 
 tempts on the life of his beloved Queen, adding, 
 " I believe the homicidal mania is a Monarchi- 
 cal as well as a Republican affliction, — the dif- 
 ference only is that, unhappily for us, our mad- 
 men are the better shots." 
 
 It must be that for monarchists born and 
 bred, an anointed head, whether covered by a 
 silk hat or a straw bonnet, is circled by a simu- 
 lacrum of a crown, which dazzles the aim of the 
 would-be regicide, they are so almost certain to 
 miss, at long or short range. Alas there is no 
 halo of sovereignty or " hedge of divinity " 
 about our poor Presidents ! It is, perhaps, be- 
 cause of this unsteadiness of nerve and aim, 
 that Continental regicides are taking to sterner 
 and surer means — believing that no thrice 
 blessed crown can dazzle off dynamite, and that 
 no most imperial " divinity " is bomb-proof. 
 
 In July an act which was the shadow of a 
 coming event, was passed by Parliament, and 
 received the Royal assent. It provided that 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 191 
 
 Prince Albert should be Regent in case that the 
 Queen should die before her next lineal de- 
 scendant should attain the age of eighteen 
 years. 
 
 In August the Queen prorogued Parliament 
 for the first time since her marriage, and she 
 brought her handsome husband to show to all 
 the Lords and gentlemen — bravely attired in 
 his Field-Marshal's uniform, with his Collars of 
 the Garter and the Bath, and diamond Stars 
 — and she had him seated only a little lower 
 than herself and very near, in a splendid chair, 
 gilded, carved, and velvet-cushioned. The 
 Prince wrote to his father as a piece of good 
 news, " The prorogation of Parliament passed 
 off very quietly." He had had reason to fear 
 that his right to sit in that lofty seat would be 
 disputed — that the old Duke of Sussex might 
 come hobbling up to the throne, calling out, 
 ** I object ! I object ! " 
 
 But nothing of the kind happened. The 
 Queen, by her wit and her courage, had circum- 
 vented all the royal old sticklers for precedence 
 — who put etiquette before nature. The Queen's 
 mother, and her uncle and aunt, the King and 
 
192 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 Queen of Belgium, were present, — so it was quite 
 a family-party. The good Uncle Leopold was 
 observed to smile benignly on both Victoria 
 and Albert, as though well pleased with his 
 work. The Queen was most magnificently at- 
 tired with all her glories on, in the shape of 
 diamonds and orders, and looked very proud 
 and happy, — and yet there was a dreamy, half- 
 troubled expression in her eyes at times, which 
 was not usual, but which her mother under- 
 stood. 
 
 On this day, Prince Albert's status was fixed. 
 He had taken a ride with his wife, in the State-car- 
 riage, with the twelve cream-colored, long tailed 
 State horses, and the gorgeous footmen, and he 
 had sat higher, and nearer the throne than any 
 other man in the House of Lords, Prince or Peer. 
 The next thing the Queen did for him was to 
 make him a member of the Privy Council. But 
 a little later, he had a higher promotion than 
 that; for, on the 21st of November, the Prin- 
 cess Royal was born in Buckingham Palace, in 
 the early afternoon. 
 
 During the morning the Duchess of Kent 
 had been sent for— and came hurrying over. 
 
 J 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTIIEUIIOOD. 
 
 »93 
 
 They also sent for the Duke of Sussex, the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Lon- 
 don, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Melbourne, 
 Lord Palmcrston, Lord Errol, Lord Albemarle — 
 Lord John Russell, and other Privy Councillors, 
 whose constitutional duty it is to be present at 
 the birth of an heir to the throne of England, — 
 and they came bustling in, as old ladies come 
 together on a like occasion in country places in 
 New England. It is probable they all looked 
 for a boy. The girl was an extraordinary baby, 
 however, for when she was barely two days old, 
 her papa wrote to her grandpapa at Coburg, 
 " The little one is very well and very merry." 
 The Prince welcomed her in a fatherly way, 
 though, as he confesses, sorry that she was the 
 same sort of a human creature as her mother, — 
 that is, a daughter instead of a son. He wrote 
 to his father very frankly, " I should certainly 
 have liked it better if she had been a son, as 
 would Victoria also," and so, strangely enough, 
 would the English people — unfortunate as they 
 had often been with their Kings, and fortunate 
 as they had always been with their Queens. The 
 great officers of the Church and State went 
 
■ r 
 
 I 
 
 194 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 away probably saying, " Only a girl ! " Dear 
 " little Pussie," as she was often called, wouldn't 
 have been so " merry " if she had known how 
 it was. She was looked upon as a temporary 
 stop-gap — something to keep out Cumberland, 
 and naturally she did not have so many silver 
 cups and gold spoons as she would have had 
 if she had been a boy — nor so many guns, poor 
 thing ! When the firing ceased at the feminine 
 limit, people all over the city said, " Only a 
 girl ! " 
 
 Some years later, when, at the birth of one of 
 her brothers, the guns were booming away, 
 Douglas Jerrold exclaimed to a friend at din- 
 ner : " How they do powder these royal ba- 
 bies!" 
 
 The Queen in her journal gives a beautiful 
 account of her husband's devotion to her dur- 
 ing her illness. She says, always speaking of 
 herself in the third person : " During the time 
 the Queen was laid up, his care and devotion 
 were quite beyond expression. He refused to 
 go to the play, or anywhere else ; generally din- 
 ing alone with the Duchess of Kent, till the 
 Queen was able to join them, and was always on 
 
">- 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. IQj 
 
 hand to do anything in his power for her com- 
 fort. He was content to sit by her in a dark- 
 ened rooiii, to read to her or write for her. No 
 one but himself ever lifted her from her bed to 
 her sofa, and he always helped to wheel her on 
 her sofa into the next room. For this purpose 
 he would come instantly when sent for from 
 any part of the house. As years went on, and 
 he became overwhelmed with work, this was 
 often done at much inconvenience to himself 
 (for his attentions were the same in all the 
 Queen's subsequent confinements), but he 
 always came with a sweet smile on his face. 
 In short," the Queen adds, "his care of her 
 was like that of a mother, nor could there be 
 a kinder, wiser, or more judicious nurse." 
 
 The Prince also during the Queen's illness, 
 conferred with her ministers, and transacted all 
 necessary business for her. There were nine of 
 these natural illnesses. I commend the ex- 
 ample of the Prince-Consort to the husbands of 
 America, to husbands all over the world. 
 
 It was a glad and grateful Christmas which 
 they spent in Windsor that year— the first after 
 their marriage, — the first since their union, so 
 
I 
 
 196 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Mi 
 
 II 
 
 pompously and piously blessed by priests and 
 people, had been visibly blessed by Heaven. 
 
 The next month the Queen opened Parlia- 
 ment in person, and gave the Lords and gentle- 
 men another elocutionary treat in her admira- 
 ble reading of her speech, — that " most excellent 
 thing in woman," a sweet voice, telling even on 
 the Tories. Prince Albert was with her, of 
 course, and she looked even prouder and hap- 
 pier than usual. She had found yet new hon- 
 ors for herself and for him, — the most noble 
 and ancient orders of Maternity and Paternity, 
 — exceeding old, and yet always new. 
 
 That day the young Prince may have felt glow- 
 ing in his heart a sweet prescience of the peculiar 
 comfort and joy he afterwards found in the lov- 
 ing devotion and noble character of his first- 
 born, that little blessing that would come, 
 though " only a girl.*' 
 
 That day the Queen wore in her diadem a 
 new jewel, a " pearl of great price," — a pure lit- 
 tle human soul. 
 
 That faithful stand-by. King Leopold, came 
 over to stand as chief sponsor at the christening 
 of the Princess Royal, — which took place at 
 
 — %- 
 
-^ 
 
 —%• 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. I97 
 
 Buckingham Palace, on the anniversary of her 
 mother's marriage. The Httle girl, who received 
 the names of Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, 
 is said by her father to have behaved "with 
 great propriety and like a Christian." 
 
 So ended the first year of Queen Victoria's 
 married life. To say it had been a happy year 
 would seem, after the records we have, to put a 
 very inadequate estimate on its degree of har- 
 mony and content— and yet it were much to 
 say of any marriage, during the trying period 
 in which many of the tastes and habits of two 
 separate lives must be harmonized, and some 
 heroically abandoned. It is a period of read- 
 justment and sacrifice. Redundant and inter- 
 fering growths of character must be pruned 
 away, and yet if the lopping process is carried 
 too far, character itself must suffer, the juices 
 of its life and power, individuality and will, are 
 wasted. 
 
 The Queen always contended that it was the 
 Prince who made all the sacrifices— unselfishly 
 adjusting his life and character to suit hers, and 
 her position— yet not long after her marriage 
 she records the fact that she was beginning to 
 
li- 
 
 ['r ■ 
 
 f 
 
 I. 
 
 n 
 
 198 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 sympathize with him in his peculiar tastes, par- 
 ticularly in his love for a quiet country life. 
 She says : " I told Albert that formerly I was 
 too happy to go to London, and wretched to 
 leave it ; and now since the blessed hour of my 
 marriage, and still more since the summer, I 
 dislike and am unhappy to leave the country, 
 and could be content and happy never to go to 
 town. This pleased him." 
 
 I am afraid that there are those of Her 
 Majesty's subjects who bless not the memory of 
 " Albert the Good," for this metamorphose of 
 their once gay and thoughtless, ball-giving, rid- 
 ing, driving, play-going Queen. These malcon- 
 tents are Londoners proper, mostly tradesmen, 
 newspaper men, milliners, and Hyde Park idlers. 
 I think American visitors and Cook's tourists 
 are among those who hold that the Queen's 
 proper place is in her capital — at least during 
 the season while f/uy are here. 
 
 Upon the whole, I should say of that first 
 year of Queen Victoria's married life, that the 
 honeymoon lasted throughout those twelve 
 bright and busy (perhaps bright because busy) 
 months. Or, it would seem that some fairy God- 
 
 •^1 
 
■»/, 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 199 
 
 mother had come to that wedding, in homely 
 guise, bringing as her humble gift, a jar of 
 honey — but a miraculous jar, the honey gathered 
 from Arcadian flowers, and which perpetually 
 renewed itself, like the poor widow's blessed 
 cruse of oil. 
 
 •^T 
 
% 
 
 mmm 
 
 rV, 
 
 1) 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Boy "Jones" and his singular pranks— A change in the Minis- 
 try — Sir Robert Peel becomes Premier — Prince Albert made 
 Chairman of the Fine Arts Commission — Birth of the Prince of 
 Wales — The Queen commemorates the event by a beautiful act. 
 
 The next sensation in connection with the 
 Court was the discovery of the famous "boy- 
 Jones" in Buckingham Palace. This singular 
 young personage was by no means a stranger 
 in the Palace. He had made himself very 
 familiar with, and at home in that august man- 
 sion, about two years before. He was then 
 arrested, and had lived an exceedingly retired 
 life ever since. On that first occasion he was 
 discovered by one of the porters, very early one 
 morning, leisurely surveying one of the apart- 
 ments. He was caught and searched ; nothing 
 of any consequence was found on him, but in a 
 hall was a bundle, evidently made up by him, 
 containing such incongruous articles as old let- 
 ters, a sword, and a pot of bear's grease. He 
 had the appearance of a sweep, being very sooty, 
 but disclaimed the chimney-cleaning profession. 
 (200) 
 
 -^^ 
 
 •^J 
 
'*^ 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 201 
 
 -<^ 
 
 •H.f 
 
 ^» 
 
 He had occupied, for a while, the vacant room 
 of one of the Equerries, leaving in the bed the 
 impress of his sooty figure. He declared that 
 he had not entered the Palace for the purpose 
 of theft, but only to gratify his curiosity, as to 
 how royal people and " great swells " like royal 
 footmen, lived. The young rascal's examination 
 before the Magistrate caused much amusement. 
 Tn answer to questions, he admitted, or boasted 
 that he had been in the Palace previously, and 
 for days at a time — in fact, had " put up '* there 
 — adding, "And a very comfortable place I 
 found it. I used to hide behind the furniture 
 and up the chimneys, in the day-time; when 
 night came, I walked about, went into the kitch- 
 en, and got my food. I have seen the Queen 
 and her ministers in Council, and heard all they 
 had to say." 
 
 Magistrate: " Do you mean to say you have 
 worn but one shirt all the time? " 
 
 Prisoner: " Yes ; when it was dirty, I washed 
 it out in the kitchen. The apartment I like best 
 \s the drawing-room." 
 
 Magistrate : " You are a sweep, are you ? " 
 
 Prisoner : " Oh, no ; it's only my ^acc and 
 
,f, 
 
 202 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 
 hands that are dirty ; that's from sleeping in the 
 chimneys I know my way all over the Pal- 
 ace, and have been all over it, the Queen's apart- 
 ments and all. The Queen is very fond of poli- 
 tics." 
 
 He was such an amusing vagabond, with his 
 jolly ways and boundless impudence, and so 
 young, that no very serious punishment was 
 then meted out to him, nor even on his second 
 " intrusion," as it was mildly denominated, 
 when he was found crouched in a recess, drag- 
 ged forth, and taken to the police-station. 
 This time he said he had hidden under a sofa 
 in one of the Queen's private apartments, and 
 had listened to a long conversation between her 
 and Prince Albert. He was sent to the House 
 of Correction for a few months, in the hope of 
 curing him of his " Palace -breaking mania"; 
 but immediately on his liberation, he was found 
 prowling about the Palace, drawing nearer and 
 nearer, as though it had been built of loadstone. 
 But finally he was induced to go to Australia, 
 where, it is said, he grew up to be a well-to-do 
 colonist. Perhaps he met the house- painter 
 Oxford there, and they used to talk over their 
 
 -4^ 
 
 i 
 
 -i'^ 
 
 ii 
 
T 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 203 
 
 exploits and explorations together, after the 
 manner of heroes and adventurers, from the 
 time of Ulysses and JEneas. We can imagine 
 the maft Jones being a particularly entertaining 
 boon companion, with his reminiscences of high 
 life, not only below, but above stairs, in Buck- 
 ingham Palace. That he ever made an entrance 
 into those august precincts, and was so lonjr 
 undiscovered, certainly speaks not well for the 
 police and domestic arrangements of the house- 
 hold ; and it is little wonder that Baron Stock- 
 mar was finally sent for to suggest some plan 
 for the better regulation of matters in both the 
 great royal residences. And he did work won- 
 ders,— though mostly by inspiring others, the 
 proper officers, to work. This extraordinary 
 man seemed to have a genius for order, disci- 
 pline, economy, and dispatch. He found the 
 palaces grand " circumlocution offices,"— with, in 
 all the departments, an entangling network of 
 red-tape, which needed to be swept away like cob- 
 webs. He himself entered the Royal Nursery 
 finally with the besom of reform. It is said in 
 his " Memoirs"—" The organization and superin- 
 tendence of the children's department occupied 
 
204 
 
 LIFE OF QUEFN VICTORTA. 
 
 a considerable portion of Stockmar's time "; 
 and he wrote, " The Nursery gives me more 
 trouble than the government of a King would 
 do." Very likely the English nurses and maids 
 questioned among themselves the right of an 
 old German doctor to meddle with their affairs, 
 and dictate what an English Princess Royal 
 should eat, drink, and wear ; but they lived to 
 see the Baron's care and skill make of a delicate 
 child — " a pretty, pale, erect little creature," as 
 she is described, a ruddy and robust little girl, 
 of whom the Baron wiote : " She is as round as 
 a little barrel "; of whom the mother wrote : 
 " Pussy's cheeks are on the point of bursting, 
 they have grown so red and plump." 
 
 After the domestic reforms in the Palace, no 
 such adventure could have happened to a guest 
 as that recorded by M. Guizot, who having been 
 unable to summon a servant to conduct him to 
 his room at night, wandered about the halls 
 like poor Mr. Pickwick at the inn, and actually 
 blundered into Her Majesty's own dressing- 
 room. The boy Jones, too, had had his day. 
 
 At the very time of the " intrusions " into 
 Buckingham Palace, there was in London an- 
 
 4 
 
 *i^' 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 ir- -^ 
 
IF 
 
 4^ 
 i 
 
 # 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 20$ 
 
 Other young man, with a "mania for Palace- 
 breaking," of a somewhat different sort. He, 
 too, was " without vijfible means of support," 
 but nobody called him a vagabond, or a burglar, 
 but only an adventurer, or a " pretender." He 
 had his eye particularly on Royal Windsor, and 
 once a cruel hoax was played off upon him, in 
 the shape of a forged invitation to one of the 
 Queen's grand entertainments at the Castle. 
 He got himself up in Court costume, with the 
 aid of a friend, and went, to be told by the royal 
 porter that his name was not down on the list, 
 and afterwards by a higher officer of the house- 
 hold that really there must be some mistake, for 
 Her Majesty had not the honor of knowing 
 him, so could not receive him. We shall sec 
 how it was when he came again, nine or ten 
 years later. 
 
 But after all, the French royal palaces were 
 more to this young man's taste, for he was 
 Fiench. He longed to break into the Tuileries 
 —not to hide behind, or under any furniture, 
 but to sit on the grandest piece of furniture 
 there. He had a strange longing for St. Cloud, 
 and Fontainebleau, and even stately Versailles. 
 
206 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTCRIA. 
 
 Il' 1 
 
 Said of him one English statesman to another, 
 ** Did you ever know such a fool as that fellow 
 is? Why, he really believes he will yet be 
 Emperor of France." 
 
 That " fellow " was Louis Napoleon Bona- 
 parte. 
 
 In August of this year, the Whig Minis- 
 try finding themselves a minority in the new 
 Parliament, resigned, and a Conservative one 
 was formed, with Sir Robert Peel as Premier. 
 It came hard for the Queen to part with her 
 favorite Minister and faithful friend. Lord Mel- 
 bourne, but she soon became reconciled to his 
 Tory successor, and things went on very har- 
 moniously. The benign influence and prudent 
 counsels of Prince Albert, with some lessons of 
 experience, and much study of her constitutional 
 restrictions, as well as obligations, had greatly 
 modified Her Majesty's strong partisan preju- 
 dices, and any proclivities she may have had tow- 
 ard personal and irresponsible government. 
 
 One great thing in favor of the new Minister, 
 was that he thoroughly appreciated Prince Al- 
 bert. One of his early acts was to propose a 
 Fine Arts Commission — having for its chief, 
 
 i 
 
WIFICIIOOn AND MOTIIICRIIOOI). 20/ 
 
 <lr 
 
 J 
 
 immediate object, the superintendence of the 
 artistic work on the new Houses of Parliament. 
 This was formed— composed of some of the 
 most eminent artists and connaisscurs in the 
 kingdom, and Prince Albert was the chairman. 
 He used to speak of this as his " initiation into 
 public life." The Queen rejoiced in it, as in 
 every stage of her husband's advance— which it 
 is only just to say was the advance of the 
 liberal arts in England, as well as of social and 
 political reforms. I believe it is not generally 
 known that to the humane influence of the 
 Prince-Consort with the Duke of Wellington, 
 was owing the new military regulation which 
 finally put an end to duelling in the English 
 army. Lord, keep his memory green ! 
 
 The second year of the Queen's marriage 
 wore on to November, and again the Arch- 
 bishops and Bishops, the statesmen and " Medi- 
 cine men," the good mother-in-law, and the 
 nurses were summoned by the anxious Prince to 
 Buckingham Palace. This time it vvas a boy, 
 and the holy men and wise men felt tiiat they 
 had not come out so eariy in the morning and 
 waited four hours in an ante-room for nothing. 
 
 .1 
 
n 
 
 f 
 
 208 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Prince Albert was overjoyed. Everybody at the 
 Palace was wild with delight, so wild that there 
 was great confusion. Messengers were dis- 
 patched right and left to royal relatives. It is 
 said that no less than three arrived within as 
 many minutes, at Marlborough House, to ac- 
 quaint the Queen Dowager of the happy event. 
 As they came in breathless, one after another, 
 Her Majesty might have supposed that Victoria 
 and Albert had been blessed with triplets. The 
 biggest guns boomed the glad tidings over Lon- 
 don, — the Privy Council assembled to consider 
 a form of prayer and thanksgiving, to relieve 
 the overcharged hearts of the people ; the bells 
 in all the churches rang joyous peals. So was 
 little Albert Edward ushered into the kingdom 
 he is to rule in God's own time. 
 
 No such ado was made over the seven brothers 
 and sisters who came after ; but they were made 
 welcome and comfortable, as, alas ! few children 
 can be made, even by loving hearts and willing 
 hands. The Queen may have thought of this, 
 and of what a sorry chance some poor little hu- 
 man creatures have, from the beginning, for she 
 did a beautiful thing on this occasion. She 
 
 J 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 209 
 
 ^ 
 
 notified the Home Secretary that all those con- 
 victs who had behaved well, should have their 
 punishment commuted, and that those deserv- 
 ing clemency, on the horrible prison-hulks, 
 should have their liberty at once. She hac a 
 right to be happy, and that she was happy, a 
 beautiful picture in her journal shows : 
 
 " Albert brought in dearest little Pussy, in 
 such a smart, white morino dress, trimmed with 
 blue, which mama had given her, and a pretty 
 cap, and placed her on my bed, seating himself 
 next to her, and she was very dear and good, 
 and as my precious invaluable Albert sat there, 
 and our little love between us, I felt quite 
 moved with happiness and gratitude to God." 
 
 The next month she wrote from Windsor 
 Castle to her Uncle Leopold : " I wonder very 
 much whom our little boy will be like. You 
 will understand how fervent are my prayers, and 
 I am sure everybody's must be, to see him re- 
 semble his father, in every respect, both in mind 
 and body." Later still she writes: "We all 
 have our trials and vexations — but if ones home 
 is happy, then the rest is comparatively noth- 
 »ng. 
 
210 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 )^. 
 
 I \ 
 
 They had an unusually merry Christmas-time 
 at Windsor, and they danced into the new year, 
 in the old English style — only varying it by a 
 very poetic and impressive German custom. 
 As the clock struck twelve, a flourish of trump- 
 ets was blown. 
 
 The Prince of Wales was christened in the 
 Royal Chapel, at Windsor — with the greatest 
 state and splendor, King Frederick William of 
 Prussia, who had come over for the purpose, 
 standing as chief sponsor. Then followed all 
 sorts of grand festivities and parades — both at 
 Windsor and in London. The Queen did honor 
 to her " brother of Prussia " in every possible 
 way — in banquets and balls, in proroguing Par- 
 liament, in holding a Chapter of the Garter, and 
 investing him with the splendid insignia of the 
 Order, and in having a grand inspection for 
 him, of " Prince Albert's Own Hussars," he 
 being a little in the military line himself. 
 
 Among the suite of the Prussian King was 
 Baron Alexander Von Humboldt. The great 
 savant was treated by the Queen and the Prince 
 with distinguished consideration, then and ever 
 after. The Prince, on hearing of his death in 
 
 
 J 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 211 
 
 <#• 
 
 -It 
 
 ^«» 
 
 1859, wrote to the Crown Princess: " What a 
 loss is the excellent Humboldt ! You and Ber- 
 lin will miss him greatly. People of this kind 
 do not grow on every bush, and they are the 
 glory and the grace of a country and a century." 
 When the Baron's private correspondence was 
 published, and found to contain certain slurs 
 and sarcasms regarding him, and, as he afifirmed, 
 misrepresentations — probably based on misun- 
 derstandings of his political opinions — the Prince 
 showed no resentment, though he must have 
 been wounded. I know nothing more sensible 
 and charitable in all his admirable private writ- 
 ings, than his few words on this unpleasant in- 
 cident. He says : " The matter is really of no 
 consequence, for what does not one write or say 
 to his intimate friends, under the impulse of the 
 moment. But the publication is a gr^^at indis- 
 cretion. How many deadly enemies may be 
 made if publicity be given to what one man has 
 said of another, or perhaps has not said ! " 
 
 But what does it matter to the dead, how 
 many "■ deadly enemies " are made ? They have 
 us at unfair advantage. We may deny, we may 
 cry out, but we cannot make them apologize, 
 
r-i. 
 
 212 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 H 
 
 or retract, or modify the cruel sarcasm, or more 
 cruel ridicule. They seem to stealthily open 
 the door of the tomb, to shoot Parthian arrows 
 at the very mourners who have just piled 
 wreaths before it. Carlyle fired a perfect mi- 
 trailleuse from his grave. The Prince's English 
 biographer calls the Humboldt publication 
 " scandalous." Yet the English, who sternly 
 condemn the most kindly personalities of living 
 authors (especially American authors), seem to 
 have rather a relish for these peppery posthu- 
 mous revelations of genius, — often saddening 
 post-mortem exhibitions of its own moral weak- 
 nesses and disease. No great English author dies 
 nowadays, without his most attached, faithful 
 and familiar friends being in mortal terror lest 
 they be found spitted on the sharp shafts of his, 
 or worse, her satire. 
 
 During those Windsor festivities, the little 
 Prince of Wales was shown to the people at an 
 uppemvindow and pronounced satisfactory. A 
 Court lady described him at the time, as "the 
 most magnificent baby in the Kingdom." And 
 perhaps he was. He was fair and plump, with 
 pleasant blue eyes. It seems to me that after 
 
 ^^ 
 
 1 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTITERTIOOD. 
 
 213 
 
 
 all the years, he must look to-day, with his fresh, 
 open face, a good deal as he did on the day 
 when his nurse dandled him at the Castle win- 
 dow. He still has the fairness, the plumpness, 
 the pleasant blue eyes. It is true he has not very 
 abundant hair now, bu4; he had not much then. 
 Tytler, the historian, gives a charming picture 
 of him as he appeared some two years later. 
 He was waiting one morning in the corridor at 
 Windsor with others to see the Queen, who 
 came in bowing most graciously, and having by 
 the hand the Prince of Wales, "trotting on, 
 looking happy and merry." When she came to 
 where Mr. Tytler stood, and saw him " bowing 
 and looking delightedly " at the little Prince 
 and her, she bowed and said to the little boy, 
 "Make a bow, sir!" "When the Queen said 
 this, the Duke of Cambridge and the rest stood 
 still, and the little Prince, walking straight up 
 to me, made a bow, smiling all the while, and 
 holding out his hand, which I immediately took, 
 and bowing low, kissed it." The Queen, he 
 added, " smiled affectionately on the little 
 Prince, for the gracious way in which he de- 
 ported himself." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 I 
 
 Ij i' 
 
 Miscreants and Monarchs — A visit from Mendelssohn — The Queen's 
 first visit to Scotland — Anecdote — A trip to France and Relf^ium 
 — Death of the Duke of Sussex and of Prince Albert's father— The 
 Dwarf and the Giant. 
 
 This year of 1842 was not all joy and festiv- 
 ity. It was the year of the massacres oi the 
 British forces in Cabul ; there was financial dis- 
 tress in England, which a charitable masked- 
 ball at Buckingham Palace did not wholly re- 
 lieve ; and in May occurred the second attempt 
 on the life of the Queen — that of John Francis. 
 
 The Queen behaved with her own wonderful 
 courage on this occasion — which was expected 
 by her and Prince Albert, from their having a 
 strong impression that the same wretch had the 
 day before pointed at them, from the midst 
 of a crowd, a pistol which had missed fire. 
 They drove out alone together, keeping a 
 pret.y sharp lookout for the assassin — and at 
 last, they saw him just as he fired. The ball 
 passed under the carriage, and Francis was at 
 once arrested. Lady Bloomfield, who was then 
 (.-1.0 
 
 i' 
 
I 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTIlERlI(M)n. 
 
 215 
 
 l 
 
 Maid of Honor, gives an account of the excite- 
 ment at the Palace that evening, and quotes 
 some words of the Queen, very beautiful be- 
 cause revealing her rare consideration for others. 
 She says that Sir Robert Peel was there, and 
 showed intense feeling about the risk Ilcr 
 Majesty had run, and that the Queen, turning 
 to her, said : " I dare say, Georg>% you were 
 surprised at not driving with me to-day — but 
 the fact was, that as we were returning from 
 church yesterday, a man presented a pistol at 
 the carriage window. It flashed in the pan, and 
 we were so taken by surprise that he had time 
 to escape. I knew what was hanging over me 
 to-day, and was determined not to expose any 
 life but my own." 
 
 Francis was tried and sentenced to death, but 
 through the Queen's clemency the sentence 
 was commuted to transportation for life, and 
 the very day after, Bean, the hunchback, essayed 
 to shoot Her Majesty with a charge of paper 
 and bits of clay-pipe. He was such a miserable, 
 feeble-minded creature, that they only gave him 
 eighteen months' imprisonment. 
 
 Soon after, the Queen was called to mourn 
 
Jf 
 
 m ! 
 
 ft! 
 
 V 
 
 2l6 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ■ it- 
 
 with her aunt of Belgium, and the rest of the 
 family of Louis Philippe of France, for the death 
 of the Duke of Orleans, who was killed by 
 being thrown from his carriage. If he had lived, 
 Louis Napoleon would hardly have been Em- 
 peror of France. 
 
 So it was hardly a gay summer for the Queen, 
 though she had some pleasure, especially in re- 
 ceiving Prince Albert's brother, Ernest, Duke 
 of Saxc-Coburg, and his bride, who came to 
 England for their honeymoon. They had also 
 a pleasant visit from the great composer, Men- 
 delssohn, who thus wrote from Windsor to his 
 mother, " Add to this the pretty and most 
 charming Queen Victoria, who looks so youth- 
 ful, and is so gently courteous and gracious, 
 who speaks such good German, and knows all 
 my music so well," — great praise from a Teutonic 
 and Mendelssohnian point of view. 
 
 In the autumn, the Oueen and Prince made 
 their first visit to Scotland — were received with 
 immense enthusiasm everywhere, and had a 
 charming and health-bracing tour. They took 
 Eamburgh by surprise — entering the city from 
 the sea, so early in the morning^that the author- 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 T 
 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 217 
 
 (b' 
 
 I 
 
 ities, who had made great preparations to receive 
 them, and rain flowers and speeches upon them, 
 were still in bed. Still the Queen made up for 
 it, by afterwards making a grand State-proces- 
 sion through the grand old town. All the coun- 
 try for many miles about, poured into the city 
 on that day, and among some amusing anecdotes 
 of the occasion, I find this : " A gentleman liv- 
 ing near Edinburgh, said to his farm-servant, 
 * Well, John, did you see the Queen ? ' * Troth 
 did I that, sir.' * Well, what did you think of 
 her?' *In truth, sir, I was terrible 'feared afore 
 she came forrit — my heart was maist in my 
 mouth, but whan she did come forrit, I was na 
 feared at a' ; I just lookit at her, and she lookit 
 at me, an' she bowed her held at me, an' I 
 bowed my heid at her.' " 
 
 The Queen traveled then with a much larger 
 Court than she takes with her nowadays, and to 
 this were added the escorts of honor which the 
 great Scottish nobles and Highland chiefs fur- 
 nished her, till it grew to be a monster of a 
 caravan. Among the items, I find that in con- 
 veying Her Majesty and suite from Dalkeith to 
 Taymouth, and from Taymouth back to Dal- 
 
I 
 
 2l8 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 keith, 656 horses were employed. Yet this was 
 nothing to the number of animals engaged on 
 the royal progresses of former times. It is 
 stated that 20,000 horses were in all employed 
 in conveying Marie Antoinette, her enormous 
 suite and cumbrous belongings, from Vienna to 
 Paris. Poor woman ! — it took all those horses 
 to bring her into her kingdom, but only one to 
 carry her out of her kingdom, via the Place de 
 la Revolution. 
 
 In the spring of the year following this tour, 
 another Princess was born in Buckingham 
 Palace, and christened Alice Maud Mary. The 
 summer went by as usual, or even more pleasant- 
 ly, for every new baby seemed to make this 
 family happier and gayer. 
 
 Lady Bloomfield gives some charming pict- 
 ures of the happy home-life at Windsor — of the 
 children, pretty, merry, healthy, and well-bred ; 
 tells very pleasant things of the Queen, and of 
 the sweet and noble Duchess of Kent — but gives 
 only now and then, a glimpse of that gracious and 
 graceful presence. Prince Albert. Her Majesty 
 made the life of her maids of honor almost too 
 easy. No long, tiresome waiting on their poor, 
 
 •Ik.* 
 
 
 t 
 
li 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 219 
 
 al^-A 
 
 tired feet — no long hours of reading aloud, such 
 as poor Miss Burney had to endure, in the time 
 of old Queen Charlotte. Lady Bloomfield — 
 then Georgiana Ravensworth — had little to do 
 but to hand the Queen her bouquet at dinner — 
 to ride out with her and sing with her. 
 
 In the summer of 1843, the Queen and Prince 
 made their first visit to the King and Queen of 
 France, at the Chateau d'Eu, near Treport, on 
 the coast. The King and several of his sons 
 came off in the royal barge to meet their yacht, 
 which they boarded. One account says that 
 Louis Philippe, most unceremonious of mon- 
 archs, caught up the little Queen, kissed her on 
 both cheeks, and carried her bodily on to his 
 barge. 
 
 Two Queens — Marie Am^lie of France and 
 her daughter, Louise of Belgium, and two of 
 her daughters-in-law — were at the landing to re- 
 ceive the first Sovereign of England who had 
 ever come to their shores on a friendly, neigh- 
 borly visit. It was a visit " of unmixed pleas- 
 ure," says the Queen, and the account of it is 
 very pleasant reading now ; but I have not 
 space to reproduce it. One little passage, in 
 
 
220 
 
 LTFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 reference to the widowed Duchesse d'Orleans, 
 strikes my eye at this moment : " At ten, dear 
 H^l^ne came to me with little Paris, and stayed 
 till the King and Queen came to fetch us to 
 breakfast." 
 
 " Little Paris " is the present Bourbon-Orlean- 
 ist bugbtjar of the French Republic — a very 
 tame and well-behaved bite noir, but distrusted 
 and dreaded all the same. 
 
 After this French visit, the Queen and Prince 
 went over to see their uncle and aunt, at Brus- 
 sels, and had a very interesting tour through 
 Belgium. Prince Albert, writing to the Baron 
 soon after, said : " We found uncle and aunt 
 
 well The children are blooming. Little 
 
 Charlotte is quite the prettiest child you ever 
 saw." This " little Charlotte " afterwards mar- 
 ried Maximilian of Austria, the imperial puppet 
 of Louis Napoleon in Mexico. So Charlotte was 
 for a brief, stormy time an Empress — then came 
 misfortune and madness. She is living yet, in 
 that world of shadows so much sadder than " the 
 valley of the shadow of death." 
 
 In the spr'ngr of this year, the Duke of Sus- 
 sex died, and at tiie next prorogation of Parlia- 
 
 ! 
 
 t 
 
I 
 
 t 
 
 r 
 
 WII-KIIDOD AND MOTIIKIUIOOD. 221 
 
 mcnt, 1 read that the Queen, no longer fearing 
 to wound the susccptibihtics of her proud old 
 uncle, said to her husband, '' Come up higher! " 
 -and had a chair for him, precisely like her 
 own, on a level with her own. It was on her 
 left. The smaller chair, on her right, belonged 
 to "little Bertie," who was not yet quite ready 
 
 to occupy it. 
 
 In the autumn, came a visit to the University 
 of Cambridge, where the Queen had the delight 
 of seeing the degree of LL.D. conferred on 
 her husband. So he mounted, step by step, into 
 the honorable position which belonged to him. 
 In this year also, he won laurels which he cared 
 little for, but which counted much for him 
 among a class of Englishmen who lightly 
 esteemed his literary, artistic, and scientific 
 taste and knowledge. In a great hunting-party 
 he carried off the honors by his fearless and ad- 
 mirable riding. Sporting men said: "Why, 
 there really is something in the man beside 
 good looks and German music and metaphysics. 
 He can take hedges and ditches as well as de- 
 grees." 
 
 I do not think Prince Albert did justice to 
 
 ■*k> 
 
; i 
 
 U'' 
 
 222 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 the English people, when, after his father's 
 death, in the following year, he wrote in the 
 first gush of his grief, to the Baron : " Here we 
 sit together, poor Mama, Victoria and I, and 
 weep, with a great, cold public around us, in- 
 sensible as stone." 
 
 I Cc»nnot believe that the British public is 
 ever insensible to royal sorrow. 
 
 The Prince-Consort went over to Coburg on 
 a visit of condolence. Some passages in his 
 letters to the Queen, who took this first separa- 
 tion from him hard, are nice reading for their 
 homely and husbandly spirit. From the yacht, 
 before sailing, he wrote : " I have been here an 
 hour, and regret the lost time which I might 
 have spent with you. Poor child! you will, while 
 I write, be getting ready for luncheon, and you 
 will find a place vacant where I sat yesterday. 
 In your heart, however, I hope my place will 
 not be vacant. 1 at least, have you on board 
 with me in spirit. I reiterate my entreaty, 
 ^ Bear up ! and don't give way to low spirits, 
 but try to occupy yourself as rpuch as possible.' " 
 . ..." I have got toys for the children, and 
 porcelain views for you." . . . . " Oh ! how 
 
 ! 
 
 *,V 
 
 ^ 
 
 ) 
 
f 
 
 # 
 
 t» 
 
 4 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTIIKRHOOI). 
 
 233 
 
 lovely and friendly is this dear old country. 
 How glad I should be to have my little wife 
 beside me, to share my pleasure." 
 
 Miss Mitford, speaking of a desire expressed 
 by the Queen, to see that quaint old place, 
 Strawberry Hill and all its curiosities, says: 
 " Nothing can tend more to ensure popularity 
 than that Her Majesty should partake of the 
 national amusements and the natural curiosity 
 of the more cultivated portion of her subjects." 
 
 In such directions, certainly, the Queen was 
 never found wanting in those days. In *' natural 
 curiosity " she was a veritable daughter of Eve, 
 and granddaughter of George the Third. She 
 was interested not only in the scientific dis- 
 coveries, new mechanical inventions, and agri- 
 cultural improvements which so interested her 
 husband, but in odd varieties of animals and 
 human creatures. She accepted with pleasure 
 the gift of a Liliputian horse, supposed to be 
 the smallest in the world — over five years old, 
 and only twenty seven and a half inches high — 
 brought from Java, by a sea-captain, who used 
 to take the gallant steed under his arm, and run 
 down-stairs with him ; and she very graciously 
 
 I 
 
f m „» fmm:» t m 
 
 yi 
 
 !24 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 received and was immensely entertained with 
 the distinguished young American, who should 
 have been the Alexander of that Bucephalus — 
 General Tom Thumb. This little /usus naturcSy 
 under the masterly management of Mr. Bar- 
 num, had made a great sensation in London — 
 which, after the Queen had summoned him two 
 or three times to Windsor, grew into a fashion- 
 able furor. Mr. Barnum's description of those 
 visits to the royal palaces is very amusing, 
 "^hey were first received in the grand picture- 
 gallery by the Queen, the Duchess of Kent, 
 Prince Albert, and the usual Court ladies and 
 gentlemen. Mr. Barnum writes : '* They were 
 standing at the farther end of the room when 
 the doors were thrown open, and the General 
 walked in, looking like a wax-doll gifted v/ith 
 the powers of locomotion. Surprise and pleas- 
 ure were depicted on the faces of the royal 
 circle, at beholding this remarkable specimen of 
 humanity, so much smaller than they had evi- 
 dently expected to see him. The General ad- 
 vanced with a firm step, and as he came within 
 hailing distance, made a graceful bow, and said, 
 ' Good-evening, ladies and gentlemen ! * 
 
 ^ 
 
 f-* 
 
 ^ 
 
■>AVT I'.i-'-" -f^- '.';^s '!tM2^!i3 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 225 
 
 C^ 
 
 " A burst of laughter followed this salutation. 
 The Queen then took him by the hand, and led 
 him about the gallery, and asked him many 
 questions, the answers to which kept the party 
 in continual merriment. The General informed 
 the Queen, that her picture-gallery was * first- 
 rate,' and said he should like to see the Prince 
 of Wales. The Queen replied that the Prince 
 h:id gone to bed, but that he should see him on 
 a future occasion." The General then gave his 
 songs, dances, and imitations; and after an 
 hour's talk with Prince Albert and the rest, de- 
 parted as coolly as he had come, but not as 
 leisurely, as the long backing-out process being 
 too tedious, he varied it with little runs, which 
 drew from the Queen, Prince, and Court peels 
 of laughter, and roused the ire of the Queen's 
 poodle, who attacked the small Yankee stranger. 
 The General defended himself with his little 
 cane, as valiantly as the original Tom Thumb 
 with his mother's darning-needle. On the next 
 visit, he was introduced to the Prince of Wales, 
 whom he addressed with a startling, " How are 
 you, Prince?" He then received a costly sou- 
 venir from the Queen, and, each time he per- 
 
zzrsmmssmmmm 
 
 226 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 formed, generous pay in gold. The Queen 
 Dowager was also much taken with him, and 
 presented him with a beautiful little w :i. She 
 called him " dear little General," and u^ok him 
 on her lap. The time came (when this " full- 
 grown " dwarf was fuller-grown) that the most 
 powerful Queen Dowager would have found it 
 difficult to dandle him, Charles Stratton, Esq., 
 a husband and father, on her knee. The fact is 
 the General was a bit of a humbug, being con- 
 siderably younger than he was given out to be. 
 But he was an exceedingly pretty, amusing little 
 humbug, so it was no matter then. But when 
 the truth came out, the Queen's faith in Yankee 
 showmen must have suffered a shock, as must 
 that of the honest old Duke of Wellington, 
 who used to drop in at Egyptian Hall so often 
 to see the tiny creature assume the dress and 
 the pensive pose of Napoleon " thinking of the 
 loss of the battle of Waterloo," and looking so 
 like his old enemy, seen through a reversed 
 field-glass. Very likely the Queen's " full-grown" 
 Java horse turned out to be a young colt. 
 
 After the dwarf, came the giant — the tallest 
 and grandest of the sovereigns of Europe, 
 
 f 
 
 : 
 
 i 
 
■A:: "^^ ;•■■■• , :^\'i ift^V-^ 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 227 
 
 f 
 
 Nicholas, the Emperor of all the Russias. He 
 came on one of his war-ships, but with the 
 friendliest feelings, and " just dropped in " on 
 the Queen, with only a few hours* notice. It 
 was a pleasant little way he had of surprising 
 his friends. However, he was made welcome, 
 ana everything possible was done to entertain 
 and do him honor during his stay. He had 
 visited England before, when he was much 
 younger and handsomer. Baron Stockmar met 
 him at Claremont, in the time of the Princess 
 Charlotte and Prince Leopold, and quotes a 
 compliment paid him by a Court lady, in the 
 refined language of the Regency : " What an 
 amiable creature ! He is devilish handsome ! He 
 will be the handsomest man in Europe." And 
 so he might have been, had he possessed a heart 
 and soul. But his expression was always, if not 
 actually bad, severe and repellant. The look of 
 his large, keen eyes, which had very pale lashes, 
 and every now and then showed the white all 
 round the iris, is said to have been quite awful. 
 He was a soldier above all things, and told the 
 Queen he felt very awkward in evening-dress, as 
 though in leaving off his uniform he had " taken 
 

 iui 
 
 III!! 
 
 228 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 off his skin." He must have been rather a dis- 
 commoding guest, from a little whim he had of 
 sleeping only on straw. He always had with 
 him a leathern case, which at every place he 
 stopped, was filled with fresh straw from the 
 stables. 
 
 He was an excessively polite man — this tower- 
 ing Czar ; but for all that, a very cruel man — a 
 colossal embodiment of the autocratic principle 
 — selfish and cold and hard — though he did win 
 upon the Queen's heart by praise of her hus- 
 band. He said : " Nowhere will you find a 
 handsomer young man ; he has such an air of 
 nobility and goodness." It was ?, mystery how 
 he could so well appreciate that pure and lov- 
 able character, for the Prince -Consort must 
 always have been a mystery to men like the 
 Czar Nicholas. 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 
 " 
 
 Old homes and new— A visit from the King of France— The Queen 
 and Prince Albert make their first visit to Germany— Incidents of 
 the trip— A new seaside home on the Isle of Wight— Repeal of the 
 Corn Laws— Prince Albert elected Chancellor of Cambridge Uni- 
 versity — Benjamin Disraeli. 
 
 This year — 1844 — there was a death in the 
 household at Windsor, and a birth. The death 
 was that of Eos, the favorite greyhound of 
 Prince Albert. " Dear Eos," as the Queen called 
 her, was found dead one morning. The Prince 
 wrote the next day to his grandmother, " You 
 will share my sorrow at this loss. She was a 
 singularly clever creature and had been for 
 eleven years faithfully devoted to me. How 
 many recollections are linked with her." 
 
 This beautiful and graceful animal, almost 
 human in her love, and in something very like 
 intellect and soul, appears in several of Land- 
 seer's pictures. I will not apologize for keeping 
 a Royal Prince waiting while I give this space 
 to her. This Prince, born at Windsor, in August, 
 was the present Duke of Edinburgh. He was 
 christened Alfred Ernest Albert. The Queen 
 in her journal wrote : " The scene in the chapel 
 
 was very solemn To see those two 
 
 (229) 
 
»m 
 
 \mm 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
 11 ^ 
 
 230 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 children there too " (the Princess Royal and the 
 Prince of Wales), " seemed such a dream to me. 
 May God bless them all, poor little things ! " 
 Her Majesty adds that all through the service 
 she fervently ^yrayed that this boy might be " as 
 good as his beloved father." How is it, your 
 Royal Highness ? 
 
 This yeav fV '-■■<• \vent again to the Highlands 
 for a few v/ee!..T '^he Queen's journal says: 
 "Mama came to tako I.-;a\e of us. Alice and 
 the baby were br<.»i;g:ht -oor little things! to 
 bid us good-bye. f heii goc j Bertie came down 
 to see us, and Vicky appeared as voyageuse^ and 
 was all impatience to go." 
 
 " Bertie " is the family name for the Prince of 
 Wales. I believe that at heart he is still " good 
 Bertie." " Vicky " wa,s the Princess Royal. The 
 Queen further on remarks : " I said to Albert I 
 could hardly believe that our child was traveling 
 with us ; it put me so in mind of myself when I 
 was the * little Princess.' " 
 
 This year Louis Philippe came over to return 
 the visit of the Queen and the Prince, and there 
 were great festivities and invest ings at Windsor 
 with all possible kindness and courtesy, and I 
 
 
 J 
 

 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 231 
 
 hope the wily old King went home with gratitude 
 in his heart, as well as the garter on his leg. 
 This year too the Queen and Prince made their 
 first visit to Germany together. The picture 
 the Queen paints of the morning of leaving and 
 the parting from the children is very domestic, 
 sweet, and motherly : " Both Vicky and darling 
 Alice were with me while I dressed. Poor dear 
 Puss wished much to go with us and often said, 
 * Why am I not going to Germany ? * Most 
 willingly would I have taken her. I wished 
 much to take one of dearest Albert's children 
 with us to Coburg ; but the journey is a serious 
 undertaking and she is very young still." .... 
 " It was a painful moment to drive away with 
 the three poor little things standing at the door. 
 God bless them and protect them— which He 
 will." 
 
 The English Queen and the Prince-Consort 
 were received with all possible royal honors and 
 popular respect at Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, 
 and at the Royal Palace at Briihl. It was past 
 midnight when they reached that welcome rest- 
 ing-place, and yet, as an account before me states, 
 they were regaled by a military serenade '* in 
 
! 
 
 ii' 
 
 232 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 which seven hundred performers were engaged ! " 
 A German friend of ours from that region sup- 
 plements this story by stating that five hundred 
 of those military performers were drummers; 
 that they were accompanied by torch-bearers ; 
 that they came under the Queen's windows, 
 wakened her out of her first sleep, and almost 
 drove her wild with fright. With those tremen- 
 dous trumpetings and drum-beatings, " making 
 night hideous " with their storm of menacing, 
 barbaric sound, and with the fierce glare of the 
 torchlight, it might have seemed to her that 
 Doomsday had burst on the world, and that the 
 savage old Huns of Attila were up first, ready 
 for war. 
 
 The next day they all went up the Rhine to 
 the King's Palace of Stolzenfels. Never per- 
 haps was even a Rhine steamer so heavily 
 freighted with royalty — a cargo of Kings and 
 Queens, Princes and Archdukes. It was all very 
 fine, as were the royal feasts and festivals, but 
 the Queen and Prince were happiest when they 
 had left all this grandeur and parade behind 
 them and were at Coburg amid their own kin — 
 for there, impatiently awaiting them, were the 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 233 
 
 mother of Victoria and the brother of Albert, 
 and " a staircase full of cousins," as the Queen 
 says. They stopped at lovely Rosenau, and the 
 Queen, with one of her beautiful poetic impulses, 
 chose for their chamber the room in which her 
 husband was born. She wrote in her journal, 
 " How happy, how joyful we were, on awaking, 
 to find ourselves here, at the dear Rosenau, my 
 Albert's birth-place, the place he most loves. 
 .... He was so happy to be here with me. It 
 was like a beautiful dream." 
 
 The account of the rejoicings of the simple 
 Coburg people, and especially of the children, 
 over their beloved Prince, and over the visit of his 
 august wife, is really very touching. Their 
 offerings and tributes were mostly flowers, 
 poems and music — wonderfully sweet chorales 
 and gay revcils and inspiriting marches. There 
 was a great f^te of the peasants on Prince 
 Albert's birthday, with much waltzing, and 
 shouting, and bcer-quafifing, and toast-giving. 
 The whole visit was an Arcadian episode, sim- 
 ple and charming, in the grand royal progress of 
 Victoria's life. But the royal progress had to 
 be resumed — the State called back its bond- 
 

 Mi 
 
 
 i 
 
 ■ r 
 l! 
 
 234 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 servants ; and so, after a visit to the dear old 
 grandmother at Gotha — the parting with whom 
 seemed especially hard to Prince Albert, as 
 though he had a presentiment it was to be the 
 last — they set out for home. They took their 
 yacht at Antwerp, and after a flying visit to the 
 King and Queen of France at Eu, were soon at 
 Osborne, where their family were awaiting them. 
 The Queen wrote : " The dearest of welcomes 
 greeted us as we drove up straight to the house, 
 for there, looking like roses, so well and so fat, 
 stood the four children, much pleased to see 
 us!" 
 
 Ah, often the best part of going away is com- 
 ing home. 
 
 During this year the Royal Family were very 
 happy in taking possession of their new seaside 
 palace on the Isle of Wight, and I believe paid 
 no more visits to Brighton, which was so much 
 crowded in the season as to make anything like 
 the privacy they desired impossible. During 
 her last stay at the Pavilion the Queen was so 
 much displeased at the rudeness of the people 
 who pressed about her and Prince Albert, when 
 they were trying to have a quiet little walk 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 235 
 
 on the breezy pier, that I read she appealed to 
 the magistrates for protection. There was -such a 
 large and ever-growing crowd of excited, hurry- 
 ing, murmuring, staring Brightonians and 
 strangers about them that it seemed a rallying 
 cry had gone through the town, from lip to lip: 
 " The Queen and Prince are out ! To the pier! 
 To the pier ! " 
 
 The Pavilion was never a desirable Marine 
 Palace, as it commanded no good views of the 
 sea ; so Her Majesty's new home in the Isle of 
 Wight had for her, the Prince and the children 
 every advantage over the one in Brighton except 
 in bracing sea-air. Osborne has a broad sea 
 view, a charming beach, to which the woods run 
 down — the lovely woods in which are found the 
 first violets of the spring and to which the 
 nightingales first come. The grounds were fine 
 and extensive, to the great delight of the Prince- 
 Consort, who had not only a peculiar passion, 
 but a peculiar talent for gardening. Indeed, 
 when this many-sided German was born a 
 Prince, a masterly landscape-gardener was lost to 
 the world — that is, the world outside the grounds 
 of Windsor, Osborne and Balmoral, which in- 
 
 
"n* 
 
 y, 
 
 I' ! ' 
 
 lit 
 
 236 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 deed "keep his memory green." The Queen 
 writing from Osborne says : " Albert is so happy 
 here — out all day planting, directing, etc., and it 
 is so good for him. It is a relief to get away 
 from the bitterness which people create for 
 themselves in London." — But I am not writing 
 the Life of Prince Albert ; — I often forget that. 
 The year of 1846 was gloriously marked by 
 the repeal of the Corn Laws ; a measure of jus- 
 tice and mercy, the withholding of which from 
 the people had for several years produced much 
 distress and commotion. Some destructive work 
 had been done by mobs on the houses of the 
 supporters of the old laws ; they had even stoned 
 the town residence of the Duke of Wellington, 
 Apsley House. The stern old fighter would 
 have been glad at the moment to have swept 
 the streets clear with cannon, but he contented 
 himself with putting shutters over his broken 
 windows, to hide the shame. I believe they 
 were never opened again while he lived. The 
 great leaders in this Corn Laws agitation were Mr. 
 Cobden and Mr. Bright. Thefse great-hearted 
 men could not rest for the cries which came up 
 to them from the suffering people. There were 
 
WIFKIIOOD AND MOTIIKRIIOOD. 
 
 237 
 
 sore privations and ** short commons " in Eng- 
 land, and in Ireland, starvation, real, honest, 
 earnest starvation. The poverty of the land 
 had struck down into the great Irish stand-by, 
 the potato, a deadly blight. A year or two later 
 the evil took gigantic proportions ; the news 
 came to us in America, and an alarm was sounded 
 which roused the land. We sent a divine Armada 
 against the grim enemy which was wasting the 
 Green Isle ; ships, which poured into him broad- 
 sides of big bread-balls, and granc-shot of corn, 
 beans and potatoes. It is recorded that " in one 
 Irish seaport town the bells were kept ringing 
 all day in honor of the arrival of one of these 
 grain-laden vessels." I ani afraid these bells had 
 a sweeter sound to the poor people than even 
 those rung on royal birthdays. 
 
 Strangely enough, after the passage of meas- 
 ures which immortalized his ministerial term, 
 Sir Robert Peel was ejected from power. The 
 Queen parted from him with great regret, but 
 quietly accepted his successor. Lord John Rus^ 
 sell. 
 
 Six years had now gone by since the marriage 
 of Victoria and Albert, and the family had 
 
238 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ^ li 
 
 grown to be six, and soon it was seven, for in 
 May the Princess Helena Augusta Victoria was 
 born. Her godmother was H^l^ne, the widowed 
 Duchess of Orleans, the mother of the gallant 
 young men, the Count de Paris and the Duke 
 de Chartres, who during our great war came 
 over to America to see service under General 
 McClellan. 
 
 About this time the Prince -Consort was 
 called to Liverpool to open a magnificent dock 
 named after him, which duty he performed in 
 the most graceful manner. The next day he 
 laid the foundation-stone for a Sailors' Home. 
 The Queen, who was not able to be with him 
 on these occasions, wrote to the Baron : " I feel 
 very lonely without my dear master, and though 
 I know other people are often separated, I feel 
 
 that I could never get accustomed to it 
 
 Without him everything loses its interest. It 
 will always cause a terrible pang for me to be 
 separated from him even for two days, and I 
 pray God not to let me survive him. I glory in 
 his being seen and loved." 
 
 In September they went into the new Marine 
 Palace at Osborne. On the first evening, amid 
 
 il\\ 
 
 k I 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 239 
 
 the gaieties of the splendid house-warming fes- 
 tival, the Prince very solemnly repeated a hymn 
 of Luther's, sung m Germany on these occa- 
 sions. Translated it is : 
 
 " God bless our going out, nor less 
 Our coming in, and make them sure ; 
 God bless our daily bread, and bless 
 Whate'er we do — whate'er endure ; 
 In death unto His peace awake us, 
 And heirs of His salvation make us." 
 
 They were very happy amid all the political 
 trouble and perplexity — almost too happy, con- 
 sidering how life was going on, or going off in 
 poor Ireland. Doubtless the cries of starving 
 children and the moans of fever-stricken moth- 
 ers must often have pierced the tender hearts of 
 the Queen and Prince ; but the calamity was so 
 vast, so apparently irremediable, that they turned 
 their thoughts away from it as much as possible, 
 as we turn ours from the awful tragic work of 
 volcanoes in the far East and tornadoes in the 
 West. It was a sort of charmed life they lived, 
 with its pastoral peace and simple pleasures. 
 Lady Bloomfield wrote: " It always entertains 
 me to see the little things which amuse Her 
 
t 'i 
 
 ft I 
 l| 
 
 s;|i 
 I' ^l 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 240 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Mr.iesty and the Prince, instead of their looking 
 bored, as people so often do in English society." 
 One thing, however, did "bore" him, and 
 that, unfortunately, was riding — " for its own 
 sake." So it was not surprising that after a 
 time the Queen indulged less in her favorite 
 pastime. She still loved a romping dance now 
 and then, but she was hardly as gay as when 
 Guizot first saw and described her. Writing 
 from Windsor to his son he gives a picture of a 
 royal dinner party : " On my left sat the young 
 Queen, whom they tried to assassinate the other 
 day, in gay spirits, talking a great deal, laughing 
 very often and longing to laugh still more ; and 
 filling with her gaiety, which contrasted with 
 the already tragical elements of her history, this 
 ancient castle which has witnessed the career of 
 all her predecessors." 
 
 The political affairs which tried and troubled 
 the Queen and the Prince were not merely 
 English. They were much disturbed and 
 shocked by the unworthy intrigues and the un- 
 kingly bad faith shown by Louis Philippe in the 
 affair of the "Spanish Marriages" — a complicated 
 and rather delicate matter, which I have neither 
 
 ! 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 24I 
 
 Space nor desire to dwell upon here. It had a 
 disastrous effect on the Orleans family, and per- 
 haps on the history of France. It has been 
 mostly interesting to me nov/ for the manner 
 in which the subject was handled by the 
 Queen, whose letters revealed a royal high spirit 
 and a keen sense of royal honor. She regretted 
 the heartless State marriage of the young Queen 
 of Spain, not only from a political but a domes- 
 tic point of view. She saw poor Isabella forced 
 or tricked into a distasteful union, from which 
 unhappiness must, and something far worse 
 than unhappiness might, come. Many and great 
 misfortunes did come of it and to the actors 
 in it. 
 
 In the spring of 1847 the Prince-Consort was 
 elected Chancellor of the University of Cam- 
 bridge—a great honor for so young a man. The 
 Queen was present at the installation, and there 
 was a splendid time. Wordsworth wrote an ode 
 on the occasion. It was not quite equal to his 
 " Ode on the Intimations of Immortality." In 
 truth, Mr. Wordsworth did not shine as Poet 
 Laureate. Mr. Tennyson better earns his butt 
 of Malmsey. 
 
I 
 
 242 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 1^ 
 
 11 
 
 i . 
 
 Seated on the throne in the great Hall of 
 Trinity, the Queen received the new Chancellor, 
 who was beautifully dressed in robes of black 
 and gold, with a long train borne by two of his 
 officers. He read to her a speech, to which she 
 read a reply, saying that on the whole she ap- 
 proved of the choice of the University. " I 
 cannot say," writes the Queen, " how it agitated 
 and embarrassed me to have to receive this ad- 
 dress, and hear it read by my beloved Albert, 
 who walked in at the head of the University, 
 and who looked dear and beautiful in his robes." 
 
 Happy woman ! When ordinary husbands 
 make long, grave speeches to their wives, they 
 do not often look " dear and beautiful ! " 
 
 This year a new prima-donna took London 
 by storm and gave the Queen and Prince " ex- 
 quisite enjoyment." Her Majesty wrote: "Her 
 acting alone is worth going to see, and the piajia 
 way she has of singing, Lablache says, is unlike 
 anything he ever heard. He is quite enchanted. 
 There is a purity in her singing and acting which 
 is quite indescribable." 
 
 That singer was Jenny Lind. 
 
 About this time lovers of impassioned ora- 
 
 li 
 
mimmm^mmtm 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 243 
 
 tory felt the joy which the astronomer knows 
 *' w/ien a new comet swims into his ken*' in the 
 appearance of a brilliant political orator, of 
 masterly talent and more masterly will. This 
 still young man of Hebraic origin, rather dash- 
 ing and flashing in manner and dress, had not 
 been thought to have any very serious purpose 
 in life, and does not seem to have much im- 
 pressed the Queen or Prince Albert at first ; but 
 the time came when he, as a Minister and friend, 
 occupied a place in Her Majesty's respect and 
 regard scarcely second to the one once occupied 
 by Lord Melbourne. This orator was Benjamin 
 Disraeli. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A Troublous Time — Louis Philippe an Exile — The Purchase of Bal- 
 moral — A Letter of Prince Albert's — Another attempt on the 
 Queen's Life — The Queen's instructions to the Governess of her 
 Daughters — A visit to Ireland — Death of Dowager Queen Adelaide. 
 
 At last came 1848 — a year packed with polit- 
 ical convulsions and overthrows. The spirit of 
 revolution was rampant, bowling away at all the 
 thrones of Europe. England heard the storm 
 thundering nearly all round the horizon, for in 
 the sister isle the intermittent rebellion broke 
 out, chiefly among the " Young Ireland " party, 
 led by Mitchel, Meagher and O'Brien. This 
 plucky little uprising was soon put down. The 
 leaders were brave, eloquent, ardent young men, 
 but their followers were not disposed to fight 
 long and well — perhaps their stomachs were too 
 empty. The Chax tists stirred again, and renewed 
 their not unreasonable or treasonable demands ; 
 but all in vain. There is really something awful 
 about the strength and solidity and impassivity 
 of England. When the French monarchy went 
 down in the earthquake shock of that wild win- 
 ter, and a republic came up in its place, it surely 
 (244) 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 245 
 
 would have been no wonder if a vast tidal-wave 
 of revolution caused by so much subsidence and 
 upheaving had broken disastrously on the English 
 shores. But it did not. The old sea-wall of 
 loyalty and constitutional liberty was too strong. 
 There were only floated up a few waifs, and 
 among them a ^^ forlorn and sJiipivreckcd brother^'' 
 calling himself " John Smith," and a poor, gray- 
 haired, heart-broken woman, " Mrs. Smith," for 
 the nonce. When these came to land they were 
 recognized as Louis Philippe and Marie Am^lie 
 of France. Afterwards most of their family, 
 who had been scattered by the tempest, came 
 also, and joined them in a long exile. The Eng- 
 lish asylum of the King and Queen was Clare- 
 mont, that sanctuary of love and sorrow, which 
 the Queen, though loving it well, had at once 
 given over to her unfortunate old friends, whom 
 she received with the most sympathetic kind- 
 ness, trying to forget all causes of ill-feeling 
 given her a year or two before by the scheming 
 King and his ambitious sons. 
 
 In the midst of the excitement and anxiety of 
 that time, a gentle, loving, world-wearied soul 
 passed out of our little mortal day at Gotha, 
 

 Ki\ 
 
 '■} 
 
 246 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ■ : 
 
 1 
 
 1 - 
 
 
 1 
 
 i. 
 
 ( 
 
 J' 
 
 
 w 
 
 1 
 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 ; 
 
 i m 
 
 
 ' w 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 and a fresh, bright young soul came into it in 
 London. The dear old grandmother of the 
 Prince died, in her palace oi Friedrichsthal, and 
 his daughter, Louise Caroline Alberta, now 
 Marchioness of Lome, was born in Buckingham 
 Palace. 
 
 Among those ruined by the convulsions in 
 Germany were the Queen's brother, Prince 
 Lciningen, and her brother-in-law, Prince 
 Hohenlohe. So the thunderbolt had struck 
 near. At one time it threatened to strike still 
 nearer, for that spring the Chartists made their 
 great demonstration, or rather announced one. 
 It was expected that they would assemble at a 
 given point and march, several hundred thou- 
 sand strong, on Parliament, bearing a monster 
 petition. What such a mighty body of men might 
 do, what excesses they might commit in the capi- 
 tal, nobody could tell. The Queen was packed 
 off to Osborne with baby Louise, to be out of 
 harm's way, and 170,000 men enrolled them- 
 selves as special constables. Among these was 
 Louis Napoleon, longing for a fight of some 
 sort in alliance with England. He did not get 
 it till some years after. There was no collision, 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 247 
 
 in fact no large compact procession ; the Chart- 
 ists, mostly very good citizens, quietly dispersed 
 and went home after presenting their petition. 
 The great scare was over, but the special con- 
 stables were as proud as Wellington's army after 
 Waterloo. 
 
 When the Chartist leaders had been tried for 
 sedition and sentenced to terms of imprison- 
 ment, and the Irish leaders had been trans- 
 ported, things looked so flat in England that the 
 young French Prince turned again to France to 
 try his fortune. It was his third trial. The first 
 two efforts under Louis Philippe to stir up a 
 revolt and topple the citizen king from the 
 throne had ended in imprisonment and ridicule ; 
 but now he would not seem to play a Napo- 
 leonic game. He would fall in with republican 
 ideas and run for the Presidency, which he did, 
 and won. But as the countryman at the circus, 
 after creating much merriment by his awk- 
 ward riding in his rural costume, sometimes 
 throws it off and appears as a spangled hero 
 and the very prince of equestrians ; so this 
 " nephew of his uncle," suddenly emerging from 
 the disguise of a republican President, blazed 
 
I 
 
 248 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 forth a full-panoplied warrior-Emperor. But 
 this was not yet. 
 
 In September of this year the Queen and 
 Prince first visited a new property they had pur- 
 chased in the heart of the Highlands. The 
 Prince wrote of it : " We have withdrawn for a 
 short time into a complete mountain solitude, 
 where one rarely sees a human face, where the 
 snow already covers the mountain-tops and the 
 wild deer come creeping stealthily round the 
 house. I, naughty man, have also been creep- 
 ing stealthily after the harmless stags, and to- 
 day I shot two red deer." . . . . " The castle is 
 of granite, with numerous small turrets, and is 
 situated on a rising-ground, surrounded by 
 birchwood, and close to the river Dee. The 
 air is glorious and clear, but icy cold." 
 
 What a relief it must have been to them to 
 feel themselves out of the reach of runaway 
 royalties, and "surprise parties" of Emperors 
 and Grand Dukes. 
 
 In March, 1849, ^^^ Prince laid the founda- 
 tion-stone for the Great Grimsby Docks, and 
 made a noble speech on the occasion. From 
 that I will not quote, but I am tempted to 
 
 ;. i 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 249 
 
 f 
 
 give entire a charming note which he wrote 
 from Brocklcsby, Lord Yarborough's place, to 
 the Queen. 
 
 It runs thus: 
 
 "Your faithful husband, agreeably to your 
 wishes, reports: i. That he is still alive. 2. 
 That he has discovered the North Pole from 
 Lincoln Cathedral, but without finding either 
 Captain Ross or Sir John Franklin. 3. That he 
 arrived at Brocklesby and received the address. 
 4. That he subsequently rode out and got home 
 quite covered with snow and with icicles on his 
 nose. 5. That the messenger is waiting to 
 carry off this letter, which you will have in 
 Windsor by the morning. 6. Last, but not least, 
 that he loves his wife and remains her devoted 
 husband." 
 
 We may believe the good, fun-loving wife 
 was delighted with this little letter, and read 
 it to a few of her choicest friends. 
 
 A few months later, while the Queen was 
 driving with her children in an open carriage 
 over that assassin-haunted Constitution Hill, 
 she was fired at by a mad Irishman — William 
 Hamilton She did not lose for a moment her 
 
 ii 
 
"T 
 
 250 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 wonderful self-possession, but ordered the car- 
 riage to move on, and quieted with a few calm 
 words the terror of the children. 
 
 We have seen that at the time of Oxford's 
 attempt she " laughed at the thing "; but now 
 there had been so many shootings that " the 
 thing" was getting tiresome and monotonous, 
 and she did not interfere with the carrying out 
 of the sentence of seven, years* transportation. 
 This was not the last. In 1 872 a Fenian tried 
 his hand against his widowed sovereign, and we 
 all know of the shocking attempt of two years 
 ago at Windsor. In truth. Her Majesty has 
 been the greatest royal target in Europe. Mcs- 
 seurs les assassins are not very gallant. 
 
 All this time the Prince-Consort was up to 
 his elbows in work of many kinds. That which 
 he loved best, planning and planting the grounds 
 of Osborne and Balmoral, and superintending 
 building, he cheerfully sacrificed for works of 
 public utility. He inaugurated and urged for- 
 ward many benevolent and scientific enterprises, 
 and schools of art and music. This extraordi- 
 nary man seemed to have a prophetic sense of 
 the value and ultimate success of inchoate pub- 
 
Wi 
 
 I 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 2;i 
 
 lie improvements, and when he once adopted a 
 scheme allowed nothing to discourage him. He 
 engineered the Holborn Viaduct enterprise, and 
 I notice that at a late meeting of the brave 
 Channel Tunnel Company, Sir E. W. Watkin 
 claimed that " the cause had once the advocacy 
 of the great Prince-Consort, the most sagacious 
 man of the century." 
 
 With all these things he found time to care- 
 fully overlook the education of his children. 
 The Prince of Wales was now thought old 
 enough to be placed under a tutor, and one was 
 selected — a Mr. Birch (let us hope the name was 
 not significant), " a young, good-looking, amiable 
 man," who had himself taken " the highest hon- 
 ors at Cambridge"; — doubtless a great point 
 those highest Cambridge honors, for the instruc- 
 tor of an eight-years-old boy. For all the ability 
 and learning of his tutor, it is said that the 
 Prince of Wales never took to the classics with 
 desperate avidity. He was never inclined to 
 waste his strength or dim his pleasant blue eyes 
 over the midnight oil. 
 
 Prince Albert never gave the training of his 
 boys up wholly to the most accomplished in- 
 
n 
 
 252 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 structors. His was still, while he lived, the 
 guiding, guarding spirit. The Queen was 
 equally faithful in the discharge of her duties 
 to her children — especially to her daughters. 
 In her memoranda I find many admirable pas- 
 sages which reveal her peculiarly simple, domes- 
 tic, affectionate system of home government. 
 The religious training of her little ones she kept 
 as much as possible in her own hands, still the 
 cares of State and the duties of royal hospitality 
 would interfere, and> writing of the Princess 
 Royal, in 1844, she says : " It is a hard case for 
 me that my occupations prevent me from being 
 with her when she says her prayers." 
 
 Some instructions which she gave to this 
 child's governess should be printed in letters of 
 gold : 
 
 " I am quite clear that she should be taught 
 to have great reverence for God and for religion, 
 but that she should have the feeling of devotion 
 and love which our heavenly Father encourages 
 His earthly children to have for Him, and not 
 one of fear and trembling; and that thoughts 
 of death and an after life should not be repre- 
 sented in an alarming and forbidding view; and 
 
 i# 
 
I f 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 553 
 
 ii0 
 
 ^ 
 
 t 
 
 that she should be made to know as yet no dif- 
 ference of creeds, and not think that she can 
 only pray on her knees, or that those who do not 
 kneel are less fervent or devout in their prayers." 
 In August of this year the Queen and Prince 
 sailed in their favorite yacht, the Victoria and 
 Albert, for Ireland, taking with them their three 
 eldest children, the better to show the Irish 
 people that their sovereign had not lost confi- 
 dence in them for their recent bit of a rebellion, 
 which she believed was one-half Popery and the 
 other half potato-rot. The Irish people justified 
 that faith. At the Cove of Cork, where the 
 Royal party first landed, and which has been 
 Queenstown ever since, their reception was most 
 enthusiastic, as it was also in Dublin, so lately 
 disaffected. The common people were especi- 
 ally delighted with the children, and one " stout 
 old woman" shouted out, "Oh, Queen, dear, 
 make one o' thim darlints Patrick, and all Ire- 
 land will die for ye!" They afterwards got 
 their "Patrick" in the little Duke of Con- 
 naught, but I fear were none the more disposed 
 to die for the English Queen. Perhaps he came 
 a little too late. 
 
254 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 The Queen on this trip expressed the inten- 
 tion of creating the Prince of Wales Earl of 
 Dublin, by way of compliment and conciliation, 
 and perhaps she did, but still Fenianism grew 
 and flourished in Ireland. 
 
 The passage from Belfast to Loch Ryan was 
 very rough — a regular rebellion against "the 
 Queen of the Seas," as the Emperor of France 
 afterwards called Victoria. She records that, 
 " Poor little Affie was knocked down and sent 
 rolling over the deck, and was completely 
 drenched." The poor little fellow. Prince Alfred, 
 Duke of Edinburgh, the bold mariner of the 
 family, probably cried out then that he would 
 *' never, never be a sailor." 
 
 In a letter from Balmoral, written on his 
 thirtieth birthday, the Prince -Consort says: 
 *' Victoria is happy and cheerful — the children 
 are well and grow apace; the Highlands are 
 glorious." 
 
 I do not know that the fact has anything to 
 do with Her Majesty's peculiar love for Scotland, 
 but she came very near being born in tha-t part 
 of her dominions — the Duke of Kent havinsf 
 proposed a little while before her birth to take 
 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 255 
 
 T 
 
 
 a place in Lanarkshire, belonging to a friend. 
 Had he done so his little daughter would have 
 been a Highland lassie. I don't think the 
 Queen would have objected. She said to Sir 
 Archibald Alison, "I am more proud of my 
 Scotch descent than of any other. When I 
 first came into Scotland I felt as if I were com- 
 ing home." 
 
 With the occupation of Balmoral this home 
 feeling increased : The Queen was ever impa- 
 tient to seek that mountain retreat and regret- 
 ful to leave it. She loved above all the outdoor 
 life there — the rough mountaineering, the deer 
 hunts, the climbing, the following up rmd ford- 
 ing streams, the picnics on breezy hill-sides ; 
 she loved to get out from under the dark pur- 
 ple shadow of royalty and nestle doWi among 
 the brighter purple of the heather ; si e loved 
 to go off on wild incognito expeditio' s and be 
 addressed by the simple peasants without her 
 awesome titles ; even loved to be at times like 
 the peasants in simplicity and nat jr.ilncsr, to 
 feel with her " guid mon," like a younger Mis- 
 tress Anderson with her " jo John." She 
 seemed to enjoy all weathers at Balmoral. I 
 
256 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ? 
 
 am told that she used to delight in walking in 
 the rain and wind and going out protected only 
 by a thick water-proof, the hood drawn over 
 her head ; and that she liked nothing better 
 than driving in a heavy snow-storm. 
 
 After the return from Scotland, the Queen 
 was to have opened the new Coal Exchange in 
 London, but was prevented by an odd and 
 much-belated ailment, an attack of chicken-pox. 
 Prince Albert went in her place and took the 
 Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales, who, 
 Lady Lyttelton writes : " behaved very civilly 
 and nicely." There was an immense crowd, all 
 shouting and cheering, and smiling kindly on 
 the children. Some ofificial of immense size, 
 with a big cloak and wig, and a big voice, is 
 described as making a pompous speech to little 
 Albert Edward, looking down on him and ad- 
 dressing him as "Your Royal Highness, the 
 pledge and promise of a long race of Kings." 
 Lady Lyttelton adds : " Poor Princey did not 
 seem to guess at all what he m .^ant." 
 
 Soon after this grand affair, a very grand 
 personage came not unwillingly to the end of 
 all earthly affairs. Adelaide, Dowager Queen 
 
 h 
 
 .> 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 257 
 
 of England, died after a long and painful ill- 
 ness. She had lived a good life ; she was a 
 sweet, charitable, patient, lovable woman. The 
 Queen and Prince-Consort were deeply grieved. 
 The Queen wrote : " She was truly motherly in 
 
 her kindness to us and our children 
 
 Poor mama is very much cut up by this sad 
 event. To her, the Queen is a great and scrir 
 ous loss." 
 
 Queen Adelaide left directions that her fu- 
 neral should be as private as possible, and that 
 her coffin should be carried by sailors — a tribute 
 to the memory of the Sailor-King. 
 
 From an English gentleman, who has excep- 
 tional opportunities of knowing much of the 
 private history of Royalty, I have received an 
 anecdote of this good woman and wife, when 
 Duchess of Clarence — something which our 
 friend thinks does her more honor than after- 
 wards did her title of Queen. When she was 
 married she knew, for everybody knew, of the 
 left-hand marriage of the Duke with the beau- 
 tiful actress, Mrs. Jordan, from whom he was 
 then separated. The Duke took his bride to 
 Bushey Park, his residence, for the honeymoon. 
 
I 
 
 258 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 and himself politely conducted her to her cham- 
 ber. She looked about the elegant room well 
 pleased, but was soon struck by the picture of 
 a very lovely woman, over the mantel. " Who is 
 that ? " she asked. The poor Duke was aghast, 
 but he had at least the kingly quality of truth- 
 telling, and stammered out : " That, my dear 
 Adelaide, is a portrait of Mrs. Jordan. I hum- 
 bly beg your pardon for its being here. I gave 
 orders to have it removed, but those stupid 
 servants have neglected to do it. I will have it 
 done at once — only forgive me." 
 
 The Duchess took her husband's hand and 
 said : " No, my dear William, you must not do 
 it ! I know what Mrs. Jordan has been to you 
 in the past — that you have loved her — that she 
 is the mother of your children, and I wish her 
 portrait to remain where it is." And it did 
 remain. This was very noble and generous, 
 certainly ; but I cannot help thinking that the 
 Duchess was not very much in love. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Great Exhibition— Birth of the Duke of Connaught— Death ol 
 Sir Robert Peel and Louis Philippe— Prince Albert's speech before 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 
 
 Early in this year of 1850, Prince Albert, 
 though not in his usual health, began in deadly 
 earnest on his colossal labors in behalf of the 
 great "World's Exhibition." England owed 
 that magnificent manifestation of her resources 
 and her enterprise far more to him than to any 
 other man. He met with much opposition from 
 that conservative class who, from the start, de-- 
 nounce all new ideas and innovations, shrinking 
 like owls from the advancing day; and that 
 timid class who, while admitting the grandeur 
 of the idea, feared it was premature. " The 
 time has not come," they said ; " wait a century 
 or two." Some opposed it on the ground that 
 it would bring to London a host of foreigners, 
 with foreign ideas and perilous to English mor- 
 als and religion. 
 
 In the garden of a certain grand English 
 country-place there is a certain summer-house, 
 
 (259) 
 
26o 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA 
 
 with a closed door, which, if a curious visitor 
 opens, lets off some water-works, which give him 
 a spray-douche. So the Prince received, at 
 door after door, a dash of cold water for his 
 "foreign enterprise." But he persevered, let- 
 ting nothing dishearten him — toiling terribly, 
 and inspiring others to toil, till at last the site 
 he desired for the building was granted him, and 
 the first Crystal Palace — the first palace for the 
 people in England — went slowly up, amid the 
 sun-dropped shades of Hyde Park. 
 
 Temporary as was that marvelous structure, 
 destined so soon to pass away, like " the baseless 
 fabric of a vision," I can but think it the grandest 
 of the monuments to the memory of the Prince- 
 Consort, though little did he so regard it. To 
 his poetic yet practical mind it was the universal 
 temple of industry and art, the valhalla of the he- 
 roes of commcice, the fane of the gods of science 
 — the caravansery of the world. That Exhibition 
 brought together the ends of the earth, — long- 
 estranged human brethren sat down together in 
 pleasant communion. It was a modern Babel, 
 finished and furnished, and where there was 
 almost a fusion, instead of a confusion, of 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 261 
 
 tongues. The " barbarous Turk " was there, the 
 warlike Russ, the mercenary Swiss, the pas- 
 sionate Italian, the voluptuous Spaniard, the 
 gallant Frenchman,— and yet foreboding English 
 citizens did not find themselves compelled to 
 go armed, or to lock up their plate, or their 
 wives and daughters. In fact, this beautiful re- 
 alized dream, this accomplished fact, quickened 
 the pulses of commerce, the genius of invention, 
 the soul and the arm of industry, the popular 
 zeal for knowledge, as nothing had ever done 
 before. 
 
 To go back a little to family events:— On 
 May 1st, 1850, Prince Albert, in writing to his 
 step-mother at Coburg, told a bit of news very 
 charmingly: "This morning, after rather a rest- 
 less night (being Walpurgis night, that was very 
 Appropriate), and while the witches were career- 
 mg on the Blocksberg, under Ernst Augustus' 
 mild sceptre, a little boy glided into the light 
 of day and has been received by the sisters with 
 jubilates, 'Now we are just as many as the 
 days of the week ! ' was the cry, and a bit of a 
 struggle arose as to vv^ho was to be Sunday. Out 
 of well-bred courtesy the honor was conceded 
 
 I 
 
262 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 f 
 
 II 
 
 to the new-comer. Victoria is well, and so is 
 the child." 
 
 This Prince was called Arthur William 
 Patrick Albert. The first name was in honor 
 of the Duke of Wellington, on whose eighty- 
 first birthday the boy was born ; William was 
 for the Prince of Prussia, now Emperor of Ger- 
 many ; Patrick was for Ireland in general, and 
 the " stout old woman " of Dublin in particular. 
 
 This year both the Queen and the country 
 lost a great and valued friend in Sir Robert 
 Peel, who was killed by being thrown from his 
 horse. There was much mourning in England 
 among all sorts of people for this rarely noble, 
 unennobled man. The title of Baronet he had 
 inherited ; it is said he declined a grander title, 
 and he certainly recorded in his will a wish that 
 no one of his sons should accept a title on ac- 
 count of his services to the country — which was 
 a great thing for a man to do in England ; and 
 after his death, his wife was so proud of bear- 
 ing his name that she declined a peerage of- 
 fered to her — which was a greater thing for a 
 woman to do in England. 
 
 Not long after, occurred the death of the 
 
 r> 
 
 iV 
 
WIFKIIOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 263 
 
 ex-King of France, at Claremont. McCarthy 
 sums up his character very tersely, thus : '« The 
 clever, unwise, grand, mean old man." Louis 
 Philippe's meanness was in his mercenary and 
 plotting spirit, when a rich man and a king— 
 his grand qualities were his courage and cheer- 
 fulness, when in poverty and exile. 
 
 The Royal Family again visited Edinburgh, 
 and stopped for a while at Holyrood-thr.t 
 quaint old Palace of povir Mary Stuart, whose 
 sad, sweet memory so pervades it, like a per- 
 sonal atmosphere, that it seems she has only 
 gone out for a little walk, or ride, with her four 
 Maries, and will soon come in, laughing and 
 talking French, and looking passing beautiful. 
 Queen Victoria had then a romantic interest in 
 the hapless Queen of Scots. She said to Sir 
 Archibald Alison, - I am glad I am descended 
 from Mary ; I have nothing to .do with Eliza- 
 beth." 
 
 From Edinburgh to dear Balmoral, from 
 whence the Prince writes : " We try to strength- 
 en our hearts amid the stillness and solemnity 
 of the mountains." 
 
 The Queen's heart especially needed strength- 
 M 
 
'i \' 
 
 264 
 
 LIFE OF OUKFN VICTORIA. 
 
 4J 
 II 
 
 ening, for she was dreading a blow which soon 
 fell upon her in the death of her dearest friend, 
 her aunt, the Queen of the Belgians. She 
 mourned deeply and long for this lovely and 
 gifted woman, this " angelic soul," as Baron 
 Stockmar called her. 
 
 On April 29, 185 1, the Queen paid a private 
 visit to the Exhibition, and wrote: "We re- 
 mained two hours and a half, and I came back 
 quite beaten, and my head bewildered from the 
 myriads of beautiful and wonderful things 
 which now quite dazzle one's eyes. Such efforts 
 have been made, and our people have shown 
 such taste in their manufactures. All owing to 
 this great Exhibition, and to Albert — all to 
 /iim / " 
 
 May 1st, which was the first anniversary of 
 little Arthur's birth, was the great opening- 
 day, when Princes and people took possession 
 of that mighty crystal temple, and the " Festi- 
 val of Peace " began. 
 
 The Queen's description in her diary is an 
 eloquent outpouring of pride and joy, and grat- 
 itude. One paragraph ends with these words : 
 " God bless my dearest Albert. God bless my 
 
 i 
 
 Wtfii 
 
 I 
 
i 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTIIKRIIOOD. 265 
 
 dearest country, which has shown itself so great 
 to-day! One felt so grateful to the great God, 
 who seemed to pervade and bless all." 
 
 Her Majesty wrote that the scene in the 
 Park as they drove through— the countless car- 
 riages, the vast crowd, the soldiers, the music, 
 the tumultuous, yet happy excitement every- 
 where, reminded her of her coronation day ; but 
 when she entered that great glass house, over 
 which floated in the sunny air the flags of all 
 nations, within which were the representatives 
 of all nations, and when she walked up to her 
 place in the centre, conducted by the wizard 
 who had conjured up for the world that magic 
 structure, and when the two stood there, with 
 a child on either hand, before the motley mul- 
 titude, cheering in all languages— then, Victo- 
 Ha felt her name, and knew she had come to 
 her real coronation, as sovereign, wife, and 
 mother. 
 
 Shortly after this great day. Prince Albert 
 distinguished himself by a remarkably fine 
 speech at an immense meeting of the " Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts." Such shoals of foreigners being then 
 
t- 
 
 266 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 1* 
 
 in London, the Society felt that they must be 
 casting in their nets. Lord John Russell wrote 
 to congratulate the Queen, who, next to the 
 heathen, was most interested in the success of 
 this speech. Her reply was veiy characteristic, 
 After saying that she had been quite " sure that 
 the Prince would say the right thing, from her 
 entire confidence in his tact and judgment," she 
 added, " The Queen at the risk of not appear- 
 ing sufficiently modest (and yet why should a 
 woman ever be modest about her husband's 
 merits?) must say that she thinks Lord John 
 \vill admit now that the Prince is possessed of 
 Very extraordinary powers of mind and heart. 
 She feels so proud of being his wife, that she 
 cannot refrain from paying herself d tribute to 
 his noble character." 
 
 Ah, English husbands should be loyal beyond 
 measure to the illustrious lady, who has set 
 such a matchless example of wifely faith, pride 
 and devotion, hut it will be a pity if in preach- 
 ing up to their wives her example, they forget 
 the no less admirable example of the Prince- 
 Consort. 
 
 ^ti 
 
 I 
 
-^ 
 
 m 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Close of the Great Exhibition-Anecdote— Louis Kossuth— Napoleon 
 III.— The writer's first visit to England-Description of a Proro- 
 gation of Parliament. 
 
 The great Exhibition was closed about the 
 middle of October, on a dark and rainy day. 
 The last ceremonies were very solemn and im- 
 pressive. It had not remained long enough for 
 people to be wearied of it. The Queen, the 
 Prince and their children seemed never to tire 
 of visiting it, and the prospect of a sight of 
 them was one of the greatest attractions of the 
 place to other visitors, especially to simple 
 country-folk— though these were sometimes dis- 
 appointed at not beholding the whole party 
 wearing crowns and trailing royal robes. 
 
 I remember a little anecdote of one of Her 
 Majesty's visits to the Crystal Palace. Among 
 
 the American manufactures were some fine soaps, 
 and among these a small head, done in white 
 Castile, and so exactly like marble that the 
 Queen doubted the soap story, and in her im- 
 
 (267) 
 
'-1 
 
 268 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 pulsivc, investigating way was about to test it 
 with a scratch of her shawl-pin, when the Yan- 
 kee exhibitor stayed her hand, and drew forth 
 a courteous apology by the loyal remonstrance' — 
 " Pardon, your Majesty, — it is the head of IVas/i^ 
 ington / " 
 
 Soon after the Princes and Kings went home, 
 there arrived in London a man whose heroism 
 and eloquence had thrilled the hearts and filled 
 the thoughts of the world as those of no mon- 
 arch living had ever done. He was not received 
 with royal honors, though with some generous 
 enthusiasm, by the people. He was looked 
 upon in high places as that most forlorn being, 
 an unsuccessful adventurer ; — so he turned his 
 face, his sad eyes wistful with one last hope, 
 towards the setting sun. Alas, his own political 
 sun had already set ! 
 
 This man was Louis Kossuth. About the 
 same time another man, without heroism, with- 
 out eloquence, but with almost superhuman 
 audacity, struck a famous political blow, in 
 Paris, called a coup d'dtat. He exploded a se- 
 cret mine, which shattered the republic and 
 heaved him up on to an imperial throne. Of 
 
 vt»j 
 
 i 
 
t^ 
 
 4^ 
 
 V.IFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 269 
 
 course this successful adventurer was Louis 
 Na^.o'eon. 
 
 I cannot find that, as the Prince-President 
 of that poor, poetic, impracticable thing, the 
 P>ench RepubHc, much notice had been taken 
 of him by the English Government ;— but " Em- 
 peror " was a more respectable title, even worn 
 in this way, snatched in the twinkling of an eye 
 by a political prcstidigitatcur, and it was of 
 greater worth— it had cost blood. So Napoleon 
 III. was recognized by England, and nt last by 
 all great powers— royal and republican. Still, 
 for a while, they showed a wary coldness towards 
 the new Emperor ; and he was unhappy because 
 ;dl the great European sovereigns hesitated to 
 concede his equality to the extent of addressin^T 
 him as " 7no}i frcrc " (my brother). He se(;med 
 to take this so to heart that, after this solemn 
 declaration that his empire meant peace and not 
 war, the Queen of England put out her friendly 
 little hand and said frankly, '' inon frcrc'' \ and 
 the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Aus- 
 tria followed her example ; but tlie Czar of 
 Russia put his iron-gloved hand behind his back 
 and fnjwned. Louis Napoleon did not forget 
 
 I 
 
270 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 that ever — but remembered it "excellent well" 
 a few years later, when he was sending off his 
 noble army to the Crimea. 
 
 I find two charming domestic bits, in letters 
 of the Queen and Prince, written in May, 1852, 
 from Osborne. After saying that her birthday 
 had passed very happily and peacefully, Her 
 Majesty adds : ** I only feel that I never can 
 be half grateful enough for so much love, devo- 
 tion and happiness. My beloved Albert was, 
 if possible, more than usually kind and good in 
 showering gifts on me. Mama was most kind, 
 too ; and the children did everything they could 
 to please me." 
 
 It is pleasant to see that the dear mother 
 and grandmother never forgot those family an- 
 niversaries, and never was forgotten. 
 
 Prince Albert writes, in a letter to the Dow- 
 ager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg: "The children 
 are well. They grow apace and develop new 
 virtues daily, and also new naughtinesses. The 
 virtues we try to retain, and the naughtinesses 
 we throw away." 
 
 This year was a memorable one for the writer 
 of this little book, for it was that of her first 
 
 *& 
 
 i 
 
-•y 
 
 •^^ 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 271 
 
 visit to England,— of her first sight of London 
 and Charles Dickens, of Westminster Abbey 
 and the Duke of Wellington, of Windsor Castle 
 and Queen Victoria. 
 
 I had brought a letter, from one of his most 
 esteemed American friends, to the Earl of Car- 
 lisle, and from that accomplished and amiable 
 nobleman I received many courtesies,— chief 
 among them a ticket, which he obtained from 
 Her Majesty direct, to one of her reserved seats 
 in the Peeresses' Gallery of the House of Lords, 
 to witness the prorogation of Parliament. I 
 trust I may be pardoned if I quote a portion of 
 my description of that wonderful sight,— writ- 
 ten, ah me ! so long ago : 
 
 . ..." I found that m> seat was one most 
 desirable both for seeing the brilliant assembly 
 and the august ceremony; it was near the 
 throne, yet commanded a view of every part of 
 the splendid chamber. 
 
 " The gallery was soon filled with ladies, all 
 in full-dress, jewels, flowers and plumes. Many 
 of the seats of the Peers were also filled by their 
 noble wives and fair daughters, most superbly 
 and sweetly arrayed Among those con- 
 
2/2 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ! 11 
 
 spicuous for elegance and loveliness were the 
 young Duchess of Northumberland and Lady 
 Clementina Villiers, the famous Court beauty. 
 
 " Toward one o'clock the Peers began to come 
 in, clad in their robes of State. Taken as a 
 whole they are a noble and refined-looking set 
 of men. But few eyes dwelt on any of these, 
 when there slowly entered, at the left of the 
 throne, a white-haired old man, pale and spare, 
 bowed with years and honors, the hero of many 
 battles in many lands, the conqueror of con- 
 querors, — the Duke I Leaning on the arm of 
 the fair Marchioness of Douro, he stood, or 
 rather tottered, before us, the grandest ruin in 
 England. He presently retired to don his ducal 
 robes and "oin the royal party at the entrance 
 by the Vic oria tower The pious bish- 
 ops, in their sacerdotal robes, made a goodly 
 show before an ungodly world. The judges 
 came in their black gowns and in all the vener- 
 able absurdity o'.' their enormous wigs. Mr. 
 Justice Talfourd, the poet, a small, modest- 
 looking man, was quite extinguished by his. 
 The foreign Ministers assembled, nation after 
 nation, making, when standing or seated to- 
 
 '^■■y 
 
 * 
 
 \ 
 
 ' v» 
 
"r 
 
 "W 
 
 *j 
 
 s^.^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 WIFEHOOD ANT) MOTHERHOOD. 273 
 
 gether, a most peculiar and picturesque group. 
 They shone in all colors and dazzled with stars, 
 
 orders and jewel-hilted swords 
 
 '' Next to me sat the eleven-year-old Princess 
 Gouromma, daughter of the Rajah of Coorg. 
 The day before she had received Christian bap- 
 tism, the Queen standing as godmother. She 
 is a pretty, bright-looking child, and was literally 
 loaded with jewels. Opposite her sat an Indian 
 Prince— her father, I was told. He was man-, 
 nificently attired— girded about with a superb 
 India shawl, and above his dusky brow gleamed 
 star-like diamonds, for the least of which many 
 
 a hard-run Christian would sell his soul 
 
 " At last, the guns announced the royal pro- 
 cession, and in a few moments the entire house 
 rose silently to receiv- Her Majesty. The 
 Queen was conducted by Prince Albert, and 
 accompanied by all the great officers of State. 
 The long train, borne by ladies, gentlemen and 
 pages, gave a certain statelincss to the short, 
 plump little person of the fair sovereign, and 
 she bore herself with much dignity and grace. 
 Prince Albert, it is evident, has been eminently 
 handsome, but he is growing a little stout and 
 
Mkrz 
 
 w 
 
 274 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 n 
 
 slightly bald. Yet he is a man of right noble 
 presence. Her Majesty is in fine preservation, 
 and really a pretty and lovable-looking woman. 
 I think I never saw anything sweeter than her 
 smile of recognition, given to some of her 
 friends in the gallery — to the little Indian 
 Princess in especial. There is much in her face 
 of pure womanliness and simple goodness ; yet 
 it is by no means wanting in animated intelli- 
 gence. In short, after seeing her, I can well 
 understand the loving loyalty of her people, and 
 can heartily join in their prayer of ' God Save 
 the Queen ! * 
 
 " Her Majesty wore a splendid tiara of bril- 
 liants, matched by bracelets, necklace and stom- 
 acher. Her soft brown hair was dressed very 
 plainly. Her under-dress was of white satin, 
 striped with gold ; her robe was, of course, of 
 purple velvet, trimmed with gold and ermine." 
 
 The Queen desired the lords to be seated, 
 and commanded that her " faithful Commons " 
 should be summoned. When the members of 
 the lower House had come in, the speaker read 
 a speech, to which, I have recorded, " Her 
 Majesty listened, in a cold, quiet manner, sit- 
 
 ^ 
 
 
^ 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTIIERriOOD. 275 
 
 ting perfectly motionless, even to her fingers 
 and eyelids. The Iron Duke standing at her 
 left, bent, and trembled slightly— supporting 
 with evident difficulty the ponderous sword of 
 State. Prince Albert, sitting tall and soldier- 
 like, in his handsome Field-Marshal's uniform, 
 looked nonchalant and serene, but with a cer- 
 tain far-awav expression in his eyes. The Earl 
 of Derby held the crown on its gorgeous cush- 
 ion gracefully, like an accomplished waiter pre- 
 senting a tray of ices. On a like occasion, 
 some time ago, I hear the Duke of Argyle had 
 the ill-luck to drop this crown from the cushion, 
 when some of the costly jewels, jarred from their 
 setting, flew about like so many bits of broken 
 glass. But there was no need to cry, ' Pick up 
 the pieces ! ' 
 
 "After the reading of this speech, certain 
 bills were read to Her Majesty, for her assent, 
 which she gave each time with a gracious incli- 
 nation of the head, shaking sparkles from her 
 diamond tiara in dew-drops of light. At every 
 token of acquiescence a personage whom I took 
 for a herald, bowed low towards the Queen, then 
 
n^^.xii.u-^l.«a«i,>»..=>^l--:..t-^» 
 
 2*j6 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 performed a similar obeisance towards the Com- 
 mons — crying * La Rei'ic Ic vcut / ' " 
 
 Why he should say it in French — why he did 
 not say " The Queen wills it," in her own Eng- 
 lish, I don't yet know. 
 
 I went on : " This ceremony gone through 
 with, the Lord Chancellor, kneeling at the foot 
 of the throne, presented a copy of the Royal 
 speech to the Queen (I had supposed she 
 would bring it in aer pocket), which she pro- 
 ceeded to read, in a manner perfectly simple, 
 yet impressive, and in a voice singularly melo- 
 dious and distinct. Finer reading I never heard 
 anywhere ; every syllable was clearly enunciated, 
 and the emphasis fell with unerring precision, 
 though gently, on the right word. 
 
 " The Lord Chancellor having formally an- 
 nounced that Parliament stood prorogued until 
 the 20th of August, Her Majesty rose as majes- 
 tically as could be expected from one more re- 
 markable for rosy plumptitude than regal alti- 
 tude ; Prince Albert took his place at her side ; 
 the crown and sword bearers took theirs in 
 r*ont, the train-bearers theirs in the rear, and 
 
 1 
 
^ w 
 
 WIFI-IlOOn AND MOTIIERITOOD. 2'J'J 
 
 the royal procession swept slowly forth, the 
 brilliant house broke up and followed, and so 
 the splendid pageant passed away — faded like 
 a piece of fairy enchantment." 
 
 That's the way they do it,— except that now- 
 adays the Queen does not read her own speech. 
 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 aJ' 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 - IIIIM ||||Z2 
 2.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 1.4 ill 1.6 
 
 - 6' 
 
 
 
 vQ 
 
 % 
 
 /. 
 
 %^ ^ # 
 
 7 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, NY. MS80 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
LS 
 
 : 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Death of the Duke of Wellington— Birth of the Duke of Albany— 
 The Crimean War— Slanders upon Prince Albert— The Prince of 
 Wales takes a place for the first time upon the Throne — Incidents 
 of Domestic Life— Prince Albert visits the Emperor of France^ 
 Incidents of the War. 
 
 ' 
 
 • ! 
 1 
 
 At Balmoral the following autumn, the 
 Queen heard of the death of her most illustri- 
 ous subject — the Duke of Wellington, and 
 green are those " Leaves " in the journal of her 
 " life in the Highlands," devoted to his mem- 
 ory. She wrote of him as a sovereign seldom 
 writes of a subject, — glowingly, gratefully, ten- 
 derly. " One cannot think of this country, 
 without ' the Duke,' our immortal hero " — she 
 said. 
 
 There was a glorious state and popular fu- 
 neral for the grand old man, who was laid away 
 with many honors and many tears in the crypt 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral, where his brother hero. 
 Nelson, was waiting to receive him. 
 
 When early in 1853, ^^^ news came to 
 
 Windsor Castle that the French Emperor had 
 
 (278) 
 
 1 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 279 
 
 f:Jl 
 
 ;i 
 
 selected a bride, not for her wealth, or high 
 birth, or royal connections, but for her beauty, 
 and grace, and because he loved her, Victoria 
 and Albert, as truly lovers as when they entered 
 the old castle gates, as bride and bridegroom, 
 felt more than ever friendly to him, and desir- 
 ous that he should have a fair field, if no favor, 
 to show what he could do for France. I am 
 afraid they half forgot the coup d'ttaty and the 
 widows, orphans and exiles it had made. 
 
 In April, the Queen's fourth son, who was des- 
 tined to " carry weight " in the shape of names, 
 — Leopold George Duncan Albert — now Duke 
 of Albany, was born in Buckingham Palace. 
 
 During this year " the red planet Mars " was 
 in the ascendant. The ugly Eastern Trouble, 
 which finally culminated in the Crimean War, 
 began to loom in the horizon, and England to 
 stir herself ominously with military prepara- 
 tions. Drilling and mustering and mock com- 
 bats were the order of the day, and the soimd 
 of the big drum was heard in the land. They 
 had a grand battle-rehearsal at Chobham, and 
 the Queen and Prince went there on horseback ; 
 she wearing a military riding-habit, and accom- 
 
r 
 
 280 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 r 
 
 i'* 
 
 panied by the Duke of Coburg and her cousin 
 George, King of Hanover. 
 
 The weather was genuine '* Queen's weather," 
 bright and warm ; but Prince Albert, who re- 
 turned a few days later, to rough it, in a season 
 of regular camp-life, was almost drowned out 
 of his tent by storms. In fact, the warrior bold 
 went home with a bad cold, which ended in an 
 attack of measles. There was enough of this 
 disease to go through the family. Queen and 
 all. Even the guests took it, the Crown Prince 
 of Hanover and the Duke and Duchess of 
 Coburg, who on going home gave it to the 
 Duke of Brabant and the Count of Flanders. 
 I suppose there never was known such a royal 
 run of measles. 
 
 This year the Queen and Prince went again 
 to Ireland, to attend the Dublin Industrial Ex- 
 hibition, and were received with undiminished 
 enthusiasm. It is remarkable that in Ireland 
 the Queen was not once shot at, or struck in 
 the face, or insulted in any way, as in her own 
 capital. All the most chivalric feeling of that 
 mercurial, but generous people, was called out 
 by the sight of her frank and smiling face. She 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 281 
 
 trusted them, and they proved worthy of the 
 trust. 
 
 After their return to Balmoral, the Prince 
 wrote: "We should be happy here were it 
 not for that horrible Eastern complication. A 
 European war would be a terrible calamity. 
 It will not do to give up all hope ; still, what we 
 have is small." 
 
 It daily grew smaller, as the war- clouds thick- 
 ened and darkened in the political sky. During 
 those troublous times, when some men's hearts 
 were failing them for fear, and some men's were 
 madly panting for the fray, asking nothing 
 better than to see the Lion of England pitted 
 against the Bear of Russia, the Prince was in 
 some quarters most violently and viciously 
 assailed, as a designing, dangerous " influence 
 behind the throne" — treacherous to England, 
 and so to England's Queen. So industriously 
 was this monstrous slander spread abroad, that 
 the story went, and by some simple souls was 
 believed, that " the blameless Prince " had been 
 arrested for high treason, and lodged in the 
 Tower! Some had it that he had gone in 
 through the old Traitors' Gate, and that they 
 
!i 
 
 ; - 
 
 i: 
 
 282 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 were furbishing up the old axe and block for 
 his handsome head ! Then the rumor ran that 
 the Queen had also been arrested, and was to 
 be consigned to the grim old fortress, or that 
 she insisted on going with her husband and 
 sharing his dungeon. Thousands of English 
 people actually assembled about the; Tower to 
 see them brought in, — and yet this was not on 
 All-Fools' Day. 
 
 Poor Baron Stockmar was a\so suspected of 
 dark political intrigues and practices detrimental 
 to the peace and honor of England. He was, 
 in fact, accused of being a spy and a conspir- 
 ator — which was absurdity itself. He was, it 
 seems to me, a high-minded, kindly old man, a 
 political philosopher and moralist — rather opin- 
 ionated always, and at times a little patronizing 
 towards his royal pupils; but if they did not 
 object to this, it was no concern of other peo- 
 ple. He certainly had a shrewd, as well as a 
 philosophic mind — was a sagacious "clerk of 
 the weather " in Europi^an politics, — and I sup- 
 pose a better friend man or woman never had 
 than the Prince and the Queen found in this 
 much distrusted old German Baron. 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 283 
 
 Though Prince Albert wrote at this time 
 about having " a world of torment," he really 
 took matters very patiently and philosophically. 
 In the devotion of his wife, in the affection of 
 his children, in his beloved organ, "the only 
 instrument," he said, " for expressing one's feel- 
 ings," he found consolation and peace. He 
 wrote, — "Victoria has taken the whole affair 
 greatly to heart, and is excessively indignant at 
 the attacks/' But a triumphant refutation, in 
 both Houses of Parliament, of all these slanders, 
 consoled her much ; and on the anniversary of 
 her marriage she was able to write — "This 
 blessed day is full of joyful and tender emo- 
 tions. Fourteen happy years have passed, and 
 I confidently trust many more will pass, and 
 find us in old age, as we are now, happily and 
 devotedly united!* Trials we must have; but 
 what are they if we are together? " 
 
 In March, 1854, the Queen and Prince went 
 to Osborne to visit the magnificent fleet of war- 
 vessels which had been assembled at Spithead. 
 Her Majesty wrote to Lord Aberdeen — " We 
 are just starting to see the fleet, which is to 
 sail at once for its important destination. It 
 
! I 
 
 284 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I 
 
 will be a solemn moment ! Many a heart will 
 be very heavy, and many a prayer, including 
 our own, will be offered up for its safety and 
 glory ! " 
 
 Ah ! when those beautiful ships went sailing 
 away, with their white sails spread, and the 
 royal colors flying, death sat " up aloft," instead 
 of the " sweet little cherub " popularly supposed 
 to be perched there, and winds from the long 
 burial-trenches of the battle-field played among 
 the shrouds. 
 
 King Frederick William of Prussia seemed to 
 think that he could put an end to this little 
 unpleasantness, and wrote a long letter to the 
 Queen of England, paternally advising her to 
 make some concessions to the Emperor of Rus- 
 sia, which concessions she thought would be 
 weak and unworthy. Her reply reveals her 
 characteristic high courage. One quotation, 
 which she makes from Shakspeare, is admirable : 
 
 " Beware 
 Of entrance to a quarrel ; but being in, 
 Bear 't, that the opposed may beware 
 of thee." 
 
 Still, as we look back, it does seem as though 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 285 
 
 with the wit of the Queen, the wisdom of Prince 
 Albert, the philosophy of Baron Stockmar,— the 
 philanthropy of Exeter Hall, and the piety of 
 the Bench of Bishops, some sort of peaceful 
 arrangement might have been effected, and the 
 Crimean war left out of history. But then we 
 should not have had the touching picture of the 
 lion and the unicorn charging on the enemy 
 together, not for England or France, but all for 
 poor Turkey; and Mr. Tennyson could not 
 have written his " Charge of the Light Brigade,'* 
 which would have been a great loss to elocu- 
 tionists. There were in Parliament a few poor- 
 spirited economists and soft-hearted humani- 
 tarians who would fain have prevented that 
 mighty drain of treasure and of the best blood 
 of England— holding, with John Bright, that 
 this war was " neither just nor necessary "; but 
 they were " whistling against the wind." There 
 was one rich English quaker, with a heart like 
 a tender woman's and a face like a cherub's, 
 who actually went over to Russia to labor with 
 " friend Nicholas " against this war. All in vain ! 
 the Czar was deeply moved, of course, but would 
 not give in, or give up. 
 

 286 
 
 MFK OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 :i 
 
 On the 3cl of March the Queen went to Par. 
 liamcnt to receive the address of both Houses 
 in answer to her message which announced the 
 opening of the war. On this important occasion 
 the young Prince of Wales took a place for 
 the first time with his mother and father oa.the 
 throne. He looked taller and graver than usual. 
 His heart glowed with martial fire. His voice, 
 too, if he had been allowed to speak, would 
 have been all for war. A few days before this, 
 the Queen, after seeing off the first division 
 of troops for the Baltic, had so felt the soldier- 
 blood of her father tingling in her veins, that 
 she wrote : " I am very enthusiastic about my 
 dear army and navy, and I wish I had two sons 
 in both now." But in later years the widowed 
 Queen is said to have been not eager to have 
 any of her sons, his sons, peril their lives in 
 battle. 
 
 Though the Prince of Wales now had as- 
 signed to him a more honorable place on the 
 British throne than the British Constitution 
 permitted his father to occupy, he was still per- 
 fectly amenable to that father's authority. 
 
 An English gentleman lately told me of an 
 
 i 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 287 
 
 instance of the wise exercise of that authority. 
 The Prince-Consort and his son were riding 
 across a London toll-bridge, the keeper of 
 which, on receiving his toll, respectfully sa- 
 luted them. Prince Albert courteously inclined 
 his head, touching his hat, but Prince Albert 
 Edward dashed carelessly on, yet only to return 
 a minute after, laughing and blushing, to obey 
 his father's command — " My son, go back and 
 return that man's salute." 
 
 The Queen was so enthusiastic that she with 
 pleasure saw launched — indeed, christened her- 
 self — a war-vessel bearing the name and like- 
 ness of her " dearest Albert " — that humane, 
 amiable, peace-loving man ! There was some- 
 thing incongruous in it, as there is in all associa- 
 tions between war and good peace-lovers and 
 Christ-lovers. 
 
 Amid these wars and rumors of wars, it is 
 comforting to read in that admirable and most 
 comprehensive work, " The Life of His Royal 
 Highness, the Prince-Consort, by Sir Theodore 
 Martin, K.C.B.," of pleasant little domestic 
 events, like a children's May-day ball at Buck- 
 ingham Palace, given on Prince Arthur's birth- 
 N 
 
288 
 
 LIFE OF OUFFN VICTORIA. 
 
 day, when two hundred children were made 
 happy and made others happier. Then there 
 were great times at Osborne for the Royal 
 children on their mother's birthday, when a 
 charming house — the Swiss cottage — and its 
 grounds, were made over to them, to have and 
 to hold, as their very own. It was not wholly 
 for a play-house and play-ground, but partly as 
 a means of instruction in many things. In the 
 perfectly-appointed kitchen of the cottage the 
 little Princesses learned to perform many do- 
 mestic tasks, and to cook different kinds of 
 plain dishes as well as cakes and tarts — in 
 short, to perform the ordinary duties of house- 
 keepers ; while in the grounds and gardens the 
 young Princes used to work two or three hours 
 a day under the direction of a gardener, getting 
 regular certificates of labor performed, which 
 they presented to their father, who always paid 
 them as he would have paid any laborer for the 
 same amount and quality of work — never more, 
 never less. Each boy had his own hoe and 
 spade, which not a Princeling among them all 
 considered it iufra-dig. to use. The two eldest 
 boys, Albert Edward and Alfred, also con- 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTIIKRIIf )():>. 2l\() 
 
 structed under their father's directions a small 
 fortress perfect in all its details. All the work- 
 on this military structure, even to the makini; 
 of the bricks, was done by the Princes. Tht^ 
 little Princesses also worked in the gardens, 
 each having her own plot, marked with her own 
 name, from Victoria to Beatrice. There was a 
 museum of natural history attached to the cot- 
 tage, and we can easily imagine the wonderful 
 specimens of entomology and ornithology there 
 to be found. Ah ! have any of the grown-up 
 Royal Highnesses ever known the comfort and 
 fun in their grand palaces that they had in the 
 merry old Swiss cottage days ? 
 
 In the autumn of 1854 Prince Albert went 
 over to Boulogne for a little friendly visit to 
 England's chief ally, taking with him little Ar- 
 thur. He seems to have found the French Enr- 
 peror a little stiff and cold at first, as he wrote 
 to the Queen, " The Emperor thaws mo: c and 
 more." In the sunshine of that genial presence 
 he /lad to thaw. The Prince adds: " He told 
 me one of the deepest impressions ever made 
 upon him was when he arrived in London 
 shortly after King William's death and saw you 
 
i 
 
 ■ t 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 l«^ 
 
 290 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 at the age of eighteen going to open Parliament 
 for the first time." 
 
 The Prince made a deep impression on the 
 Emperor. Two men could not be more unlike. 
 The character of the one was crystal clear, and 
 deeper than it appeared — the character of the 
 other was murky and mysterious, and shallower 
 than it seemed. 
 
 This must have been a season of great anx- 
 iety and sadness for the Queen. The guns of 
 Alma and Sebastopol echoed solemnly among 
 her beloved mountains. In her journal there is 
 this year only one Balmoral entry — not the ac- 
 count of any Highland expedition or festivity, 
 but the mention of an eloquent sermon by the 
 Rev. Norman McLeod, and of his prayer, which 
 she says was " very touching," and added, " His 
 allusions to us were so simple, saying after his 
 mention of us, * Bless their children.* It gave 
 me a lump in my throat, as also when he prayed 
 for the dying, the wounded, the widow, and the 
 orphan." 
 
 There came a few months later a ghastly ally 
 of the Russians into the fight — cholera — which, 
 joined to the two terrible winter months, " Gen- 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 291 
 
 erals January and February/' as the Czar called 
 them, made sad havoc in the English and 
 French forces, but did not redeem the fortunes 
 of the Russians. Much mal-administration in 
 regard to army supplies brought terrible hard- 
 ships upon the English troops, and accomplished 
 the impossible in revealing in them new quali- 
 ties of bravery and heroic endurance. 
 
 It was an awful war, and it lasted as long as, 
 and a little longer than, the Czar, who died in 
 March, 1855, "of pulmonary apoplexy," it was 
 announced, though the rumor ran, that, resolved 
 not to survive Sebastopol, he had taken his own 
 unhappy life. With his death the war was vir- 
 tually ended, and his son Alexander made peace 
 as soon as he decently could with the triumph- 
 ant enemies of his father. 
 
 Through all this distressful time the Queen 
 and the Prince-Consort manifested the deepest 
 sympathy for, as well as pride in, the English 
 soldiers. They had an intense pity for the poor 
 men in the trenches, badly clad and half 
 starved, grand, patient, ill-used, uncomplaining 
 fellows! 
 
 "My heart bleeds to think of it," wrote the 
 
292 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA, 
 
 Prince, of the army administration. He corre- 
 sponded with Florence Nightingale, and encour- 
 aged her in her brave and saintly mission. 
 When the sick and wounded began to arrive in 
 England both he and the Queen were faithful 
 in visiting them in the hospitals, and Her Maj- 
 esty had a peculiar sad joy in rewarding the 
 bravest of the brave with the gift of the Crimean 
 medal. In a private letter she gives a descrip- 
 tion of the touching scene. She says : 
 
 *' From the highest Prince of the blood to the 
 lowest private, all received the same distinction 
 for the bravest conduct in the severest actions. 
 .... Noble fellows ! I own I feel for them 
 
 as though they were my own children 
 
 They were so touched, so pleased ! Many, I 
 hear, cried, and they won't hear of giving up 
 their medals to have their names engraved upon 
 them for fear that they may not receive the iden- 
 tical ones put into their hands by me. Several 
 came by in a sadly mutilated state." 
 
 One of these heroes, young Sir Thomas Trow- 
 bridge, who had had one leg and the foot of 
 the other carried away by a round shot at In- 
 kermann, was dragged in a Bath-chair to the 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 293 
 
 Queen, who, when she gave hirn his medal, 
 offered to make him one of her Aidcs-dc-Camp, 
 to which the gallant and loyal soldier replied, 
 "I am amply repaid for everything." Poor 
 fellow ! I wonder if he continued to say that 
 all his mutilated life ? 
 
 Whenever during this war there was a hitch, 
 or halt, in the victorious march of English 
 arms, any disaster or disgrace in the Crimea, 
 the attacks upon the Prince-Consort were re- 
 newed, — there were even threats of impeach- 
 ment ; — but when the " cruel war was over," 
 the calumnies were over also. They were 
 always as absurd as unfounded. Aside from his 
 manly sense of honor the Prince had by that 
 time, at least, ten good reasons for being loyal 
 to England — an English wife and nine English 
 children. 
 
 I :% 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The Emperor and Empress of France visit Windsor — They are 
 entertained by the City of London — Scene at the Opera — The 
 Queen returns the Emperor's call — Splendor of the Imperial 
 Hospitality. 
 
 The Queen's kind heart was really pained by 
 the sudden death of the Czar, her sometime 
 friend and " brother " — whose visit to Wind- 
 sor was brou<^ht by the startling event vividly 
 to her mind — yet she turned from his august 
 shade to welcome one of his living conquerors, 
 the Emperor Napoleon, who, with his beautiful 
 wife, came this spring to visit her and the 
 Prince. She had had prepared for the visitors 
 the most splendid suite of apartments — among 
 them the very bedroom once occupied by the 
 Emperor Nicholas. It was the best " spare 
 room " of the Castle, and the one generally 
 allotted to first-class monarchs — Louis Philippe 
 had occupied it. What stuff for ghosts for the 
 bedside of Louis Napoleon did he and the Czar 
 supply ! A few days before the Emperor and 
 
 Empress arrived, the Queen had a visit from 
 (294) 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 295 
 
 the poor ex-Queen, Marie Am^lie. There is a 
 touching entry in Her Majesty's diary, regard- 
 ing this visit. By the way, I would state that 
 whenever I quote from Her Majesty's diary, it 
 is through the medium of Sir Theodore Mar- 
 tin's book, and by his kind permission. 
 
 The Queen wrote: "It made us both so 
 sad to see her drive away in a plain coach, with 
 miserable post-horses, and to think that this 
 was the Queen of the French, and that six 
 years ago her husband was surrounded by the 
 same pomp and grandeur which three days 
 hence would surround his successor." 
 
 There is something exquisitely tender and 
 pitiful in this. Most people, royal or republic 
 can, would " consider it not so deeply." The 
 world has grown so familiar with the see-saw of 
 French royalty, that a fall or a flight, exile or 
 abdication moves it but little. In the old guiL 
 lotine times, there were sensations. 
 
 England's great ally, and his lovely wife, 
 Eugenie,— every inch an Empress,— were re- 
 ceived with tremendous enthusiasm. Their 
 passage through London was one long ovation. 
 The Times of that date gives a glowing account 
 
r 
 
 296 
 
 LIFE OF QUEFX VICTORIA. 
 
 of the crowds and the excitement. It states 
 also, that as they were passing King Street, the 
 Emperor " was observed to draw the attention 
 of the Empress to the house which he had 
 occupied in former days," — respectable lod^i;- 
 incTs, doubtless, but how different from the 
 Tuileries! 
 
 The Queen gives an interesting account of 
 what seemed a long, and was an impatient wait- 
 ing for her guests, whom the Prince-Consort 
 had gone to meet. At length, they saw " the 
 advanced guard of the escort — then the cheers 
 of the crowd broke forth. The outriders ap- 
 peared — the doors opened, I stepped out, the 
 children close behind me ; the band struck up 
 ' Partant pour la Syric," the trumpets sounded, 
 and the open carriage, with the Emperor and 
 Empress, Albert sitting opposite them, drove 
 
 up and they got out I advanced and 
 
 embraced the Emperor, \j\\o received two sa- 
 lutes on either cheek from me — having first 
 kissed my hand." The English Queen did not 
 do things by halves, any more than the English 
 people. She then embraced the Empress, 
 whom she describes as " very gentle and grace- 
 
p 
 I 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 297 
 
 ful, but evidently very nervous." The children 
 were then presented, "Vicky, with alarmed 
 eyes, making very lovv^ curtsies," and Bertie 
 having the honor of an embrace from the Em- 
 peror. Then they all went up-stairs, Prince 
 Albert conducting the Empress, who at first 
 modestly declined to precede the Queen. Ilcr 
 Majesty followed on the arm of the Emperor, 
 who proudly informed her that he had once 
 been in her service as special constable against 
 those unstable enemies, the Chartists. 
 
 The Queen and Prince soon came to greatly 
 Hke the Emperor and admire the Empress. 
 The Queen wrote of the former: "He is very 
 quiet and amiable, and easy to get on with. 
 .... Nothing can be more civil and well-bred 
 than the Emperor's manner— so full of tact." 
 
 Of Eugenie she wrote : " She is full of cour- 
 age and spirit, and yet so gentle, with such in- 
 nocence ; . . . . with all her great liveliness, she 
 has the prettiest and most modest manner." 
 Later, Her Majesty, with a rare generosity, 
 showing that there was not room in her large 
 heart even, for any petty feeling, wrote in her 
 private diary, of that beautiful and brilliant 
 
. J'- 
 
 ■ 'l> 
 
 298 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 woman : " I am delighted to see how much 
 Albert likes and admires her." 
 
 There was a State-ball at Windsor, at which 
 Eug6nie shone resplendent. The Queen danced 
 with the Emperor — and with her imaginative 
 mind, found cause for wondering reflection in 
 the little circumstance, for she says : " How 
 strange to think that I, the granddaughter of 
 George III., should dance with the Emperor 
 Napoleon III. — nephew of England's greatest 
 enemy, now my dearest and most intimate ally 
 — in the Waterloo Room, and this ally only six 
 years ago, living in this country an exile, poor 
 and unthought of ! " 
 
 The Queen, of course, invested the Emperor 
 with the Order of the Garter. It has been in its 
 time bestowed on monarchs less worthy the 
 honor. It is true, he did not come very heroi- 
 cally by his imperial crown — but when crowns 
 are lying about loose, who can blame a man for 
 helping himself? 
 
 The city gave the Emperor and Empress a 
 great reception and banquet at Guildhall, and 
 in the evening there was a memorable visit to 
 the opera. The imperial and royal party drove 
 
p 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 299 
 
 from Buckingham Palace through a dense crowd 
 and illuminated streets. Arrived at the royal 
 box, the Queen took the Emperor by the hand, 
 and smiling her sweetest—which is saying a 
 good deal—presented him to the audience. Im- 
 mense enthusiasm! Then Prince Albert led 
 forward the lovely Empress, and the enthusiasm 
 was unbounded. It must be that this still beau- 
 tiful, though sorrowful woman, on whose head 
 a fierce tempest of misfortune has beaten— the 
 most piteous, discrowned, blanched head since 
 Marie Antoinette— sometimes remembers those 
 happy and glorious days, and that the two 
 august widows talk over them together. 
 
 At last came the hour of farewells, and the 
 Emperor departed with his pretty, tearful wife— 
 the band playing his mother's air, Partant pour 
 la Syrie, and his heart full of pride and grati- 
 tude. In a letter which he addressed to the 
 Queen, soon after reaching home, is revealed 
 one cause of his gratitude. After saying many 
 pleasant things about the kind and gracious re- 
 ception which had been accorded him, and the 
 impression which the sight of the happy home, 
 life of Windsor had made upon him, he says : 
 
300 
 
 LIFE OF OITEFX Vi TORIA. 
 
 " Your Majesty has also toiiclicd mc to the heart 
 by tlic delicacy of the consideration shown to 
 the Empress; for nothing pleases more than to 
 sec the person one loves become the object of 
 such flattering attention." 
 
 That summer there appeared among the royal 
 children at Osborne a sudden illness, which soon 
 put on royal livery, and was recognized as scar- 
 let fever There was, of course, great alarm — 
 but nothing very serious came of it. The two 
 elder children escaped the infection, and were 
 allowed to go to Paris with their parents, who 
 in July returned the visit of the Emperor 
 and Empress. They went in their yacht to 
 Boulogne, where the Emperor met them and 
 escorted them to the railway on horseback. He 
 looked best, almost handsome, on horseback. 
 Arrived at Paris, they found the whole city 
 decorated, as only the French know how to 
 decorate, and gay, enthusiastic crowds cheering, 
 as only the French know how to cheer. They 
 drove through splendid boulevards, through 
 the Bois de Boulogne, over the bridge, to the 
 Palace of St. Cloud — and everywhere there 
 were the imperial troops, artillery, cavalry and 
 
■%, 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 30I 
 
 zouaves, their bands playing "God Save the 
 Queen." Those only who knew Paris under 
 the Empire, can reaHze what that reception 
 was, and how magnificent were the f^tcs and 
 how grand the reviews of the next ten days. Of 
 the arrival at St. Cloud the Queen writes: " In 
 all the blaze of light from lamps and torches, 
 amidst the roar of cannon and bands and drums 
 and cheers, we reached the palace. The Em- 
 press, with the Princess Mathilde and the ladies, 
 received us at the door, and took us up a beau- 
 tiful staircase, lined with the splendid Ccnt- 
 Giiardcs, who are magnificent men, very like 
 
 our Life Guards We went through the 
 
 rooms at once to our own, which arc charm- 
 ing I felt quite bewildered, but en- 
 chanted, everything is so beautiful." 
 
 This palace we know was burned during the 
 siege. The last time I visited the ruins, I stood 
 for some minutes gazing through a rusty grat- 
 ing into the noble vestibule, through which so 
 many royal visitors had passed. Its blackened 
 walls and broken and prostrate marbles are 
 overspread by a wild natural growth — a green 
 shroud wrapping the ghastly ruin ;— or rather, it 
 
I 
 
 ' I 
 
 i 
 
 302 
 
 I.IFF OF OUKEN VICTORIA. 
 
 was like an incursion of a mob of rough vegeta- 
 tion, for there were neither delicate ferns, nor 
 poetic ivy, but democratic grass and republican 
 groundsel and communistic thistles and nettles. 
 In place of the splendid Cent-Guardcs stood 
 tall, impudent weeds ; in place of courtiers, the 
 supple and bending briar; while up the steps, 
 which the Queen and Empress and their ladies 
 ascended that night, pert little grisettes of mar- 
 guerites were climbing. 
 
 So perfect was the hospitality of the Em- 
 peror that they had things as English as pos- 
 sible at the Palace — even providing an English 
 chaplain for Sunday morning. In the afternoon, 
 however, he backslid into French irreligion and 
 natural depravity, and they all went to enjoy 
 the fresh air, the sight of the trees, the flowers 
 and the children in the Bois de Boulogne. The 
 next day they went into the city to the Expo- 
 sition des Beaux Arts, and to the Elys^e for 
 lunch and a reception — then they all drove to 
 the lovely Sainte Chapelle and the Palais de 
 Justice, There the Emperor pointed out the 
 old Conciergerie, and said — " There is where I 
 was imprisoned." Doubtless he thought that 
 
 J, 
 
 IM 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 303 
 
 was a more interesting historical fact than the 
 imprisonment of poor Marie Antoinette in the 
 same grim building. There was also a visit to 
 the Italian opera, where a very pretty surprise 
 awaited the guests. At the close of the ballet, the 
 scene suddenly changed to a view of Windsor — 
 including the arrival of the Emperor and 
 Empress. " God Save the Queen " was sung 
 superbly, and rapturously applauded. One day 
 the Queen, Prince, and Princess Royal, dressed 
 very plainly, took a hired carriage and had 
 a long incognito drive through Paris. They 
 enjoyed this " lark " immensely. Then there 
 was a grand ball at the Hotel de Ville, and a grand 
 review on the Champ de Mars, and a visit by 
 torchlight to the tomb of the Napoleon, under 
 the dome of the Invalides, with the accompani- 
 ment of solemn organ-playing within the church, 
 and a grand midsummer storm outside, with 
 thunder and lightning. The French do so well 
 understand how to manage these things ! 
 
 The grandest thing of all was a State ball in 
 Versailles ; — that magnificent but mournful, al- 
 most monumental pile, being gaily decorated 
 and illuminated — almost transformed out of its 
 
304 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VTCTORTA. 
 
 tragic traditions. What a charming picture of 
 her hostess the Queen gives us : 
 
 " The Empress met us at the top of the stair- 
 case, looking like a fairy queen, or nymph, in a 
 white dress, trimmed with grass and diamonds, — 
 a beautiful tour de corsage of diamonds round 
 the top of her dress ; — the same round her waist, 
 and a corresponding coiffure^ with her Spanish 
 and Portuguese oiders." 
 
 She must have been a lovely vision. The 
 Emperor thought so, for (according to the 
 Queen) forgetting that it is not '* good form " 
 for a man to admire or compliment his own 
 wife, he exclaimed, as she appeared : ** Comme 
 tu es belle / " (" How beautiful you are ! ") 
 
 1 am afraid he was not always so polite. 
 During her first season at the Tuileries, which 
 she called "a beautiful prison," and which is 
 now as much a thing of the past as the Bastile, 
 she often in her gay, impulsive way offended 
 against the stern l?ws of Court etiquette, and 
 was reproved for a lack of dignity. Once at a 
 reception she suddenly perceived a little way 
 down the line an old school-friend, and, hurry- 
 ing forward, kissed her affectionately. It was 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 305 
 
 nice for the young lady, but the Emperoi? 
 frowned and said, in that cold marital tone 
 which cuts like an east wind : " Madame, you 
 forget that you are the Empress ! " 
 
 In a letter from the Prince to his uncle Leo- 
 pold I find this suggestive sentence in reference 
 to the ball at Versailles: "Victoria made her 
 toilette in Marie Antoinette's boudoir." It 
 would almost seem the English Queen might 
 have feared to see in her dressing-glass a vision 
 of the French Queen's proud young head wear- 
 ing a diadem as brilliant as her own, or perhaps 
 that cruel crown of silver— her terror-whitened 
 
 hair. 
 
 The parting was sad. The Empress " could 
 not bring herself to face it"; so the Queen 
 went to her room with the Emperor, who said : 
 "Eugenie, here is the Queen." "Then," adds 
 Her Majesty, " she came and gave me a ' -auti- 
 ful fan and a rose and heliotrope from the gar- 
 den, and Vicky a bracelet set with rubies and 
 diamonds containing her hair, with which Vicky 
 was delighted." 
 
 The Emperor went with them all the way to 
 Boulogne and saw them on board their yacht ; 
 
 ^1 
 
I- ■ 
 
 f 
 
 r' 
 
 III:: 
 
 til 
 
 I 
 
 306 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 then came embracings and adieux, and all was 
 over. 
 
 The next morning early they reached Os- 
 borne and were received at the beach by Prince 
 Alfred and his little brothers, to whom Albert 
 Edward, big with the wonders of Paris, was like 
 a hero out of a fairy book. Near the house 
 waited the sisters, Helena and Louise, and in 
 the house the invalid — " poor, dear Alice ! " — 
 for whom the joy of that return was almost too 
 much. 
 
 •f 
 
 ■.<¥, 
 
 MMIH^.MAl '■ 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Betrothal of the Princess Royal— Birth of the Prince Imperial of 
 France — More visitors and visitings — The Emperor and Empress 
 of Mexico — Marriage of the Princess Royal — The attendant 
 festivities. 
 
 At Balmoral, where they took possession of 
 the new Castle, the Queen and Prince received 
 the news of the approaching fall of Sebastopol, 
 for it was not down yet. It finally fell amid a 
 scene of awful conflagration and explosions — 
 the work of the desperate Russians themselves. 
 
 The peace-rejoicings did not come till later, 
 but in the new house at Balmoral there was a 
 new joy, though one not quite unmixed with 
 sadness, in the love and happy betrothal of the 
 Princess Victoria. In her journal the Queen 
 tells the old, old story very quietly : " Our dear 
 Victoria was this day engaged to Prince Fred- 
 erick William of Prussia. He had already 
 spoken to us of his wishes, but we were uncer- 
 tain, on account of her extreme youth, whether 
 he should speak to her or wait till he should 
 
 come back again. However, we felt it was bet- 
 
 (307) 
 

 w 
 
 i 
 
 Hi 
 
 I 
 
 308 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ter he should do so, and, during our ride up 
 Craig-na-Ban this afternoon, he picked a piece 
 of white heather (the emblem of good luck), 
 which he gave to her." This it seems broke 
 the ice, and so the poetic Prince (all German 
 Princes, except perhaps Bismarck, are poetic 
 and romantic) told his love and offered his 
 hand, which was not rejected. Then came a 
 few weeks of courtship, doubtless as bright and 
 sweet to the royal pair oi lovers as was a simi- 
 lar season to Robert Burns and " Highland 
 Mary" — for love levels up and levels down — 
 and then young Fritz returned to Germany, 
 leaving behind him a fond heart and a tearful 
 little face round and fair. 
 
 From this time till the marriage of the Prin- 
 cess Royal, which was not till after her seven- 
 teenth birthday in 1858, the Prince-Consort de- 
 voted himself more and more to the education 
 of this beloved daughter — in history, art, litera- 
 ture, and religion. He conversed much and 
 most seriously with her in preparation for her 
 confirmation. He found that this work of men- 
 tal and moral development was " its own ex- 
 ceeding great reward." 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 309 
 
 The character of the Princess Royal seems to 
 have been in some respects like that of the 
 Princess Charlotte of Wales. She was as higfh- 
 spirited, strong-willed, gay, free, and fearless; 
 but with infinitely better and purer domestic 
 and social influences, she grew up into a nobler 
 and more gracious young womanhood. Intel- 
 lectually and morally, she was her father's crea- 
 tion ; intellectually and morally, poor Princess 
 Charlotte was worse than fatherless. 
 
 But I must hurry on with the hurrying years. 
 The Prince, writing to Baron Stockmar in March, 
 1856, says: "The telegraph has just brought 
 the news of the Empress having been safely de- 
 livered of a son. Great will be the rejoicing in 
 the Tuileries." 
 
 This baby born in the purple was the Prince 
 Imperial, whose fate beggars tragedy ; who went 
 to gather laurels on an African desert and fell a 
 victim to a savage ambuscade — his beautiful 
 body stuck almost as full of cruel darts as that 
 of the martyred young St. Sebastian. 
 
 On March 21st the long-delayed treaty of 
 peace was signed. After all the waste, the ag- 
 ony, the bloodshed, the Prince wrote : " It is 
 
■*•"■— "•■"""""" 
 
 s^n 
 
 liii 
 
 i it' 
 I f 
 
 11 
 
 
 310 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 not such as we could have wished." But he 
 had learnd to bear these little disappointments. 
 Prince Alfred began his studies for the navy. 
 Fritz of Prussia came over on a visit to his be- 
 trothed, and his father and mother soon fol- 
 lowed — coming to get better acquainted with 
 their daughter-in-law to be. Then into the 
 royal circle there came another royal guest, all 
 unbidden — the king whose name is Death. The 
 Prince of Leiningen — the Queen's half-brother 
 in blood, but whole brother in heart — died, to 
 her great grief ; and soon after there passed 
 away her beloved aunt, the Duchess of Glou- 
 cest'^r, a good and amiable woman, and the 
 last of the fifteen children of George the Third 
 and Queen Charlotte. But here life balanced 
 death, for on April 14th another daughter was 
 born in Buckingham Palace. The Prince in a 
 letter to his step-mother speaks of the baby as 
 "thriving famously, and prettier than babies 
 usually are." He adds, " Mama — Aunt, Vicky 
 jl;"»'-1 her bridegroom are to be the little one's 
 3;jori5.crs, and she is to receive the historical, 
 roniantic> euphonious, and melodious names of 
 iicatii'^^i Mary Victoria Feodora." 
 
 iif! 
 
 .<• ■'! 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 311 
 
 That summer there came two very interesting 
 royal visitors to Windsor — the young Princess 
 Charlotte of Belgium and her betrothed hus- 
 band, the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. 
 Prince Albert wrote of the young girl : " Char- 
 lotte's whole being seems to me to have been 
 warmed and unfolded by the love which is kin- 
 dled in her heart." To his uncle Leopold he 
 wrote : " I wish you joy at having got such a 
 husband for dear Charlotte, as I am sure he is 
 quite worthy of her and will make her happy." 
 
 Just ten years from that time the Emperor 
 Maximilian, standing before a file of Mexican 
 soldiers at Queretaro, took out his watch, which 
 he would never more need, and, pressing a 
 spring, revealed in its case a miniature of the 
 lovely Empress Charlotte, which he kissed ten- 
 derly. Then, handing the watch to the priest 
 at his side, he said : " Carry this souvenir to my 
 dear wife in Europe, and if she ever be able to 
 understand you, say that my eyes closed with 
 the impression of her image, which I shall carry 
 with me above." 
 
 She never did understand. She lives in a 
 
 phantom Court, believing herself still Empress 
 O 
 
I; 
 
 m 
 
 I!!'" ^- 
 
 ini 
 ill 
 
 312 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 of Mexico, and that the Emperor will soon 
 come home from the wars to her and the throne. 
 
 There was this summer a memorable show in 
 Hyde Park, when Queen Victoria on horseback, 
 in her becoming military dress, pinned with her 
 own hands on to the coats of a large number of 
 heroes of the great war the coveted Victoria 
 Cross. Ah! they were proud and she was 
 prouder. She is a true soldier's daughter ; her 
 heart always thrills at deeds of valor and warms 
 at sight of a hero, however humble. 
 
 The Prince went over to his cousin Char- 
 lotte's wedding, and the Queen, compelled to 
 stay behind, wrote to King Leopold that her 
 letting her husband go without her was a great 
 proof of her love for her uncle. " You cannot 
 think," she said, " how completely forlorn I feel 
 when he is away, or how 1 count the hours till 
 he returns. All the children are as nothing 
 when he is away. It seems as if the whole life 
 of the house and home were gone." 
 . Again, how like a loving Scotch peasant 
 
 wife : 
 
 " There 's na luck about the house. 
 There 's na luck at a' — 
 There's little pleasure in the house, 
 When my guid men's awa'." 
 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 313 
 
 In August the Emperor and Empress made a 
 flying visit in their yacht to Osborne and talked 
 over the latest political events, the new phases 
 of affairs, and, doubtless, the new babies ; and, 
 a little later, the Queen and Prince ran over to 
 Cherbourg in their yacht, taking six of the chil- 
 dren. There was a perfect nursery of the little 
 ones, " rocked in the cradle of the deep." This 
 was such a complete " surprise party," that the 
 Emperor and Empress away in Paris, knew 
 nothing about it. They all took a pleasant little 
 excursion into the lovely country of Normandy 
 in chars-h-bancs, with bells on the post-horses, 
 doubtless, and everything gay and delightful 
 and novel to the children, — especially French 
 sunshine. 
 
 This year the Balmoral stay was greatly sad- 
 dened by the news of the Sepoy rebellion, of 
 the tragedies of Cawnpore, and the unspeakable 
 atrocities of Nana Sahib. Young people now- 
 adays know little about that ghastly war, except 
 as connected with the pretty poetical story of 
 the relief of Lucknow, and Jessie Brown ; but, 
 at the time, it was an awfully real thing, and 
 not in the least poetical or romantic. 
 
I ,. 
 
 !! ^ 
 
 3H 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Iii 
 
 1 
 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 t 
 
 i : 
 
 
 
 ;i 
 
 * 1 
 
 
 The marriage of the Princess Royal was 
 fixed for January 25, 1858. Her father wrote 
 from Balmoral in the autumn ; " Vicky suffers 
 under the feeling that every spot she visits she 
 
 has to greet for the last time as home 
 
 The departure from here will be a great trial to 
 us all, especially to Vicky, who leaves it for 
 good and all; and the good, simple Highlanders, 
 who are very fond of us, are constantly saying 
 to her, and often with tears, * I suppose we shall 
 never see you again?* which naturally makes 
 her feel more keenly." 
 
 At last the wedding day approached and the 
 royal guests began to arrive at Buckingham 
 Palace, and they poured in till on fair days a 
 King or Queen, a Prince or Princess looked out 
 of nearly every window ; and when there was a 
 fog, collisions of crowned heads occurred in the 
 corridors. On the day the Court left Windsor the 
 Queen wrote : " Went to look at the rooms pre- 
 pared for Vicky's honeymoon ; very pretty. . . . 
 We took a short Wcdk with Vicky, who was 
 dreadfully upset at this real break in her life ; 
 the real separation from her childhood." 
 
 These be little things perhaps, but beautiful 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 315 
 
 little human things, showing the warm love and 
 tender sympathy which united this family, sup- 
 posed to be lifted high and dry above ordinary 
 humanity, among the arid and icy grandeurs of 
 royalty. 
 
 There was a gay little ball one evening with 
 Highnesses and Serenities dancing and whirling 
 and chassding, and a '' grande chaine " of half of 
 the sovereigns of Europe — all looking very much 
 like other people. The Queen wrote : " Ernest 
 (Duke of Coburg) said it seemed like a dream 
 to see Vicky dance as a bride, just as I did 
 eighteen years ago, and I still (so he said) look- 
 ing very young. In 1840, poor dear papa (late 
 Duke of Coburg) danced with me as Ernest 
 danced with Vicky." 
 
 Afterwards there was a grand ball, attended 
 by over a thousand of the elect, and for the 
 multitude there were dramatic and musical en- 
 tertainments. At Her Majesty's Theatre one 
 night the famous tragedian, Mr. Phelps, and the 
 great actress. Miss Helen Faucit, in the tragedy 
 of Macbeth, froze the blue blood of a whole tier 
 of royal personages and made them realize what 
 crowns were worth, and how little they had 
 
I "■ 
 
 316 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 !:« 
 
 
 \l 
 
 i: \ ^ 
 
 \l 
 
 earned theirs, by showing what men and women 
 will go through with to secure one. The Em- 
 peror and Empress of France were not among the 
 guests. They had been a little upset by an event 
 more tragic than are most marriages — the at- 
 tempt of Orsini ':o blow up their carriage by the 
 explosion of hand-grenades near the entrance of 
 the Italian Opera. They had been only slightly 
 hurt, but some eighty innocent people in the 
 crowd had been either killed or wounded. The 
 white dress of the Empress was sprinkled with 
 blood, yet she went to her box and sat out the 
 performance. What nerve these imperial people 
 have ! 
 
 The Queen's account of this glad, sad time of 
 the marriage is very natural, moving and mater- 
 nal. First, there was the domestic and Court 
 sensation of the arrival of the bridegroom, 
 Prince " Fritz," whom the Prince-Consort had 
 gone to meet, and all the Court awaited. " I 
 met him,** says the Queen, " at the bottom of 
 the staircase, very warmly; he was pale and 
 nervous. At the top of the staircase Vicky re- 
 ceived him, with Alice." That afternoon all 
 the royal people witnessed a grand dramatic 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 3^7 
 
 performance of "Taming the Horse," with Mr. 
 Rarcy as " leading man." In the evening they 
 went to the opera. The next day, Sunday, the 
 presents were shown — a marvelous collection of 
 jewels, plate, lace and India shawls, and they 
 had service and listened to a sermon. It is 
 wonderful what these great people can get 
 through with ! Coming in from a walk they 
 found a lot of new presents added to the great 
 pile. The Queen writes : " Dear Vicky gave mc 
 a brooch, a very pretty one, containing her hair, 
 and clasping me in her arms, said, * I hope to be 
 worthy to be your child.' " 
 
 From all I hear I should say that fond hope 
 has been realized in a noble and beneficent life. 
 The Crown Princess of Germany is a woman 
 greatly loved and honored. 
 
 On the wedding day the Queen wrote : " The 
 second most eventful day of my life, as regards 
 feelings ; I felt as if I were being married over 
 
 again myself While dressing, dearest 
 
 Vicky came in to see me, looking well and com- 
 posed." 
 
 The Princess Royal, like her mother, was 
 married in the Chapel of St. James' Palace, and 
 
 I 
 
^■W^—^J—W— P ! 
 
 318 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Il 
 
 !l 
 
 things went on very much as on that memorable 
 wedding day — always spoken of by the Queen 
 as "blessed." She now could describe more as 
 a spectator the shouting, the bell-ringing, the 
 cheering and trumpetings, and the brave sight 
 of the procession. Prince Albert and King 
 Leopold and " the two eldest boys went first. 
 Then the three girls (Alice, Helena and Louise), 
 in pink satin, lace and flowers." There were 
 eight bridesmaids in " white tulle, with wreaths 
 and bouquets of roses and white heather." 
 That was a pretty idea, using the simple be- 
 trothal flower of the Prince and Princess — for 
 "luck." 
 
 The Queen speaks of " Mama looking so 
 handsome in violet velvet, trimmed with er- 
 mine." Ah, the young Victoria was the only 
 daughter of her Victoria, who as a bride was to 
 receive on her brow that grandmother's kiss — 
 dearer and holier than any priestly benediction. 
 I like to read that immediately after the cere- 
 mony the bride " kissed her grandmama." 
 
 After the wedding breakfast at the Palace 
 the bridal pair, Victoria and Frederick William, 
 drove away just as eighteen years before Vic- 
 
 Ki : I'l 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 319 
 
 toria and Albert had driven away — the same 
 state, the same popular excitement, in kind if 
 not in degree, and, let us trust, a like amount of 
 love and joy. But this happy pair did not 
 drive all the way to Windsor. The waiting 
 train, the iron horse snorting with impatience, 
 showed how the world had moved on since that 
 other wedding ; but the perennial Eton boys 
 were on hand for these lovers also, wearing the 
 same tall hats and short jackets, cheering in the 
 same mad way, so that the Queen herself would 
 hardly have suspected them to be the other 
 boys' sons, or younger brothers. They " scored 
 one " above their honored predecessors by drag- 
 ging the carriage from the Windsor station to 
 the Castle. 
 
 The Court soon followed to Windsor with 
 thirty-five of the royal guests, and there were 
 banquets and more investings, till it would seem 
 that the Queen's stock of jeweled garters must 
 be running low. Then back to town for more 
 presents and operas and plays, and addresses of 
 congratulation, and at last came the dismal 
 morning of separation. The day before, the 
 Queen had written : " The last day of our dear 
 
umnvMmMmvummm 
 
 
 320 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 P::^ \ f 
 
 IS 
 
 
 i 
 
 ■ '{ 
 
 
 
 
 i s 
 
 
 
 ;f 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 (■ ^ ; 
 
 
 11 
 
 i '1 
 
 :! 
 
 III 
 
 .1 
 
 i 
 
 ^ 
 
 k 
 
 i 
 
 |! 
 
 *. 
 
 child being with us, which is incredible, and 
 makes me feel at times quite sick at heart." 
 She records that that poor child exc! icd, " I 
 think it will kill me to take leave of dear papa ! " 
 
 The next morning, she writes, " Vicky came 
 with a very sad face to my room. Here we em- 
 braced each other tenderly, and our tears flowed 
 fast." 
 
 Then there were leave-takings from the loving 
 grandmama and the younger brothers and sis- 
 ters (" Bertie " and Alfred going with their 
 father to Gravesend, to see the bridal party em- 
 barked), and hardest of all, the parting of the 
 child from the mother. 
 
 To quote again : " A dreadful moment and a 
 dreadful day ! Such sickness came over me — 
 real heart-ache, — when I thought of our dearest 
 
 child being gone, and for so long It began 
 
 to snow before "^''icky went, and continued to do 
 so without intermission all day." 
 
 In spite of the dreary weather, I am told that 
 thousands of London people were assembled in 
 the streets to catch a last glimpse of the popular 
 Princess Royal. They could hardly recognize 
 her pleasant, rosy, child-like face — it was so sad, 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 321 
 
 SO swollen with weeping. They did not then 
 look with much favor on the handsome Prussian 
 Prince at her side — and one loyal Briton shouted 
 out, " If he doesn't treat you well, come back 
 to us ! " That made her laugh. I believe he 
 did treat her well, and that she has been 
 always happy as a wife, though for a time she is 
 said to have fretted against the restraints of 
 German Court etiquette, which bristled all round 
 her. She found that the straight and narrow 
 ways of that princely paradise were not hedged 
 with roses, as at home, but with briars. Some 
 she respected, and some she bravely broke 
 through. 
 
 The little bride was most warmly received in 
 her new home, and about the anniversary of her 
 own marriage-day, the Queen had the happiness 
 of receiving from her new son this laconic tele- 
 gram : " The whole royal family is enchanted 
 with my wife. F. W." 
 
 Afterwards, in writing to her uncle, of her 
 daughter's success at the Prussian Court, and of 
 her happiness, the Queen says : " But her heart 
 often yearns for home and those she loves 
 dearly— above all, her dear papa, for whom she 
 

 III 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
 322 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 has tm ciilte (a worship) which is touching and 
 delightful to see." 
 
 Her father returned this "worship" by ten- 
 derness and devotion unfailing and unwearying. 
 His letters to the Crown Princess are perhaps 
 the sweetest and noblest, most thoughtful and 
 finished of his writings. They show that he re- 
 spected as well as loved his correspondent, of 
 whom, indeed, he had spoken to her husband as 
 one having " a man's head and a child's heart." 
 His letters to his uncle and the Baron are full 
 of his joy, intellectual and affectional, in this his 
 first-born daughter; but the last-born was not 
 forgotten. In one letter he writes : " Little 
 Beatrice is an extremely attractive, pretty, in- 
 telligent child ; indeed, the most amusing baby 
 we have had." Again — " Beatrice on her first 
 birthday looks charming, with a new light-blue 
 cap. Her table of birthday gifts has given her 
 the greatest pleasure ; especially a lamb." 
 
 I know these are little, common domestic 
 bits — that is just why I cull them out of grave 
 letters, full of great affairs of State. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Visiting and counter-visiting — Charming domestic gossip — The 
 Queen's first grandchild — The Prince of Wales' trip to America— 
 Another love-affair — Death of the Duchess of Kent. 
 
 In May, Prince Albert ran over to Germany 
 to visit his old home, and his new son, and his 
 darling daughter, whom he found well and 
 happy. In one of his letters to the Queen from 
 Gotha, he says : " I enclose a forget-me-not 
 from grandmama's grave." * 
 
 There is in that simple sentence an exquisite 
 indication of his affectionate and constant nat- 
 ure. This was a hurried visit, with many inter- 
 ests and excitements, and yet the grave of that 
 infirm, deaf, old Dowager Duchess, who had, as 
 practical people say, " outlived her usefulness," 
 was not found "out of the way." There was 
 little need of the dear grandmama calling softly 
 through that tender blue flower — " Vergiss mein 
 nichty mein Engel Albert ! " He never forgot. 
 
 In July, the Queen and Prince took to their 
 yacht again, for a visit to the Emperor and Em- 
 press, at Cherbourg, and had a grand reception, 
 
 (323) 
 
kf.l 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ; I 
 
 (I i 'I 
 
 324 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 and there was a great f^U, and fireworks and 
 bombs and rockets ; but the account is not half 
 so interesting to me as the one given by Her 
 Majesty, of the^ return to Osborne; an ex- 
 quisite picture tiuit, which I feel I must repro- 
 duce almost entire : .... "At twenty minutes 
 to five, we landed at our peaceful Osborne. 
 .... The cv •*, ^ ^.;-as very warm and calm. 
 Dear Affie was on the ^.ier, and we found all the 
 other chilnren, including' ''^nby, standing at the 
 door. Deckcl(afav'Oii:'^dc'^, nd our new charm- 
 ing kennel-bred Dachs ' Bjy, also received us 
 with joy." I like that bringing in of the dogs 
 to complete the picture. 
 
 The Queen continues : " We went to see 
 Aflfie's (Alfred's) table of birthday presents — 
 
 entirely nautical We went with the 
 
 children, Alice and I driving, to the Swiss Cot- 
 tage, which was all decked out with flags in 
 
 honor of Afifie's birthday I sat (at 
 
 dinner) between Albert and Affie. The two 
 little bc/s (Princes Arthur and Leopold) ap- 
 peared. A band played, and after dinner we 
 danced, with the three boys and three girls, a 
 merry country dance on the terrace." 
 
"T 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 325 
 
 A little later, the Queen and Prince made a 
 visit to their daughter in Germany. Her Majes- 
 ty's description of the happy meeting is very 
 sweet. " There on the platform stood our dar- 
 ling child, with a nosegay in her hand. She 
 stepped in, and long and warm was the embrace. 
 .... So much to say and to tell and ask, yet 
 so unaltered — looking well — quite the old Vicky 
 still," . 
 
 From beautiful Babelsberg, she wrote: 
 " Vicky came and sat with me. I felt as if she 
 were my own again." 
 
 This was not a long, but a very happy visit ; 
 the Queen and Prince had received many courte- 
 ous attentions from the Prussian Court, and had 
 found their beloved daughter proud and content. 
 
 From Osborne, in a letter to his daughter, 
 the Prince-Consort writes: "Alfred looks very 
 nice and handsome in his new naval cadet's 
 uniform — the round-jacket and the long-tailed 
 coat, with the broad knife by his side." The 
 next month the Prince went to Spithead, to see 
 this son off on a two-years' cruise — and felt that 
 his family had indeed begun to break up. The 
 next exciting public matter was the news of 
 
! <■ 
 
 ;l,^ 
 
 ; 
 
 li 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ' '. ■ 
 
 1'. 
 
 
 hi^ ■; 
 
 i 
 
 ■' 1.1 i 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ '\ 
 
 ■( 
 
 ».' 
 
 
 f; ■ i 
 
 
 \ ' 
 
 
 B '1 "'1 
 
 
 1'^ 
 
 326 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 Louis Napoleon's alliance with King Victor 
 Emmanuel in the war against Austria. And 
 this was the Emperor who had given out that 
 his empire was " peace" — that the only clang of 
 arms henceforth to be heard therein would be a 
 mighty beating of swords and spears into plow- 
 shares and pruning-hooks. The next domestic 
 excitement was caused by a telegram from 
 Berlin, announcing the birth of a son to the 
 Crown Prince and Princess, and that mother 
 and child were doing well. Queen Victoria 
 was a grandmother, and prouder, I doubt not, 
 than when afterwards she was made Empress 
 of India. 
 
 For her mother's birthday, in May, 1859, ^^^ 
 Crown Princess came over and made a delightful 
 little visit. The Queen wrote of her : " Dear 
 Vicky is a charming companion." Of the Prin- 
 cess Alice she had before written : " She is very 
 good, sensible and amiable, and a real comfort 
 to me." Mothers know how much there is in 
 those words — " a real comfort to me." The 
 Crown Princess found most change in baby — 
 Beatrice — and after her return home, her father 
 often wrote to her of this little sister: "The 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 327 
 
 little aunt," he says, " makes daily progress, and 
 is really too comical. When she tumbles, she 
 calls out, in bewilderment, * She don't like it ! 
 She don't like it ! ' — and she came into breakfast 
 a short time ago, with her eyes full of tears, 
 moaning, ' Baby has been so naughty, — poor 
 baby so naughty!* as one might complain of 
 being ill, or of having slept badly." Later in 
 the year the Prince writes: "Alice comes out 
 admirably, and is a great support to her mother. 
 Lenchen (the Princess Helena) is very distin- 
 guished, and little Arthur amiable and full of 
 promise as ever." 
 
 In November, Prince Frederick William and 
 his Princess came over on a visit — and the fond 
 father wrote : " Vicky has developed greatly of 
 late — and yet remains quite a child ; of such, 
 indeed, * is the kingdom of heaven.' " Of the 
 Prince he said : " He has quite delighted us." 
 So all was right then. About this time he said 
 of his daughter, Alice, that she had become " a 
 handsome young woman, of graceful form and 
 presence, and is a help and stay to us all in the 
 house." What a rich inheritance such praise ! 
 
 In the Queen's diary there was, on July 24, 
 
11 f 
 
 328 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 j! ' 
 
 li 
 
 i860, an interesting entry: "Soon after we sat 
 down to breakfast came a telegram from Fritz — 
 Vicky had got a daughter, at 8:10, and both do- 
 ing well ! What joy ! Children jumping about, 
 every one delighted — so thankful and relieved." 
 
 The Prince wrote to his daughter as only /le 
 could write — wisely and thoughtfully, yet ten- 
 derly and brightly. There was in this letter a 
 charming passage about his playfellow, Beatrice. 
 After saying of his new grandchild, " The little 
 girl must be a darling," he adds, " Little girls 
 are much prettier than boys. I advise her to 
 model herself after her Aunt Beatrice. That 
 excellent lady has now not a moment to spare. 
 ' I have no time,' she says, when she is asked for 
 anything, * I must write letters to my niece.' " 
 
 Shortly after his first little niece was born, 
 the Prince of Wales made his first acquaintance 
 with the New World. He went over to America 
 to visit the vast domain which was to be his, 
 some day, and the vaster domain which might 
 have been his, but for the blind folly of his 
 great-grandfather, George III. and his Ministers, 
 who, like the rash voyagers of the "Arabian 
 Nights' Entertainment," kindled a fire on the 
 
 g '^ gw a ' ^t ' HWrww — WW 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 329 
 
 back of a whale, thinking it "solid land," till the 
 leviathan " put itself in motion," and flung them 
 and their "merchandise" off into the sea. He 
 was a fine young fellow, the Prince, and was re- 
 ceived with loyal enthusiasm, and heartily liked 
 in the Canadas. I believe we of the States 
 treated him very well, also — and that he had 
 what Americans call "a good time," dancing 
 with pretty girls in the Eastern cities, and shoot- 
 ing prairie-chickens on the Western plains. I 
 think we did not overdo the matter in feting 
 and following the son of the beloved Queen of 
 England. We had other business on hand just 
 then — a momentous Presidential election — the 
 election of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 In our capital he was treated to a ball, a visit to 
 the Patent-Office and the tomb of Washington, 
 and such like gaieties. President Buchanan en- 
 tertained him as handsomely as our national 
 palace, the White House, would allow; and 
 afterwards wrote a courtly letter to Queen 
 Victoria, congratulating her on the charming 
 behavior of her son and heir — ''the expectancy 
 mid rose of the fair Stated The Queen replied 
 very graciously and even gratefully, addressing 
 
fl 
 
 330 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 \V^ 
 
 Mr. Buchanan as " my good friend." That was 
 the most she could do, according to royal rules. 
 The elected temporary ruler of our great Amer- 
 ican empire, even should it become greater by 
 the annexation of Cuba and Mexico, can never 
 expect to be addressed as " 7non /r^re** by regu- 
 larly born, bred, crowned and anointed sover- 
 eigns — or even by a reigning Prince or Grand 
 Duke; can never hope to be embraced and 
 kissed on both cheeks by even the Prince of 
 Monaco, the King of the Sandwich Islands, or 
 the Queen of Madagascar. We must make up 
 our minds to that. 
 
 In the early autumn of i860, the Queen, 
 Prince, and Princess Alice went over to Ger- 
 many for another sight of their dear ones. It 
 was the last visit that the Queen was to pay 
 with the Prince to his beloved fatherland. They 
 were delighted with their grandson, and I hope 
 with their granddaughter also. Of baby Wil- 
 helm the Queen writes : " Such a little love, 
 .... He is a fine, fat child, with a beautiful, 
 soft white skin, very fine shoulders and limbs, 
 
 and a very dear face He has Fritz's eyes 
 
 and Vicky's mouth, and very fair, curling hair." 
 
 t . i 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 33 1 
 
 Afterwards she wrote: "Dear ^'ttle William 
 came to me, as he does every morning. He is 
 such a darling, so intelligent." 
 
 I believe this darling grandchild was the " lit- 
 tle love " who gave to the Queen her first great- 
 grandchild. 
 
 At Coburg the Prince-Consort came fright- 
 fully near being killed by the running away of 
 his carriage-horses. The accident was a great 
 shock to the Queen, and the escape an unspeak- 
 able joy. At Mayence Her Majesty confided a 
 family secret to her discreet diary. During a 
 visit from the Prince and Princess Charles of 
 Hesse-Darmstadt it was settled that the young 
 Prince Louis should come to England to get 
 better acquainted with the Princess Alice, whom 
 he already greatly admired. So everything was 
 arranged and the way smoothed for these lov- 
 ers, and in this case the union proved as happy 
 as though brought about in the usual hap-haz- 
 ard way of marriages in common life. 
 
 The next November the Prince wrote from 
 Windsor : *' The Prince Louis of Hesse is here 
 on a visit. The young people seem to like each 
 
ffr 
 
 332 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 other. He is very simple, natural, frank and 
 thoroughly manly." 
 
 The next day the Queen jotted down in her 
 diarj"- the simple story of the betrothal in a way 
 to reveal how fresh in her own heart was the 
 romance of her youth : 
 
 "After dinner, while talking to the gentle- 
 men, I perceived Alice and Louis talking before 
 the fireplace more earnestly than usual, and when 
 I passed to go to the other room both came up to 
 me, and Alice in much agitation said he had pro- 
 posed to her, and he begged for my blessing. I 
 could only squeeze his hand and say * Certainly,' 
 and that we would see him in my room later. 
 Got through the evening, working as well as we 
 
 could. Alice came to our room Albert 
 
 sent for Louis to his room, then called Alice 
 
 and me in Louis has a warm, noble 
 
 heart. We embraced our dear Alice and praised 
 her much to him. He pressed and kissed my 
 hand and I embraced him." The Queen was 
 right, as she generally was in her estimate of 
 character. This son-in-law, of whom she has 
 always been especially fond, is a Prince of ami- 
 able and noble disposition, good ability and re- 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 333 
 
 markable cultivation; not exactly a second 
 Prince Albert — he was a century plant. 
 
 At this Christmas time the Queen's two eld- 
 est sons were at home and full of strange stories 
 of strange lands. Soon after, the Prince of 
 Wales went to Cambridge and Prince Alfred 
 joined his ship. Before that cruise was over a 
 deeper, darker sea rolled between the sailor lad 
 and his father. 
 
 On February 9, 1861, Prince Albert wrote 
 Baron Stockmar : " To-morrow our marriage will 
 be twenty-one years old. How many storms have 
 swept over it, and still it continues green and 
 fresh." The anniversary occurring on Sunday 
 was very quietly observed, chiefly by the per- 
 formance in the evening of some fine sacred 
 music, the appropriateness of which was scarcely 
 realized at the time. In a very sweet letter to 
 the Duchess of Kent, such a letter as few mar- 
 ried men write to their mothers-in-law, the 
 Prince says :...." To-day our marriage comes 
 of age, according to law. We have faithfully 
 kept our pledge * for better and for worse,' and 
 have only to thank God that He has vouchsafed 
 so much happiness to us. May He have us in His 
 
'i 1 ' 1 
 
 334 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 keeping for the days to come! You have, I 
 trust, found good and loving children in us, and 
 we have experienced nothing but love and kind- 
 ness from you." 
 
 This dear " Mama-aunt ** had been in deli- 
 cate health for some time, and once or twice 
 seriously ill, but she seemed better, her physi- 
 cians were encouraging and all were hopeful till 
 the 1 2th of March, when the Queen and Prince 
 were suddenly summoned from London to 
 Frogmore by the news of a very alarming re- 
 lapse. They went at once with all speed, yet 
 the Queen says, ''the way seemed so long." 
 When they reached the house, the Queen 
 writes : " Albert went up first, and when he re- 
 turned with tears in his eyes, I saw what 
 
 awaited me With a trembling heart I 
 
 went up the staircase and entered the bedroom, 
 and here on a sofa, supported by cushions, 
 sat leaning back my beloved Mama, breathing 
 rather heavily, but in her silk dressing-gown, 
 
 with her cap on, looking quite herself I 
 
 knelt before her, kissed her dear hand and placed 
 it next my cheek ; but though she opened her 
 eyes she did not, I think, know me. She brushed 
 
1 
 
 WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 335 
 
 my hand off, and the dreadful reality was before 
 me that for the first time, she did not know the 
 child she had ever received with such tender 
 smiles." 
 
 The further description given by the Queen 
 of this first great sorrow of her life, is exceed- 
 ingly pathetic and vivid. It is the very poetry 
 of grief. I cannot reproduce it entire, nor give 
 that later story of incalculable loss as related by 
 her in that diary, through which her very heart 
 beats. It is all too unutterably sad. There are 
 passages in this account most exquisitely nat- 
 ural and touching. When all was over, the poor 
 daughter tried to comfort herself with thoughts 
 of the blessed rest of the good mother, of the 
 gentle spirit released from the pain-racked body, 
 but the heart would cry out : "But I — I, wretched 
 child, who had lost the mother I so tenderly 
 loved, from whom for these forty-one years I 
 had never been parted, except for a few weeks, 
 what was my case ? My childhood, everything 
 
 seemed to crowd upon me at once What 
 
 I had dreaded and fought off the idea of, for 
 
 years, had come, and must be borne Oh, 
 
 if I could have been with her these last weeks ! 
 
 I ' .1 
 
*' ^ 
 
 336 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 ; -i 
 
 m 
 
 How I grudge every hour I did not spend with 
 her ! . . . . What a blessing we went on Tues- 
 day. The remembrance of her parting blessing, 
 of her dear, sweet smile, will ever remain en- 
 graven on my memory." 
 
 During all this time, the Queen received the 
 most tender sympathy and care from her chil- 
 dren, and Prince Albert, was — Prince Albert ; — 
 weeping with her, yet striving to comfort her, 
 full of loving kindness and consideration. 
 
 The Queen's grief was perhaps excessive, as 
 her love had been beyond measure, but he was 
 not impatient with it, though he writes from 
 Osborne, some weeks after the funeral of the 
 Duchess : " She (the Queen) is greatly upset, 
 and feels her childhood rush back upon her 
 memory with the most vivid force. Her grief 
 
 is extreme For the last two years her 
 
 constant care and occupation have been to keep 
 watch over her mother's comfort, and the influ- 
 ence of this upon her own character has been 
 most salutary. In body she is well, though ter- 
 ribly nervous, and the children are a great dis- 
 turbance to her. She remains almost entirely 
 alone." 
 
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. 337 
 
 How true to nature ! When the first love of 
 a life is suddenly uprooted, all the later growths, 
 however strong, seem to have been torn up with 
 it. When the mother goes, only the child seems 
 to remain. Victoria, tender mother as she her- 
 self was, and adoring wife, was now the little 
 girl of Kensington and Claremont, whose little 
 bed was at the side of her mother's, and who 
 had waked to find that mother's bed empty, and 
 forever empty ! And yet she said in her first 
 sense of the loss : " I seemed to have lived 
 through a life ; to have become old." 
 
 We may say that with the coming of that 
 first sorrow went out the youth of the Queen ; 
 for it seems that while her mother lives, a woman 
 is always young, that there is something of girl- 
 hood, of childhood even, lingering in her life 
 while she can lay her tired head on her mother's 
 knee, or hide her tearful face against her moth- 
 er's breast, that most sweet and restful refuge 
 from the trials and weariness of life. 
 
 Her Majesty's sister, Feodore, strove to com- 
 fort her ; the dear daughter Victoria came to her 
 almost immediately; her people's tears and 
 prayers were for her, and amid the quiet and 
 
338 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 seclusion of Osborne she slowly regained her 
 cheerfulness ; but the old gladness and content 
 never came back. The children, too, with all 
 the natural gayety of their years, found that 
 something of sweetness and comfort had drop- 
 ped out of life — something of the charm ^,iid 
 dearness of home was gone with " grandmama," 
 from the Palace, the Castle, the seaside mansion, 
 as well as from pleasant Frogmore, where they 
 were always so welcome. Not till then, per- 
 haps, had they known all she was to them — 
 what a blessed element in their lives was her 
 love, so tender and indulgent. Age is necessary 
 to the family completeness. We do not even 
 in our humbler condition, always realize this — 
 do not see how the quiet waning life in the old 
 arm-chair gives dignity and serenity to the home, 
 till the end comes — till the silver-haired presence 
 is withdrawn. 
 
 
 
1 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 WIDOWHOOD 
 
 e 
 
I' I 
 
 ■III i It 
 
 I- ' 
 
PART IV. 
 
 WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Failing: health of Prince Albert— His last visit to Balmoral— His in- 
 fluence upon the policy of England in the Trent difficulty with 
 the United States — Strange revolution in English sentiment in re- 
 spect to American slavery — The setting of the sun. 
 
 All this time while the Queen was absorbed 
 by anxious care, or passionate grief for her 
 mother, the health of the Prince-Consort was 
 slowly but surely failing. The keen blade of 
 his active mind was wearing out its sheath. 
 His vital forces must have begun to give out 
 long before actual illness, or he would not so 
 easily have resigned himself to the thought of 
 the long rest, — still young as he was, with so 
 much to enjoy in life, and so much to do. It is 
 said that he had premonitions of early death, 
 and tried to prepare the Queen for his going 
 first — but the realization of a loss so immense 
 could not find lodgment in her mind. Yet 
 though often feeling weak and languid, he did 
 
 (341) 
 
A 
 
 
 1 
 
 W 
 
 1 
 
 1 ■' 
 
 
 ■I 
 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 ' 
 
 \ 
 
 4 
 t 
 
 V. 
 
 
 '■ 
 
 
 342 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 not relax his labors — spurring up his flagging 
 powers. He never lost his interest in public 
 affairs, or in his children's affairs of the heart. 
 He was happy in contemplating the happiness 
 of his daughter Alice, and followed with his 
 heart the journey of his son, Albert Edward, in 
 his visit to the country of the fierce old Vikings, 
 to woo the daughter of a King of another sort — 
 a Princess so fair and fresh that she could 
 
 " with lilies boasi. 
 
 And with the half -blown rose** 
 
 That summer his daughter Victoria, with her 
 husband (now Crown Pnnce) and their children, 
 came again, for a long visit, and there were 
 many other guests, and much was done to cheer 
 the Queen ; but her first birthday in orphanage 
 was hopelessly sad, and when that of the Prince 
 came round, his last — though she wrote to her 
 uncle, " This is the dearest of days, and one 
 which fills my heart with love and gratitude," 
 she murmured, because her " beloved mama " 
 was not there to wish him joy. Ah, what an 
 exacting, unreasoning thing is the human heart ! 
 
 Yet the Queen seems to have had a brief re- 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 343 
 
 ♦•urn of happiness — to have been upborne on a 
 sudden tide of youthful joyance, during their 
 autumn stay at Balmoral. She wrote : " Being 
 out a good deal here and seeing new and fine 
 scenery does me good." Of their last great 
 Highland excursion, she said : " Have enjoyed 
 nothing so much, or felt so much cheered by 
 anything since my great sorrow." 
 
 Because of this intense love of nature — not 
 the holiday, dressed-up nature, of English parks, 
 streams and lakes — but as she appears in all her 
 wildness, ruggedness, raggedness and simple 
 grandeur, in the glorious land of Scott and 
 Burns, the Queen's journal, though a little 
 clouded at the last, by that " great sorrow," is 
 very pleasant, breezy reading. It gives one a 
 breath of heather, and pine and peat-smoke. 
 
 After coming from Balmoral, and its bracing 
 outdoor avocations and amusements, the Prince- 
 Consort's health seemed to decline again. He 
 suffered from rheumatic pains and sleeplessness, 
 and he began to feel the chill shadows of the 
 valley he was nearing, creeping around him. 
 The last work of his beneficent life was one of 
 peculiar interest to Americans. It was the am- 
 
 !(: 
 
344 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 m 
 
 1 ! 
 
 icable arrangement, in conjunction with the 
 Queen, of the ugly affair of the Trent. That 
 was a trying time for Americans in England, 
 unless they were of the South, southerly. We 
 of the North, in the beginning of our war for 
 the Union, found to our sad surprise that the 
 sympathies of perhaps the majority of the Eng- 
 lish were on the side of our opponents. These 
 very people had been ever before, so decidedly 
 and ardently anti-slavery in their sentiments — 
 had counseled such stern and valiant measures 
 for the removal of our " national disgrace," that 
 their new attitude amazed us. We could not 
 understand what sort of a moral whirlwind it 
 was that had caught them up, turned them 
 round, borne them off and set them down on 
 the other side of Mason and Dixon's Line. It 
 was strange, but with the exception of a few 
 such clear-headed, steadfast " friends of human- 
 ity" as Cobden and Bright, and such heroes 
 as those glorious operatives of Lancashire, 
 all seemed changed. Even the sentiments of 
 prominent Exeter Hall, anti-slavery philan- 
 thropists had suffered a secession change, " into 
 something new and strange," especially after 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 345 
 
 the battle of Bull Run— that fortunate calamity 
 for us, as it proved. Most people here were 
 captivated by the splendid qualities of the Con- 
 federates—their gallantry, their enthusiasm, their 
 bravery. Before these practical revolutionists, 
 those " moral suasion" agitators, the Northern 
 Abolitionists, made no great show. Garrison 
 with his logic, Burritt with his languages, Doug- 
 las with his magnificent eloquence, were as 
 naught to Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, 
 and that soldier of the fine old Cromwellian 
 type — Stonewall Jackson. The " institution " 
 was pronounced in Parliament " not so bad a 
 thing, after all," and the pathetic " Am-I-not-a- 
 Man-and-a-Brother " of Clarkson, became the 
 Sambo of Christie and the " Quashee " of Car- 
 lyle. In the midst of this ill-feeling on one side, 
 and sore-feeling on the other, the rash act of a 
 U. S. Naval Officer, in boarding the British 
 steamer Trent and seizing the Confederate En- 
 voys, Mason and Slidell, gave England cause, 
 had our Government endorsed that act, for open 
 hostility. So ready, so eager did the English 
 Government seem for a war with America, that 
 it did not wait for an apology, before making ex- 
 
34^ 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I 
 
 tensive military preparations. With that brave 
 but cool-headed Captain on our Ship of State, 
 Abraham Lincoln, and that prudent helmsman, 
 William H. Seward, we could not easily have 
 been driven into a war with England at this 
 time ; but we might have been humiliated even 
 more than we were, by the peremptory demands 
 of Lord Palmerston — might have been obliged 
 to eat a piece of " humble pie," so big, hot, and 
 heavy, that it would have remained undigested 
 to this day — had it not been for the prudence, 
 the courtesy, good sense, and admirable tact of 
 the Queen and Prince-Conso/t in modifying and 
 softening the tone of that important State pa- 
 per, the demand for an official apology, and the 
 liberation of the Confederate Envoys. It is for 
 this that Americans of the North, and I believe 
 of the South, love Queen Victoria, and not alone 
 for her sake, bless the memory of " Albert the 
 Good." 
 
 I know of nothing in literature so exquisite 
 in its pathos and childlike simplicity, as the 
 Queen's own account, in the diary kept faith- 
 . fully at the time, of the last illness of the Prince- 
 Consort. In it we see the very beatings of her 
 
WrDOWITOOD. 
 
 347 
 
 heart, in its hope and fear, love and agony— can 
 mark all the stages of the sacred passion of her 
 sorrow. It is a wonderful psychological study. 
 That illness in its serious phases, lasted about 
 two weeks. It was a low, slow fever, which at 
 first was not recognized as fever at all, but only 
 a heavy cold. I have been told that the Prince 
 himself had from the first, an impression that he 
 should not recover, and that he talked of his 
 probable death very calmly with his noble daugh- 
 ter Alice, saying : ^' Your mother cannot bear 
 to hear me speak of it yet." The Queen, though 
 very restless and distressed, and at times shaken 
 with wild alarms, could not face the coming 
 calamity ; could not admit the possibility that 
 the sands of that precious life-golden sands, 
 were running out. The alternations of hope 
 and fear, must have been terrible. One morn- 
 ing the Queen records that on going to the 
 Prince she found him looking very wretched : 
 ** He did not smile, or take much notice of me. 
 His manner all along was so unlike himself, and 
 he had sometimes, such a strange, wild look." 
 In the evening she writes : " I found my Albert 
 most dear and affectionate and quite himself, 
 
348 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 when I went in with little Beatrice, whom he 
 kissed. He laughed at some of her new French 
 verses which I made her repeat, then he held 
 her little hand in his for some time, and she 
 stood looking at him." 
 
 For several days he wished to be read to, and 
 the Queen and faithful Alice read his favorite 
 authors ; he also asked for music, and Alice 
 played for him some fine German airs. He 
 even wished often to look at a favorite picture, 
 one of Raphael's Madonnas, saying, " It helps 
 me through the day." 
 
 At length the fever took on a typhoid form, 
 congestion of the lungs set in, and there was no 
 longer reason for hope, — though they did hope, 
 till almost the last hour. Now, it seems that 
 from the first, even when he did not apparently 
 suffer, except from " mortal weariness," there 
 were little fatal indications. One morning he 
 told the Queen that as he lay awake he heard 
 the little birds outside, and " thought of those 
 he used to hear at the Rosenau, in his child- 
 hood "; and on the last morning the Queen 
 writes that he " began arranging his hair just as 
 he used to do when well and he was dressing." 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 349 
 
 It seemed to the poor Queen as though he 
 were " preparing for another and a greater jour- 
 ney" than they had ever taken together. His 
 tenderness towards her through all this sad fort- 
 night, was very touching. It was not calculated 
 to loosen the detaining, clinging clasp of her 
 arms; but it must be very sweet for her to 
 remember. After the weariness of watching, 
 the prostration of fever, he welcomed always 
 the good-morning caress of his " dear little wife." 
 Through the gathering mists of unconsciousness, 
 through the phantom-shades of delirium, his 
 love for her struggled forth, in a tender word, a 
 wistful look, a languid smile, a feeble stroking 
 of the cheek. It was " wondrous pitiful," but it 
 was very beautiful. Even at the last, when he 
 knew no one else, he knew her; and when she 
 bent over him and whispered, " 'Tis your own 
 little wife," he bowed his head and kissed 
 her. 
 
 After she knew that all hope must be given 
 up, the Queen still was able to sit calmly by his 
 bedside, and not trouble with the sound of weep- 
 ing the peace of that loving, passing soul. Oc- 
 casionally she felt that she must leave the room 
 
350 
 
 IIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 hi 
 
 and weep, or her suppressed grief would kill 
 her. But she counted the moments and stayed 
 her soul with prayer, to go back to her post. 
 
 It was on the night of December 14, 1861, 
 that the beloved Prince-Consort passed away, — 
 quietly and apparently painlessly, from the sta- 
 tion he had ennobled, from the home he had 
 blessed. Unconsciously he drifted out on the 
 unknown, mysterious sea, nor knew that lov- 
 ing feet followed him to the strand, and that 
 after him were stretched yearning arms. 
 
 That death-bed scene passed in a solemn hush, 
 more mournful than any outcry of passionate 
 grief could be. On one side, knelt the Queen, 
 holding her husband's hand, trying to warm it 
 with kisses and tears ; on the other, knelt the 
 Princess Alice. At the foot of the bed, the 
 Prince of Wales and the Princess Helena were 
 kneeling together. It is probable that all the 
 younger children were sleeping in quiet uncon- 
 sciousness of the presence of the dread angel in 
 the Castle. The Dean of Windsor, Prince 
 Ernest Leiningen, — secretaries, ph^, icians and 
 attached attendants were grouped around. All 
 was silent, save that low, labored breathing, 
 
WIDOV.'HOOD. 
 
 .uld kill 
 I stayed 
 
 )OSt. 
 
 4, 1861, 
 iway, — 
 the sta- 
 he had 
 on the 
 lat lov- 
 id that 
 
 n hush, 
 sionate 
 Queen, 
 /arm it 
 elt the 
 id, the 
 [a were 
 all the 
 uncon- 
 ngel in 
 Prince 
 IS and 
 I. All 
 ithing, 
 
 351 
 
 
 growing softer and softer, and more infrequent, 
 and then— it ceased forever. 
 
 I have been told by a lady who had had good 
 opportunities of knowing about the sad circum- 
 stances of that death, that the Queen retained 
 perfect possession of herself to the last, and 
 that after the lids had been pressed down over 
 the dear eyes whose light had passed on, she 
 rose calmly, and courteously thanked the phy- 
 sicians in attendance, saying that she knew that 
 everything which human skill and devotion 
 could accomplish, had been done for her hus- 
 band, whom God had taken. Then she walked 
 out of the death-chamber, erect,~still the Queen, 
 wearing "sorrow's crown of sorrow," and went 
 to her chamber, and shut herself in— her soul 
 alone with God, her heart alone for evermore. 
 
 Ah, we may not doubt that this royal be- 
 ing, in whose veins beats the blood of a long, long 
 race of Kings, was brought low enough then,— to 
 her knees, to her face, 
 
 " For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop." 
 
 So absorbing and unwavering had been the 
 love of the Queen for her husband, who to her. 
 

 ii 
 
 i 
 
 ri. 
 
 352 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 was " nobler than the noblest "; such a proud hom- 
 age of the soul had there been — such a dear 
 habit of the heart, in one with whom habit 
 counted for much, that her people were filled 
 with the most intense anxiety on her behalf. 
 They feared that this cruel stroke which lopped 
 off the best part of her life, would kill her, or 
 plunge her into a depth of melancholy, sadder 
 than death. For some time she was not able to 
 sleep. The thought of that chamber, so lateiy 
 the scene of all the anxious activity of the sick- 
 room, wherein softly moved troubled physicians 
 and nurses, tearful attendants and awe-struck 
 children, but where now there were shadowed 
 lights, and solemn silence, and where lay that 
 beautiful, marble-like shape, so familiar, yet so 
 strange — that something which was not he^ yet 
 was inexpressibly dear, kept her awake, face to 
 face with her sorrow, — and when at last, the 
 bulletin from Windsor announced, " The Queen 
 has had some hours* sleep," her people all in 
 mourning as they were, felt like ringing joy- 
 bells. 
 
 The friend from whom I have before quoted, 
 Mrs. Crosland, a most loyal lady, wrote on this 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 353 
 
 text a very sweet poem, from which I am 
 tempted to give a few verses : 
 
 " Sleep, for the night is round thee spread. 
 Thou daughter of a line of kings ; 
 Sleep, widowed Queen, while angels' wings 
 Make canopy above thy head I 
 
 " Sleep, while a million prayers rise up 
 To Him who knew all earthly sorrow, 
 That day by day, each soft to-morrow 
 May melt the bitter from thy cup. 
 
 
 
 " Long life we ask for thee, dear Queen, 
 And moonlight peace, since joy is set. 
 And Time's soft touch on dark regret. 
 And memories calm of what has been I 
 
 " Long life for thee— for our best sake. 
 To be our stay 'mid hopes and fears. 
 Through many far-off future years. 
 Till thou by Albert's side shalt wake I " 
 
 It seems Her Majesty could not bear the 
 thought of her beloved Albert, whose nature 
 was so bright and joyous, and beauty-loving, 
 resting amid the darkness and heavy silence and 
 " cold obstruction " of the royal vault ; so, as 
 early as the i8th of December, she drove with 
 the Princess Alice to Frogmore, where they 
 were received by the Prince of Wales, Prince 
 Louis of Hesse, and several officers of the Royal 
 
 lii. 
 
w^ 
 
 354 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 1^ ' 
 
 Household. Then, leaning on the arm of her 
 noble daughter, the Queen walked about the 
 pleasant gardens, till she fixed upon the spot, 
 where now stands the magnificent mausoleum, 
 which, splendid and beautiful as art can make 
 it, is like a costly casket, for the dust, infinitely 
 more precious to her than all the jewels of her 
 crown. It was sweet for her to feel that thus 
 under the shadow of her mother's dear home, 
 the two most sacred loves and sorrows of her life 
 would be forever associated. 
 
 There was great and sincere mourning in Eng- 
 land among all classes, not alone for the Queen's 
 sake, but for their own, for the Prince-Consort 
 had finally endeared himself to this too long 
 jealous and distrustful people. They had 
 named him " alien," at first ; they called him 
 " angel," at last. He was not t/iai, but a most 
 rare man, of a nature so sweet and wholesome, 
 of a character so well-balanced and symmetrical, 
 of a life so pure and blameless, that the English 
 cannot reasonably hope to " look upon his like 
 again," not even among his own sons. 
 
 Some of his contemporaries, while admitting 
 his grace and elegance, were blind to his strength 
 of character, forgetting that a shining column 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 355 
 
 of the Parthenon may be as strong as one of the 
 
 dark rough-hewn columns of Paestum. Morally, 
 
 I believe, the Prince-Consort stands alone in 
 
 English royal history. What other youth of 
 
 twenty-one, graceful, beautiful and accomplished, 
 
 has ever forborne what he forbore? — Ever 
 
 fought such a good fight against temptations 
 
 manifold ? He was the Sir Galahad of Princes. 
 
 Being human, he must have been tempted, — if 
 
 not to a life of sybaritic pleasure, to one of ease, 
 
 through his delicate organization, — and, through 
 
 his refine a tastes, to one of purely artistic and 
 
 esthetic culture, which for him, where he was, 
 
 would have been but splendid selfishness. 
 
 Though my estimate of the Prince-Consort 
 
 is based on his own good words and works, to 
 
 which I have paid tribute of sincerest praise, it 
 
 is strengthened and justified by a knowledge of 
 
 the lovinf reverence in which his name is held 
 
 to this day, by the English people of the better 
 
 class, who honor the Queen for her love stronger 
 
 than death, and love her the better for it ; for I 
 
 hold, 
 
 " the soul must cast 
 
 All weakness from it, all vain strife, 
 And tread God's ways through this sad life, 
 To be thus grandly mourned at last." 
 
V 
 
 '• 
 
 ;r 
 
 '1 
 
 1 
 
 1- 
 !■ ■ 
 
 1 
 
 ti 
 
 ti 
 
 il 
 
 mi 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 The Twilight Life after— Marriage of the Princess Alice— Incidents 
 of the Queen's life at Balmoral — John Brown — A letter from the 
 Queen to the Duchess of Sutherland. 
 
 " There is no one near me to call me * Vic- 
 toria* now!" is said to have been the desolate 
 cry of the Queen, when, on waking from that 
 first sleep, the cruel morning light smote upon 
 her with a full consciousness of her bereave- 
 ment, and a new sense of her royal isolation. 
 She was on a height where the storm beat 
 fiercest and there was the least shelter. Her 
 sacred grief was the business of the world ; — she 
 could not long shut herself up with it, and fold 
 her hands in " blameless idleness "; but as the 
 widowed mother and housekeeper in humble 
 life struggles up from the great stroke, and 
 staggers on, resolutely driving back the tears 
 which " hinder needle and thread," and choking 
 down her sobs, to go wearily about her house- 
 hold tasks, — so Victoria, after a little time, rose 
 trembling to her feet, and went through with 
 (356) 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 357 
 
 such imperative State duties as could be dele- 
 gated to no one. To a near friend, who ex- 
 pressed joy to find her more calm than at the 
 time of her mother's death, she said simply, " I 
 have had God's teaching, and learned to bear 
 all He lays upon me." 
 
 There is a record by Lord Beacorsfield of her 
 faithful discharge of such duties a few years 
 later ; but what was true of her then, was almost 
 as true an account of the routine of her official 
 life, during a large part of the first years of her 
 widowhood. In a public speech, Beaconsfield 
 said: "There is not a dispatch received from 
 abroad, or sent from this country abroad, which 
 is not submitted to the Queen. The whole of 
 the internal administration of this country 
 greatly depends upon the sign-manual of our 
 Sovereign, and it may be said that her signature 
 has never been placed to any public document 
 of which sne did not know the purpose and of 
 which she did not approve. Those cabinet 
 councils of which you all hear, and which are 
 necessarily the scene of anxious and important 
 deliberation, are reported, on their termination, 
 by the Minister to the Sovereign, and they often 
 
 h 
 
IW, 
 
 v 
 
 i 
 
 
 358 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 il'i 
 
 call from her critical remarks requiring consid- 
 erable attention ; and I will venture to say that 
 no person likely to administer the affairs of this 
 country would be likely to treat the suggestions 
 of Her Majesty with indifference, for at this 
 moment there is probably no person living who 
 has such complete control over the political con- 
 dition of England as the Sovereign herself." 
 
 I have come upon few incidents of that first sad 
 year. The Princess Alice was married very qui- 
 etly at Osborne, and went away to her German 
 home, where she lived for seventeen happy years, 
 a noble and beneficent life. In character she 
 was very like her father — to whose soul hers was 
 so knit, that, when in her last illness, the anni- 
 versary of his death came round, she seemed to 
 hear his call, and went to him at once in child- 
 like obedience. She took that fatal illness — the 
 diphtheria — from a dear child in a kiss, " the 
 kiss of death," as Lord Beaconsfield called it. 
 
 The Rev. Norman McLeod has left a record 
 of the widowed Queen's first visit to Balmoral. 
 It seems he thought she was too unreconciled 
 to her loss, and felt it his duty to preach what 
 he believed to be " truth in God's sight, and 
 
 Mi 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 359 
 
 that which I believe she needed/* he said, 
 ** though I felt it would be very trying for her 
 to receive it." She did receive it very sweetly, 
 and wrote him " a kind, tender letter of thanks 
 for it," and afterwards summoned him to the 
 castle, and to her own room. He writes : " She 
 was alone. She met me with an unutterably 
 sad expression, which filled my eyes with tears, 
 and at once began to speak about the Prince. 
 .... She spoke of his excellencies — his love, 
 his cheerfulness ; how he was everything to her. 
 She said she never shut her eyes to trials, but 
 liked to look them in the face ; how she would 
 never shrink from duty, but that all was at 
 present done mechanically; that her highest 
 ideas of purity and love were obtained from 
 him, and that God could not be displeased with 
 her love." 
 
 No, we cannot love enough to displease the 
 God of love, who is not, whatever men may 
 preach, a "jealous God," in that small way; 
 but perhaps we may grieve too much to please 
 the Master of Life, of which, in His eyes, what 
 we call death, is the immorcal blossom and 
 crowning. 
 
I Zi 
 
 — T'-y wa 
 
 
 360 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 It seems to me that in her loving tribute to 
 the Prince, the Queen was a little unjust to her 
 mother, to whose precepts and example she 
 owed very high " ideas of purity " and that strong 
 sense of duty, and that fortitude, essentially a 
 womanly, not a manly, virtue, which preserved 
 her through the temptations of a glad and splen- 
 did youth — through the trials and sorrows of 
 maturer years, and which, when that time of 
 bitterest trial came, braced up her shattered 
 forces, and held together her broken heart. 
 
 Balmoral —the dear mountain-home, so en- 
 tirely her husband's creation — now became more 
 than ever dear to the Queen, and has never lost 
 its charm for her. Her life there has been, from 
 the first, almost pastoral in its simplicity. 
 
 The Highlanders about them, a primitive, but 
 very proud people, regarded their Sovereign and 
 her husband with no servile awe. With them, 
 even respect begins, like charity, at home ; what 
 there is left, they give loyally to their supe- 
 riors in rank. To the Queen and her family 
 ^.hey have given more, — love and free-hearted 
 devotion. Her Majesty has always gone about 
 among the poorer tenants of the estate, like any 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 361 
 
 laird s wife, in an unpretending, neighborly way ; 
 and they, thanks to their good Scotch sense 
 and Highland pride, never take advantage of the 
 uncondescending condescension, to offend her 
 by too great familiarity, or shock her by servility. 
 Taking up her '* Jouinal," I have chanced upon 
 an account given by Her Majesty of a round 
 of visits to the cottages of certain " poor old 
 women," and here is an entry or two : 
 
 " Before we went into any, we met a woman 
 who was very poor, and eighty-eight years old. 
 I gave her a warm petticoat, and the tears rolled 
 down her old cheeks, and she shook my hands 
 and prayed God to bless me: it was very 
 touching. 
 
 "I went into a small cabin of old Kitty 
 Kcar's, who is eighty-six years old, quite erect, 
 and who welcomed us with a great air of dig- 
 nity. She sat down and spun. I gave her, also, 
 a warm petticoat. She said, ' May the Lord 
 ever attend ye and yours, here and hereafter ; 
 and may the Lord be a guide to ye, and keep 
 ye fra all harm.' " 
 
 Now, some readers, whose ideas of royal chari- 
 ties are derived from the kings and queens of 
 
Ill 
 
 I 
 
 362 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 melodrama, who fling about golden largess, 
 or " chuck " plethoric purses at their poor sub- 
 jects, may be amused at these entries in a 
 great Queen's journal, but " let them laugh who 
 win " — the flannel petticoats. 
 
 During a later visit to the widowed Queen at 
 Balmoral, Dr. McLeod writes : " After dinner, 
 the Queen invited me to her room, where I 
 found the Princess Helena and the Marchioness 
 of Ely. The Queen sat down to spin on a fine 
 Scotch wheel, while I read Burns to her — ' Tarn 
 OShantcry and * xl Mans a Man for a' That ' — 
 her favorites." 
 
 In the Queen's book I find frequent pleasant 
 mention of theyoung Highlander, John Brown — 
 a favorite personal attendant, first of Prince Al- 
 bert, and afterwards of Her Majesty. 
 
 She had the misfortune to lose this " good 
 and faithful servant," in the early part of this 
 year. In a foot-note in her "Journal," she paid 
 a grateful tribute to his *' attention, care and 
 faithfulness " — to his rare devotion to her, enpe- 
 cially during a. period of physical weakness and 
 nervous prostration, when such service as his 
 was invaluable. She also says of him. " He has 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 3^3 
 
 all the independence and elevation of feeling 
 peculiar to the Highland race, and is singularly- 
 straightforward, simple-minded, kind-hearted 
 and disinterested." 
 
 If there is something touching in the nearly 
 life-long service and devotion of thij High- 
 lander, almost always seen so close behind his 
 Liege Lady, when she appeared in public, that he 
 was named "the Queen's shadow" — there is 
 something admirable in her grateful apprecia- 
 tion of that service, in her frank acknowledgment 
 of all she has owed of comfort, in a constant sense 
 of security, to this man's steadfast faithfulness ; 
 and now that the "shadow" has gone before, I 
 hold it is only fitting and loyal in her to ac- 
 knowledge for him, as she does, " friendship," 
 and even "affection" — not only to lay flowers 
 on his grave, but to pay more enduring tribute 
 to his honest memory. He was a Highland 
 gillie, of simple Highland ways and words ; but 
 "A mails a man for d that.'' If Byron could 
 nurse his dying dog. Boatswain, and erect a 
 monument to his memory, and not lose, but 
 gain, our respect by so doing, we surely might 
 let pass, unquestioned, the Queen's grief for a 
 faithf:'l human creature — for thirty-four years 
 

 3^4 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 devoted to her — ever at her call — looking up to 
 her, ypt watching over her ; a friend, whose 
 humble good sense and canny bits of counsel 
 must often, in the simpler, yet not simple, affairs 
 of her complex life, be sorely missed. 
 
 That is how it strikes an American, of demo- 
 cratic tendencies. 
 
 About a year after the death of Prince Albert, 
 the Duchess of Sutherland presented to the 
 Queen a richly-bound Bible, the offering of loyal 
 ** English widows." 
 
 In her letter of acknowledgment. Her Majesty 
 gives very strong and clear expression to her 
 faith, not only in the happy continued existence 
 of her beloved husband, but in his " unseen 
 presence " with her — a faith which she has often 
 expressed. The letter runs thus : 
 
 " My dearest Duchess : — I am deeply 
 touched by the gift of a Bible * from many 
 widows,* and by the very kind and affectionate 
 address which accompanied it Pray ex- 
 press to all these kind sister-widows the deep 
 and heartfelt gratitude of their widowed Queen, 
 who can never feel grateful enough for the uni- 
 versal sympathy she has received, and continues 
 to receive- from her loyal and devoted subjects. 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 365 
 
 But what she values far more is their apprecia- 
 tion of her adored and perfect husband. To 
 her, the only sort of consolation she experiences 
 is in the constant sense of his unseen presence, 
 and the blessed thought of the Eternal Union 
 hereafter, which will make the bitter anguish of 
 the present appear as naught. That our Heav- 
 enly Father may impart to 'many widows' 
 those sources of consolation and support, is 
 their broken-hearted Queen's earnest prayer. 
 .... Believe me ever yours most affection- 
 ately, Victoria." 
 
 Dean Stanley is reported as telling of a touch- 
 ing little circumstance which he received from 
 the Princess Hohenlohe (Feodore), from which 
 it seems that Her Majesty was for a long time 
 in the habit of going every morning to look at 
 the cows on Prince Albert's model-farm, because 
 *'he had been used to do so," feeling, perhaps, 
 that the gentle creatures might miss him— that 
 somewhere in their big dull brains, they might 
 wonder where their friend could be, and why he 
 did not come. The Princess also said that her 
 poor sister found her only comfort in the belief 
 that her husband's spirit was close beside her— 
 for he had promised her that it should be so. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Arrival in England of the Princess Alexandra to wed the Prince of 
 Wales — Garibaldi's visit to London — The Queen's first public ap- 
 pearance after her widowhood — Marriage of the Princess Louise 
 — Illness of the Prince of Wales — Disaffection in Ireland — The 
 Queen's sympathy during the illness of President Garfield. 
 
 On the 7th of March, 1863, all London and 
 nearly all England went mad over the coming 
 of the Princess Alexandra, from Denmark, to 
 wed the Prince of Wales. Lord Ronald Gower, 
 a son of the beautiful Duchess of Sutherland, 
 gives in his " Reminiscences" a fine description 
 of her arrival in London, and of the wedding at 
 Windsor thrcf' da after. He says : ** Probably 
 since the day in aris when Marie Antoinette 
 was acclaimed in the gardens of the Tuileries, 
 no Princess ever had so enthusiastic a reception, 
 or so quickly won the hearts of thousands by 
 the mere charm of her presence." This writer 
 gives a very vivid description of the crowd 
 which waited patiently for hours, of a cold, 
 wretched day, for the sight of that sweet face 
 whose sweetness has never yet cloyed upon 
 them. At last, there came a small company of 
 
 ( 
 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 367 
 
 Life Guards, escorting an open carriage-and- 
 four, containing the young Danish Princess and 
 His Royal Highness Albert Edward, looking 
 very happy and very conscious. The smiling, 
 blushing, appealing face of the Princess warmed 
 as well as won all hearts. There were few flow- 
 ers at that season to scatter on her way, except 
 flowers of poetry, of which there was no lack. 
 Tennyson's pretty ode has not been forgotten, 
 but all as noble and sweet was the crreetino- of 
 her from whom I have before quoted, Mrs. 
 Crosland. The most touching, though not the 
 strongest verse in that poem, is this : 
 
 " She comes another child to be 
 
 To that Crowned Widow of the Land, 
 Whose sceptre weighs more heavily 
 Since One has ceased to hold her hand." 
 
 The Queen did not feel herself equal to taking 
 any part in the marriage ceremony, but looked 
 down upon the scene of grandeur and gayety 
 from the Royal Gallery of St. George's Chapel. 
 The Duchess of Sutherland attended her then 
 for the last time. She had been with her at her 
 coronation and marriage ; to-day they were both 
 widows, and must have been at the moment 
 

 368 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ii! 
 
 living intensely and sorrowful^"'- in the past. 
 With the exception of the Crown Princess of 
 Germany and the Duke of Edinburgh, all the 
 Queen's children, down to little Beatrice, were 
 present. The bride, it is stated, " looked love- 
 ly ; she did not raise her eyes once in going 
 into, and but little in going out of, the Chapel 
 on her husband's arm." 
 
 This first daughter-in-law soon made a place 
 for herself in the Queen's heart, by her grace and 
 amiability. I have heard a pretty little story 
 of an attempt of hers to lighten somewhat Her 
 Majesty's heavy cloud of mourning. Millinery 
 being one of her accomplishments, she prevailed 
 upon the Queen to let her remodel her bonnet, 
 which she did, principally by removing a small 
 basketful of sombre weeds. The Queen saw 
 through her little ruse and shook her head 
 mournfully, — but wore the bonnet. 
 
 The next year London went still more mad 
 over Garibaldi. His enthusiastic admirers al- 
 most mobbed Stafford House, at which he was 
 entertained by the young Duke of Sutherland. 
 Lord Ronald Gower describes that memorable 
 visit and the popular excitement very vividly. 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 3^9 
 
 The Italian hero entered that beautiful palace, 
 where a grand company of the nobility were 
 waiting to receive him, attired in a rough gray 
 overcoat and trousers, a large pork-pie hat, a 
 loose black neck-tie, and a red flannel shirt. 
 This he never changed — I mean his style of 
 dress, not the shirt — but Garibaldi would have 
 been quite un-Garibaldi-ed in an English evening 
 suit. Lord Ronald G ver writes that his noble, 
 liberty-loving mother was very devoted to their ' 
 guest, but does not add that by so doing she 
 shocked the sensibilities of footmen and house- 
 maids. One of the latter once told to another 
 guest, a moving story of the strange habits of 
 this " Italian brigand ": " Why, marm," she said, 
 " he was such a common-looking person, and he 
 would get up so awful early and go hobbling 
 about in the garden. One morning at six o'clock, 
 I looked out of my window, and there he was 
 walking up and down, and the Duchess with 
 \i[m—mj^ Duchess, walking and talking with the 
 likes of him ! " 
 
 The first public appearance of the widowed 
 Queen was at the opening of Parliament, in 1866. 
 I do not know whether the splendid chair of 
 
Z70 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 State she had provided for Prince Albert, in the 
 happy old time, had been left in its place, to 
 smite her eyes with its gilding and her heart 
 with its emptiness ; I do not know whether its 
 presence or its absence would have grieved her 
 most ; but every sorrowing widow knows what 
 it is to look on her husband's vacant chair. It 
 does not matter whether it is made of rude, un- 
 painted wood and woven rushes, or is a golden 
 and velvet-cushioned chair of S*^ate, — it was his 
 seat, and he is gone ! Queen Victoria must 
 have felt that day, in her lonely grandeur, like 
 crying out with Constance, 
 
 " Here I and Sorrow sit" 
 
 Lady Bloomfield gives a very touching ac- 
 count of her first visit to the widowed mistress, 
 whom, nearly twenty years before, she had so 
 gladly and proudly served — for true service is 
 in the spirit, though the act may be limited to 
 taking a part in a duet, or handing the daily 
 bouquet. She wrote : " The Queen is dread- 
 fully changed — most sad, but with the gentlest, 
 most benevoi'^nt smile. Even when the tears 
 rolled down her cheeks, she tried to smile." I 
 
 '/ 
 
WTDOWIIOOD. 
 
 / 
 
 
 371 
 
 think it was about this time that the Ouccn 
 presented to our George Peabody her portrait, 
 expressly painted for him, in recognition of his 
 more than princely munificence in the gift of 
 model lodging-houses to the London poor. It 
 was a small portrait— enameled, I believe. I do 
 not think it was an idealized picture, though the 
 pencil was evidently guided by a delicate and 
 reverential loyalty, " doing its spiriting gently," 
 in marking the tracings of time and sorrow. In 
 a description which I wrote at the time of its 
 exhibition in Philadelphia, I said : " With the 
 exception of a touching expression of habitual 
 sadness, this face is very like the one I looked 
 down upon from the gallery of the House of 
 Lords fifteen years ago. There is the same 
 roundness of outline, only ' a little more so ' — 
 almost the same freshness of tints in the fair 
 complexion. The soft brown hair is unchanged 
 in color, if somewhat thinner ; and the clear blue 
 eyes have the same steady outlook. The whole 
 figure is marked by a sort of regal rigidity. 
 The face, if not positively unhappy in expres- 
 sion, is quite empty of happiness. There is 
 about it an atmosphere of lonely state and abso- 
 
 ■f| 
 
^ 
 
 ^, 
 
 ^f^% 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-S) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 If 1^ i^ 
 
 "' ^U 1 2.2 
 
 ■ lie. illlM 
 
 1.4 
 
 1.6 
 
 6" 
 
 V] 
 
 <^ 
 
 c^^ 
 
 ^;. 
 
 
 /A 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 33 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, NY. 14S80 
 
 (716) 873-4503 
 
 m 
 
 V 
 
 iV 
 
 N> 
 
 iS 
 
 
 6^ 
 
 <i.^ 
 

 
372 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ^ 
 
 lute widowhood. The Mary Stuart cap is very 
 becoming to Her Majesty, but the black dress 
 mars the picturesque effect of the portrait. The 
 neck and arms have all the roundness of youth, 
 and are exquisitely painted. I remember hear- 
 ing the late Mr. Gibson, who made several stat- 
 ues of the Queen, say that loyalty itself need 
 not to flatter her arms or bust, in sculpture or 
 painting, as they were really remarkably beau- 
 tiful.'* 
 
 In 1868 the Queen had the misfortune to lose 
 her "dearest Duchess" — that grandest daughter 
 of the grand house of Howard, the Duchess of 
 Sutherland. She floated all unconsciously out 
 on the waves that wash against the restful palm- 
 crowned shore, her last words being, " I think I 
 shall sleep now — I am so tired." 
 
 The Princess Louise was married with really 
 royal pomp and a brave attempt at the old gay- 
 ety, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in March, 
 1 87 1, to the Marquis of Lome. 
 
 The bride, who, according to Lord Ronald 
 Gower, was "very pale, but handsome as she 
 always is," was accompanied by the Prince of 
 Wales ; her uncle, the Grand Duke of Coburg; 
 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 373 
 
 and, to the great joy of all the assembly, by her 
 mother, the Queen. The wedded pair went to 
 Claremont for their honeymoon. As they drove 
 away, " rice and white satin slippers were sent 
 after them, and John Brown threw a new broom. 
 Highland fashion." 
 
 The people were much comforted at this ap- 
 pearance of the Queen once more in the great 
 gay world. They had begun to think that her 
 social seclusion would never end. When she 
 went down into the " valley of the shadow of 
 death " with her beloved, though she struggled 
 bravely up alone, she brought the shadow with 
 her; it enveloped her and wrapped her away 
 from her subjects — even the most loving and 
 sympathetic. Now they took heart, believing 
 that royalty was finally coming out from under 
 its eclipse of mourning, that the Court would be 
 re-established in Buckingham Palace, and things 
 generally, go on as in the good old days. They 
 never did, however, and never will, under her 
 reign. It is too much to ask of her, it seems. 
 
 Whether it is true, as I hear, that the air of 
 London is hurtful to her, giving her severe 
 headaches, or that the scenes of her childhood 
 
374 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 lit 
 
 I 
 
 and early queenhood, and of her marriage, are 
 too much for her, and heart-ache is the matter, 
 I know not ; but it is undeniable that the Queen 
 prefers any one of her other homes to Bucking- 
 ham Palace. She only comes to it when abso- 
 lutely compelled by the duties of State. It is 
 hard for London tradesmen and pleasure-seekers, 
 who think Her Majesty's mourning immoderate, 
 and doubt whether their wives would fret so 
 long for them ; but when, in the first year of her 
 reign, the pretty, wilful Victoria said to Lord 
 Melbourne : " What is the use of being a Queen 
 if one cannot do as one likes ! " her people 
 laughed and applauded. Surely, with years and 
 trouble, and much faithful care and labor, she 
 has not lost the right to have a mind of her own, 
 or the will to maintain it. 
 
 Of late years I have seen Her Majesty some 
 half dozen times ; once on her way to prorogue 
 Parliament, seated in the grand State coach, 
 drawn by the superb cream-colored State horses, 
 in all imaginable splendor of trappings — escorted 
 by the dashing Life Guards, and all the royal 
 carriages, each with its resplendent coachman 
 and footmen, most gorgeous of human creat- 
 
 ■ <<: i I ■ ■ 
 
 w 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 375 
 
 ures, and inside, very nice and respectable-look- 
 ing people, with no particular air of pride or 
 elation. The Queen wore a cloak of ermine, a 
 tiara of diamonds, and a long, cloud-like veil of 
 tulle, floating back from her face, which that day 
 had a very pleasant, genial expression. She is 
 changed, — of course she is ; but she has even 
 more of the old calm dignity, and when she 
 smiles, the effect is magical ; her youth flashes 
 over her face, and quite the old look — the look 
 he knew her by, comes back for a little while. 
 
 At other times I have had glimpses of her 
 as her carriage dashed through the gateway to 
 Marlborough House, on a garden-party day, or 
 through the Park, as she was fleeing with all 
 speed from the city, after a Drawing-room. 
 Sometimes, she has bowed right and left, and 
 smiled, as though pleased by the cheers of the 
 people ; but at other times she has scarcely in- 
 clined her head, and worn a look of unsmiling, 
 utter weariness— proving that a woman may have 
 much worldly goods, many jewels, and brave 
 velvet gowns, and heaps of India shawls, and 
 half a dozen grand mansions, with a throne in 
 every one, and yet at times feel that this brief 
 

 1 
 
 I 
 
 11 
 tin 
 
 376 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 life of ours is "all vanity and vexation of 
 spirit." 
 
 The Queen, though she had not kept up her in- 
 timate relations with the Emperor and Empress, 
 was shocked at the utter ruin to them and their 
 son, which resulted from the French and Prus- 
 sian war, and she was not wanting in tender 
 sympathy, when the poor frightened refugee, 
 Eugenie, hid a tearful face against her sisterly 
 breast, and sobbed out, " I have been too favor- 
 able to war." To the Emperor she granted an 
 asylum and a grave. 
 
 I know not whether France will ever demand 
 his dust, to give it sepulture under tht dome of 
 the Invalides ; but he has already on the banks 
 of the Seine the grandest of monuments — Parts. 
 His memory stands fair and firm in stately 
 buildings and massive bridges, and is renewed 
 every year in the plane tree of noble Boulevards, 
 those green longas viasy grander than the mili- 
 tary highways of the Caesars. 
 
 In 1867 the Prince of Wales fell grievously ill, 
 with the same fearful malady that had deprived 
 him of his father. Intense was the anxiety not 
 only of the Royal Family, but of all the English 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 377 
 
 people the world over. Soon the sympathy of 
 other nations was aroused, and prayers began to 
 ascend to Heaven for the preservation of that 
 precious life, not only from all Christian peoples, 
 but from Hebrews, Mohammedans and Bud- 
 dhists ; in heathen lands the missionaries prayed, 
 and in heathen portions of Christian cities the 
 mission-children prayed, while on the high seas 
 the sailors responded fervently when the captain 
 read in the Service the " Prayer for the Sick," 
 meaning their Prince, " sick unto death." The 
 fine old boast of England's power, that " her 
 morning drum beats round the world," how poor 
 it seems beside the thought of this zone of 
 prayer! There had been nothing like this in 
 English history, and there was nothing like it in 
 ours, till that heart-breaking time of the mortal 
 illness of President Garfield. O, worthy should 
 be the life and manifold the good works of 
 that man for whom so many peoples and tongues 
 have given surety to Heaven by fervent interces- 
 sions and supplications. 
 
 This long sad time of anxiety and peril drew 
 the Queen out of her sorrow as nothing had 
 done before. She watched tenderly by the bed- 
 
j 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 !■■' 
 
 
 t i 
 
 IHy 
 
 1 . 
 
 ■ 
 
 "• i 
 
 Hft 
 
 ' 9 
 
 ^N^^l 
 
 ' 'i a 
 
 ^^^^H 
 
 ;, '' 1 
 
 Mp 
 
 
 *i"' 
 
 
 • 
 
 t 
 
 ji;* 
 
 >' 
 
 
 'I 
 
 • 
 
 t 
 
 
 f: 
 
 
 
 3;8 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 side of her son, and when he was recovered, and 
 went to St. Paul's to return thanks, she sat by 
 his side, and wore a white flower in her bonnet, 
 and her grateful smile showed that there was a 
 rift in the cloud of her mourning, and that God's 
 sunlight was striking through. 
 
 Lord Ronald Gowcr quotes a letter from his 
 sister, the Duchess of Westminster, describing 
 the Prince and Princess of Wales as she saw 
 them about this time. She said : ** He is much 
 thinner and his head shaved, but little changed 
 in his face, and looking so grateful. She looks 
 thin and worn, but so affectionate — tears in her 
 eyes when talking of him, and his manner to 
 her so gentle." 
 
 Surely convalescence is a "state of grace." 
 Would that it might always last a lifetime 
 with us ! 
 
 During this year, Irish disaffection broke 
 out very seriously in the great Fenian move- 
 ment. An upheaval this, from the lowest 
 stratum of society, with no gentlemen, or elo- 
 quent orators, for leaders, but all the more ap- 
 palling for that. These rough, desperate men 
 meant, as they said, " business." This move- 
 
 I !■ 11 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 379 
 
 ment was suppiessed, driven under the surface, 
 but only to break out more appallingly than ever 
 some ten or twelve years later, in brutal assassi- 
 nations, which have curdled the blood of the 
 world. Ah, must it always be so ? Will this 
 tiresome old Celtic Enceladus never lie quiet, 
 and be dead, though the mountain sit upon him 
 ever so solidly, and smoke ever so placidly 
 above him ? 
 
 Where now, we sadly ask, is the Ireland of 
 Tom Moore, Father Prout, Lover and Lever? 
 Not enough left of it to furnish a new drama 
 for Mr. Boucicault. Donnybrook Fair has given 
 place to midnight conspirations. Fox-hunts to 
 the stalking of landlords — all the jolly old cus- 
 toms extinct, except the " wake." PeasanUlife 
 over there, sometimes seems, at the best, one 
 protracted " wake." 
 
 I suppose it is too late now, yet I can but 
 think that if the Queen had built years ago, a 
 palace in Ireland, at Killarney, or in lovely 
 Wicklow, or in Dublin itself, and resided there 
 a part of every year, things might have been 
 better. She was so popular in that " distress- 
 ful country " when, by frequent visits, she testi- 
 
38o 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 r \\ 
 
 'lli 
 
 iied an interest in it, and her gentle, motherly- 
 presence might have had a more placating in- 
 fluence than any " Coercion bill." The money 
 she would have spent there, — the very crumbs 
 that would have fallen from her table, would 
 have been a benefaction to that poor people. 
 
 The Fenian drama had its ghastly closing 
 tableau in the hanging of the ringleaders, and 
 the explosion at Clerkenwell. The hanging of 
 those Fenians must have been about the last of 
 that sort of a public entertainment, as a law was 
 soon passed making all future executions strictly 
 private. Among a certain class of Her Majesty's 
 subjects this was a most unpopular measure. 
 Pot-house politicians and gin-palace courtiers, 
 both ladies and gentlemen, discussed it hotly 
 and denounced it sternly, as an infringement on 
 the sacred immemorial rights of British free- 
 men and a blow to the British Constitution. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Disraeli had become Prime Min- 
 ister. He died in 1880 — Lord Beaconsfield, 
 sincerely lamented by the Queen, who was much 
 attached to him as a friend, and greatly admired 
 him as a man of genius. He was a brilliant 
 novelist and a famous statesman ; but the best 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 381 
 
 things I know of him are the tender love and 
 manly gratitude he always testified towards his 
 devoted wife, and his pathetic mourning for her 
 loss. He might have adopted for her tomb- 
 stone the quaint, terse epitaph of an American 
 husband—" Think what a wife should be, and 
 she was that." 
 
 Through his means, the title of " Empress of 
 India " was conferred on the Queen by act of 
 Parliament. Some English people opposed it 
 as superfluous, a sort of anti-climax of dignity, 
 as " gilding the refined gold *' of English Sover- 
 eignty with baser metal, as " painting the lily " 
 of the noblest of English royal titles with India- 
 ink ; but it did no harm. It did not hurt the 
 Radicals and it pleased the Rajahs. 
 
 Then came the Zulu war, with its awful dis- 
 asters in the inglorious slaughter of some thou- 
 sands of gallant young soldiers, among which, 
 because of the power of romantic, historic asso- 
 ciations, the death of the young Prince Imperial 
 stands out in woful relief. This was a severe 
 personal shock to the Queen. With all her tender 
 sympathy she tried to console the inconsolable 
 Empress, and with her sons paid funeral honors 
 
 • J 
 
 t:i 
 
382 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 
 m 
 
 to the memory of the Prince, who had been 
 almost as one of her family. The only time I 
 ever saw him he was in their company, driving 
 away 'rom a royal garden-party. 
 
 The Prince of Wales visited India, traveled 
 and hunted extensively, was fdted after the 
 most gorgeous Oriental style, and brought home 
 rich presents enough to set up a grand Eastern 
 bazaar in Marlborough House, and animals 
 enough to start a respectable menagerie. 
 Everywhere he went he inclined the hearts of 
 the people to peace and loyalty, by his frank and 
 genial ways. Does His Royal Highness ever 
 propose such a tour in Ireland ? He would not 
 probably receive as tribute so much jewelry and 
 gorgeous merchandise — so many tigers, pythons 
 and other little things ; but there is a fine chance 
 for giving over there, and we read : " It is more 
 blessed to give, than to receive." 
 
 I come now to that period of our national 
 history with which the Queen of England so 
 kindly, so "gently and humanly" associated 
 herself — I mean the illness and death of Presi- 
 dent Garfield. To this day, that association is a 
 drop of sweetness in the bitter cup of our sor- 
 
 }\ 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 383 
 
 row and humiliation. From the 2d of July, 
 1 88 1, the date of her first telegram of anxious 
 inquiry addressed to our Minister, to the 27th 
 of the following September, when she tele- 
 graphed her tender solicitude as to the condi- 
 tion of " the late President's mother," not a 
 week went by that she did not send to Mr. 
 Lowell sympathetic messages, asking for the 
 latest news — congratulating or condoling, as the 
 state of "the world's patient" fluctuated be- 
 tween life and death — and when all was over, she 
 at once telegraphed directly to Mrs. Garfield in 
 these words of tenderest commiseration, so 
 worthy of her great heart : 
 
 " Words cannot express the deep sympathy I 
 feel with you at this terrible moment. May 
 God support and comfort you as He alone 
 
 )r- 
 
 can. 
 
 She afterwards sent an autograph letLer to 
 Mrs. Garfield, and also asked for a photograph 
 of the President. 
 
 No American who was in London at that 
 
 time, especially on the day of our President's 
 
 funeral, so universally obser-ed throughout 
 
 Great Britain, can ever forget the generous, 
 R 
 
mT^ 
 
 
 I 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 » 
 
 -1 
 
 i 
 
 . } 
 
 
 1 ^j : 1 
 
 mm 
 
 II 
 
 » 
 
 384 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 whole-souled sympathy of the English people, 
 in part at least, inspired by the words and acts 
 of the English Queen. The intense interest 
 with which she had watched that melancholy 
 struggle between " the Two Angels," over that 
 distant death-bed, and the grief with which she 
 beheld the issue were known and responded to, 
 and so the noble contagion spread. It was not 
 needed, perhaps, that signs of mourning should 
 be shown in her Palace windows, to have them 
 appear as they did, all over the vast city, but it 
 was something strange and affecting to see 
 those blinds of a proud royal abode lowered 
 out of respect for the memory of a republican 
 ruler, and sympathy for an untitled "sister- 
 widow." 
 
 We respected all those signs of mourning about 
 us then — were grateful for them all, from the 
 flag at half-mast and the tolling bell, to the 
 closing of the shop of the small tradesman, and 
 the bit of crape on the whip of the cabman. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The Real Sud^^^ZS^^^^r™ "' *" ^'"'^^ '°^'^- 
 
 My reasons for admiring and honoring Queen 
 Victoria are, perhaps, amply revealed in this lit- 
 tie book but I will briefly recapitulate them : 
 First .s her great power of loving, and tenacity 
 m holding on to love. Next is her loyalty-that 
 quality which makes her stand steadfastly by 
 those she loves, through good and evil report 
 and not afraid to do honor to a dead friend be' 
 he prince or peasant-that quality which in her 
 lofty position, makes her friendship for the un 
 fortunate exile "as the shadow of a great rock 
 in a weary land." 
 
 Next I place her sincerity, her downright 
 honesty, which makes falsehood and duplicity 
 in those she has to do with, something to be 
 wondered over as well as scorned. Next, is her 
 courage, so abundantly shown in the many in- 
 stances in which her life has been menaced. I 
 
 (38s) 
 
P : f I 
 
 f m'^i 
 
 386 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 do not believe that a braver woman lives than 
 Queen Victoria. 
 
 I admire her also for the respect and delicate 
 consideration which she has alv/ays had for the 
 royalty of intellect, for the pride and sensitive- 
 ness of genius. This peculiarity dates far back 
 to when, as the young Princess Victoria, she 
 timidly asked that such men as the poets 
 Moore and Rogers, and the actors Charles 
 Kemble and Macready might be presented 
 to her. Thomas Campbell used to relate 
 an incident showing what charming compli- 
 ments she knew how to pay to poets. Wish- 
 ing to witness the coronation, he wrote to 
 the Earl Marshal, saying: "There is a place 
 in the Abbey called * The Poets' Corner,* which 
 suggests the possibility of there being room in 
 it for living poets also.** This brought him a 
 ticket of admission. His admiration of the 
 young Queen's behavior was unbounded, and 
 he says : " On returning home, I resolved out of 
 pure esteem and veneration, to send her a copy 
 of all my works. Accordingly I had them 
 bound up and went personally with them to Sir 
 Henry Wheatley, who, when he understood my 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 387 
 
 ich 
 In in 
 
 m a 
 the 
 and 
 It of 
 :opy 
 hem 
 Sir 
 my 
 
 errand, told me that Her Majesty made it a 
 rule to decline presents of this kind, as it placed 
 her under obligations which were not pleasant to 
 her. ' Say to Her Majesty, Sir Henry,* I replied, 
 * that there is nothing which the Queen can touch 
 with her sceptre in any of her dominions which 
 I covet ; and I therefore entreat you to present 
 them with my devotion as a subject.' But the 
 next day they were returned. I hesitated to 
 open the parcel, but on doing so I found to my 
 inexpressible joy a note enclosed, desiring my 
 autograph on them. Having complied with this 
 wish, I again transmitted the books to Her Maj- 
 esty, and in the course of a day or two, received 
 in return this elegant portrait engraving, with 
 Her Majesty's autograph, as you sefe, below." 
 
 The Queen was the friend of Charles Kings- 
 ley, and of Charles Dickens, in his later days. 
 In presenting the latter with her book, " Leaves 
 from a Journal of Our Life in the Highlands^' 
 she spoke of herself as " the humblest of writ- 
 ers," and as almost ashamed to offer it, even 
 with her priceless autograph, to "one of the 
 greatest." Mr. Tejmyson she delights to honor 
 with her friendship. I have read a little story 
 
 y-ti 
 
ii ;• 
 
 jt'r 
 
 i'l 
 
 388 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 of tier calling on him at his place, on the Isle of 
 Wight. It seems he had not received due no- 
 tice, or that, absorbed in writing, he had for- 
 gotten the hour. At all events, he was taken 
 by surprise, and was obliged to run out to re- 
 ceive Her Majesty in his dressing-gown and 
 slippers, and with his hair disheveled, as it had 
 become in the fine frenzy of composition. Just 
 think of Mr. Tennyson with his hair more than 
 usually disheveled ! Of course it was all right, 
 as far as the Queen was concerned, — but then 
 the footmen ! 
 
 In her youth, the Queen was very fond of 
 the drama, and did honor to its representations, 
 as we have seen. Rachel used to show, with 
 especial pride, a costly bracelet, within which 
 was the inscription, " Victoria h Rachel'' When 
 the beautiful English actress, Mrs. Warner, was 
 slowly dying of cancer, the Queen, I am told, 
 used to send daily one of her carriages to take 
 her out for a drive — as the actress could not 
 afford herself such a luxury. 
 
 Of Americans distinguished for talent. Her 
 Majesty has never failed to show, when in her 
 power, a generous appreciation. As long ago 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 389 
 
 [er 
 her 
 ago 
 
 as 1839, she invited to Buckingham Palace, 
 Daniel Webster and Mrs. Webster. To our 
 great statesman — who Miss Mitford, at the time, 
 said was "the grandest-looking man" she had 
 ever beheld, and whom Sydney Smith called, 
 more tersely than elegantly, " a steam-engine in 
 breeches " — the Queen was especially attentive, 
 talking much with him ; and he pronounced her 
 "very intelligent." To Longfellow, purest of 
 poets and sweetest of spirits, she showed a re- 
 spect which was almost homage ; and I am told 
 that in Mr. Lowell, she respects the poet and 
 the scholar, even more than the Minister. Ah, 
 he is one whose poetic genius, whose scholar- 
 ship, keen wit, and, above all, exquisite humor, 
 the Prince-Consort would have appreciated and 
 delighted in. 
 
 Artists and men of letters have never been 
 behindhand in tributes to the Queen. Every 
 sculptor and painter to whom she has sat, has 
 had the same story as Gibson and Leslie to 
 tell, of her kindness, taste and intelligence. 
 Miss Fox, writing of Landseer, says, " He deeply 
 admires the Queen's intellect, which he thinks 
 superior to any woman's in Europe. Her mem- 
 
r' ,1 
 
 II ,■ 
 
 If 
 r 
 
 la i-n 
 
 
 390 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ory is so remarkable that he has known her re- 
 call exact words of speeches, made years ago, 
 which the speakers themselves had forgotten." 
 
 That was saying too much, I think, when 
 Mrs. Somerville, Miss Martineau, and Elizabeth 
 Barrett were living, and working, in England. 
 In the things pertaining to her station and voca- 
 tion, Victoria doubtless was, and is, superior to 
 any woman in Europe. The Duke of Welling- 
 ton, who thought at first that he could not get 
 on with her, because he had " no small talk," 
 finally enjoyed conversing with her on the most 
 serious matters of State. Sir Archibald Alison, 
 in describing an evening with her and Prince 
 Albert, says : " The Queen took her full share 
 in the conversation, and I could easily see, from 
 her quickness of apprehension and the questions 
 she put to those around her, that she possessed 
 uncommon talent, a great desir; for information, 
 and, in particular, great rapidity of thought — a 
 faculty often possessed by persons of her rank, 
 and arising not merely from natural ability, but 
 from the habit of conversing with the first men 
 of the age." 
 
 Ah, I wonder if Her Majesty has ever realized 
 
 y. 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 391 
 
 ret 
 
 ^r 
 
 ost 
 
 3n, 
 
 ice 
 re 
 m 
 ns 
 ed 
 n, 
 a 
 
 k, 
 ut 
 en 
 
 [ed 
 
 her blessed privilege in being able to converse 
 freely with " the first men of the age "; to avow 
 her interest in politics, which is history flowing 
 by; in statesmanship, that cunning tapestry- 
 work of empire, without fearing to be set 
 down as "a strong-minded female out of her 
 sphere." 
 
 Much has been told me of the Queen's shrewd- 
 ness and perspicacity. An English gentleman, 
 who has opportunities of knowing much of her, 
 lately said to me : " Her Majesty has an eagle- 
 eye; she sees everything — sees everybody — 
 sees through everybody." And this reminded 
 me of a little anecdote, told me many years 
 before, by an English fellow-traveler, — the story 
 of a little informal interview, which amusingly 
 revealed not only the Queen's quickness of per- 
 ception, but directness of character. 
 
 My informant was a young gentleman of very 
 artistic tastes — a passionate picture-lover. He 
 had seen all the great paintings in the public 
 galleries of London, and had a strong desire to 
 see those of Buckingham Palace, which, that 
 not being a show-house, are inaccessible to an 
 ordinary connoisseur. Fortune favored him at 
 
392 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 l\:l 
 
 V-i '■■ 
 'if ; .' 
 
 I ■ 11: 
 
 k', 
 
 last. He was the brother of a London carpet 
 merchant, who had an order to put down new 
 carpets in the State apartments of the palace ; 
 and so it chanced that the temptation came to 
 my friend to put on a workman's blouse and 
 thus enter the royal precincts, while the flag, 
 indicating the presence of the august family, 
 floated defiantly over the roof. So he effected 
 an entrance, and, when once within the royal 
 halls, dropped his assumed character and de- 
 voted himself to the pictures. It happened that 
 he remained in one of the apartments after the 
 workmen had left, and, while quite alone, the 
 Queen came tripping in, wearing a plain white 
 morning-dress, and followed by two or three of 
 her younger children, dressed with like sim- 
 plicity. She approached the supposed workman 
 and said : " Pray can you tell me when the new 
 carpet will be put down in the Privy Council 
 Chamber? " and he, thinking he had no right to 
 appear to recognize the Queen under the cir- 
 cumstances, replied : " Really, madam — I cannot 
 tell — but I will enquire." " Stay," she said ab- 
 ruptly, but not unkindly; "who are you? I 
 perceive that you are not one of the workmen." 
 
 ill 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 393 
 
 I 
 
 Mr. W , blushing and stammering some- 
 
 what, yet made a clean breast of it, and told the 
 simple truth. The Queen seemed much amused 
 with his ruse, and, for the sake of his love for 
 art, forgave it ; then added, smiling, " I knew, 
 for all your dress, that you were a gentleman, 
 because you did not address me as * your Maj- 
 esty.' Pray look at the pictures as long as 
 you will. Good-morning! Come, chicks, we 
 must go." 
 
 I hear that a distinguished American friend 
 has expressed a fear that I shall " idealize Queen 
 Victoria." I do not think I have done so. I 
 leave that to her English biographers and eulo- 
 gists. In my researches, I have come upon 
 curious things, in the way of pompous pane- 
 gyric, which would have made Minen^a the 
 Wise, feel foolish, and which Juno the Superb, 
 would have pronounced "a little too strong, 
 really." I have not, it is true, pointed out 
 faults — I have not been near enough to "the 
 Queen's Most Excellent Majesty" to become 
 acquainted with them. I presume she has 
 them — I hope she has. I think all writers who 
 deny her human weaknesses, or betray surprise 
 
!t 
 
 
 1, > 
 
 V"' 
 
 ' , ; 
 
 
 
 II' : 
 
 •Ml:: 
 
 M 
 
 394 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 at any exhibition of ordinary human feeling, 
 pay the Queen a very poor compliment. There 
 is in England a good deal of exaggerated ex- 
 pression of loyalty. Such words as " gracious " 
 and "condescending" are habits and forms of 
 speech. Of the real sentiment of loyalty, I 
 do not think there is an excess — at least not 
 toward the Queen. When Her Majesty gives 
 way to natural emotion over the death of a 
 friend, or over a great public calamity, I do not 
 believe she likes to have the fact made a circum- 
 stance of. For instance, when that dreadful 
 tragedy occurred in the Victoria Hall, at Sun- 
 derland, when hundreds of children perished, by 
 being trampled underfoot and suffocated, the 
 Court intelligence, which seemed to deepen the 
 sadness in many minds, was that " Her Majesty 
 was observed to weep on reading the account." 
 This item went the rounds, and called forth 
 such expressions of sympathy that one would 
 have supposed that it was the august mater 
 patricB at Windsor, who had been bereaved, and 
 not those poor distracted mothers at Sunderland. 
 Why should the Queen not weep over such a 
 "massacre of the innocents," like any other 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 395 
 
 h 
 
 good, sympathetic, motherly woman ? She has 
 not wept away all her tears for herself. 
 
 I remember at the time of the death of Lady 
 Augusta Stanley, who had formerly been one 
 of Her Majesty's Maids of Honor, much was 
 said of the Queen's sympathy with the Dean. 
 She attended the funeral, and afterwards, it is 
 said, " led the widowed mourner into his deso- 
 late home." This act, so simple and sweet in a 
 friend, was, I know, looked upon by some as 
 " condescension," in a sovereign ; but how 
 could one sorrowing human soul condescend to 
 another — and that other Arthur Stanley ? Sor- 
 row is as great a leveler as death. Tears wash 
 away all poor human distinctions. 
 
 We also took the Queen's sympathy with us, 
 in our great national bereavement, too much as 
 though it were something quite super-royal, if 
 not superhuman. It was the exquisite wording 
 of those telegrams which touched, melted our 
 hearts; but we should have been neither sur- 
 prised, nor overcome. It was beautiful, but it 
 was natural. She could not have said less, or 
 said it differently. It was very sweet of her to 
 send that floral offering, known and dear to us 
 
3 . f 
 
 ,!*, 
 
 396 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 all as " the Queen's Wreath," but she sacrificed 
 no. dignity in so doing, as her flowers were to lie 
 on the coffin of the ruler of a great empire — a 
 ruler who had been as much greater than an or- 
 dinary monarch as election is greater than acci- 
 dent. 
 
 Of course, as the Queen is the most interest- 
 ing personage in all England, the least little 
 things connected with her have an interest 
 which Americans can hardly understand. In a 
 handsome semi-official work called "A Diary of 
 Royal Events," I find gravely related the story 
 oi an Osborne postman, who once lent the 
 Queen and Prince Albert his umbrella, and was 
 told to call for it at the great house, when he 
 received it back, and with it a five-pound note. 
 I see nothing very note-worthy in this, except 
 the fact, honorable to humanity, of a borrowed 
 umbrella being promptly returned, the owner 
 calling for it. The five-pound note, though, was 
 an ** event " to the postman. 
 
 A few concluding words about the Queen's 
 children, who with many grandchildren "rise 
 up to call her blessed." 
 
 Victoria, the Crown Princess of Germany, is 
 
 ,j I 
 
 '-^ .V.M B 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 397 
 
 d 
 e 
 
 a fine-looking woman, with the same peculiarly 
 German face, " round as an apple," which she 
 had as a child. She is very clever, especially in 
 art, and her character, formed under her father's 
 hand, very noble. The Prince of Wales is a 
 hard-working man in his way, which means in 
 many ways, for the public benefit — industrial, 
 artistic, scientific and social. The people seem 
 bent on making him true to his old Saxon 
 motto — " Ich dien " (I serve). He is exceedingly 
 popular, being very genial and affable — not jeal- 
 ous, it is said, of his dignity as a Prince, but 
 very jealous of his dignity as a gentleman — and 
 that is right; for kings may come, and kings 
 may go, but the fine type of the English gentle- 
 man goes on forever. No revolution can depose 
 it ; no commune can destroy it — it is proof 
 against dynamite. 
 
 A handsome man is the Duke of Edinburgh 
 (Prince Alfred), who no longer follows the sea, 
 but is settled down in England, with his wife, a 
 daughter of the late Czar, who testified by this 
 alliance his wish to let Crimean " by-gones be 
 by-gones " — till the next time, at least. 
 
 The Duke resembles his father in his love for 
 
398 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 'I 
 
 1 
 
 13! 
 
 •t 
 
 : 1 '■ 
 
 t*i 
 
 '^f 
 
 and cultivation of music. There does not seem 
 to be any opening for him to play a part like 
 that of Alfred the Great, but he can probably 
 play the violin better than that monarch ever 
 did. They drew another sort of a bow in those 
 old days. 
 
 The Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein 
 (Princess Helena) is in appearance most like 
 h?r mother, and perhaps in character and tastes, 
 as she lives a life of quiet retirement, is a de- 
 voted wife and mother, yet often giving her 
 time and energies to a good work, or an artistic 
 enterprise. She also is exceedingly fond of 
 music and is an accomplished pianist. A pas- 
 sion for iiusic belongs to this family by a double 
 inheritance. Even poor, old, blind George the 
 Third consoled himself at his organ, for the loss 
 of an empire and the darkening of a world. 
 
 The Duke of Connaught, whom we so pleas- 
 antly remember in America as Prince Arthur, is 
 the soldier of the family — a real one, since he 
 won his spurs in Egypt. He has something of 
 the grave, gentle look of his father, and is much 
 liked and respected. 
 
 The Princess Louise (Marchioness of Lome) 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 399 
 
 is a beautiful woman, but with a somewhat cold 
 and proud expression, a veritable grande dame. 
 She is remarkably clever and accomplished, es- 
 pecially in art — modeling admirably well— for a 
 Princess. 
 
 Prince Leopold (Duke of Albany) is the 
 scholar of the family — intellectually and mor- 
 allv^ more like Prince Albert, it is said, than any 
 of his brothers. I was once told by the eminent 
 Dr. James Martineau, who had met and con- 
 versed with him, that he was a young man of a 
 very thoughtful mind, high aims, and quite re- 
 markable acquirements. As Dr. Martineau is 
 not of the church, being a Unitarian divine, he 
 cannot be suspected, in pronouncing Such eulo- 
 gies on the Queen's darling son, of having an 
 eye to preferment— of working for a " living." 
 On the whole. Her Majesty's sons -^re a decided 
 improvement on her six royal uncles, on the pa- 
 ternal side. 
 
 We come now to the youngest, the darling 
 and delight of her father, the little one who 
 " stood and looked at him," when he lay ill, 
 marveling at the mysterious change in his dear 
 face;— the Princess Beatrice— as closely associ- 
 
iff! 
 
 r 
 
 Hi'(. 
 
 ' ';! « i 
 
 i f.- 
 
 
 ; ^' 1 
 
 
 
 w i"' 
 
 i; 
 
 
 
 it %. 
 
 !'■ 
 
 f*l 
 
 
 400 
 
 LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 ated, as constantly with her mother as was the 
 Princess Victoria with the Duchess of Kent. 
 She also is accomplished and clever, nor ap- 
 pears in any way to " unbeseem the promise of 
 her spring." She also has the love of music 
 which marks her race. She was little more than 
 a baby when her father went away, and her in- 
 nocent wonder and questioning must often have 
 pierced her mother's wounded heart anew ; and 
 yet those little loving hands must have helped 
 to draw that mother from the depths of gloom 
 and despair in which she was so nearly engulfed. 
 Though the youngest of all, her father seems to 
 have delegated to her much of his dearest earthly 
 care, and she the good daughter, is, it may be, 
 led by unseen hands, and inspired by unspoken 
 words of counsel and acceptance. So, though 
 the life of the Princess Beatrice is not abound- 
 ing in the Court gayeties and excitements which 
 usually fall to the lot of a Princess, "young, 
 and so fair," none can question its happiness 
 for it is a life of duty and devotion. 
 
 And now my little biography is finished — 
 "would it were worthier!" — and I must take 
 
WIDOWHOOD. 
 
 401 
 
 leave of my illustrious subject, " kissing hands" 
 in imagination, with profound respect. If I 
 back out of the presence, it is not in unrepub- 
 lican abasement, but because I am loath to turn 
 my eyes away from the kindly and now familiar 
 face of the good woman, and the good Queen — 
 Victoria. 
 
 THE END.