The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-03-14 00:00:00

the 3toutbritrge itserbtr.
SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1q74.

THE MARRIAGES OF THE ROYAL
FAMILY.

The reports of the rejoicings which hai7e
tilled the columns of the newspapers during
thc p2st few days, descriptive of the arrival
of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh in
it veentry.nu-; + have directed many minds
to Win,lsor Castle, and to the changing
scenes of which its towers have been wit-
Seattere.l through many an English
home even to this day are prints illustrating
t domestie life led in the palace of the
Sovereign in those old and happy days when
Vi.• Prince Consort was in the fall vigour of
his manhood ; the Princess Royal, now upon
tho threshold of the German Imperial
Throne, a laughing, brighteyed little girl; the
Prince of Wales, whese life has already been
that of a generation of men, a merry round-
faced little hay; while the more infantile
breaches of the family, although known to
the public by name, were too diminutive to
impress their individuality upon the minds
of any considerable section of the community.
Those were times at Windsor Castle when
the home of the Royal parents, surrounded
as they were by their youthful family, was
one of the most perfect representations of
human happiness which it was in the power
of the most gifted writer to depict. Years
glided by, and the time came when a breach
must be made in the domestic circle. In the
month of January, 1858, the eldest daughter
was married to the Crown Prince of Prussia;
and on the day when she left London with
her husband, in the midst of a blinding snow-
storm, the tears which ran down her cheeks
were an eloquent testimony of the pang ,
which it cost her to leave her home and
henceforth take up her abode with strangers
in a foreign land. In the month of March,
1861, death visited the Royal household, and
removed the Queen's mother, the Duchess of
Kent—an event which, her Majesty has told
her people, affected her deeply. But what
was this blow to the crushing affliction which
descended upon the Royal family less than
three quarters of a year afterwards, when
the Prince Consort himself, at the early age
of 42, succumbed to an attack of gastric
fever after an illness of only a few days?
No one A-ho witnessed that gloomy Christ-
;.; 1361, uhen the church bells rang
muffled peals, and mourning was general
amongst all classes, will ever forget the
sombre nature of the time. It is not too
emelt to say that since that visitation the
Queen has scarcely seemed the same; for
years her interest in public affairs, if not de-
stroyed, was in abeyance, and even now she
invariable appears in mourning. The Sov-
ereign, in fact, dwells in a perpetual shadow,
the result of a long-life calamity which she
finds it impossible to banish from her re-
membrance. Yet life's;inexorable laws must
apply in thep alace as well as in the cottage;
beyond the mournful surroundings of the
darkened room the vast universe rolls on,
and men marry and are given in marriage
as in the earliest days described by the
writers of sacred story. Thus it was that-
within seven months of Prince Consort's
funeral, the bells of Windsor were ringing
merrily at the;wedding of the Queen's second
daughter, Princess Alice. Eight months
more, and the streets of London were densely
packed with people who had issued forth to
witness the illuminations to celebrate the
marriage of the Prince of Wales. Another
of her Majesty's daughters—Princess Helena
—was married in July, 1866 ; Princess
Louise in March, 1871; and now the Duke
of Edinburgh is the sixth of the Queen's
children to enter the bonds of matrimony.
Prince Arthur, who remains single, has a
separate establishment ; Prince Leopold at-
tains his majority in April next, and will
then follow tho example of the others, and
leave his mother, who will have but one
child out of nine remaining to her—Princess
Beatrice, a young lady now in her seven-
teenth year. Should the Queen's life be
prolonged—and she is not yet 55 years of
all probability she will see the
Princess Beatrice forming an alliance just
as her el ler sist;•rs have done, :old then the
w ,l,,wed Sovereign will be left ante to
111t3r the times when Windsor Castle
ota4 ie,l wilt the innocent prattle and the
• - • o hose who Live but obeyed
:111' in going forth into tle•
mail taking their places ii,ii the great
:!-,;;e of human life.