, 1880-09-13
Queen Victoria's GirlhOOd.

ton Palace, on the Oath of May, 1919.
When she was only few months old,
her fa,her died, closely followed by
his father, poor old King George. Be-
fore this, it is recorded that "the ke
gent was not kind to his brother" and
when the Duke OF. Kent died, it was
found that "the poor Duke had
left his family deprived of all means of
existence" Thus the position of the
mother of the future sovereign, a young
German princess, SO soon left alone in
this strange and not always very genial
country, was far from consoling. Her
brother, Prince Leopold, fastened to
her in her distress, and stood by her in
all her future difficulties. Few women
have had severer piece of work to
undertake. But for that wiso and kind
brother, the Duchess of Kent, though
the mother of the future Queen, was
all but unfriended in o home with
which she had as yet but little time to
get acquainted. She was foreigner,
accustomed to different ways of living,
and had not even the easy elasticity of
youth which accustoms itself to any
thing, for she was already over thirty
when she married the Duke; and while
occupying so great position, she was
comparatively poor. Had she with
drawn with her child 10 her own coun-
try, to bring the little Princess up
among her own people. cheaply and
kindly, far away from the criticisms
and extravagances, the late hours and
hustle, of English life, who could have
wondered? But the Duchess had the
temperate Coburg blood in her veins,
and shared the sound sense and iudg-
ment of her race. She never forgot
that her eight-months old baby was the
first Princess of the blood, English
above all things, and imperatively
requiring an English education. And
she began her long career of self-denial
by steadily remaining in England,
though far from her friends and every
thing that w6s most dear to her. The
little family, bereaved, retu ucned to the
old palace at Kensington, where the
child had been born, and there the
early days of the Princess were chiefly
spent. More happy than most children
in her position, the little heiress OF
England had the society of an elder
sister, whose superior age must, in
those innocent days, have neutralized
the immense difference Of position,
and given something of the sweet nat
ural humility of q younger child in a
well-regulated household to this most
important member of the family, all
unconscious of her own greatsess.
This sister, Princess Fedora, afterward
Princess Hohenlohe, was the tenderest
of friends and companions to the Queen
during her wkole life. They were
brought up together in quiet old Ken
sington, in the sweeter solitude of
Claremont, the house where Prince
Leopold had spent his short married
life, which belonged to him. and in
which he often received his widowed
sister and her title girl. They were
there in the summer of 1924; and so
bright must that summer have been
that its brightness still lasts in recol
lection, though the little Princess was
but five years old. "Those days of
Claremont," the Queen herself tells US,
g were the happiest days of her child
hood" The most careful education
was given to the young Princess. Over
this training Prince Leopold watched
with all the interests of statesman,
and all the tenderness Of father. AL
ready, too, other visions of the future
were dawning before the far-seeing
eyes of the man who, with the sincerest
desire for the welfare of England, and
longing, no doubt made all the
stronger by the melancholy failure of
his personal hopes, to give to the coun
try which had received him kindly
and noble sovereign, had at the same
time a natural wish to advance his own
family, worthy by constitution and
character as it had already proved it
self. Another child, standing to him
in exactly the same relationship as the
little Victoria, had been born Just after
her in the little ducal court at Sake
Coburg, in the cheerful country house
of Rosenau. While the children were
still in their cradles this idea seems to
have communicated itself to all about
them. The families were in constant
communication, the young mothers
exchanging those pleasant experiences
and bits of nursery news, as mothers
will do as long as the species lasts. AL
the doings and growings of the little
May flower" as the Princess was called
by the kind German kinsfolk, were
recorded with fond simplicity for the
pleasure of the old grandmother at
home. The good German nurse, who
passed fro.1 one house to another as
her services were wanted, could not
sufficiently describe what dear little
love" the baby at Kensington was, and
the baby of Rosenau had the enthusi
astic pen of his mother to do Aim full
justice. Albert was of extraordinary
beauty, this impartial historian de
clared; he had great blue eyes, dim
pies on each cheek, three teeth, and at
eight months old was already beginning
to walk" Great news!-enough to
make the other nursery thrill with