Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1880-09-14
QUEEN vICTORINs GIRLIIOoD.

The Princess Victoria was born within the
homely brick walls Of Kcnsington Palace,
on the 2ith of May, 1919. When she was
only few months old her father died,
closely followed by his father, poor old King
George. Before this, it is recorded that
1.-THE Regent was ot kind to his brother"
and when the Duk, of Kent died, il was
found the: 'the poor Duke had left Iii
family deptived Of IL means of existence"
Thus the position Df the mother OF the fu.
ture sovereign, young German Princess,
so soon left alone in this strange and not al
ways very genial country, was far from con.
soling. r.er brother, Prince Leopold, has
tened 10 her in her distress, and stood by
re. 10 all her future difficulties. Few wo-
men have had a severer piece of work to un.
dertake. Put for that wise and kind
brother, the Duchess of Kent, the mother OF
the future Queen, was all but unfriended in
home with which she had as yet but little
time TO get acquainted. She was foreign
er, accustomed TO different ways of living,
and had not even the easy elasticity OF
youth, which accustoms itself to anything
for she was already over thirty when she
married the Duke and while occupying 50
great a position, she was comparatively
poor Had she Withdrawn with her child
to her own country, TO bring the little Prin
cess up among her own people, cheaply and
kindly, far away from the criticisms and ex.
trayagances, the late hours and hustle OF
English life who could have wondered
But the Duchess had the temperate Cobure
blood in her veins, and shared the sound
sense and Judgment of her race. She never
forgot that her eight mohth-o 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 remain
ing in England, though far from her friends
and everything that was most dear to her.
The little family, bereaved, returned To the
Olu IstldCc 1T hcilsii5toi, "Hcic tiic NuiAo
had been born, and there the early days OF
the Princess were chiefly spent. More hap
py 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 natural humility Of
q younger child in well-regulated house
hold to this most important member of the
family, all unconscious of her own great
ness. This sister, Princess Fedora, after
ward Princess Hohenlohe, was the tenderest
of friends and companions to the Queen dur
ing her whole life. They were brought up
together in quiet old Kensington, 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 little girl They were there in the
summer of 1924; and SO bright must that
summer have been that its brightness still
lasts in recollection, though the little Prin-
cess was but five years old. = Those days
of Claremont," the Queen herself tells Us,
"were the happiest days of her childhood"
Mrs. Ohphant, in Harper's Magazine.