“On the evening of Easter Eve,” he writes, “the Princess came to me in a corner of the drawing-room with her Prayer Book, and I went through the Communion Service with her, explaining the peculiarities and the likenesses and differences to and from the Danish Service. She was most simple and fascinating.… My visit to Sandringham gave me intense pleasure. I was there for three days. I read the whole Service, preached, then gave the first English Sacrament to this ‘angel in the Palace.’ I saw a great deal of her, and can truly say that she is as charming and beautiful a creature as ever passed through a fairy tale.” Much satisfaction was felt by the nation when the interesting fact became known that Queen Victoria hoped to welcome the first of her British grandchildren in the month of March. One Friday evening, early in January, shortly after Queen Alexandra, who was staying, had been skating on Virginia Water, near Windsor, her eldest child appeared so unexpectedly that for a while the Royal baby had to be wrapped in cotton wool, for all the beautiful layette which was in course of preparation was at Marlborough House. The rejoicings over the event, both in this country and in Denmark, were naturally very great, more especially when it became known that the Royal infant was none the worse for his early arrival. Among the two Royal families most immediately concerned the interest and excitement were intense. Princess Alice wrote to Queen Victoria on 9th January 1864, “I was aghast on receiving Bertie’s telegram this morning announcing the birth of their little son.” But this feeling of trepidation quickly gave place to one of relief when the bulletins announced the steady progress of both mother and babe, and soon the British public saw many charming photographs and portraits of Queen Alexandra in her new _rôle_ of mother. At the time of the birth of the Duke of Clarence Queen Alexandra was not yet twenty, but, like Queen Victoria, she seems to have been wholly absorbed in her maternal duties, and at any moment she would joyfully give up attending a State function or ball in order to spend an hour in her nursery.