Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Fiction
The circle of children soon began to widen, for early in 1859 Princess
"Vicky" became the mother of a boy, and the Queen, not yet forty years
of age, was a grandmother. The child was named Frederick William Victor
Albert. Ever since her marriage, the Princess had kept up a constant
correspondence with home. She wrote her mother every day, sometimes
twice a day, telling all the little events of her life. To her father
she sent every Monday long letters on general topics, and he always
sent a reply two days later. No one knew better than he the
difficulties that lay before her in making her home in a foreign
country, and often his letters gave her bits of advice that had come
from his own experience. Sometimes they were little pictures of home
life. Once he told her of a "splendid snowman" that the children had
made, with a yellow carrot for a nose and an old hat of "Affie's" on
his head. After the birth of Frederick William Victor Albert, the
letters from Germany never forgot to tell the latest news about the
little German baby; and the English letters quoted the sayings of baby
Beatrice, whom Prince Albert called "the most amusing baby we ever
had." One day he wrote of this little one, "When she tumbles, she calls
out in bewilderment, 'She don't like it, she don't like it.' 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."
While Buckingham Palace had still its merry group of children, the two
older sons, "Bertie" and "Affie," were on their way across the ocean.
Prince Alfred was making a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and the
Prince of Wales was going to Canada. During the Crimean War, the colony
had raised and equipped a regiment to aid the mother country, and had
most urgently invited the monarch to visit her lands in the west; but
because of the exposure and fatigue it was not thought wise for her to
accept the invitation. Canada had then asked that one of the Princes
should be appointed governor. They were far too young for any such
position, but the promise was made that the Prince of Wales should
visit the colony. In the spring of 1860 it was decided that he should
go early in the autumn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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