The Queen was born on the 24th of May, 1819, at a quarter past four in the morning. "Some doubt," says Mr. Loftie, "has been thrown on the identification of the room in which the future Queen was born; but the late lamented Dr. Merriman, whose father attended the Duchess, had no doubt that a spacious chamber, which has been marked with a brass plate, was that in which the happy event took place." This room, which is on the first floor, exactly under the "King's Privy Chamber"--the State Rooms being on the second floor--has a low ceiling, and three windows, facing east, looking into the "Private Gardens." It has been identified by the Queen as the one Her Majesty was always told she was born in. The brass plate, put up at the time of the first Jubilee, in 1887, states: _In this room Queen Victoria was born, May 24th, 1819_. [Illustration: THE DUCHESS OF KENT WITH PRINCESS VICTORIA (AGED TWO YEARS). (After a picture by Sir William Beechey.)] Faulkner, writing the year after the event, confirms this identification, insomuch that he says: "_The lower apartments_ in the south-east part of the Palace, beneath the King's Gallery, have been for some years occupied by His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, whose premature decease--eight months after the birth of his daughter--this nation has so recently and deeply lamented; and they are still the residence of Her Royal Highness the Duchess." This is how the event was noticed in the "Memoirs" of Baron Stockmar: "A pretty little Princess, plump as a partridge, was born. The Duke of Kent was delighted with his child, and liked to show her constantly to his companions and intimate friends with the words: 'Take care of her, for she will be Queen of England.'" An interesting letter of the Duke of Kent's, written a few weeks after to his chaplain, Dr. Thomas Prince, who had addressed a letter of congratulation to him while, at the same time, somewhat condoling with him that a daughter and not a son had been born to him, was published in the "Times" at the time of the Jubilee of 1897. In it the duke remarked: "As to the circumstance of that child not proving to be a son instead of a daughter, I feel it due to myself to declare that such sentiments are not in unison with my own; for I am decidedly of opinion that the decrees of Providence are at all times wisest and best." =Queen Victoria's Early Years at Kensington.= The next reference we have found to the future Queen, is in a letter, written on 21st of July, 1820, when, consequently, Her Majesty was a little more than a year old, by Mr. Wilberforce, who mentions being received at Kensington Palace by the Duchess of Kent that morning. "She received me with her fine animated child on the floor, by her side, with its playthings, of which I soon became one."