Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhoodGreenwood, Grace
History
Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood
Greenwood, Grace
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
Dean Stanley is reported as telling of a touching little circumstance
which he received from the Princess Hohenlohe (Feodore), from which it
seems that Her Majesty was for a long time in the habit of going every
morning to look at the cows on Prince Albert's model farm, because
"_he_ had been used to do so," feeling, perhaps, that the gentle
creatures might miss him--that somewhere in their big dull brains, they
might wonder where their friend could be, and why he did not come. The
Princess also said that her poor sister found her only comfort in the
belief that her husband's spirit was close beside her--for he had
promised her that it should be so.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Arrival in England of the Princess Alexandra to wed the Prince of Wales--
Garibaldi's visit to London--The Queen's first public appearance after
her widowhood--Marriage of the Princess Louise--Illness of the Prince of
Wales--Disaffection in Ireland--The Queen's sympathy during the illness
of President Garfield.
On the 7th of March, 1863, all London and nearly all England went mad
over the coming of the Princess Alexandra, from Denmark, to wed the
Prince of Wales. Lord Ronald Gower, a son of the beautiful Duchess of
Sutherland, gives in his "Reminiscences" a fine description of her
arrival in London, and of the wedding at Windsor three days after. He
says: "Probably since the day in Paris when Marie Antoinette was
acclaimed in the gardens of the Tuileries, no Princess ever had so
enthusiastic a reception, or so quickly won the hearts of thousands by
the mere charm of her presence." This writer gives a very vivid
description of the crowd which waited patiently for hours, of a cold,
wretched day, for the sight of that sweet face whose sweetness has never
yet cloyed upon them. At last, there came a small company of Life Guards,
escorting an open carriage-and-four, containing the young Danish Princess
and His Royal Highness Albert Edward, looking very happy and very
conscious. The smiling, blushing, appealing face of the Princess warmed
as well as won all hearts. There were few flowers at that season to
scatter on her way, except flowers of poetry, of which there was no jack.
Tennyson's pretty ode has not been forgotten, but all as noble and sweet
was the greeting of her from whom I have before quoted; Mrs. Crosland.
The most touching, though not the strongest verse in that poem, is this:
"She comes another child to be
To that Crowned Widow of the land,
Whose sceptre weighs more heavily
Since One has ceased to hold her hand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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