Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhoodGreenwood, Grace
History
Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood
Greenwood, Grace
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
I admire her also for the respect and delicate consideration which she
has always had for the royalty of intellect, for the pride and
sensitiveness of genius. This peculiarity dates far back to when, as the
young Princess Victoria, she timidly asked that such men as the poets
Moore and Rogers, and the actors Charles Kemble and Macready might be
presented to her. Thomas Campbell used to relate an incident showing what
charming compliments she knew how to pay to poets. Wishing to witness the
coronation, he wrote to the Earl Marshal, saying: "There is a place in
the Abbey called 'The Poets' Corner,' which suggests the possibility of
there being room in it for living poets also." This brought him a ticket
of admission. His admiration of the young Queen's behavior was unbounded,
and he says: "On returning home, I resolved out of pure esteem and
veneration, to send her a copy of all say works. Accordingly I had them,
bound up and went personally with them to Sir Henry Wheatley, who, when
he understood my errand, told me that Her Majesty made it a rule to
decline presents of this kind, as it placed her under obligations which
were not pleasant to her. 'Say to Her Majesty, Sir Henry,' I replied,
'that there is nothing which the Queen can touch with her sceptre in any
of her dominions which I covet; and I therefore entreat you to present
them with my devotion as a subject.' But the next day they were returned.
I hesitated to open the parcel, but on doing so I found to my
inexpressible joy a note enclosed, desiring my autograph on them. Having
complied with this wish, I again transmitted the books to Her Majesty,
and in the course of a day or two, received in return this elegant
portrait engraving, with Her Majesty's autograph, as you see, below."
The Queen was the friend of Charles Kingsley, and of Charles Dickens, in
his later days. In presenting the latter with her. book, "_Leaves from
a Journal of Our Life in the Highlands_" she spoke of herself as "the
humblest of writers," and as almost ashamed to offer it, even with her
priceless autograph, to "one of the greatest." Mr. Tennyson she delights
to honor with her friendship. I have read a little story of her calling
on him at his place, on the Isle of Wight. It seems he had not received
due notice, or that, absorbed in writing, he had forgotten the hour. At
all events, he was taken by surprise, and was obliged to run out to
receive Her Majesty in his dressing-gown and slippers, and with his hair
disheveled, as it had become in the fine frenzy of composition. Just
think of Mr. Tennyson with his hair more than usually disheveled! Of
course it was all right, as far as the Queen was concerned,--but then the
footmen!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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