Court life was not so dull during 1881 as it had been in previous years. The Queen was ever flitting to and fro between Windsor and Osborne, and almost every month during the season she held a Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace. State Concerts were not infrequent, and on the 17th of May the King and Queen of Sweden visited Windsor, and the King was invested with the Order of the Garter. On the 20th the Queen left Windsor and proceeded to Balmoral; and on the 24th it was announced that she had determined to revive the ancient Scottish title of Duke of Albany and confer it on Prince Leopold. It was a title of evil omen. The fate of the first prince who bore it supplies a dark and tragic episode to Scott’s “Fair Maid of Perth.” The second Duke of Albany died on the castle hill of Stirling. When conferred on the second son of James II. of Scotland it soon became extinct. Darnley wore it before he was married to Mary Stuart. The second son of James VI. and the second son of Charles I. bore it. Charles Edward Stuart was long known as Count of Albany. It was conferred on Prince Frederick, the second son of George II. Prince Leopold had, by his thoughtful and sagacious speeches in public, attracted to himself much admiration, and his feeble health and devotion to his mother had made him the object of kindly popular sympathy. The announcement of his elevation was therefore hailed with some expression of regret that he should be doomed to wear a title that had invariably brought ill-luck or misfortune to those on whom it was conferred.