The Life of King Edward VII: with a sketch of the career of King George VHopkins, J. Castell (John Castell)
History
The Life of King Edward VII: with a sketch of the career of King George V
Hopkins, J. Castell (John Castell)
Edward VII, King of Great Britain, 1841-1910
The first public appearance of the Prince was on February 4, 1842, when
the Queen was inspecting some troops near Windsor and the babe was held
up by his nurse from a window of the Castle so that the crowd could see
him. He has been described in many prints and stories as being a very
lively infant and child. Lady Lyttelton[1], a sister to Mrs. Gladstone,
was in charge of the Royal nursery as a sort of trusted Governess during
the first six years of his life and everything was conducted with
regularity and care. The Queen personally supervised the arrangements,
whether for instruction, pleasure or exercise, though she often had to
express in diary or letter her regret at not being able to be as much
with her children as she desired. Simplicity was, perhaps, the guiding
principle of this early training, though it was combined with a certain
amount of familiarity in matters of ceremony and formality. In
September, 1843, when the Queen and Prince Consort were in France the
Royal children were at Brighton in charge of Lady Lyttelton and the
people used to take great delight in waiting for the daily outing of the
little Prince and his sister and the presentation of a loyal salute by
the raising of hats and the waving of handkerchiefs. The child had been
taught to raise his chubby fist to his forehead in reply and a
journalist of the time veraciously declares that he did it with "evident
enjoyment and infantile dignity." A little later, on December 20th, a
party of nine Ojibbeway Indians were presented to the Queen at Windsor
Castle and the Chief gravely referred to the toddling Royal infant in
his speech as "the very big little White Father whose eyes are like the
sky that sees all things and who is fat with goodness like a winter
bear."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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