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George St. Altrincham

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George St. Altrincham 1837. I897. " May children of our children say, was born the Duke, Dr. Rudge ' She wrought her people lasting good tells us, was in raptures, for ' Her court was pure ; her life serene ; though there were several who God gave her peace; her land reposed ; stood between him and the A thousand claims to reverence throne, he was tolerably sure closed that the child would become In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen,' " Queen of England. He often wrote Tennyson in 1851, of the said to those about him, " Take monarch who had then been care of her, for she will be Queen of England for fourteen England's Queen." On one years, and who was destined to occasion the fond father said to a bishop who was handling the rule the nation for a period unprecedented in history, either Royal baby rather awkwardly, " Don't drop her; you might in point of length or of progress in almost every direction. spoil a queen." The Duke died in 1820, before the Princess Although, as a ruler or as a woman, Her Majesty cannot be was a year old, through a chill brought on by hastening to the said to have experienced perfect peace, and although her land nursery before taking off his damp clothing, and George IV. and cannot be said to have enjoyed uninterrupted repose, the his brothers having no issue, Princess Victoria became heir- prophecy of the Poet has been fulfilled in the course of time presumptive and, as we now know, the sixth English sovereign in a marked degree. of the House of Hanover. " Wept to wear The Queen's Father a Crown." and Mother. The month after Prin• The Queen was born at cess Victoria became 18 Kensington Palace on the years of age—on the 20th 24th May, 1819, and is June, 1837—William IV- therefore just 78 years of died at Windsor Castle, age. Her father was and the news was con• Prince Edward, Duke of veyed to her by the Arch• Kent, the fourth son of bishop of Canterbury, who George III., and her had administered the last mother Princess Victoria, rites of the Church to the daughter of the Duke dying king, and the Lord Franz of Saxe-Coburg, and Chamberlain. Her first widow of Emich Karl, acts on learning that she Prince of Leiningen. The was Queen of England Duke of Kent was 51 years form the keynote to her of age when he was mar• character during the long ried, but he was a tall, period it has been our stately man of soldierly good fortune to own her bearing, and, in spite of as Sovereign. She forth• baldness, might still have with knelt with the Arch• been called a handsome bishop and implored his man. The Duchess, who prayers in her behalf. was nineteen years his Then her warm heart junior, was of middle prompted her to write an height, of good figure, she affectionate letter of con• had fine brown eyes and dolence to her aunt, whom hair, and was altogether she addressed as " Her most charming and attrac• Majesty the Queen," for, tive. When-the Princess From a photograph} [By Mary Steen. as she explained to her THE QUEEN AT HOME. mother, she did not wish to be " the first to remind Aunt Adelaide With the accession of of the change in her style." One writer says that upon this address Queen Victoria ended being noticed the remark, " Your Majesty, you are Queen of the union of England England," was made, and the Queen replied, " But the widowed and Hanover under the Queen is not to be reminded of the fact first by me." The same sovereign, Han• Queen visited " Aunt Adelaide" at Windsor, and directed over passing to the next that the flag, flying half-mast in honour of the late King, male heir, Ernest, Duke should not be drawn up on her arrival. When she met of Cumberland. The her Lords in Council, Her Majesty declared that this awful Queen was proclaimed responsibility was imposed upon her so suddenly and at so as Alexandrina Victoria, early an age, that " I should feel myself utterly oppressed but in the official papers by the burden were I not sustained by the hope that Divine that she had'to sign she Providence, which has called me to this work, will give me styled herself simply strength for the performance of it." On June 21st, the Victoria. Proclamation was made and, in the midst of all the pomp surrounding the proceedings, the " awful responsibility " that The Coronation. had been cast upon her, and the sorrow that had been occasioned others by the hand of death that had brought her into her The Coronation took position were still dividing her thoughts. These thoughts place on the 28th June, moved her to tears—the first of the many she has wept during 1838, in Westminster the many periods of sorrow she and her people have since Abbey, and the event experienced. created such great in• STATUE OF THE QUEEN IN HER terest and had been CORONATION ROBES. looked forward to with such keen anticipation that when the great day did arrive it was said that the people had become " coronation mad." There was great demand for all kinds of accommodation in London, and it is interesting—in view of what is taking place in the metropolis at the present time—to know that in those days even the highest noblemen were tempted to let their houses, one receiving so much as £1,600 for his for three days. QUEEN VICTORIA IN HER SEVENTH YEAR. A Queen " who wept to wear a Crown " inspired Mrs. Browning to write a poem on " Victoria's Tears," which time has proved to be literally true, and the concluding verse of which will find an echo in every English heart to-dav : — God bless thee, weeping Queen, With blessing more divine! And fill with happier love than earth's, That tender heart of thine ! That when the thrones of earth shall be As low as graves brought down ; A pierced hand may give to thee The crown which angels shout to see ! Thou wilt not weep, To wear that heavenly crown THE QUEEN AT HER CORONATION. repose ; two or three long but gentle breaths were drawn ; and that great soul had fled to seek a nobler scope for its aspirations in the world within the veil, for which it had often yearned. His remains rest in the Royal Mausoleum, at Frogmore. It is a lovely spot, and it is the intention of the Queen that her body is to rest beside that of her husband. The same year witnessed the death of the Queen's mother. All " seemed dead" to Her Majesty, but she said " I will not shrink from duty." How nobly she has carried out her promise is well known. The result of the happy union has been that the succession to the Crown has been assured, and the misgivings on this point that have previously given cause for alarm have been laid at rest. The Queen's Family. During her twenty-two years of married life the Queen had nine children. Up to the present there have been 79 children, grand-children, and great grand-children, of whom only nine are dead. The heir-apparent is the Prince of Wales, whose son, the Duke of York, has three children. The oldest of these, Prince Edward of York, is just three years of age. The size of the Queen's family is equalled by the important part its mem• THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT. bers are playing in the different Courts of the world. The Queen's eldest daughter is the Dowager German Empress, The Queen as a Wife. and her grandson is the Emperor of Germany. Her second The Queen married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in son, the Duke of Edinburgh, is the reigning Duke of Saxe- February, 1840, in St. James' Palace Chapel. When asked by Coburg-Gotha. A grand-daughter is the Czarina of Russia. the Archbishop of Canterbury whether the word "obey" was Counting Her Majesty's cousins and their descendants, it is to be omitted from the marriage service in this particular computed that the Royal family numbers not less than 230. instance, Her Majesty's reply was " My lord, omit nothing; I wish to be married as a woman, not as a queen." The Prince had many prejudices to fight down in the country before he became so popular, and established privileges in the household made him feel that he was only a husband and not a master. The Queen did all she could to make his position less difficult. When she was told that she ought to be head of her household, as well as of the State, her husband being but one of her subjects, her reply was that she had solemnly engaged to love, honour, and obey her husband, and this sacred obligation she could consent " neither to limit nor refine away." She writes of the Prince as "my inestimable husband and friend— my all-in-all." The Prince, on his part, was also very affectionate towards the Queen ; and both were tenderly solicitous for the proper education and general well- being of their children. A loving and exemplary married life was terminated in 1861 by the Prince's death. Amid the gloom of the death-chamber of the Prince Consort there are beautiful gleams of light both from earthly affection and heavenly love—the fond recognition of the Queen, even to the last moments, as his Gutes Frauchen and Liebes Frauchen—(his good and dear little wife)—and his repeating frequently lines of the hymn of Toplady—" Rock of Ages." The end came just after the castle-clock chimed the third quarter after ten ; calm and peaceful grew the beloved form ; the features settled into the beauty of a perfectly serene STATUE OF THE PRINCE CONSORT AT BALMORAL.
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