Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, vol 1

Life of Her Most Gracious
Majesty Queen Victoria, vol 1

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Title: Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen V.1.
Author: Sarah Tytler
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LIFE OF HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN
BY SARAH TYTLER EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY
LORD RONALD GOWER, F.S.A.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year Eighteen
Hundred and Eighty-five, by GEORGE VIRTUE, in the office of the
Minister of Agriculture.

PREFACE.
I have been asked to write a few words of preface to this work.
If the life-long friendship of my mother with her Majesty, which gained
for me the honour of often seeing the Queen, or a deep feeling of
loyalty and affection for our sovereign, which is shared by all her
subjects, be accepted as a qualification, I gratefully respond to the call,
but I feel that no written words of mine can add value to the following
pages.
Looking over some papers lately, I found the following note on a
sketch which I had accidentally met with in Windsor Castle--a coloured
chalk drawing, a mere study of one of the Queen's hands, by Sir David
Wilkie, probably made for his picture now in the corridor of the Castle,
representing the first council of Victoria. Of this sketch I wrote as
follows:--

"I was looking in one of the private rooms at Windsor Castle at a chalk
sketch, by Sir David Wilkie, of a fair, soft, long-fingered, dimpled hand,
with a graceful wrist attached to a rounded arm. 'Only a woman's hand,'
might Swift, had he seen that sketch, have written below. Only a sketch
of a woman's hand; but what memories that sketch recalls! How many
years ago Wilkie drew it I know not: that great artist died in the month
of June, 1841, so that more than forty years have passed, at least, since
he made that drawing. The hand that limned this work has long ago
suffered 'a sea change.' And the hand which he portrayed? That is still
among the living--still occupied with dispensing aid and comfort to the
suffering and the afflicted, for the original is that of a Queen, beloved
as widely as her realms extend--the best of sovereigns, the
kindest-hearted of women."
To write the life of Queen Victoria is a task which many authors might
well have felt incompetent to undertake. To succeed in writing it is an
honour of which any author may well be proud. This honour I humbly
think has been realised in the work of which these poor lines may form
the preface.
RONALD GOWER.

CONTENTS
VOL. I.
CHAP. I. Sixty-Three Years Since. II. Childhood. III. Youth. IV. The
Accession. V. The Proroguing Of Parliament, The Visit To Guildhall;
And The Coronation. VI. The Maiden Queen. VII. The Betrothal. VIII.
The Marriage. IX. A Royal Pair. X. Royal Occupations.--An Attempt
On The Queen's Life. XI. The First Christening.--The Season Of 1841.
XII. Birth Of The Prince Of Wales.--The Afghan Disasters.--Visit Of
The King Of Prussia.--The Queen's Plantagenet Ball. XIII. Fresh
Attempts Against The Queen's Life.--Mendelssohn.--Death Of The Duc
D'Orleans. XIV. The Queen's First Visit To Scotland. XV. A Marriage,
A Death, And A Birth In The Royal Family.--A Palace Home. XVI.
The Condemnation Of The English Duel.--Another Marriage.--The
Queen's Visit To Chateau D'Eu. XVII. The Queen's Trip To
Ostend.--Visits To Drayton, Chatsworth, And Belvoir. XVIII. Allies
From Afar.--Death And Absence.--Birthday Greetings. XIX. Royal
Visitors.--The Birth Of Prince Alfred.--A Northern