Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, vol 1 | Page 8

comfortable for the
moderate height of the ceilings. In a room with three windows on one
side, looking out on the private grounds, the Queen was born. It was
thinking of it and its occupants that the warm-hearted, quick-witted
Duchess-mother, in Coburg, wrote: "I cannot express how happy I am
to know you, dearest, dearest Vickel, safe in your bed, with a little
one.... Again a Charlotte--destined, perhaps, to play a great part one day,
if a brother is not born to take it out of her hands. The English like
queens; and the niece (by marriage) of the ever-lamented, beloved
Charlotte, will be most dear to them."
In another wide, low room, with white pillars, some eighteen years later,
the baby Princess, become a maiden Queen, held her first Council,
surrounded by kindred who had stood at her font--hoary heads wise in
statecraft, great prelates, great lawyers, a great soldier, and she an
innocent girl at their head. No relic could leave such an impression as
this room, with its wonderfully pathetic scene. But, indeed, there are
few other traces of the life that budded into dawning womanhood here,
which will be always linked with the memories of Kensington Palace.
An upper room, sunny and cheerful, even on a winter's day, having a
pleasant view out on the open gardens, with their straight walks and
great pond, where a child might forget sometimes that she had lessons
to learn, was a princess's school-room. Here the good Baroness who
played the part of governess so sagaciously and faithfully may have
slipped into the book of history the genealogical table which was to tell
so startling a tale. In another room is a quaint little doll's-house, with
the different rooms, which an active-minded child loved to arrange.
The small frying-pans and plates still hang above the kitchen dresser;
the cook stands unwearied by the range; the chairs are placed round the
tables; the tiny tea-service, which tiny fingers delighted to handle, is set
out ready for company. But the owner has long done with
make-believes, has worked in earnest, discharged great tasks, and borne
the burden and heat of the day, in reigning over a great empire.

CHAPTER II
CHILDHOOD.
In the months of March and May, 1819, the following announcements
of royal births appeared in succession in the newspapers of the day, no
doubt to the satisfaction alike of anxious statesmen and village
politicians beginning to grow anxious over the chances of the
succession:--
"At Hanover, March 26, her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge,
of a son; and on March 27, her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Clarence, of a daughter, the latter only surviving a few hours."
"24th May, at Kensington Palace, her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Kent, of a daughter."
"27th May, at her hotel in Berlin, her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Cumberland, of a son."
Thus her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria first saw the light in
Kensington Palace on the 24th of May, 1819, one in a group of cousins,
all, save herself, born out of England.
The Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Wellington, and other officers of
State were in attendance on the occasion, though the probability of her
succession to the throne was then very doubtful. The Prince Regent had
already made overtures towards procuring a divorce from the Princess
of Wales. If he were to revive them, and prove successful, he might
marry again and have heirs. The Duchess of Clarence, who had just
given birth to an infant that had only survived a few hours, might yet be
the joyful mother of living children. The little Princess herself might be
the predecessor of a troop of princes of the Kent branch. Still, both at
Kensington and in the depths of rural Coburg, there was a little flutter,
not only of gladness, but of subdued expectation. The Duke of Kent, on
showing his baby to his friends, was wont to say, "Look at her well, for
she will be Queen of England." Her christening was therefore an event
of more than ordinary importance in the household. The ceremony took
place a month afterwards, on the 24th of June, and doubtless the good
German nurse, Madame Siebold, who was about to return to the
Duchess of Kent's old home to officiate on an equally interesting
occasion in the family of the Duchess's brother, the reigning Duke of

Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, carried with her flaming accounts of the
splendour of the ceremonial, as well as pretty tales of the "dear little
love" destined to mate with the coming baby, whose big blue eyes were
soon looking about in the lovely little hunting-seat of Rosenau. The
gold font was brought down from the Tower, where for some time it
had been out of request. The Archbishop of