The Princess of Wales.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 62

The Princess of Wales.

Victoria Mary, Princess of Teck, had a very happy childhood of her own. Few children, royal or simple, could have led: a healthier, happier life than did she and her three brothers under the care of their devoted mother, Princess Mary of Cambridge. The country loved to call the Duchess of Teck by her old name to the last. Kensington Palace was the first home of "her own" that Princess Mary possessed, but when there were two "chicks" in the nursery Queen. Victoria lent White Lodge, in Richmond Park, as a country, house, and in that charming abode Princess Mary devoted herself to her husband an<j. children an<J,to the household pursuits and! the gardening, which were ' the chief pleasures of her sweet unselfish nature. Her children: were the pictures oi- health and beauty in those days — Princess May and her three sturdy brothers. There are very delightful portraits existing of those children, and looking at them one can well understand their mother's pride and pleasure in the bonny quartet. The Duke and Duchess of. Teck were exemplary parents. No social claims were ever > allowed to come between them and 1 what they considered to be their parental duty. From- their babyhood the little ones were taught to-be considerate of others, to be polite and courteous to everyone. "They were not permitted to injure the shrubs .or wastefolly gather the flowers. Tliey r had to bo careful . of their toys, and were > never suffered to go on being pettish ordisagreeable. Their mother trained' them to sing; charmingly. It was one of the prettiest sights in London to watch the four standing by the couch of their grandmother, the Duchess of Cambridge, singing choruses and part-eongs, while Princess Mary played the pianoforte accompaniment, anxiously, eager that the music should please the aged lady.

There is an old castle near Frankfort, the Castle of Rumpenheim, which belonged to the old Landgrave of Hesse, "Frederick the Handsome," the father of the Duchess of Cambridge. This Prince was most anxious that family connections and interests should be preserved, and he thought, not unwisely, that this end would he best attained by establishing a common meeting place. Accordingly, he bequeathed Rumpenheim jointly to his six children,- expressing a wish that they and theirs should meet there every second year. As time went on these family gatherings became larger and more representative, until Rumpenheim was the pivot round which turned the interests of mosfc of the great courts . of Europe. Queen' Louise of Denmark was a Hessian Princess,, and her daughter, our. Queen "Alexandra, .was, pf course, often one of" the iamjly' group assembled at- ißumpenheim. In 1871 .she and her children and- Princess Mary and hers were together- at the old palace:- A letter written by one of the ladies-in-waiting thus describes the' party : — "I am* delighted with; the Prince of Wales's family.;. ths eldest boy is most like his mother, but "lias -not that melancholy look bis photographs give him ; and Prince 'George is brimming over with fun. The three girls are gentle 4 fair-haired 'children, very like their father ;' they are always most simply dressed. Princess Mary's bairns are delightful. Little May, very tall for her age, and immensely highspirited, but bidable and obedient. The boys, as handsome as ever ; the baby, with splendid dark-brown eyes, merry as a cricket, and all over dimples. It is amusing to see the whole troupe playing in the courtyard here. They seem very fond of their nurses, who sit down, to tea with them and treat them without ceremony. They are easily amused; and nevt»r did I see & more battered set of toys! Prince George is very happy at this moment over a boafc which a footman has made for him out of a knot of alder wood." ■ That letter was written just 30 years ago, and Prince George and Princess May are husband and wife rfow, with a band of .babies of their own. They do not forget those Rumpenheim days, and the happy , wholesome methods followed then are repeated to-day in the corridors at York House and the gardens of* York Cottage , Sandringham. - Nor are Scottish experiences absent from the memory of 7 the Prince and Princess of Wales— experiences by which little Prince Edward, his sister, and brothers have profited this very year. ' The late Lady Hope-, toun was- one of Princess ' May's most intimate friends. She was a widow with four children, much about the age' of the young Tccks, and a visit to Hopetoun more than once made the crowning pleasure of "holiday time." The present Earl, then a mere lad, was the eldest of the troop, and the Princess of Wales well remembers how she enjoyed the evening fishings in the Forth, and the morning scrambles over wood and wild, the daily delights of the place which she and her mother used to call "beloved, beautiful Hopetoun." One escapade she and Lord Hopetoun laughed over only the other day ; it was when he and his sisters. Lady Estella and Lady Dorothea, beguiled "the Tecks" to the ashes of a dying bonfir* on. the hill above the house, where they roasted potatoes and feasted thereon after midnight — a piece of daring dissipation indeed! .Life has difficulties and problems for ail, even for — perhaps even specially for — royalties, and the tPrincess" of Wales is resolved that her children shall be equipped with that best bit of life's armour,-plating — recollections of ?, free and joyous childhood. Both she and-the Prince enjoyed that huge advantage, and they. are resolved to secure that same thing for their children.

— Horses, giraffes, and ostriches*have thelargest eyes of land creatures, and cuttlefish of the inhabitants of the sea.

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