LETTERS on ENGLISH SOCIETY. The Coming Queen. (By the daughter of a Duke)

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 168, 4 September 1886, Page 5

LETTERS on ENGLISH SOCIETY. The Coming Queen. (By the daughter of a Duke)

London; Jun« 25.^1? begin my letter this week witb" a>. quotation from that curious little', bookj'fttouV, "Society in London," which a gentleman, who chose to call him: self a "Foreign Resident, 1 ? published last year, 4 "I regard it as unnecessary," he" siiys, «to put into language the banalites, (commonplaces) which readily come to my pen when I contemplate the elegant, deHghtful; and lovely ,vieion of the Princess of Wales. function is to, be and, to look charming • to preserve, as she does, the appearance' of youth without invoking; the aid of -art; and to retain, as ■ she will retain to the last, the place she won in the English heart, when- she first came ,to this country more than two decades ago. As the 1 Princess of Wales has her: secretary and librarian; she may be credited with

' , Literary Tastes and intellectual ppwers. That she is clever beyond the feminine average, and that she possesses an abundant measure of that common sense which is perhaps uncommon^ are proved by the success, with which she has played <a domestic , part, which eh'e mutt have, occasionally found' difficult and trying. She has avoided blunders, and has fallen into none of the snares which Court intrigue might have; woven for her. She Has never created, or, connived at the creation of, any Court faction of her own. With a loyalty and a nobility equal .to, her judgment, she has from the first identified herself with the I Prince of Wales, and has insisted resolutely on seeing everything from the right point of view. It is not enough to say that in doing this she has shown considerable

Social Dexterity. She has really discharged a constitutional service, und by checking tbe initial growth of a scandal, ehe has strengthened the foundations of' the Throne. You will be surprised to hear that her Royal Highness is much occupied with trivialities, and that her thoughts are centred 1 in her waidrobe. Very well. But pray remember that she is a princess, and that in England tbe sphere of tho activity of princes and princesses ia rigidly circumscribed. Like the Queen, the frincess has her little host oi attendant ladies. She displays toward them as much confederation as 'is practicable, and, though their existence may nob be uniformly easy, it is not wholly unendurab'e." And this is all which the most voluble of London pressmen can find to say of tbe most popular woman in England. Whether he keeps his promise to avoid banalites I will not undertake to' say. But, let ue not be too hard on him. With the Princess, as with the secret of the Freemasons, little is told because there is little to tell. The lite of the Princess may be said to be spent in observing and being 1 observed. Like the model child, in days when 1 model children were,' she is seen and not heard. In her way she is

A Sphynx. A sphynx when ehe ia driving in the Park, a sphynx when she is riding in the Row (she rides, by the way, on the off side of her horee, and has done ao ever Bince the illneaa which caused her temporary lameness some years ago); a sphynx at the State balls and concerts— eometim'esa rather seared sphynx, but always a beautiful one. 1 That scared expression — vvhich come people say is a chronic' fear of her* august 1 mother-in-law— l noticed particularly at a State concert, where her Royal Highness had to receive a great many people, and in the middle of her conversation with come o! them, suddenly pulled herself up and gave a frightened look at the Lord Chamberlain, lest she should be delayed too long the presentation of the next comer. Her very quiet bringing up was perhaps a bad preparation for life at a busy court ; but she had been ia training long enough to be familiar with all its ins'and outs, and I shall not be wrong; in attributing some of her appearance of shyness to the incon venience arising from her only natural defect— Her Deafness. When the Prince is with her, he constantly repeats the sentences of persons who, from ignorance of tier disability, havo not pitched their voices high enough to catch her ear. With her usual tact, the Princess eschews the terrible "what" whiclri3 familiar on the tongues of so many people who have not any better excuse for it than that-they are inattentive listeners. Sometimes when the Prince comes into the room whore she is sitting* with her ladies, and makes somo passing remark, to which obviously no answer is expected, the Prin-' cess smiles the duly necessary reply, and waits till he has gone before ehe asks her companions what he has said. It was on the 4th day of October, 1562, that the "Gazette" announced the intended marriage of the Prince, then 21, with the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, then 19 In thg following March the Princess entered as a stranger the London of which she was to' become the moat familiar feminine figure. Her future husband met her in Gravesend. On the outskirts of London the rail was abandoned for ithe road, and through the old Kent and Dover roads, along the Borough High-street, over London Bridge, past St. Paul's, along Fleet-street, and through Piccadily to the Paddington Station the Princess went in triumph, bowing her head nearly as often as the carriage wheels turned. After two days' rest at Windsor, the Princess was married *at St. George's Chapel. The Queen looked on through a .hole in the wall, when her face was not buried in herhandkerchief, bathed in tears. In the intervals of weeping she bestowed nods of eucouragemen.t on

The Young Bride, who was faltering out the responses. Returning to the castle, the bride, and Her mother-in-law kiseed and crted together ; and then the happy pair proceeded to Oeborne for the Honeymoon. Three months later the Princess ate her , first turtle in the city -a banquet at which the cooks of the Corporation excelled themselves. Fully alive to her responsibilities, the Princess lost no time in presenting her husband with a son, and England with a. prospective king. Ten months after the ! marriage, Prince Albert, Victor was born. The happy event took place at 9 o'clock in the evening of January 8, 1864 ; the Princess having distinguished herself that very afternoon by her agility and boldness at a skating, r parting.,, on " Virginia Water. Prince George followed in eighteen months, and in another eighteen montns' came the Princess Louise ; the .diligent mother having been - for some time a great sufferer from acute. ( rheumatisra, - especially in the, knee,, joints. Indeed; her condition, was, ,so y jserlo^ts- "that- her, mother came over ,'from' Denmark, •'" fearing the worst possibilities^ .Happily, her -recovery was tolerably, quite complete; and, in eeventesn mbatjhs iribre.ttie Piincesa Victoria Alexandra "piga^Mary- appeared. She was followed in sixteen mpriUis''by t tha Princess Mw.d.^Lag«Bi«;. I b,Qf,iuon,' November 20, ,ISG9. , Anoth:erTreventeen rmpothBr mpoth8 and a boy wns%born^Fritfce^lexauder: John Charles 'Albert^wlthTiiamei ldngerM than his lifcfele>;iife, ' for-'het f die^ 'the^ddy after -hra ; birtti^'^ '•**'- i { '*'pL>& ,•»)' a syj-Kcf ; • „5t , , ,

Ifcwas not, perhaps, until the September'of 1864 that the-Prince/ 1 who then yisitcd Denmark with his wife, understood howRreatf'i change had beenneffected bymaxw riage < in; all,'the circumstances of her .life* When he, saw the little bedroom which 'Aha and her aister'had shared together, and all other arrangements on - tK© . same - limited acdle of < domesticity, he could no doubt account\for, any timidity- she, might hay« shown at the openingof her wedded life' aft the, great festivities and functions of the English Court. Poesibly the contentment with .which her Royal Highness now resign* herself into the hands of milliners and tire* women is by, way of reaction', from the necessities of her, maidenhood, when she had to , „ *iw I i

, „ Make Her Own Bonnets and button her own toots. The sympathy which existed between tho Princess and her sister-in-law, the Princess Alice, had perhaps: its foundation in tho, similar . experience, of > straitened meaner which had beem that of the Danish princess before her marriage, and became that of the; English . princess after hers. The two women became great friends. Writing to the Queen- from Pandringham, the Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt said, speaking of her brother and his, wife, "I pray earnestly for him that God's blessing may rest on . him, and that he may be , guided ,to do what is wiaa and right. They are both charming hosts." From,her own court she had written to the>Queen, when she heard of the birth of tho eldest son.of the Princess of Wales :—**]£. was quite taken aback when I received. Bertie's telegram in which he announced to us the birth of his little eon. May my dear Papa's blessing rest on the little one ; may he turn out just as dear Papa, and be a comfort and pride to you and his young parent 9 Your firet En tjlish grandchild! , Dear Mamma, my heart is so full. I hope Alix* and baby are well." In another letter to the Queen she cays :—••flow glad I am ta hear you praise Alix. She ia co good, and full of tact, and true. lam so fond of her.'* But, great friends as they were, the Princess of Wales never chose Princess Alice as her confidant. When she has had real troubles to tell, and has felt that tell them eho must, it is into the ears of the Crown. Princess of Prussia that, they have been, poured. Adversity.had its uses, and it is . quite possible fthat the Princses of Walesmight be regarded rather as a beautiful doll than as a devoted woman, had it netr been for the almpst fatal

Illness of the Prince. in winter of '71-72. In November he waa one of a party at Lord Londesborough'a place in Yorkshire, where the drainage was supposed to be defective. The party dispersed, little knowing what seeds of disease they carried away with them. In a few days the Priqce sickened Mith typhoid fever; and an alarm, was serionaly raised when the newß became known that another member of the party, Lord Chesterfield, who sickened on the same day as thePrince, was suddenly dead. The Prince lingered on at Sandringhatn for weeks—it seemed that h,e must dio. The public anxiety —greater than any known in England since the days of the Indian mutiny—is remembered by many of my readers. But I may hero re-call a letter written by the Princess one Sunday in. December to her favourite High Church vicar at Sandringhara. "My husband," she wrote, "being, thank God, somewhat better* I am coming to church. I must leave, x fear, before the service is concluded, that I ' may watch by hiabedsido. Can you not aay a few words in the early part of the service, that I may join with you in prayer for my husband before I return to him ? ' When she is at his bed of sickness she is ever tbe~Bam6 his best friend, full of dignity and tact One story will illustrate what I mean. At a certain ball tha Prince had danced with one partner steadily through the evening " Oh," said Mrs Mischief maker to the PrinceFs, "it must bo confessed, that Lady is paying great •attention to the Prince to-night." The PrincecS smiled her reply, " Bertie ia so charming. How could they help being fond of him V ' ' Beltemerosa.