The Queen’s next excitement was the opening of Parliament, which she did with all the grace that had attached to her from the first, making people like Fanny Kemble go into ecstasies over her face, “not handsome, but very pretty,” her clear soft eyes, her dignity, her beautifully moulded hands and arms, her exquisite voice, &c. Well, young queens are not very plentiful, so it is good to make much of them when they are found; only to-day we should feel ashamed to be so delighted with ordinary composure and good-breeding; we should be much more likely to condemn unsparingly the lack of them. But then the standard of womanly excellence of those days and of these have little relationship to each other.
There were theatres to visit, with their Royal boxes fitted up and decorated for the young Sovereign, and at that time the King’s Theatre became Her Majesty’s by her command. This eventful year drew to its close with the Christmas festivities spent at Windsor.
CHAPTER VIII
QUEEN VICTORIA’S PRIME MINISTER
“Good Monarchs we’ve had whom we think on with pride,
Who wisely e’er filled their high station,
But now we’ve a woman, Heaven bless her! beside
She’s a child of our noble nation.
Victoria the First is of virtue the gem,
May sorrow ne’er seek to oppress her,
Then, fill up your goblets once more to the brim,