A week later the Royal couple attended the Commemoration at Oxford and the Prince of Wales was presented with the degree of D.C.L. in the presence of a brilliant assemblage of Professors and visitors, and an enthusiastic throng of students. The latter gave the Princess a reception which made her flush with mingled nervousness and pleasure though it could not affect her natural dignity of bearing. She had not yet become accustomed to the overwhelming character which British enthusiasm sometimes assumes and, indeed, is said to have never absolutely overcome a personal shrinking from the publicity which was inseparable from her position and popularity. However that may be, the feeling was never shown to the people and, if a fact, can only be considered as enhancing the graciousness of manner which has been so marked a characteristic of her life in England. During this brief visit to Oxford Their Royal Highnesses distributed prizes to the Rifle Volunteers, opened a bazaar in aid of the Radcliffe Infirmary, inspected the exhibits at the Horticultural Show, and went over the Prince's one-time college residence at Frewen Hall.
A hasty visit to the North of England in August was made to include the opening ceremony for a new Town Hall at Halifax and here the Royal couple received a most hearty welcome. Another function was the opening of the British Orphan Asylum on June 24th by the Prince, who became its Patron and promoted large subscriptions to its work—one of which from Mr. Edward Mackensie totalled $60,000. Though this was a very quiet year in comparison with those of the future, His Royal Highness extended his patronage, usually accompanied by liberal subscriptions, to eight public charities, eight hospitals and asylums, five agricultural societies and eleven learned and scientific societies—including the Society of Arts of which he became President. His first work in this latter connection was to promote and obtain a fund for sending a number of British workmen to the Paris Exhibition with a view to improving their mechanical and technical knowledge. He also associated himself with the Mendicity Society by means of which all the innumerable appeals for aid which came to him from time to time were investigated, sifted, and reported upon before action was taken. On May 18, 1864 the Prince presided for the first time at the Royal Literary Fund banquet and thus commenced a long period of active patronage toward an institution which has served a most useful purpose in England—the quick and secret dispensing of aid to literary men who from some cause or other might be destitute, or in need. Its objects were not local but international and in his speech on this occasion His Royal Highness pointed how well and quietly the work had been done.
THE PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY
Early in the year the first-born child of the Royal couple arrived on the scene. The event had been expected for March 1864 but the infant was born at Frogmore on January 9th and was christened on March 10th as Albert Victor Christian Edward. From infancy the Prince was somewhat delicate and, no doubt for that reason, was always supposed to be his mother's favourite child. The Princess of Wales was, at this time, not yet twenty but was devoted to her domestic duties and especially to the new arrival in their home. She would rather visit the nursery at any time than attend a State function or ball. Other children came in the following years. Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert, afterwards Prince of Wales, was born on June 3, 1865; Princess Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, afterwards Duchess of Fife, on February 20, 1867; Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary on July 6, 1868; and Princess Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria, sometime to be Princess Charles of Denmark, on November 26, 1869. In 1871 Prince Alexander John Charles Albert was born, but only lived for one brief day.
As these children came one by one they found a most happy home circle and a devoted mother. In all their little amusements and games the Princess took part; in their training and education she took a watchful share; in their lives as a whole simplicity was made the guiding principle, as it had been in the Royal family of the past generation. From all accounts which are open to us she delighted much more in the nursery than in society. Dr. William Jenner saw the Royal children whenever necessary but the "coddling" so often seen in modern homes was unknown at Sandringham. The Prince believed as much in simplicity of bringing up as did his wife and, by special order, the Household and servants never used the prefix of "Royal Highness" to the children but addressed them as Prince Eddy, or Princess Louise, or whatever the name might be. The little girls, as their father always called them, had their tea with the nurses and were given few toys and never allowed to accept presents. No fuss was made over the little accidents inevitable to childhood and in every way life was kept devoid of state formality, or anything that would breed a sense of childish self-importance. When the Prince and Princess were away from home, as they frequently had to be, letters were daily exchanged with the head nurse. The result of this general system and of the later plan of making the young Princesses more and more companions of their mother and the boys, as far as circumstances would permit, of their father, created and maintained at Sandringham one of the most pleasant home circles in all England. An illustration of the spirit in which domestic anniversaries and incidents were approached may be found in lines composed by the Princess, on one occasion, for Prince George when the family were commencing to celebrate the birthday of the husband and father. The thought was admirable even if the poetry was not quite perfect:
"Day of pleasure, brightly dawning,
Take the gift of this sweet morning,
Our best hopes and wishes blending
Must yield joy that's never ending."
During these years the Prince of Wales was gradually assuming many of the duties and public tasks which would have devolved upon the Queen, or in earlier days have been performed with such fidelity and care by the Prince Consort. At this time the Queen was living in strict retirement and for a long period still to follow she maintained the same sorrowing seclusion in a more or less modified form. Toward the close of 1865 the death of Lord Palmerston removed a statesman in whom the Prince had found a personal friend and whom he had consulted and greatly trusted in private matters. In February, 1866, the Queen made one of her rare public appearances and opened Parliament, in person, accompanied by the Prince and Princess of Wales. A little later came the cholera epidemic which killed one hundred thousand people in Austria and caused a number of deaths in England. To the Mansion House Relief Fund, which ultimately reached the total of $350,000 and to another Fund, the Prince contributed $17,500. In August the Royal couple visited Studley Royal, the seat of the Earl de Grey and Ripon—better known afterwards as the Marquess of Ripon—and were given a great reception in the City of York. An incident of the latter occasion was a sudden downpour of rain during which the Prince stood up in his carriage, bareheaded, so that the people should not be disappointed.
VARIOUS PUBLIC FUNCTIONS AND EVENTS
A little before this, on May 9th, the President and Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers entertained the Heir Apparent at a banquet in London and amongst the other guests were the veteran Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, the Dukes of Sutherland and Buccleuch, Earl Grey, Lord Salisbury, Sir John Pakington, Sir Edwin Landseer, Sir Richard Owen and many other eminent scientists and leaders of the time. During his speech the Prince paid a tribute to the work of Brunel and Stephenson and, in the latter connection, referred to the great bridge across the St. Lawrence, in Canada, which he had inaugurated in 1860 and to which he gave the credit for an opportunity to visit British America and the United States. On June 11th His Royal Highness had also laid the foundation of the new building of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London. He was received formally by the President, the Earl of Shaftsbury, the Lord Mayor, the Archbishop of York and others and, in the course of his speech, pointed out that the Society had already spent $30,000,000 in the promotion of its objects and in the translation of the Bible into two hundred and eighty different languages and dialects. After referring to the efforts in this cause by his grandfather, the Duke of Kent, the Prince went on to say that "it is my hope and trust that, under Divine guidance, the wider diffusion and deeper study of the Scriptures will, in this as in every age, be at once the surest guarantee of the progress and liberty of the mind and the means of multiplying in the present time the consolations of our holy religion."