Of these thus briefly: also I might record (but I forbear) similar condescensions at Frogmore; as also with reference to my little Masques of the Seasons, and the Nations—wherein Corbould was pictorially so efficient, and Miss Hildyard so helpful in the costumes—both at Osborne and at Windsor. In gracious recognition of these Her Majesty gave me Winterhalter's engravings of all the royal children, now at Albury, as well as some gifts to my daughters. The Masques will be found among my published poems.
At Court I frequently met Lord Houghton, known to me in ancient days as Monckton Milnes; and I remember that we especially came together from sympathy as to critical castigation, Blackwood or some other Scotch reviewer having fallen foul of both of us, then young poets (and therefore to be hounded down by Professor Wilson), in an article pasted in an early volume of Archives, spitefully disparaging "Farquhar Tupper and Monckton Milnes."
Until these days every one wore the antiquated Queen Anne Court suit, now superseded by modern garments, perhaps more convenient but certainly not so picturesque. Bagwig and flowered waistcoat, and hanging cast-steel rapier, and silken calves and buckled shoes,—and above all the abundant real point lace (upon which Lord Houghton more than once has commented with me as to the comparative superiority of his or mine,—both being of ancestral dinginess, and only to be washed in coffee)—these are ill exchanged for boots and trousers and straight black sword, and everything of grace and beauty diligently tailored away. When I last attended at St. James's in honour of Prince Albert Victor's first reception, I was, among twelve hundred, one of only three units who paid our respects in the stately fashions of Good Queen Anne: and I was glad to be complimented on my social courage as almost alone in those antiquated garments, and on my profusion of snow-white hair so suitably suggestive of the powdered polls of our ancestors. I remember my father in powder.
On this last occasion it was, as I have said, especially to pay my respects to the young Prince at his first levée: both he and his father with great kindness cordially shaking hands with the author of the following stanzas. The young Prince stood between his father and his kinsman, the Duke of Cambridge.
"Albert Victor! words of blessing
Bright with omens of the best,
Truly one such names possessing
Shall be throned among the blest;
Albert,—sainted now and glorious,
Long time in his heavenly rest;
Victor,—everyway victorious
Like our Empress east and west!
"Prince! to-day the Court bears witness
How, thy Royal Sire beside,
With due graciousness and fitness,
Dignity devoid of pride,
Thou (thy gallant kinsman near thee)
Dost with homage far and wide,
And the praise of all to cheer thee,
Humbly meet that glittering tide!
"Prince, accept an old man's greeting,
Now some threescore and fifteen,
Who can testify how fleeting
Life and all its joys have been:
I have known thy Grandsire's favour,
And thy Parents' grace have seen;
And I note the same sweet savour
In the Grandson of my Queen!"
As this is the Jubilee year, and I may not live to its completion,—for who can depend upon an hour?—I will here produce what has just occurred to my patriotism as a suitable ode on the great occasion. If short, it is all the better for music, and I humbly recommend its adoption as libretto to some chief musical composer.
Victoria's Jubilee: for Music.
I.