It was unquestionably a triumph of character. Even now to attempt a serious estimate of the intellectual capacity of Queen Victoria is a difficult task. There are too many still among us the greater part of whose lives were spent under her sway. It is a fault in nearly all recent biographies that they attempt appreciations which only the lapse of time can enable a writer to draw in true perspective.
A venerable Sovereign, in full possession of his great powers of intellect and character, who was almost an exact contemporary, still rules a European people as proud of him as were her subjects of the Queen. At least one of her faithful servants, who was present at her Coronation seventy-four years ago and at every great ceremonial throughout her reign, is still alive and full of manly vigour. Her children are in the prime of life, and her favourite grandson is the beloved Sovereign of the people she governed. Unqualified praise is always distasteful, and critical analysis may easily prove to be in singularly bad taste. Queen Victoria’s womanly and royal virtues are written in golden letters upon the face of the vast Empire over which she reigned. Her faults may well lie buried, for some time yet, in her grave under the shadow of Windsor.
In the muniment-room of the Castle are preserved the private records of her life-work. Over a thousand bound volumes of letters, from and to the Queen upon all subjects, public and domestic, are there; and over a hundred volumes of her Journals written in her own hand.
It is a unique record. The private papers of George III. have disappeared. Of those of George IV. and William IV., only a few are in existence. Selections from the correspondence of the Queen up to 1861 were published by permission of King Edward. These selections from her early Journals have been made by the gracious leave of King George. It may be many years before it would be wise or prudent to make public any more of the private history of Queen Victoria’s reign. Those who, by good fortune, have had access to these records can, however, safely predict that whatever hereafter leaps to light, the Queen never can be shamed.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO CHAPTER I
When the Queen’s Journal opens she was thirteen years and two months old. When she was four years younger Sir Walter Scott was presented to the little Princess Victoria and noted that she was “educating with much care.” At that time she was supposed not to know that she was the “heir of England,” but Scott thought that if the little heart could be dissected it would be found that some little bird had carried the matter. According to Baroness Lehzen, the truth was not revealed until a year before the Princess commenced to write her first Journal. There was a picture painted of her about this time, and it corroborates Lord Albemarle’s description of the little girl of extreme fairness whom he watched watering, at Kensington, a child’s garden, wearing a large straw hat and a suit of white cotton, her only ornament being a coloured fichu round the neck.
The Princess was guarded with extreme care. Leigh Hunt noticed that she was invariably followed, when walking, by a footman in gorgeous raiment. She told her daughters many years later that she was so carefully tended until the day of her accession, that she had never been permitted to walk downstairs without someone holding her hand.
The Princess’s journey commenced August 1, 1832, although the first part of what her Uncle, King William, called her Royal Progresses was not her first trip into the country. With her mother she paid several visits to Ramsgate and Broadstairs. She had stayed with Lord Winchelsea at Eastwell, near Ashford, and she had visited George IV. at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Park. She had spent an autumn at Norris Castle, Isle of Wight, and had been to Bath and Malvern.
Sir Walter Scott expressed a hope that she would not retain the name of Victoria, and when upon the accession of William IV. extra provision was demanded of Parliament for the little Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, who then became heir-presumptive to the Crown, Sir Matthew White Ridley and Sir Robert Inglis desired to make the Parliamentary grant contingent upon the Princess, as Queen, assuming the style of Elizabeth II., on the ground that the name Victoria did not accord with the feelings of the people. The name Victoria, however, was destined to acquire lustre not inferior to that of Elizabeth.
The Princess’s first Progress is minutely described in the first volume of her Journal. Before it ended, Robert Lowe, afterwards her Chancellor of the Exchequer, caught a glimpse of the child as she passed from the Bodleian to lunch with the Vice-Chancellor at Oxford. Her foot was on the threshold of public life.
CHAPTER I
1832
Wednesday, August 1st. We left K.P.[3] at 6 minutes past 7 and went through the Lower-field gate to the right. We went on, & turned to the left by the new road to Regent’s Park. The road & scenery is beautiful. 20 minutes to 9. We have just changed horses at Barnet, a very pretty little town. 5 minutes past ½ past 9. We have just changed horses at St. Albans. The situation is very pretty & there is a beautiful old abbey there. 5 minutes past 10. The country is beautiful here: they have began to cut the corn; it is so golden & fine that I think they will have a very good harvest, at least here. There are also pretty hills & trees. 20 minutes past ten. We have just passed a most beautiful old house in a fine park with splendid trees. A ¼ to 11. We have just changed horses at Dunstable; there was a fair there; the booths filled with fruit, ribbons, &c. looked very pretty. The town seems old & there is a fine abbey before it. The country is very bleak & chalky. 12 minutes to 12. We have just changed horses at Brickhill. The country is very beautiful about here. 19 minutes to 1. We have just changed horses at Stony Stratford. The country is very pretty. About ½ past 1 o’clock we arrived at Towcester & lunched there. At 14 minutes past two we left it. A ¼ past 3. We have just changed horses at Daventry. The road continues to be very dusty. 1 minute past ½ past 3. We have just[4] passed through Braunston where there is a curious spire. The Oxford canal is close to the town. 1 minute to 4. We have just changed horses at Dunchurch & it is raining.
For some time past already, and now, our road is entirely up an avenue of trees going on and on, it is quite delightful but it still rains. Just now we go at a tremendous rate. 4 minutes to 5. We have just changed horses at Coventry, a large town where there is a very old church (in appearance at least). At ½ past 5 we arrived at Meridon; and we are now going to dress for dinner. ½ past 8. I am undressing to go to bed. Mamma is not well and is lying on the sofa in the next room. I was asleep in a minute in my own little bed which travels always with me.
Thursday, 2d August.—I got up after a very good night at 5 o’clock this morning. Mamma is much better I am happy to say, and I am now dressing to go to breakfast. 6 minutes to ½ past 7. We have just left Meridon, a very clean inn. It is a very bad day. 10 minutes to 9. We have just changed horses at Birmingham where I was two years ago and we visited the manufactories which are very curious. It rains very hard. We just passed through a town where all coal mines are and you see the fire glimmer at a distance in the engines in many places. The men, women, children, country and houses are all black. But I can not by any description give an idea of its strange and extraordinary appearance. The country is very desolate every where; there are coals about, and the grass is quite blasted and black. I just now see an extraordinary building flaming with fire. The country continues black, engines flaming, coals, in abundance, every where, smoking and burning coal heaps, intermingled with wretched huts and carts and little ragged children....