The portraits of the Prince and Princesses of Connaught were specially taken by Mr. R. Speaight for this article, and most of the others taken by the same photographer are published by special permission of the Royal parents.

Princess Alice of Albany's great friend is her first cousin, the young Queen of Holland, and this in spite of the fact that she is three years younger than the girl-monarch. The Duchess of Albany has remained on very intimate terms with her sister, the Queen-mother of the Netherlands, and there has always been a constant interchange of visits between Claremont and the Dutch Court; indeed, the Duke and Princess Alice of Albany are the only members of the British Royal Family who can speak Dutch fluently, that language having been taught them by their Queen-cousin.

The four children of Princess Henry of Battenberg have had their childhood sadly shadowed by the death of their father, to whom they were all devotedly attached. In one matter their position differs very much from that of the other Royal children: that is, they have been thrown into peculiarly close relations with their venerable grandmother, and it is perhaps owing to this fact that the only girl among them, Princess Victoria Eugénie, is, although only eleven years old, said to be exceptionally intelligent and grown-up for her age.

Of Princess Beatrice's three sons, the eldest, Prince Alexander Albert, who is just twelve years old, is at school at Lyndhurst, but next year he will join the Britannia, for, like his uncle Prince Louis of Battenberg, he is very fond of the sea and wishes to enter the British Navy. Prince Leopold and Prince Maurice are too young for it to have been yet decided what career they will follow, but they will each enter a profession, for their position is a somewhat peculiar one. Unlike the young Duke of Albany, who was a peer from the moment of his birth, the children of Princess Beatrice have no legal rank, and their father, the late Prince Henry, was even desirous that they should not be habitually given the title of "Prince" or "Princess."

PRINCE GEORGE OF TECK.

In this matter, however, the Queen overruled his objection, though, curiously enough, Her Majesty did not seem desirous of doing so in the case of the children of the Duke and Duchess of Fife, notwithstanding the fact that when the elder, Lady Alexandra, was born she was considerably nearer the throne than had been Queen Victoria herself at the moment of her birth. The question of whether the eldest grandchild of the Prince and Princess of Wales should or should not be given the title of "Royal Highness" was actually discussed at some length, but as both the Duke and Duchess of Fife were very anxious that their child should only bear the title and have the precedence accorded to a Duke's daughter, the matter was arranged that way. Subsequent events—that is, the birth of the Duke and Duchess of York's three children—have proved how wisely the parents of Lady Alexandra Duff acted in this matter. As it is, the Ladies Alexandra and Maud Duff are in the happy position of having all the privileges and none of the responsibility of Royal birth. They are so far the only younger members of the Royal Family who have never been out of the United Kingdom, their lives having been spent between London, Norfolk, and Scotland. They are being brought up in the very simplest fashion compatible with their rank; indeed, the only public appearance, since her birth, made by Lady Alexandra was when she acted as bridesmaid to her aunt Princess Maud of Wales.

Of course, from many points of view, by far the most important group of Royal children is that composed of the two little sons and of the baby daughter of the heir-presumptive. Owing to the sad death of the Duke of Clarence there are only three lives between little Prince Edward of York and the throne, and far more care has been bestowed upon his education and general upbringing than is generally the case even with Royal children of so tender an age, for our King to be will not be five years old until the 23rd of next June.

THE BATTENBERGS.
[PRINCESS VICTORIA.]
[PRINCE ALEXANDER.]
[PRINCE LEOPOLD.]
[PRINCE MAURICE.]