Queen Victoria by Richard Rivington Holmes Read Free Book Online

their return home an interesting interview took place with Captain Back, who was preparing to start early in the following year, on his chivalrous enterprise to the Polar regions in search of Captain Ross. The Princess took extreme interest in the proposed route, which was explained by maps, and expressed much anxiety for the success of the expedition, and this interest in Polar exploration and its dangers has ever since been maintained.
    The early part of the year 1833 was passed at Kensington. There the course of study was kept up as before, but the Princess now went out more into society and was seen more in public; twice during January she sat for her picture - to Wilkin and to Hay ter. On the 25th of February, the birthday of Queen Adelaide, the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria went to the Queen’s Drawing Room. On this occasion they were attended by the Duchess of Northumberland, Lady Charlotte St. Maur, Lady Catherine Jenkinson, Lady Cust, Sir John and Lady Conroy, Baroness Lehzen, Sir Frederick Wetherall and Sir George Anson. On Easter Sunday their Royal Highnesses went as usual to the Chapel Royal at St. James’s; on other days service was attended at Kensington Palace. On the 24th of April the Duchess of Kent gave a dinner to the King; the Queen was not well enough to be present. The Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester were among the guests, who numbered about thirty. Princess Victoria, on this as on other similar occasions, did not dine, but went into the drawing-room before dinner, and again after dinner till the guests left.
    On the 24th of May, the Princess’s fourteenth birthday, she received a large number of presents, and in the evening with the Duchess of Kent, and attended by the Duchess of Northumberland and other members of her suite, went to a juvenile ball given at St. James’s Palace by the King and Queen in honour of the day. The King led Her Royal Highness into the ballroom, and again to supper, when the Princess sat between the King and Queen and her health was drunk by the company. On the 28th the Princess again attended the Queen’s Drawing Room, and records the impression made upon her by the beauty of Lady Seymour, Mrs. Norton, Lady Clanricarde and others. In June the Duchess and Princess, with the Princes Alexander and Ernest of Wurtemberg and Prince Leiningen (all three staying on a visit at Kensington Palace), attended by the Duchess of Northumberland and others, drove to Woolwich, where they visited the Arsenal, Barracks, and Storehouse, where was preserved the carriage which had conveyed Napoleon to his tomb. They witnessed also the firing of several pieces of artillery.
    At home the Princess’s amusements were her pets, and her walks and drives, and during the spring and summer she much enjoyed riding. Another great enjoyment was the frequency of her visits to the opera, where she greatly enjoyed the performances of Duvernay and Taglioni, and listened with delight to Pasta, Malibran, Grisi, Tamburini, Rubini, and other celebrated singers, as well as to Paganini’s playing on the violin.
    During the summer visits were paid both to Sion and Claremont, and on the 1st of July the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria, accompanied by the Princes of Wurtemberg and Prince Leiningen and attended by Sir John and Lady Conroy and Baroness Lehzen, left Kensington
en
route
for the Isle of Wight, passing by Esher, Guildford, and Petersfield to Portsmouth. The streets of the town were lined with troops, and Sir Colin Campbell rode beside the royal carriage. The Admiral, Sir Thomas Williams, took the royal party in his barge to the yacht
Emerald
, which was then towed by a steamer to Cowes, whence the party proceeded to Norris Castle, which was to be for the second time their abode. Sir John Conroy with his family lived at Osborne Lodge, an old thatched cottage which afterwards came into the possession of the Queen and stood on the present site of Osborne Cottage. From Norris Castle the