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the mob assembled in full force, made a last desperate effort, and drove the procession down Drury Lane and through the city.

Little good or evil did the struggle benefit the lifeless dust which could no more suffer or inflict injury. The story is a melancholy one, written in English history as a warning which may profit while it saddens. Her husband had his wish. His wife was gone for ever. Of such characters as his the less said the better, for all that can be said must be evil.

At last we have come to the end of the Georges, and never did we take leave of a subject with a greater feeling of thankfulness that a most disagreeable task was concluded than we now do. Without every minute circumstance of a king's court life be known, his character can never be fairly judged, for no part of a king's life is private. All the court tittle-tattle, every hasty word, every trivial action, forms part of that historic life which leads us into the very spirit of the age we are describing. But we cannot but hope-and in this wish we are assured our fellow-ramblers will heartily join-that for the future we may meet with

more pleasant associates on our journeys than the flatterers and court favourites of the reign of George the Second, or the unhappy Queen of his miserable great grandson, George the Fourth.

109

CHAPTER V.

KENSINGTON PALACE.

Accession of Queen Victoria-The Gardens and the Promenades-Fashions and Fashionables.

THE hope expressed in our last chapter was not a vain one.

On the 24th of May, 1819, Victoria was born here, and here also did she reside until her accession to the throne in 1837. We are scarcely called upon to extend our rambles on what must, for the present, be hallowed ground. But traditions of the Princess still linger in the neighbourhood. Anecdotes of her punctuality, her activity, her early donkey rides, and her bracing walks, taken in all weathers, might easily be cited. William Wilberforce, whose acquaintance we shall soon make, at Gore House, tells us of a visit he paid to the

Duchess of Kent, and of the "fine animated child by her side with its playthings, of which," he adds, “I soon became one."

The last scene we have to depict at Kensington, forms a fitting concluding tableau to its long list of regal glories. At five o'clock on the morning of the 20th of June, 1837, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham, the Chamberlain, appeared before the gates of the Palace, having left the death-bed of William the Fourth only a few hours before. After knocking, ringing, and thumping for some time, the porter was at length aroused. Further delays ensued ; the attendant at first refused to disturb the Princess, who was in a "sweet sleep." "But," continues our authority," they said 'We are come to the Queen on business of State, and even her sleep must give way to that.' In a few minutes she who had the night before retired to rest Princess, was awakened to find herself Queen. "She came into the room," we are told, "in a loose white nightgown and shawl, her night-cap thrown off, and her hair falling upon her shoulders, her feet in her slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified." These tears called from the

eloquent pen of Mrs. Browning the well-known verses

of which one stanza runs :

"God save thee, weeping Queen,
Thou shalt be well beloved-
The tyrant's sceptre cannot move
As those pure tears have moved ;
The nature in thine eye we see
Which tyrants cannot own-
The love that guardeth liberties.
Strange blessing on the nation lies
Whose Sovereign wept,

Yea, wept to wear a crown."

At eleven o'clock on that memorable day, the first Cabinet Council of the present reign met at Kensington. The customary formalities were gone through, her uncle's death was officially announced to her, the proclamation was read, the doors of the adjoining chamber were then thrown open, and the Queen,leaning on the arm of the Duke of Sussex, entered the room. She was in mourning, and plainly dressed. She bowed 'to the Council, took her seat, and read the speech prepared for her clearly and distinctly, while any little timidity she may have shown on her entrance entirely disappeared, and she remained perfectly calm and selfpossessed during the rest of this certainly trying ordeal for a young girl not yet out of her teens. She

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