PREFACE. An event so rare and so fraught with hopeful anticipation as the accession of a youthful female to the throne of Great Britain, was naturally calculated, not only to awaken in the hearts of her subjects the warmest feelings of affectionate loyalty, but to excite an almost universal desire to obtain the fullest and most authentic information respecting the education and early life of 80 exalted and interesting a personage. The writer of the following pages sympathising in the feelings of the public, and willing to disseminate as widely as possible, some small portion at least of the gratification which she had for many years enjoyed in watching the growth and opening intelligence of the Presumptive Heiress of England, determined to throw together, for the benefit of her fellow subjects, in the form of anecdotes and sketches, not altogether desultory but following each other regularly, in point of time, all the notes and observations which circumstances had enabled her to make throughout the infancy and childhood of the Princess, and even to the period of her accession. Encouraged by the patronage bestowed upon her undertaking, she was induced to proceed with a record of the most important of those public events which have occurred to the Queen during her yet brief reign, together with a variety of anecdotes and incidents more immediately connected with her private life, which derive additional interest as tending to confirm the fact that personages born to reign are also born to the feelings and dispositions common to humanity in general, and that such feelings and dispositions properly nurtured, directed, and improved, will not only secure to the monarch that which her power and greatness is unable to command, the affectionate respect of her subjects; but tend highly to promote her own happiness by relieving her, in great measure, from that sense of loneliness which her insulated station is calculated to inspire. The authoress considers herself extremely fortunate to have been enabled in the course of her labours to detail with minuteness and accuracy every particular connected with the imposing and interesting ceremony of the Coronation, and still more so to close them, for the present, with a glowing description of that auspicious solemnity which has been so lately witnessed, and which promises the blessing of domestic felicity to our beloved Sovereign, and to the nation, that of a lengthened posterity, in the union of the illustrious lines of Brunswick and Saxony. It is peculiarly gratifying to complete the present volume under the influence of that burst of popular enthusiasm which this happy event has so strongly called forth; and should the future domestic circumstances of the long and prosperous reign which it is fervently prayed may be in store for Victoria of England, justify a continuation of these sketches, and the general voice call for it, the writer pledges herself, should it please Almighty God to permit it, to resume her pen at some future period, when she flatters herself that various anecdotes of infant scions of the throne, may be interwoven with those of their august Parents. ANECDOTES, PERSONAL TRAITS, AND CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES OF HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. "See! in the sunshine of a mother's smile, It is well known that King George the Third, the grandfather of her present Majesty, ascended the throne of these realms at the age of twenty-two years, on the 25th of October, 1760, by the death of his grandfather, King George the Second; that he married shortly afterwards the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg, who lived so many years his virtuous and respected Queen; that it pleased God to B bless his union and support his throne with a numerous and flourishing offspring; that he swayed the sceptre longer than any of his predecessors; and that he died at the advanced age of eighty-two, leaving a name behind that will ever be connected with some of the most important events in the history of our country. On these events, then, it is needless here to enlarge; but, before proceeding to the immediate object of this work, Anecdotes and Personal Sketches of our young and lovely Queen, it may be advantageous briefly to review the peculiar and interesting circumstances under which she was given by a merciful Providence to the land. KING GEORGE THE THIRD AND HIS FAMILY. Of the seven sons of King George the Third, the eldest and the most remarkable for his personal and mental graces, was George Prince of Wales, afterwards King George the Fourth. He was married at about thirty-three years of age, to his cousin the Princess Caroline of Brunswick, and had one only daughter, who, according to the established law of succession in this country, was the acknowledged heiress of the throne, her royal father having no sons. This daughter, the beloved and lamented Princess Charlotte of Wales, who grew up under the tender watchfulness and solicitude of a whole nation, was united in the spring of the year 1816, |