Queen Victoria. Lytton Strachey

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СКАЧАТЬ that precaution, and the great man amused himself, while the stream of royal inquiries poured on, by pointing at Mr. Creevey from time to time with the remark, 'Voilà le monsieur qui n'a pas déjeuné!'[16]

Settled down at last at Amorbach, the time hung heavily on the Duke's hands. The establishment was small, the country was impoverished; even clock-making grew tedious at last. He brooded—for in spite of his piety the Duke was not without a vein of superstition—over the prophecy of a gipsy at Gibraltar who had told him that he was to have many losses and crosses, that he was to die in happiness, and that his only child was to be a great queen. Before long it became clear that a child was to be expected: the Duke decided that it should be born in England. Funds were lacking for the journey, but his determination was not to be set aside. Come what might, he declared, his child must be English-born. A carriage was hired, and the Duke himself mounted the box. Inside were the Duchess, her daughter Feodora, a girl of fourteen, with maids, nurses, lap-dogs, and canaries. Off they drove—through Germany, through France: bad roads, cheap inns, were nothing to the rigorous Duke and the equable, abundant Duchess. The Channel was crossed, London was reached in safety. The authorities provided a set of rooms in Kensington Palace; and there, on May 24, 1819, a female infant was born.[17]

[1] Greville, II, 326–8; Stockmar, chap. i, 86; Knight, I, chaps. xv-xviii and Appendix, and II, chap. i.

[2] Grey, 384, 386–8; Letters, II, 40,

[3] Grey, 375–86.

[4] Letters, I, 216, 222–3; II, 39–40; Stockmar, 87–90.

[5] Stockmar, Biograpische Skizze, and cap. iii.

[6] Creevey, I, 264, 272: 'Prinny has let loose his belly, which now reaches his knees; otherwise he is said to be well,' 279.

[7] Greville, I, 5–7.

[8] Greville, IV, 2.

[9] Stockmar, 95; Creevey, I, 148; Greville, I, 228; Lieven, 183–4.

[10] Crawford, 24.

[11] Ibid., 80, 113.

[12] Stockmar, 112–3; Letters, I, 8; Crawford, 27–30; Owen, 193–4, 197–8, 199, 229.

[13] Creevey, I, 267–71.

[14] Creevey, I, 276–7.

[15] Letters, I, 1–3: Grey, 373–81, 389; Crawford, 30–4; Stockmar, 113.

[16] Creevey, I, 282–4.

[17] Crawford, 25, 37–8.

CHAPTER II

       Table of Contents

      CHILDHOOD

      I

       Table of Contents

      The child who, in these not very impressive circumstances, appeared in the world, received but scant attention. There was small reason to foresee her destiny. The Duchess of Clarence, two months before, had given birth to a daughter; this infant, indeed, had died almost immediately; but it seemed highly probable that the Duchess would again become a mother; and so it actually fell out. More than this, the Duchess of Kent was young, and the Duke was strong; there was every likelihood that before long a brother would follow, to snatch her faint chance of the succession from the little princess.

Nevertheless, the Duke had other views: there were prophecies. … At any rate, he would christen the child Elizabeth, a name of happy augury. In this, however, he reckoned without the Regent, who, seeing a chance of annoying his brother, suddenly announced that he himself would be present at the baptism, and signified at the same time that one of the godfathers was to be the Emperor Alexander of Russia. And so when the ceremony took place, and the Archbishop of Canterbury asked by what name he was to baptise the child, the Regent replied 'Alexandrina.' At this the Duke ventured to suggest that another name might be added. 'Certainly,' said the Regent; 'Georgina?' 'Or Elizabeth?' said the Duke. There was a pause, during which the Archbishop, with the baby in his lawn sleeves, looked with some uneasiness from one Prince to the other. 'Very well, then,' said the Regent at last, 'call her after her mother. But Alexandrina must come first.' Thus, to the disgust of her father, the child was christened Alexandrina Victoria.[1]

      PRINCESS VICTORIA IN 1836.

       From the Portrait by F. Winterhalter.

The Duke had other subjects of disgust. The meagre grant of the Commons had by no means put an end to his financial distresses. It was to be feared that his services were not appreciated by the nation. His debts continued to grow. For many years he had lived upon £7000 a year; but now his expenses were exactly doubled; he could make no further reductions; as it was, there was not a single servant in his establishment who was idle for a moment from morning to night. He poured out his griefs in a long letter to Robert Owen, whose sympathy had the great merit of being practical. 'I now candidly state,' he wrote, 'that, after viewing the subject in every possible way, I am satisfied that, to continue to live in England, even in the quiet way in which we are going on, without splendour, and without show, nothing short of doubling the seven thousand pounds will do, REDUCTION BEING IMPOSSIBLE.' It was clear that he would be obliged to sell his house for £51,300: if that failed, he would go and live on the Continent. 'If my services are useful to my country, it surely becomes those who have the power to support me in substantiating those just claims I have for the very extensive losses and privations I have experienced, during the very long period of my professional servitude in the Colonies; and if this is not attainable, it is a clear proof to me that they are not appreciated; and under that impression I shall not scruple, in due time, to resume my retirement abroad, when the Duchess and myself shall have fulfilled our duties in establishing the English birth of my child, and giving it maternal nutriment on the soil СКАЧАТЬ