| Victoria, Queen of England |
| by James Parton, 1868 |
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Related topics: • About Queen Victoria |
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| Victoria, Albert and their children Portrait from www.arttoday.com Used with permission |
"When I was in England," writes Grace Greenwood, in the "Advance," "I heard several pleasant anecdotes of the queen and her family, from a lady who received them of her friend, the governess of the royal children. This governess, a very interesting, young lady, was the orphan daughter of a Scottish clergyman. During the first year of her residence at Windsor, her mother died. When she first received news of her serious illness, she applied to the queen for permission to resign her situation, feeling that to her mother she owed a more sacred duty than even to her sovereign. The queen, who had been much pleased with her, would not hear of her making this sacrifice, but said, in a tone of the most gentle sympathy, --
"Go at once to your mother, child; stay with her as long as she needs you, and then come back to us. I will keep your place for you. Prince Albert and I will hear the children's lessons; so in any event let your mind be at rest in regard to your pupils.'
"The governess went, and had several weeks of sweet, mournful communion with her dying mother; then, when she had seen that dear form laid to sleep under the daisies in the kirk-yard, she returned to the palace, where the loneliness of royal grandeur would have oppressed her sorrowing heart beyond endurance, had it not been for the gracious, womanly sympathy of the queen, who came, every day, to her school-room, and the considerate kindness of her young pupils.
"A year went by; the first anniversary of her great loss dawned upon her, and she was overwhelmed as never before by the utter loneliness of her grief. She felt that no one in all that great household knew how much goodness and sweetness passed out of mortal life that day, ayear ago, or could give with her one tear, one thought, to that grave under the Scottish daisies. Every morning, before breakfast, -- which the elder children took with their father and mother, in the pleasant crimson parlor looking out on the terrace at Windsor, -- her pupils came to the school-room, for a brief religious exercise. This morning the voice of the governess trembled in reading the Scripture for the day; some words of divine tenderness were too much for her poor, lonely, grieving heart; her strength gave way, and, laying her head on the desk before her, she burst into tears, murmuring, --,
"'O mother! mother!'
"One after another the children stole out of the room, and went to their mother, to tell her how sadly their governess was feeling; and that soft-hearted monarch exclaiming, O poor girl! it is the anniversary of her mother's death,' hurried to the school-room, where she found Miss struggling to regain her composure.
"'My poor child!' she said.'I am sorry the children disturbed you this morning. I meant to have given orders that you should have this day entirely to yourself; take it as a sad and sacred holiday. I will hear the lessons of the children.' And then she added,' To show you that I have not forgotten this mournful anniversary, I bring you this gift,' clasping on her arm a beautiful mourning bracelet, attached to which was at locket for her mother's hair, marked with the date of that mother's death."
What wonder that the orphan kissed, with tears, this gift, and the more that royal hand that bestowed it! This was Victoria, fifteen years ago; and I don't believe she has morally 'advanced backward' since then.
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