The children were scarcely known to
the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, as they only now and then made their
appearance for a moment after dinner at dessert, or accompanied their
parents out driving. The care of them was exclusively intrusted to persons
who possessed the Queen and Prince-Consort's entire confidence, and with
whom they could at all times communicate direct.' An artist employed to
decorate the pavilion in the garden of Buckingham Palace, wrote of Her
Majesty and the prince: 'In many things they are an example to the age.
They have breakfasted, heard morning prayers with the household in the
private chapel, and are out some distance from the palace talking to us in
the summer-house before half-past nine o'clock--sometimes earlier. After
the public duties of the day and before their dinner, they come out again
evidently delighted to get away from the bustle of the world to enjoy each
other's society in the solitude of the garden.'
[Illustration: Osborne House.(From a Photograph by Frith.)]
The seaside villa of Osborne, built at the Queen's own charges at a cost
of L200,000, and the remote castle of Balmoral, the creation of the
Prince-Consort, were the favourite homes of the royal household: the
creations as it were, of their domestic love, and inwrought with their own
personalities, as statelier Windsor could never be. In the Swiss cottage
at Osborne, with its museum, kitchen, storeroom, and little gardens, the
young people learned to do household work and understand the management of
a small establishment.
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