with the beautiful surroundings of their new home. The Duke wrote
at this time of his daughter: "My little girl thrives under the
influence of a Devonshire climate, and is, I am delighted to say,
strong and healthy; too healthy, I fear, in the opinion of some
members of my family, by whom she is regarded as an intruder. How
largely she contributes to my happiness at this moment it is needless
for me to say to you."

The Duke had been determined from the first that his child should
be born in England, for he wished her to be English both in upbringing
and in feeling. His wife, who is described by those who knew her as
being a singularly attractive woman, full of deep feeling and
sympathy, fully shared his views on this point.

In January 1820, when only fifty-three years of age, the Duke died
quite suddenly from inflammation of the lungs, following upon a
neglected cold. He was a man of deep religious feeling, and once in
talking to a friend about his little daughter's future career he said
earnestly: "Don't pray simply that hers may be a brilliant career,
and exempt from those trials and struggles which have pursued her
father, but pray that God's blessing may rest on her, that it may
overshadow her, and that in all her coming years she may be guided
and guarded by God."

The widowed mother now returned to London, where the Duchess of
Clarence, afterward Queen Adelaide, interested herself greatly in
little Victoria. The Duchess now devoted herself entirely to the care
of her child, and never did any little girl have a more loving and
devoted mother.