BUCKINGHAM PALACE
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
QUEEN VICTORIA IN THE HIGHLANDS
THE ALBERT MEMORIAL
SIR ROBERT PEEL, LORD MELBOURNE, AND BENJAMIN DISRAELI
THE SECRET OF ENGLAND'S GREATNESS
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM




CHAPTER I: _A Look Back_


In the old legend of Rip Van Winkle with which the American writer
Washington Irving has made us so familiar, the ne'er-do-weel Rip
wanders off into the Kaatskill Mountains with his dog and gun in order
to escape from his wife's scolding tongue. Here he meets the spectre
crew of Captain Hudson, and, after partaking of their hospitality,
falls into a deep sleep which lasts for twenty years. The latter part
of the story describes the changes which he finds on his return to
his native village: nearly all the old, familiar faces are gone;
manners, dress, and speech are all changed. He feels like a stranger
in a strange land.

Now, it is a good thing sometimes to take a look back, to try to count
over the changes for good or for evil which have taken place in this
country of ours; to try to understand clearly why the reign of a great
Queen should have left its mark upon our history in such a way that
men speak of the Victorian Age as one of the greatest ages that have