A series of bad harvests was the cause of great migrations to the
factory towns, and the already large ranks of the unemployed grew
greater day by day. The poverty and wretchedness of the working class
is painted vividly for us by Carlyle when he speaks of "half a million
handloom weavers, working 15 hours a day, in perpetual inability to
procure thereby enough of the coarsest food; Scotch farm-labourers,
who 'in districts the half of whose husbandry is that of cows, taste
no milk, can procure no milk' . . . the working-classes can no longer
go on without government, without being _actually_ guided and
governed."

Such was Victoria's England when she ascended the throne, a young
girl, nineteen years of age.




CHAPTER II: _Childhood Days


On the western side of Kensington Gardens stands the old Palace,
built originally in the solid Dutch style for King William and Mary.
The great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, made notable additions
to it, and it was still further extended in 1721 for George the First.

Within its walls passed away both William and his Queen, Queen Anne
and her husband, and George the Second. After this time it ceased
to be a royal residence.