consideration, and may have envied less fortunate or unfortunate mortals
who can give and take hard knocks, for whom less is demanded, and of whom
less is expected.

She may have tired of her very name, with its grand prefixes and no
affix, and longed to be Victoria Kent, or _Something_--Jones, Brown,
or Robinson.

She seems to have been a child of simple, homely tastes, for in 1842,
when Queen, she writes to her Uncle Leopold from Claremont, where she is
visiting, with her husband and little daughter: "This place brings back
recollections of the happiest days of my otherwise dull childhood--days
when I experienced such kindness from you, dearest uncle; Victoria plays
with my old bricks, and I see her running and jumping in the flower-
garden, as old (though I feel still _little_) Victoria of former days
used to do."




CHAPTER VI.

The Princess opens the Victoria Park at Bath--Becoming used to Public
Curiosity--Secret of her Destiny revealed to her--Royal Ball on her
Thirteenth Birthday--At the Ascot Races--Picture by N. P. Willis--
Anecdotes--Painful Scene at the King's last Birthday Dinner.


When she was eleven years old, the Princess opened the Victoria Park at
Bath. She began the opening business thus early, and has kept it up