For several years the young Princes, devoted to each other, passed
studious, yet active and merry lives at the Coburg Palace, and in the
dear country home of Rosenau. They seem to have corresponded with their
cousin Victoria, whom, it seems, the lad Albert was led by his grandmamma
Coburg to regard with an especially romantic and tender interest. That
grandmamma, the mother of Prince Leopold and the Duchess of Kent, and who
seems to have been a very able and noble woman, died when her darling
Albert was about twelve years old; but the hope of her heart did not die
with her, and without doubt Prince Albert was educated with special and
constant reference to a far more important and brilliant destiny than
often falls to the lot of the young sons of even Grand Ducal houses. He
was well instructed in many branches of science, in languages, in music
and literature, in politics, and what seems a contradiction, in ethics,--
his moral development being most carefully watched over, while his
physical training was a pendant to that which made his cousin Victoria
one of the healthiest and hardiest of modern Englishwomen. With a
delicate constitution and a sensitive, nervous temperament, Prince Albert
would scarcely have lived to manhood, except for that admirable physical
training. As a child, he was braced up by much life in the open air,
simple diet, a good deal of rough play--while as to sleep, he was allowed
to help himself, which he did plentifully, being much given to
somnolency. As a lad and youth, he hardened himself by all healthful
manly sports and exercises; in short, made a boy of mamma's "angel," a
man of grandmamma's golden-haired darling. Nor was that great element of
a liberal education, travel, wanting. The brothers paid visits to their
uncle Leopold, now King of Belgium, and after tours in Germany, Austria,
and Holland, visited England, and their aunt Kent and their cousin
Victoria, to whom they were most warmly commended by their uncle.

According to the Queen's books, with this visit of three weeks began the