Princess, inspiring her not only with tender love, but with profound
respect. Her high spirit and imperious will were soon tamed to his firm
but gentle hand; she herself became more gentle and reasonable, content
to rule the kingdom of his heart at least, by her womanly charms, rather
than by the power of her regal name and lofty position. This royal love-
marriage took place in May, 1816, and soon after the Prince and Princess,
who had little taste for Court gaieties, went to live at Claremont, the
beautiful country residence now occupied by the young Duke of Albany, a
namesake of Prince Leopold. Here the young couple lived a life of much
domestic privacy and simplicity, practicing themselves in habits of
study, methodical application to business, and wise economy. They were
always together, spending happy hours in work and recreation, passing
from law and politics to music and sketching, from the study of the
British Constitution to horticulture. The Princess especially delighted
in gardening, in watering with her own hands her favorite plants.

This happy pair had an invaluable aid and ally in the learned Baron
Stockmar, early attached to Prince Leopold as private physician, a rare,
good man on whom they both leaned much, as afterwards did Victoria and
Albert and their children. Indeed the Baron seems to have been a
permanent pillar for princes to lean upon. From youth to old age he was
to two or three royal households the chief "guide, philosopher, and
friend"--a Coburg mentor, a Guelphic oracle.

So these royal lovers of Claremont lived tranquilly on, winning the love
and respect of all about them, and growing dearer and dearer to each
other till the end came, the sudden death of the young wife and mother,--
an event which, on a sad day in November, 1817, plunged the whole realm
into mourning. The grief of the people, even those farthest removed from
the Court, was real, intense, almost personal and passionate. It was a