harbour, its upper and lower town, connected by "Jacob's Ladder," its pure
air and sparkling water, with only a tiny fringe of bathing-machines, was
in its blooming time of fresh rural peace and beauty when it was the
cradle by the sea of the little Princess.

When she was five she was at Claremont, making music and motion in the
quiet house with her gleeful laughter and pattering feet, so happy in
being with her uncle that she could look back on this visit as the
brightest of her early holidays. "This place," the Queen wrote to the King
of the Belgians long afterwards, "has a peculiar charm for us both, and to
me it brings back recollections of the happiest days of my otherwise dull
childhood,--when I experienced such kindness from you, dearest uncle,
kindness which has ever since continued.... 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." In the autumn of 1825 the Queen's grandmother, the Dowager
Duchess of Coburg, visited England, and the whole family were together at
Claremont.

In 1826, "the warm summer," when the Princess was seven years of age, she
was invited to Windsor to see another uncle, George IV. That was a more
formidable ordeal, but her innocent frank brightness carried her through
it successfully. It is not easy for many men to contemplate with
satisfaction their heirs, when those heirs are no offspring of theirs. It
must have been doubly difficult for the King to welcome the little girl
who had replaced his daughter, the child of his wronged brother and of a
Princess whom King George persistently slighted and deprived of her due.
But we are told his Majesty was delighted with his little niece's
liveliness and intelligence.