uncle, King William.

Was the childish passion for exploring old garrets and lumber-rooms
excited in this royal little woman by the narrative of the wonderful
discovery which Queen Caroline had made in a forgotten bureau in this very
palace? Did the little Princess roam about too, in her privileged moments,
with a grand vision of finding more and greater art-treasures, other
drawings by Holbein or Vandyke, fresh cartoons by Raphael?

All the more valuable paintings had been removed long ago to Windsor, but
many curious pictures still remained on the walls of presence chambers and
galleries, kings' and queens' great dining-rooms and drawing-rooms,
staircases and closets. Did the pictures serve as illustrations to the
history lessons? Was the inspection made the recreation of rainy days,
when the great suites of State-rooms in which Courts were no longer held
or banquets celebrated, but which still echoed with the remembered tread
of kings' and courtiers' feet, must have appeared doubly deserted and
forlorn?

What was known as the King's Great Drawing-room was not far from the
Duchess of Kent's rooms, and was, in fact, put at her disposal in its
dismantled, ghostly condition. Among its pictures--freely attributed to
many schools and masters--including several battle-pieces and many
portraits, there were three representations of English palaces: old
Greenwich, where Elizabeth was born; old Hampton, dear to William and
Mary; and Windsor, the Windsor of George III. and Queen Charlotte, the
Princess's grandfather and grandmother. In the next room, amidst classic
and scriptural subjects, and endless examples of "ladies with ruffs,"
"heads in turbans," &c., there were occasionally family portraits--the old
King and Queen more than once; William, Duke of Gloucester; the Queen of