One of the trials of royalty is that they are the observed of all
observers, and from the first Prince Albert understood the extreme
delicacy of his position. How well he met the difficulty is told by
General Gray (_Early Years_):

'From the moment of his establishment in the English palace as the husband
of the Queen, his first object was to maintain, and, if possible, even
raise the character of the court. With this view he knew that it was not
enough that his own conduct should be in truth free from reproach; no
shadow of a shade of suspicion should by possibility attach to it. He knew
that, in his position, every action would be scanned--not always,
possibly, in a friendly spirit; that his goings out and his comings in
would be watched; and that in every society, however little disposed to be
censorious, there would always be found some prone, where an opening
afforded, to exaggerate and even invent stories against him, and to put an
uncharitable construction on the most innocent acts. He therefore, from
the first, laid down strict, not to say severe rules for his guidance. He
imposed a degree of restraint and self-denial upon his own movements which
could not but have been irksome, had he not been sustained by a sense of
the advantage which the throne would derive from it.

'He denied himself the pleasure--which, to one so fond as he was of
personally watching and inspecting every improvement that was in progress,
would have been very great--of walking at will about the town. Wherever he
went, whether in a carriage or on horseback, he was accompanied by his
equerry. He paid no visits in general society. His visits were to the
studio of the artist, to museums of art or science, to institutions for
good and benevolent purposes. Wherever a visit from him, or his presence,
could tend to advance the real good of the people, there his horses might
be seen waiting; never at the door of mere fashion. Scandal itself could