very plain indeed: it was quite poor living--only a bit of roast meat, and
perhaps a plain pudding.' Other servants have reported that the Queen
would have made 'an admirable poor man's wife.' We used to hear how the
young princesses had to smooth out and roll up their bonnet strings. By
these trifling side-lights we discern a vigorous, wholesome discipline,
striving to counteract the enervating influences of rank and power, and
their attendant flattery and self-indulgence. 'One of the main principles
observed in the education of the royal children was this--that though they
received the best training of body and mind to fit them for the high
position they would eventually have to fill, they should in no wise come
in contact with the actual court life. The children were scarcely known to
the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, as they only now and then made their
appearance for a moment after dinner at dessert, or accompanied their
parents out driving. The care of them was exclusively intrusted to persons
who possessed the Queen and Prince-Consort's entire confidence, and with
whom they could at all times communicate direct.' An artist employed to
decorate the pavilion in the garden of Buckingham Palace, wrote of Her
Majesty and the prince: 'In many things they are an example to the age.
They have breakfasted, heard morning prayers with the household in the
private chapel, and are out some distance from the palace talking to us in
the summer-house before half-past nine o'clock--sometimes earlier. After
the public duties of the day and before their dinner, they come out again
evidently delighted to get away from the bustle of the world to enjoy each
other's society in the solitude of the garden.'

[Illustration: Osborne House.(From a Photograph by Frith.)]

The seaside villa of Osborne, built at the Queen's own charges at a cost
of L200,000, and the remote castle of Balmoral, the creation of the
Prince-Consort, were the favourite homes of the royal household: the