1855, and a year later she wrote that 'every year my heart becomes more
fixed in this dear paradise, and so much more so now, that all has become
my dear Albert's own creation, own work, own building, own laying out, as
at Osborne; and his great taste, and the impress of his dear hand, have
been stamped everywhere.'

After building the cairn on the top of Craig Gowan, to commemorate their
taking possession of Balmoral, the Queen wrote: 'May God bless this place,
and allow us yet to see it and enjoy it many a long year.'

In the north country, too, she met with little adventures, which doubtless
helped to rally her courage and spirits--a carriage accident, when there
was 'a moment during which I had time to reflect whether I should be
killed or not, and to think there were, still things I had not settled and
wanted to do;' subsequently sitting in the cold on the road-side,
recalling 'what my beloved one had always said to me, namely, to make the
best of what could not be altered.' What a thoroughly loving, clinging
woman's heart the 'Queen-Empress' shows when' she feels tired, sad, and
bewildered' because 'for the first time in her life she was alone in a
strange house, without either mother or husband.'

Some interesting glimpses of the Queen are given in the biography of the
late Dr Norman Macleod. This popular divine was asked to preach before the
Queen in Crathie Church in 1854--the church that stood till 1893, when the
Queen laid the foundation stone of a new one. He preached an old sermon
without a note, never looking once at the royal seat, but solely at the
congregation. The Sunday at Balmoral was perfect in its peace and beauty.
In his sermon he tried to show what true life is, a finding rest through
the yoke of God's service instead of the service of self, and by the cross
of self-denial instead of self-gratification. 'In the evening,' writes Dr