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
[the Princess Royal] plays with my old bricks, &c., and I see her running
and jumping in the flower-garden, as old, though I fear still _little_,
Victoria of former days used to do.'

Bishop Fulford of Montreal remembered seeing her when four months old in
the arms of her nurse. In the following year she might be seen in a
hand-carriage with her half-sister, the Princess Feodora of Leiningen.
Wilberforce in a letter to Hannah More, July 21, 1820, wrote: 'In
consequence of a very civil message from the Duchess of Kent, I waited on
her this morning. She received me with her fine, animated child on the
floor by her side, with its playthings, of which I soon became one.' She
became familiar to many as a pretty infant, riding on her sleek donkey (a
gift from her uncle the Duke of York) in Kensington Gardens. She used to
be seen in a large straw hat and a white cotton frock, watering the plants
under the palace windows, dividing the contents of the watering-pot
between the flowers and her feet, and often took breakfast with her mother
on the lawn there. There are playful stories told of those happy early
days. The little princess was very fond of music, listening as one
spell-bound when first she heard some of Beethoven's glorious
compositions. But like most children, she rebelled against the drudgery of
scales and finger exercises, and on being told that there is 'no royal
road to music,' she sportively locked the piano and announced that 'the
royal road is never to take a lesson till you feel disposed.'

Sir Walter Scott records in his diary that he dined with the Duchess of
Kent on 19th May 1828. 'I was very kindly received by Prince Leopold, and
presented to the little Victoria--the heir-apparent to the crown as things