She seems to have been a child of simple, homely tastes, for in 1842,
when Queen, she writes to her Uncle Leopold from Claremont, where she is
visiting, with her husband and little daughter: "This place brings back
recollections of the happiest days of my otherwise dull childhood--days
when I experienced such kindness from you, dearest uncle; Victoria plays
with my old bricks, and I see her running and jumping in the flower-
garden, as old (though I feel still _little_) Victoria of former days
used to do."
CHAPTER VI.
The Princess opens the Victoria Park at Bath--Becoming used to Public
Curiosity--Secret of her Destiny revealed to her--Royal Ball on her
Thirteenth Birthday--At the Ascot Races--Picture by N. P. Willis--
Anecdotes--Painful Scene at the King's last Birthday Dinner.
When she was eleven years old, the Princess opened the Victoria Park at
Bath. She began the opening business thus early, and has kept it up
pretty diligently for fifty years--parks, expositions, colleges,
exchanges, law courts, bridges, docks, art schools, and hospitals. Her
sons and daughters are also kept busy at the same sort of work. Indeed
these are almost the only openings for young men of the royal family for
active service, now that crusades and invasions of France have gone out
of fashion.
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