THE DEATH OF THE GREAT QUEEN.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sia,—In the article (Spectator, January 26th) which has the above heading you write thus : " Queen Victoria was not a woman of genius, and possessed little personal beauty." Both of these statements I should be inclined to challenge. But with respect to the second only can I give any information. On that point I have to say that Queen Victoria was by all acknowledged to be a pretty woman when she appeared at Cambridge with her handsome husband to celebrate his success in a contested election for the Chancellorship, which he would have lost (for his transcendent merits were then un- recognised) if the Johnians, the supporters of Lord Powys, had not polled out their votes, chiefly clerical, too rapidly. And she was still prettier when she appeared for the first time on the terrace at Windsor as Queen. I am one of the few living who were present on that occasion, and capable of giving evidence as to the feelings which prevailed. The admiration, I assert with confidence, was universal. And as her Majesty had the extraordinary faculty of causing every one standing in a crowd scanned by her to suppose that she had her eye on each one, many of my contemporaries at Eton were inclined to fancy that they might be destined to attain that position at Court which the Earl of Leicester would have reached if the Cecil of another Queen, not to be compared with her whom we mourn, had not exercised a commanding and salutary influence. For such 'guardianship there has been no need in our days, either in the case of the Royal maiden or the Imperial widow.—I am, Sir, &c., [We never meant to suggest that the Queen was not possessed of that personal charm which wins hearts more securely than beauty. That charm she had in no small degree. What we desired to point out was that her attraction did not lie in the mere beauty which has made certain Queens renowned, and has been the somewhat superficial cause of popular devotion.—En. Spectator.]
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