123456789101112131415161718192021222324

Queen Victoria has for a time laid aside her sovereign

state and retired into private life ; so strict is the seclusion at Balmoral Castle. The district is wild, and its native animals, sparse and shy, will task Prince Albert's hunting hardihood. Even the shifting of the "Highland home" at each visit, must fail to prevent a sense of sameness so much as a visit to Ireland might have done : but there will be a satisfaction to Queen Victoria's conjugal feelings in reflecting, when her husband is out, that he is really hunting, and not being hunted, as is so often the case with distinguished persons in Ireland, where the sportsmen are the poor peasantry.

Next page