ded in state from Westminister in a Royal
barge rowed by watermen. All London turned out to see the youthful
royalties--"Puss and the boy" as the Queen called them in her Diary--and
Lady Lyttelton in a letter to Mrs. Gladstone has left a charming picture
of the pleasure expressed by the little Prince at his reception and at
the various quaint customs revived for the occasion. It was at this
time that Miss Louisa Alcott, author of _Little Women_, wrote home that
the Prince was "a yellow-haired laddie, very like his mother. Fanny and
I nodded and waived as he passed and he openly winked his boyish eye at
us, for Fanny with her yellow curls waving looked rather rowdy and the
poor little Prince wanted some fun." Two years later, on May 1st, the
youthful Heir to the Throne assisted the Queen at the brilliant
ceremonies attending the opening of the first and great Exhibition of
that year.

EARLY EDUCATION OF THE PRINCE

Meanwhile, the important matter of education had been occupying the
attention of the Queen and her husband. After careful inquiry during
nearly a year the Rev. Henry Mildred Birch was selected and on April 10,
1844, the Prince Consort wrote, in a private and family letter, that
"Bertie will be given over in a few weeks into the hands of a tutor whom
we have found in Mr. Birch, a young, good-looking, amiable man who was a
tutor at Eton and who not only himself took the highest honours at
Cambridge but whose pupils have also won special distinction. It is an
important step and God's blessing be upon it, for upon the good
education of princes and especially of those who are destined to govern,
the welfare of the world in these days very greatly depends." This
gentleman acted until 1852 when, upon the advice of Sir James Stephen,
the appointment was given to Mr. Frederick W. Gibbs, who retained it for
the succeeding six years. In special lines of study such as Art and
Music there were various instructors for the young Prince as well as for
the rest of the family--the Rev. Charles Tarver being his classical
tutor, Sir Edwin Landseer an instructor in the art of painting and Mr.
E. H. Corbould his teacher in water-colours.

The descriptions of the Prince of Wales in these childhood days vary
greatly; probably in natural accordance with the variable temperament
of his age. Lady Lyttelton who, perhaps, knew him best, described him to
Mr. Greville in 1852--though that interesting _litterateur_ is not
always reliabl