rloo Place, and also in the
soldier-boys' school at Chelsea.

Therefore the birth of a daughter to the Duke of Kent, the fourth son,
at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819, was an event of no small
importance. The room in which the Princess was born was one on the first
floor, just below the King's Privy Chamber, and it is marked by a brass
plate. This is not among the state apartments shown to the public, but
the little room called the Nursery, in which the young Princess played,
and her small bedroom adjoining, lie in the regular circuit made by
visitors through the rooms.

The Duke died less than a year after his daughter's birth, so there were
no small brothers or sisters to share the Princess's childhood; but her
stepsister, Princess Feodore, her mother's child, was much attached to
her, and might often be seen walking or driving with her in the Gardens.
The Nursery has a secondary association, for the Duke and Duchess of
Teck lived for some time at Kensington Palace, and it was in this room
that their daughter, the present Princess of Wales, was born.

The chief objects in the room are the dolls' house and other toys, all
of the plainest description, with which Princess Victoria played as a
child. There was no extravagance in her bringing up. Her mother was the
wisest of women, and made no attempt to force the young intellect to
tasks beyond its powers, nor did she spoil the child by undue
indulgence. Early rising, morning walks, simple dinner, and games,
constituted the days that passed rapidly in the seclusion of Kensington.
When the young Princess had turned the age of five, her lessons began
under the superintendence of Fraeulein Lehzen, the governess of Princess
Feodore, who was afterwards raised to the peerage as Baroness Lehzen.
Though the second of the children of the Duke of Clarence had died
before Victoria was three years old, and thus her chance of the throne
was greatly increased, she was not made aware of her prospects until
much later. The Princess Sophia, daughter of George III., lived in
Church Street close by, at York House, and the Duke of Sussex, a younger
son of George III., lived with his morganatic wife, called the Duchess
of Inverness, in a set of apartments in the Palace. The rooms they
occupied are those now tenanted by the Duke and Duchess of Argyll; thus
aunts and an uncle were constantly sharing the simple pleasures of the
little family circle.

The singularly plain little bedroom ne