d word for the little blind girl.
She was also a special favourite with the College servants, and led, as
it were, a charmed life, watched over by every one, and unconscious of
their care.

All memory of vision seems to have faded from her before she left the
sick-room; but, taught by those around her, she soon began to take an
imaginary interest in colour, and a very real one in form and texture.
An old nurse is still alive who remembers making a pink frock for her
when she was a child, her delight at its being pink, and her pleasure in
stroking down the folds. In 1835 or 1836 the young Princess Victoria,
with her mother the Duchess of Kent, visited Oxford. Bessie was amongst
those who went to "see" them enter the city. Returning home she
exclaimed, "Oh, mamma, I have seen the Duchess of Kent, and she had on a
brown silk dress." The language is startling; but how else could the
blind child express the impression she had received except by saying "I
have seen." Throughout life she continued to say, "I have seen," and
throughout life the words continued to represent a reality as clear and
true to the blind as the facts of sight are to those who have eyes.

Very early Bessie knew the songs of birds and delighted in them. Very
early also she learned to love flowers. She liked to have them
described, and to hear the minutest particulars about them. Nothing made
her so happy as to gather them for herself. There were fields near
Hincksey which the Gilberts called "The Happy Valley." Thither they
resorted in the spring with baskets to gather forget-me-nots, the
flowering rush, and other blossoms, which they prized highly. In all
these expeditions Bessie was happy, and a source of happiness to others.
The tender and reverent way in which she examined a flower, the little
fluttering fingers touching every petal and bruising none, was a lesson
never to be forgotten.

Her youthful admiration of Wordsworth was chiefly based upon his love of
flowers, but also upon personal knowledge. When she was about ten years
old, Wordsworth went to Oxford to receive the honorary degree of D.C.L.
from the University. He stayed with the Principal, in that large spare
room we know of, and won Bessie's heart the first day by telling at the
dinner-table how he had almost leapt off the coach in Bagley Wood to
gather the little blue veronica. But she had a better reason for
remembering that visit. One day she was in the drawing-room alone, and
Words