he young Princess, and this gave
him an opportunity of declaring his love.

These extracts, printed from the Queen's Journals, were intended at
first for presentation only to members of the Royal Family and Her
Majesty's intimate friends, especially to those who had accompanied
her during her tours. It was, however, suggested to the Queen that
her people would take even as keen an interest in these simple records
of family life, especially as they had already shown sincere and
ready sympathy with her personal joys and sorrows.

"The book," its editor says, "is mainly confined to the natural
expressions of a mind rejoicing in the beauties of nature, and
throwing itself, with a delight rendered keener by the rarity of its
opportunities, into the enjoyment of a life removed, for the moment,
from the pressure of public cares."

It is of particular interest because here the Queen records from day
to day her thoughts and her impressions in the simplest language;
here she can be seen less as a queen than as a wife and mother. Her
interest in her whole household and in all those immediately around
her is evident on almost every page. To quote again: "She is, indeed,
the Mother of her People, taking the deepest interest in all that
concerns them, without respect of persons, from the highest to the
lowest."

As a picture of the Royal Court in those days this is exceedingly
valuable, for it shows what an example the Queen and her husband were
setting to the whole nation in the simple life they led in their
Highland home.

That the old people especially loved her can be seen from the
greetings and blessings she received in the cottages she used to
visit. "May the Lord attend ye with mirth and with joy; may He ever
be with ye in this world, and when ye leave it."

[Illustration: Queen Victoria in the Highlands
G. Amato]

The Queen was never weary of the beauties of the Highlands, and quotes
the following lines from a poem by Arthur Hugh Clough to describe
'God's glorious works':

The gorgeous bright October,
Then when brackens are changed, and heather blooms are faded,
And amid russet of heather and fern, green trees are bonnie;
Alders are green, and oaks; the rowan scarlet and yellow;
One great glory of broad gold pieces appears the aspen,
And the jewels of gold that were hung in the hair of the birch tree;
Pendulous, here and there, her coronet, necklace, and earrings,
C