It soon became clear that, in the former respect, the Prince bore a very strong resemblance to his handsome father; while it was the anxious aim of his royal parents to give him such a training as should also extend this similitude to his qualities of mind and heart. It is probable that no royal prince was ever educated with greater care than was the heir to the sceptre of the British Empire; and if the Prince Consort, "the Prince prolonger of our royal line," had done nothing more to deserve the lasting gratitude of the British ple, he would be entitled to.an enduring place in their recollection for the constant solicitude with which—himself the most cultured and conscientious of men—ho ever tended the formation of the character of his eldest son, with all its possibilities of good and evil, for the interests of his great inheritance. It boded well for the future character of this royal heir thi when a year old, though plagued a little with his teeth, he stood "strong upon his logs," to quote his father's own words, "with a calm, clear, bright expression of face." He was, in fact, avery fine, healthy, affectionate child, possessing in a high degree the mens sano in corpora sano.
When the little Prince was made aware of the destiny in. store for him, when he was first-infamied of who and what he was, and what he thought of the revelation, is not known; but in any case his childhood was passed ina state of the utmost simplicity, nay, almost severity, tempered by the exercise of those domestic affections which have never found higher expression than they did in the family circle of the Queen, who was at once the pattern of a wife and the perfection of a mother. In fact, no man ever hada better example of every personal virtue and every family ce than was set the Prince of Wales by his parents. The first governess of the Royal children was Lady Lyttleton (a sister of Mrs. Gladstone) who had been Lady in Waiting to the Queen; and she it was who had the mental and marsi training of *'Bertie""—the pet family name for the Prince—until he was seven years old though indeed the Queen herself—who had laid it down that, without interruption to their lessons, they should be as much as posite with their parents "—was wont to hear her children say their prayers at her own knee.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.