Coburg would sustain me, were it not for a proposition of papa's which makes me shudder, namely, to accompany him to Carlsbad." Alluding then playfully to the advice given him, that he should "accustom himself more to society," and "pay more attention to the ladies," which, "as an occupation," he particularly disliked,* he adds: "I had, on the contrary, formed the finest plans for the study of the English language and history, for which the quiet of the Rosenau would have been particularly well suited. (Ich hatte dagegen die schönsten Pläne zu Englischen Sprach- und Geschichts-studien gemacht, zu welchen mir die Stille der Rosenau sehr zu Statten kommen konnte.)"

The Prince's love of music has been already noticed, and the singing-parties at Bonn described by Prince Löwensteint will scarcely be forgotten.

During his last visit to Gotha he had formed a singing society, in which he himself bore part, and the following letter, written during the stay with his brother at Dresden, which he had announced his intention of making, shows the interest he continued to take in it:

TO CONCERT-MASTER SPAETH.

"MY DEAR CONCERT-MASTER, You will have received through Privy Councilor Florschütz the last parcel of my contributions to the singing society got together by me at Gotha.

"I send you to-day Beethoven's much-wished-for and *Memorandum by the Queen. † See Chapter VIII., p. 149.

For original of letter, see Appendix C.

highly admired Praise of Music. As parts of it only could be got here, I had to write to Leipzig for it, which accounts for your only now receiving it. You will find the instrumental music written out in parts, as well as that for the vocal performers, which, by a lucky mistake of the shopkeeper, is in duplicate. The whole comes more expensive than I at first expected. It will amount to a sum of about sixty florins, showing that we shall not be able to make any important acquisitions out of our funds.

"You may now hand over this cantata to the library of the singing society. I would only ask you to send me back the music for the piano-forte (den Klavierauszug) after the concert has taken place.

"I offer myself for the bass solo in the cantata, which, though not important, seems to be very interesting. It will, perhaps, give you some trouble to find two good sopranos. For the part of the violin obligato, which is extremely beautiful, Eichhorn will suit very well.

"Now good-by, my dear concert-master. Send me some account to Carlsbad of the rehearsals of Handel and Nencini. Ever yours sincerely,

"Dresden, July 23d, 1839."

ALBERT.

After leaving Dresden, the much-dreaded visit to Carlsbad was paid, and he writes thence to Baron Stockmar on the 9th of August, complaining of having been asked to go to Reinhardsbrunn immediately after returning to Coburg, which, as an interruption to his proposed course of study, he disliked as much as the visit to Carlsbad. His going to Reinhardsbrunn, however, was not insisted

upon, for on the 6th of September he writes to the Baron from the Rosenau to announce his arrival there, "having at last carried my point, in order to enjoy some days of quiet and regular occupation."

The stay at the Rosenau was, however, short, for early in October he had again to leave it, to pay that eventful visit to England, which will be the subject of the next chapter.

H 2

CHAPTER X.

1839.

Visit to England.-The Marriage of the Queen and Prince settled. THE time was now approaching when the marriage, to the possibility of which the grandmother of the Queen and Prince, the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, had so fondly looked forward when they were both children, and which, for the last year, had been the object of such anxious wishes and such sanguine expectations, was to be finally settled.

From a very early period the hope expressed by the Dowager Duchess of Coburg had assumed the form of a definite idea, that might some day be realized; and the Prince used to relate that "when he was a child of three years old, his nurse always told him that he should marry the Queen, and that when he first thought of marrying at all, he always thought of her."*

As the children grew up this idea was warmly encouraged by the King of the Belgians, from whom, indeed, the Queen first heard of it. He had always taken the most affectionate and parental interest in her welfare and happiness, and she herself ever looked up to him with the love and respect of a daughter. Baron Stockmar also had early formed the highest opinion of the young Prince, and his letters to the King of the Bel*The Queen's Journal, June 23d, 1840.

gians, written in the spring of 1836, express his strong conviction that no prince whom he knew was so well qualified to make the Queen happy, or fitly to sustain the arduous and difficult position of Prince Consort in England.*

"How this early promise of distinction was fulfilled," the Queen says in the memorandum from which this account is taken, "how immeasurably all the most san-. guine expectations were surpassed—how the king's fondest hopes were realized ten thousand-fold-and how the fearful blow which took him from us put an end to all this happiness, and cut short his brilliant and useful career, we all know!”

But the idea of such a marriage met also with much opposition, and the late King William IV. did every thing in his power to discourage it. No less than five other marriages had been contemplated for the young Princess; and the king, though he never mentioned the subject to the Princess herself, was especially anxious to bring about an alliance between her and the late Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, brother to the present King of Holland. In his anxiety to effect this object, he did every thing he could (though, as has been seen, ineffectually) to prevent the Duke of Coburg's visit to England in 1836, when he came over with his sons and spent nearly

* Memorandum by the Queen, March, 1864.

NOTE BY THE QUEEN.-Queen Adelaide, in later years, said to the Queen, that if she had told the king that it was her own earnest wish to marry her cousin, and that her happiness depended on it, he would at once have given up his opposition to it, as he was very fond of, and always very kind to, his niece.