Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Review.
We cannot go through the whole history of the six years which are dealt with by Vol . II . We must all admire the clear and epigrammatic manner in which Mr . Martin deals with the history of this very eventful and exciting period . It is sufficient to suy that these six years saw the
Continental Revolutions of 1 S 4 S , the rise of the second Empire in France , the Austro Hungarian War , and the first International Exhibition . It was a time of
ferment and political chaos on the Continent—and at home , when this country , believing itself menaced by the new Napoleon , set itself to reorganise its military forces . It was during this period , also , that the national jealousy of the influence which the Prince Consort was
supposed to have in councils of the Queen made him for a short time the object of suspicion and unpopularity . This volume dealing , therefore , more with political matters than the first , has less domestic interest . It opens with a review of the
state of Europe after the fall of Louis Philippe , and the events winch led to the fli ght of the bourgeois king to England . The friendship between the Queen and the Orleans family has been impaired by the Guizot intrigues , which led to the Spanish
marriages , but in their misfortune the duplicity which had undoubtedly characterised the conduct of Louis Philippe was forgotten , and they were received by the Royal Family of England as if no misfortune had occurred . The Queen at this time writes : —
" Little did I dream that this would be the way we should meet again and see each other all in the most friendl y way . That the Duchess of Montpcnsier , about whom we have been quarrelling for the last year and a halfshould be here as a
, fugitive , and dressed in the clothes I sent her , and should come to thank me for my kindness , is a reverse of fortune which no novelist could devise , and upon which one could moralise for ever . "
Passing over the Chartist fiasco , we come to this little and historical fact—that it was in 1848 that the Queen first visited that " Highland Home , " which has always been so cherished by herself and the Royal Family . The followiug are the facts of the acquisition of Balmoral , as
communicated to Mr . Martin by her Majest y , and are told iu the following extracts ¦ . — " The attention of the royal physician Sir James Clark , had been called b y his son , Mr . ( now Sir ) John Clark , to the fine air and other attractions of this part of
Deeside as a summer and autumn residence . Having satisfied himself on these points , he had urged the Queen and Prince to acquire the lease of the Balmoral estate from the Earl of Aberdeen , into whose hands it had come upon the death of Sir
Robert Gordon in 1847 . The lease was only 38 years from the year 1 S 36 , but the property was found to possess so completely the good qualities which had led to its being selected that the Prince purchased the fee simple of it in 1852 from
tho trustees of the Earl of Fife . A part from the beauty of the surrounding scenery , the dry , bracing character of the air was precisely what , in Sir James Clark ' s opinion , was most essential for the peculiar constitutions of the Queen and
Prince . The whole of Deeside , from Charleston to Aboyne to Castleton of Braemar , he held to be one of the driest districts of Scotland , and especially of the Hig hlands , and no spot along the valley to be more favoured in this respect than
Balmoral . The causes of this were twofold —• first , tho sandy , gravelly nature both of the lowlands and of the greater part of the surrounding hills ; and , next , the fact that the rain-clouds from the sea break and
discharge themselves upon the range of mountains which lies between Braemai and the Atlantic before they reach Deeside . " On the 16 th of September , Sir James Clark writes : — " We have been here a week . The
weather is beautiful , aud the place , as regards healthiness of site and beauty of scenery , exceeding my expectations , great as they were . " The first impressions made by the p lace upon the Queen and Prince have been
graphically described in the " Leaves from Her Majesty ' s Journal . " Writing on the 11 th September to the Dowager-Duchess of Cobourg , the Prince says : — " We have withdrawn for a short time into a complete mountain solitude , where one rarely sees a human face , where the snow already covers the mountain , tops ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Review.
We cannot go through the whole history of the six years which are dealt with by Vol . II . We must all admire the clear and epigrammatic manner in which Mr . Martin deals with the history of this very eventful and exciting period . It is sufficient to suy that these six years saw the
Continental Revolutions of 1 S 4 S , the rise of the second Empire in France , the Austro Hungarian War , and the first International Exhibition . It was a time of
ferment and political chaos on the Continent—and at home , when this country , believing itself menaced by the new Napoleon , set itself to reorganise its military forces . It was during this period , also , that the national jealousy of the influence which the Prince Consort was
supposed to have in councils of the Queen made him for a short time the object of suspicion and unpopularity . This volume dealing , therefore , more with political matters than the first , has less domestic interest . It opens with a review of the
state of Europe after the fall of Louis Philippe , and the events winch led to the fli ght of the bourgeois king to England . The friendship between the Queen and the Orleans family has been impaired by the Guizot intrigues , which led to the Spanish
marriages , but in their misfortune the duplicity which had undoubtedly characterised the conduct of Louis Philippe was forgotten , and they were received by the Royal Family of England as if no misfortune had occurred . The Queen at this time writes : —
" Little did I dream that this would be the way we should meet again and see each other all in the most friendl y way . That the Duchess of Montpcnsier , about whom we have been quarrelling for the last year and a halfshould be here as a
, fugitive , and dressed in the clothes I sent her , and should come to thank me for my kindness , is a reverse of fortune which no novelist could devise , and upon which one could moralise for ever . "
Passing over the Chartist fiasco , we come to this little and historical fact—that it was in 1848 that the Queen first visited that " Highland Home , " which has always been so cherished by herself and the Royal Family . The followiug are the facts of the acquisition of Balmoral , as
communicated to Mr . Martin by her Majest y , and are told iu the following extracts ¦ . — " The attention of the royal physician Sir James Clark , had been called b y his son , Mr . ( now Sir ) John Clark , to the fine air and other attractions of this part of
Deeside as a summer and autumn residence . Having satisfied himself on these points , he had urged the Queen and Prince to acquire the lease of the Balmoral estate from the Earl of Aberdeen , into whose hands it had come upon the death of Sir
Robert Gordon in 1847 . The lease was only 38 years from the year 1 S 36 , but the property was found to possess so completely the good qualities which had led to its being selected that the Prince purchased the fee simple of it in 1852 from
tho trustees of the Earl of Fife . A part from the beauty of the surrounding scenery , the dry , bracing character of the air was precisely what , in Sir James Clark ' s opinion , was most essential for the peculiar constitutions of the Queen and
Prince . The whole of Deeside , from Charleston to Aboyne to Castleton of Braemar , he held to be one of the driest districts of Scotland , and especially of the Hig hlands , and no spot along the valley to be more favoured in this respect than
Balmoral . The causes of this were twofold —• first , tho sandy , gravelly nature both of the lowlands and of the greater part of the surrounding hills ; and , next , the fact that the rain-clouds from the sea break and
discharge themselves upon the range of mountains which lies between Braemai and the Atlantic before they reach Deeside . " On the 16 th of September , Sir James Clark writes : — " We have been here a week . The
weather is beautiful , aud the place , as regards healthiness of site and beauty of scenery , exceeding my expectations , great as they were . " The first impressions made by the p lace upon the Queen and Prince have been
graphically described in the " Leaves from Her Majesty ' s Journal . " Writing on the 11 th September to the Dowager-Duchess of Cobourg , the Prince says : — " We have withdrawn for a short time into a complete mountain solitude , where one rarely sees a human face , where the snow already covers the mountain , tops ,