Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/67

 toria owes the addition to her title, made in 1876, "Empress of India." It was bestowed after the Prince of Wales had returned from a brilliant tour in that magnificent and populous portion of Her Majesty's possessions. Though received without enthusiasm by sober-minded Englishmen, it still bears testimony to the fact that the destinies of millions of men of widely different race, language and religion, are intimately connected with the life of a fair daughter of the West.

At the commencement of her reign Scotland was practically almost as remote as India is now. In the autumn of 1842 the Queen and Prince Albert made their first visit to Edinburgh, going in a royal yacht towed by a steamship, because the railroad communications between London and Edinburgh were not yet complete. It was not until 1855 that the Queen took possession of the new Balmoral Castle, which she built in the Highlands, and with which her name is so closely associated. Here, to a certain extent, she laid aside the cares of state and the burdensome duties of royalty. Sometimes she ventured to travel in a kind of disguise, being then addressed as Lady Churchill. She says in her journal: "We were always in the habit of conversing with the Highlanders with whom we came so much in contact in the Highlands. The Prince highly appreciated the good breeding, simplicity and intelligence which makes it so pleasant, and even instructive, to talk to them." Since the Prince's death the Queen has shown even greater fondness for the seclusion of the Highlands and the society of the simple people. Another favorite residence of the Queen has been Osborne, on the Isle of Wight.

Queen Victoria always gave close attention to the education of her children, repeating in their case with greater advantages, yet with some drawbacks, the systematic training which she had herself undergone, and whose benefits she had learned to prize. To the royal children a Swiss cottage