Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/127

 I07 WORLD OP WOMEN aUEENS WOKLD no» L— Queen marp or Cngland QQ-'V/^EUL, r^ the stroke of midnight of April 26, ^^ 1867, in the room at Kensington Palace tvhich had once been the nursery of Queen Victoria, the consort of King George V. was born. Her uncle, the Duke of Cambridge, who was in the palace at the time, placed it on record in his diary that the little girl was a " charming, healthy little child, with powerful lungs." How proud the mother — Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck — was of her daughter may be judged from the following delightful de- scription which she wrote shortly after the child's birth : " She really is as sweet and engaging a child as you can wish to see; full of life and fun, and playful as a kitten, with the deepest blue eyes imagin- able ; quantities of fair hair, a tiny rosebud of a mouth, a lovely com- plexion (pink and white), and a most perfect figure ! In a word, a model of a baby ! " And yet Queen Mary once de- scribed herself as being " very naughty, very interesting." It is scarcely surprising that the Duchess was proud of her daughter. She was her first-born, and proved to be the only girl of the family, three boys being subsequently orn to the Duchess. Qween Mary's mother was singularly popular. As Princess Mary of Cambridge, her geniality, kindness of heart, and the deep Queen n^arp happy, and very un- interest she took in the welfare of the masses, had endeared her to the public. This popu- larity was enormously enhanced, however, when she refused a diplomatic marriage with the Emperor of the French, and made a love match with Prince Francis of Teck, the only son of the then Duke Alexander of Wiirtem- berg. The young Prince Francis of Teck came to England ini 866 to visit the late King Edward — then, of course, Prince of Wales — whom he had met on the Con- tinent, and it was at a dinner at St. James's Palace that he first met the Princess Mary Adelaide. Four weeks later, while walking with her in Kew Gardens, near Kew Cottage, where she lived with her wi- dowed mother, he proposed to the Princess, and was ac- cepted. The wedding took place in Kew Church, after some sixteen weeks'acquaint- anc e. and Queen Victoria was present at the ceremony. As a rule Royalty marry young, but the marriage of Queen Mar}''s mother was an exception, for the bride was thirty-three, and the bridegroom twenty- nine. It proved an ideal union, however, and the happiness of the couple was complete when their baby girl was bom the follow- ing year. Two months after the birth the christening took place privately at Kensington Palace. Archbishop Longley, of Canterbury, officiated, and the little Princess received IV, &• D. Dcrwnfy