Page:King Edward VII, his life & reign; the record of a noble career 1.djvu/27

 Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures. We find, on enquiry, that the drink in question was made up of ale or wine mingled with sugar, spices, and bread, and served warm, to a woman after childbirth, and to the gossips who gathered around her.

In connection with the event we also note that the Queen's mother, the Duchess of Kent, who had returned specially from Germany, was present at the birth; that a Privy Council was quickly assembled at Whitehall after the event, and an order was issued for a form of thanksgiving to be prepared by the Archbishop of Canterbury, "for use in all churches and chapels in England and Wales, and in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed"; that the nurse appointed to suckle the Prince was Mrs. Brough, formerly a housemaid at Claremont, and at this time wife of a sailmaker in the Isle of Wight, and that she received for her important and, in the case of a sovereign whose public duties absolutely precluded her from this maternal function, indispensable service, the munificent fee of £1000. This was double the sum paid to the nurse of the Princess Royal. One of the Prince's nurses was Mrs. Hull, who became a great favourite in the royal family, and was always known as "dear old May". Under this name she was mentioned on the beautiful wreath sent to be placed on her coffin by King Edward and his Queen, then Prince and Princess of Wales, when she died at Windsor in 1888, at a good old age.

Amidst the general festivities which celebrated the event, an act of royal clemency took place in the Queen's command to the Home Secretary to commute the punishments of well-behaved convicts, and to grant liberty at once to any deserving men who were on board the prison hulks.

The Queen made a rapid recovery, and on November 21, the first anniversary of the Princess Royal's birthday, we learn from the royal journal that "Albert brought in dearest little Pussy (as "Vicky" was also called) in such a smart merino dress, trimmed with blue, which mamma had given her, and placed her on my bed, seating himself next to her. And as my precious, invaluable Albert sat there. and our little love between us, I felt quite moved