Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/126

 in his title had been abandoned. Stockmar's independence of Court forms and ceremonies was illustrated by his habit of slipping away after his numerous and prolonged visits to the Queen and her husband, without telling any one he was going or bidding farewell to his Royal hosts. They would come to his rooms to find him gone. The same disposition was also shown towards the close of his life by his entirely ceasing to reply to the Prince Consort's constant letters. Stockmar, though not by any means very old, had many of the infirmities of age, and was disinclined to write; therefore he did not write, though the Prince frequently begs quite pathetically for "one little line."

In the earlier years of the Queen's married life Stockmar watched her development and that of her husband with eyes partly parental and partly pedagogic. He wrote to Bunsen in 1847:—

"'The Prince has made great strides of late. … Place weighty reasons before him, and at once he takes a just and rational view, be the subject what it may. … He will not and then run against a post and bruise his shins, but a man cannot become an experienced soldier without having been in battle and getting a few blows. … His temper is thoroughly free from passion, and he has so keen and sure an eye that he is not likely to lose his way and fall into mistakes. His mind becomes every day more active, and he devotes the greater part of his time to business, without a murmur. The relations between husband and wife are all one could desire. The Queen also improves greatly. She gains daily in judgment and experience. The candor, truthfulness, honesty, and fairness with which she judges of men and things are really delightful, and the impartial self-knowledge with which she speaks of herself is thoroughly charming.'"

It was Stockmar's habit, rarely departed from between 1840 to 1856, to spend the winter months of each year with the Queen and Prince, and the reset of the year with his own family in Coburg. His political activity and interests were vigilantly kept up from his own home, but he compares the outlook on politics