Page:T.R.H., the Prince and Princess of Wales by Whates, Harry Richard.djvu/21

His Birth and Boyhood. Although the first few years of Prince George's life proved on the whole very free from either illness or untoward adventure, yet within a month of his birth he ran a serious risk of being burnt to death, for one night a fire broke out on the nursery floor of Marlborough House. Fortunately it was discovered before it had made great progress, though the then Prince of Wales himself helped to rip up the whole of the floor of the royal nursery, before it was found out where the mischief had begun. The Princess and her two little sons had of course been quickly moved to a place of complete safety.

Perhaps this incident was what made both their Royal Highnesses quite determined never to separate themselves from their children whenever it was possible to take them about with them. Within two years of Prince George's birth we hear of his accompanying his parents to Dunrobin, the whole Royal party having to drive a distance of twenty-five miles before they could reach the then isolated residence of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. Again, when the Prince and Princess paid their yearly visit to Denmark, their sons, and in due course