Page:T.R.H., the Prince and Princess of Wales by Whates, Harry Richard.djvu/26

Rh stories of adventure and of seamanship were told to the two little Princes by one of their parents' most distinguished and most charming visitors, the Rev. Charles Kingsley. The author of 'Westward Ho!' delighted in the society of children; he seems to have soon become on most affectionate terms with the young Princes, and when he lay dying at Eversley there arrived from Sandringham two pathetic little notes written by his young friends, telling of their grief at hearing of his illness and wishing him a good recovery.

Even in those early days the general public took great interest in the personality of the Prince and Princess of Wales's second son, and an uncontradicted story was current which throws on the Prince's character perhaps the most vivid sidelight of all. The story goes that on one occasion, when stopping at Osborne with his Royal grandmother, Prince George behaved while lunching with Her Majesty much in the way that less exalted young people do when away from the restraining influence of home guardianship. Queen Victoria, who was accustomed to the utmost deference from her own children, first tried gentle admonition, but, Rh