Page:The life and times of King Edward VII by Whates, Harry Richard 1.djvu/33

15 HIS FIRST CRUISE ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. CORNWALL. ten years ; and its general employment would have been further delayed but for the encouragement given to the new process by the Court, the members of the Royal Family being among the first to submit themselves to the camera. Wherever the Court went, however, the children also went, and the young Prince and his brothers and sisters became known in person to an ever-widening circle. Neither the Queen nor the Prince Consort could do without the society of the nursery ; they were both devoted to their children, to whose claims for their intimate and constant companion- ship they paid a most generous regard. Affairs of State and social life were not allowed .to conflict with their parental obligations. The principle they followed was that a child should grow up with the father and mother that family life and the happiness of the family circle should be cultivated not less assiduously and faithfully than the discharge of duties in the world outside the home. Thus, they shared their recreations with the little ones, and spent their brief spells of leisure with them, and in ways such as were most suitable for the children rather than for themselves. In 1846 they took the Prince and the Princess Royal on a cruise in the Channel in the Royal yacht the Victoria and Albert. They started from Osborne, whither the Court had removed from lyondon, in the first week in August, and after touching at Weymouth, Mount Edgcumbe, and visit- ing the Channel Islands, cruised about the coast of Cornwall. The children were shown L/and's End, St. Michael's Mount, and the summer glories of the Scilly Isles. Everywhere they were received with delighted interest, and there was even more curiosity to see the young Prince and Princess than the Royal parents. " Boats crowded round us in all direc- tions," wrote the Queen in one of her letters from off the Cornish coast, " and when Bertie showed himself the people shouted : ' Three cheers for the Duke of Cornwall ' " a title naturally dearer to them than that of Prince of Wales. " The Corporation of Penrhyn were on board, and very anxious to see the Duke of