IN THE DAYS OF QUEEN VICTORIA BY EVA MARCH TAPPAN, PH.D. AUTHOR OF "IN THE DAYS OF ALFRED THE Great,” “In the Days ILLUSTRATED FROM FAMOUS PAINTINGS AND ENGRAVINGS BOSTON: BUHR/ GRAD Gift 03/14/2005 97437 PREFACE To her own people Queen Victoria was England itself, the emblem of the realm and of the empire. To millions who were not her people the words "the Queen" do not bring even yet the thought of the well-beloved woman who now shares the English throne, but rather of her who for nearly sixty-four years wore the crown of Great Britain and gave freely to her country of the gift that was in her. Other women have been controlled by devotion to duty, other women have been moved to action by readiness of sympathy, but few have united so harmoniously a strong determination to do the right with a never-failing gentleness, a childlike sympathy with unyielding strength of purpose. Happy is the realm that can count on the list of its sovereigns one whose career was so |