Gotha, with its magnificent lime-trees, and fine pine-woods, situated close under the highest of the wooded hills that give a character of its own to all this district, though not so dear to the young Princes as the Rosenau, the scene of their earliest and happiest associations, is perhaps even more charmingly situated, and affords even more temptation to the excursions the Princes delighted in; for here the hills and valleys assume their wildest form, and a succession of beautiful and romantic glens, with their strange mixture of wood and rock, gave a wide scope to their spirit of enterprise and discovery. The brothers were never tired of exploring the inmost recesses of these interesting valleys; and in June 1829, undertook a lengthened excursion, making a ten days' pedestrian tour through the whole district.

Natural History had always great attraction for both Princes, and it was during such excursions that they collected the specimens of various sorts which they afterwards brought together, and from which the Museum at Coburg, known as the "Ernest-Albert Mu"seum," grew up to its present dimensions. To

3 NOTE BY THE QUEEN.-It is now (1864) removed to the Festung, where rooms have been built on purpose for it.

the end of his life the Prince continued to manifest the warmest interest in this Museum by many valuable additions which he neglected no opportunity of making to it.*

When he grew old enough to join in the sports of the field, the Prince often carried his gun on such expeditions. But though by no means indifferent to such sports and an excellent shot, he scarcely inherited his father's love for them. In later years, indeed, he seemed to engage in them rather as a means of taking a certain amount of exercise, than from any great liking for them in themselves. The only sport which he may be said to have engaged in for itself, was that of deer-stalking, and in this, the wildness of the scenery and the interest attaching to the study, which it promoted, of the habits of the animal, added largely to the pleasure of the chase.

"The active life which the Prince thus "led in the open air," says his tutor, "strength"ened alike the mind and the body. His "thirst for knowledge was kept alive and in

NOTE BY THE QUEEN.-The Queen continues these contributions to it, and watches over it with the greatest interest.

5 Memorandum by M. Florschütz.

dulged, while under the influence of his bodily

exercises he grew up into an active and "healthy boy."

There seems no particular notice of the years 1833 and '34, which were doubtless spent in the usual round between Coburg and Gotha.

And the only letter we have to quote is the following short note of usual congratulation on the Prince's birth-day from his grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Gotha.

"Gotha, Aug. 24, 1834.

Accept for the birth-day of our beloved "Albert, my most heartfelt wishes. May God preserve this angel to us and ever keep him "in the right path."

The Princes were now in their seventeenth and sixteenth years respectively, and the elder at least had arrived at the age at which it is customary in Germany to go through the ceremony of confirmation. But the younger was, his tutor relates, "of a singularly earnest and

thoughtful nature,” and as up to this time they had gone hand in hand in all their studies, it was not wished that any separation should take place between them in this, the first important step in their young lives, and it was therefore

determined that "they should make their public "profession of faith together.""

It will be seen in a future chapter that a similar course was pursued when the Hereditary Prince came of age, and that Prince Albert was, by a special act of the legislature, declared to be of age at the same time as his brother.

On Palm Sunday 1835, the young Princes were accordingly confirmed, and Mr. Florschütz speaks warmly of the earnestness with which Prince Albert prepared himself for the solemn ceremony, and of the deep feeling of religion with which he engaged in it.

The profession now made by the Prince he held fast through life. His was no lipservice. His faith was essentially one of the heart, a real and living faith, giving a colour to his whole life. Deeply imbued with a conviction of the great truths of Christianity, his religion went far beyond mere forms, to which, indeed, he attached no especial importance. It was not with him a thing to be taken up and ostentatiously displayed with almost Pharisaical observance, on certain days, or at certain seasons, or on certain formal occasions. It was part of himself. It was engrafted in

6 Memorandum by M. Florschütz.

his very nature, and directed his every-day life. In his every action, the spirit-as distinguished from the letter-the spirit and essence of Christianity was his constant and unerring guide.

In the Appendix will be found a somewhat abridged translation of the account printed at the time, of this event, which took place on the 11th and 12th April 1835, in the Schloss at Coburg.

7 Appendix B. p. 397.