seven each boy had to recite something: in later years, discussions upon a given subject in some foreign language being substituted for these recitations. 5

5 Memorandum by the reigning Duke of Coburg.

CHAPTER III.

1826-1828.

GOTHA ADDED TO THE POSSESSIONS OF THE DUKE OF COBURG-DIFFICULTIES OF THE SETTLEMENT-LETTERS FROM DOWAGER DUCHESS OF COBURG-SCHOOL FÊTE AT THE ROSENAU-VISITS TO GOTHA-LETTERS FROM DOWAGER DUCHESS OF GOTHA RECOLLECTIONS OF COUNT ARTHUR MENSDORFF.

IN 1826, after considerable difficulty and discussion, the arrangement was completed by which the Duchy of Gotha was given to the Duke of Coburg.

We need not enter here into the difficulties which attended the negotiations, farther than they will be found noticed in some of the letters that follow from the Dowager Duchess of Coburg. Suffice it to say that, by the death, in 1825, without issue male, of Frederic Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, the direct succession of the Gotha-Altenburg branch of

the Ernestine line came to an end, and the inheritance passed to other branches of the same line. After much delay, owing chiefly to the exorbitant pretensions of the Duke of Meiningen, it was finally settled that, in consideration of the acquisition of the Duchy of Gotha, the Duke of Coburg should cede that of Saalfeld to the Duke of Meiningen; Hildburghausen being also added to the inheritance of the latter Duke; the Duke of Hildburghausen receiving in exchange the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, and assuming that title.

"Ernest is very busy just now," writes the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, from Ketschendorf, on the 30th May 1826, "as the Saxon "Commissioners are here to settle about the inheritance. It will be a difficult task, as the "Duke of Meiningen and old K are very "obstinate. General M is a good and "sensible man, who would like to make all straight, and fears he will have to return to "Dresden without anything having been settled. He went first to Hildburghausen, taking with him the ultimatum of the old "Duke of Meiningen, who is the senior of the "Ernestine line. The ultimatum was

"to the effect, that the Duke would enter into "no arrangement, except :

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"I. That he should retain all his posses"sions, besides acquiring Hildburghausen, Coburg, and Saalfeld; that he should be the only Duke of Coburg, founding a new Duchy "of Coburg.

"2. Ernest to have Gotha (Hildburg"hausen, Altenburg), and to give up the name which your great-uncle and your brothers "made so celebrated! S is gone to Meiningen with the answer that Ernest will neither "give up Coburg nor the name of his family."

To the Dowager Duchess of Gotha the termination of the Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg line, and the separation of those Duchies, was an event inexpressibly painful; and she gives vent to her feelings in the following touching letter to the Duke, which, as it relates exclusively to this subject, we insert here, though somewhat anticipating the date at which it was written. Second wife and widow of Duke Augustus, the predecessor of the Duke just deceased, it will be remembered that she was stepmother to Louise Duchess of Coburg, the mother of our Princes; and the devoted love

she bore to her step-grandchildren, to which all her letters quoted in this Memoir bear witness, was of a piece with the affectionate and maternal interest this excellent and most amiable woman now expresses in the welfare and happiness of those who had been her husband's subjects.

I need not tell you," she writes to the Duke of Coburg from Rumpenheim,' on the 5th September 1826-"I need not tell you "that I thanked God when I heard that the Duchy of Gotha had become yours. It was a great comfort to me, for there is no one in "whom I have more confidence than in your"self, my dear Duke. But you must also feel

1 NOTE BY THE QUEEN.-Rumpenheim belonged to the Landgraf of Hesse, father to the Duchess of Cambridge, and uncle to the Duke and Duchess of Gotha, who was daughter of the Elector of Hesse Cassel. It now belongs to the Duchess of Cambridge, her three brothers and two sisters.

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2 Mr. Perthès, on this occasion, wrote as follows to a friend My monarchical principles have gained many new adherents; for all suddenly fall down before the new "Prince. Certainly he is, like Saul, head and shoulders "taller than the rest of the people, full of princely dignity, "very judicious, and consequently very popular. He knows " and is interested about every subject; in short, the whole "world is bewitched with him, and men of all parties have "suddenly become ducalised."-Memoirs of Frederick Perthès, by his son Professor Perthès of Bonn.