he whole collection
transported to South Kensington. Feodora, now the Princess Hohenlohe,
after a visit to England, expressed in a letter to Victoria her
admiration of Albert both as a private and a public character. Nor did
she rely only on her own opinion. "I must just copy out," she said,
"what Mr. Klumpp wrote to me some little time ago, and which is
quite true--'Prince Albert is one of the few Royal personages who can
sacrifice to any principle (as soon as it has become evident to them to
be good and noble) all those notions (or sentiments) to which others,
owing to their narrow-mindedness, or to the prejudices of their rank,
are so thoroughly inclined strongly to cling.' There is something so
truly religious in this," the Princess added, "as well as humane and
just, most soothing to my feelings which are so often hurt and disturbed
by what I hear and see."

Victoria, from the depth of her heart, subscribed to all the eulogies of
Feodora and Mr. Klumpp. She only found that they were insufficient. As
she watched her beloved Albert, after toiling with state documents and
public functions, devoting every spare moment of his time to domestic
duties, to artistic appreciation, and to intellectual improvements; as
she listened to him cracking his jokes at the luncheon table, or playing
Mendelssohn on the organ, or pointing out the merits of Sir Edwin
Landseer's pictures; as she followed him round while he gave
instructions about the breeding of cattle, or decided that the
Gainsboroughs must be hung higher up so that the Winterhalters might be
properly seen--she felt perfectly certain that no other wife had ever
had such a husband. His mind was apparently capable of everything,
and she was hardly surprised to learn that he had made an important
discovery for the conversion of sewage into agricultural manure.
Filtration from below upwards, he explained, through some appropriate
medium, which retained the solids and set free the fluid sewage for
irrigation, was the principle of the scheme. "All previous plans,"
he said, "would have cost millions; mine costs next to nothing."
Unfortunately, owing to a slight miscalculation, the invention proved
to be impracticable; but Albert's intelligence was unrebuffed, and he
passed on, to plunge with all his accustomed ardour into a prolonged
study of the rudiments of lithography.

But naturally it was upon his children that his private interests and
those of Victoria were concentrated