, and the already large ranks of the unemployed grew
greater day by day. The poverty and wretchedness of the working class
is painted vividly for us by Carlyle when he speaks of "half a million
handloom weavers, working 15 hours a day, in perpetual inability to
procure thereby enough of the coarsest food; Scotch farm-labourers,
who 'in districts the half of whose husbandry is that of cows, taste
no milk, can procure no milk' . . . the working-classes can no longer
go on without government, without being _actually_ guided and
governed."

Such was Victoria's England when she ascended the throne, a young
girl, nineteen years of age.

CHAPTER II: _Childhood Days

On the western side of Kensington Gardens stands the old Palace,
built originally in the solid Dutch style for King William and Mary.
The great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, made notable additions
to it, and it was still further extended in 1721 for George the First.

Within its walls passed away both William and his Queen, Queen Anne
and her husband, and George the Second. After this time it ceased
to be a royal residence.

The charm of Kensington Gardens, with its beautiful walks and
secluded sylvan nooks--the happy hunting-ground of London children
and the home of 'Peter Pan'--has inspired many writers to sing its
praises:

In this lone, open glade I lie,
Screen'd by deep boughs on either hand;
And at its end, to stay the eye,
Those black-crown'd, red-boled pine trees stand!

Birds here make song, each bird has his,
Across the girding city's hum.
How green under the boughs it is!
How thick the tremulous sheep cries come!

Here at my feet what wonders pass,
What endless, active life is here!
What blowing daisies, fragrant grass!
An air-stirred forest, fresh and clear.
MATTHEW ARNOLD

Beaconsfield spoke of its "sublime sylvan solitude superior to the
cedars of Lebanon, and inferior only in extent to the chestnut
forests of Anatolia."

Kensington Palace was the birthplace of Queen Victoria, and in the
garden walks she used to play, little knowing that she would one day
be Queen of England. Her doll's house and toys are still preserved
in the rooms which she inhabited as a little girl.

[Illustration: KENSINGTON PALACE]

Four years had passed since the battle of Waterloo when the Princess
Victoria was born, and England was settling down to a time of peace