Bust, turned to the left, facing in front. He wears a blue sash
over his coat. See _ante_, No. 4.
104. George III., when Prince of Wales, aged 12, and Prince Edward
Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, aged 11 . . . . . RICHARD WILSON,
R.A.
Seated figures, on a couch by a table, the Prince of Wales on the
left. On canvas, 3 feet 3-1/2 inches high, by 4 feet 1-1/2 inches
wide. Lent by the trustees of the National Portrait Gallery.
The Duke of York was born in 1739, became an admiral in 1759, and
died at Monaco in 1767.
=The Nursery.=
The designation of "The Nursery" has been for many years applied to this
room, having, it appears, been so used at one time by Queen Victoria,
whose doll-house is now placed here. It was afterwards occupied by the
late Duchess of Teck, and it was here that Princess May, now Duchess of
York, was born, on May 26th, 1867.
Its associations are, therefore, exclusively Victorian, with which its
decoration--so far as it can be said to have any--accords. The "shell"
of the room, however, is part of Kent's addition to the State Rooms.
The dimensions of this room are 30 feet 7 inches long by 23 feet 5
inches wide, and 17 feet high to the highest point of the ceiling, 15
feet 2 inches to the top of the cornice.
Pictures and Prints illustrative of the Queen's Life and Reign.
A collection is here being formed by Mr. Holmes, the Queen's Librarian,
of various prints, illustrative of Her Majesty's Life and Reign. Among
them are old prints of the Queen as a child, and as the young Princess
Victoria, Heiress to the Throne; also of the marriage of the Prince of
Wales in St. George's Chapel, the Baptism of the Princess Royal, etc.;
and also the Jubilee Celebration of 1887 in Westminster Abbey, from the
painting by W. E. Lockhart, R.S.A.
110 The Queen's First Council in the pillared Council Chamber at
Kensington Palace on 20th of June, 1837 . . . . . _After_ WILKIE.
For an account of this famous scene, _see_ page 37.
=Ante-Room.=
As we go through the door of "The Nursery" into this ante-room, we pass
from the portion of the Palace built by Kent, to the original block
erected by Wren, this ante-room being a part of what was formerly one of
William III.'s state rooms.
Through this lobby it was that the Queen passed to the adjoining
staircase when she went downstairs to receive the news of her accession.
The dimensions of this room are: 19 feet 3 inches long, 10 feet 2 inches
wide, and 16 feet high.
Prints illustrative of the Life and Reign of the Queen.
The wall space here will be devoted to further prints illustrative of
the Queen's Life and Reign.
[Illustration: Decoration]
=Queen Victoria's Bedroom.=
To future ages, if not indeed already to the present one, this plain,
modestly-decorated chamber must have an interest far transcending that
of the more gorgeous Georgian saloons, which we have just traversed.
For, it was for many years the bedroom of our own Queen, when as a
little girl of tender age she lived in quiet simplicity at Kensington
Palace with her mother, the Duchess of Kent.
From the windows of this room we can imagine the little princess, when
she rose in the morning, gazing out over the gardens and the Park
beyond, as the beams of the eastern sun struggled through the mists and
smoke of distant London, musing on the mighty destiny awaiting her; or
in the evening hour, when the flower-scented air of the garden beneath
floated in at the casement, looking out where the far-off lights of the
great town twinkled among the trees, her mind filled with solemn
thoughts of the awful responsibility that was to be hers.
Even now, when the building octopus, with its stucco tentacles, has
clutched and sucked in so many a fair surrounding green field, from
these windows not a roof, not a chimney meets the eye; not an echo,
even, of the ceaseless roar of the traffic strikes the ear.
It was in this room that the Queen was sleeping on the memorable morning
of the 20th of June, 1837, when she was awakened by her mother, the
Duchess of Kent, to go to the Drawing Room downstairs, where Lord
Conyngham and the Archbishop of Canterbury were awaiting to inform her
of her accession to the throne.
The dimensions of this room are: 23 feet 3 inches long, 19 feet 3 inches
wide, and 16 feet high.
Prints of the Life and Reign of the Queen.
Prints in continuation of the series commenced in "The Nursery," are in
process of being arranged in this room.
Mementoes and Relics of the Queen's Childhood, collected in "Queen
Victoria's Bedroom."
Here also will be arranged some of the Queen's toys, with which she
played as a little girl in these rooms; and perhaps other similar
objects of interest. Labels will, doubtless, be affixed to explain, what
these are.
[Illustration: Decoration]
=King's Gallery.=
This magnificent gallery, the finest of all the state rooms at
Kensington Palace, was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren for
William III. about the year 1693. It owes much of its architectural
effect to the great architect's wonderful knowledge and appreciation of
proportion--an element too often disregarded in buildings of modern
times. Its length is 96 feet, its breadth 21 feet 6 inches, and its
height 18 feet to the top of the cornice, and 19 feet 8 inches to the
highest point of the ceiling. It is, therefore, 12 feet longer than the
already-described Queen Mary's Gallery, 2 feet higher, but of the same
width. Compared with it, the "King's or Cartoon Gallery" at Hampton
Court, built by Wren almost exactly at the same time, it is 21 feet less
long, 3 feet less wide, and 10 feet less high.
In relation to it the following items from the old accounts, dating from
about the year 1693, are interesting:
"Item to Richard Hawkesmore, Clerk of the Workes, for making up an
account [an estimate?] of the King's New Gallery at
Kensington--£5."
"More to him for Pasteboard and other Materialls for making a
modell of the said Gallery for the King--£5 2_s._"
"Cha: Houghton for rating, casting up, and engrossing the Books of
the said Building for the Auditor--£5."