—­Thou, as the rose
Lies buried in her fragrance, when on earth
The summer-loosen’d blossom flows,
Art sepulchred and embalm’d in native worth: 
While to thy grave, in England’s anxious years,
We bring our useless tears.

Above the throne; ’He knows that if Princes exist, it is for the good of the people. . . .  Well for him that he does so,’ was the remark made by an observing foreigner on Prince Albert:  (Martin:  Life of H.R.H. the Prince Consort:  ch. xi).

On home alone; ‘She who reigns over us,’ said the then Mr. Disraeli when seconding the Address on the death of the Duchess of Kent, (March, 1861), ’She who reigns over us has elected, amid all the splendour of empire, to establish her life on the principle of domestic love’ (Martin:  ch. cxi).

Firm and true, ‘Treu und Fest’ is the motto of the Saxe-Coburg family.

Goodwill to men; A revision of the despatch to the Cabinet of the United States, remonstrating on the ‘Trent affair,’ whilst the fatal fever was on him, was the last of Prince Albert’s many services (Nov. 30, 1861) to England.  To the temperate and conciliatory tone which he gave to this message, its success in the promotion of peace between the two countries was largely due:  (Martin:  ch. cxvi).

ODE

FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST OF JUNE 1887

. . . Sunt hic sua praemia laudi, Sunt lacrimae rerum . . .

   As when the snowdrop from the snowy ground
   Lifting a maiden face, foretells the flowers
   That lurk and listen, till the chaffinch sound
   Spring’s advent with the glistening willow crown’d,
   Sheathed in their silken bowers:—­
   E’en so the promise of her life appears
   Through those white childhood-years;
   —­Whether in seaside happiness, and air
   Rosing the fair cheek,—­sand, and spade, and shell,—­
   Or race with sister-feet, that flash’d and fell
   Printing the beach, while the gay comrade-wind
   Play’d in the soft light hair:—­
   Or if with sunbeam-smile and kind
   Small hand at cottage-door
   Her simple alms she tender’d to the poor: 
Love’s healthy happy heart in all her steps was seen,
   And God, in life’s fresh springtime, bless’d our Queen.

   Lo! the quick months their order’d dance pursue,
   And Spring’s bright apple-blossoms flush to fruit;
   The bay-tree thrives ’neath Heaven’s own gracious dew,
   And her young shoots the parent-life renew
   Around the fostering root. 
   —­The Girl from care in youth’s sweet sleep withdrawn
   Wakes to a crown at dawn! 
   But Love is at her side, strong, faithful, wise,
   To share the world-wide burden of command,
   The sceptre’s weight in the unlesson’d hand;
   To aid each nursery inmate,—­each in turn
   Dear pride of watchful eyes,—­