The Argosy — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

50 THREE GLIMPSES AT ROYALTY. IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT. N the 22nd of January, the eve of the marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh and the Russian Grand Duchess Marie, we were in the Isle of Wight. Friends and pleasure took us from Ryde to the loyal borough of Newport, then undergoing decoration in honour of the event. As we drove into the town, Billy and Bobby, two frisky ponies from Exmoor and Dartmoor, seemed inclined to run away at sight of an arch and grove of firs just planted in the street; but we passed through them in tolerable security, and reached, with some coaxing, St. Thomas’s Church. Here we paused a moment to admire the exterior, and to remember that Queen Victoria had caused to be erected a monument within to the memory of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the unfortunate Charles the First. It represents the recumbent figure of a young girl asleep, her head on an open Bible. Her Majesty and the Prince Consort also put up two stained-glass windows near this beautiful piece of sculptured white marble. For the benefit of the uninformed it may be well to add that, when the church was restored, the coffin of the Princess Elizabeth was found beneath, which is accounted for by the fact that Carisbrooke Castle, where her father was so long imprisoned, 1s not far distant. We passed some picturesque brick houses, and were suddenly greeted by the sight of a monster waggon, drawn by eight horses, heaped with festive fir-trees to the roofs of the houses. It was surrounded by carters, workmen, and by-standers, and the street was choked with trunks and branches. Billy and Bobby did not like it. They shied, backed, reared, and but for two gallant knights (not in armour but smock-frocks) we should have rued the eve of the wedding of His Royal Highness tie Duke of Edinburgh. We were, however, led ignominiously by the fallen timber, and finally drove in trembling through a triumphal arch on the outskirts of the town. i Having reached our destination, we naturally spoke of the Royal Family, and it is well to go to the Isle of Wight to learn how well- | beloved they are. We were told that they visit the poor and sick, read — to them, pray with them, take them presents, shake hands with them, “just like anybody else.” That Her Majesty drives frequently from Osborne to Carisbrooke to visit Mr. Toward, the superannuated steward of her farm and gardens, and that her carriage may be seen standing long outside his pretty house. We were told an anecdote of Her Majesty’s visit to an aged couple, who were engaged, the one in cooking, the other in shaving, and how that when the latter opened the door to royalty and withdrew his lathered face in afinght, the Queen soon set Gomilecbooks: (E(0) aa |