Quecie Victoria's Dolls.

[Her Majesty, in addition to giving us cvery facility for obtaining photographs of her dolls, has been

graciously pleased to read and revise this article. notes. |

[Ter Majesty's corrections are given in the form of f{oot-

FATIMA LADY BRIGIHTON (’]7)-

IHI instinct that prompts the normal little girl to play the part of mother to her dolls 1s not the less interesting and charming that 1t is common to all female infancy ; but 1t becomes something more characteristic when to this 1s added a touch of art and a strong note of imagination. And if the picture of any little girl amongst her dolls 1s one that attracts us, if we delight to discover pre- monitions of unfolded individuality and winged fancies that will presently bear fruit, how much more absorbing and interesting does this study become when taat little plaver is a child-princess who 1s at once a child like any other, and yet at the same time how unlike. A little being, as yet unweighted with a crown, yet set apart and shadowed by sovereignty.

We remember the duties and respon- sibilitics awaiting her, thc momentous yca

and nay that will some day have to be pronounced by those soft young lips; and then isit any wonder that we turn and watch

MAME, DERBERLE (28).

ERNESTINE (23). LADY AKNOLD (108),

her amongst her Liliputian subjects, stitch- iy, devising, cutting, and measuring inlini- tesimal - garments, with a feching that s something deeper than what 1s usually arouscd by a child’s play ?

An hour spent among the dolls that Queen Victoria played with as a child 1s not only a liberal education i the evanescent influcnces and fashions of the carly part of this cen- tury, but an abiding study of hcr imagmative mfancy. We see the scenes that affected her, the stories that enchanted her, the characters that caught her fancy and left an mmpress on her mmagination ; and we see also i thesce childish achievements the same qualitics ol sclf control) patience, steadiness of purpose, and womanliness which have been consistently exercised by Queen Victoria in the prominent part played by her on the theatre Of life.

It will be an additional pleasure to the many thousands of readers of THIE STRAND MacaziNE to know that Her Majesty has been gracious enough to not only take a

warm interest in this little article, but also to Vol. iv.—zg.