"
As a picture of the Royal Court in those days this is exceedingly
valuable, for it shows what an example the Queen and her husband were
setting to the whole nation in the simple life they led in their
Highland home.
That the old people especially loved her can be seen from the
greetings and blessings she received in the cottages she used to
visit. "May the Lord attend ye with mirth and with joy; may He ever
be with ye in this world, and when ye leave it."
[Illustration: Queen Victoria in the Highlands
G. Amato]
The Queen was never weary of the beauties of the Highlands, and quotes
the following lines from a poem by Arthur Hugh Clough to describe
'God's glorious works':
The gorgeous bright October,
Then when brackens are changed, and heather blooms are faded,
And amid russet of heather and fern, green trees are bonnie;
Alders are green, and oaks; the rowan scarlet and yellow;
One great glory of broad gold pieces appears the aspen,
And the jewels of gold that were hung in the hair of the birch tree;
Pendulous, here and there, her coronet, necklace, and earrings,
Cover her now, o'er and o'er; she is weary and scatters them from
her.
In the year 1883 the Queen published _More Leaves from the Journal_,
and dedicated it "To my loyal Highlanders, and especially to the
memory of my devoted personal attendant and faithful friend, John
Brown.
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