THE   QUEEN    AN    EXAMPLE    TO    HER    PEOPLE.  2153

It  was  iu  this  uudertakiiig,  which  owed  its  triumph  so  largely
to  his  initiative  and  energy,  that  Prince  Albert  most  nearly  won
the  affection  of  the  English  people.  It  cannot  be  said,  however,
that  he  was  ever  wholly  popular  with  the  masses.  Public  men
respected  him  for  the  devotion  with  which  he  assisted  his  wife  in
her  arduous  work  of  government  where  he  could,  and  the  tact  with
which  he  stood  aside  where  he  could  not.  But  the  rank  and  file'
never  quite  forgot  nor  wholly  forgave  the  accident  of  his  foreign
birth.
On  this  whole  period  of  twenty-one  years  of  married  life  but
one  judgment  can  be  truly  passed — it  was  ideally  happy  and  con-
genial. Nor  is  any  small  part  of  Victoria's  popularity  due  to  its
exemplary  and  charming  domesticity,  which  contrasted  so
agreeably  with  the  private  life  of  the  two  monarchs  who  had
preceded  her.
HISTORY  WILL  CALL  HER  A  TRUE  WOMAN.
The  final  estimate  which  the  historian  of  the  future  must
place  upon  her  character  is  that  in  a  nature  of  masculine  strength
and  feminine  patience  shone  a  true  womanliness,  an  invariably
sound  regard  for  the  dictates  of  common  sense  and  an  unremitting
attention  to  all  the  duties  of  life,  whether  small  or  great.
Around  Windsor  Castle  more  than  any  other  of  her  homes
Her  Majesty's  life,  from  the  time  of  her  accession,  was  centred.
This  was  her  home  par  excellence.  Buckingham,  though  no  whit
less  gorgeous  within,  is  a  pigmy  in  size  compared  with  the  colossal
pile  of  Windsor,  which  dominates  the  surrounding  landscape —
the  rich  groves,  the  houses  of  the  town,  the  meadows  and  the
tranquil  Thames — much  as  would  a  solitary  mountain  peak.
