It so happens that both a brother and
a sister of mine, the late Duchess of Buccleuch, were brought into
very close contact with Queen Victoria. It was this quality of
strong common sense in the Queen which continually impressed them,
as well as her very high standard of duty.
My brother George was twice Secretary of State for India. The
Queen was fond of suggesting amendments in the wording of
dispatches relating to India, whilst not altering their sense. My
brother tells me that the alterations suggested by the Queen were
invariably in the direction of simplification. The Queen had a
knack of stripping away unnecessary verbiage and reducing a
sentence to its simplest form, in which its meaning was
unmistakably clear.
All Queen Victoria's tastes were simple. She liked simplicity in
dress, in food, and in her surroundings. If I may say so without
disrespect, I think that Queen Victoria's great hold on her people
came from the fact that, in spite of her high station, she had the
ideals, the tastes, the likes and dislikes of the average clean-
living, clean-minded wife of the average British professional man,
together with the strict ideals as to the sanctity of the
marriage-tie, the strong sense of duty, and the high moral
standard such wives usually possess.
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