Victoria, Queen of England

When I moved into my 1893 Victorian house I began to feel a kinship with Queen Victoria.

(For more about that house and living in it visit Mary in Michigan.)

Engraving From 1873

The Queen in her Robes of State

Queen Victoria Lived From 1819 Until 1901, ruling  as Queen Of England From 1837 Until 1901. That means she ruled the country for 63 years, beginning when she was 18 years old and continuing until she died in 1901 at the age of 82. Amazing!

What sort of person was she? How did she manage to remain in that position for so long, surviving wars, assasination attempts, and domestic intrigue at a time when women generally had no standing as citizens or even as people in their own right? And from 1876 she also served as Empress of India. 

The answers could lead to many hours of research, so here are a few facts just for fun: 

• She was an only child, reared by a single mother. And she herself became a single mother. 
• She stood barely 5 feet tall, but developed a girth of perhaps 50 inches over the years.  
• Her tutor and mentor was Lord Melbourne, who also was her first prime minister. 
• In 1840 she married Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, to whom she proposed.
• She and Albert had 9 children, 4 boys and 5 girls. 
• She was a hemophilia carrier and passed the condition to her son Leopold who died at 31. 
• Two of her daughters were hemophilia carriers. They passed it to Spanish, German and Russian royal families. 
• When Albert died in 1861 she went into seclusion for many years, neglecting royal duties. 
• By the mid 1870's she began to participate more actively again.
• By her Golden Jubilee in 1887 she had fully returned to her earlier popularity. 

Travel

When I was a girl in the late '40s and early '50s that was something one did by car, train, bus and rarely airplane. It was usually "how you got somewhere" to visit friends or family, or perhaps on business. Then something happened, and today it is an "activity". Like shopping. When I was a girl you "went shopping" when you needed something. Now it's the favorite activity of many women I know, and virtually all the younger women in my family.

For me shopping is still a chore to be avoided unless I desperately need something, and then to get it over with as soon as possible. I do not like it. Travel, on the other hand, has become a passion. When I was a girl I loved "travelogues"of places I could never hope to visit. Now I can visit any place I like, and I do. It's a luxury and pure pleasure.

I still go by car anywhere in the US because I like the freedom of having little or no schedule. When I retired I spent two and a half years touring the US and parts of Mexico in a motor home, towing a small car and carrying a bicycle. (All my belongings were in storage, and an accountant paid my bills.) At every stop I stayed until the options for exploring were exhausted or until I lost interest. When I got to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I liked it so much I stayed for five years!

Later I went on several trips with a small tour company to places in the US, Canada, and Switzerland, utilizing planes, ships, trains, and buses. I traveled the ocean by freighter, stopping in several South American countries and transitting the Panama Canal twice, once at night, once during the day. I toured New Zealand by going around the South Island by ship, visiting a few islands as we went, and stopping in various ports to explore by bus and afoot.

I spent time in England with friends who live north of London, traveled in Russia by waterway between Moscow and St Petersburg stopping at many places between. I spent a few days in Sydney, Australia, after the New Zealand trip. I took a Mediterraean cruise based on travel from port to port at night and tours on land during the day. We spent time Spain, France, Italy, and several major Islands.

                                                      Nova Scotia - one of my favorite places                                   
                                         Halifax Dock                             Halifax Train Station                                    

I haven't decided where to go next. It may be Alaska, the only state I have not visited.