His home life was singularly sweet and happy, and a great contrast to that of some of his wife’s predecessors upon the English throne.  The Queen, writing to her Uncle Leopold in this the twenty-first year of their marriage, says:  “Very few can say with me that their husband at the end of twenty-one years is not only full of the friendship, kindness, and affection which a truly happy marriage brings with it, but the same tender love of the very first days of our marriage!”

The Prince, in a letter to a friend, rejoiced that their marriage “still continues green and fresh and throws out vigorous roots, from which I can, with gratitude to God, acknowledge that much good will yet be engendered for the world.”

The finest tribute to the Prince Consort’s memory is to be found in the Dedication written by Lord Tennyson to his Idylls of the King: 

    These to His Memory—­since he held them dear,
    Perchance as finding there unconsciously
    Some image of himself—­I dedicate,
    I dedicate, I consecrate with tears—­
    These Idylls.

Like Arthur, ‘the flower of kings,’ he was a man of ideals, above petty jealousies and small ambitions: 

    Hereafter, thro’ all times, Albert the Good.

The Idylls produced such a deep impression upon the Prince that he wrote to the author, asking him to inscribe his name in the volume.  The book remained always a great favourite with him, and Princess Frederick William was engaged upon a series of pictures illustrating her favourite passages at the time of his death.

An enumeration of the varied activities of Prince Albert during his lifetime would need a volume.  His position was always a difficult one and was seldom made easier by the section of the Press which singled him out as a target for its poisoned arrows.  Only a strong sense of duty and an unwavering belief in his wife’s love could have sustained him through the many dark hours of tribulation and sorrow.  He rose early all the year round, and prepared drafts of answers to the Queen’s Ministers, wrote letters and had cleared off a considerable amount of work before many men would have thought of beginning the day’s tasks.

[Illustration:  THE ALBERT MEMORIAL]

No article of any importance in the newspapers or magazines escaped his attention.  Every one appealed to him for help or advice, and none asked in vain.  His wide knowledge and judgment were freely used by the Queen’s statesmen, and the day proved all too short for the endless amount of work which had to be done.

In spite of increasing burdens and poor health he was always in good spirits.  “At breakfast and at luncheon, and also at our family dinners, he sat at the top of the table, and kept us all enlivened by his interesting conversation, by his charming anecdotes, and droll stories without end of his childhood, of people at Coburg, of our good people in Scotland, which he would repeat with a wonderful power of mimicry, and at which he would himself laugh most heartily.  Then he would at other times entertain us with his talk about the most interesting and important topics of the present and of former days, on which it was ever a pleasure to hear him speak."[10]