

i86o-6i DEATH OF PRINCE CONSORT 127 



what grief,' he writes to his sister Eliza on the 

 1 6th, 'after returning home on Saturday with 

 hopes of the Prince Consort's recovery, I learnt 

 the sad news of his death yesterday morning. 

 His Royal Highness had been a constant and 

 valuable friend to me, and I was one of the few 

 who, having access to his private life, were able 

 to appreciate his kindly and truly natural unassum- 

 ing disposition. His loss is a great and unlooked- 

 for shock to all his friends ; still greater to the 

 Queen and his children.' 



In another letter to his sisters, written on the 

 24th, he returns to the same subject : ' Every now 

 and then the boom of the minute gun came heavily 

 over from the Park or Tower. Collins went 

 down to take his turn at the long peal of muffled 

 bells in the old church-tower. To-day I am at 

 my post here [British Museum] ; to-morrow will 

 be another holiday ; yesterday was a sad one.' 



