86o-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.’ 
