316 
January 26, 1901. THE GARDENING WORLD 
DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 
Our beloved Queen is dead. She who has reigned 
over ns for sixty-three years and 216 days is now no 
more; and the whole of the British Empire as well 
as the civilised world generally laments the death of 
a sovereign who has made monarchy revered by 
millions and respected by more. She died at 
Osborne, her quiet and beautiful home in the Isle of 
Wight, at half-past six p.m. on Tuesday last, in the 
eighty-second year of her age, being eighty-one years 
and 243 days of age. 
widely separated parts of Great Britain, namely, at 
Windsor, Osborne, Buckingham Palace, and 
Balmoral, to which she retreated during the summer 
months, yet never even there neglected the affairs of 
State. At whichever home she dwelt for the time 
being she was welcomed and revered by her servants 
as by her subjects all over the world. She had 
been patron of the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent 
Institution since 1851 to the day of her death ; and 
at the annual general meeting of that body on the 
22nd inst., it was resolved and agreed to that a tele- 
been contemporary to twenty-eight kings, six 
emperors, four Czars, four Queens, thirteen or more 
Presidents, ten Princes, five Sultans, and many 
petty monarchs of smaller States of Europe and 
Asia. Light and air were taxed when she ascended 
the throne, the tax on windows bringing something 
like £1,000,000 annually to the treasury. Slavery 
s' ill existed in all parts of the world, civilised and 
otherwise. Social reform, invention, and sciences in 
all departments of human thought have progressed 
immeasurably during her beneficent reign. When 
Her Majesty The Queen. Born May 24 th 1819; Died January 22 nd, 1901 
She was born May 24th, 1819; succeeded to the 
throne on June 20th, 1S37, on the death of her 
uncle, William IV.; was crowned June 28th, 1838; 
married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Febru¬ 
ary ioth, 1840, and died as above stated. She was 
eighteen years of age when she succeeded to the 
throne, and therefore remained single for three years. 
The world of horticulture has been vastly in¬ 
debted to her long and beneficent reign. In her 
private capacity she maintained four gardens in 
gram be sent to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales deeply 
regretting the Queen's illness. This was only a 
little over three hours before her lamented decease. 
Her reign his been the longest of any British 
sovereign, and her empire the largest the world has 
ever seen. For every ioo square miles of British 
land in 1897, there were a little less than ij square 
miles in 1597, when Queen Elizabeth reigned; and 
since then this has been greatly increased before the 
close of Qaeen Victoria s reign Our Queen has 
Victoria became our Queen, about 65 per cent, of 
the women and forty per cent, of the men of Great 
Britain could not write their own name. How great 
the change to-day ! The population of the United 
Kingdom in 1837 was 26,000,000, to-day it is about 
40,000,000. The vast progress that has everywhere 
been made, and visible to-day, has been attained 
during the long and beneficent reign of the wise and 
good Queen Victoria, who passed away peacefully to 
rest on Tuesday lasL 
