The letters published in this volume will show that the feeling of that irreparable loss never left her through life, and our impression cannot be a false one, that it was this loss which brought out the deep earnestness of her character, and which made her feel that life was no light thing, but a time of probation to be spent in earnest work and conscientious fulfilment of duty.
She felt it to be a sacred duty to foster the recollections of her girlhood, and to carry out the principles with which her father had embued her, whether in the cultivation of art and science, the encouragement of art manufactures, of agriculture and general education, in the tasteful and practical arrangement of her own house, in bettering the conditions of the lower and working classes by improving their homes and inculcating principles of health, economy, and domestic management. In short, in every way open to her, did the Princess try to walk in her father’s footsteps, and so to do honor to his memory.
It is but natural that during the first weeks of her first great sorrow, and of her many new duties, the thought of her own future should have been put into the background. The preparations for her marriage, however, as well as for her household were continued, according to the known intentions of the Prince Consort. The marriage was solemnized at Osborne on the 1st of July at one o’clock. The Archbishop of York performed the ceremony in the absence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was prevented by illness from being present.
Besides her sorrowing mother, the Crown Prince of Prussia, all her brothers and sisters, the parents and brothers and sisters of the bridegroom, and a number of princely relations were present. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in the place of her father, led the bride to the altar, whilst the bridegroom was accompanied by his brother, Prince Henry. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Queen withdrew to her room. The guests left the Isle of Wight in the afternoon, whilst the newly-married pair went with a small suit to St. Clare, near Ryde (belonging to Colonel and Lady Catherine Harcourt), where they remained three days.
On the 9th of July, Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse left England, accompanied by the fervent prayers and good wishes of a devoted people, who never forgot what their Princess had been to them in their hour of trouble.