PRINCESS ALICE AND HER HUSBAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3023, 4 March 1881, Page 4

PRINCESS ALICE AND HER HUSBAND.

It has been my lot to meet with few royal personages in my timeyjng; nonohnve impressed me more than Gruv' Duke ofc. HeSse-Darmstadt. Ho is over', inch a prince and a soldier, fresh frank, and courtly. Tall and ruddy, with a look of great intelligence and sweetness, a keen light in the eloquent eyes. The expression is° one of simplicity," kiudness, and manly good sense. His father died two months before the last Grand Duke, Louis 111., who has only a family through a morganatic marriage. This ' potentate's sister was Empress of Russia, and his younger brother the father of Prince yon Battenburgh, now j Prince of Bulgaria. The palace is situated on a slope of rising j ground exactly opposite the Roman Catholic Church, whose dome is a landmark far and wide. Queen Victoria built it for the Princess Alice—Murray states at an outlay of £20,000—her daughter and the nation's. With its gardens it suggests Buckingham Palace on a reduced scale. There are sad memories connected with this stately palace. From one of the windows in the rear of the edifice fell the little child ancl died. In another chamber diphtheria killed a second, and " the fatal kiss " was given of which the Royal mother died. But previous to this her health had not been good for a long time, and it must be added that the little Court and the limited scope which Darmstadt afforded perhaps hardly sufficed for that active, intelligent spirit. In her days of lassitude the Darmstadt people did not see much of the Princess, except indeed in her constant drives ; but they understood fully that her mind and heart were ever at work for the interests of her adopted country. All adored her in their way. The Princess was an exquisite artist, a first-rate musician, and translated an English work, to which she wrote an introduction. — Whitehall Beview.