Princess Alice's Memoirs.

Te Aroha News, Volume 64, Issue II, 23 August 1884, Page 5

Princess Alice's Memoirs.

Some of the letters written by the Princess Alice to the Queen will astonishjthose people who labour under tlio illusion that Royal personagos are not troubled by the sordid carets of ordinary life. The Princess seems to have been in a painful state of pecuniary embarrassment irum the hour of her arrival at Darmstadb, and when one remembers that a dowry of €30,000 and an income of £0,000 a year were voted to FI.R.H. on hor marriage, the revelations of the correspondence are certainly astonishing. The German Royalties do not maintain extravagant households, and the I'rinco and Princess ought to have been able to live in ease and comfort on such a sum, even supposing that the bridegroom contributed nothing towards the maintenance of the establishment. The Princess, on first arriving at Darmstadt, complains that her house would be thought small and mean even by plain, middle-class people, while the dining-room is so study and uncomfortable that they are unable to invite people to dinner. A year later, when the Princess is confined, the Queen sends money to pay the doctor, and provides the baby-linen and accompaniments. The Princess is invited to come to England on a visit, but replies that she cannot afford to do so. She cannot pay an adequate salary for a governess for her daughters, nor can she buy curtains for the drawing-x'oom (which are much wanted), unless the Queen will pay for them. The late Emperor of Russia, passing thiough Darmstadt on his way from Ems, comes to luncheon, and the Princess (like the L'rimrose family) is beside herself with worries at the prospect of the expense of entertaining him. The Princess could not have suffered worse privation (for it was nothing less, considering the very different circumstances of her early life) if she had married a clerk with £150 a year. The Queen spent £20,000 on building a suitable home for the Princess and her husband, for the residence given to them by the Grand Duke ot lies«e at their marriage was de.sciihed atthotimeas.i " dogholeof a place." These dismal revelations remind one of an incident which startled the company at a Royal marriage in this country some years ago, wherealsothe bridegroom was a German I'iinoe. Only membeis of the Royal Family A\cie procnt at the ceremony, with a few of the chief oflicers of the household. When the bridegroom came to repeat the word 1 ?, " with all my goods I thee endow," an indignant exclamation was heard from the Royal circle, "Good God! the very shoes the fellow wears are not paid for !" It was the old Duke of Cambridge who had blurted out this awkward truth in one of his fits of abstraction. — " Truth."