and spot of shade was peopled with eager faces watching for the Queen,
and decorated with flowers; but the largest, and the brightest, and
the gayest, and the most excited assemblage was at Cambridge station
itself. . . . I think I never saw so many children before in one
morning, and I felt so much moved at the spectacle of such a mass
of life collected together and animated by one feeling, and that a
joyous one, that I was at a loss to conceive how any woman's sides
can bear the beating of so strong a throb as must attend the
consciousness of being the object of all that excitement, the centre
of attraction to all those eyes. But the Queen has royal strength
of nerve."[3]

[Footnote 3: The Duke of Argyll, _Queen Victoria_.]

In 1849 they paid their first visit to Ireland, and received a royal
welcome on landing in Cork. The Queen noticed particularly that
"the beauty of the women is very remarkable, and struck us much; such
beautiful dark eyes and hair, and such fine teeth; almost every third
woman was pretty, and some remarkably so."

The royal children were the objects of great admiration. "Oh! Queen,
dear!" screamed a stout old lady, "make one of them Prince Patrick,
and all Ireland will die for you."

In Dublin, the capital of a country which had very recently been in
revolt, the loyal welcome was, if possible, even more striking.

The Queen writes: "It was a wonderful and striking spectacle, such
masses of human beings, so enthusiastic, so excited, yet such perfect
order maintained; then the numbers of troops, the different bands