3-082-593 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands, 1895. 'The visit of Queen Wilhelmina and her mother, the Queen Dowager and Regent Emma, to her aunt the Duchess of Albany, at Claremont, is a family affair...in which the Court of Queen Victoria and the English public are not directly concerned. But it is to be hoped that a few years hence, when the young reigning Queen, whose fifteenth birthday will be in August, shall have entered the social circle of adult personages of her own high rank, she may again and repeatedly come to England, to be a welcome guest at Windsor, at Osborne, or at Balmoral. A royal sovereignty worn in girlhood is a political phenomenon which has, in many historical instances, appealed to the spirit of chivalry, as well as to that of national loyalty, with a peculiar and powerful charm. This was felt, as many of us can attest, in our own country when Victoria became Queen, and the memory of that popular sentiment was recalled by the Jubilee of 1887. Other reasons and motives, both those of practical importance to European policy and those of sympathy derived from old historical associations, should incline reflecting Englishmen to regard the position of Queen Wilhelmina, and all that she represents, with considerable interest'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.