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Twelve questions about Princess Alice of Hesse-and-By-Rhine
1. Alice’s full name was Alice Maud Mary – in whose honour was the name
‘Mary’ included?
2. Which of her godfathers arrived ‘just in time to be too late’ for her
christening?
3. After Lady Lyttelton had retired, what was the name of Alice’s
governess?
4. In which city (then a town) in northern England did Alice make her first
official appearance?
5. How old was Alice when she first witnessed an assassination attempt on
her mother?
6. Which – then potentially fatal – illness did Alice contract in
1855?
7. Which housing reformer took Alice incognito through the London slums and
later advised her on housing improvements in Darmstadt?
8. Which novel by Sir Walter Scott was Alice reading to her father in the
days leading up to his death?
9. Which controversial theologian, who dedicated a book to Alice, gained
great influence over her and, according to the French Ambassador, ‘shook her faith to the
depths’?
10. Which
English reformer who had done much to improve the education of girls in India
accompanied Alice through the schools in Darmstadt following the Congress of
Women, which the princess has organised?
11.
After whose death did Alice write to her mother: “You
understand, how long and deep my grief must be,” she wrote. “And does not one
grow to love one’s grief, as having become part of the being one loved – as if
through this one could still pay a tribute of love to them, to make up for the
terrible loss, and missing of not being able to do anything for the beloved
anymore?”
