Page:Forget Me Not (1824).djvu/355

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
AT CLAREMONT.
317

The progress of the works at "her house upon the hill," as the late Princess always called it, was resumed in the following year—it was designed to be a house of joy, but proved to be a house of mourning—and the very marks which distinguish the original intention of the building, by their contrast with its now closed and enshrouded aspect, deepen the interest with which it is viewed, and augment the affliction of the beholder; for it is not possible to contemplate the spot without its awakening the bitterest recollections of the heart, and few visitors of sentiment leave it but in tears.

With the deepest feelings His Royal Highness, Prince Leopold, commanded that the character should now be changed, and the building be exclusively devoted to the memory of the Princess. The casements are, therefore, walled up, and light is admitted above them merely—but through painted glass, in which the British and Saxon arms, and the initials of the Prince and Princess, are united amidst the national emblems of the country.

The tracery of the interior is beautifully elegant, and was greatly admired by Her Royal Highness; and nothing is there altered but the ornaments by which it is embellished: the armorial bearings are now supported by angels, and the temporal coronets are changed for celestial crowns. Immediately in front of the door