The, first journeys on which she, with her elder sister and brother, was allowed to accompany her parents are vividly described in the Queen’s Journal. They were those to Ireland, in 1849, and, in 1850, to the Highlands; and to the beauty and grandeur of Highland scenery she remained through life an enthusiastic devotee.
Her intellectual faculties and the deeper qualities of her character did not, in her case, as, indeed, generally happens with high-spirited, healthy children, develop very early; but almost from the first she showed those qualities of disposition which win all hearts and lend a charm to daily life.
Little theatrical pieces performed by the Royal children on festive anniversaries in the family--partly, too, with a view of gaining facility in foreign languages--were the field in which the young Princess decidedly distinguished herself. No child ever performed the part of the High Priest Joad in Racine’s “Athalie,” with more dignity, and with a more pleasing intonation; and a more delightful German Red Ridinghood[3] than the Princess never appeared upon the stage.
Of one of these performances, given in honor of the Queen and Prince’s wedding-day in 1864, Baroness Bunsen gives the following description in her biography of Baron Bunsen. A tableau representing the Four Seasons had been studied and contrived by the Royal children. “First appeared Princess Alice as the Spring, scattering flowers, and reciting verses, which were taken from Thomson’s ‘Seasons’; she moved gracefully, and spoke in a distinct and pleasing manner with excellent modulation, and a tone of voice sweet and penetrating like that of the Queen.”[4]
It was during these years that Princess Alice formed her warm friendship for the Princess Louise of Prussia, now Grand Duchess of Baden, who records her first impressions of the young Princess in the following words:
“She was at that time most graceful in appearance--charming, merry, and amiable; and though always occupying a subordinate place to her very gifted and distinguished sister, there never was the least semblance of a disagreement. Alice’s cheerful disposition and her great power of observation showed themselves very early in the pleasantest manner, and she had a remarkable gift of making herself attractive to others. Her individuality was less decided and prominent than that of her sister, and she had a special charm of childhood grace. Our walks and drives together, the life in the schoolroom, the games in the corridors, or in dear old Baron Stockmar’s room--these and all the pleasure and enjoyment of being together with the two sisters will ever remain amongst the happiest and most lasting of my recollections.”