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of their nine children.

      These responsibilities began, however, to take a toll on his health. It had never been strong, and illness, perhaps exacerbated by stress, especially affected his stomach. Historians have speculated that he may have suffered from cancer or Crohn’s disease, and he had been perturbed by the recent deaths of three relations in the Portuguese royal family.

      At the end of November 1861, he got drenched after going to Cambridge to reprimand the Prince of Wales for taking up with a ‘low, common woman’ – an Irish actress, Nellie Clifden. When Albert fell ill, he was treated principally by Edward Jenner, the pioneer of vaccination, whose own diagnosis of the symptoms was typhoid. The Prince’s death shocked the nation and led the Queen to seclude herself from public life for years to come.

       THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

      12 January 1863

      On Saturday the Metropolitan (underground) Railway was opened to the public, and many thousands were enabled to indulge their curiosity in reference to this mode of travelling under the streets of the metropolis. The trains commenced running as early as 6 o’clock in the morning from the Paddington (Bishop’s-road) station and the Farringdon-street terminus, in order to accommodate workmen, and there was a goodly muster of that class of the public, who availed themselves of the advantages of the line in reaching their respective places of employment. At 8 o’clock the desire to travel underground in the direction of the city began to manifest itself at the various stations along the line, and by 9 it became equally evident to the authorities that neither the locomotive power nor the rolling-stock at their disposal was at all in proportion to the requirements of the opening day. From this time, and throughout the morning, every station became crowded with anxious travellers, who were admitted in sections; but poor were the chances of a place to those who ventured to take their tickets at any point below Baker-street, the occupants being, with but very rare exceptions, “long distance,” or terminus, passengers. This circumstance tended to increase the numbers at every station every minute, until there became sufficient to fill any train of empties which might be sent to overflow; and we believe we are correct in stating that ultimately a number of the Great Western narrow-gauge carriages, as well as engines, were brought into requisition, and by this means the temporary wants of the public were accommodated. Possibly the greatest point of attraction, if the collection of numbers may be taken as any criterion, was King’s-cross, which is certainly the finest station on the line, throwing even the termini into the shade. At this point during the morning the crowds were immense, and the constant cry as the trains arrived of “No room” appeared to have a very depressing effect upon those assembled. Between l1 and 12 at this station, and, continuously, for the space of an hour and a-half, the money takers refused to take money for passengers between King’scross and Farringdon-street, but they issued tickets between that station and Paddington, and many whose destination was city-wise, determined to ride on the railway on its first day of opening, took tickets for the opposite direction in order to secure places for the return journey. At 12 o’clock the clerks informed the public, who were certainly then assembled to the number of some 500 or 600 at King’scross, that there were enough people at Paddington to fill four trains in succession; and that, therefore, their instructions were to issue no Farringdon-street tickets for an hour. This announcement had the effect of getting rid of very large numbers. While, however, all the tendency of the traffic was towards the Farringdon-street terminus during the morning, the public were enabled to proceed westward with but little inconvenience. Towards afternoon, however, the tide set in the other way, and the approaches to the trains at Victoria-street can be compared to no other than the crush at the doors of a theatre on the first night of a pantomime.

      The growth of London created more congestion in the streets as well as giving rise to the first commuters. By the middle of the century, more than 200,000 people each day came in to work in the capital’s commercial heart, the City.

      The Metropolitan Railway was given the contract to construct the world’s first underground railway. Built in less than three years, at a cost of £1 million, this carried passengers in steam-drawn wooden carriages almost four miles beneath London from Paddington Station to Farringdon Street, on the edge of the City.

      More than 38,000 people queued up excitedly to use it on opening day. The Times noted approvingly the gas lighting in the compartments. This would reassure ladies when the train entered a tunnel and would allow gentlemen to read their newspapers – if there was not too much wind.

       GETTYSBURG

      16 July 1863

      The field of battle is due north of Washington, at Gettysburg, little more than fifty miles from the seat of the Federal Government. To the north and west of this locality the bulk of the Confederate army appears to have been found at last. Roughly speaking, both armies have described a circle from the Rappahannock, General LEE moving on the larger curve to his present position, and General MEADE on a smaller one, keeping closer to Washington itself as his centre. The battle, or the series of battles, commenced on the 1st of July. A corps of the Federal army, entering Gettysburg on the eastern side of the town, passed through, and encountered a part of the Confederate force, under General HILL, to the west of it. The Confederates were coming from the direction of Chambersburg, a town a few miles to the west of the spot where the armies came upon each other. The engagement commenced immediately, and for two hours the Federal General REYNOLDS held his ground. He was then reinforced by General HOWARD, but both were evidently outnumbered. They had met a portion of the Confederate troops superior to their own. They were outflanked on the right, and were contending with this difficulty when General EWELL came up with a force which was an army in itself, as it is estimated at no less than 25,000 men. The Confederates opened a cross fire of artillery which is described by the Federal reports as “destructive”, turned both flanks, and, REYNOLDS’S corps giving way, HOWARD could not hold his ground, and both fell back to a position south of Gettysburg – that is, retreated. General REYNOLDS was killed, General PAUL also fell, and the Federal loss in this engagement they state to have been 4,500 men, with an “immense number of officers.”

      The battle was renewed in the afternoon of the 2nd, south of Gettysburg, the two corps repulsed on the previous day having fallen back on the main body of the Federal force. Of the second day’s engagement the Government have published portions of General MEADE’S report. He states that the Confederates, “after one of the most severe conflicts of the war, were repulsed at all points.” It seems to have been principally an engagement of artillery, the hostile batteries firing, on one point, at the distance of two miles. The day of the 2nd was not decisive. The fighting was stopped by the close of night, and each army occupied nearly the same ground as when the battle commenced. General MEADE thought he perceived indications that LEE was retiring, but a reconnaissance discovered that he was still “in force” on the field. There is no report, official or other, later than the night of the 3rd. The whole result, therefore, appears to be that the Federals in the second engagement did not recover the ground they had lost in the first. But the conflict must have been, as General MEADE describes it, severe.

      Following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860, on a platform to abolish slavery, seven states in the South – the economy of which depended largely on slave labour – seceded from the Union. By the time that the Civil War began in 1861, the Confederates commanded support in 11 states.

      General Robert E. Lee invaded Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863 to shift the focus of the war to the North. He encountered the Union forces under the newly appointed General George Meade at Gettysburg on 1 July. The climax of three days of fighting came with the repulse of Pickett’s Charge against the centre of the Union line atop Cemetery Ridge.

      Both sides suffered about 20,000 casualties in what proved to be the bloodiest, and the decisive, battle of the conflict. Lee was forced to retreat