And she tasted to the full both the joys and the pains of family affection.

She took a particular delight in her grandchildren, to whom she showed an indulgence which their parents had not always enjoyed, though, even to her grandchildren, she could be, when the occasion demanded it, severe.

The eldest of them, the little Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, was a remarkably headstrong child; he dared to be impertinent even to his grandmother; and once, when she told him to bow to a visitor at Osborne, he disobeyed her outright.
This would not do: the order was sternly repeated, and the naughty boy, noticing that his grandmama had suddenly turned into a most terrifying lady, submitted his will to hers, and bowed very low indeed.
It would have been well if all the Queen's domestic troubles could have been got over as easily.

Among her more serious distresses was the conduct of the Prince of Wales.

The young man was now independent and married; he had shaken the parental yoke from his shoulders; he was positively beginning to do as he liked.