Standing in the middle of Hyde Park is an old Palace, now only part occupied. On the ground floor live two of the daughters of Queen Victoria, each of the Princesses having a separate block, but-thé great state apartments above are all empty. During the summer they are thrown “open to the public -for a short time on Saturdays and Sundays; but until  recently there was little to attract the visitor, but great bare rooms lined with portraits of obscure royals.

Some three years ago, however, our Queen, visiting there, pointed out that the room always described to visitors as the nursery of Queen Victoria was not the nursery at all but the bedroom, from which the young princess was roused to be hailed queen. From it leads off

anteroom, which in its turn connects with the real nursery. Here Victoria played as a child, and when she moved to Buckingham Palace, and the apartments were occupied by the Duke and Duchess of Teck, their daughter, little May. Afterwards to be our queen, played in the same room.

It then occurred to Queen Mary that it would add to the historic interest of this suite of rooms if they could be restored and furnished. She remembered clearly the rosebud pattern of the nursery wall during her early childhood, and the patterned chintz that hung at the window. Could such paper and chintz be obtained today? Enquiry was made of the firm that originally decorated their rooms, and they found, stored away, the very blocks from which the Royal Nursery paper and curtains had been printed. From thor records they found full particulars, and set to work to reproduce the original decorations. These in place, the queen began to plan how to reproduce the effect of the old days. From Windsor and Sandringham she sent furniture of the period, an old spinet then as a finishing touch, some of the real toys of Queen Victoria. There is her baby doll, asleep in a cradle with a plush crown over its head, here is a tent and a little theatre and, in the anteroom , her big dolls house, its kitchen fitted with pots and pans and a dresser of plates.

Such simple toys they seem compared with the modern ones, but every boy and girl who visits the palace when, in the spring it opens again to the public, will feel something of the charm of this chintz hung room in which two future queens played dolls.