Happy New Year, gentle reader! Hope you had fine start to 2008.

The last two columns focused on a couple of 20^th century Peoples� Princesses. They were the successors of a 19^th Century version-a daughter of Queen Victoria, who was anything but a staid Victorian lady.

Since I know you�re a big history buff, I should tell you the place I live in is 150 years old this year. It started out as a fur trading post, a center for miners heading for the gold fields in 1858, and hurriedly became an official British colony thanks to Queen Victoria herself. When she was informed by the Governor of the colony that the current population of the town was 90 percent American, and was on the verge of becoming part of the U.S., the Queen said well we better fix that. We need a name for the place. What�s there? Well, she was told, the Columbia River runs through it. So, we�ll call it Columbia. But, Your Majesty, the Columbia also runs through the U.S. Gracious- well then we�ll call it British Columbia. The whole thing was settled in conversation in five minutes. The Proclamation came just in time.

Fast forward to 1881- you are the Queen�s daughter, and you go with your husband, who is the Governor General of the country, on a road trip to visit this most westernmost part of it. What do you do if you go on this trip, and you�re only supposed to stay there two weeks, and discover you really don�t want to go home? Seems you�re as crazy about the place as it is about you. Well, if you are Princess Louise you simply make yourself at home and stay awhile.

Now let�s face it. Getting there was a major expedition. There was no railway built across the country at that time, so the Vice Regal couple had to travel by crossing the U.S. by train to San Francisco, then hopping on a British warship for the final leg up the west coast. As they sailed into the harbour that September afternoon, their arrival was met with blaring trumpets and much cheering. The Princess was, according to the local newspaper account, �taller than her illustrious mother, and has a fine figure and a most graceful carriage. Her manner is unaffected and gracious. His Excellency was attired in his morning suit and was most cordial in his reception of all who approached.�

After all the hoopla and the official functions were over, the couple settled into the home of the Lieutenant-Governor, Cary Castle. This building burned down in 1898, was rebuilt and reopened in 1904, only to burn again in 1957. The third version, made of stone, still stands as Government House. Anyway, Louise and Lorne as they came to be affectionately known behind their backs, decided to go native.

They wandered all over town by themselves. Louise went into a butcher shop one morning. She got very interested in what was behind the counter and went poking about. When the butcher showed up he told her if she didn�t get out of there he�d have her up for trespassing. Upon being informed about who he was threatening with the police, he chose to faint onto his sawdust floor. What the princess�s reaction was isn�t stated.

Not exactly Princess-like behaviour you would think. But then, you didn�t know Louise.

Louise was born on March 18, 1848 at Buckingham Palace, the fourth daughter of Victoria and Prince Albert. She was artistically talented, so much so that she was permitted to attend art school. If she hadn�t been royal, and therefore not permitted a career, she could have been a professional artist. In 1863, age 15, she was taught by the famous sculptress Mrs. Mary Thorneycroft. After her father had died in 1861, she had become the official companion of her grief-stricken mother. Victoria refused to allow her children or her staff to ever ease out of perpetual mourning mode. For a high spirited, fun loving girl this should have been a terrible burden, but she pulled it off. Nevertheless the prospect of her marriage eventually had to be faced.

Louise had this all figured out too. Not for her the courts of her continental relatives. They were so stuffy, so regimented and so repressive that she knew she would never fit in. They would not even deign to speak to commoners. Her sister Vicky had married into the Prussian royal house and was not having a good time, as she was being pushed aside and kept out of the loop by her husband�s Gotha snob relations. Likewise those courts didn�t appreciate the liberal attitudes of the British royals either. She was interested in philanthropic causes and women�s rights, which would not be tolerated elsewhere. She also resolved to marry for love. That meant she would have to seek a British husband, who would not be royal.

Her choice- John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquess of Lorne and heir to the dukedom of Argyll, descended from the Kings of Scotland. Her choice had the full support of Prime Minister Disraeli, whom he knew personally to be a man of intelligence and culture. Of course the Queen approved. The Court was scandalized. They married in 1871, and Louise happily embarked on a new life as the spouse of a Member of Parliament. Free to run her own household she and Lorne surrounded themselves with artists and fellow philanthropists.

Marriage to the Queen�s daughter couldn�t hurt the MP�s career aims either, and that is how the small time Marquess of Lorne found himself appointed as Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883. Which is how Louise and Lorne, came to be adopted Victorians for two months in 1881. At first there were the formalities like balls, horse-races, parties, official welcomes and touring the main country Fair. The weather didn�t always cooperate and many hands were wrung as things didn�t exactly go as perfectly as hoped. Louise and Lorne didn�t seem to mind. Well, you can�t as the weather does what it will, as the English well know. Anyway, the longer past their two weeks they stayed, the more accepted as regular folk they became, and the more hopeful the locals became that they would stay a long time.

Lorne didn�t spend all his time in the capital though. He took off on a trip into the interior of the province, leaving his wife to her favourite pastime: window-shopping, Of course there were teas, at-homes, and making friends with all and sundry. When Lorne returned it was back to the hospital and school tours, which were being put together at the last minute to keep these new friends occupied.

They had arrived in September, and by November they were still inviting friends to tea at the Castle, taking long carriage drives into the countryside, wandering about town and going down to the harbour to take a look at her mother�s warships docked there. The locals were sure they planned to stay permanently; while back in the nation�s capital there were probably not a few worried souls wondering if the GG would ever come back and attend to business.

Lorne also liked to explore the local industries. One day he ended up at a brewery, helping to chop wood for the fires. Then he chatted with the brewer for a while, and drove himself back to the Castle. Sometimes they just dropped in at public events. They happily danced quadrilles at balls with luminaries and their wives. A newspaper review of one held at the Philharmonic Hall noted Louise wore, �a heavy black silk frock, with sash and vest of dark cardinal, brown undressed kid gloves, a coiffure of pearls and a diamond necklace�.

The HMS COMUS was due to leave in early December, and finally the vice-regal couple decided it was time to go back to Ottawa. They sailed on December 7, headed back to San Francisco, leaving a saddened but delighted populous behind them. Louise left a big impression on the whole country too. Before they left to return home to England Louise had a large lake in the Rocky Mountains named for her, as well as ships and other monuments.

Back home in Kensington Palace they still kept their informal life going. They didn�t have children, but they had each other. As did numerous modern royals, Louise knew her royal status could be used to further causes she believed in. Her work with women�s issues included improvements in education and fair work standards. She�d become the first President of the National Union for the Higher Education of Woman in 1872, giving speeches, writing letters to the newspapers and giving freely of her time.

She continued sculpting, with several of her pieces displayed around London. Two famous ones was a marble statue of the Queen on the grounds of Kensington Palace, and the design for a memorial in St. Paul�s for Canadian Boer War casualties.

In 1900 Lorne became the Duke of Argyll, and she the Duchess. He died in 1914, from what appears to have been Alzheimer�s, and was succeeded by his nephew. She was now 66, and although she didn�t sink into the depths of despair in widowhood her mother had, nevertheless became more of a recluse. She did accept the Colonel-in-Chief post of the Sutherland Highlanders and would always appear in public for charitable causes. Her nephew, King George V celebrated his Silver Jubilee by making her a Freeman of the Borough of Kensington in 1935. She was there to greet him and Queen Mary at the Town Hall, but that was her last public appearance. She died on December 3, 1939, aged 91. She was Victoria�s longest-lived daughter, but remains the best �remembered adopted daughter of Canada.

Oh, and you�re always welcome here too..

Anon until next column, and all my best to you and yours for 2008..