The undignified scramble for brides, following the untimely death       
          of Princess Charlotte of Wales, resulted in marriages for the Dukes of     
          Clarence (William IV), Kent and Cambridge. In each case the groom was      
          considerably older than the bride, providing England at a later stage      
          with three dowagers, one of whom, the Duchess of Cambridge (Auguste of     
          Hessen-Kassel), survived her husband by thirty-nine years.                 
             In quick succession, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge became the       
          parents of a son, George, a daughter, Auguste, and, after a lapse of       
          eleven years, another daughter, Mary Adelaide. In his diary her            
          brother recorded: "10 January 1834. Yesterday evening the christening      
          of Mary took place. A most solemn and beautiful ceremony and the           
          service was well performed by Mr. W(ood). The little baby did not cry      
          at all. I signed my name as witness".                                      
             This brother George, later 2nd Duke of Cambridge, and once              
          considered as a possible spouse for Queen Victoria, married Louisa         
          Fairbrother, a marriage frowned upon and not recognised by the Royal       
          Family. There is a story that while Princess Mary, George's youngest       
          sister, was driving in Hyde Park, her lady-in- waiting suddenly            
          exclaimed: "Why! There's Mrs. FitzGeorge." "Where?" asked the Princess     
          excitedly. "Which is she? I have never yet seen her."                      
             When in 1850 their father was dying, Auguste, Grand Duchess of          
          Mecklenburg-Strelitz, travelled night and day to reach him before he       
          died; she arrived seven hours after all was over. During the Duke's        
          last days, Princess Mary spent many hours at Cambridge House. "I feel      
          so grateful to God," she wrote,"that I was permitted to be with him,       
          for he liked to have me with him, when Mama was for a moment called        
          away, to fan him and to bathe his temples with eau-de-Cologne; and         
          then he would press my hand and whisper, "Charming," and "Dear". The       
          same evening all was over, and the spirit had returned to God who gave     
          it. His will be done."                                                     
             In 1857 their aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, died. "We young          
          people," wrote Princess Mary, "that is to say, George, Augusta and I,      
          loved her as a second mother. She was an angelic being and I trust         
          that one day I may follow her bright example, and resemble her in mind     
          and heart as well as in name."                                             
             When in 1858 Vicky, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, pregnant for      
          the first time, discussed the arrangements for the birth with her          
          Court Chamberlain, Queen Victoria was shocked; she was shocked again       
          when Princess Mary of Cambridge asked Prince Albert whether Vicky          
          suffered much from morning sickness, as these conditions were not to       
          be discussed with "any gentleman". "Poor Mary", as Queen Victoria          
          called her because of her vast proportions, became engaged at last,        
          aged thirty-three, to the four-years-younger Prince of Teck. Franz,        
          handsome, vivacious and dark, was the morganatic son of Duke Alexander     
          of Wurttemberg and the Hungarian Countess Claudine Rhedey, and Queen       
          Victoria considered "Poor Mary" had chosen well. Mary's brother and        
          mother were both delighted, for there had been anxious times when it       
          seemed possible that no suitable offer would ever be made.                 
             Princess Mary was generous, impulsive, and entertaining, but she        
          was "a mountain of a girl", and her massive proportions scarcely           
          hinted at the attraction of her character. Everything about her was        
          vast and generous: the way she looked, the way she ran into debt, the      
          way she forgave and forgot animosities.                                    
             "Fat Mary", large, jolly and generous, often found herself in           
          pecuniary difficulties and at one time, in order to economise,             
          moved with her family to Florence and it was here that her daughter        
          Mary, the future Queen Mary, acquired an interest in art which was         
          to remain with her all her life. Two years later they returned to          
          London, arriving on daughter Mary's eighteenth birthday.                   
             Princess Mary was much beloved and she was loudly cheered in            
          the jubilee Procession of 1887. She said to a friend afterwards:           
          "Yes, dear, as one of the old Royal Family the kind public always          
          gives me a warm welcome."                                                  
             When her mother died (6 April 1889) aged ninety-two, the end            
          had come so suddenly that none of her children was with her.               
          Queen Victoria, seated between Princess Mary and Princess Augusta,         
          attended and, except that of her son Leopold, it was the only              
          funeral she ever attended.                                                 
              The Duchess of Teck's visit to the 1897 Jubilee Review was             
          one of her last public appearances. Earlier in the year she had            
          been taken seriously ill in the night and had been saved only by           
          immediate surgery; however, her recovery was only temporary and,           
          at three a.m. on October 27 after a second emergency operation, her        
          heart failed. She left no will. 
 

Source: Leo van de Pas