Child's oak garden rake with a slightly tapering, plain handle, and steel head with seven prongs.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert chose to spend as much time as they could outdoors, and encouraged their children to do the same. Their family life in the gardens at Osborne frequently formed the subject of Queen Victoria’s watercolour sketches, which show the informal and private existence that they were able to enjoy there. Prince Albert, however, decided that the royal children were not only to play in the gardens at Osborne, but were also to learn the skills of gardening.

Each child was allocated a small, rectangular plot, together with their own gardening implements, including rakes and wheelbarrows, and they were taught how to cultivate flowers, fruit and vegetables.

Text adapted from Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden, London, 2015.