Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were closely involved with the education of their children and devised a comprehensive plan which included instruction in how to draw and paint. In April 1852 the artist Edward Corbould was appointed ‘Instructor in Drawing and Painting in Water Colours to the Royal Children’, and he remained in this position until at least 1866. In these two teaching sketchbooks, Corbould encouraged the young Prince of Wales to practice watercolour painting and penmanship. Corbould’s teaching method was to draw a sketch on the left-hand side of the page, which the Prince of Wales then copied on the right hand side of the sheet. Many of the sketches depict military or chivalric subjects – which must have appealed to the interests of a young Prince. The sketchbooks are open to show an artillery soldier and a jester riding a rearing horse. The quotation below the latter is adapted from a line in Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem, The Lady of the Lake, first published in 1810.