MEMORIAL EDITION '

 

HER MAJESTY’S SERVANTS

PRIVATELIFE

OF
BY ONE OF

QUEEN VICTORIA-

THE

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THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE QUEEN.

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE QUEEN;

 

 

HER MAJESTY ’l‘IlE QCL ‘\‘.
(From a p/zolog‘rap/z by J/cssrs. III-C 57' D.V‘Dowmy.)

 

The Private
Life of the Queen

BY

ONE OF HER MAJESTY’S SERVANTS

“With Sllustrations

(FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY MESSRS. W. & D. DOWNEY,
H. N. KING, AND HUGHES & MULLINS)

LONDON

C. ARTHUR PEARSON, LIMITED
HENRIETTA STREET, we.

1898

 

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE . . . . . . . .

CHAP.
I. A PERSONAL INTRODUCTION

II. THE QUEEN’S PRIVATE SUITE AT WINDSOR.
III. THE QUEEN AMONG CHILDREN

IV. THE QUEEN’S KITCHEN . . .

V. THE QUEEN AS A HOSTESS

VI. THE QUEEN’S GUESTS . . . .

VII. THE QUEEN’S RIDES AND DRIVES AND THE
ROYAL STABLES

VIII. THE QUEEN’S FADS AND FANCIES

IX. THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE AND EXPENDITURE,
HER CHARITIES AND GIFTS . . .

X. THE QUEEN’S PASTIMES . .

XI. THE QUEEN’S SERVANTS . . .

XII. THE QUEEN’S WALKS . . . .
XIII. THE QUEEN AS A HOUSEKEEPER . .
XIV. THE QUEEN AND HER STORE-ROOMS .

XV. WHAT THE QUEEN READS . . .

XVI. THE QUEEN As A DANCER . . . .

V

535330

PAGE

73
82
92
101
108
115
121

130

fl

CHAP.

XVII.
XVIII.

XIX.

XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.

XXVI I .

CONTENTS

WHAT THE QUEEN EATS AND DRINKS .
THE QUEEN’S PETS

THE QUEEN’S RELIGION AND HER SUNDAY

OBSERVANCE

THE QUEEN AS A WRITER.
THE COURT LIFE OF A MAID OF HONOUR
THE QUEEN’S GOLD AND SILVER PLATE .
THE QUEEN AS A MUSICIAN AND ARTIST
THE QUEEN’S PRIVATE HOUSES (OSBORNE)
THE QUEEN’S PRIVATE HOUSES (BALMORAL)
THE QUEEN AS A WORKER . . .

THE QUEEN’S GARDENS . . .

PAGE

I36
I45

153

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN . . .

THE QUEEN’S KITCHEN AT WINDSOR

THE QUEEN’S BEDROOM .

THE WATERLOO CHAMBER AT WINDSOR .
THE ROYAL NURSERIES .

THE INDIAN ROOM AT OSBORNE

THE QUEEN’S DRAWING-ROOM AT OSBORNE

THE EAST TERRACE AT WINDSOR

F rontispiece

PAGE

32
. 48.

. .81

113
I45
. 193

. . 225

THE
PRIVATE LIFE OF THE QUEEN

 

PROLOGUE

Y intention is merely to paint a family portrait of

a dear old lady who, were she the Chatelaine of a

country house, or the schoolmistress of a primitive village,

would be admired and beloved by her neighbours in the

parish for her wisdom and good works, and by her family
and servants as a good mother and mistress.

It would be easier, and to some more attractive, to paint
an historical and heroic picture in bright colours, and so
dazzle the eyes of the spectators with fine clothes, gorgeous
heralds, and men in shining armour, that they would forget
the importance of the central figure and the incompetency
of the painter in the brilliancy of the surrounding subjects.

Though I may fail, it may be well to submit the outline
sketch of my intent for your approval before I set about
stippling in the lights and shadows, the details and colours
which may, for all I can tell, destroy the likeness when they
are filled in. .

Briefly, then, my method is that of the old masters of

z

2 i THEPRIVATE LIFE

the Dutch school, as is best suited to a domestic subject.
The central figure will be that of a sweet old lady, clad in
homely, sober garments, as becomes a good housewife intent
upon the affairs of her household, and I trust to portray
by my modelling of features and by the gentle blending
of pigments rather than by any lettering on the frame, the
age, social position, sorrows, and joys into which she was
born, as are the humblest of her servitors.

Following the method of masters of the Dutch school,
the background will be somewhat realistic. The walls
and furniture will faithfully reproduce the patterns familiar
to her in her own private rooms, the pictures will be those
which she has gathered round her as mementoes in her
privacy of all she holds worthy in the past and present,
and the accessories will be exact replicas of those of
which she makes daily use.

As in a Dutch picture, the table will be spread, and upon
it will be laid the plate and napkin she uses, the food and
‘ fruit of which she partakes, while the liquors she drinks will
be faithfully displayed in the bottles and glasses which mark
her tastes. In the bookcase will be the books she reads, in
the fireplace the fuel she burns, on the floor the carpet upon
which she treads, on the writing—table will lie her daily
correspondence, and through the windows may be seen her
favourite walks and drives, her horses and her dogs.

The method is not mine, and therefore needs no apology.
Whatever the attainment, the object at least is a noble one,
inspired by a desire born of sincere admiration, to in some
way pay the tribute of an humble servitor to a Royal
mistress. History, we know, is not best written by contem-
poraries ; but intimate personal details, if left unrecorded,
are forgotten when they are most needed by the future
historian, who would give his right hand to possess the lost ‘
sonnets of Michael Angelo, Dante’s picture of Beatrice as

OF THE QUEEN 3

an angel, the housekeeping book of Queen Anne, or the
most foolish love letters of Queen Elizabeth.

There is another good reason why this book should be
written while yet the subject of it is alive. Though even
the most trifling detail that is here set forth is essentially
correct, it stands to reason that there are others which,
though not at present available, will be recalled and revived
by the reading of these pages, and thus may lead to their
being kindly sent to the writer for addition as footnotes to
the volume. The most seemingly insignificant details will
be acceptable, as they may throw a new light on the incidents
and anecdotes which I have to relate. I

I leave to others to depict the incidents in a reign as
grand in war, as glorious in peace, and as golden in art,
literature, and science, as that of either of Her Majesty’s
predecessors, Queen Elizabeth or Queen Anne.

My concern is merely with the petty personal details of
the greatest woman of her time, who, when as a small child
of twelve she first heard of her proximity to the throne,
merely held out her little hand, and said, “I will be good!”

A11 political parties must agree that never was such a
propitious promise more promptly given, or more royally
kept by a young girl who became her own mistress at
eighteen, and has lived through so many years of State
anxieties and personal tribulations.

4 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER I
A PERSONAL INTRODUCTION

F you stand in the Long Walk facing Windsor Castle
and look to the extreme right you will see on the first
floor of the Victoria Tower one large oriel window. That
is the principal window of the Queen’s private sitting-room.
If you look a little farther to the right you will see on the
same level a smaller window, which is that of Her Majesty’s
dressing—room.

If you stand at the extreme south corner of the East
Terrace and face the Castle you will see two windows on
the first floor of the Victoria Tower. The one on your left
you will guess rightly to be the second window of the
Queen’s dressing-room. The one on the right, and a small '
window round the corner, facing due north, are those of
Her Majesty’s bedroom.

No amount of interest or bribery is ever likely to get you
a nearer view of this suite. It is of all parts of the Castle
the one sacred spot to which nothing but the Queen’s
personal “ command ” will gain you an entrance, and even
then probably no farther than the private audience
chamber, which is not one of the rooms that I have
enumerated as being in the private occupation of Her
Majesty.

OF THE QUEEN 5

But if you will follow me in the spirit I will try to give
you some knowledge of the immediate surroundings of the
Queen in her home at Windsor, which you may take to be
typical of her other abodes.

At the far end of the quadrangle, in the south-eastern
corner, the line of architecture is broken by the inner side of
the‘Victoria Tower, which, from machicolated battlements to
base, overhangs the side walk, and forms a portico beneath
which the Sovereign, hidden even from the eyes of her own
domestics, ascends to, or descends from, her carriage.

Up two shallow steps and through heavy oaken doors
panelled in glass, lies the outer hall. It is small and
octagonal in shape. The ribs of the Gothic roof are lightly
touched with gold, but the prevailing tint is a creamy white:
The inner doors, which are again of oak, lined with gold
and pierced with glass panels, are flanked on either side by
a fireplace set in deep embrasures. A huge grey marble
vase, supported by bronze Cupids, and wreathed with
flowers in lacquered bronze, stands on either mantelpiece.
Three steps lead to the inner hall, from whence starts the,
Queen’s private lift, a well-arranged apartment in oak, gold,
and crimson upholstery. Beneath the light of an Empire
lantern in ormolu and bevelled glass springs the staircase,
which divides at the head of the first flight. Its white and
gold balustrade of Gothic design, its crimson velvet hand-
rail and soft pile carpet, lead straight to the Queen’s private
apartments.

To right and left of the large double doors, which give
access to the Queen’s private apartments, are two large
pictures, the “ Betrothal of Prince Henry of Prussia”
and “The Jubilee Service at Westminster Abbey ” ; two
excellent portraits of the Earl of Beaconsfield and the
Marquis of Salisbury ; and a statue of Edward VI. under a
handsome Gothic canopy of white stone.

6 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Before coming to all the treasures contained in Her
Majesty’s Sitting-room, Dressing-room, and Bedroom, it
may be well in passing to look into her Private Audience
Chamber, where she has received all the great men and
women of the world, and the walls of which, if they have
ears, have listened to many wise wordsand secrets more
sacred than were ever uttered in the most closely tiled
Masonic Lodge.

The apartment is not a very large one, though its slightly
domed ceiling is lofty. The furniture and hangings are
not very remarkable, though sufficiently rich and appro-
priate for a queen’s reception-room. Yet the first glance
round the chamber must convince the most ignorant that
it contains within its four walls treasures that are almost
priceless in their rarity and beauty. The double doors are
of golden satinwood, inlaid with the finest marqueterie,
and ornamented by large handles and finger-plates of
beautifully worked gilt bronze. The wall space is hori-
zontally divided into four, of which the'lower division or
dado is of the exquisite marqueterie, and the frieze or
upper part is most elegantly and lightly decorated with the
insignia and figure of St. George.

Directly beneath this graceful frieze hangs a line of
masterpieces from the brush of Gainsborough, that for
historical interest and rare artistic merit may well be
deemed beyond all value. They are fifteen in number,
and are portraits of George 111., Queen Charlotte, and
their numerous family of sons and daughters. Each por-
trays the head and bust of the Royal sitter, and each is set
in an oval mount within a handsome square gold frame.
No one in the world but the Queen can see in so small a
space so complete and noble a collection of one generation
of ancestors. For many years these fifteen Gainsboroughs
held undisputed pictorial possession of the walls of Her

OF THE QUEEN 7

Majesty’s Private Audience Chamber. But since the Queen
has ceased to spend any appreciable portion of the year at
Buckingham Palace, Winterhalter’s charming studies of her
nine children have been brought from there and hung
under'their powdered and patched forbears. These nine
portraits are in circular frames, and show the little Princes
and Princesses as really handsome. children, with lovely com-
plexions, and a profusion of beautiful, soft, curling hair.

Directly beneath these most interesting family portraits
are a closely set line of glass-fronted cases, set panel-wise
into the walls. They contain an extraordinary collection—
miniatures, medals, enamels, medallions, and cameos——
which is fconsidered the finest of its kind in the world.
Almost every face known to fame is to be found in this
great collection of rarities, while every form of setting in‘
jewels or chased metal work has been employed as sur-
roundings for these treasures. This most extraordinary
mural collection is crowned by two very massive glass-
topped ,show tables, which stand on richly gilt legs on
_ either side of the big double doors, and contain the very
valuable collection of unset gems, historical relics, carved
stones, and various curios known as the “Royal
Gems.” s

The high mantelpiece, like all those in the Castle, is of
the purest white marble, carved in a very airy design, and
supported by noble figures in high relief. It is surmounted
by a mirror and a sufficiently handsome clock and vases
of marble and ormolu. At the right-hand corner of the
mantelshelf stands a little thermometer in fine ivory, of a
plain obelisk shape. Such a thermometer stands on the
mantelpiece 'of every room in each of Her Majesty’s resi-
dences. Except under the most baffling climatic conditions,
these thermometers are never supposed to vary, and it is a
most delightful characteristic of the Royal Palaces that

8 THE PRIVATE LIFE

rooms and staircases, halls and corridors, are always at an
identical temperature.

If you are of middle age and your parents are alive, they
may have told you that they once saw a slim and exceed-
ingly pretty young girl in a black habit, accompanied by a
number of ladies and gentlemen, cantering, under the green
leaves in the springtime, along the tan ride of Birdcage
Walk. Such a pretty picture of “an English girl on an
English horse under an English tree,” which was a great
Frenchman’s ideal, may have remained with you, and,
therefore, you may be momentarily surprised as the door
opens and a little old lady, to whom the art of becoming a
grandmother has come gracefully, makes her appearance.
It is a popular delusion, put into circulation by the Society
Press, that the Queen has almost entirely lost the use of
her legs. This is very far from true ; but for some years—
more especially since her accident—the Queen has chosen
to facilitate her movements by the employment of a wheel
chair in the passages and when suffering from acute
rheumatism. You must, therefore, be prepared to see Her
Majesty enter either leaning on one side on a stick and
with the other arm given to her Indian secretary, or slowly
propelled into the room in an amply-cushioned wheel chair.
In the latter case an Indian attendant, majestic and pic-
turesque, will be standing behind her with the Lady-in-
Waiting, and, perhaps, a Maid of Honour. If the Audience
is likely to be of a business nature, the Private Secretary
is in attendance. If it is of a purely friendly nature, the
Secretary and Indian attendant are dispensed with, and
only the Lady-in-Waiting remains.

Those who expect great pomp and circumstance of attire
at a Private Audience will be disappointed. The Queen is
simply clad in a black stuff gown of easy fit and very un-
pretentious make, and her silver hair is smoothed away

OF THE QUEEN 9

under a severely plain white ,cap, having small lappets at
the back. As Her Majesty extends her hand to you to
kiss, if you have an artist’s eye and a sensitive touch, you
will perceive that it is exquisitely white, soft, and dimpled,
and perfectly moulded. In the plain gold circle and the
memorial hair and gold rings which alone grace her fingers,
you will read all the homely romance of a happy wife, a
fond mother, and a sorrowful but resigned Widowhood,
which are the greatest attributes of a good woman. .

There is a story told of a young and newly-appointed
Equerry who, in going round the stables one day, came
across a simple old lady in a mushroom hat and a countri-
fied black gown. Filled with the importance of his new
dignity, the zealous official shouted across the intervening
stalls: “My good woman, you must get out of this!
Strangers are not allowed here, especially when Her
Majesty is- in residence.” He finished up his remarks by
threatening to take her to the gate himself if she were not
quick in going. His feelings on discovering that the
shabbily dressed intruder was his Royal mistress in person
may be better imagined than described; but the Queen,
with delightful good-humour, forgave him and at the same
time complimented him on his zeal and obedience to
standing orders.

The story, which is true, is eminently characteristic of
Her Majesty, for she carries her love of extreme simplicity
almost too far. Among her immediate attendants she
much dislikes being addressed as “Your Majesty,” always
insisting on the old-fashioned and homely “ Ma’am.”

If you are a student of photographs or portraits of the
Queen, you will have great difficulty in recognising her in
conversation. All I have ever seen are very far from doing
her justice, for not only does she not photograph well, but
her face in repose is very different from when she com-

IO THE PRIVATE LIFE

mences to talk. The kind, sad eyes light up, the nostrils
distend, the cheeks glow, the curves of the mouth turn up
in smiles and display a very pretty and complete set of
teeth in one so old, and the voice, instead of being husky
as might be expected, is singularly soft, and retains much
of that sweet singing quality which the great Lablache culti-
vated and Mendelssohn praised so highly in a private letter
to his mother.

The Queen is a singularly good talker. Not only is she-
well read in history, biography, and fiction, and speaks five
languages fluently—besides being a very fair Latin and
Hindustani scholar—but there is scarcely a picture or an
artist of any note in the world of whom and whose works
she is not intimately familiar, and she possesses an apprecia-
tive and practical acquaintance with the works of all the
great composers. There is no music or musician too up- .-
to-date to inspire Her Majesty with the curiosity of a
student. She is gifted with a marvellous memory, which
she has cultivated and preserved most carefully, not only
for faces and facts, but for all the little interestingcharac—
teristics which are the salt of good table talk. Above all,
she is a sympathetic and eager listener, and so inspires a
person whom she desires to talk with encouragement, that
she quickly banishes all restraint and diflidence, and suc-
ceeds in drawing her visitor out into positive eloquence on
the subject in which she is interested, always herself show-
ing just enough knowledge of the matter under discussion
to banish all idea that the listener is pretending to be
interested in a matter of which she only has a superficial
knowledge. Besides this, she has a very pretty wit of her
own, and an enormous appreciation of any fun, being far
from blase'e. The Queen is the first to suggest and applaud
anything which would give pleasure in ordinary good society.

OF THE QUEEN 11

CHAPTER II
THE QUEEN’S PRIVATE SUITE AT WINDSOR

HE Queen’s private apartments at Windsor are so

intimately connected with her life, and are so
characteristic of the passing events that have influenced
her, that they lay a natural claim to a full description
before her home-like rooms at Osborne, or her extremely
simple surroundings at Balmoral.

From outside, the reader already knows the angle of the
Castle that the Queen’s private suite occupies. Approaching
it from within, the first door opened is the massive portal of
oak picked out with gold and panelled in the Gothic style,
which prevails in so much of the restored woodwork at the
Castle. It gives direct entrance to the Queen’s sitting-
room. .

The Queen’s sitting-room faces south. The first im-
pression caught, on entering the room, is one of subdued
richness and unostentatious comfort. The apartment is
almost square in shape and of great height. It com-
mands from the wide oriel window a fine view of the
South Terrace, the Long Walk, the Home Park, and the
Great Park. Nearly opposite the window is the mantelpiece,
which is of white marble and of grand proportions. It is
relieved with ormolu a casqued head being supported on

12 THE PRIVATE LIFE

either side by winged mythological figures and conventional
wreaths. The reliefs to the uprights are Greek vases, sup-
ported by tripods, and surmounted by beautifully modelled
eagles. The fender is a low one of brass wire, and the fire-
irons are placed in small upright stands on either side of
the grate, in which is burned nothing but beech logs 3 for
though tons of coal are annually consumed in the Castle,
the beautiful steel and ormolu grates of the State rooms and
the private apartments never contain other than beech-wood
fires, as the Queen has the same rooted objection to coals
as to gas.

Above the mantelpiece is a mirror set in a cream and gold
frame that matches the panelling of the room. The clock,
of Empire shape, is flanked by a priceless pair of covered
vases, two bronze military statuettes, and a couple of fine
candelabra. Before the fireplace is a three-fold screen, and
a long couch covered with luxurious cushions. Before this
is placed a table over which is flung an embroidered table-
cloth; it is generally littered with piles of photographs or
laden with the illustrated catalogues of Royal possessions
which are so extraordinary a feature of the Queen’s house-
hold, and which merit a full description in another place.
Directly behind the sofa stands an enormous round table,
of beautiful inlay, which is, however, almost completely
hidden by the fascinating confusion of books, photo-frames,
and bibelots of all kinds, notable among which is a very
charming equestrian statuette of the Queen, modelled when
she was little more than a bride.

Recalling the stiff primness which characterised the apart-
ments of the later Georgian era, and the singular degree of
discomfort that marked the furniture and decorations of the
thirties, it is strange to note the lavish crowding of pretty
things, and the orderly confusion of beautiful bric-c‘z-brac
that make such a picturesque effect in the Queen’s rooms.

OF THE QUEEN 13

Even the grand piano, a very handsome instrument, which
stands beyond the round table, and close to one of the
many doors, is not sacred from the crowd of objets d’art
and dainty trifles that Her Majesty so loves to have about
her. The high-backed comfortable chair before the key-
board is a comparative innovation, for the Queen is essentially
conservative in details, and the princesses had much diffi-
culty in deposing the uncomfortable “screw” music—stool
from its time-honoured position. At the end of the piano,
and tucked away in a convenient corner, stands the étagére
containing the bound musical works which Her Majesty
loves so well and which are in frequent request during
the short time that elapses between Her Majesty’s dinner
and the hour for retiring. To right and left of the fire-
place are two large cabinets which are crowded with
china, statuettes, models of favourite animals, flowers,
and photographs. Here I may remark that much as ,
the Queen appreciates photographs, her most treasured
mementoes of old friends and dumb pets always take the
form of models. In clear Parian china, marble of all kinds,
bronze, silver or gold, small busts, statuettes, and figures
abound in profusion on all sides.

Well-stuffed couches surround the room at frequent
intervals 5 before them standing massive tables, each
bearing its complement of books and portfolios.

Standing at an angle, so that the light from the window
falls well across it, is Her Majesty’s writing-table, surely the
most sacred and the most interesting piece of furniture in
the whole suite.

At the first glance it appears but a forest of framed
photographs and miniatures of the Prince Consort and
the Queen’s family and friends. The blotter and writing-
pad, the silver inkstand, fashioned like a boat, which four
boys—two being winged and two being ordinary little

I4 THE PRIVATE. LIFE

mortals—are pushing across a rough beach; the chased
gold pen—trays, the dainty cook’s-head pen-wiper of solid
gold, with a red cloth comb at the top of his head, and
the quill pens which the Queen always uses, are not so
easy to discover.

Before an array of framed familiar faces and writing
materials stands Her Majesty’s capacious writing-chair, with
a narrow cushion across the back and a footstool beneath
it, and on the floor at her right hand the dainty silk-
lined waste-paper basket, the daily contents of which
would be more interesting than a year’s file of the Times.
At the right-hand of the writing-table proper is a table in
étagéres of bamboo and lacquer, which holds the stationery-
case, letter-baskets, and other paraphernalia necessary to
an enormous correspondence. Another small table holds
all the best published books of reference for the current
year, which are uniformly bound in red morocco and
stamped with her Majesty’s cipher in gold.

Among the other occasional pieces of furniture is a
small octagon table, which stands in front of the cabinet
on the right of the fireplace, and has no other apparent
use but to bear a tiny gold handbell, which summons
Her Majesty’s immediate attendants, while another is used
by the Queen when in her rare moments of leisure she
plays a game of “ Patience.”

The suite is entirely lit by huge chandeliers—wax
candles alone being used by Her Majesty.

It is in the aspect of this small suite (for no one can
fairly say that Great Britain’s Queen and India’s Empress
is over-lodged in the four rooms dedicated to her personal
use) that is to be found the keynote to the Queen’s Whole
life. Here hang the pictures that recall memories, and
friendships, or something even dearer. A pile of music
lies here, an orderly litter of photographs and miniatures is

OF THE QUEEN 15

there, a small square book-stand holds half-a—dozen
volumes that are in course of being read, while everything
is dominated by bowls and baskets of flowers.

The Queen’s private sitting-room might well belong to
any one of her wealthier subjects who possesses a simple
taste in furniture and decorations, a large collection of
pictures and sketches, and a full circle of relations and
friends. The general scheme of colour is crimson and
cream and gold. Heavy damask draperies frame the
windows, the lower panes of which are veiled with short
curtains of snowy muslin. The blinds are of a dainty
’material called diaphene, in which is woven in a trans-
parent pattern the insignia and mOtto of the Garter. The
furniture is principally upholstered in the same flowered
crimson and gold damask that drapes the windows. The
walls are panelled in the same silk, and here, the constant
recurrence of the pattern (a conventional bouquet of
flowers) would become monotonous were it not for the
number of pictures of every description which cover the
walls from within! a short distance of the ceiling of deep
"cream and gold, to within four feet of the rich crimson
‘ carpet; which is patterned with a delicate tracery of scrolls
and garlandswale yellow. The many doors are painted
cream colour and decorated with floral panels and gold
mouldings.

This scheme of paint prevails throughout the suite, the
dressing and bedrooms only differing from the sitting-room
in that the walls of the former are panelled in a soft shade
of green silk, while the latter are papered with rich crimson
flock. The most striking features of the Queen’s private
rooms are, to acasual observer, the pictures. In the eyes
of their owner cachiseparate one has a history or recalls a
reminiscence. Chief among the portraits and landscapes,
the oils, water-colours, and crayons, are the many likenesses

I6 THE PRIVATE LIFE

.of the Prince Consort. The best‘of these, which hangs in
the sitting-room, opposite the fire-place, is a life-size, full-
length picture, by Winterhalter, of the Prince, attired in
black walking-costume and holding the top hat of modern
times in his hand. But a most charming Landseer,
that hangs above the cabinet on the left of the fireplace,
also shows the Prince to great advantage. He is in
shooting costume, and the fruits, in fur and feather, of his
day’s sport lie heaped at his feet. The baby Princess
Royal, Eos, his favourite greyhound, and a Skye terrier are
playing on the floor, while Her Majesty, in a plain gown of
white satin, and with her slender girlish shoulders bare,
stands at her husband’s side. The picture, which was
painted in the bay of the Green Drawing-room, has for the
distant background a fine View of the East Terrace and
the Park beyond, and is replete With grace and tender-
ness.

A delightful little picture in an old-fashioned gilt frame of
carved wood shows the Prince Consort and the Duke
Ernest of Saxe-Coburg, in velvet doublets, slashed with
white satin. and wearing the collars and orders of St.
George. Close by, hangs another portrait of Prince Albert
in Stuart costume, the accompanying figure being a most
dainty portrait of the Queen, dressed for‘fhe great fancy
ball of Charles II. period, which was given at Buckingham
Palace on June I 3th, 1851. It is a singularly pretty like-
ness of the Queen. The Duke of Connaught appears
twice in fancy dress, when quite a tiny boy of three. In
one picture he wears the full panoply of an officer in the
Scots Fusilier Guards ; in another he is attired as bluff
King Hal. Princess Helena (aged three) is represented
in full Highland costume, and Prince Alfred, wearing his
first middy’s uniform. There is also a charming picture of
Princess Beatrice, when ten months old. She wears a

OF THE QUEEN :7

lovely white lace frock, and is lying on a white satin
cushion.

In the Queen’s bedroom hang two portraits of Prince

Albert and his brother in their youth. Near them is a fine
portrait of the Duchess of Kent, and also a pictorial
recollection of her room, and the sofa on which she died
at Frogmore in 1861, in the presence of the Queen, the
Prince Consort, and Princess Alice. A sketch of the
Queen garbed as a nun, standing with clasped hands in the
presence of a vision of Prince Albert, is from the brush of
the late Princess Alice. In the Wardrobe Room hang.
portraits of favourite gillies and pipers, among them being
good likenesses of John Brown and Ross, Clark and
Campbell.
‘ Among other pictures to be found on the walls of the
Queen’s rooms are four different portraits of the Queen of
the Belgians, in as many different costumes, and many
likenesses of cousins and relatives too numerous to
specify.

Two portraits of Baron Stockmar, most staunch of
friends and sympathetic of advisers, are interesting. They
show him as a kindly old gentleman with a shrewd face. A
charming portrait of the Prince of Wales, when a child, is
. drawn by “The Queen and Sir Edwin Landseer.” Other
portraits, many of them being in tinted crayons, are
Princess Mary of Cambridge (now the Duchess of Teck),
a little ”girl all golden curls and ribbons ; the great Duke of
Wellington; a most quaint study of the Princess Royal
when a baby, by the Prince Consort, and a lovely head of
the handsome Marchioness of Douro‘.

Of sketches of Balmoral, Rosenau (Prince Albert’s
birthplace), Osborne, and the favourite apartments of the
Queen at her different residences, there are many scores. It_
is? perhaps worthy of remark that among the 2 31 pictures

3

18 THE PRIVATE LIFE

that adorn the Queen’s private rooms, her daughters-in-law,
her sons-in-law, and her grandchildren find no place,
although photographs and miniatures of them abound on
every side.

The mantelpieces and occasional tables in the Queen’s
dressing-room are as charmingly arranged and beflowered
as those in the sitting-room. Here the green silk walls
and hangings make a perfect background for the toilet
accessories that cover the dressing-table. These are all of
gold, worked and chased into most delicate designs. The
mirror is set in a square-cornered frame that rises at the
top into an oval. Before it lies a large gold tray, flanked
by four scent-bottles of carved crystal. Two of these are
set in gold filigree-stands of a shallow boat-shape. The
pincushion is dark blue velvet, fitted within a gold-pierced
edge. Of gold boxes there are about a dozen, and they
are of every size and shape, ranging from the large square
handkerchief box, to the Small, nut-like patch-box. A pair
of candlesticks, 'two large oval hair—brushes without
handles, and a handbell complete the equipage. From
the dressing-room floor rises some feet high, the magnificently
elaborate gold stand which supports a lamp and “ dressing-
kettle” of the same precious metal.

The solid gold hand-basin, on the bottom of which are
engraved the royal arms, has a romantic story attached to
it. It was made especially for the Queen’s use at her
coronation, but after that event, “as strange things will, it
vanished,” and every effort to discover it completely failed.
After twenty-seven years, however, when some structural
alterations were being executed in St. James’s Palace, 3.
workman found, bricked in a hollow wall, the long-lost
gold hand-basin. Since that time the Queen has always
made a point of using it. As Her Majesty does not
possess a golden ewer, a china one, that matches the rest

OF THE QUEEN 19

of the wash-hand-stand fittings, is used. This fact may be
worthy of the notice of friendly princes and privileged
millionaires who are often at a loss to select a suitable and
acceptable present to Her Majesty.

The Queen’s bed is large and of wood, as are all of the
beds at Windsor, the hangings being of fine crimson
damask. It is most pathetic to note that abovegthe right
side 'of the bed there hangs against the rich silken back-
ground a portrait of the late Prince Consort, surmounted
. by a wreath of immortelles. The same sad memorials are
in every bedroom that the Queen ever occupies.

The view from the windows of the Queen’s bed and
dressing-rooms is absolutely perfect, embracing as it does
the incomparable East Terrace, with the tennis courts
beyond, and in the distance Frogmore and the Great
'Park. H

Perhaps the least noticeable, but quite the most charming
and interesting sketch, is of a girl’s small, white, dimpled
hand, without the ring, evidently a Princess’ hand, of
which our greatest poet has said:

“ Princess-like it wears the ring
To fancy’s eye, by which we know
That here at length a master found
His match, a proud, lone soul its mate,
As soaring genius sank to ground
And pencil could not emulate
The beauty in this—how, how fine,
To fear almost—of the limit line.”

Who would think such waxen and such shapely and such
sensitive fingers could sway the mightiest sceptre in the
world for over half'a century? It is a study of the Queen’s
hand, made when she was quite a girl, by Sir David Wilkie,
for his picture of the Queen’s first Council.

20 THE PRIVATE LIFE

It is within the walls of these retired rooms that the
Queen has sorrowed and joyed. Life and death have
come to her, and power and patience have been granted
her with. which to rule her world-wide Empire.

OF THE QUEEN 2 I

CHAPTER III
THE QUEEN AMONG CHILDREN

HAT, during the regal solitude of her long life, the
Queen‘should have devoted much of her time to, and

the greater part of her love upon, children is not wonderful.
They have been her dearest bond with her subjects and
the one link that has bound her with all womankind, gentle
and simple alike. The Queen has always had the true
instinct of maternity very strongly developed, yet tempered
with that discretion and common-sense, which with her
have entered into the tenderest relations of life, and have
never allowed her heart to get the better of her head.
Born and brought up at a period when sentiment was
cultivated as a fine art, she, even as a child, gave strong
evidence of that independent spirit which later characterised
two or three of her own children, and also of that generous
frankness which she has always essayed to cultivate in all
those belonging to her. _

The following anecdote fully displays this early formation

of the Queen’s character: She was, when quite a little girl,
taken on a visit to Wentworth Woodhouse, Earl Fitz-
William’s family seat in Yorkshire. Wet weather had made
the paths in the grounds very slippery and unsafe, and the
Princess, who was rambling ahead of the walking party, was

2 2 THE PRIVATE LIFE

warned of the fact by a kindly gardener, who in local
parlance told her the paths were “ very slape.” ‘

“Slapel Slape! What is ‘slape’P” cried the Princess
in the characteristically abrupt style that reminded those
about her of the late King George III. The explanation
which followed had no effect on the Princess “ Drina,” who
started again on her wild career and promptly fell down in
the mud. Lord FitzWilliam said: “Now your Royal
Highness understands the word ‘ slape’ theoretically and
practically.”

“Yes,” said the Princess as she picked herself up. “I
think I do, and I shall not forget it again.”

Self-restraint was one of the first habits acquired by
England’s future Queen, who spent many months in every
year visiting at great country houses, and it was also this
carefully cultivated characteristic that made her endure with
such courage what she has often described herself as her
sad and lonely childhood.

Her doll’s-house was her consolation in those days. It
was a very homely affair compared to the luxurious palaces
in which latter-day children keep their “babies.” She was
also childishly fond of making tea, and to this day her
grandchildren and great—grandchildren can have no greater
treat than to pour tea from a tiny melon-shaped silver tea-
pot, with a very short spout and “May 24th, 1827,” in-
scribed thereon. The initial V, surmounted with a crown,
which decorates either side, shows that even then her first
name of Alexandrina was not used or favoured by all her
family. This wee relic of the Queen’s early days shows
signs of much wear, for the butterfly poised on a rose,
which makes the handle of the lid, has lost its outer wings,
and they have never been replaced. A toy sugar-basin and
teapot in silver, marked with a V and dated 1822, were also
beloved by the Queen in her babyhood.

OF THE QUEEN 23

When her Majesty’s own children began to arrive in the
world, no trouble was spared from the birth of each to
make it fit, physically and mentally, for the position to
which it was born; for, with all her deep love for her
children, the Queen began at once to exercise the strictest
discipline in her nurseries, and one of her oldest friends
and most valued advisers always remarked: “The nursery
gives me more trouble than the government of a kingdom
would do.”

This care was undoubtedly first rendered necessary by the
fact that the little Princess Royal was at her birth a most
sickly and delicate child, far different from the Prince of
Wales, who was a fine boy from the first. It was at the
dinner given in honour of the Princess’ christening, that the
vast gold punch bowl, which stands in the big dining-room
at Windsor, and which was made for George IV. at the cost
of £10,000, after designs by F laxman, was'filled with thirty
dozen bottles of mulled claret.

Lady Lyttleton, who had been the Queen’s governess,
was early installed in the Royal nurseries, and superin-
tended all arrangements for their proper supervision. To
show how simple the baby Princess Royal, when only two
years old, was, she was greatly pleased with two little frocks
sent her as a Christmas present by her grandmother, the
Duchess of Kent. All furniture and clothing provided for
the children was exceedingly good and adequate, but
wasteful extravagance and luxury were never seen in that
department of the Queen’s household! All her children
were laid in the same cradle which the Queen gave to the
Duchess of York on the birth of Prince Edward. The
christening robes, best lace veils and gowns, were all used
by Her Majesty’s babies in succession, while latter-day
mothers should. remember that Her Majesty always made
time in her busy life to bathe with her own hands the last

24 THE PRIVATE ‘LIFE

vvvvv

 
 
  
 

new baby It was L" '_ w” 34.5 havmg her.‘
children under her oWn eye, tb 1,: ’sipflvate.
apartments were being arranged by?“ :

her at Windsor, the children’ s schoolroohi' “w
to Her Majesty’s private audience chamber, and 11
away from her own sitting-room. This large and d
apartment, which has views over the South Terrac
stables, and the Home Park, is now used by "'- .
Beatrice. It IS furnished with the greatest‘l'uxuryw 4' . .1’
and rivals the Queen’s rooms in the variety an“d,_qua;nw kof
its bibelots and photographs ; bUt on the walls st‘i11"ha’r1§.t7he
numberless sketches and paintings exchted by the Princesses
of scenes in Scotland, pet animals and birds, and‘ various
essays at family portraits.

The birth of Princess Alice, 1n 1843, brought into the
Royal circle the most charming and sweet of all the Queen’s
children. At first she was considered slow, although she was
always admitted to be the beauty of the family. The Prince
Consort often spoke of her as “poor dear little Alice,” but she
developed quickly, and soon became his favourite companion.

The Queen’s method of education and upbringing was most
excellent. One main principle on which she insisted strongly
was that though their minds and bodies should be trained
with regard to their future position, they should never be
brought in intimate contact with Court life. Many of the
Queen’s ladies scarcely knew the Royal children save by
sight, and by catching brief glimpses of them as they
walked in the gardens with their parents or sometimes
came into dessert after dinner. The most carefully selected
governesses and professors taught the children English,
French, German, and the Arts. Progress in their studies
was reported perpetually to the Queen, who herself
frequently supervised the riding and driving lessons Which
were given in the grand riding-school.

 
  
   
   
 
 
   

OF THE QUEEN 25

Generosity was inculcated, and on birthdays and at
Christmas time the Royal children gave away with
genuine delight, little gifts of their own making. Self-
control was also largely insisted on, and when the little
Princess Royal made her first long journey with her parents
to Scotland, in 1844, the Queen herself was delighted with
the self-possession of her little daughter in the face of salutes,
guns, and cheering crowds.

Princess “Vicky,” as she was called, also pleased her
parents by her courage and sense on another occasion when
in Scotland 3" she sat on a wasps’ nest and was very severely
stung. The Queen was greatly alarmed on the occasion,,but
the child suffered the pain with considerable courage,

To encourage her children to speak foreign languages, the
Queen frequently made them learn and act little theatrical
pieces, while tableaux were another popular feature in the
royal nursery. Also with a View to perfecting the Princes
and Princesses in the more useful and domestic arts, on her
birthday in 18 54 the Queen made over to her children the
lovely Swiss cottage and gardens in the grounds at Osborne,
so that the boys should learn carpentering and gardening,
and the girls the rudiments of cooking and housekeeping.
Often the Queen would visit the cottage and be entertained
there by her children. Most of her grandchildren have also
used the pretty spot for picnic dinners and teas of their own
providing.

The religious training of the Royal children was entirely
mapped out by the Queen, who herself drew up a memo-
randum which, if it were given to the world in full, would
prove of inestimable benefit to all parents, so kindly, so
truly sympathetic, so earnest and womanly is it. Touching
the Princess Royal in particular, she says, “ I am quite clear
that she should be taught to have great reverence for God
and for religion, and that she should have the feeling of

26 THE PRIVATE LIFE

devotion and love which our Heavenly Father encourages
His earthly children to have for Him, and not one of fear
and trembling.”

The note touching the religious training of the Prince of
Wales was even more decided. “The law prescribes that
the belief of the Church of England shall bethe faith of
the members of the Royal Family, and in this faith the
Prince of Wales must unquestionably be trained.”

But all this anxious thought On the part of the Queen
never degenerated into weak indulgence. Her sons had
almost more than their share of corporal punishment from
the hands of their father, and on one occasion the Queen
herself, for some act of disobedience, picked up the Prince
of Wales, and “reproved” him before the assembled
company. Being sent to bed in the daytime was the
chief punishment meted out to the Princesses, and the
Princess Royal, who, as she grew in years proved a very
high-spirited child, spent many more hours than she can
now count in the solitude of her own chamber. The
Princess Royal was, in fact, most difficult to manage. Her
wit and brilliancy of talent often led her to have a great
opinion of herself. She was yet but a tiny mite when,
being out driving one day with the Queen, she noticed,
and at once desired, some heather by the road—side. She
asked Lady Dunmore, who was in the carriage, to get her
some, but on being told that was not possible, as the
carriages were going too fast, cried: “Oh, I suppose you
can’t, but those girls can get out and pick me some,”
pointing to the Maids of Honour.

The Queen’s interest in children was never limited by
‘her own nursery. She always had kindly and tender
smiles for them all ; from those who attended at the yearly
children’s balls at Buckingham Palace, or whom she en-
countered on her visits to her subjects’ country houses, as

OF THE QUEEN 27

when she honoured her valued friend the Duke of Argyll
at Inverary Castle, and first saw the Marquis of Lorne,
whom she afterwards described as being “just two years
old, a dear,“ white, fat little fellow with reddish hair, but
very delicate features; a merry and independent little
child,” to the humbly born children of her servants whom
she has so often handed to the minister for baptism,
blessed with her own prayers and wishes, and ministered
to as 'only a motherly woman can.

The Queen’s delight and interest in the marriage of her
sons and daughters was charming and touching in the
extreme. Each fresh parting from the home circle was a
grief that still was tinged with an anticipated pleasure,
which was more than realised when the grandchildren
began to appear on the stage of her life.

Like all the rest of her sex, the Queen is more indulgent
to her grandchildren than she ever was to her own, and
each young family in turn has been the object of her
fondest care. For many years her interest in Princess
Alice’s children was proved every hour of every day, and
her grief at the tragic death of little Prince Frederick of
Hesse was as deep as the Princess’ own. After the death
of Princess Alice, the Queen made her beautiful daughters
her special charge, having them often to stay with her, and
providing them with trousseaux on their marriages.

The only grandchildren who .have never been very
sympathetic to the Queen, have been the families of the
Prince of Wales and the Duke of Saxe—Coburg. Her
Majesty is, however, deeply attached to her grandson’s, the
Duke of York’s, babies, and often wonders whether little
Prince Edward will turn out such a mischief-loving urchin
as Prince George was in his youth. It was when the
Prince was a lad, that his royal grandmother had occasion
to reprove him for his want of manners at table one day.

28 THE PRIVATE LIFE

As a punishment he was sent under the table when the
sweets were being served. After an interval, pardon was
asked and granted, and the culprit was ordered to come
out. This he did—but in the same condition as Nature
made him. The Queen was very angry at the time, but
has since often related and laughed at the joke.

There is no doubt that the young ones now nearest to
the Queen’s heart are the’children of the Duke; of Con-
naught, and the babies of her own “Baby,” ‘as Princess
Beatrice was called for many years in the home circle.
These last-named little folks are all very beautiful children,
and well merit the adoration bestowed on them. And how
plainly that adoration is evinced is patent in every detail of
the Queen’s private life. At Windsor Castle, the rooms of
the little Battenbergs are in the Victoria Tower, just above
the Queen’s own rooms, while her private apartments are
never sacred from their childish raids, nor from the litter
of a most miscellaneous collection of toys.

The humanity of Royalties can be gauged from their
toys, for is not the child the father of the man? Hence
it is, that though every species of marvellous model and toy
is lavished on the Queen’s pet descendants, a very dirty rag
doll or a wooden horse with damaged paint is a‘ more fre-
quent ornament of the Queen’s private sitting-room than
the beautiful organ which, at great cost, was made for little
Prince Maurice a short time back. The Grand Corridor
at Windsor generally contains a large hair—covered horse
which is dragged up and down, and the beautiful sur-
roundings of the pretty tea—house at Frogmore are happy
playgrounds for Princess Henry’s children. The verandah
of the latter place is a fine storehouse for toys, and a big
see-saw is just under the windows of the little tea-room.

At Osborne equal consideration is shown for the children,
and they now occupy the same delightful suite of nurseries

OF THE QUEEN 29

that were so many years ago furnished by the Queen and
Prince Consort for their own offspring. The splendid airy
rooms which command most lovely views across the Solent
and over the Osborne Gardens are in the Queen’s own wing
of the house, and, as at Windsor Castle, have direct com—
munication with her apartments. As all nurseries should
be, the whole suite is arranged indiscriminately for sleeping
and living. The largest of these rooms is almost the prettiest,
being decorated with a fresh white paper besprent with gay
flowers and bright chintzes that match. A zig-zag patterned
carpet covers the floor, the entire centre of which is left free
of furniture. A nursery-guard stands before the fire, and
two ample screens, one of scraps, the other Chintz-covered,
mask the doors. A round table, littered with toys, and some
side-tables bearing photographs and books, have their full
complement of wide, low chairs. The cots in the room are
quite old-fashioned, being mahogany With cane sides, the
white fringes that hang round them forming an ideally neat
little valance. The bedclothes have a simple arrangement
of strings, by which they are kept over restless little bodies
during the night. Two tiny rush-seated armchairs suggest
delightful, childish days. All round the room are literally
stacks of toys. The pictures on the walls follow out the
Queen’s taste. in such matters. A few are of sacred sub-
jects, the rest are portraits, among them being likenesses of
the Prince Consort and of the children and their many
cousins. Traces of the little ones at Osborne are found in
the shape of sundry toys in the Observatory Tower of the
house and down in Osborne Bay, where, in a well-arranged
floating bath, they learn to swim as their Royal aunts and
uncles did before them, as well as in the Lower Alcove, a
most delectable and picturesque garden retreat on the Lower
Terrace, which faces the big fountain and has a charming
view of the Valley Walk, where on wet summer afternoons

30 THE PRIVATE LIFE

the Royal children have a picnic tea in just the same simple,
homely fashion as the Queen so loved in earlier days.

Her Majesty’s love and pride in her vast number of lineal
descendants is pardonably great, and her curiosity to see the
“newest baby” is always most delightful. That an early
view may be gained by the Queen of the latest additions to
the family, a small miniature likeness of the little stranger is
always sent to her as soon as may be, which picture is 'worn
by the Queen in a bracelet until such time as puts her
reigning favourite’s nose out of joint, when it is added to
the large collection of these tiny pictures that the Queen
possesses. '

Although the Queen’s private rooms at Windsor are filled
with charming portraits of children, none, to my thinking,
is so really beautiful in pose and execution as a picture I
can recall of Princess Beatrice, painted when she was a year
old. The beautiful baby, who is wearing an exquisite frock
of fine, white lace, is lying at full length, and with dimpled,
raised arms, on a huge white satin pillow, which billows up
round the laughing child. As a picture of child-life, it is the
gem of the Queen’s collection.

Even the tiniest of the Queen’s grandchildren is taught
to treat his Sovereign with due respect. The smallest of
them will doff his cap on entering the palace and bow before
her, though the next minute he may be playing with the
attendants.

There has been a great tendency to exaggerate to the
public, the so-called interference of the Queen with the
domestic affairs of her sons and daughters. That this is
quite untrue is shown by the deep reverence and love in
which all her family hold her. Even those more distant
connections to whom she is a Queen first and a relation
afterwards, hold her in the profoundest affect1on. On one
occasion, a young English Prince, who is not very nearly

OF THE QUEEN 31

allied to Her Majesty, visited Broadmoor, the great Criminal
Lunatic Asylum. While there, he saw a wretched old
woman, who, being informed of the identity of the visitor,
at once burst forth into a frenzied torrent of abuse of the
Queen. The Prince was horrified and most deeply moved,
saying openly to those about him that his devotion to the
Queen was so great that it pained him even to hear a lunatic
rail against her.

One thing is certain, that if those who are grown up and
perhaps getting on in years love and revere Her Majesty,
the children who cross her path have every reason to adore
. her, whether they be of her own kin and can regard her as
a fond and indulgent grandmother, or whether they be the
offspring of those about the Court, her servants and her
gillies, who, oblivious as children will be, of all rank, come
nestling to her side, telling her their baby joys and griefs,
and finding in her not only a queen, but a tender-hearted
woman, who has been and always will be a true friend to
little children.

32 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER IV
THE QUEEN’S KITCHEN

HE Queen’s kitchen is quite the most imposing and

unique department in the Castle. There is but one ‘
word to describe it fittingly. It is gigantic, and is the only
place of the kind which reminds one at once of all one
ever knew about giants, namely, Blunderbore’s kitchen in a
Drury Lane pantomime, where oxen are roasted whole and
poor mortals are spitted like larks, so that the large gentle-
man with a club may have the pleasure of indulging his
olfactory senses by sniffing the blood of an Englishman.
Indeed, in these days of stage-realism, Her Majesty’s
kitchen might be produced in fac-simile at Christmas time,
for, without either additions or exaggerations, it would
provide ample opportunities for Mr. Charles Lauri and his
accompanying sprites to run along mountainous ranges of
dressers, and to hide. behind enormous chopping-blocks or
in cavernous ovens, when pursued by the giant and his
large army of comic cooks.

The first effect that strikes the eye on entering is that
made by some hundred brilliantly burnished coppers, each
of different shape and all as big as a sponge bath. They
are hung round the walls, and blaze like a million suns
through a sulphurous London fog.

.MOmDZT’) F< hump—.HM mt‘Em—DG mm?

 

 

OF THE QUEEN 33

The next object that claims admiration is the enormous
“ dishing-up” table, which is a good deal larger than the
gardens of many suburban houses, and yet it is but an
item in the centre of this vast apartment. Round it there
is ample elbow-room for the army of white-capped and
aproned men—cooks who bustle about, as also for six
meat-chopping blocks, each as big as a good-sized dining-
. table. _

But it may be more comprehensible to the mind’s eye
of my readers if I take this imposing structure in detail.
As I have already hinted, it is as big as a barn, and as
lofty. As you enter from either door you are faced by
a large clock, which looks like a bull’s-eye in the middle
of a great wall. Immediately under this clock is the
inscription :

“ G. IV. Rex. 1828.”

Immediately opposite, and facing the clock, is a fine head
of a Royal stag of many points. Both these walls are
divided by four immense close ranges—two on either side.
These are each about twelve feet wide, and are marvels of
convenience and completeness. It is in a long line above
them that hang, like burnished shields, the Gargantuan
.coppers already referred to. Between these ranges are the
dressers, wooden tables, and sinks, all being the acme
of cleanliness and utility.

At either end of the room are the roasting ranges.
They are somewhat old-fashioned, being quite open and
of such huge size that six rows of large joints are cooked
before each of them at the same time. The long spits are
turned by chains, which in their turn are worked by a kind
of chimney fan. Before each roasting-range stands a meat
screen about ten feet high, and built into the wall on either
side are enormous ovens. Surrounding the ranges there is

4

34 THE PRIVATE LIFE

:1 full complement of charcoal and gas~stoves, on which
stand immense coppers.

It is in front of the fire, at the west end of the kitchen,
that is roasted the great baron of beef which graces the
royal sideboard on Christmas Day. At this same end of
the room is an open fireplace that is diminutive in com-
parison with the others. It is used only for roasting the
birds that go to the Queen’s own table. .

In due proportion to this spacious place is the lofty open
roof, the floods of light from which are broken by the great
oak beams that cross and re-cross beneath the skylight,
and are reflected from the highly—glazed white tiles with
which the walls are lined to the height of the potboard,
which, with its accompanying coppers, forms an effective
and uncommon frieze—rail.

The middle of the kitchen is, as I have before told you,
occupied by the huge table of steel, which is polished to a
state of extraordinary brilliancy. It is brass rimmed and
stands upon brass legs, which are hollow. The legs and
table are filled with steam which speedily heats the entire
structure, on which are dished up the many large dinners of
the Royal Family, the Household, the servants and retainers
of the Castle, without the risk of the viands getting chilled
in the somewhat elaborate process.

Many solid wooden tables, the six large chopping- -blocks,
and the desk at which the Clerk of the Kitchen keeps his
accounts, complete the fittings of the spacious and smoothly
sanded floor.

The Queen’s kitchen 15 ruled over by a chef whose salary
is close on £700 a year. For his convenience there is .a
small room set apart on the north side of the kitchen. It
is a cosy apartment, furnished with a chest of drawers, wash-
stand, table, and a most comfortable armchair. There is also
a writing desk. Above the fireplace, which faces the window,

OF THE QUEEN 35

hangs 3. china plate, mounted on a velvet plaque. It is em-
blazoned with the Royal arms, and was presented to the
Queen some years ago by the Cook’s Guild. The wide
window-sill is piled up with blue paper—covered books, in
which theRoyal and Household menus are daily entered,
along with the quantities of materials used in the different
dishes.

Under the 61ch are four master-cooks who are on duty
about a fortnight at a time. Add to these, two yeomen of
the kitchen, two assistant cooks, two roasting cooks, about
sixteen apprentices and a half a dozen kitchen maids, and
the reader may imagine for himself the wonderful scene of
orderly activity that prevails daily in this single room in the
Castle, to say nothing of the scene when a State banquet is
in progress.

Then it is that under the brilliant glare of number-less gas
jets, the two great open fires roar up their wide—throated
chimneys, while before the fierce blaze, two score of
glistening, juicy joints, all crackle and splutter. White-clad
cooks hover round monstrous coppers which fill the air
with the hum of their bubbling. At his desk the store-
keeper checks the quantities of food in course of cooking,
or sends messengers flying to the storeroom for supple-
mentary supplies. With the monotonous jangle of the
endless chains that turn the spits, mingles the noisy stoking
of the many different fires and the clang of the oven doors
as they are sharply opened and shut. On the gas~stoves the
bains marz'es hiss forth a most savoury steam of appetising
sauces, while before their own particular blaze, fat chickens
' frizzle contentedly under the attentions of a roasting cook
and his basting ladle.

BetWeen one door and the great steel table (which is now
glowing with a generous warmth) there is a constant stream
of stalwart pantrymen bringing in the grand golden dishes,

36 , THE PRIVATE ‘ LIFE

tureens, and sauce-boats, all of the same precious metal,
which are in use to—night. Out at another door flock the.
footmen bearing the same dishes, so daintily dressed and
served that they are indeed worthy “to place before a
queen.”

The entire scene, with its many mingled noises, the rush

of feet, the hum of voices, the clatter of pots and pans, the
ring of golden vessels, and the thousand different odours
that rise in a cloud to the grained oak roof and hang in a
heax .\ steam on the glass skylights, 15 like another edition of
the H 'ezlpiirxi‘ismzt h!
' And )et only the heavier parts‘of a dinner are cooked
amid these wonderful surroundings, for quite apart from it
are the pastryltitchen, the “green-room,” where nothing but
the vegetables are prepared, and the confectionery kitchen.
This last is a most fascinating apartment, and the variety and
beauty of the shapes and moulds to be found there, the
charming little ovens and stoves which go almost all round
the room, and the dainty appliantes for “ piping ” and the
more delicate parts of confectionery would delight any
woman who is messed of a “sweet tooth.”

Within this confectionery kitchen is a beautifullymnged
room, all painted white, for the storing of the materials used
by the confectioner and his half-dozen subordinates. Here
also are packed the cakes and biscuits which, four or five
times a week, follow her Majesty to Balmml, Osborne, or
wherever elw she may be. staying. Here, too, was made
and packed the principal wedding cake of the Duke of

‘orlt.

Before quitting this enchanting region of the culinary art,
you will have noticed that all the walls are lined with; wane
tiles, and that the scullerv, which es en in the best regulated
tamiliesis 3. most unlmwelv place here a positive picture,
with in spotless taps and sinks, exquisitely clean plate tacks

OF THE QUEEN 47

O

and tiled walls. It is characteristic of the extreme cleanli-
ness that prevails in the Queen’s kitchens, that all the floors
are sanded, and that when necessary the sand is swept up
’and renewed half a dozen times a day.

38 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER V
.THE QUEEN AS A HOSTESS

' ‘ OSPITALITY and the invitation of guests have
been reduced to a fine art in the Royal palaces
during the Queen’s long reign. Certain curtailments have
been made from time to time in the list of those who con-
sidered themselves eligible candidates for the Sovereign’s
entertainments, while on the other hand fresh additions are
yearly made from the ranks of those who have merited the
,Queen’s favour or excited her admiration.

To consider the present conduct of the State concerts
and balls would be idle, as it is now very many years since
the Queen has deputed to her daughters and daughters—in—
law her duties as hostess on these purely formal occasions.
Suffice it to say, that they are most splendid entertainments,
at which every detail is in perfection of taste and lavishness.
Yet a rider must be added to say that nowadays these
functions lack the verve and interest which were once given
to them by the charming presence of Her Majesty, who in
former times moved so graciously among her guests, and,
however great the number, made all feel personally welcome
and at home.

At the balls which were given for the Royal children at
Buckingham Palace, the Queen would lead every dance,
and personally draw out the shyest of the little ones.

OF THE QUEEN 39

As a hostess on grand occasions and when she received
the visits of crowned heads, Her Majesty’s demeanour was
at once stately and charming. Kings and emperors who
went to Windsor were always greeted by her at the splendid
State entrance, first with a deep reverence, then with a kiss,
and the same procedure was observed at their departure.
Only a few months back, when the Tsar of Russia visited
his Royal grandmother by marriage at her simple country
home in Scotland, the Queen greeted him with all the
stately formality due to a sovereign, following her old
custom of standing in the entrance at the head of her
family and household.

State visits and State entertainments are, however, com-
paratively public property—they are conducted in the eyes
of the world. It is rather with the quiet stream of visiting
that goes on principally when the Court is at Windsor that
we have to do, and the circumstances that surround these
visits are very interesting, because they are quite private.

It must be premised that of the Queen’s guests there are
two kinds, those whose claim on her is one of friendship, in '
which case a visit of one to three days is expected, and
those who for business, political, or other reasons, are
placed on the “dine and sleep” list. In both cases,
however, the surroundings and locale are the same.

At Windsor—which, as being the palace where the Queen
now entertains the most, is best to take into consideration—
the Visitor’s Entrance is approached from beneath an ample
porch in the north-east corner of the quadrangle, under the
shadow of the Round Tower, and just past that quaint old
remnant of Elizabethan days which now contains the Royal
library. The entrance doors and those that divide the outer
hall from the inner are of oak arranged after a good Gothic
design, and set with panels of glass. The walls are of a
creamy white, and, being ribbed and touched with gold, are

40 THE PRIVATE LIFE

very light in effect. The balustrade of the fine circular
staircase is also white, with a hand-rail of red velvet, which
matches all the carpets. A fine old eight-day clock on
the left side, some oak furniture, a few pictures, and a well-
executed bust in bronze of Alexander of Wiirtemberg, re-
lieved with orders and ribbons of ormolu, all give an air of
homely comfort and welcome.

On the right hand of the inner hall are the equerries’
rooms, the one a library and writing-room, and the other
their breakfast and lunch room. The first is a very plain
apartment. A large round table fills the centre, and between
the two windows, which are on a level with and overlook
the quadrangle, is a writing-table.

Far more interesting is the breakfast-room, where guests
usually linger on arrival and departure. Here the walls are
of pale grey and gold, panelled in light oak mouldings.
They are well covered by a most charming series of water-
colour sketches, to the number of nearly fifty, representing
the uniforms worn by the Household troops in 1832. There
are also many pictures, the most attractive being a group of
three portraits in one frame. A very pretty one of the Queen
when a young girl, dressed in white and blue ; Prince George
of Cumberland, and Prince George of Cambridge. It bears
the date 1832. The dwarf bookcases on either side of the
fireplace are well stocked with reference and classical works,
chief among them being such useful books as “ Chambers’
Encyclopaedia,” Knight’s “ Shakespeare,” a “History of
England,” and the “United Service Journal.”

Mounting the staircase, which is lit by handsomely chased
brass oil lamps springing from the balustrade, the visitors,
who are preceded by a member of the household, reach the
vestibule, after passing beneath two pictures portraying
Edward III. and the Black Prince, and a very beautiful
stained glass window. A statue of King Alfred, the Jubilee

OF THE QUEEN 41

picture of the Queen by Angeli, Caton Woodville’s fine
work, “Too Late,” a portrait of Dean Stanley, and busts
of George II. and Queen Caroline decorate this magnificent
square landing.

From it, doors lead to that quaint white little room which
inshrines forty-one pictures, including the most wonderful
collection of Holbeins the world has ever known, a mar-
vellous Cranach, and that historical old brass clock that
passed as a wedding-gift between Henry VIII. and ill-fated
Anne Boleyn on their marriage morning. It stands on a
bracket of lacquered metal which is engraved with portraits
of Henry and Anne, and has hanging from it dispropor-
tionately heavy weights. The Queen and her visitors pass
through this beautiful little room on Sundays on the way to
the Royal and Visitors’ pews in the private chapel.

A small room in a tower just off the Holbein room (or
Retiring Room as it is generally called) is only interesting
for a round table it contains, made in alternate light and
dark sections of oak and teak wood taken from the ill—fated
Royal George.

It bears‘on a small silver plate in the shape of a ship the
following inscription :—

Made of timbers recovered from the wreck of H.M.S. Royal George,
sunk at Spithead, Aug. 29th, 1782. Presented to Her Most Gracious
Majesty Queen Victoria by her most obedient and humble servants,

E. and E. EMMANUEL.
Portsmouth, Aug., 1841.

The small lobby which lies between the vestibule and
the chapel contains a fine group by Wyatt, in white marble,
of Penelope, bow in hand, and with a wolf at her side.
Another door gives from the same starting point on to
the Page’s Waiting Room, a tiny chamber looking on to
the quadrangle, which contains the life-size marble group of
the Queen and the Prince Consort, in mediaeval costume.

42 THE PRIVATE LIFE

It was executed by W. Theed, in 1867. The attitude of
the royal pair is touchingly affectionate. On the base is
inscribed in gold letters: “Allured to brighter worlds and
led the way.” A large mirror is behind the sculpture.
There are some good Zucarellis here, and several Canalettos.
Also fine portraits by Angeli of Dean Stanley in 1877, the
Hon. G. Wellesley, Dean of Windsor, in 1877, and of Sir
Michael Biddulph in 1878. A very beautiful clock-case,
depicting the Rape of Europa, is supported on either side
by bronze figures of Oliver Goldsmith and Edmund Burke.
This small room gives entrance to the Grand Corridor.

It is from this magnificent promenade that the more
important suites of rooms are reached, and to show how
well the Queen’s guests are always lodged, we will consider
the arrangements made for the three first ranks of her
visitors: Crowned heads, her own sons, and her Ministers
of State.

The rooms called the “ Tapestry Suite ” are always given
to foreign Sovereigns, and so exclusively are they guarded
from prying eyes that few who have not the right to occupy
them have ever passed inside the splendid doors of oak and
heavy gilding which inclose the apartment. The boudoir,‘
which is the largest of the four rooms, is directly above
George IV.’s gateway, and between the twin square towers
of York and Lancaster. Those who know Windsor Castle
from the outside will therefore remember that the large
heavily-mullioned window of this room commands a grand
View straight down the Long Walk to the Great Park beyond.
Otherwise'these rooms are very small, peculiar in shape, and
not too well lit by daytime, owing to the windows being so
deeply set. But they are given to the Queen’s favoured
guests, as they are very near to the private apartments of
Her Majesty and Princess Beatrice, and quite close to the
Oak Dining-room.

OF THE QUEEN 43

Thetapestry in the suite consists of four very beautiful
panels which were made at the Old Windsor Tapestry
Works when they flourished under the patronage of the
late Duke of Albany, as were also the very charming small
panels which, set in borders of bright watercress green, serve
to upholster the furniture. The tapestry gives rather a
gloomy appearance to the room which is but slightly
counteracted by the looking-glass, with which the inside
of the doors is panelled, and by the gorgeous ceiling of
cream and gold. The mantelpiece on the right is of grey
marble, the shelf being covered with very valuable china,
and some of the many hundreds of silver candlesticks the
Queen possesses. Just opposite is a fine cabinet crowded
with some priceless Dresden china and more silver bibelots.
Close by the fire stands the piano, a full grand in a rosewood
case. It was the prize piano at the Colonial Exhibition, and
was made in Toronto, Canada. The Queen considers it is
one of the finest instruments in her possession. Small
tables full of books, china, flowers, and phOtos, are
scattered about the room, which contains but two pictures,
portraits of the late Emperor of Russia and the Dowager
Empress, painted in their early married life.

A door cleverly cut in the tapestry leads into the first
dressing-room, which is set in an angle of the Lancaster
Tower, and is so dark that artificial light is almost always
necessary there. Walls, ceilings, and doors are white and
gold, and the huge maple wardrobe opposite the window is
panelled with glass and decorated with gold lines. Some
chairs and two fine satin-wood tables complete the furniture,
but the pictures include'many records of the Queen’s family
and ancestors. Queen Charlotte and Princess Caroline, by
Lawrence, are delightful memories of those Royal ladies ; a
large water-colour by H. Thomas reproduces the gathering
at Windsor Castle on the occasion of the christening of

44 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Princess Victoria of Hesse, Princess Alice’s daughter, in
1863. A very pretty little picture in an oval frame which
faces the window shows the Emperor of Germany as a tiny
boy in uniform. There are two excellent portraits of the
late Emperor Frederick, one dated 1867, and a group of
Prince Henry of Prussia and his wife. Likenesses of the
first Emperor William and his Empress Augusta almost
make complete this little gallery of the German Royal
family, among which hangs a lovely picture of the Empress
of Austria, painted at the height of her beauty. She is
wearing a low white gown and her glorious hair is unbound
and ripples far below her knees.

The bedroom is square. Six large cases full of miniatures
decorate the white walls, and there are some delightful
Georgian family portraits. The upholstery of the Amboyna
wood bedstead and all the windows is of rich crimson silk
damask. The wardrobe is of mahogany, lavishly gilt, but
two small cabinets of Amboyna on either side of the fire—
place are the prettiest things in the room. A second small
dressing-room, in which a curtained recess is used for
hanging dresses, contains a number of modern family
portraits, and brings the suite to an end. It is these rooms
that outside her private apartments are oftenest visited
nowadays by the Queen, for here is always lodged her
much-loved eldest daughter, the Dowager Empress of
Germany.

In the York Tower are the apartments known as the
Prince of Wales’ rooms, but used by others of the Queen’s
children. The suite contains four rooms, numbered from
238 to 241. Portraits of the Queen’s children at an early
age, of the Duchess of Kent and the Queen as a very little
thing, painted in 1821, the late Duchess of Cambridge, and
the Dukes of Connaught and Albany, one in a Kharkee
uniform, the other in a Scotch uniform, are on the sitting-

OF THE QUEEN 45

room walls, which are covered in a rich-toned yellow silk.
The piano is again of rosewood, and the furniture of fine
Amboyna, relieved with chased ormolu mounts. Some
very large mirrors give a bright air to the apartment. The
most valuable piece of furniture it contains is a lacquered
Japanese commode with a white marble top.

The bathroom in this suite is strictly utilitarian. The
bedroom has a gold ground paper. The well-known
picture of the Queen at the age of three hangs here, also a
charming portrait of her on horseback and wearing the
flowing habit of I839. The hapless Princess Charlotte is
also portrayed. The furniture is of mahogany and Am-
boyna. Everything makes for intense comfort without any
great display.

Just under the Tapestry Suite in the Lancaster Tower,
and numbered 343, are the rooms that long custom has
dedicated to the use of the principal Ministers whose visits
to Windsor during the session are very frequent. The
suite, which is entered by a door at the foot of the tower,
is most comfortable, and comprises two bedrooms and a
sitting-room, arranged with everything necessary for the
despatch of business. Bright flowery papers cover the
walls, and the furniture everywhere is upholstered in Chintz.
The sitting-room contains eight good pictures of the Dutch
" school, a medallion portrait of Lord Beaconsfield, a portrait
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Edward, Duke of York, a
picture of “The Landing of the Elector Frederick at
Gravesend,” and a well-filled and very handsomely carved
bookcase. .

The bedrooms are pictorially decorated with portraits of
the Countess of Essex and of Alphonse D’Avalon and his.
mistress, after Titian.

”The accommodation for visitors at Osborne is much
better than it used to be, as, when the Indian room was

46 - THE PRIVATE ILIFE

built there, a large number of excellent bedrooms were
arranged above it.

At Balmoral it must be confessed that the arrangement
for guests outside the royal circle is very indifferent, and
the Minister-in-Attendance is obliged when there to transact
all his work in his bedroom. This lack of space was, how-
ever, designed on the part of the Queen and Prince Consort,
who always tried to make Balmoral as much of a holiday
resort as such busy people are ever able to enjoy. :

And now that the guests are in their apartments dressing
for the nine o’clock dinner, we will leave them, and pass on
without hesitation to the consideration of the Grand Corridor
where every one awaits the Queen, and of the Green and
White Drawing-rooms, which, with the Crimson Drawing-
room, make up the private reception-rooms so frequently
used by Her Majesty. Thence to the equerries’ billiard-room,
and the unaffected and friendly way in which the Queen
entertains her guests after dinner is over.

With regard to those who are “ commanded” to Windsor
for a short interview with the Queen, the visitor is generally
taken to the beautiful Audience Chamber in the Sovereign’s
private suite. A maid of honour first receives the guest,
and then the Queen enters with a lady-in-waiting, an Indian
servant, and perhaps a secretary, according to the nature of
the audience.

Very often one of the Princesses accompanies the Queen.
After the interview the guest is generally invited to luncheon
with the household.

OF THE QUEEN 47

CHAPTER VI
THE QUEEN’S GUESTS

T is in the Grand Corridor and in the vicinity of Her
Majesty’s private apartments that the guests and
Household assemble between half-past eight and a quarter
to nine o’clock, and there await among regal surroundings
the arrival of the Sovereign and the signal for dinner.

The (:0qu d’aez'l of the Grand Corridor is the most striking
sight in the whole Castle, and the treasures it contains only
serve to enhance the richness of the crimson silk draperies
which are hung from elaborately gilt cornice-poles, the
wonderfully bossed and gilded cream ceiling, and the
exquisite contrast of the many recesses fitted with oak and
gilt'boxes, which are always filled with foliage and flowering
plants. The floor is of inlaid woods, and the walls, being
a pale, soft grey, form a perfect backgrOund for the in-
teresting collection of pictures, and for the large lamps that
on carved and chased gilt standards everywhere raise their
glowing heads.

Between the arches of oak and gold that break the
straight lines of the corridor, and opposite the long line of
windows that overlook the Quadrangle, stand at intervals a
wonderful assortment of cabinets, some of the finest Boule
work and others of Japanese lacquer, but all alike lined

48 THE PRIVATE LIFE

with white satin and having shelves of plate-glass. In them
are set forth many specimens of Sévres, notably some pieces
of vert pomme and blue aeil dc Perdrix, the three famous
Rose du Barry vases, which are without rival in the world,
some very extraordinary mauve Chelsea vases with different
fruits as handles to the covers, and a great deal of remark-
ably fine Dresden. In fact, the china contained in the
Corridor at Windsor is considered beyOnd all price and, in
the mass, quite unpurchasable. _

The many pictures, beginning with “The Queen’s First
Council,” by Sir David Wilkie, which illustrate so well the
various important events of Her Majesty’s reign, are too
ntimately known to the public through the medium of
engravings to need any description here. They number
more than twenty and are distinctly interesting, although
by no means the highest forms of art. A picture, however,
that is really touching is entitled “The First of May, 1851,”
and represents the aged Iron Duke of Wellington presenting
a golden casket to his royal godson, the baby Prince Arthur,
who lies in the Queen’s arms, while the Prince Consort leans
over Her Majesty’s shoulder.

Several lovely Gainsboroughs, a Reynolds representing
Princess Sophia Matilda playing on the ground with a Skye
terrier, Hogarth’s fine portrait of Garrick and his wife, two
or three of Zoffani’s quaint interiors of famous picture
galleries, and several good examples of Canaletto’s peculiar
style, leaven the more modern paintings. Two models of
Ancient Rome in marble and ormolu stand near a very
sweet bust of the Queen, taken when she was ten. An
excellent likeness also must have been Chantrey’s bust of
her in 1839. The most singular pieces of sculpture in the‘
whole Corridor are, however, two seventeenth century busts
of heroic size of Roman Emperors. They are in red
porphyry and oriental alabaster, and are very ugly, though

 

OF THE QUEEN 49

not without interest'. Four pedestals, hewn from the rock
at Gibraltar, are curious. The bronzes, which are on all
sides, are beautiful, several of them being most gracefully
modelled. A group in silver and gold of “Lady Godiva”
was given by the Queen to Prince Albert, August 26, 1857.
Another grand piece of plate always standing in the Corridor
is the great silver vase presented to the Queen at her
Jubilee by the members of the Household.

A point of everlasting speculation with the public is the
identity of the real resting-place of the Koh-i-noor. It may
interest many, therefore, to know that it is kept in the
Grand Corridor at Windsor.

But more than the big diamond, the silver and the gold
and the rare china, does Her Majesty prize the plain Bible,
bound in limp leather, and with overlapping edges, that
belonged to her faithful servant, General Gordon, and was
brought to her by his sister some time after his sad death.
The simply bound book is inshrined in a seventeenth
century fairy-like casket of carved crystal, with silver-gilt
and enamelled mounts. It lies on a cushion of white
satin, and is open at the first chapter of the Gospel accord-
ing to St. John, pp. 64 and 65, which are marked in blue
pencil. The Queen likes all her visitors to see this relic of
a great man’s life, and on more than one occasion has
herself directed attention to it, and always with words of
great feeling.

Should Her Majesty desire to retire early to her own
rooms, the company return after dinner to the Corridor,
where they stand until their Royal hostess has addressed
each one in her kindly and thoughtful fashion, always
remembering the tastes or circumstances of everybody, and
never omitting to inquire by name after those of a family
whom she knows. This is one of the minor courtesies
of life about which the Queen is intensely punctilious.

5

50 THE PRIVATE LIFE

After the withdrawal of Her Majesty, the guests are free
to adjourn to the Crimson Drawing-room, which will
be described as being the scene of so many of the merry
small dances the Queen was once so addicted to giving.

Should, however, any music be arranged for the evening,
or should any gifted amateurs be staying at Windsor, the
Queen leads the way to either the Green or White Drawing-
rooms, apartments she now prefers to the Crimson Drawing-
room, which is almost exclusively used by the Household.

The Green Drawing-room is extremely startling at first
sight, for the richly flowered silk which covers both furniture
and walls is of the most brilliant apple-green hue. A
second glance, however, convinces the visitor that the
colour is at once the most delightful and most becoming
that was ever used in decoration. The apartment is large,
well proportioned, and broken by a very deep bay with a
large window at the end overlooking the incomparable East
Terrace. It was in this bay that Landseer painted his
loveliest picture of the young Queen, in company with the
Prince Consort and the baby Princess Royal, who sports
on the floor with some dogs. The picture hangs in the
Queen’s private sitting-room, and is an ideal portrayal of
happy family life.

The famous Sévres service of fine Bleu de Roi made for
Louis XVI., and bought by George IV. for ,5 40,000, is in
this room, as well as the four candelabras of bronze and
ormolu representing the “Four Seasons,” which date from
the early period of Louis XV. Many other bronzes, a i
splendid black Boule table and inkstand, and two portraits
by Lawrence, on either side of the fireplace, are chief
among the art treasures of this most beautiful room.

Her Majesty’s favourite apartment is undoubtedly the
White Drawing-room. Smaller than the other two, its walls
and ceilings are a vision of white and gold, while the gilt

OF THE QUEEN 5:

furniture is upholstered in royal crimson and gold silk.
The most remarkable features about this dainty spot are
two large doors in polished ebony on either side of a huge
mirror. They are heavily decorated with ornaments in
ormolu, and lead to the private rooms of the Queen and
those which were used by the Prince Consort respectively.

Carefully guarded by glass screens is the lovely Gouthiere
cabinet, famous as containing the finest panels that the
Sévres porcelain works ever produced, and the best work in
ormolu that the great craftsman Gouthiere ever executed.
It dates, as does a second one, from Louis XVI.’s period,
and experts have valued the pair at an immense sum. Two
very pretty portraits of George III.’s daughters, the Prin-
cesses Mary and Sophia, are by Hoppner, and a picture of
Queen Charlotte in her young days, by Cotes, is eminently
pleasing. One of the many Winterhalter portraits of the
Queen, painted in 1842, hangs here. He was always con—
sidered by the Royal family to be the only artist who ever
rightly caught the expression of Her Majesty’s mouth. A
sweet picture shows the Prince of Wales at a very early age,
wearing a white satin frock and a profusion of curls.

In the window is an enormous vase of gilt china, sent by
the Emperor Nicholas of Russia to the Queen in 1844. In
panels it bears pictures of Peterhof and the Marble Gate-
way of the Winter Palace.

In all these drawing-rooms there are large candelabras
on tall standards, handsome chandeliers, and exquisitely
carved mantelpieces of white marble, while the double
doors that connect the suite are all heavily ornamented
with chased ormolu wreaths and festoons. Candles form
the illuminant power, as Her Majesty has a great dislike
to the heat of gas and the glare of electric light. In all
the fireplaces here, as in the Queen’s private apartments,
nothing but beech-logs is burned.

52 THE PRIVATE LIFE

The elegant White Drawing—room has for some years past
been the scene of all Investitures held at Windsor, and when
last Eleanor Duse, the Italian actress, was in London, she
played La Locandiem before Her Majesty in this room.

Should professional music be the order of the evening, a
short set programme, which has previously been submitted
to the Queen, is gone through, and the dinner party is
augmented by a few of the Household, and of the Queen’s
friends from the immediate neighbourhood. If amateur
talent is relied upon, the Queen indicates in turn those
whom she would like to hear sing or play, and on these
occasions those of the Princesses who are at the Castle
always assist in the evening’s amusement. It was on such
an evening that Her Majesty asked one of the maids of
honour who had been—according to Court etiquette—
standing for some time, to sing a song. The young lady
begged to be excused, saying she had a bad cold.

“ Then you had better go to bed,” said the Queen.

“ N 0, thank you, Ma’am, but I should like to sit down!”
answered the lady.

Sometimes music is abandoned in favour of chess or
cards, both of which pastimes in connection with the
Queen’s private life will be considered later. But however
the evenings may be spent, they are always most pleasant.
The ladies, in turn, approach, and are generally invited to
sit by the Queen’s side; the gentlemen ,are free to stand
and move about as they please. It is the rule, however,
not to raise the voice when speaking, and loud laughter is
considered a gross breach of courtly manners.

The Queen leaves her guests betimes, going to her own
rooms to read and transact business. Every one curtsies
and bows as Her Majesty departs. Should she desire later
in the evening to have an interview with any particular
person, he or she is sent for to her private suite.

OF THE QUEEN ' 53

After the Queen’s departure the party quickly breaks up,
the ladies going to their own rooms and the gentlemen
downstairs, to the equerries’ billiard-room, which, by the
way, is used by visitors of every degree, as there is no other
in the Castle. A turn in the corridor that leads from the
visitors’ entrance gives immediately into the ante—room, a
small- place containing two very quaint pictures. One is
a portrait of “Mr. Theodore Panden, Keeper of Her
Majesty’s Royal Palace, in Windsor Castle, in ye reigns of
Charles II. and King James and King William, Sept. xiii.,
MDCC., also to Queen Anne and to King George.”

The other represents an old woman in an apron, and
with a broom in her hand. It bears the date 1686, and
the name of Bridget Holmes.

The billiard-room itself is commonplace. A grey-blue
paper covers the walls, and the table is lit by six oil lamps.

It forms a strange contrast to the splendid billiard-room
at Osborne, which is one of the noblest apartments in the
house, but, on the other hand, is perhaps more comfortable
than the same apartment at Balmoral.

Although the Queen seldom, if ever, sends for any of her
guests before they leave next morning, every provision is ‘
made for their amusement. On a first visit most people
express a desire to examine the treasures of the Grand
Corridor .or to inspect the library.

In fine weather they stroll in those parts of the garden
the Queen is not likely to pass in her morning drive, while
those who are interested in fat stock and such-like walk to
the Shaw Farm.

Between eleven and twelve o’clock all “dine and sleep”
guests have left the Castle, after a visit which even to the
mOSt blasé must be a memorable and delightful experience.

54 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER VII

THE QUEEN’S RIDES AND DRIVES AND THE ROYAL
STABLES

N the early twenties it was quite the .fashion among

smart people, or those humbler folk who had come
from the country a-sight-seeing, to walk to Kensington
Gardens, there to see a little girl in a low chaise being
drawn by a fat pony under the shade of the fine old elms.
That little girl was our Queen, who could both ride and
drive when she was six years old, and who since then has
never lost her taste for carriage exercise nor her ap-
preciation for good horseflesh.

In her early married life the Queen rode a great deal.
She had a charming seat and any amount of courage.
King Wilhelm of Prussia admired her on horseback
immensely, and after his visit to this country to attend
the Prince of Wales’ christening, he sent her a magnificent
animal called “ Hamo,” which she rode for seventeen years,
and a model of whose head is now placed above the
entrance of the great riding-school at Windsor, where all
the Queen’s children and grandchildren have learned to
ride, and where on one occasion Sanger’s Circus gave a
performance before Her Majesty.

In Scotland the Queen for many years almost lived on

OF THE QUEEN 5 5

pony-back, and her memories of “ Flora ” and “Jessie,”
who carried her so long and so safely, are very kindly and
womanly. Indeed it is only within the last year that the
Queen has really ceased to ride, for it has, until quite
recently, been her habit to mount a sure-footed pony when
making expeditions in places too steep or narrow for her
chair to pass.

Almost the first thing the Queen and Prince Albert did
after they were thoroughly settled down at Windsor Castle
was to rebuild the stables. These fine buildings, which lie
on the south side of the Castle, form another tribute to the
wise perception of the Prince Consort, while the entwined
V.A., which is placed upon every wing of the many struc-
tures, are but added proofs—if such are needed—of the
complete accord which existed between the royal pair.

All the royal stables are arranged in a series of the most
airy and roomy loose boxes, not more than about a dozen
forming what is called a “court.” Prince Albert never
believed in crowding a number of . animals under one roof.
The most famous stable at Windsor, and that which was
ever the favourite of the Queen, is “Grey Pony Court.”
Her Majesty used at one time to visit the “Court” each
day, and knew every horse kept there. These splendid
animals, although called ponies, are really very fine horses
being about seventeen hands high. At one time nothing
but greys ever had the honour of drawing Her Majesty, but
now she uses a good pair of bays with black points. The
innovation of a pair of strawberry roans, which were pure
chased about four years ago and broken for the Queen’s
use, resulted in an‘ accident and a return to the steadier
greys and bays.

In these days about eighty horses generally stand in the
Castle stables when the Court is at Windsor, but there is
room for more, while many of those there are not available

56 THE PRIVATE LIFE

for general use. When extra horses are required they are
jobbed from accredited people in Windsor. Among the
non-usable occupants of the splendid boxes are four Arab
stallions, one being white, and a Jubilee present. No one
ever rides these except one of the Queen’s Indian servants,
who often pleases his Royal mistress by giving an exhibi-
tion of feats of skill on one of these almost wild
creatures.

The donkey “ Jacko,” who was bought out of pity by the
Queen at Nice one year, and who is now fat and sleek, and
is used both for Her Majesty’s garden chair and as a steed
by Princess Henry of Battenberg’s children, is another
uncommon visitant in a stable. The little Princes also
have a pony called “ Prince.” The horse -that their father,
the late Prince Henry, used as a hunter is a magnificent
black bay, of great height and strength. Princess Henry
owns, and frequently drives as pairs or as a team, two
beautiful blacks and two bays. They are named, “ Gloam-
ing,” “Midnight,” “Noon,” and “Dawn.” The Princess’
favourite ponies were bred at Hampton Court, and are
named “Tarff” and “Wave.”

The riding-horses used by the Maids of Honour and the
Equerries are all bays, and like all the Queen’s horses, are
large, upstanding animals, for not unfrequently are they,
perforce, put to other purposes than merely trotting under
a light weight.

The harness-rooms at Windsor contain much that is
interesting. A dainty arrangement in brass and leather,
with two big fox’s brushes hanging over the blinkers and
sundry bells, forms “ Jacko’s ” holiday attire. It was made
for him on the Riviera at the time the Queen purchased
him. .

The most curious harness is kept very carefully under
glass. It is called “The Quill Harness,” as the entire

OF THE QUEEN 57~

leather work is patterned over with a most delicate lace-
like design, wrought out in white quills. It was made soon
after her marriage for the Queen’s four favourite greys, but
a misunderstanding arose about the contract for it, and a
law suit ensued. The Queen won the case; but, by Prince
Albert’s desire, the harness was never used. The ordinary
harness which is used at Windsor, or at any of the Queen’s
country houses, is heavy and plain in make. It is very
strong, as the Royal carriages are of great weight.

But to see all the Queen’s horses and carriages in the
glamour of imposing state one must visit the Royal Mews
at Buckingham Palace, where are lodged the exquisite
coaches and carriages and the valuable horses that Her
Majesty regards with pardonable pride.

Though scarcely an imposing or beautiful block of build-
ings, the stables attached to Buckingham Palace are most
suitable for their purpose. They were originally planned
and built by George IV., but were entirely remodelled by
the Prince Consort on the lines laid down by him at
Windsor. They are built round a large quadrangle, one
side of which is open to the Palace grounds, and they are
easily overlooked from a little summer-house of rustic
design, where till a few years ago Her Majesty frequently
took tea on a fine afternoon.

About 120 horses are generally kept in the stables,
though when visitors are staying at the palace, in the height
of the London season, the number is sometimes augmented
with horses from Windsor or from certain job masters.
Besides the Royal family, visitors and their households, the
Master of the Horse has the run of the Royal stables, and
may use freely anything therein, except the cream ponies,
the State blacks, and the State carriages. It is among the
duties of the head coachman at Buckingham Palace to call
daily for orders at the private residence of the Master of

58 THE PRIVATE LIFE

the Horse, who, however, in these days, has practically no
jurisdiction over the stables at Windsor.

Among the many score of fine horses which form the
glory of the Queen’s stables are the celebrated cream ponies
—— like the greys, some seventeen hands high. These
wonderful Hanoverian horses were first brought to England
by George I., who used them on all State occasions. When
the Queen came to the throne, however, the Royal stables
were innocent of cream ponies, and the King of Hanover
sent Her Majesty eight of them as a present. The breed
has for some time now been extinct in Hanover, and those
the Queen possesses were all bred at her stud farm at
Hampton Court. They are handsome animals, of a heavy
build, all entire horses, and with long manes and tails of a
deep cream colour. Like all thoroughbreds, they are never
clipped. Their strength is very great, and is necessary for
the weight of the celebrated red morocco harness used on
grand occasions. This harness, each set of which weighs
one hundred and forty pounds, was made for William IV.,
but was never used in his lifetime. The morocco trappings
are entirely overlaid with finely-chased and gilt metal work.
There are no collars, but the saddles for the postillions are
of considerable size and weight.

Next in value and interest to the cream ponies are the
blacks, a very beautiful team of horses, which are used by
the Prince and Princess of Wales for Drawing Rooms, and
by the Queen for semi-State ceremonials. The harness
brought out for these striking and very valuable creatures
is of black leather with ormolu mounts, red saddle-cloths
and rosettes. Neither these blacks nor the creams are ever
taken abroad by the Queen. They are all too fine a breed
to be subjected to, the risks of travelling and strange
stabling. The creams in particular are very nervous
animals, and exceedingly delicate and restive.

OF THE QUEEN 59

All the horses in the Queen’s stables, whether her own
property or merely jobbed by the month, have to undergo
a special training before they are considered safe for the use
of any members of the Royal family or their suites. After
they have been duly broken to harness, they are driven day
after day past every kind of military band. They are taught
to bear with perfect equanimity the beat of drums and the
scream of fifes, the blare of trumpets and the skirl of bag-
pipes. Then they are made to stand by railway trains and
to hear every sort of whistle and roar and rattle. Before
any great public ceremonial the horses to be used in the
procession are walked through a howling and applauding
crowd of grooms, helpers, and stable lads. Finally the
horses have to be broken to firing. This is done by taking
them down to Aldershot on a field day, and at one time,
when Her Majesty was in the habit of frequently attending
reviews, this method was perpetually pursued.

Apart, however, from the world-famous creams and
blacks, the Queen’s stables in London contain some of the
finest horses in the world, and until recent years Her
Majesty invariably went to see her equine pets during her
visits to town. Even now she frequently goes through the
Royal stables in her little pony-chair.

At Buckingham Palace, as well as at Windsor, Osborne,
and Balmoral, the plainness and neatness of the stable
fittings is remarkable. The name of every horse is inscribed
on a blue scroll above its manger, but the brilliant colouring,
expensive tile work and nickel ornaments that distinguish
so many “smart ” stables are absent. The floors of all the
harness rooms are sanded, a most clean and sanitary
plan;

' It is a noteworthy fact that no horses that have ever
been in Her Majesty’s service are killed when old age
renders them unfit for work. They are either drafted to

60 THE PRIVATE LIFE

the royal farms, or more generally are put out to grass.
Also, the Queen prides herself on the fact that no horse in
her stables has ever been docked. Her Majesty has a
horror of the practice, and considers it both unnatural and
cruel.

Although until very recent years the Queen has been
physically an extremely active woman, and has done, by
her own showing in her diaries and letters, an enormous
amount of walking and riding, it has followed, as a natural
consequence of her high state, that driving has played a
very important part in her life. From the time when, as
a little girl, she drove her simple pony carriage about the
quiet Kensington streets or still more retired lanes of
Devonshire, Her Majesty has been accustomed to driving.
After her marriage the vehicle was sometimes changed, for
one very hard winter she spent many hours in sleighing at
Brighton with the Prince Consort and baby Princess Royal,
during the only visit she ever paid to that town.

Most of the attempts on Her Majesty’s life were made
either when she was driving or leaving her carriage, and it
was this which for many years caused her to drive at such
great speed.

This practice proved most fatiguing to those who ever
accompanied the Sovereign, and on one occasion, when he
was well set in years, the Duke of Wellington became so
exhausted while riding at the Queen’s wheel, that he was
forced to return to Windsor Castle, to his great chagrin.
The Queen now, however, does not drive fast unless time
has been lost on the road. Her Majesty is most punctual,
and never gives her coachman more than five minutes’
grace. But the Queen can no longer lay claim, as she once
could, to possessing the fleetest horses in England.

Yet, if Her Majesty’s horses have changed of late years,
the same cannot with truth be said of her carriages, the

OF THE QUEEN 61

interesting and varied collection which fills the spacious
and lofty coachhouses forming an important part of the,
magnificent stables at Buckingham Palace. Many of the
carriages there are a quarter of a century old, and there are
at least a dozen of them which are connected with the most
important and historical events of Her Majesty’s long
reign.

First and foremost amid this array of eighty-eight con-
veyances is the State Coach. This is not only valuable
on account of its intrinsic worth, but also because of the
historical associations interwoven with its own period of
existence. Originally built for, and first used at the
coronation of George 111., George IV., William IV., and
Queen Victoria have all driven in it to their coronations.
It was also used with tolerable frequency on grand occasions
by George IV., who dearly loved a pageant, but since the
Queen’s accession it has seen the light very seldom, and
never since the death of the Prince Consort.

The State coach is as beautiful as it is interesting. The
body is made of oak very heavily gilded and slung by straps
and springs to four magnificently carved tritons of gigantic
size. The box-seat, which is of extraordinary dimensions,
is supported by the two foremost figures. The celebrated
artist, Cipriana, was responsible for the eight delightful
panels which decorate the body of the coach. The subjects
are mythological and allegorical, and are most delicate in
treatment and colouring. A high varnish has kept them in
splendid preservation.

The upper part of the coach is of glass, bevelled at the
edges. A finely wrought crown makes a fitting ornament
to the roof, which is otherwise handsomely decorated with
much chased gilt metal work. The body of the coach
weighs four tons, and, when in addition to this, the weight
of the four huge lamps, the attendants, and the trappings

62 THE .PRIVATE LIFE

worn by each horse is taken into consideration, it may be
imagined that the eight cream-coloured ponies which
always drew this wonderful vehicle had enough~ to do
to proceed at a walking pace.

The Queen never liked the State coach, principally on
account of the perpetually swinging movement, which
made a progress in it most trying. Now, when necessary,
she uses the semi-State coach, an exceedingly pretty
carriage with a claret-coloured body and a little gilding.
This carriage was used by the Queen at the Duke of York’s
wedding. -

Most interesting, perhaps, is the Jubilee landau, a
strongly-built, boat-shaped carriage in which the Queen
has driven continuously for more than twenty years past.
It is a favourite equipage with the Queen, and has been
used by her at all kinds of ceremonies in all parts of
England. It has no box-seat, and is, in spite of its size, a
graceful carriage. It was used by the Queen and the
Prince of Wales on Thanksgiving Day in 1872 and on
many subsequent occasions. It was completely done up
for the great Jubilee procession. The public also saw it on
the occasion of the opening of the Imperial Institute.

All the semi-State coaches are painted claret-colour, and-
are hung on C springs. The other royal carriages are
of the same tint, picked out with scarlet, and of an
obsolete design. Until a very few years ago the Queen
always used to drive in a posting carriage, with a dickey
behind, and, indeed, still does so when in Scotland. But
in London or at Windsor she now has a coachman on the
box, and but for the attendant equerry riding at her wheel,
her equipage boasts nothing unusual about it.

The Queen’s drives have been many and various, and
her conservative instincts still urge her to make every year.
the same expeditions as she has been accustomed to all

OF THE QUEEN 63

her life. Many of her drives at Balmoral are arranged on
the posting principle. Shorter drives to the Danzig Shiel,
along the glens of the Dee and Muick, and into Ballater,
are taken with the Queen’s own horses. When Her
Majesty, either at Balmoral or Windsor, wishes to honour
any one with a call in the course of the afternoon, a groom
is sent over in the morning to apprise the hostess of the
Queen’s proposal. Favourite drives with the Queen when
at Windsor used to be to Ditton to visit the Dowager
Duchess of Buccleuch, and to Mrs. Overstone in Windsor
Forest.

At Osborne the Queen drives chiefly among her own
grounds, where she has eight miles of private roads, only
going sometimes into Cowes.

Our sovereign has had one very serious carriage accident.
It occurred in October, 186 3, when, in the first years of her
heavy mourning, she was persuaded by the Princesses Alice
and Helena to drive out from Balmoral to Clova. It was
past seven and dark when the Royal party, with only John
Brown in attendance, and a little black page boy of
Princess Alice’s, started homewards. ' The carriage was
completely overturned about two miles from the Alt-na-
guithasach, and though the Princesses were only frightened,
the Queen was much hurt, her face being severely cut and
bruised, and her right hand and thumb injured. She also
suffered seriously from shock for some days.

The Queen’s greatest pleasure now lies in her morning
' drives among her gardens in her little basket chair, of which
comfortable conveyances she owns two. A gillie guides the
pony’s head, and one of her grandchildren, either afoot or on
pony back, does escort duty. Another servant follows behind.
“ In this quiet way the Queen visits her humbler neighbours
and keeps her memory green about the beautiful spots which
lie on all hands close about her homes.

64 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER VIII
THE QUEEN’S FADS AND FANCIES

LL women are fanciful, and most of them carry their
fancies over the border and into the realm of faddism.
And so, as it is that our Sovereign is a woman first and a
Queen afterwards, she too is beset by little fads and fancies
that generally make for old-world simplicity of style, a sweet
reverence for past happy times, and a clinging that is touching
in its intensity to everything that reflects ever so slightly on'
the “ days that are no more.”

One of the Queen’s most strongly rooted fancies is a
dislike to new faces about her, and that is the reason
why so many members of the Royal Household, as well
as those servants as she may ever chance to see, grow old
and grey in her service. To one in her position the know-
ledge that she is regarded by new eyes with curiosity is
extremely (disagreeable.

All domestic servants who have any occasion to enter
the Queen’s presence have the strictest possible orders on
no account to look at Her Majesty. Any servant found
infringing this rule is severely reprimanded.

Many of the Queen’s fads and fancies are fostered and
aided by her marvellous memory, which never allows her
to forget the connection between a particular date and a

OF THE QUEEN 65

certain thing. Thus, those who have ever been invited
to luncheon with the Queen on Sundays will notice that
however richly the table may be set forth with massrve
plate and rare flowers, two small salt-cellars in silver, of
a shell design supported by a mermaid, are placed on
the table, where Her Majesty can see them. They were
given to the Queen many years ago by her faithful
attendant, John Brown, and since that day have appeared
with unfailing regularity every Sunday morning on the
Royal luncheon table.

The Queen also possesses a very elegant small silver
soup basin with graceful chased handles and a well
modelled setter pointing on the cover. This soup bowl
is used only by the Queen when she is unwell, and
requires refreshment in her own rooms. But on no
account is this bowl ever allowed to go to Balmoral, and
equally on no account must it be omitted from the plate-
chests that are sent to Osborne. In the same way, out
of all the handsome reading lamps and shaded candlesticks
that have been made through the years for the Queen, one
only is ever used by her—a pretty bedroom candlestick
fitted with a clear glass screen. A very elegant silver
affair, which holds two candles and is fitted with silver
bell shades enamelled green inside, she took a dislike to,
and will never have about her, though it was made by her
desire after a plan of the Princess Louise. From among the
scores of splendid snuffers in the plate rooms, two pairs only
are ever used, and these go to Her Majesty’s private rooms.

The splendid gold toilette service that decorates the
Queen’s dressing-room at Windsor never leaves the Castle,
neither does the solid gold wash-hand basin which was
originally made for Her Majesty’s coronation, and which
has already, as I have described in a previous chapter,

undergone considerable adventures.
6

66 THE PRIVATE LIFE

It is indeed in many of the more domestic details in
life that we discover the Queen to be extremely fanciful
and particular. Thus, no gold plate is ever taken to
Osborne or Balmoral, and when she takes breakfast in
the open air at Frogmore, as she does so often, woe betide
the forgetful person who should serve her table with the
gold she uses only in her own dining-room at the Castle,
or who should omit to place alongside the quaintly-modelled
“ cock—and-hen ” egg-cups the peculiar salt-cellar in blackened
silver that Lady Alice Stanley once gave her Royal friend,
and which the Queen then said was always to be used
under those circumstances.

Her Majesty’s conservatism in the arrangement of her
own apartments is very touching, particularly when viewed
by the light shed by the small cards affixed to the doors of
all her rooms in her various residences, which say that
everything within was chosen and arranged by 'her late
husband, the Prince Consort, and has to all intents and
purposes remained unaltered since his death. To maintain
this appearance in the Queen’s rooms all the hangings,
chintzes, and carpets are accurately copied as it becomes
necessary to replace them.

The occasional redecorating of the Queen’s private
apartments has to be done with the greatest care in order
that Her Majesty should not even perceive that they have
been more than cleaned. On one occasion while the
Queen was away from Windsor an armchair in her private
sitting—room was re-stuffed and re-covered. Her Majesty
at once ordered it out of her sight on her return, saying
it was “too smart.”

Most visitors at ‘Windsor will recall the dark iron gates
and railings at the top of Castle Hill, inclosing the South
Terrace, through which the Queen drives to gain the Upper
Ward of the Castle and her private entrance. With a view

OF THE QUEEN ' 67

to pleasing her, these gates and railings were, during an
absence of the Court, elaborately gilded at the top. On
Her Majesty’s return she caught sight of them and at once
remarking on the showy effect, ordered that the gilding
should be immediately obliterated. An army of painters
was summoned,'and by the time the Queen left the Castle
for her afternoon drive all traces of the garish display had
been removed.

A very pretty fancy of the Queen was the sending for the
favourite charger of her beloved son-in-law, the Emperor
Frederick of Germany, after his death, and stabling it at
Windsor, with orders that no one was ever to cross its back
again. The horse, which is eighteen hands high, was
ridden by the Emperor, when Crown Prince of Germany,
in Her Majesty’s Jubilee Procession in 1887.

The Queen’s love and remembrance Of anniversaries is
almost proverbial, and those which mark the more sorrowful
events of her life are kept as days apart. The 14th
December, which date marks the death of the Prince
Consort, and ten years later of Princess Alice of Hesse,
is observed by the Queen as a day of great mourning.
Save at the Memorial Service held at the Albert Mausoleum
at Frogmore, not even-those members of the Royal family
who travel to Windsor for that function see the Queen.
No business of any kind is transacted by Her Majesty
on that day, she sits almost alone in her own apartments,
and it is the one day in the year when, save for the short
drive to F rogmore and back, the Queen takes no air. The
Court is expected to wear black on this occasion.

Concerning the dress of those about her the Queen is
.particularly faddy. Etiquette of course governs the form
of official or ceremonious garb, but the Ladies-in-Waiting
and Maids of Honour have to avoid every kind of snare in
the way of extravagant cut, loud colours, or remarkable

68 THE PRIVATE LIFE

style. For many years even the slightest fringe was
“taboo” at Court, and even now any such adornment has
to be treated with great discretion or earn reprobation from
the Sovereign. Still it must not be considered that the
Queen IS averse to all personal adornment, for she is not.
Her presents to those about her invariably consist of pretty
articles of jewellery or pieces of silk or lace, while at one
time Her Majesty was very fond of going round her gardens
and conservatories and herself selecting the flowers she
wished her ladies to wear in the evening.

About her own clothes the Queen never showed any
particular taste, and nowadays she only fancies the plainest
of gowns and mantles. Nevertheless, homely in cut as are
Her Majesty’s gowns, they are always made of the best
material. It is an odd fad that induces the Queen to order
every item of her toilette in duplicate. Most of her clothes
now are made for her by the leading draper at Windsor, and
the order for a cloak," hat or dress, always enumerates two
as the number required. Her sons and daughters frequently
try to combat Her Majesty’s simple tastes, and when the
dress to be worn on the Jubilee day, in 1887, was under
family discussion, the Duke of Connaught cried:

“ Now, Mother, you must have something really
smart.”

A fancy of the Queen, that no woman will combat, is to
permanently wear on her wrist a bracelet containing the
portrait and hair of the Prince Consort. A few years ago
the bracelet, from long wear, broke, and had to be sent at
once to Mr. Wagland, the Queen’s working jeweller in
Windsor, to be mended. The Queen’s unhappiness and
anxiety during the few hours she was perforce without
the bracelet were quite painful to witness. Her Majesty’s
touching fancy to have a portrait of the Prince Consort
taken after death, and a wreath of immortelles always

OF THE QUEEN 69

fastened at the right-hand side of the head of her bed,
is too sacred to be commented on.

One of the Queen’s most strongly marked fads is her
mania for never destroying anything. This extends not
only to her private papers and letters, but even to such
ephemeral articles as wearing apparel of the most ordinary
kind. Every woman cares for hoarding lace, fur, and
feathers, but Her Majesty goes farther than this, and almost
without exception, her wardrobe woman can produce
the gown, bonnet, or mantle she wore on any particular
occasion. The Queen’s collection of clothes would form
the most accurate and interesting commentary on the
modes of the past sixty years. Her Majesty also keeps with
great care and pride a large number of articles worn by the
late Prince Consort and by her mother the Duchess of
Kent.

No one has ever been more portrayed than the Queen ;
her features have been reproduced in~every known medium.
Unlike the majority of her subjects, Her Majesty is very
fond of being painted, and makes a perfect sitter, always
being composed and patient and yet wearing a pleasing
expression. The pictures of the Queen, with statues and
busts included, may be numbered by many hundreds, and
yet so fond is she of being “taken” that the last new oil
painting or the latest photograph is as eagerly anticipated
and carefully criticised as though to see the reproduction
of her face was quite a novel experience.

Of recent years the Queen’s fancy has greatly favoured
the photographic art, and it is quite a weakness of hers to
~,be' photographed in every possible condition of her daily
life. ,Sitting in her donkey chair, dandling the . last new
baby, chatting in her private sitting-room among her
daughters, working at her writing-table, or breakfasting in
the open air, with the Battenberg family and her immediate

70 THE PRIVATE LIFE

attendants around her, the Queen’s photographer is always
to be sent for and ordered to “ fix the picture.”

This idea of the Queen is not limited by her own per-
sonality, but extends to every article in her possession,
which in the mass—that is to say, in the various apartments
where the things may be kept—as well as singly, are all
photographed. Every piece of plate and china, every
picture, chair, table, ornament, and articles of even the
most trivial description, all pass through the photographer’s
hands, and are “taken” from every point of view. At
Windsor the photographic studio and developing rooms are
at the extreme end of the Orangery, which lies beneath
the junction of the East and North Terraces, and which
opens out on to the sunk East Gardens. Here, under
proper escort, have been brought in the course of years
every article of Windsor Castle, while as often as not Mr.
Cleave, the Queen’s private photographer, is sent to
Buckingham Palace, Osborne, and Balmoral, to perpetuate
the contents of these residences in the same way. ‘

All such photographs are submitted to the Queen, and
when she has duly approved of them (and she is most
particular about the way in which this branch of photo-
graphy is executed) they are sent to the department of the
Inspector of the 'Palace, to be arranged in the wonderful
bound catalogues, which are another great fad of Her
Majesty.

These catalogues are extraordinary affairs, and form in
themselves a most remarkable library. Every photo, when
affixed to the page, is surrounded by various data, which
include the number and name of the room in which the
article is kept, the number of the article itself, its size, any
marks or signs that may be on it, and a full description of
it from every point of view. If it is a picture, the artist’s
name and a description of the frame are added. The

OF THE QUEEN 71

number of the negative is kept, and if the article is the
Queen’s private property, a round stamp to that effect is
added to the general description. When the vast quantity
of the contents of the Royal Palaces is taken into con-
sideration, it may readily be understood that these
catalogues, which have been in course of compilation for
several years, and yet which are never really finished, are
many in number, large in bulk, and quite one of the most
expensive of the Queen’s fads. Her Majesty is very fond
of her catalogues, and few days pass without her sending
for one volume or another.

A well-known prejudice of the Queen is the one she
entertains against the re—marriage of widows. On this point
Her Majesty is quite immovable, and no arguments have
ever been known to even momentarily shake her Opinions
about this subject.

A strange fact that but few people have ever remarked is
that although the walls of the Queen’s private apartments
are lined with pictures from floor to ceiling, and that
portraits of her own children figure largely in the collection,
no likenesses of her sons-in-law and daughters-in-law are to
be found on the crowded walls. Photographs of her rela-
tions by marriage stand about the tables, but the Queen has
never placed their portraits on the walls among the pictures
which were selected and arranged for her by the late Prince
Consort.

All her life the Queen has had a mania for fresh air, and
even in the keenest. weather the fires are all closely screened,
and the temperature of the rooms taken periodically from
the. small ivory thermometers that, as I have already
explained, stand on fill the mantelpieces everywhere. Her
love for eating in twopen air and driving in open carriages
' is. well known. ‘

The Queen’s fancy'for wax candles as the only medium

72 THE PRIVATE LIFE

for artificial light has of late years been slightly overcome
in favour of electric light, but in her own rooms nothing
but the finest old-fashioned wax candles is ever used.

Her Majesty’s likes and dislikes with regard to persons
have always been kept in check by her innate sense of
justice and her carefully balanced mind.

The one lamentable exception was her aversion for Lady
Flora Hastings, a lady-in-waiting of the Duchess of Kent in
1839. The Queen, who was very young at the time,
allowed her prejudices to overcome her judgment, and after
various painful scenes, Lady Flora left the Court and soon
afterwards died, under circumstances which placed the
Queen and her particular friends in the wrong.

Against two of her ablest Ministers, Sir Robert Peel and
Benjamin Disraeli, the Queen had the strongest dislikes,
but she had occasion in both cases to alter her mind and
her fancy, and, indeed, for many years before his death
admitted Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) to the greatest
friendship.

When in Scotland the Queen’s kindly fancies turn
towards her humbler neighbours, and at christenings and
funerals, or where sickness and sorrow are, she may be
looked for and found in the tender capacities of consoler
and friend.

OF THE QUEEN 73

CHAPTER IX

THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE AND EXPENDITURE, HER
CHARITIES AND GIFTS

N a letter written by Sir Henry Ponsonby, the Queen’s
Private Secretary, from Aix-les-Bains, on September
18, 188 5, addressed to the late Major Ross, then M.P. for
Maidstone, he said : “ The Queen has bought nothing and
possesses nothing in the City of London. She has invested
no money in ground rents, nor does she possess a million
to invest. I refer, of course, solely to the Queen as an
individual . . . none of the Queen’s own money is,
or ever has been, so invested.”

With Sir Henry Ponsonby’s disclaimer that Her Majesty
has never bought land within the confines of the City of
London, I have nothing to do. It is rather his statement
that in 1885 (twelve years ago) the Queen did not own a
million of private money, that is interesting. If Sir Henry
Ponsonby were alive now he would scarcely stand by such
an assertion, for almost every year that has passed since
1885 has witnessed a curtailage of Her Majesty’s expendi-
ture and a vast increment to her savings. The one
exceptional period was in r887, the Jubilee Year, When the
most lavish entertaining was indulged in, and immense
sums were spent in all directions.

Before entering into the more private sources of Her

74 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Majesty’s yearly income—from which it should be
remembered that she is at liberty to save what she can—it
may be as well to consider the allowance granted her by
the country, and to roughly jot down the manner in which
this £385,000 a year is spent. The sums will serve as
standards of comparison, if they answer no other purpose.
From the country, then, the Queen is allowed for her Privy
Purse, £60,000 ; for expenses of the household, £172,500 ;
for salaries and retiring allowances, £131,260 ; and for
Royal Bounty, Alms, and Special Service, £13,200. These
sums leave unappropriated £8,040. It is worthy of note that
with this identical allowance, George IV. and William IV.
had no unappropriated money at the end of the year.

In addition to this sum, the Queen, when she came to
the throne, secured a grant of £8,000 a year for her
mother, the Duchess of Kent, while after her marriage the
Prince Consort had a separate allowance of £30,000. The
Queen wished the Prince to have £100,000, but Lord
Melbourne persuaded her to only ask the country for
£50,000. Her Majesty was much annoyed at the further
reduction of the allowance. So soon as the Princes came of
age, suitable grants were made to them, while on their
marriages the Princesses were voted incomes of £4,000 a
year. These figures are merely given to show that so far as
the Civil List is concerned, the Sovereign has the individual
disposal of almost every shilling of it. In detail the Civil
List is a wonderful document. Every item of expense is
mentioned and provided for. Tradesmen’s bills, the
department of the Master of the Horse, the Royal Ward-
robe, pensions, salaries, and gratuities are all duly mentioned.
Every imaginable want, whether to eat, drink, wear, or give
away, has certain sums set down for it. Hence it is that
the splendid income from the Duchy of Lancaster, which
property and title belong to the reigning Sovereign of Great

. OF THE QUEEN ' 75

Britain by private right, and as an appurtenance frOm the
Crown, is paid directly into the Privy Purse, and Her
Majesty can save or spend it as she pleases. .

The Duchy of Lancaster, which has meads, forests,
chases, and woods in thirteen counties, belonged originally
to Saxon nobles who rose against the Norman Conqueror.
Their estates were confiscated, and in 1265 were in the
possession of Robert F errers, Earl of Derby. This noble—
man took part with Simon de Montfort in his rebellion,
and was deprived of all his estates in 1265 by Henry III.,
who bestowed them on his youngest son, Edmund, Earl of
Lancaster. From him dates the connection between royalty
.and the duchy. In 1310, Thomas, second son of
Lancaster, son of Edmund, married a great heiress, the
only child of De Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. By this alliance
he became the wealthiest'and the most powerful subject of
the Crown, possessing in right of himself and his wife six
earldoms. In I 31 I he became involved in the combination
formed by several nobles to induce the King to part with
Piers Gaveston. Edward II. was at first highly incensed,
but ultimately pardoned the conspirators, including the
Earl of Lancaster. That very imprudent personage
subsequently took up arms against his Sovereign and was
beheaded.

In 1326 an act was passed for reversing the attainder of
Earl Thomas in favour of his brother Henry, Earl of
Lancaster. Earl Henry left a son. The son was surnamed
“Grismond,” .from the place of his birth. He greatly
distinguished himself in the French war under Edward 111.,
and was the second knight companion of the Order of the
Garter, Edward the “ Black Prince ” being the first. Edward
III. created him, about 1348, Duke of Lancaster, and the
county .of Lancaster was formed into a palatinate. This
great nobleman died in I 361, leaving two daughters _ to

76 THE PRIVATE LIFE

inherit his vast possessions ; but on the death of the elder
without issue, the whole devolved on the second, Blanche,
who married John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. He was
created Duke of Lancaster, played a prominent part in
history, and died in 1399, leaving a son by Blanche—Henry
Plantagenet, surnamed Boling—Broke, from Bullingbrook
Castle, in Lincolnshire, the scene of his birth. He became
King Henry IV., and thus the duchy merged in the Crown.

The Queen’s revenue from this source has been steadily
increasing. Thus in 186 5 it was £26,000 ; in 1867,
£29,000; in 1869, £31,000,- in 1872, £40,000.

A second source of income which the Queen held until
theyPrince of Wales came of age—when it was, according
to precedence, made over to his Royal Highness—is the
Duchy of Cornwall, the estates of which lie in Devon;
Somerset, Wilts, Surrey, and London. The Duchy had
been at the time of the Queen’s accession hopelessly mis-
managed, and it was owing to the Prince Consort’s untiring
energy that his eldest son’s heritage was at all worth having,
In 1824 the gross revenue had fallen to £ 22,000 ; in 1872
it was nearly £70,000. When the Prince of Wales came
of age, instead of having from £13,000 to £14,000 a
year from his Duchy, as the last Prince of Wales had,
there was a revenue of £50,000 a year clear, and cash
enough to buy Sandringham. The income is now increasing
at the rate of about £3,000 a year, on the average.

Far more romantic, however, than the incomes from long-
settled heritages can ever be, is the origin of the greater
portion of Her Majesty’s great wealth. On the 30th or
August, 1852, there died a penurious old gentleman of
seventy-two. John Camden Nield was the son of a gold-
smith who had executed work for George III., and kept a
shop in St. James’s Street. The old jeweller was in his way
a great philanthropist, and emulated Howard in his attempt

OF THE QUEEN 77

to ameliorate the condition of those poor wretches who
languished in His Majesty’s prisons. He sent his son to
Trinity College, Cambridge, and the bar, and at his death
left him £250,000. This great sum John Camden Nield
saved and invested, living himself in a most miserly fashion.
When his will was opened it was found that with the
exception of a few legacies he had left his fortune of
£500,000, to “Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Vic-
toria, begging Her Majesty’s most gracious acceptance of
the same, for her sole use and benefit, and that of her
heirs.” The Queen sought out Nield’s relations and gave
them £1,000 each, and raised a monument to his memory.

This splendid sum Her Majesty has left practically
untouched, and it must now have accumulated to a
£1,000,000. The Queen also inherited from her husband,
who was of a most careful and businesslike disposition, a
large part of the £600,000 he left behind him.

It was in her comparatively poor days that Her Majesty
purchased the greater portion of the Osborne Estate. She
had originally hoped to buy Norris Castle, where she
had stayed in her childhood, but was obliged to give it
up as she said she “could not afford it.” A little later
Balmoral was bought and the Castle built. Both these
private properties of the Queen have been added to very
largely from time to time, and their value is yearly increasing.
Osborne is now reckoned as being five times as valuable as
when it was purchased in 1844.

The Queen had another stroke of luck in 1881, when, by
the advice of Lord Cross, Lord Sidney, and the late Sir
Arnold White, her solicitor, she bought outright some
property for £78,000. The market value of that purchase
is now reckoned at about £170,000.

According to the new Doomsday Book, Her Majesty
owns, privately, some 37,372 acres of land which yields a

78 THE PRIVATE LIFE

yearly income of between £20,000 and £2 5,000. The
return would be higher, but that much of the acreage is
Scottish moor and forest lands. The Queen owns three
very fine forests. They are those of Balmoral, part of the
original estate bought from the Fife trustees in 1851,
Ballochbine, acquired by Her Majesty from the late Colonel
Farquharson, of Invercauld, in 1878, and Abergeldie. The
deer in these forests are most valuable animals.

Claremont was granted to the Queen for her life in 1866,
with a reversion to the country at what all her subjects pray \
may be the distant day of her death, but in 1882 Her
.Majesty bought it from the Crown. Of property abroad
the Queen possesses land and houses at Coburg, and one
of the most magnificent villas at Baden, which was left to
the Queen by a Princess of the house of Hohenlohe.

It must not be concluded, however, that the vast fortune
of Queen Victoria has merely dropped into her hands, or
rolled itself up. Economy with sufficiency has been the
watchword of Her Majesty’s career, and during the “40’s,”
when every year the most gorgeous entertainments were
perpetually being given to crowned heads, and for the
good of trade and the circulation of money at the Royal
palaces, the ministers of state used frequently to boast of
the wonderful management which could do things so
royally and yet never ask the country for a penny—
piece.

Invested money and land do not form the limits to the
Queen’s possessions; far from it.

No monarch can point to such a mass of valuables as
were presented to Her Majesty’s private person at the time
of her first Jubilee, and though much of the gold and silver
plate at Windsor is, like the Crown jewels, Crown property,
the Queen can claim nearly half a million pounds’-worth as
her own. Her private collection of jewels is also very

OF THE QUEEN 79

valuable, while her laces, of which she is extremely proud,
are worth very many thousands of pounds.

Her own pictures and statuary hold perhaps a value that
is more sentimental than monetary, though many of her
Landseers would fetch heavy prices ; but much of the china
she has purchased, bibelots, carvings, bronzes, and knick—
knacks, are intrinsically worth a very great deal.

The Queen’s perquisites are, with few exceptions, now-
adays more interesting than valuable, and comprise some
strange articles. The upper half of every.whale captured
on the coast of Great Britain and Ireland belongs to the
Queen, as also does every sturgeon caught. Tailors holding
an appointment to the Queen should present her with a
silver needle every year. The yearly perquisites of a table-
cloth, a white dove, a curry-comb, a white hare, a knife, 3.
nightcap, scarlet stockings, and crossbows, are not now
exacted. The Dukes of Marlborough and Wellington
present the Queen on each anniversary of the battles of
Blenheim and Waterloo with small replicas of the French
flag and Royal English Standard. At the end of each year
the flags are given to the officer of the Guard who is on
duty on those two days. The most valuable perquisites
received by the Queen are six magnificent Cashmere shawls,
from Cashmere, which range in value from f, 100 to f; 2 50
each. .

With the charities which emanate from the Civil List we
have little to do. They are much regulated by precedent,
and are mostly set forth and arranged by the Queen’s
Private Secretary. But of that truer charity that is known
only by the recipient, that is not blazoned in newspapers,
nor talked of at Court, what is to be said? Nothing, and yet
everything. It comes freely and unostentatiously from the
Queen’s ever-open private purse, often it is bestowed with
words of womanly sympathy and humble gladness that she

80 THE PRIVATE LIFE

can do good. It commands no gratitude, asks for no thanks.
The stream of it is wide and deep, and it is always flowing.
It is too much the fashion nowadays to sneer at the Queen’s
charity. To do so is to betray a gross ignorance of facts,
or a wilful blindness to the truth. Her Majesty’s charity is
simply immense, and comprises every known form of
assistance and aid. Yet the public know little or nothing
of this, for the Queen’s right hand is ignorant of the doings
of her left. Just as she bought the poor beaten donkey
“Jacko” from his cruel Nicois master, she will give the
first encouragement to a struggling artist, put the sick in
the way of health, and give back to the down—trodden and
wretched their self-respect. The Queen’s charity is as
beautiful as the rest of her character ; tender and retiring,
just and generous. ’

The Queen’s presents take every form. From time to
time she has given large sums of money as gifts. Many
of her splendidly-married grand-daughters have had to thank
Her Majesty for their costly trousseaux and wonderful
jewels. Her presents to the Duchess of York on her
marriage were magnificent, for the Queen is very open-
handed in such matters. Of gifts to her household and
dependents at Christmas time she is very lavish, and she
never forgets a birthday or the style of present that would
be most acceptable. Her ladies often receive handsome
jewels from her, While her wedding presents to brides in
whom she takes interest seldom, if ever, stop at the cus-
tomary Cashmere shawl. Where children are concerned
her generosity is boundless, and every child on her great
estates spends a happier Christmas for the toys from the
Castle.

Yet in the giving of presents, as in all, the Queen is ruled
by a wise discretion. She knows that when the. day comes
on which she must doff her crown and lay down her sceptre,

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OF THE QUEEN 81

however large a fortune she may leave behind, there will be
many who will have a just claim to a share of it.

The Duke of Connaught is not rich, neither is Princess
Christian, and both have ‘families. The young Duke of
Albany’s future depends greatly on the Queen’s beneflcence,
and though Princess Henry of Battenberg will be a woman
of property, she has four little ones to settle in a becoming
station. Whatever the Queen elects to do with her property
and money it will be right. But no one beyond the circle
of her family and legal advisers will ever know the real
contents of her will, for the wills of those who are royal
are never proved.

82 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER X
THE QUEEN’S PASTIMES

HE Queen is a great believer in the homely proverb

that “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy,”
and all through her hardworking life she has always made
time for a little relaxation—or at any rate a change of
occupation, for Her Majesty is too essentially an active-
minded woman to ever take more rest than comes to
her in the course of her afternoon drive.

First claim on the Queen’s few moments of leisure is won
by games of cards of the commonplace and sociable order
that are in vogue in every happy English family. In days
when the Court was livelier than it is now, the Queen always
started a round game of cards after dinner, when there were
no State visitors present, and frequently those members of
the Household who were not on duty would be sent for to
make up a tableful, for the young Queen was childishly fond
of a merry party. .

On these occasions “Vingt-et-un,” “Pope Joan,” and
“Nainjaune,” were generally played, and always for small
sums of money. Court etiquette demands that all coin
of the realm passed to the Sovereign shall be new and
unused, and the Ladies-in—Waiting and Maids of Honour
who joined in these games were always obliged to keep new
money about them.

4 OF THE QUEEN 83

That the stakes were not high is evidenced by a favourite
Maid of Honour, who boasts that on one evening she made
the great haul of eightpence !

Whist (with or without a dummy) was a very favourite
game with Prince Albert, and whenever the Queen and he
went on their quiet little excursions among the Highlands,
or retired for a few days’ absolute repose to their dear little
“ bothie ” at Alt-na—Guithasach with only a Maid of Honour
and some servants for retinue, a pack of cards was always
put in the baggage, and two or three rubbers of whist would
be the order of the evening. Of chess, too, Her Majesty
was very fond, and she played it, for one of her sex-—who
are notas a rule good at mastering the game—exceedingly
well. In the Green Drawing-room at Windsor there is
an exquisite chess-table, inlaid most richly with coloured
marbles, while among the Queen’s possessions there must
also be reckoned a wonderful set of chessmen of lavish
Eastern design, worked out in solid gold and silver.
Besides these charming incentives to the game, there are
in all the Royal palaces several very beautiful inlaid chess
boards as well as most valuable tables in carving and inlay
for cards.

A constant companion of the'Queen in all her traVels,
even to being granted a place in her yacht cabin and railway
saloon, is a specially made specimen of the very clever
“Patience Table” invented some years ago by Lady
Adelaide Cadogan. Games of “Patience.” nowadays form
the Queen’s principal and dearest recreation. Prince Albert
was an adept at any intricate games, and it was he who
taught them to the Queen. All through her life she has
played “Patience” under various conditions, and on the
occasion when Her Majesty visited Sir Robert Peel at
Drayton Manor, we are told that the Queen, looking
very pretty in a pink silk dress with three flounCes,

84 THE PRIVATE LIFE

played “Patience” the whole evening with the ladies
of the assembled party.

The Queen plays “ Patience ” a great deal during her rail-
way journeys, among her favourite games being “ The Harp”
and “The Fan.” Her cards are specially made for her,
and are rather smaller than the usual size. Each packet is
inclosed in a case of scarlet morocco stamped with the
Queen’s cipher. But if the Queen is happy amusing
herself, she is equally pleased to applaud the efforts of
others who try to amuse her. She will find as much
delight in dressing 3. Christmas tree (a task she always
performed with her own hands) as in attending a
Hallowe’en gathering, a Highland function of which she
was very fond. The first time Her Majesty ever witnessed
the picturesque spectacle she was so delighted with it that
the following year—I867—she took an active part in the
celebration herself. The Queen, with Princess Louise,
Prince Leopold, and Lady Ely, returned earlier than
usual from their drive to take part in the procession,
which on this occasion consisted of the Queen, her
children, the household, and all the gillies on the Balmoral
estate. The whole party walked round the house and
grounds, every one carrying a torch, which was afterwards
flung on a bonfire to blaze while the gillies danced reels to
Ross the piper’s playing. The quaintness and weirdness of
the sight may be easily imagined, and the pleasure it gave
to those taking part in it.

The Queen also derived great amusement from the High-
land gatherings, and used to grow most excited over the
various games of “Throwing the Hammer,” “Putting the
Stone,” and the racing. Once at a gathering at Braemar to
which the Queen took the Duchess of Kent, she was vastly
delighted that her gillie Duncan won a most difficult
race from among a great number of other clansmen. It

OF THE QUEEN 85

was to commemorate the pleasure the Queen has derived
from these simple country pastimes, that the exquisite figures
in solid gold, which so often adorn the Royal dinner-table,
of Highlanders engaged in their national games, were
made.

In the Queen’s youth La Grace was a fashionable game,
but Her Majesty openly admires the more active game of
tennis, at which the Duke of Connaught, Princess Henry
of Battenberg, and several of the Household are adepts.
The tennis courts, both of grass and asphalte, are excellent
at Windsor—where they are just below the East Terrace—
and at Osborne, where they lie to the left of the Avenue,
and behind the reservoir. Her Majesty is very fond of
watching a game of tennis, and is a keen critic of style
and play.

It is on the pleasance below the East Terrace at Windsor
that Buffalo Bill and his troupe once presented their show
to the equal delight and wonderment of the Royal grand-
children and their august grandmother, who made the
most sympathetic audience in the world.

Here, also, one of the Queen’s Indian attendants is
accustomed to give exhibitions of “tent pegging,” picking
up the handkerchief, and other feats of daring and fine
riding, all of which Her Majesty views with great pleasure.
Sometimes very promiscuous entertainers are bidden to the
Castle, generally, it must be understood, at the request of
the young Princes of Battenberg. On one occasion a pair
of dancing bears was enthusiastically applauded, while at
another time a “Punch and Judy ” gave intense pleasure to
the Queen. Once the little Princess Ena caught sight of a
monkey in Windsor Town, and the owner thereof was, with
his barrel'organ and animal, immediately commanded to
play in the Quadrangle beneath the windows of the Oak
Dining-room. The Queen was much amused when the

86 THE PRIVATE LIFE

monkey climbed the portico and tried to find a way into the
Castle through the dining-roOm windows.

It is with such simple pastimes as these, homely amuse-
ments about which the great public never hear, that our
beloved Sovereign has preserved her young heart and
cheerful disposition, and she derived as much joy from
Henglers’ circus when it gave a performance a few years
ago in the Great Riding School as she ever has from the
lavish entertainments that great London managers have
placed before her. It was after witnessing this circus
show that Her Majesty, who had been greatly entertained
with the quaint antics of Whimsical Walker’s extraordinary
donkey, expressed a strong desire to make that learned
animal’s acquaintance. The donkey was duly brought
forward, and the Queen proceeded to touch him with
her ebony stick, whereupon the creature turned round
and began to lash out most savagely at Her Majesty,
who, when she had recovered from her natural alarm,
remarked to those about her: “I fear he is not a very
loyal subject.”

The Queen was always fond of playing with her
children and learning games which she afterwards taught
them. The Hon. Georgiana Liddell—one pf her Maids
of Honour in her early married life—first won Court
favour by teaching her Royal Mistress to make a mouse
out of a pocket-handkerchief, and to cause it to run about
her arm and hand.

Her Majesty takes delight in a clever riddle or rebus,
but on one occasion she was very angry at having been
hoaxed over a riddle which was sent to her with a letter
to the effect that it had been made by the Bishop of
Salisbury. For four days the Queen and Prince Albert
sought for the reply, when Charles Murray (Controller
of the Household) was directed to write to the bishop

OF THE QUEEN 87

and ask for the solution. The answer received was that
the bishop had not made the riddle nor could he solve it.

Until the Prince Consort’s death, the Queen when in
town went to the theatre and opera about three times a
week; both being pastimes of which she was very fond.
Also she very frequently commanded theatrical companies
to Windsor.

Performances at that time were nearly always given in
the Rubens Room, where hang the famous portraits of
Rubens and Helena Forman, his second wife, and the
great picture of “St. Martin and the Beggar.” Owing to
lack of space, few beyond Royalties and their households
were ever invited. Christmas time was the great period
for these entertainments, and the sequence of these de-
lightful evenings was only broken in 1850 by the death of
Queen Adelaide, in 1855 by the universal anxiety about the
English troops in the Crimea, and in 1858 by the marriage
of the Princess Royal, but in this last case other entertain-
ments were arranged.

In; all, some thirty-two plays were performed during
those years, and among those who acted before the
Queen privately were Charles Kean, who played eleven
times, Mrs. Kean, eight times, Webster, seven times;
Charles Matthews, five times, the popular Keeleys, ten
times; and Buckstone, on three occasions. Phelps also
played Henry V. at Windsor on Thursday, November
10th, 18 5 3

It was to please the Queen that Charles Kemble re-
turned to the stage on March 24th, 1840, and four
following nights.

‘ After December 14th, 1861, however, all was changed,
and until the Prince of Wales persuaded Her Majesty to
witness a performance of The Colonel by a company
travelling through Scotland, the Queen had seen no

88 THE PRIVATE LIFE

theatrical representation since her bereavement. Even
then it was some years again before the Princes and
Princesses were permitted to amuse themselves with the
getting up of plays and tableaux vivants, but recently
these have been most frequent at Balmoral in the autumn,
and Osborne at Christmas time. The Queen takes im-
mense interest in these quite “ private theatricals,” and the
dresses, casting of parts, and make-up are all deferred to
her kindly experience, while she makes a point of being at
every rehearsal. Both in the Ball-room at Balmoral and
in the splendid Indian—room at Osborne, stage and proper
lighting apparatus are easily fixed. It is noteworthy that at
these little entertainments, ordinary dinner dress only is
worn, jewels are considered bad style, and the list of
guests comprise few beyond the members of the Court
and Household and the upper servants.

At Windsor, things are on a larger scale. The curious
cabin-shaped Waterloo Gallery, which was built for William
IV. (over an old courtyard once called the Horn Court) in
18 30 by Sir Jeffrey Wyatville, makes an excellent theatre——
in fact, so good, that the temporary stage which was put up
under the auspices of the late Sir Augustus Harris for the
production of Carmen has been allowed to remain.

The Waterloo Chamber, which is over ninety feet long,
contains thirty-eight pictures, principally portraits of kings,
admirals, statesmen, generals, mostly from the brush of Sir
Thomas Lawrence, who surpassed himself in his work for
George IV., though there are also specimens of the work
of Beechey, Wilkie, Pickersgill, and Shee. The cornice is
oddly decorated with gilt gargoyles and brown monkeys’
heads. Six splendid oil lamps on handsome supports
and five magnificent crystal chandeliers light the apartment.

The stage, which is raised five feet from the floor level,
and the proscenium are draped in crimson and gold. They

OF THE QUEEN 89

face the gallery. At a performance, the orchestra is literally
embowered in palms and flowers from the Frogmore gardens,
which also are used to fringe the edge of the crimson-
covered platform, four feet high, on which the Queen and
other Royalties and the Household sit in chairs of crimson
and gold. It is noteworthy that the well-raised seats behind
the Royal platform are carpeted in dove-coloured cloth, as
being distinct from the Royal red square reserved to
Royalty, and that the chairs are smaller and of white and
red. The Gallery at the end of the apartment and opposite
the stage, is filled by the head servants.

The Queen always enters after all the company—even
her own family—is seated. A gently raised slope ob-
viates the necessity of her mounting any steps. The
Indian attendants and those who are in waiting accompany
Her Majesty, who sits a little forward from the rest of her
guests in a low armchair. A footstool is before her, and a
small table holds her fan, opera—glasses, programme, and
book of the words. The applause is always led by the
Queen, who taps either her hand or table with her fan.
The map d’aail from this little stage is very magnificent,
for not only is the apartment brilliantly lit, but full dress is
worn. The Household is in uniform, and decorated with
orders, while the scarlet liveries of the Royal servants make
a fine show as they hand refreshments from time to time,
the gala dresses of the Indians are picturesque among the
palms, and the burnished helmets and shoulder-plates of
the firemen, who are always present at such functions, go
, to make up a splendid sight.

The Queen retires first of all the company, and after
graciously thanking the performers goes straight to her own
rooms.

On these occasions the Guard Chamber and St. George’s
Hall are transformed by means of curtains and screens into

90 THE PRIVATE LIFE

dressing-rooms for the actors, while the ladies use the
Throne Room and the Queen’s Closet. Supper is laid in
the Presence Chamber for the chief performers and the
Gentlemen of the Household, while the supers, carpenters,
and stage hands sit in the Vandyke Room, and the
orchestra in the Audience Chamber. .

The money paid by the Queen for large theatrical enter-
tainments does not pretend to compensate a manager for
his outlay, but, on the other hand, it should not be for-
gotten that the Royal purse is heavily taxed on these
occasions. An army of skilled workpeople are fed and
paid at the Castle for days before and after the perform-
ance. The theatrical troupe are treated at prince when
they arrive, and the hospitality shown them is boundless.

At the same time, public speculation has always been
rife as to what sums are really paid to managers for their
efforts to entertain Her Majesty. It may at once be said
that when, some four years ago, Sir Augustus Harris first
received the Queen’s command to produce operas at
Windsor Castle, the honour done him and the accom-
panying advertisement were as valuable as the cheque
always paid. Within a year or so, however, the perform-
ances at Windsor became so frequent, and so many
different managers and companies appeared there, that
Sir Augustus represented to the Queen’s Private Secre-
tary that, as the advertisement had ceased to be exclusive,
the emolument received by him could not be considered
sufficient compensation for the painting of special scenes,
the rehearsing of artists, orchestra, and supers, their extra
payment, and their transport to and from Windsor. The
case was laid before the Queen, and the next performance
organised for her by Sir Augustus Harris was paid for at
an increased and more profitable rate.

These true facts of the Queen’s most reasonable wish to

OF THE QUEEN 91

make adequate compensation for her pastimes go far to
disprove the credibility—if indeed any contradiction were
‘now needed—of the scandalous statements once made by
Douglas Jerrold in Lloyd’s newspaper with regard to the
payment of actors who appeared before the Queen.

The affair, which happened at the time that Charles
Kean was “Master of the Revels” at Court (a part for
which he was chosen by the Queen in 1848), first got wind
through a subordinate actor, who had lately appeared in a
small part at Windsor, one day appearing in a police court
and offering the presiding magistrate, as a contribution to
thepoor box, the paltry sum of a few shillings and some
odd pence, saying that it was his fee for acting before the
Queen. Much comment was made, and Jerrold worked
himself into a white heat over the matter, which gave the
Queen the deepest annoyance and pain. It was subse-
quently proved that the payment of the actors, as well as
the engaging of them, was intrusted to Charles Kean, who
cut down prices and filled his pockets at Her Majesty’s
expense.

92 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER XI
THE QUEEN’S SERVANTS

EARLY the most charming and womanly phase of
the Queen’s character is displayed in her relation-
ship to her servants. Of course, all her subjects are her
obedient servants, and the greatest grandee of all her large
household is bound to render her loyal and faithful service,
and indeed does so cheerfully. But I would now speak of
those humbler beings whom the average man and woman
treat as mere menials, but who are, in the eyes of Her
Majesty, fellow creatures and friends. There are few people
in the world who have received such kindnesses from the
Queen as her servants, and few who regard her with more
sincere devotion and admiration.

And, indeed, the Queen’s servants should be faithful to
her, for she stands by and protectsthem to the last. The
small lodges at Windsor, Osborne, and Claremont, and the
many cosy cottages at Balmoral are filled by men and
women who have grown grey in the service of the Royal
family. It is the same at Hampton Court, her palaces in
London, and houses at Richmond and Kew. Wherever
the Queen has any personal jurisdiction and a post or home
to give, there may be found old retainers who have served
not only her own gracious self, but any member of her

OF THE QUEEN 93

family. The Royal gardens and kitchens, laundries,
farms, and stables are full of such ancient folk, many
of whom remember the Queen as an infant, and whose
only talk is of the beneficence of their beloved Royal
mistress.

One of the quaintest of these old servitors was Jonathan
Mace, who was two years old at the time of George
III.’s jubilee. He had been a day labourer at Frogmore
in the Duchess of Kent’s employ. At the Duchess’ death
the Queen took upon herself the pensioning of all those of
her mother’s servants as she did not draft directly into her
own‘service. Mace was retained as a help in the F rogmore
gardens, and could tell some comic stories of the young
Princes and Princesses and the pranks they used to play.
Without in the least meaning any intentional disrespect he
always spoke of the Queen’s spirited sons as “rare young
toads,” and of his first mistress, the Duchess of Kent, as
“the old gal.” In his later years he kept the tiny lodge at
the entrance of the Frogmore Gardens, receiving 168. a
week and perquisites for his trouble. He wore the uniform
of Her Majesty’s lodge-keepers, namely, a green plush coat
and waistcoat, the collar bound with gold braid, black
trousers, a tall hat, and brass buttons with V.R. upon
them.

The Duchess of Kent’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Augusta
Bruce, of whom the Queen always spoke as “dear Augusta,”
was also taken into the Royal household as a kind of lady
secretary.

It is noticeable that the Queen always brought up her
children to treat servants with consideration and fairness.
7 The Princess Royal, who, as a child, was rather overbearing
in her manner, was frequently punished by the Queen for
rudeness and sharp speaking to the domestics, while on one
occasion the Duke of York, when a lad, was severely repri

94 THE PRIVATE LIFE

manded by Her Majesty before a number of people for
some inconsiderate remark he made to a servant. The
result of her wise training is that the Royal Family make
the best masters and get the best servants in the world.
Unless a domestic quits any of the Royal households on
marriage or by his own wish, he is certain of good wages
all his working days and an ample pension afterwards.
And of even more than that, for never yet was there a
dependent on the Queen or her family who was not certain
of cheery words in times of trouble and kindly greetings
always. Until the day of her death the Prince of Wales
would visit his old nurse, while the young Duchess of York
never omits, when she is at White Lodge, to go and see
those humble folk who were kind to her in childhood.
Many of the most loving and thankful words ever added
by Her Majesty’s own hand to the Court Circular have
been tributes of esteem and gratitude to some good servant
who has “gone before.”

At the same time it must not be thought that the Queen
is a weak mistress. Far from it. The service she exacts
is always most responsible, and she desires that it should
be performed punctually and well. She is, herself, far too
thorough and hardworking a servant of her State and her
People not to appreciate and expect the firstfruits of every
one’s powers. Whatever is done in her service for her
wages must be done with all the might. The Queen is a
strictly just and honourable woman and expects justice
and honour from those about her, from the highest even
to the lowest.

As a rule, however, such domestic differences and back-
stair bickerings as must arise from time to time in all large
establishments are laid before a little Court composed of
the higher officers of the Household, who go carefully to
the root of every quarrel and complaint, and who give

OF THE QUEEN 95

judgment upon them—all such cases and judgments being,
if serious, laid before the Queen herself. The institution
is a strange one, but it works admirably, and the servants,
knowing the absolute fairness of the arrangement, are more
than content to be governed by it.

That rules for the guidance of the Royal servants were
deemed necessary and existed so far back as Charles I.’s
time is shown by an old black letter document which hangs
in the great Servants’ Hall at Windsor Castle. It is
headed :—— .

“Twelve good rules found in the study of Charles I. of
blest memory.”

Profane no divine ordinances.
Touch no State matters.
Urge no healths.
Pick no quarrels.
Maintain no ill opinions.
Encourage no vice.
Repeat no grievances.
Reveal no secrets.
Make no comparisons.
Keep no bad company.
Make no‘ long meals.
Lay no wagers.
“These rules observed will maintain
Thy peace and everlasting gain.”

The Servants’ Hall at Windsor is a magnificent apart-
ment with a Gothic roof, and is the most imposing of
all the Servant’s Halls among the Royal residences.

More modern rules for the guidance of the Queen’s
servants have been drawn up from time to time, but save in

96 THE PRIVATE LIFE

detail they differ little from the arrangements made by the
Queen, Prince Consort, and the Baroness Lehzen quite
early in the reign. The chief of these rules is that no
servant is permitted in any part of the Castle to which he
or she is not accredited; thus those who clean the State
Rooms may not go to the Private Apartments, while an
exclusive and most trustworthy staff are told off for the
Queen’s Private Suite. In the Queen’s own rooms, it is
her “dressers,” of whom two are always on duty at a time,
who are mainly responsible for Her Majesty’s personal
comfort and for the tidiness of the suite. It is their duty
_ to arrange the flowers, to see each day that every article
is in the place the Queen likes best, and to be immediately
at hand. They are, in fact, highly trained and efficient
maids, and they are always about the person of the
Sovereign, one always sleeping within easy call of Her
Majesty.

The Queen has always been much attached and extremely
kind to her dressers. Of more than one she has painted
the likeness, and the portrait of Annie M’Donald, a great
favourite, that hangs in the Queen’s rooms, is an excellent
piece of work. Jane Shackle, a wardrobe maid, and a
daughter of one of the Queen’s pages, was also a most
trusted servant. She travelled with her Royal mistress and
party on the famous pseudonymous expedition to Glen
Fishie and Granton in September, 1860, when the whole
party put up at a little village inn, and had the dinner
served by the landlady in ringlets.

Another most excellent servant to the Queen was her
coachman, Wagland, whose connection with the Royal
Family was quite extraordinary. His grandfather entered
George III.’s household in 1788 3 his father was for sixty
years in the Royal service, thirty-two years being passed as
a porter at the Royal Mews at Windsor. Wagland himself

OF THE QUEEN 97

became a Royal servant in 183 I, was for seventeen years
a postillion, and in 1857 was made Queen’s coachman.
His daughter was nurserymaid to the Prince of Wales’
children. Surely a sufficiently wonderful record in these
days of decadent domestic service.

It is this old-world fashion of keeping whole families
together that has secured to the Queen and her children
such excellent servants. They are, as it were, born into
the business, and as they never mix with other classes of
domestics, they are uncontaminated by the too frequently
muddy stream from which commoner folk are compelled
to draw their household helps. Once this fact is grasped
it ceases to astonish when one finds Grants, Browns,
McDonalds, and Clarks in every branch of the Queen’s
domestic service.

Of all the Queen’s servants, John Brown, who was born
at “ The Bush,” a small farm north of Balmoral Castle, and
who began life as a stable lad at Balmoral, was the most
remarkable. Of rugged exterior and singularly uncourtly
manners, he from the first commended himself to the
Prince Consort, who made him a gillie, and in 1849 a
personal outdoor attendant on himself and the Queen. In
18 5rhis services were exclusively demanded by the Queen
when on expedition and jaunts in Scotland, and it was John
Brown and John Grant, the head keeper, who were always
taken on the secret trips of Her Majesty and the Prince.
It is recorded of these two brawny Scotchmen that on
arrival at some very poor inn they were commanded to wait
'on their Royal mistress at meals, but being too shy they
deputed their duties to a woman of the village.

The sayings and doings of John Brown were many and
quaint. He was of the stuff of which the king’s jesters
were made in the olden times. He was very blunt in speech,

- and never gave way to the whims or fancies of anv one,
8

98 THE PRIVATE LIFE

not even excepting the Queen herself. He was not at all
above reproving Her Majesty for any sartorial economy she
might exercise, and would often tell her that her cloak was
too old or her bonnet too shabby. Once in Scotland, after
a picnic luncheon taken at the Glassalt Shiel, the Queen
asked for a table to be brought from the cottage at which
she could sit and make some sketches. Table after table
failed to suit'the Queen’s taste, and the servants were at
their wits’ end. Suddenly Brown awoke to the situation,
picked up one of the discarded tables, planted it before
the Queen, and said:

“ It’n na possible to mak’ anither table for you up here.”

The Queen admitted the common-sense of Brown’s
remark and used the table.

His bluntness, however, was greatly resented by many of
the Queen’s relations, and there are many stories told of
his curt speeches to the Prince of Wales, and others of the
Royal family. Many of the Court officials did not like him
and more than once there was some intriguing to displace
him. But the Queen appreciated to the full that loyalty
and singleness of heart that saved her life from the would-
be regicide O’Connor in 1872, and that so frequently stood
between her and the impertinence of vulgar sightseers.

Among his fellow servants john Brown was greatly
beloved. They found him rough, uneducated, and a stern
disciplinarian, but strictly just. He would always take the
weaker side in a dispute, and obtained justice for all the
servants from the committee that, as I have shown, quietly
rules the Queen’s household. He was honest and trust-
worthy, and a good fellow among his peers, and for all his
undoubted influence, never became an upstart. A failing,
which the kindly Queen refused to recognise, beset him in
his later years, but his death caused genuine sorrow in the
Servants’ Hall, where his portrait now hangs, as in the

OF THE QUEEN 99

Queen’s drawing-room. A servant’s tribute to his memory
was: “I am very sorry he is dead. It would be better for
us all if he were still alive.”

All Brown’s brothers passed into the Queen’s service.
Donald Brown went to Osborne, Hugh became Keeper of
the Kennels at Windsor, James Brown was the shepherd at
Balmoral, and Archibald Brown was made a page in the
Royal household. The Clarks were cousins of the Browns,
and Francie Clark took John Brown’s place as personal
attendant to the Queen after his death. F rancie himself is
dead now, and his brother has his post. The Grants have
also held positions in the Royal Family as valets, messen-
gers, and keepers. John Grant’s daughter is housekeeper
at Balmoral.

Promotion is the order of the Queen’s household, and
the humblest may in time rise to posts of great responsi—
bility and excellent wages. In fact, the possibilities among
the Queen’s domestics are many and good. The health
and happiness of the Queen’s servants are amply provided
for. Dr. Ellison, at Windsor, can always be seen by any
domestic at the Castle, and often the Queen sends her own
body physician, Sir James Reid, to those who are very ill.
Their amusements are always encouraged by Her Majesty.
The upper servants are invariably invited to witness the theat-
ricals and tableaux, dances are given at Balmoral under the
management of the factor, whilst at Christmas there are
~presents, Christmas trees, and entertainments for all.

The Queen’s Indian servants have every facility granted
them for following their own mode of life and ways of
eating.

It has been a subject of frequent complaint in certain
quarters that most of the Queen’s servants are Scotch.
Why should they not be? Her Majesty has found them
loyal, honest, silent, and trustworthy. She surely does well

fool THE PRIVATE LIFE

to form her domestic household from such excellent
material. .
Only the Queen’s more intimate personal attendants
move from place to place with the Court; the large bulk of
the establishment remains always in the different palaces.

o
. .
. u

- .

101

r."\ ‘ 4 iaOEVI 0“.»
OF THE QUEEN :12 3"

CHAPTER XII
THE QUEEN’S WALKS

OOKING back at the Queen’s long life, and consider-
ing her arduous duties both of State and Society, her
frequent condition—during many years—of delicate health,
and the little spare time that was ever really at her command,
it is extraordinary to remember that Her Majesty was ever an
enthusiastic and intrepid walker, and that she herself
attributes much of her strength and ability for work to her
equal capacity for taking outdoor and active exercise.

In London, of course, it never has been possible for the
Queen, since her accession, to go a-foot, save in the fine
gardens that lie at the back of Buckingham Palace, for,
fond of walking as Her Majesty is, she could never with
safety have faced the crowds that would have dogged her
footsteps. It was nothing beyond the scandalous mobbing
to which she was subjected when she went for a few days’
change of air to Brighton, in February, 1842, that caused
the Queen to vow she would never set foot in that town
again.

She' also complained much of the gardens of the
Pavilion, where she stayed. They were small, low, and
very damp, and possessed the insuperable objection of being
overlooked by numbers of houses, sothat it was impossible
for any of the Court to take an airing in them.

102 ‘ g i THE :PRIVATE-iLIFE

So annoyed was Her Majesty while there, and so insuper-
able a dislike did she take to the place, that she at once
determined to sell the eccentric and uncomfortable palace
on which her uncle, George IV. had spent so many
hundreds of thousands of pounds, and seek for a seaside
residence elsewhere.

It was during her first visit to Scotland in August and in
September, 1842, that the Queen first really knew the
pleasure of walking. Her delight when taking strolls, with
only a lady in attendance, about the grounds of Dalkeith was
only exceeded by the pleasure she had during her stay in
Edinburgh in rising very early before the business and
pleasure of the day began, and quietly visiting such points
of interest as the capital of her Scottish kingdom boasted.
During that stay in the North, the Queen honoured Scone
and Taymouth, and did an immense deal of walking.

It was while walking on the banks of the Tay with the
Duchess of Norfolk, and nothing but a distant couple of
the Highland Guard to mark her rank, that the young
Queen went into a cottage by the roadside. The housewife
cut the ladies a few flowers, in return for which the Duchess
gave her some money, saying: “WLMBESFY,” At first
the old dame was vastly astonished,» but, «at-length, warmly
blessed the Queen for coming to see her subjects in
Scotland, thus showing more sense than many simple folk,
on whom it has sometimes pleased the Queen to drop in,
and who afterwards have declined to believe in the identity
'of their august visitor.

At Taymouth, the Queen first cultivated a taste for those
unsophisticated “scrambles ” which she afterwards so often
made from Balmoral.

Two years later, Blair Castle was lent to the Queen by ‘
Lord Glenlyon, and Her Majesty had a delightful holiday
there. She thought nothing of a two hours’ walk over

OF THE QUEEN 103

mountain paths, or tramping through the cornfields like a
daughter of thesoil. One of her very favourite walks was to
the Upper Falls of Bruar. The scenery there is finer now
than in 1844, as the trees have grown considerably since
then. The chief amusement of the Royal party was to
throw stones from the overhanging height into the boiling
Falls below.

It was from Blair that the Queen first went out deerstalk-
ing with Prince Albert. Until the day of his death Her
Majesty always accompanied the Prince Consort on these
‘xpeditions, frequently over most dangerous ground and

aetimes in fearful weather. Particularly was this the

i _ when the whole party went out Shooting among the
"hills": aoove Dhu Loch. The wind was terrific and the road
almost impassable, the fords were full, and the Glassalt in
particular gave the Queen some trouble to scramble over.
Until the Queen herself improved the path to her favourite
retreat of Alt-na—Guithasach, it was quite terrible, yet Her
Majesty walked it pluckily.

It was while the Queen was out on one of the expeditions
to Dhu Loch that a'gillie, named Mackenzie, followed her
with-a letter from Lord Derby announcing the death of the
Duke of Wellington. Her Majesty was almost heart-
broken at her own and the nation’s loss, and, amid a heavy
shower, returned home at once to pen letters of condolence
and comfort.

When a cairn, of which there ‘ are so many around
Balmoral, was in- building, the Queen would always walk,
with her household and gillies, to the chosen spot, and
not unfrequently insist upon carrying the stone herself.

The Scotch servants and keepers dearly liked the Queen
to accompany any expedition, shooting or otherwise. They
always said that things went well when she was present.
“It’s Her Majesty’s coming that has brought good luck,”

104 THE PRIVATE LIFE

and “ Her Majesty has a lucky foot,” were quite sayings
among them.

In these modern days, when women copy the costumes
of men for all sporting purposes, or when engaged in heavy
walking and climbing, it says much for the Queen’s stamina
and courage, that she undertook such laborious exercise
when trammelled with the cumbersome garments in vogue
during the ’4o’s and ’so’s. For at that time the only
concession made to comfort or safety in walking was a
slight looping up of the dress skirt over the many voluminous
petticoats.

But all the Queen’s walks were not of so trying a nature
as when she was following the guns in the Highlands. At
Windsor the walks were many and beautiful, and comprised
every yard of the Home Park, the F rogmore Gardens, and
those fairy glades on the north side of the Castle, known
as the Slopes. A very favourite walk which the Queen,
with her husband, children, and Court, used to take after
service on Sunday morning, included a visit to the stables
and a stroll through the Home Park to the Shaw Farm.
On Sunday afternoons Her Majesty, with the Court, used
to walk on the East and North Terraces, literally among
her people. For all were allowed to enter the Royal
gardens and crowd round their beloved Sovereign, who
moved among her subjects absolutely unguarded, and with
only a few gentlemen of the Court to make a clear way for
her to pass. Nowadays the scene at Windsor is practically
the same, save that the gracious central figure takes no
part in the action. Her Majesty now sits in the loggia at
the head of the splendid double Italian staircase that adorns
the east front of her Castle, and with benevolent eyes and
kindly smile surveys her people flocking to the exquisite
gardens and terraces, just as they did when she herself
moved so freely and unostentatiously among them.

OF THE QUEEN :05

Through the thickly planted walks and drives on the
“Slopes,” the Queen used to attain the “Rosary” and
“The Grottoes,” and also what remained of the noble tree
that tradition has named “Herne’s Oak.” This tree was
blown d0wn some years ago, but the Queen, faithful to the
past, has planted another oak on the identical spot.

The “ Rosary ” is a charming little oval-shaped inclosure,
hedged closely round with evergreens, and having a mass ,
of very fine rhododendron plants in the centre. A path
all round it leads to the Queen’s summer-house, a cosy
retreat, thatched inside and out with straw. A little farther
on is the ice skating rink. It is shallow, lined with asphalte,
and can easily be flooded and frozen. The late Prince.
Henry of Battenberg used it daily during the wintry
weather, he being a magnificent skater. It was made by
order of the Queen, after the occasion when the late Prince
Consort was nearly drowned one day skating, and when
Her Majesty was herself instrumental in saving his life.

When walking from the “Rosary” to the “Grottoes,”
the Queen passed below the East Terrace. Here on the
right is a charming model of “ ‘ Dacko,’ the favourite
Dachshund of the Queen. Born February, 1859; died
December, 1871.” On the left is a‘ statue of “Noble,” a
very pet dog, whOse greatest pleasure was to guard his
Royal mistress’s gloves. He is here represented with one
of them. in his charge. The Prince Consort’s favourite
hound, “ Eos,” aged 10, is also memorialised near the same
spot.

The Grottoes are quaintly cut into the heart of a great
chalk rock, which in formation is like a disused pit, and
now has a zig—zag shaped artificial lake for fish in the
centre. The grottoes are all faced with pebbles and
buttressed with flints. The largest of them, which is semi-
circular and runs in winding fashion far into the rock, has

106 THE PRIVATE LIFE

a small skylight above and is said to have a deep well
beneath it. It is icily cool in the hottest weather. Tradi-
tion states that these grottoes were once prisons, and were
connected with “ Underground Windsor” by a secret passage.

Other picturesque features of the Slopes are a babbling
brook (which is crossed by a most beautiful walk of lime
trees that leads to Datchet), and the wonderful animal life
that abounds there. Hares, rabbits, squirrels, and sleek
brown rats play and gambol all day long among the old
trees, which in winter offer a strange spectacle, covered,
as they are, with mistletoe.

It is through these ideally sylvan surroundings that the
Queen once walked so frequently, and that she now drives
to the Castle whenever she reaches Windsor by the South-
Western Railway.

The prettiest scenes in the Queen’s life must, however,
have been her many evening walks, to which she was very
partial in fair, warm weather. One of these walks, which
gave the Queen great pleasure and amusement, was taken
after a great banquet in Trinity Hall, Cambridge, followed
by a reception in honour of the Prince Consort’s installation
as Chancellor of the University. After the entertainments
were over, the Queen proposed to walk out before retiring
for the night. It was about ten o’clock when she and the
Court set out in “curious costume ” as Her Majesty herself
says, “Albert in his dress coat with a mackintosh over it.
I, in my evening dress and diadem, with a veil over my
head; the two Princes in their uniform, and the ladies in
their (evening) dresses and shawls and veils.”

In this strange guise did the Queen and her party first
lose their way in the dark, then find the right road that
led them through the avenues of lime trees in the grounds
of St. John’s, down to the water and over the bridges.
Could any expedition be more naive and simple?

OF THE QUEEN 107

A grander scene occurred once on the exquisite East
Terrace at Windsor, by the light of a full, August moon.
The Queen had been having a great dinner party, and
afterwards led the way in all the glory of her evening gown
and glittering jewels round the Terrace, while her guests
and suite followed her. Every one was in full dress or
uniform. The Castle lit up in every window made a fitting
background to so picturesque a spectacle.

Such brilliant scenes form no part nowadays in the
Queen’s retired life, but they must remain a happy memory,
even as to her subjects they must ever be of interest. ‘

108 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER XIII
THE QUEEN AS A HOUSEKEEPER

EFORE going any farther into descriptions of the
places which give colour to the home life of Her
Majesty, it may be well to say something general about
the Queen as a Housekeeper, so that the reader may the
better understand such intimate details of her life as it is
my business and my pleasure to describe.

As we go along my readers will gather that the Queen
is an exceedingly homely and hard working woman, and
very far removed from the typical royal personage who is
supposed to sit on a golden throne, with no thoughts, and
nothing to do but to sign her name to death warrants and
Acts of Parliament, or to dub mayors “knights” with a
tailor’s sword. , .

Indeed, there is nothing which goes on of which she
has not intimate knowledge and which she does not shape
and colour with her hand and individuality.

Fifty anecdotes will go to show this later on, but one at
least may be introduced here which seems peculiarly appro-
priate to the heading of this chapter. Some years ago the
German Ambassador had the honour of an invitation to
Windsor. During an audience with Her Majesty the small
talk led round to Germany and to Fiirstenburg, the place

OF THE QUEEN 109

of his birth. That evening at- dinner, to the intense
surprise of everybody familiar with the services usually in
use at Her Majesty’s table, the plates were of a totally
different pattern and colour from the ordinary gold, silver, or
blue service, of which we shall hear more farther on. On
examination, the service proved to be one made at a great
china factory at F firstenburg, and each plate contained a
different view of that town and neighbourhood. Though
this service had not been used for nine years, and might
not unnaturally have been supposed to have been broken,
disposed of, or anywhere but at Windsor, Her Majesty not
only recalled it, but remembered where it was, and, as a
delicate compliment, had ordered it to be used at table
that night.

This, if read aright, will give the reader some idea of
Her Majesty’s qualities as a housekeeper, and I may go so
far as to say there never was any article, however'insignifi-
cant or in whatever department, which has ever entered into
Her Majesty’s life of which she does 'not retain an absolute
remembrance and knowledge, while those about her will tell
you that no one ever knows when she will ask for something
of which every one else has forgotten the existence and the
whereabouts.

In her early married life her household gave her grave
dissatisfaction owing to the lack of order and discipline
and to the great waste of time and money. The Baroness
Lehzen, who had been her governess, had become her
private secretary, and had taken unto herself the manage-
ment of her Royal mistress’ domestic duties, and was not
at all inclined to surrender them to Her Majesty or the
Prince Consort; while the ‘Lord Steward, the Lord
Chamberlain, and the Master of the Horse—all heads of
various domestic departments—were equally unwilling to
submit to any control. The internal arrangements at both

IIO THE PRIVATE LIFE

Buckingham Palace-and Windsor were in such a state of
chaos that Prince Albert, in despair, wrote to Prince von
Lowenstein :—

“ In my home life I am very happy and contented ,° but
the difficulty in filling my place with the proper dignity is
that I am only the husband and not the master of the
house.”

To such a pitch of confusion, discomfort, and delay did
matters arrive that the ever-confided-in Baron Stockmar,
always ready to smooth the creases from royal rose-leaves,
drew up a memorandum in which he rather humorously
described the duties of the Royal Steward as being to
provide and lay the fuel which the Lord Chamberlain
lighted; to supply the lamps, needles, wicks, and oil which
the Lord Chamberlain cleaned, lit, trimmed, and stuffed;
and he went on to show that amid so many masters the
male and female servants came on and off duty at their own
bidding, and remained absent for hours and hours for the
want of any one to correct their irregularities and excuses,
all of which was to the detriment of convenience, cleanli-
ness, and security. To such a length did the irregularities
of red-tape run, that a young chimney-sweep, “the boy
Jones,” as he was called, was several times found, like
Tom in the “ Water Babies,” hiding in the Queen’s apart-
ments. Indeed, there was far more in the “Bedchamber
Question” than apparently Sir Robert Peel evenunder—
stood or explained. However, in 1844, matters righted
themselves so far that the heads of departments and all
subordinates came under the authority of the Master of
the Household.

But even this arrangement has never made Her Majesty
relinquish her prerogative with regard to her servants and
the internal economy of her- house, and so satisfactory has
been her supervision, that even when, in early days, she

OF THE QUEEN III

gave large and expensive fétes and banquets to Emperors
and Kings, there was always money with which to pay the
piper.

It seems somewhat strange, but certainly to his credit,
that Sir Robert Peel should have acknowledged this in such
gracious words when referring to the visits of the Emperor
Nicholas of Russia and King Louis Philippe:

“Those visits, of necessity, created a considerable in-
crease of expenditure, 'but through that wise system of
economy which is the only source of true magnificence,
Her ~Majesty was able to meet every charge and to give a
reception to the Sovereigns which struck every one by its
magnificence without adding one tittle to the burdens of
the country. I am not required by Her Majesty to press
for the extra expenditure of one single shilling on account
of these unforeseen causes of increased expenditure. I
think that to state this is only due to the personal credit of
Her Majesty, who insists upon it, that there shall be every
magnificence required by her station, but without incurring
one single debt.”

Throughout her 'career this policy of splendid economy
has, been preserved, and everything is paid for as punctually
as if Her Majesty had no credit and had to pay ready
money for all she buys. Some idea of the size of the
household over which she presides may be )gathered from
the fact that, not taking into account Buckingham Palace,
Balmoral Castle, and Osborne House, Windsor Castle
alone is a small town. It shelters and gives employment
to some two thousand persons, and it may interest readers
to know that during Her Majesty’s absence from any of
her palaces, the servants are placed on board wages, and
during her flying visits to London their meals are duly
4 catered for.

Her Majesty’s household duties Commence early in the

112 THE PRIVATE LIFE

morning, when at breakfast are submitted to her certain
suggestions from the clerk of the kitchen, from which she
orders the dinner of the day, also selecting the meals for
those of her young grandchildren who may be with her.
Her alteration of the menus to be provided are made with her
own hand, generally in violet ink-pencil, and are thus sent
back to the kitchens, confectionery, and other departments,
before ten o’clock, to be carried out. What these menus
contain and what Her Majesty eats and drinks will form
chapters to themselves, but in passing it may be as well to
state that the stores are ordered from day to day, and her
tradespeople are equally divided all over the kingdom,
many articles of food and household use coming from
Scotland and London when she is at Windsor, and quite
as many being sent to Scotland or Osborne from London,
the beech log firing (to give the first instance to hand),
being sent by water from Marlow-on-Thames.

Though the locks and keys of Windsor Castle are almost
all uniform (the master key being stamped with the name
of “ Hobbs and C0.,” “If found, 205. reward,” initials and
a number which it would be indiscreet to give), all the
servants have, as I have said, their allotted regions, beyond
the limits of which they are not permitted to stray. Under
Her Majesty’s régime everything appertaining to her house-
hold has its number, place, and season. The huge bee-
hive moves in perfect order and concord, knowing by
instinct and by example that though kindness and every
consideration are shown to everybody, no one is sufficiently
valuable to be indispensable, and that backsliding will not
be permitted, and that even the most elementary things are
noticed and heard of, as also that the work is, except at
moments, light and well paid. There is no mistress so
kind as the Queen, for she hates new faces, and not only
never parts with a good servant, but, even when they grow

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OF THE QUEEN 113

old or are incapacitated by sickness, she pensions them off
-'in some snug house where they have little 'or nothing to
do, and are well paid and looked after, with plenty of
good food and firing, and a doctor specially retained to
administer to their wants.

Every single article of linen, blankets, bedding, carpets,
curtains, and furniture is numbered and catalogued, and
is continually checked and reported on, and in its turn
is either washed, re—picked, beaten, cleaned, or polished,
according to its class. The Queen is very particular as to
any form of dirt or even untidiness, and there is a story
told of Her Majesty having come across a neglected
cabinet in one of the unoccupied little suites off the Grand
Corridor, and writing her well-known signature with her
finger in the dust. Going the next day to see the result of
this silent rebuke, she found that no notice had been taken
of it, and accordingly wrote the name of the particular
housemaid who was responsible for the neglect under-
neath. The next day the two signatures had disappeared,
and so had the housemaid, who was so frightened that
she ran away without even asking for a character. The
Queen, however, sent for her, had her brought back, and
spoke to her kindly.

Yet even queens are not always infallible. On one
occasion—some few years after her marriage—Buckingham
Palace and all the State departments were thrown into a
condition of intense excitement. The Queen, on returning
from her ride, missed her keys, and whether they had been
dropped by Her Majesty in the Palace or out of doors no
one could tell. For hours the Palace was in a ferment,
even the Queen joining in the search for the lost keys,
while the question of altering the locks of all the despatch-
boxes, safes, and various private receptacles belonging to
the Queen herself was seriously mooted. The great expense

' 9

114 THE PRIVATE LIFE

that such a proceeding would entail was finally obviated by
the recovery of the keys. The Queen, though much worried
at the time by the occurrence, has often since told the story

against herself.

OF THE QUEEN 115

CHAPTER XIV
THE QUEEN AND HER STORE-ROOMS _

O attempt to depict the inner life of the great lady
who rules our land, to shadow forth her haunts and
habits, her temperament and characteristics, and to omit all
mention of her linen-room, store-cupboard, and the spots
where her glass and china find resting place, were to render
this record woefully incomplete.

For it is to the orderly rules of the Queen, and indirectly
to the late Prince Consort, that neatness and method have
been evolved out of the extravagance, waste, and untidiness
which prevailed in the Royal Palaces on Her Majesty’s
accession sixty years ago.

At that time things that were perhaps of but little worth
individually, though valuable in the mass, were made away
with wholesale. The perquisite system was in full force,
and wine or candles, and other imperishable' articles which
had been produced for any particular occasion and had
remained untouched, were calmly annexed by certain
officials and their underlings, although perfectly fit to be
brought forth again. Those were the days when scores of
people outside the palaces lived in luxury on the proceeds
of robbery and waste within.

It was all this, as well as the various cliques that sup-

116 THE PRIVATE LIFE

ported the system, that the young husband and wife——
themselves little more than children—had to combat, and
it is from that disorder that the delightfully arranged store-
rooms of the Queen have sprung.

It must first be premised that, good and domestic econo-
mist as Her Majesty has proved herself, she has never
ground the faces of her tradespeople by giving them whole-
sale orders at reduced prices. Hence it is that the chief
store-room at Windsor, although a large enough apartment,
is never unduly crowded with a vast quantity of material.
The room is almost lined from floor to ceiling with cup-
boards which are cut into pigeon holes. Each has its
own little door and each contains some different article of
household consumption.

A large table fills the centre of the room, a few chairs, a
desk, and weights and scales complete the equipment of
this very plain apartment. Here come every day the
various menus for the Queen’s luncheon and dinner and
for the meals served in the Royal nurseries. The menus
have already passed through the Queen’s hands—it cannot
be too strongly impressed on indolent housewives and
frivolous girls that Her Majesty practically orders all the
meals served to her—and arrive in the store-room with
the quantities of materials required for each dish duly
annotated against it by the kitchen authorities. Other menus,
those to be served to the Household, the Equerries’ break-
fast, even the meals for the servants, are all obliged to go
through the same process of superintendence by clerks of
the kitchen and store-rooms and of head cooks. The
mornings are spent in the store-rooms by giving out what
is required, stating this in a series of books, and in seeing
what stores need replenishment.

It should be noted that no fish, meat, vegetables, butter,
or other perishable articles ever come into this store-room.

OF THE QUEEN 117

In fact their nature prevents them from being looked upon
in the light of stores. The materials which are used in
the Confectionery Kitchens are kept in a room apart from
the General Stores.

This is an apartment leading from the principal confec-
tionery kitchen. It is all snow-white and fitted everywhere
with small cupboards and glass—covered receptacles for
every kind of material used in fine confectionery. In the
centre of the room is a great glass case containing speci-
mens of the Chief Confectioner’s skill.

It is in this room that all the cakes and sweets made for
the Queen are checked according to the order book and
packed for despatch to whatever place the Court may be.
A list of the dainties sent to Her Majesty at Balmoral on
September Ist, 1892, may be interesting to those who share
their Sovereign’s weakness of a “sweet tooth.”

I Box of Biscuits.

I Box Drop Tablets.-

I Box of Pralines.

16 Chocolate Sponges.

12 __Plain Sponges.

I6 Fondant Biscuits. .

I Box of Wafers, containing 2 or 3 dozen of Fancy

Shapes. '

1‘;- dozen Flat Finger Biscuits.

I Sponge Cake.

I Princess Cake.

I Rice Cake.

This order, which with sundry varieties is expected three
or four times a week, is always addressed thus . '

. “ This package to be delivered at the Equerries’ Entrance
at Buckingham. Palace.” '

From thence the Queen’s Messenger conveys .it to the
Court. '

"118 THE PRIVATE LIFE

There are two fine linen—rooms at Windsor Castle. All
linen used by the Queen is of the finest and best, the table
linen being really magnificent. Many of the designs' are
repetitions of those used fifty or sixty years ago, and in
most the insignia of the Garter, the Royal Arms, or the
national emblems of Great Britain appear. All the linen
used in the Palaces is gone through every year with the
greatest care, and every piece that shows even the faintest
sign of wear is put aside for presentation to hospitals and
charitable institutions as “cast linen.” It is a very vulgar
error to believe, as many people do, that the “cast linen”
given away by the Queen is body linen.

More interesting than the linen-rooms is the big “ China
and Glass Room,” which is approached through the principal
store-room. So charmingly arranged is this large, bright
apartment that the first view of it is like that of a very well-
set-out shop. Wide shelves line the white walls, one set of
which is inclosed by glass doors. It is to the topmost shelf
of all that the eye is first attracted, by the line of large
flower-pots of fine jasper Wedgwood ware. They are
modern and were made expressly for use at the wedding-
breakfast of Princess Beatrice and the late Prince Henry of
Battenberg, which took place at Osborne.

Of dinner services there is a great variety. Many of them
are very valuable and of marvellous beauty, others again are
merely quaint. 'But all seem superfluous where the meals
are almost always served on solid gold and silver.

The prettiest china is a full service of French (Chantilly)
ware. The borders of each piece are of Royal blue and
rich gold, and the centre of exquisitely painted birds.
The plates are valued at ten guineas each. A Dresden
service is also extremely beautiful, being of a very elegant
design and most delicate in colouring. A Worcester
Harlequin Service is handsome, but very bizarre in effect,

OF THE QUEEN 119

and it is not surprising to hear that it is never used at the
Queen’s table.

More strange is it to know that a splendid set of Chelsea
ware, painted in the most brilliant and characteristic manner
with birds and butterflies, is also seldom now taken from the
store-room. A china maniac would give any sum for such
wonderful ware. A Sévres Service for dinner and dessert is
green in its general colouring. It sometimes makes an
appearance in the Household Dining-room, and sometimes
the Queen uses the dessert plates.

The only china service, however, that finds favour in Her
Majesty’s eyes is a very pretty one that was made for her
by Minton eighteen years ago. It has a beautiful blue
border, with medallions inclosing the rose, shamrock, and
thistle, painted in the Sévres style. The centre of each piece
is filled by a blue medallion, on which are the entwined letters
V.R. in thickly raised gold. This service, which is very large,
and includes a number of splendid fruit dishes, is always used
on great occasions, such as the Duke of York’s wedding, the
visits of the German Emperor to Cowes, and the Tsar to
Balmoral. It was also in constant use during all the grand
Jubilee festivities. It is a noteworthy fact that only one
plate has been broken during the years it has been
used.

An Etruscan service in black and red ware is peculiarly
ugly and heavy, and, with a service of Fiirstenberg ware
which is very beautifully painted with landscapes, brings the
list of the Queen’s dinner services to a close.

Of coffee and tea sets the Queen has a multitude. The
mOSt charming is of fine Sévres, having a wine-coloured
ground, panelled with exquisite landscapes and heads in
medallions. A Burmese tea service of twelve pieces is of a
most peculiar waxen tint which shades to pink at the edges.
It is elaborately decorated in a raised gold design. Princess

120 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Beatrice frequently uses it, but its fragility is extreme, and it
is only fit for a cabinet specimen.

One particular table is set apart in the China room for all
the quaint odds and ends that were given to the Queen in
her childhood and to her own children. Here are Stafford-
shire figures, Cottage ware, queer pieces of Lustre, and above
all a wonderful pair of spotted dogs, the like of which for
quaintness and hideousness could not be matched through-
out the length and breadth of Her Majesty’s kingdom.

The glass used for ordinary occasions at the Queen’s
table is extremely thin and light, but severely simple in
shape, and merely decorated on one side with Her Majesty’s
cipher.

On State occasions the magnificent old cut-glass is
brought out. This is of the finest workmanship, and great
weight, while its price is almost incalculable, as every year
that passes adds much to its value. The same system of
giving out china and glass prevails in the store-room of these
articles as in the Gold and Silver Pantries.

Yet with all the care and system which prevails in the
Queen’s Palaces, articles sometimes go astray in an un-
accountable fashion. On one occasion the late Prince
Henry of Battenberg sent to the Land and Water Exhibition
a picture of his favourite hunter. After a. time the Prince
asked that his picture shou1d be returned to him on the
following day, and a messenger was duly sent from Windsor
to London to receive the painting. For days the picture
was lost, but at length it reached Osborne, having been
sent there by mistake from Buckingham Palace. The Royal
Family were not a little astonished to find that such an
error could have been made.

OF THE QUEEN 121

CHAPTER XV
WHAT THE QUEEN READS

HAT the Queen has all her life been an omnivorous
reader can be readily understood by all who appre-
ciate the broadness of her views, and her sympathetic
knowledge of things and men, more especially of such as
are touched by the sorrows of this world. No class of
literature that is faintly worthy has been neglected by Her
Majesty, and her memory, which is truly extraordinary, has
always assisted her in the practical understanding of what
she reads. As a child and young person she had a great
love of history, and devoured everything that had to do
with the making of England and the lives of those who had
occupied the throne. On a question of dates or sequence
of historical events the Queen’s memory is to this day
unrivalled. While her just and impartial criticism of even
the salt of the earth was once exemplified during a con-
versation she had with Macaulay shortly after reading his
history, when she said: “ I am afraid I cannot say much for
my ancestor, James II.”
“Your Majesty’s predecessor, not ancestor,” cried the
historian.
The Queen laughingly acknowledged the compliment,
but did not change her opinion about the deposed
_ monarch. '

122 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Dean Stanley, during his long and intimate friendship
with the Queen, frequently referred his printed works to
her judgment and discretion, and it was in his drawing-
room that Her Majesty met Carlyle. The sage of Chelsea
was not at all abashed by being in his Sovereign’s presence,
and, pulling up a chair quite close to her, proceeded in his
quaint way to cross-question her on her historical knowledge,
likes, and dislikes. He acknowledged to being much im-
pressed by the terseness and sense of her remarks, which,
he maintained, contrasted agreeably with the rambling
inaccuracies of the majority of women.

To the meanest observer it must be evident that the
reading got through by the Queen each day is enormous.
Her vast private correspondence, the Parliamentary reports
from the hand of the Leader of the House of Commons,
despatches from every Government office, and duly-con-
sidered excerpts from the leading daily papers are all read
by or to the Queen by her private secretary, maid-of—honour,
and lady-in—waiting, and are considered by the Queen in the
light of business. Books that are read for instruction or
amusement are taken later in the day, and of these Her
Majesty generally has three or four going at a time, pre-
ferring to sandwich memoirs and travels with novels and
the contents of the more evanescent magazine. Even when
her arduous day is done, and at one o’clock in the morning
the Queen betakes herself to bed, the lady-in-waiting reads
to Her Majesty until the signal comes for extinguishing all
the lights but the veilleuse.

The post of “Reader to the Queen” is a charming
appointment, and accompanied with much interest. Miss
Heath, the handsome young actress, who afterwards
became Mrs. Wilson Barrett, held the office for years,
and frequently travelled to Windsor to fulfil her duties.
Shakespeare’s plays and the Queen’s favourite poets were

OF THE QUEEN 123

always laid under contributions on such occasions, for Her
Majesty, who has a singularly true and keen ear for cadence
and correct emphasis, never can bear to hear verse delivered
by any but the most carefully trained voice. Miss Glynn
was another gifted elocutionist who was for many years
“Reader to the Queen.” At the same time it must be
understood that all the ladies about the Court must be
able to read with just expression and clear accent. Princess
Beatrice is a most beautiful reader, and the art is one which
the Queen had carefully inculcated in all her children.

And now it will be interesting to show what are the
particular books that have ever been dear as friends to the
Queen, and where and how the splendid collections of
literary curiosities, that are a great feature of Windsor, are
housed. Appropriately the library is arranged in one of
the oldest portions of the Castle, being that wing that
Queen Elizabeth added to the Royal residence for her
own private use. A quaintly shaped E in iron still hangs
on the south wall of the library, while the north side is
pierced by a grand window, set in carved stone mullions,
and overlooking the copses that flourish beneath the North
Walk, the “ Hundred Steps,” Eton, and the river meads.

The interior of this wing, which was once cut up into
small rooms, was altered by William IV.’s favourite archi-
tect, Sir Jeffry Wyattville, and made into a most noble
apartment, of which the chief historical interest is con-
centrated at the further end. Here is the wonderful fire-
place and stone mantel built by Elizabeth, and bearing her
bust and the date 1583. Its intrinsic beauty is great, and
its interest unparalleled, as it is the most handsome and
characteristic piece of Elizabethan decoration in the
country. Nearly Opposite is the famous Blenheim Room.
This is a very small polygonal chamber, built in the turret
above an old Norman Gateway. It was once the bay of

124 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Henry VII.’s private room, and contracted though it is—‘—
there is only space within it for a couple of armchairs—was
used by Queen Anne as a boudoir. Here was she sitting
when news of the battle of Blenheim was brought her, and
here for many years were hung the flags which the Dukes
of Marlborough presented to the Sovereign on every anni—
versary of the great battle. The view from this chamber
is the most beautiful of any at Windsor, and Prince Albert
used to—and nowadays the Empress Frederick does—sit
there to read. The painted ceiling was raised by the
Prince Consort, and decorated from his design. He also
had a great deal to do with the present arrangement of the
library.

The furniture is of ebony and scarlet leather, and an}
immense number of large armchairs are on every side. Down
the centre of the library, which is over eighty feet long, are
glass-topped tables of ebony, inlaid with ivory. In them
may be found the priceless nucleus of the collection, the
famous Mentz Psalter of 14 5 7, which was given to George
III. by the University of Gottingen, and of which only two
other copies exist, one in Vienna, and the other in Berlin
(this volume was printed in colours long before Caxton’s
time, and is valued at £10,000) 3 the vellum Caxton, the
rare Aldine Virgil of I 505, the copy of Shakespeare of 1632,-
which Charles I. autographed and gave to Sir Thomas
Herbert just before his execution, many missals of exquisite
beauty that have belonged to England’s former Queens,
and the manuscript copy of Shah Jehan, an extraordinary
illuminated Persian work, which, however, is scarcely more
interesting than the illustrated Abyssinian Bible that once
belonged to King Theodore. Of Eastern books and rare
Latin and Greek folios there are also a goodly number, the
majority of them having been “retained” for himself by
George IV. when in a fit of economy he turned out the

OF THE QUEEN 125

Royal Library from Buckingham Palace in 182 3, and
“presented ” the sixty-five thousand choice volumes to the
British Museum, where it is now known as the “King’s
Library.” .

Other treasures beneath glass are Queen Elizabeth’s
prayer-book, a facsimile of the pencil letter from the Duke
of Marlborough to his wife Sarah, written on the field of
Blenheim, a letter from that good Bishop Juxon, who
accompanied Charles I. to the scaffold, and the last ticket
ever used by the‘ Prince Consort at the last Eton montem'
but one. .

Also under glass is the wonderful orrery of Sir Walter
Scott, and a letter explaining its movements, and William
IV.’s silver microscope.

It will take many years before such a fine collection of
books will be gathered together at Windsor as George IV.
disposed of, though the works so carefully arranged in
the different departments of topography, art, genealogy,
history, reference, general knowledge, poetry, and fiction,
have been steadily growing in numbers since the beginning
of the Queen’s reign, the whole being under the care of a
Chief Librarian who has apartments in the Castle and an
assistant, while yet another expert looks after the treasures
of the adjoining Print Room.

A very great many of the Queen’s books are in the
Reference department bound in vellum, but books of
general interest and which are in constant request are left
in their original covers. And it.is in those works which
are almost in daily use that most interest will be taken by
those who would wish to know what the Queen reads and
what she has read. Almost first in Her Majesty’s favour
come the works of Scott, those she likes most being “ The
Antiquary,” “ The Talisman,” and “ Peveril of the Peak.”
Of hispoems she is extremely fond, and she possesses a

126 THE PRIVATE LIFE

copy of them with his own emendations of them on the
margin, while her love of Scotland has frequently been
expressed by her to her friends in apt quotations from “The
Lady of the Lake,” “ Marmion,” and the “ Lay of the Last
Minstrel.” The Queen’s admiration for Scott’s works has
induced her to have one room at Balmoral entirely decorated
with scenes from his poems and books. Jane Austen’s novels
have also been very popular with the Queen. A few of
Lord Beaconsfield’s works are here, and a handsome copy
of “Lothair,” in three volumes and bound in royal blue,
contains the inscription: “For the Queen from a faithful
servant ;” Kingsley’s “Saints’ Tragedy,” and “Two Year
Ago,” Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King,” Trollope’s ‘ B
Chester Towers,” 3. complete set of Thackeray’s works, some
of the Brontés’ and Edna Lyall’s books, many of R. L.
Stevenson’s romances, Rudyard Kipling’s stories, Edmund
Yates’ “Reminiscences,” and nearly-all Mrs. Oliphant’s
novels; Rider Haggard’s “She,” “Jess,” and “Handley
Cross 3” Sponge’s “Sporting Tour,” and two full
editions of Dickens’ books—one, a library edition; the
other the last published Edition dc Luxe—are all con-
spicuous on these characteristically filled shelves. The
Queen also possesses and values greatly an original un-
published manuscript of Charles Dickens. -
About Dickens and the Queen there is a most touching
little story which the passage of time makes it possible to
relate. The great author, while still early in his career,-
conceived the most passionate attachment for Her Majesty, ,-
the girlish beauty which she retained unimpaired for very
many years after her marriage, and her sweet grace having
made the deepest impression on Dickens. He went every-
where he was likely to be able to see her, and in a
most touching letter to Mr. Thompson, then a light in
literary circles, and the father of Mrs. Alice Meynell, and

OF THE QUEEN I 27

the well-known artist Lady Butler, he poured out his love
for ‘the Queen, not as his Sovereign, but as a woman. In
this same letter he described how he had spent days and
weeks in the neighbourhood of Windsor, hiding among the
trees in the Park and lounging about her favourite drives so
that he might sometimes catch a glimpse of her. The
Queen once saw Dickens act at a charity performance, and
one of her pet Skye-terriers was named “ Boz.”

Among other books which the Queen keeps in the
drawing-room at Osborne and her private drawing-room at
Balmoral are “The Vicar of Wakefield,” in French, “ Pen-
and-Ink-Notes,” “ Mountain, Loch, and Glen,” and editions
of Scott, Dickens, the Brontés, and other standard writers
of fiction.

It must not be thought, however, that the reading of the
Queen and her Court is restricted by the limits of the
Royal Library. Large boxes of current literature in
English, French, and German follow Her Majesty from
Mudie’s wherever she may be, and all the Court have-
access to them. But the Queen has many favourites also
that she takes everywhere, and six huge cases of books from
the library are an invariable item in the Royal baggage.
Besides this, when the Queen is away from Windsor, works
touching on State business, maps, or indexes are frequently
telegraphed for or fetched by the messenger who travels
daily between Windsor and wherever the Queen may be.

It is only like the Queen’s desire for others’ happiness
. that the Library is always free to those about her, Who are
also allowed to have books in their own rooms. 'Etiquette
demands, however, that when one of the Royal family is
using the Library, every one should absent himself save the
persons in attendance and the librarian.

In these later years the Queen is debarred from visiting
her Library in person as it is only accessible by a narrow

128 THE PRIVATE LIFE

winding staircase rising from one corner of the Print Room.
But Her Majesty is a constant visitor to the Print Room,
which she enters by a door which leads into the private
apartments of the Prince Consort. Above this doOr is a
black medallion portrait of the late Prince and an inscrip-
tion. ' -

The Print Room, in which is stored the most valuable
collection of prints in the world, is lined throughout with
oak cases, in which are arranged in proper order the price-
less contents. The whole centre of the room is filled
with a very large table, at which the Queen delights to sit
and look through these treasures. .The spaces between
and opposite the windows are also filled with low sets of oak
shelves, the tops of which are crowded with many interest-
ing and rare relics. The most delightful of all of these is a
little water-colour sketch executed by the Queen of herself
when she was only ten years old, and presented by her to
George IV. on his last birthday. It bears the date August
12th, 1829.

Three small coloured sketches near by belonged to
Charles I. A most quaint relic which Her Majesty values
very much is a small full-length water-colour of the great
Napoleon, taken six weeks before his death, in the identical
clothes in which he was afterwards buried. An inscription
on the back shows that the picture was given to a former
Lord Londonderry, who presented it to his secretary,
Mr. R. Wood. Through Mr. Wood it came into the
possession of the Honourable Mary Hughes, a maid of
honour, from whom the Queen was graciously pleased to
accept it on March I 3, 1893.

Linley Sambourne’s original sketch of Sir Henry Thomp-
son, which was drawn for Punch, hangs in the Print Room,
the fairest adornment of which, however, is a copy of the
famous bust at Bonn, by which Lili, the celebrated modeller,

OF THE QUEEN I 29

has immortaliscd in coloured wax the perfect features of
Raphael’s favourite model. This is most appropriate in a
room where the most famous collection of Raphael’s prints
reposes.

It is in this shrine of art that the Queen and her daughters
spend much of their time, and here that Mr. Holmes, the
librarian, keeps his interesting record of the works that
pass from his hand to those of the Queen.

But the three favourite books of Her Majesty do not ever
leave her intimate company. Her Bible, with the Book
of Common Prayer, and a volume of Hymns Ancient and
Modern, in their simple binding, are always by her side.
Much of her fortitude under suffering and the consolations
for her 'aflclictions have been drawn from these sources,
and among books that the Queen reads they should have
important mention.

IO

1 30 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER XVI
THE QUEEN AS A DANCER

NDOWED as the Queen has always been with per-
fectly healthy instincts, and taking infinite pleasure
in all forms of exercise and innocent recreation, one of her
favourite forms of amusement has been dancing. Her-
self a very beautiful and graceful performer of every kind
of dance, she is still most critical on the subject, and
though since the death of the Prince Consort Her Majesty
has never attended any function where dancing is in pro-
gress, all her grandchildren in turn have been through
their steps before her and been duly corrected as to deport-
ment and carriage, while nothing pleases her so much as to
see a minuet or some other old—world measure danced in
the course of a play.

But that the Queen’s likings are not bound by tradition
is shown by the fact that she is a great appreciator of skirt-
dancing as rendered by the younger members of her Court,
and there is an excellent story told of the pleasure Her
Majesty took in a very pretty dance that the Hon. Mary
Lambert, a maid of honour, performed for the amusement
Of her Royal mistress one evening. After much applause
and praise, the Queen asked Miss Lambert what gift she
should bestow on her for dancing so well. The smart reply
was : “The head of Mr.

 

in a charger.” ~

OF THE QUEEN :31

In the Queen’s childish days, when she was kept as much
as possible from Court, she was frequently taken to the
Opera, which in those times always included a ballet. How
much the young Princess was impressed with these displays
of dancing is shown by the fact that she dressed and named
many of her dolls after the best-known dancers of the
period. The great Taglioni and her sisters, that lovely
Duvernay whom Thackeray worshipped and the banker
Lyme-Stephens married, Brocard, Leontine Heberte, the
Sisters Aucilin, Leconte, and the ballet master Albert, were
all represented again and again in different characters by
the patient fingers of the Princess and her governess.

The Princess danced but little, however, at balls before
her accession 3 but when, after her marriage, she began her
happy home life, small dances at Buckingham Palace and
Windsor were of very frequent occurrence. At Windsor
the venue chosen for these quite informal evenings was
always the Crimson Drawing-room, the largest of the three
beautiful private reception-rooms that overlook the famous
EastTerrace. The floor, which is of satin and tulip woods,
was always kept in the most exquisite order for dancing.
, A fine grand piano frequently sufficed as music, though
" sometimes a small recessed room was used for a band.
Here, on the crimson silk-panelled walls, hang portraits of
the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The six cabinets and a
beautiful pair of Amboyna wood tables, inlaid with mother-
of—pearl and tortoiseshell, along with a huge vase of polished
granite which Alexander II. sent the Queen from Russia,
are the principal features of an apartment which still wears
much the same appearance as at the beginning of the
Queen’s reign.

Frequently the Queen would suggest a little dance among
'the Court, and much fun was often caused by the paucity
kof ladies on these occasions, 'In 1842, when a party was

:32 THE PRIVATE LIFE

assembled at Windsor in honour of the Prince of Wales’
christening, dancing was started one evening for the amuse-
ment of young Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. There
were only enough ladies present to make up a quadrille,
which the Queen danced with the King (afterwards the first
Emperor) of Prussia. The evening wound up with a gay
country dance, a form of exercise to which the Queen was
devoted. She learnt from old books every kind of figure,
and, however obsolete, always studied them herself and
taught them to her ladies.

The evenings at Frogmore, where the Queen, Prince
Albert, and a few members of the Court frequently visited
the Duchess of Kent, after dinner often ended in a regular
romp, one very favourite dance being a contra danse called
Grandpére, which was nothing more or less than “Follow-
my—Leader,” and in which every one joined with great
enthusiasm.

The dances at Buckingham Palace were never quite as
friendly as those at Windsor, but they were generally kept
very small, the Queen dancing and talking with every one.
It is noteworthy, however, that young as Her Majesty was
at the time, and full of youthful spirits, she scarcely ever
waltzed with any one but the Prince Consort or a Royal
visitor. The quadrille, then the fashionable dance, she
would bestow upon her other guests. These little parties
were never very late, for the Queen generally retired at 1. 30
and the suppers were quite simple and informal.

Almost the first improvements the Queen made at
Buckingham Palace was to add the present magnificent
ballroom and at once to inaugurate a series of splendid
State balls. In 1842 she conceived the idea of giving a
grand Fancy Dress Ball, a style of féte that had died in
England with the Stuarts. This gorgeous entertainment
took place on April 12th and was one of the most brilliant

OF THE QUEEN 133

functions of the century. Several Royal ladies and friends
of the Queen formed quadrilles for the occasion. The
Queen and Prince Albert appeared as Edward III. and
Queen Philippa. The beautiful marble group of Her
Majesty and the Prince by Theed, which is now at Windsor
represents them in these dresses.

The Queen was so delighted with the success of this ball
that a few weeks later she gave another in which the
costumes were confined to the periods of George II. and
George III. During the following years she gave a ball of
the Stuart period (a most lovely portrait of herself in the
Stuart costume hangs in her private sitting-room at
Windsor), and in 1845 a very grand bal poudre’ at which
Her Majesty danced a minuet with infinite grace.

As the Queen’s children began to grow old enough to prac-
tise the steps their mother had taught them, nothing pleased
Her Majesty more than to give dances and fancy balls on
their birthdays. In 1854 a magnificent children’s dance was
given at Buckingham Palace, and that same year a splendid
fancy ball was given for the Queen at the French Embassy.
In fact, so fond was the Sovereign of dancing that when-
ever she visited at any of the country houses of her
subjects a big ball was always arranged for one evening of
her stay. One of the finest of these was given at Chats-
worth, at which it was noticed that the Queen enjoyed her-
self immensely.

On the two occasions when the Queen made a State visit to
France, once in 1843, when she stayed as the guest of Louis
Philippe at the Chateau d’Eu, and again in 18 55 when she
visited Napoleon III., entertainments were given in which
dancing was an important feature. It was during an
evening party at the Chateau d’Eu that Her Majesty dis-
played that amount of dignity which her simple manner
and genial ways sometimes led people to think was

134 THE PRIVATE LIFE

absent. The room being warm, the Queen asked for
a glass of water, which was presently handed to her
by a lacquey. Her Majesty declined to take the glass, and
Louis Philippe—the “Bourgeois,” as he was rightly called
by the French—seeing that a breach of etiquette had
been committed, directed one of his sons to serve the
Queen.

At a ball given in 18 5 5 at the Hotel de Ville, at which
the Queen danced with the Emperor Napoleon, Her
Majesty was much amused at hearing “God Save the
Queen” played as a polka.

The Queen first took a great fancy to Scotch reels when
she was on a visit to Taymouth Castle in I842, when Lord
Breadalbane gave a ball in her honour, and after the
quadrille d’homzeur a number of reels were danced.
Since that time thousands of reels, jigs, and other national
dances have been danced before the Queen, and have
always served their purpose in giving her great pleasure.
She is one of the few Southerners who can judge the
merits of a Highland dancing contest, and can tell the
difference between the steps which to the ordinary eye are
all alike. Frequently when the Queen was yachting—and
she spent many days in each year on board her yacht
during her married life—she would have the sailors dance
before her, and it is characteristic of her thoroughness that
all her children should have been taught dancing in every
branch and style.

Although Her Majesty has not for thirty-six years set foot
inside a ballroom she always loves to know that those
about her can enjoy to the full the pleasures of dancing
she once so appreciated. She has within the last few years
built a fine ballroom at Balmoral. Nor is it so long ago
that Princess Beatrice gave a splendid county ball at
Osborne. Nowadays, however, the tripping steps of her

OF THE QUEEN I 3 5

little grandchildren and the graceful posing of those
of the Maids of Honour who have studied the art, are
sufficient reminders to the Queen of those days when
she was acknowledged to be the best dancer in her
kingdom.

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r 36 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER XVII
WHAT THE QUEEN EATS AND DRINKS

MALL children who are restricted in their appetites
for cakes and “goodies” are very prone to look
forward to that time when they shall be grown up and able
to eat what they please, little understanding that with the
freedom to eat and drink what one chooses the desire for
high living generally goes.

This is essentially the case with the Queen. With all
the personnel of her vast kitchens at her command, mistress
of magnificent wine—cellars, and owner of miles of forcing
houses where the most exquisite fruits and vegetables can
be raised all the year round, Her Majesty’s own table,
though always laden with splendid plate and lovely flowers,
is served far more simply than those of her wealthy
subjects, while her own appetite, which was never at any
time a very large one, is now more than usually small.
This last characteristic marks out the Queen as being
singular from among all her family.’ The Guelphs were
ever very large eaters, and the four Georges, with all their
sons and daughters, indulged appetites which were more
than hearty. Most of the Queen’s children and grand-
children too are large eaters, though almost all of them
prefer plain food to the rich dishes which are put before
them.

In other respects the Queen sets many people an

OF THE QUEEN 137

example of restraint and good taste. In spite of the vast
resources at her command’for the raising of food under
artificial conditions, she never permits her own table or
that of her Household to be served with anything that is
out of season, though once a fruit, fish, or vegetable is in
proper condition for eating, she expects it always to be
available for use. For instance, the entire time that sweet
chestnuts are in perfection they are served every night at
the Queen’s table, even though for weeks together no one
touches them. In fact, quite half the eatables that appear
daily at the Queen’s table are things that she herself never
eats, but at the same time likes to see about her and to
know are there.

A very amusing and perfectly true story illustrates this
trait in the Queen’s character, and also serves to show how
strong is her love of method and order, even in domestic
affairs.

Although it is well known to all the Queen’s cooks and
personal servants that she never touches cold meat in
any form, there is a stringent rule that the Royal side
tables, at both luncheon and dinner, are to be well supplied
with cold viands, among Which a roast sirloin of beef and
poultry invariably figure. On one occasion—never for-
gotten by Her Majesty’s servants—at Balmoral it so chanced
that a meagre half of a cold chicken was placed on the
sideboard. The Queen noticed this breach of order as she
entered the dining-room, and when seated at table, with a
View of teaching her careless domestics a lesson, conveyed
to Princess Beatrice and Lady Ely, who were with her, a
hint to ask for chicken, she herself doing the same. The
consternation that followed, and the subsequent lectures
that ensued, may be better imagined than described, but
since that time there has been no lack of cold chicken for
the Royal table.

138 THE PRIVATE LIFE

The Queen’s Private Dining—room, where in her married
life she used to dine frequently téte-c‘z-té‘te with the Prince
Consort, with not even a favourite Lady-in-Waiting to
interrupt their intercourse, is a medium-sized room,
panelled and ceiled entirely in oak, touched with gold. It
is built out over the Queen’s private entrance, and the
mullioned windows look into the Quadrangle. Entrance
is gained to it by a large pair of double doors, which face
the head of the Queen’s pretty white and gold staircase,
and her own private apartments across the end of the
Grand Corridor. .

Two ample fireplaces warm the room. Above one hangs
a fairly pleasing full length portrait of the Queen painted
by H. von Angeli in 1877.

In order that the Queen should not be incommoded by
the fires two fine screens stand before them, one being
painted with birds of paradise and peacocks, and the other
in three panels of flowers and shells, game and fruit, and
signed H. von Pruschen, 1877. Facing the windows and
above the two large oak Sideboards, which with vast wine
coolers beneath them flank the double doors, hang two
splendid pieces of Gobelin tapestry, representing a boar
hunt. They were given to the Queen by Louis Philippe.
The other wall decorations in the room are portraits of the
Queen’s four daughters-in—law, painted in each case soon
after marriage. The one of the Princess of Wales in a low,
white gown and with a dark, soft ringlet hanging over either
shoulder is especially pretty, and the Duchess of Edinburgh,
painted in 1874 by Richter, is very handsome. Like all
the Queen’s private apartments the floor is covered with a
rich crimson carpet in the winter, and a fine cream matting
in the summer. '

The service staircase, which is of stone, and very narrow
and winding, leads directly down to the kitchen. The door

OF THE QUEEN 139

to it is masked by a high screen of embossed leather.
The following notice affixed to the wall indicates the strict
order which regulates every detail of domestic service in
the Queen’s Palaces:

“ N 0 one is under any circumstances permitted to ascend or descend
this staircase excepting those serving at or for the Royal table.
“ By Order,
“ The Master of the Household.”

This dining-room is now used by the Queen on all
possible occasions, and the lovely white and gold room in
the .Prince of Wales’ Tower, which was re—decorated in the
Jubilee year, and where so many magnificent banquets
were then given, is scarcely ever used nowadays. The
dining-room used by the Household, and where six to twelve
sit down every day, is a very pretty little room, octagonal in
shape and decorated in oak, cream, and gold. It overlooks
the North Terrace, and contains a very rare old Boule
clock.

Her Majesty’s tastes in food are, as I have said before,
most simple. A tiny slice of boiled chicken, or a cut from
the sirloin, which is sent from London every day and
roasted at a special fire in the kitchen, or perhaps a slice of
game, which, like the beef for the Queen’s use, is cooked
apart, form the staple portion of Her Majesty’s luncheon.
She has a partiality for white soup, which in several varieties
is often served to her. 4

The Queen’s breakfasts are even plainer than her
luncheons. Fish is always on the table, but eggs on toast,
or merely boiled, with dry toast and a small selection of
fancy bread, are the usual articles put before the Queen at
her first meal. There is no doubt that Her Majesty has a
strong weakness for afternoon tea. ‘ From her early days in
Scotland, when Brown and the other gillies used to boil the
kettle in a sheltered corner of the ‘ moors while Her

I40 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Majesty and the young Princesses sketched, the refreshing
cup of tea has ever ranked high in the Royal favour.

It is principally to supply the Queen’s tea-table that the
confectionery cooks are kept busy all the year round at
Windsor, for wherever the Court may be there must
follow a large supply of cakes. Among the favourites of
the Queen which are carefully packed in small tin boxes,
and sent to the Court four times a week, are chocolate
sponges, plain sponges, wafers of two or three different
shapes, langues dc chats, biscuits and drop cakes of all
kinds, tablets, petits fours, princess and rice cakes, pralines,
almond sweets, and a large quantity of mixed sweets.

Of all the fruit that is produced in such profusion at Frog-
more the Queen prefers some highly perfumed grapes of a
clear amber colour, but she is reasonably prOud of the
glorious pineapples and peaches that are grown for her, and
frequently eats of the fine fruit the Rothschild family often
send her. Among vegetables, Her Majesty confesses to a
great weakness for potatoes, which are cooked for her in
every conceivable way, and are—in common with all that
she eats and drinks——set before her by a very faithful
servant, who wears no livery, but in sober black stands by
the Queen’s side at her meals and assists her to everything.

That Royal appetites are subject to the vagaries that
beset those of commoner folk is sometimes too true, as the
officials at the Mansion House found on one occasion when
the Queen and Prince Consort were partaking of the Chief
Magistrate of the City’s hospitality. The Queen asked for
some cherry tart, and was somewhat put out when informed
that there was none. Her Majesty, indeed, is very fond of
all kinds of pies, and a cranberry tart with cream is one of
her favourite dishes.

Of Scotch cookery the Queen has a very great apprecia-
tion, and on one occasion, when she was staying (after her

OF THE QUEEN I41

widowhood) at Dunkeld with the Duke and Duchess of
Athol, she was loud in her praise of the admirable table
kept and most astonished to find that the cook was a Scotch
woman. It was here that the Queen first tried “haggis”
and liked it very much. It was also in Scotland, when
staying at Dalkeith House, in 1842, that Her Majesty first
ate “ Finnan haddies,” for in those days local delicacies did
not travel far. Since then dried haddocks and oatmeal
porridge are often seen at the Royal breakfast-tables. In
fact, porridge and bread-and-butter frequently formed the
staple food of the Queen, when in her early married life she
would, with the Prince Consort and Lady Churchill, travel
incognito among the small Highland towns and “put up” in
small Scotch inns. On such occasions the only form of
nutriment the Royal party took with them was their own
Wine—certainly a most necessary precaution. One dinner
the Queen ate under such simplecircumstances, consisted
of “ hotch potch ” soup, which Her Majesty naively relates
was not very much to her taste, fowl with white sauce,
roast lamb, and potatoes. Another time the travellers
fared very badly. The Queen, accompanied by the Prince
Consort, Princess Alice, and Prince Louis of HeSse, Lady
Churchill, General Grey, two maids, and three gillies, dined
on tea and two starved Highland chickens without vege-
tables, or any kind of pudding. Yet Her Majesty kept her
good nature and cheerful temper under such—for her—very
trying circumstances. The Queen always had a passion
for eating in the open air, and has retained her taste for so
doing till the present day. On one occasion she made a
delightful luncheon off warmed-up broth and potatoes she
had helped to boil herself on a bitter October morning on
the moors above Balmoral, while another time she greatly
enjoyed a hot venison pie which the Duchess of Atholl
provided for a picnic in~ the woods that border Loch Ordie.

I42 THE PRIVATE LIFE

But if the Ruler of the most powerful territories in the
. world be simple in the taste she displays in her eating, her
likes in the matter of what beverages she takes are plainer
still, and this in the face of the fact that her cellars at
Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and St. James’s
Palace, enjoy world-wide reputation, not only from their
vast extent, but for the wonderful contents thereof. A
great deal of the rare wine in the Royal cellars was laid
down by George IV., who, being privileged to import wine
duty free, availed himself of the chance, and invested in
immense quantities of port, sherry, and Madeira, much
of which is now beyond all price. Besides this, the Queen
possesses the best collection in this country of East India
sherry and Madeira and of Cabinet Rhine wines, while the
value of the Imperial Tokay, which used to be much drunk
in Prince Albert’s time, is only exceeded by one or two of
the wealthier Austrian and German princes.

The immense wine-cellars at Windsor are approached
through an iron-barred gate, which jealously guards the
cellar door on which is the number 571. A small office
near at hand is used by the cellarman for keeping the
accounts of the wine given out, and near this office hangs
a bell which rings from within. The beer cellars, of which
there are many, are all situated in or near to the sub-
terranean passage that Prince Albert tunnelled under the
Quadrangle.

Although her Majesty daily sees the rarest vintages served
at her table, she has for-many years contented herself with
a small portion of Scotch whisky, which is distilled ex-
pressly for her near Balmoral, at the small distillery of
John Begg, and which is carefully mixed by her personal
attendant with either Apollonaris, soda, or Lithia water.
In one thing, however, the Queen may be said to indulge
quite freely, and that is tea. The tea consumed in the

OF THE QUEEN up

0

Palaces costs four shillings a pound, and the Queen drinks
the same as every one else. Whether Her Majesty helps
to boil the kettle herself,- or whether it is brought to her
ready made, she always loves her tea. In the year 1887,
when she honoured Sir Reginald Hanson, Bart., then Lord
Mayor of London, with her presence at tea at the Mansion
House, it was charming to watch her carefully remove her
gloves, untie her bonnet strings, and fling them over her
shoulders, preparatory to enjoying “the cup that cheers.”
Of coffee Her Majesty is not so very fond, though it is
beautifully made by her servants.

When in Scotland the Queen is never averse to tasting
the “Athole Brose,” and on the completion of cairns at
the Hallowe’en festivities and the simple country christen-
ings and feasts Her Majesty so often attends, she will
always, with true kindness, partake of the whisky that is

, handed round.

That the Queen, in spite of her own temperance—and
I use the word in its truest and best sense—does not object
to others enjoying themselves may be judged from the
following incident, which occurred once on board the Royal
yacht, Victoria and Albert. The Queen, who had been
cruising in the Solent for some days, was sitting one fine
morning on deck, plaiting straw for bonnets, then a most
fashionable form of work. By and by she noticed a
commotion among the sailors, who gathered in knots and
seemed much perturbed. After a time, Lord Adolphus
Fitz-Clarence, then in command of the yacht, was sent for by
the men. The Queen, much puzzled, inquired if anything
were wrong, and asked, jokingly, if a mutiny was afoot?
Lord Adolphus laughingly said that all would be well if the
Queen would move her seat, and on being asked why she
should, and what harm was she doing where she was,
answered; “Well, ma’am, Your Majesty is unwittingly

144 THE PRIVATE LIFE

sitting in front of the door of the place where the grog is
kept, and the men cannot get at their drink.”

The Queen laughed, and consented to move on con-
dition that some grog was brought to her. On tasting it
she said: “ I fear I can only repeat the remark that I
made once before; the grog would be much better if it
were stronger.” -

The Queen, who always gets through a couple of hours’
work between leaving her dinner guests and retiring to
rest, invariably takes a “ nightcap” before settling down
for the night. But in her eating and drinking, as in all
other conditions of life, the Queen has always set an
example of self—control and restraint to all those about
her.

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OF THE QUEEN 145

CHAPTER XVIII
THE QUEEN’S PETS

HE Queen’s genuine love for almost all animals is

. well known, but few people are aware of the deep
personal interest Her Majesty takes in her dumb creatures,
or can realise the thought and money that are expended on
their suitable lodging, proper food, and constant care. The
one exception to the Queen’s large-hearted sympathy with
the animal kingdom is made with regard to cats. These
the Sovereign holds in the greatest abhorrence, and not
one of them ‘is allowed to be where she is likely to see it.

On the other hand the Queen has a perfect adoration for
dogs, and a genuine love and appreciation for her many
horses.

Each individual animal belonging to the Queen is well
lodged and tended, for her Majesty argues that the posses-
sion of an animal renders the owner responsible fOr its
well-being. Hence it is that the Royal Stables at all the
Queen’s houses are hygienically so perfect, and that the
Queen’s Kennels in the Home Park at Windsor are valu-
able models of what healthy and cleanly houses for dogs
should be.

The Kennels are situated on a sunny slope and form a
picturesque attachment to the very pretty cottage in Gothic

II

146 THE PRIVATE LIFE

style of the Keeper of the Queen’s dogs, and of the plainly
furnished room, which, according to custom, is kept
sacredly apart for the exclusive use of Her Majesty. The
Kennels themselves are really a most beautifully built row
of little houses, very white and clean in effect, and each
with a wired inclosure or “run ” before it. For cleaning
and feeding purposes they can be entered from the back.
Dogs with young families, and those of a breed who should
be together, or who' live with perfect unity one with the
other, are placed together, but in no instance does one
“ kennel” or house contain more than three or four dogs.

Before the Kennels lies a splendid open piece of turf,
divided by netting into large “runs.” Here is a general
mingling of dogs, and much gambolling, barking, and. racing.
When the Queen drives up to the Kennels, most of the
animals are turned out on this lovely sward for her in-
spection. Besides this precarious exercise, all the dogs are
taken in parties for a good walk in the Park every morning.

It is not to be expected that all this number of dogs are
personal favourites of the Queen—although she knows and
has named each individual animal—or that they are allowed
the free run of her private apartments. Far from it. Many
of the animals at the Royal Kennels are bred to give away,
or are presents that have been pressed on Her Majesty.
At the same time the Queen has seldom, if ever, concen-
trated her affection on one dog alone. In the Prince
Consort’s time (which was also the day of the graceful and
faithful hound “ Eos ”) the Queen’s suite, when she moved
anywhere, generally comprised at least half-a-dozen dogs.
Skye terriers were then very popular with the Queen, and
also turnspits. Of these last quaint creatures the Royal
Kennels contain a great many fine specimens, which are
descendants of some very well-bred animals brought by
Prince Albert from Germany.

OF THE QUEEN 147

Of collies the Queen was always very fond, and she owns
several fine dogs of this breed, though, being in most in-
stances pure bred, they are not so attractive to English
eyes as are those that are a cross between the collie and
the Gordon setter. One of the pure white collies called
“ Lily” always travels with the Queen. The other, .
“ Maggie,” is not so pretty a creature. A fox-terrier called
“Spot,” and the perky little tan-coloured German Spitz-dog,
“ Marco,” also are generally with the Queen. Marco’s wife,
“Lenda,” is not so engaging as he is. His offspring are
numerous and charming, and although the Queen has given
many of them away, these Spitzes, in various shades of
yellow and brown, are ubiquitous in the Royal Kennels.

The Queen possesses a pair of exquisite white Spitz-dogs.
The male, called “ Turri,” was brought from Florence.

There is no doubt that Her Majesty’s pet dog for many
years was a collie named “Sharp.” The Queen was
devoted to this animal, who, when with his Royal Mistress,
always behaved delightfully. He had all his meals with
her, and but seldom left her side. Oddly enough, hewas
a most bad-tempered beast, and the Household and servants
were, with the exception of John Brown, who kept him in
some sort of Order, terrified of him. One morning, as a
servant was holding “Sharp” in readiness for the Queen
to come out for her airing, the dog flew at him in a fit of
temper. The man, half frightened, caught “ Sharp” a
heavy blow across the loins with a stick he carried. Her
Majesty, seeing the dog walk lame, asked if he had been
hUrt, and the attendant, afraid to say that he had struck the
animal, answered he had hurt his back in trying to jump
up trees after squirrels. As “ Sharp ” always did this, the
Queen was satisfied, but the dog limped at times to the day
of his death.

Yet Her Majesty did acknowledge that her favourite had

148 THE PRIVATE LIFE

a tendency to fight when out of doors, for she once men-
tioned that on an expedition “good Sharp” took in her
company, he varied the monotony of the way by having
numerous “collie-shangies,” the vernacular in the Highlands
for a row between collies.

“Noble” was another collie of whom the Queen was
very fond. He always guarded her gloves, and was a most
faithful friend. From time to time the Queen has shown
some of her collies, but she is, as a rule, averse to exhibiting
such sensitive creatures.

Very different is the case with the Queen’s cattle. For
many years the Windsor Farms, the Home, the Flemish,
and the Shaw Farms, have produced the grandest prize-
stock in the world, and the Queen is exceedingly proud
of the fact. She takes the liveliest interest in the mag-
nificent animals bred on her estates, and few of the splendid
roan calves grow up to be fattened and killed without re-
ceiving many visits from the Queen. Not only in prize-bred
animals does Her Majesty sweep the board, but also in fat
stock. When the Royal Family used to spend all December
and Christmastide at Windsor, the Queen and the Prince
used, with the children and Household, to walk round the
Farms frequently and inspect the fat stock, which is princi-
pally kept at the Shaw Farm. Nearer to the Castle is the
"very quaint, low-lying Flemish Farm where the dairy cows
are kept ‘and milked in a long double row of stalls, each
labelled with its occupant’s name. Here also for a time
lived a wonderful buffalo, which had been sent to the
Queen as a calf, and a very pretty little Albino pony which
Her Majesty purchased from Hengler’s Circus to please the
little Princes of Battenberg.

All the Queen’s cattle are washed over once a week with
a mild and sweet disinfectant. The work is done by very
experienced men from the time the creatures are young

OF THE QUEEN I49

calves, and they grow to enjoy the process. The Queen’s
Farms are splendidly managed and more than pay for
themselves, yet, though the Queen is so fond of her stock,
the number kept is always rigorously cut down if winter
food promises to be scarce or too expensive.

It is a pretty sight on all the Royal Farms to see the
superannuated horses from the Queen’s Stables quietly
feeding in the sheltered paddocks or doing a little easy
work. Every one of these good old servants the Queen
knows by name, and notices as she takes her morning
drives over her great property.

Quite close to F rogmore House, and just past that miracle
of cleanliness and white marble, exquisite 'tile work and
tinkling fountains that go to make ‘up the Queen’s Dairy,
is the Royal Aviary, which, facing a sunny slope and
hemmed in by a fine shrubbery, was built by the Prince
ConsOrt for such birds as the Queen might fancy to
keep. It is a charming group of buildings, the centre
being occupied by the Keeper’s house, and containing
a very little apartment where the Queen and her children
used to go and 'drink tea. The Aviary faces a good-
sized basin of water, into which the ducks and a pretty
fountain splash all day long. Looking on to this pleasant
scene are eighteen pens full of splendid poultry, all of the
best breeds, as the blue labels affixed to each indicates.
At the back are the perfectly arranged roosting and sitting
houses. ‘

Each breed of birds is kept carefully distinct, and it is
amusing to watch a penful of silver Spangled Hamburghs
being driven home before either the Black Minorcas,
Andalusians or any other kind are let out for an hour’s run
on the fresh turf.

The eggs served at the Queen’s breakfast-table are ex—
clusively those of white Dorkings. , .

150 THE PRIVATE LIFE

All new and interesting breeds of poultry are at once
patronised by Her Majesty, who nowadays frequently
drives to the Aviary at feeding time to watch her grand-
children feed the birds. A splendid penful of gold-Spangled
Hamburgs belongs to little Prince Alexander of Battenberg,
who is very proud of the handsome birds.

Of the number of birds raised every year at the Aviary,
one hundred are always kept for stocking the pens the
others being fattened for the Castle.

Of ducks the Queen has but few, and only about seventy
Aylesbury ducks are reared a year for the Royal table.

Fancy birds include some seventy lovely pigeons, princi-
pally Jacobins, and foreign owls. Some pure white doves
belong to Princess Beatrice, whose favourite birds are,
however, canaries, of which a cageful accompanies her
wherever she goes. Cinnamon turkeys are successfully
bred at the Royal Aviary, and there are also some hand-
some golden pheasants.

Yet even more interesting than the live pets are the
stuffed birds that in glass cases almost line the Queen’s
little sitting—room in the Keeper’s cottage.

Here are‘ Japanese, silver, and Amherst pheasants, an
emu’s head, some gorgeous Indian pigeons, and the
magnificent peacock that once belonged to Lord Beacons-
field, and was sent to the Queen from Hughenden soon
after his death. A great case contains some birds, caper-
cailzie, black cock and grouse, shot by Prince Albert at
“ Taymouth, September 8th and 9th, 1842.”

In Her Majesty’s rooms at the Castle are some linnets
of which she is very fond. Strange birds to possess, and
scarcely to be regarded as pets, are two huge eagles, one
caught in Windsor Forest and one in Scotland, that live in
a large aviary at the Head Keeper’s Lodge.

Whenever the Queen drinks tea with Mrs. Overstone at

OF THE QUEEN ' 151

the Lodge, she always inspects these Royal but unsociable
birds. _

,Other queer-animals owned by the Queen-are some
long-haired white Canadian pigs, and an inclosure full of
wild boars in the forest. These last are most ferocious-
looking animals. A few are killed at Christmas time, and
their heads, after being suitably decorated by the chefs, are
sent by the Queen to certain members of the Royal Family,
while one figures on the sideboard at Osborne.

The Queen’s kindness even to animals with which she
has no personal association has always been great. In
1877, when she was driving up Glen Muick, near Balmoral,
her people told her that a little fawn was lying at the
bottom of a disused gravel-pit. The Queen had the
exhausted animal rescued and brought to her, and insisted
on having it in her carriage and bearing it in her own arms
back to the Castle. The animal was named “Victoria,”
and lived for ten years on the Balmoral estate.

This same kindness she inculcated in all her children,
and Princess Alice, on one of her birthdays, found her
greatest pleasure in a pet lamb, all pink ribbons and bells.
She afterwards wept bitterly because the lamb would not
love her so much as she loved it.

Nearly all the Queen’s pet animals have been perpetuated,
and her rooms everywhere contain pictures, and statuettes
in marble, gold, or silver of her favourite horses and dogs.
“Sharp” was modelled several times and once taken in
company with the Queen on her Throne. Memories of
the faithful “Eos” are everywhere. “Boy” and “B02,”
in bronze are embowered among flowers near the Dairy.
“Noble,” I have already said, faces “Eos” below the
North Terrace. One of the grandest gold centre-pieces
the Queen has, is a group of five of her pet dogs 3 another
is made up of portrait models of four favourite steeds. On

152 THE PRIVATE LIFE

all the Queen’s estates are touching tablets to the memory
of some faithful dumb friend. The Queen has loved
them all, and nothing can hurt her more than cruelty to
animals or an unjust depreciation of their many virtues.

OF THE QUEEN 153

CHAPTER XIX
THE QUEEN’S RELIGION AND HER SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

N the memorable morning of June 20, 1837, when
the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Howley), and
the Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of Conyngham, toil-
worn andpdust—stained with their night ride from Windsnr,
beat at the doors of Kensington Palace—as the present
writer has often heard the late Marquis describe—at five
o’clock, and announced to the awakened girl of eighteen
that she was the Queen of England, she kissed the extended
hands of the kneeling messengers and fell on her knees
between them, saying : “ I ask your prayers on my behalf.”
This would have been an extraordinary sentiment in any
ordinary little lady, but it came naturally from one who we
hear from her preceptor, Bishop Davis of Peterborough,
had had the Bible read to her every day, and the anecdote
is typical of the Queen’s entire life, for those who know her
well would be only too ready to admit that she is a deeply
religious woman, who in all temptations and trials, tribula-
tions and triumphs, has put her faith in God’s grace and
who marks all acts of her private and public life by a
prayerful appeal). and has brought up her children in the
love and fear of God. ‘
Nor is Her Majesty by any means intolerant, as too

154 THE PRIVATE LIFE

many are—nor could any one with truth accuse her of
fanaticism. Neither has the Queen ever permitted religion
and the strict observance of re1%ious forms to turn her
sympathies from the natural inclinationsipf humanity and
the duties of her state in life. Indeed, humanity may be
said to be her strongest character1st1c,.: for there IS none of
her subjects who has a more keen appreciation of fun and
the affairs of the world generally than Her Majesty.

It is not, however, the more worldly side of Her Majesty’s
life with which I am at present concerned. Whatever may
follow or has been said depicting the other six days of the
Queen’s working week, my mission is now with the first day
of the week and its observance.

Sunday is with Her Majesty, in the best sense of the
phrase, a day of rest. On Sunday she never transacts
business of any kind nor allows her servants, whether they
be ministers or maids, to execute other than the most
necessary duties. Did space permit or necessity demand,
I could illustrate this characteristic by quite a number of
anecdotes.

I have used the expression “in the best sense of the
phrase,” and it may be as well to explain exactly what I
mean by it. The Queen does not regard the due obser-
vance of Sunday by what she well calls “a moping over
good books,” but by what she terms in a finer and better
sense, “being and doing good.”

The Queen’s own form of worship 13 Church of England,
with a stiong leaning towards Presbyterianism, which latter
inclination may be accounted for partly by Scotch influence,
partly by the Prince Consort’s Lutheran training, and
partly by her own love of simplicity in all things that
surround and appertain .to herself, whether it be manners,
speech, or even the patterns of her curtains.

The Queen has never attended any High Church public

OF THE QUEEN I 55

service, nor permitted the private services she attends to be
' conducted with the aid of vestments, candles, processions,
or other ornamental accessories. Indeed, her greatest
delight was to attend the poor'little church at Crathie and
to communicate after the Presbyterian manner in her turn
with the rest of the simple Highland congregation. And it
was only her horror at finding that her presence turned the
service into a show and an attraction to staring tourists that
made her abandon Whippingham Church and set up a
private Prayer—room at Osborne House.

The Queen’s Private Chapel at Windsor Castle is in no
way accessible to other than especially privileged visitors,
and is therefore unknown to the general public who are
permitted to inspect the State Apartments during Her
Majesty’s absence.

It was formerly the music-room of the Queen’s private
band, but was converted to its present use by the Prince
Consort, and consecrated by the Dean of Westminster, the
Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, on
December 19, 1843. This is recorded on a scroll held by
the carved wooden statue of an angel, immediately outside
the Queen’s private pew, in the following words: “This
Chapel was altered and decorated under the direction of
H.R.H. the‘ Prince Consort in the fifth year of the reign
of Queen Victoria.”

It will be more convenient, for the purposes of descrip-
tion, for the reader to enter in spirit by the Visitors’
Entrance in the Quadrangle, as it is from the small vestibule
at the head of the Visitors’ Stairs that the Queen’s own
entrance to her private pew, up a small winding white and
gold staircase, springs. Despite many announcements in
the papers of late, this ascension has in no way been
levelled, nor would such an alteration, perhaps, be possible.

The Queen’s pew and the pew of Her Majesty’s visitors,

156 THE PRIVATE LIFE

which are joined by a narrow arched doorway, are on a
level with the organ, about twelve feet from the fioOr. The
Queen’s pew is shut off from the private staircase and the
private retiring gallery by a screen of frosted glass and
white painted wood of Gothic style. For want of a better
simile, these pews may be likened to private boxes in a
theatre, which in size and shape they resemble. Their
design is pure Gothic, the arches being relieved by gold.
They are simply furnished with a few chairs and hassocks,
the upholstery being red velvet stamped with “V.R.” which
matches the red carpet. In the centre of each hangs from
the ceiling a large ormolu lamp, the frosted glass panes of
which are relieved by a large “ V.R. ”

The back and side walls are emblazoned with small
heraldic shields, Her Majesty’s pew holding ten and the
Visitors’ pew eight. Like all other apartments in the Castle
the Queen’s pew boasts a thermometer.

Descending the Queen’s private staircase, we come to a
small door on the left, and three steps lead us up to a
narrow slip of an apartment which contains, perhaps, the
most unique and priceless collection by Holbein, Janet,
and other Dutch masters, set round the walls in white
panels. Here also, on a small bracket, is a lovely little
brass clock, which was given by Henry VIII. to Anne
Boleyn on the morning of her marriage.

Passing through this dim, if not very religious, little art
gallery, we come to the oak doors of the Chapel, which,
being opened, admit us to the ground floor and the pews
under the organ occupied by the ladies and gentlemen of
the Household. _

The Chapel itself is Gothic in style, and principally lit
from the lantern roof of glass set in stone mullions, the
lines of which are lightly touched with gold. From the
floor upwards for twelve feet a handsome oak and gilt

OF THE QUEEN 157

wainscot has a somewhat sombre warm effect, which helps
to mitigate the severe plainness of the upper portion of the
white walls.

The East window is divided into six panels of stained
glass, the subjects being the Saviour surrounded by the
Evangelists and St. Peter, the whole framed by four smaller
panels of angels.

The reredos is handsomely designed in a charming
blending of coloured marbles. The altar, flanked on either
side by carved oak chairs marked with the entwined
initials “I.H.S.” and “X.P.,” is characteristically simple,
as are also the rails.

The most striking feature in the immediate vicinity is the
pulpit, which is on the right, and is entered directly by a
door leading from the vestry, and is surmounted by a very
graceful and beautiful oak canopy, carved in Gothic style.
The reading-desk on the other side is much plainer.

A strong decorative note is struck by the organ, a
magnificent instrument elaborately ornamented in white
and gold, which stands in a fine carved and gilt oak
gallery. .

This organ, which has a double action, is used when
concerts are given in St. George’s Hall. 4

The principal way of artificially lighting the Chapel is
afforded by a magnificent brass chandelier of elaborate and
most graceful Gothic form. It is suspended from the
lantern roof by thick brass chains, and supports twelve oil
lamps, Her Majesty disliking gas and not taking kindly to
the electric light. The arrangement of the pews, which are
of oak (each being furnished with a red-plush cushion
stamped “V.R.” and four red carpet covered hassocks) is
very irregular.

Besides those under the organ on. the left or north side
which have been already designated, those on the right and

153 ‘ THE PRIVATE LIFE

left of the centre aisle are occupied by the footmen, house-
maids, etc. Those round the south or right-hand wall are
reserved for the pages and visitors’ servants, and that in the
north—west corner for the Housekeeper and upper servants.

Two small pews to the right and left of the door facing
the altar are respectively reserved for the use of the Queen’s
Private Secretary and Lady Biddulph, the latter being dis-
tinguished by the beautifully modelled terra cotta group by
Dalou of a winged angel surrounded by five children,
representing the Queen’s grandsons who died in infancy.

To left and right of the reading desk and pulpit are two
bronze bas—reliefs, portraits of Dean Wellesley and Dean
Stanley. By the side of the memorial to Dean Wellesley
is a tablet which has the following inscription :

“In affectionate remembrance of Major General Sir
Howard Elphinstone, K.C.B., C.M.G., V.C., born 12th
December, I829, lost at sea 8th March, 1890. This
memorial has been placed here by the Queen as a grateful
recognition of his services to Her Majesty and to her son,
the Duke of Connaught. ‘In the midst of life we are in
death.”’

There are also, on the south and west walls, memorial
tablets to General Grey, the Queen’s favourite Private
Secretary, and Sir Thomas Biddulph.

So much for the Queen’s Chapel at Windsor.

The Prayer-room at Osborne is far simpler in design and
arrangement, and, except for the very plain pulpit and altar,
its surrounding furniture and the small organ is quite
devoid of ecclesiastical suggestion, as neither reading-desk
nor lectern finds a place there. The Prayer-room is
reached from the Queen’s Private Apartments by a long
corridor on the first floor, and an open loggia which gives
on a staircase. A small ante—room'at the foot of the stair-
case ‘is adorned with sacred pictures painted on china

OF THE QUEEN , 159

plaques. The room itself—for it is nothing more-—-—is
lighted by lofty windows overlooking the beautiful Upper
and Lower Terraces. The carpet and hangings are crimson,
and the woodwork of highly polished walnut. The altar is
very small, and is mainly noticeable for the three pictures
that hang above it: “A Man of Sorrows,” “Vigilate et
Crate,” and “The Good Shepherd,” all by Sir Noel Paton.
Between the windows are a “Virgin and Child,” and “The
Redeemer Enthroncd,” by Sarabino, and some charming
studies of angels’ heads. No pews cumber the floor of the
Prayer-room. The front row of chairs, which- are armed
and cushioned, are used by the Royal party, the Queen
sitting the third from the right, and having a small table
before her. The Household and servants sit on chairs in
rows behind Her Majesty

Her Majesty attends the short twelve to one o’clock
service regularly, and prefers that those members of the
Household whose “wait” it is should also be in attendance.

The Service consists of what is known as the Morning
Service, namely, the litany, a hymn, the ante—communion, a
hymn, and a short sermon. The Queen prefers discourses
of about twenty minutes, and has no sympathy with the
modern style of introducing aesthetics, economics, or
politics into the pulpit.

She much prefers a plain exposition of practical truths
arising out of some subject of the day, and is known to
favour unwritten sermons.

The same form of arrangement prevails in the Prayer;
room at Balmoral, which the Queen has used now for
some years, only going occasionally to the quaint old
Crathie Church, to supplant which a larger edifice is in
course of construction.

The Queen, though still clinging to many of the simpler
forms of worship enjoined by the Presbyterian-Church, has

160 THE PRIVATE LIFE

relaxed of late years to some extent her almost Puritanical
observance of the Sabbath. That she should have done
this is only another example of her extraordinarily broad and
liberal mind. The Queen, for all her particularity, has
never been a bigot. As long ago as July, 1834, Dr. Howley,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, who then confirmed the
Princess Victoria in the Chapel Royal, St. James’s, said
“that she was too intrinsically religious by nature to ever
be affected by the mere outward forms of worship.”

There is one point, however, on which Her Majesty has
been, and always will be, inflexible. No matter of what
opinion or what rank in the Church the preacher of the day
may be, he must wear a black gown when delivering his
sermon before the Queen.

The Queen has always shown a strong partiality for the
clergy. She loves to talk of the many great churchmen
who assisted in the moulding of her character and in her
education; and her dinner-party on Sunday, to which the
preacher of the day is invariably commanded, is always
marked by much reminiscence.

It would be impossible to enumerate all Her Majesty’s
favourite hymns, but among those which are especially
asked for are Toplady’s “Rock of Ages,” “ To Thee, O
Lord,” “I shall not in the grave remain,” “Thy Will be
done,” “Happy Soul, thy days are ended,” which has
been so beautifully set by H.R.H. Prince Consort, and
Mendelssohn’s “Hear my Prayer,” which was an especial
favourite of the late Duke of Albany.

The simple little service in the Queen’s Private Chapel
is a very solemn and impressive experience, never to be
forgotten by those who have had the privilege of attending
it, while to those who can recall the more imposing appear-
ance of the Queen when, with her husband and children,
and surrounded by her Court, she worshipped at the Chapel

OF THE QUEEN 161

Royal, or at the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace, the
quiet modesty of her present surroundings is infinitely
touching. In face of such staunch Protestantism as the
Queen professes, it is almost grotesque to go back to the
early years of her reign, when men, both in England and
Ireland, were base enough to accuse Her Majesty of the
intention of re-establishing the Papacy as the National
religion.

That the Queen had no such intentions nor ideas she has
proved throughout her entire life, though at the same time
she has been tolerant of all faiths, and during her tour in
Ireland in 1849 was much struck and pleased with the
broad-mindedness shown by those who had the direction
of the model schools in Dublin. The Roman Catholic
Archbishop himself conducted Her Majesty over the
schools, where she found'that no one creed was paramount,
and where, as she herself remarked: “The Gospel truths,
Love and Charity, were the only religion enforced.” The
Queen has since frequently said, that she would it had been
the same in all schools.

In the Sacrament of Baptism the Queen takes a truly
Christian interest, and when she is at Balmoral no little
soul is sealed to Christ without her substantial approbation
and frequently her personal attendance.

One very terrible trial came to the Queen through her
strong and fervent religion. Some time after her marriage
to the Grand Duke of Hesse, Princess Alice, the Queen’s
dearest daughter, showed strong signs of wavering from the
faith in which she had been so carefully brought up. The
Princess was naturally deeply religious, but her own serious
and thoughtful nature, coupled with the circumstances of her
life, led her first to question and then to falter. For some
months a most interesting correspondence passed between
the Princess and the Queen, the letters of the latter being

12

162 THE PRIVATE LIFE

most touching in their solicitude for her daughter’s spiritual
welfare. That the Princess’ beautiful and trusting nature
returned to the faith in which she was reared and that she
died in it, a devout Christian, proved a consolation to the
Queen, who has ever placed her religion and the welfare
of her soul above the mere earthly considerations of crowns
and kingdoms.

OF THE QUEEN 163

CHAPTER XX
THE QUEEN AS A WRITER

UCH of the Queen’s heavy daily work is self—imposed.
and, from the point of view of governing her great
Empire, absolutely unnecessary. When Her Majesty has,
in her pretty open tent at Osborne, or beneath the shadow
of the two splendid evergreen oaks at Frogmore, finished
considering State papers, signing the despatches, and
dictating letters on every conceivable subject, she turns to
the vast pile of purely family and private correspondence
which awaits her perusal every twenty—four hours. Apart
from State business, it has been proved that the Queen is
the greatest correspondent of the day, not only as regards
the letters she receives and reads, but those she indites with,
her own hand in reply.

A point on which the Queen is extremely punctilious is
the insistence that, unless debarred by illness, all her
children and grandchildren shall write to her once in every
day. These letters are not merely scrappy effusions made
up of commonplaces and trivialities, but partake more of the
nature of diaries, noting not only every event in the writer’s
life, but the thoughts and sensations entailed thereby.

Her Majesty is herself a most introspective letter-writer,
and only cares forletters— of a like quality.

I 64 THE PRIVATE LIFE

The Queen does not answer all her family correspond-
ence every day, for to do so would be a task beyond even
her powers, but any letters that deal with sorrow or joy,
doubts and fears, or hopes and anticipations, always meet
with a speedy and intensely sympathetic reply from this
true “ head” of her family. The Queen’s letters written to
her descendants, under various and important trying circum-
stances, are most beautiful compositions, and imbued with
a love and tenderness that is almost not of this world. In
these days letter writing is a lost art to almost every one save
Her Majesty, who has preserved unimpaired her extra-
ordinary aptitude in this particular.

The Queen’s letters to the nation, which in moments of
national rejoicing or grief she has from time to time indited
in a spirit of thanksgiving or sympathy, are in themselves
monuments of consideration, self-restraint, and good taste,
in fact, altogether admirable. But I venture to say that
were the Queen’s letters to her family and friends made
public, they would astound the whole literary world, and
at once take rank among the standard works of all time.

Among the many beautiful letters written by the Queen
must not be forgotten the long and touching effusion she
penned to the Prince of Wales on his eighteenth birthday,
announcing to him his emancipation from parental control.
It was full of affectionate warnings and prayers for his future,
and was pronounced by those few who saw it as being the
most beautiful letter ever written. The Prince himself was
so deeply moved by it that he burst into a flood of tears on
showing it to the Rev. Gerald Wellesley. Her letters to her
daughter, Princess Alice, after her marriage, and her daily
communications to the Dowager Empress of Germany
during the long and terrible illness of the Emperor Frederick,
are incomparable in their tenderness and sympathy.

The letters written by the Queen to her Ministers—or

OF THE QUEEN 16 5

to reduce the matter to facts, by a woman to some of the
greatest men of the century—were always remarkable for
their clearness of expression, grasp of situation and detail
and for strong decision. Her Majesty never used two
words where one would serve, she never alternated or pre-
varicated, her choice of expression was always to the point,
and she has never been known to commit that too common
fault of her sex—interlarding business matters with ex-
traneous and unnecessary remarks.

Lord John Russell—who from time to time had political
differences with the Queen—received from her on more than
one occasion letters of the firmest and most authoritative
character, indicating clearly that Her Majesty could express
her displeasure on paper as forcibly as she could her other
sensations.

The Queen’s letters of condolence in times of great grief
have been penned by her own hand to many of her subjects,
and have by their sweetness and sympathy brought balm to
many a wounded heart. When her music mistress, Mrs.
Anderson, who had also taught all the elder of the Queen’s
children to play the piano, lost her husband, who for years
had been the master of Her Majesty’s private band, her
greatest consolation grew out of the touching letter written
by her Royal pupil and friend.

- In lighter vein were the very pretty letters written to
members of her Household concerning happy events. The.
lines penned to the Hon. Georgiana Liddell, a Maid of
Honour, on her marriage, are delightful in their cordiality
and womanly kindness. ,

When the Queen first came to the throne a great deal of
her private correspondence was conducted by her former
governess, Baroness Lehzen, but the Prince Consort, who
was an indefatigable letter writer, encouraged the Queen to
use her own hand for her more intimate letters.

166 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Once only—outside periods of illness—did the Queen
ever lose touch with all business and private affairs. That
was at the time'of the Prince Consort’s death, when for
some weeks every communication passed through the hands
of Princess Alice. The tribute paid by the Times to this
young Princess, who was herself overwhelmed with grief at
her father’s death, was in itself a monument to her bravery
and goodness.

Almost the first letter penned by the Queen after her
great grief, was that to the nation, which few can even now
read dry-eyed, so touching and sad is it.

During the last few years the Queen confided a great deal
of her more confidential correspondence to the late Sir
Henry Ponsonby, from whom she had few, if any, secrets.
Sir Henry Ponsonby had a splendid house within the Castle
walls in the Norman Tower, but he also had two apartments,
a sitting-room and bedroom, leading off from the Marble
Hall and overlooking the North Terrace. They are plainly
furnished, comfortable rooms, which are used by the Queen’s
Private Secretary at busy times.

They are close to the office, where a staff of clerks is
always at work, and quite near the little telegraph office,
through which pass in cipher the secrets of all nations.

The Royal Mail Bag is a very bulky affair, and is first
gone through by the Private Secretary. Letters from
lunatics and beggars and people filled with impertinent
curiosity are daily items in the correspondence, but all are
sorted and answered courteously. A certain proportion of
begging letters are set before the Queen, but to attain this
preference they must be clearly written on thick-glazed
paper and be neither folded or rolled.

Family letters are conveyed unopened to Her Majesty.
Such letters as do not come in the province of the Private
Secretary to answer, or which the Queen does not care to

OF THE QUEEN 167

write, are confided to the most trusted of the Maids of
Honour, or, if very confidential, to a favourite Lady—in-
Waiting. Naturally, absolute silence respecting the contents
of such letters is expected and preserved.

Protests to foreign nations are sometimes laid before the
Queen by Ministers, and when they advise, are written by
her own hand.

The Queen’s handwriting is pointed, sloping, and clear.
It was always larger and more virile in character than the
fashionable “ Italian ” hand of her youthful days, and was
strangely like the writing of the Prince Consort. Her
first baby signature in printed letters is preserved in the
British Museum.

All letters received by the Queen are kept and filed.
Her private and family correspondence is, however, always
under lock and key in certain cabinets. The letters of the
day are brought to her in various despatch boxes, covered
with morocco, bearing the Royal cipher on the lid.

The letter-paper used by Her Majesty herself is com-
mendably plain. It is of the thickest and richest cream-laid,
narrowly edged with black, and bearing at the top the
Queen’s cipher, surmounted by a crown and the name of
her residence from which the letter is written, both being
stamped in black. ‘ The Royal Arms and the name of the
palace decorate all other paper and envelopes used in the.
household.

It is not generally known that all the Queen’s letters from
her own hand are written in English.

As a‘speller Her Majesty is exceedingly accurate, and,
where names are concerned, very precise. A little anecdote
illustrates this. .

For many years the Queen was much put out by the
perpetual variation in the Foreign Office and other
despatches of the spelling of the titles of the Sovereigns

168 THE PRIVATE LIFE

of Russia. She always punctiliously used the words,
Tsar and Tsarina, and frequently remonstrated with those
who spelt the words indifferently as Czar and Czarina. At
length the late Sir Henry Ponsonby, who was the Queen’s
private secretary, wrote himself to the Foreign Office and
said that if the clerks there could not spell the word
Tsarevitch properly they had better send to Newmarket
to inquire how it should be written.

It was at one time rather the fashion to decry the Queen’s
powers as an authoress—or rather as an expressive writer.
Those who did so were neither judges of style nor of method.
The writings of the Queen’s which the public have been
permitted to see have essentially the elements of great work,
perfect simplicity of expression, and admirable self-restraint.
The Queen never gushes or over-writes, and of what other
feminine writer can such words be truly said? She has a
great pictorial power, and her descriptions of scenery are
first-rate. Also Her Majesty has a fine sense of humour
and an infinite appreciation of sorrow, and these are two
vital elements in good writing.

Of her pathos in writing it is impossible to speak too
highly. The entire description of the last hours and
death of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, as written
by the Queen’s own hand, is one of the most graphic
and moving passages ever penned in the English language.

The many inscriptions to the memory of dear friends
and faithful servants are ,what such things should ever ‘
be, sincere and grateful. ‘

If the Queen had been destined by Fate to write in lieu
of ruling, she must have left a great mark on the literature
of the century.

OF THE QUEEN 169

CHAPTER XXI
THE COURT LIFE OF A MAID OF HONOUR

. N the eyes of the public the post and duties of the

Queen’s Maids of Honour are both unimportant and
insignificant. By turning to the list of the Queen’s
Household, and comparing the salaries of its many
members, which are set forth fully in any good work of
general information, the curious in such matters discover
that the emolument of a Maid of . Honour is comparatively
small, and on the usual line of a world that values every
one according to his wealth or income, they infer that the
duties are correspondingly trifling.

A greater mistake could not well be made. Now that
Her Majesty has so greatly curtailed her state, and limits so
strictly the number of those about her, the Maids of Honour "
are not only extremely busy members of Court, but also
have to perform duties which in happier times were executed
by a greater number of people. Yet at no period of the
Queen’s reign were her Maids of Honour merely ornamental
appendages to her state. From the very first moment that
the young Queen’s ministers and advisers went into debate
over the subject of Her Majesty’s Household, their Royal
Mistress put her foot down and insisted that all the young
ladies about her person should conform to certain require-

I 70 THE PRIVATE LIFE

ments. It is a noteworthy fact that for the past sixty years
no deviation has been made from the rules laid down which,
in the first month of the Queen’s reign, regulated the choice,
position, and duties of the Maid of Honour.

Few people realise that about these duties there is a great
sense of mystery. Maids of Honour are brought into the
most intimate contact with the Sovereign, and it is, there-
fore, a sine qua? 12012 that they should preserve the utmost
reticence about their life at Court. Nobody outside the
charmed circle can have any just idea of the thousand
and one small businesses and pleasures of the Queen’s
life, and it is with a view of lifting the veil somewhat
that I consider an epitome of a Maid of Honour’s “wait ”
may prove of considerable interest.

Before, however, treating on what is, it may be well by
way of contrast, to touch on what was.

There is no doubt that for many centuries the Court life
of England was sullied by the conduct of the Court ladies,
among whom the “Maids” were, as a rule, the most beautiful
and the most daring. The Court was merely a market-place
Where a girl of noble birth might carry her charms, and sell
them to the highest bidder. In Elizabeth’s time some
restraint was put upon the hitherto unbridled license of
the Maids of Honour, but in James I.’s reign this was
again relaxed. Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles I.,
made a very strong effort to cleanse that Augean Stables—-
the English Court—and the following strict rules were drawn
up in 1625, and enforced by her orders:

“The Queen’s Maids of Honour are to come into the
Presence Chamber before eleven of the clock, and to go
to prayers, and after prayers to attend till the Queen be set
at dinner. Again, at two o’clock to return into the said
chamber, and there to remain until supper time. And when
they shall be retired into their chamber they admit no man

OF THE QUEEN 171

to come there, and that they go not at any time out of the
Court without leave asked of the Lord Chamberlain, or Her
Majesty, and that the Mother of the Maids see all these
orders concerning the Maids duly observed, as she will
answer to the contrary.”

Of the conduct of the Maids of Honour to Charles II.’s
unfortunate and neglected Queen it is not necessary to
speak, so much of it being history, but it is certain that
the abuses and scandals of Court life reached their climax
in that and the following reigns.

The Queens of the early Georges were content to have
a number of fat, good-natured young women‘about their
persons, and after George IV.’s separation from his Queen
the feminine influence at his Court was anything but
desirable. Queen Adelaide, the Consort of William IV.,
was too short a time in power to really probe the rottenness
of her surroundings to the bottom, and it was left to a young
and tender-hearted girl of eight‘een to at (once make a clean
sweep of the past abuses, and inaugurate and supervise a
method of work and sympathy and loving kindness which
has made the Court of Queen Victoria the crowning jewel
of purity in all her great reign.

And yet, strangely enough, the initial details of choosing
a young lady for the onerous post of Maid of Honour are
almost identical with those which prevailed when the English
Court was a by-word among all nations.

A girl to be eligible for this unique and confidential
position must primarily be of good birth, though by no
means, as some people imagine, the daughter of a peer.
Her father or mother have probably already been in the
Queen’s service, sometimes an aunt or elder sister have
themselves served as Maids of Honour. At any rate, what-
ever her own position, her choice as a Maid at once gives
her the courtesy title of “ Honourable,” which she is allowed

:72 ~ THE PRIVATE LIFE

to retain all her life, and even should she marry—a con-
tingency that oddly enough does not very often come in the
way of the Queen’s Maids.

Next to the question of suitable birth comes that of
accomplishments. Her Majesty requires both variety and
perfection. A Maid of Honour must be able to speak, read,
and write French and German without a fault, she must also
understand a little Latin, while as regards her own language,
her grammar and pronunciation must be above reproach.
She must write quickly in a clear, “ lady—like ” hand, for the
Queen has a rooted dislike to any affectations of masculinity.
A very clear voice, good expression and enunciation are also
necessary, for nowadays most of the Queen’s reading is done
for her, and a Maid must be ready to read a written report
on business matters, the newspapers, books, poetry, and
plays, with equal sense and readiness.

A knowledge of music is also quite necessary, and a Maid
to be popular with the Quee°n must be able both to sing and
play any style of music at sight, for Her Majesty frequently
has a pile of new songs or a whole opera played to her
during an evening. At one time she herself frequently
played and sang with her Maids, and she was and is a
most critical though just supervisor of all musical efforts.
Until a few years back a Maid of Honour was always obliged
to be an accomplished and plucky horsewoman, for the
Queen was passionately fond of riding, and always required
the Maid of the moment to go with her. One young lady
who was ignorant of this went to her first “wait ” at Court
without a riding—habit, and on being» commanded to ride
with the Queen was terribly distressed at the omission in
her wardrobe. Her Majesty, however, was not at all put
out, and at once lent her one of her own habits, hat, collar,
and cuffs. The young Maid, in a naive letter to her mother,
said that considering the difference between ‘Her Royal

OF THE QUEEN 173

Mistress’ figure and her own, the habit fitted wonderfully,
after she had “ pinned it over in front.” It is characteristic
of Her Majesty’s simplicity of character and child-like good
nature that she should have gone riding for two hours and a
quarter in company with a Maid of Honour whose habit
bodice was pinned up in front.

For the rest a Maid of Honour must have a knowledge of
games, a little sketching, and of needlework, for the Queen
cannot bear to see idle hands about her. She is expected
to be cheerful in manner and looks, willing and quick, and
absolutely punctual. It is also expected that her lips shall
be invariably sealed concerning the private life of her Royal
Mistress, and regarding such business as may be intrusted
to her to perform. Light talk, frivolous behaviour, and even
a suspicion of scandal-mongering are entirely tabooed at
Court, and, if persisted in, would first incur the gravest
reproof, and afterwards a dispensation with the services.

But Her Majesty does not wish her Maids to be always
at work. She encourages them in acting, the art of imita-
tion (the Queen is very fond of a good bit of mimicry), and
in dancing. She used to be very fond of herself teaching
her Maids different kinds of steps and figures, and nowadays
will always send for anything a new Maid of Honour may
desire to see, or for any particular article that Her Majesty
may wish to show her.

There are eight Maids of Honour, and their individual
salaries are £300 a year. They “wait,” two together, for
a period of a month three times a year. The tie, therefore,
for a young lady of no occupation is not very considerable.
Maids of Honour are chosen by the Queen herself from
among those who are suitable for the post. It should be
mentioned that all the Queen’s Maids have been known
to her from their childhood upwards, and she is thus
enabled, by personal observation, which with Her Majesty

174 THE PRIVATE LIFE

is exceedingly sharp and quick, to gather if they will prove
useful and pleasant companions to her. The procedure 'of
their appointment is very simple. A letter is sent to the
parents of the young lady, requesting as a personal favour
to the Queen she may be permitted to attend at Court. It
is needless to remark that a complaisant answer is invariably
sent in reply. After that the newly-chosen Maid awaits
from the Lord Chamberlain the command for her first
“wait.”

The Mother of the Maids being now abolished, it is the
Lady—in-Waiting who receives the new Maid and gives her
hints as to her duties. The apartments of the Maids of
Honour (two bedrooms and a sitting-room, which they both
share) are close to the Lady-in-Waiting’s rooms, and when
off duty they generally sit together. The first thing brought
to the Maid of Honour is her badge, which is a miniature
picture of the Queen set in brilliants and suspended to a
ribbon. Just before the dinner-hour the Maid of Honour in
waiting has to stand in the corridor outside the Queen’s
private apartments. She carries a bouquet, which on
entering the dining-room she lays at the right hand of the
Queen’s plate. The Maid of Honour sits at dinner next to
the gentleman on the Queen’s right.

It is highly» necessary, therefore, that she should be a
conversationalist, and always cognisant of. the latest question
of the hour. When Royal guests, however, are present, the
Maid of Honour is placed farther away from Her Majesty.

The Maid of Honour stands near the person of the
Sovereign until she retires to her private apartments, when
the Maid is free to go to her own rooms, whence she is
often sent for to play, sing, read, or take a hand at cards.

The Queen always calls her Maids by their Christian
names, they addressing her as “ Ma’am.” She keeps quite
aufaz‘t with their family affairs, and takes a warm interest

OF THE QUEEN 175

in all that concerns them. It being sometimes rumoured that
Maids of Honour are worked to death, have long hours of
standing, and the dullest of lives, it is well to say that this
is not so. The Queen is most considerate about her
people, even to the extent of once refusing to have her
Maid of Honour with her on an occasion when she had
reason to believe her life would be attempted.

During the Prince Consort’s lifetime, however, Her
Majesty was far more strict—though equally kind—with
her Maids than she has been since his death. Without
her leave they were never permitted to sit in the Prince’s
presence, or address any remark to him. There was also
at one time much comment on the fact that the Maids of
Honour were always obliged to open the door for Prince
Albert.

The Queen always takes a great interest in the clothes of
her Maids, and never forgets a gown that has pleased her.
As regards their dress, the ladies about the Court are obliged
to dress well but very plainly, the Queen having a great
objection to smart frocks, fly—away hats, and, above all,
untidily-dressed hair. She often gives her Maids of Honour
presents of jewellery, and frequently orders flowers for their
personal adornment to be taken to their rooms. .

Life at the Royal palaces is extremely regular. A Maid
of Honour once wrote, d 15701505 of Court life: “ It always
strikes me as so odd when I come back into waiting.
Everything else changes, but the life here never does, and
is always exactly the same from day to day and year to
year.” It is a great excitement, therefore, when on grand
occasions the castle is very full, and the Maids of Honour
have to vacate their own apartments and move into less
commodious quarters for a few days. One rule only sur—
vives from those made in the seventeenth century. No
male visitors, whether a member of the household. or a near

I76 THE PRIVATE LIFE

relation of a Maid of Honour, is ever allowed in the Maid’s
apartments. They may receive ladies in their own rooms,
but gentlemen are seen by them in a comfortable room set
apart for the purpose.

That a more than common bond grows between the
Queen and her Maids is shown by the fact that many of
them, after they have left their posts, return again and again
to Court as visitors to, and dear friends of, the Queen.

OF THE QUEEN 177

CHAPTER XXII
THE QUEEN’S GOLD AND SILVER PLATE

PART from the interest which necessarily attaches
to articles which are in daily and intimate use by
our beloved Sovereign, the plate at Windsor Castle is
acknowledged the finest collection in the world, and is
more than worthy of consideration. The two so-called
Pantries which in reality are strong-rooms of the most
approved and well-arranged kind—are separated from one
another by the plate-cleaning rooms, which are furnished
with all kinds of known appliances for the adequate polishing
and burnishing of every kind of rare and delicate goldsmith’s
Work. All the Royal plate is carried to these rooms in ‘
rotation and cleaned whether in use or not, and the system
employed for giving it out and receiving it back forms ample
and responsible work for the Yeomen of the Pantries and
their assistants, many of whom are veritable giants among
men, as the weights that have to be moved are very often
enormous.

The Silver Pantry is nearest to the two plate-cleaning
rooms. A very thick iron door, which bears upon its
surface the inevitable little brass tablet engraved with a
number surmounted by a small crown, gives direct entrance
to the Pantry, which is a medium-sized room, lined from

I3

 

I78 THE PRIVATE LIFE

floor to ceiling with deep cupboards of mahogany and glass.
A window crossed with thick bars, and guarded at night by
a heavy shutter, faces the door. A high narrow table runs
down the centre of the room, and above it swing three oil
lamps, for no gas is used in these particular rooms. Of
other furniture or fittings the room is innocent, and with
good reason. Every available inch of space behind the
clear glass doors is crowded with articles of silver, while the
centre table itself is piled high with parts of a silver dinner
service that was in use the previous evening.

There are two full silver dinner services, one called the
“Lion,” the other the “Crown” service, by reason 0f the
design of the handles of the covers. Otherwise they are
practically alike, and are frequently used together.

The sixty-seven dozens of plates and the‘ many scores of
dishes all have the beautiful gadroon edge, while all the
entrée dishes are square and stand on four feet. The
heating arrangement beneath the entrée dishes is unique,
consisting as it does of a tiny lamp of solid silver, in which
a taper of pure wax is fixed. Among several dozens of
silver sauce-boats are some with three slender feet that are
very light in design. When the silver dinner service is
used, the “tabledeckers” ornament the table with pierced
silver flower vases of many shapes.

These are arranged on plaques of plate glass set in a
heavy, pierced, silver rim. The centre of the table may
either bear the Jubilee “humble offering” of Lord and Lady
Rothschild, which is a gigantic silver bowl of a shallow
shape and a glorified “melon” design; the more beautiful
oxidised silver vase of Etruscan form and covered with a
whirling crowd of Bacchantes that was the Jubilee Cup at
the Agricultural Show ; or perhaps the lovely George III.
bowl presented to the Queen by the Charterhouse boys in
the Jubilee year. ,

OF THE QUEEN I 79

The glass case immediately on your left hand as you enter
is filled with innumerable silver tea services. Many of them
are alike in pattern, and most of the tea-pots have little
silver strainers dangling from their spouts. A remarkable
object in this same cupboard is a beautifully-modelled pair
of birds—a cock and a hen—on a stand. Their backs are
hollowed out to hold an egg. This is called the “chicken
egg-cup,” and it always stands on the Queen’s breakfast
table. So “intimate” to the Queen is it, that it figures
prominently in the pretty picture of “Marco,” her Majesty’s
favourite Spitz dog, which was hung in the Academy 1893.
With this egg-cup is used the dainty little salt-cellar of a
square shape in Russian silver, presented by Lady Alice
Stanley to the Queen in 1877. -

The case opposite this contains some fine silver cruets of
Charles 11., Anne, and George III. periods, a pair of little
brandy—heaters that are always sent to Osborne at Christmas-
time, and a beautiful pair of dishes for roasted chestnuts.
They are of frosted silver, in the shape ‘of a folded napkin,
powdered with roses, thistles, and Shamrocks. These dishes
were presented to the Queen by Napoleon III. and the
Empress Eugénie, and go to the Queen’s table every night
that chestnuts are in season.

Against the red baize background of the large cupboard
that fills the right side of the room hang eight sconces in
frosted silver. They bear the Garter insignia inpolished
silver and hold two candles a-piece. On a level with the
ground is an extraordinary array of silver table candlesticks.
There are one hundred and eighty pairs, and these are
frequently all in use. Of bedroom candlesticks there are
many shelves full. Each has a pair‘ of snuffers pertaining
to it, but these are never used, with the exception of two
pairs that are sent to the Queen’s apartments when she is at
Windsor A quaint little flat candlestick with a peculiarly

180 THE PRIVATE LIFE

long, straight handle, is used by the Princess Beatrice when
at Windsor.

A very handsome oak case standing at the end of the
table and facing the window contains the large set of silver
dessert dishes given by the Royal servants to the Queen at
her Jubilee.

A very handsome, although plain, kettle on a high stand,
all in solid silver, was used by the Prince Consort as a
“dressing-kettle,” but since his death has never left its case
except to be cleaned.

Thirty triple-light candelabra have been added to the
Silver Pantry during the present reign, and the enormous
“shell pattern ” service of knives, forks and spoons has also
been largely augmented. Of reading candles and lamps,
trays, small bowls, vases, salt-cellars, and inkstands there
are an infinity. Among the last-named, a small, flat, round
stand, pierced with places for quill pens, is a favourite with
Princess Louise.

The Gold Pantry is a large room, approached by the
necessary iron door and a little dark lobby. Daylight
comes through two narrow windows, cut in the thick stone
walls. The great cupboards from floor to ceiling, and the
immense showcase that fills the centre of the room, are all
lined with white, which gives an airy effect, and forms a
perfect setting for the glory of the mass of gold.

With a view, perhaps, to reducing this wonderful crowd
of objects down to figures, which are understood of the
people, you may, perhaps, start forth to separate the centre-
pieces from amid clusters of candelabra, a continuous
background of gold sconces, beaten or ciscle', rose-water
dishes, salvers and plaques, or endless piles of gold dinner
plates and dishes.

To reach fifty or sixty is quickly done, but then you lose
count. You think you have mastered the contents of the

OF THE QUEEN 181

case, only to find that on the level of the floor is a huge
plateau, bearing on its shining surface several exquisitely
modelled groups of figures or animals, each one a perfect
centrepiece in itself, while high above your head, and almost
out of sight, is a shelf crowded with great flagons, bowls,
and tazza shaped dishes.

So you wisely give up your efforts to number the greater
glories of the “ Gold Pantry ” and fall to admiring the
principal pieces of the goldsmith’s art. Close on your left
hand as you enter is the famous “St. George ” candelabra.
On the broad base the battle between “St. George and the
Dragon” is being fought to the death, while the persecuted
victim—a beautifully modelled nude female figure—clings
to a branch of the twisted oak tree that rears seven candles
four feet above the level of the table. In the next case but
one, are many large flagons in the shape known as “pil-
grim’s bottle.” Among these is one of exquisite design and
workmanship. It was taken from the ship of the Spanish
Admiral after the defeat of the Armada. There are also
some gold Spanish drinking cups. With but few exceptions
(notably a charming round gold dish worked by Cellini), the
Spanish flagons and cups are the antiquities of the collection.
All the Crown plate was melted down during the civil wars
of . Charles I.’s reign, and the vast quantity now at Windsor?
was mainly collected by Anne, George III., and George IV.,
and the Queen herself. The wonderful gold dinner service
for I40 persons, four very large flagons, and a great number
of candelabra, were all added by George IV.

The entrée dishes of this service completely fill a large
case at the end of the room. They are square in shape, of
considerable depth to admit of the heating apparatus, and
of great weight. This grand service is supplemented when
necessary by thirty dozen gold plates, which are elaborately
edged with a chased floral design. The business of giving,

182 THE PRIVATE LIFE

out this service for use is a most anxious one, and every
piece of it is carefully examined before being put away, in
case any damage has been done to it. Close to one of the
windows, in a glass case by itself, is the gold font from
which all the Queen’s children have been christened. It is
tazza shaped and about twenty-four inches high. Round
the base are lovely models of nude children playing small
harps. The edge of the basin is decorated with a thickly
twined wreath of lily buds and leaves. Most interesting are
a pair of quaint specimens of Chinese art, in which tinted
golds and coloured stones have been worked into the
semblance of two flowering shrubs.

More strictly personal, however, to Her Majesty is much
of the contents of the enormous glass case that runs the
length of the room. The centre of the case is filled by
eleven huge pieces of gold plate, but these are surrounded
by objects that are most touching, indicating as they do
the Queen’s unalienable affection for memorials of her
friends. The end of the case nearest to the door contains
a most exquisitely modelled group of “John Brown, Esq.,”
who leans against the side of a favourite pony, “Flora,”
and caresses “Sharp,” the Queen’s pet collie, with his left
hand. This group, which is dated 1869, is flanked by
two fine figures of Highlanders, the one “Putting the
Stone,” the other “Throwing the Hammer.” At the
further end of this case, close to a magnificent vase won
at Lincoln Races, is a fine statuette in gold of Ross, the
“Queen’s favourite piper.”l A pair of panniered donkeys
make pretty salt-cellars. They came from Nice. This case
also contains four tazza shaped fruit dishes of great value, as
well as scores of dainty trifles, and the well—known “ Lobster
Salt-cellars.” .

Below is almost a chaos of golden tureens, bowls, and
dishes. The most beautiful of them is a tureen shaped like

OF THE QUEEN 183

a nautilus shell. The detail of the base of this tureen is
the most marvellous example of goldsmith’s work to be seen
anywhere. Not far off, though in a different case, is the
huge plateau of glass, set in a massive gold frame, on which
is the Jubilee gift of the Queen’s children and grand-
children.

Beneath the windows are huge fitted cases filled with
shallow baize-lined trays. These hold the hundreds of
dozens of table implements. Many of these have been
added in the present reign, but the knives, forks, and
spoons, like those in Silver, are of the “shell ” pattern. In
one window under a small shade is a most formidable-
looking knife. It bristles with no fewer than a hundred
blades and implements, and was presented to George IV.
by the town of Sheffield. On your right hand as you face
the windows is a case full of charming inkstands, candle-
sticks, several handbells (one bearing a bust of Shakespeare),
and a thousand and one bibelots, many of which have
already been described as always being used by Her Majesty
in her private apartments.

And now, after glancing curiously at some beautiful
snuff boxes, and a few ancient spoons and ladles, you are
introduced into the “ holy of holies.” The passage, which
is cut through the very thick stone wall, is lined throughout
with cupboards let flush into the wall. Behind the glazed
doors nothing is to be seen but a serried mass of gold salt-
cellars. There are scores and scores of these, all large and
solid, and of several different patterns. The lower parts of
these two cases are entirely filled by two enormous oval
dishes, each about three feet wide.

Between these golden walls you pass into a rather small
room, fitted, like the larger one, with cases from ceiling to
ground, and crammed with beautiful objects. Exactly
facing the window is a cupboard given up entirely to.cups

184 THE PRIVATE LIFE

and goblets of a most rare kind. One large covered mug
is encrusted with squarerubies and emeralds of immense
size and great value. An exquisite pearl shell is mounted
and rimmed in heavy gold, which is covered with diamonds
and other gems. _

Two carved crystal cups are set in the same costly
fashion. Four nude female figures support an elaborately
chased and begemmed goblet, and there are also some
ivory carvings in gold settings which form cups fit for a
king to drink from. In all, there are about twenty of these
jewelled treasures.

A gold knife, fork, and spoon, the handles of which are
encrusted with very fine diamonds, are interesting, being
presented to the Queen by the first King of Siam. Near
to them is a huge gold nugget, weighing 328 ounces, sent
to Her Majesty from Australia. A large, square box,
marvellously worked in many coloured golds, contained,
when it arrived at Windsor, some of the celebrated
tributary Cashmere shawls.

Amid a thousand other beautiful things is a fine gold
plaque, dated 1671, and bearing the story of the Grecian
daughter. There is also a large silver-mounted flagon, ot
Irish bog oak, carved by Lorenez Percy, and depicting
scenes at Donnybrook Fair.

Some gold knives and forks set in lovely old china
handles are quite delightful, while others, the gold handles
of which show scenes from a boar hunt, are massive and
very handsome.

The middle of this inner room is filled by the large
glass case that shelters one of the most elaborate and
wonderful centrepieces among this unique collection. The
design is that of an open Indian temple, wrought and
enamelled with a most intricate and delicate pattern;
standing on a huge rocky pediment. Models of three of

OF THE QUEEN 18 5

the Queen’s favourite horses in silver are held by Indian
servants.

In the centre of the temple is a graceful fountain, which
sends forth a tiny jet of Eau-de-Cologne. This scent is
poured into the dome of the temple, whence it runs down
the supporting pillars and springs from the fountain. The
waste runs into the base. The exquisite piece of work was
executed some years ago for the Queen by Her Majesty’s
goldsmiths in the Haymarket. The whole thing is of
enormous weight, and, like all the large centrepieces and
candelabra, comes to pieces for cleaning or packing pur-
poses.

The value of the Queen’s plate is calculated at above
three millions of pounds, and incredible as it may seem,
the greater part of it is moved to London at least four
times a year, namely, on the occasions of the State parties-
at Buckingham Palace.

It speaks much for the trust placed in the Queen’s
servants, that there is little or no ceremony or fuss during
the carriage of some million pounds’ worth of property.
No force of police or military escort is told off to guard
it. It is passed between the Royal Palaces in so unostenta-
tious a manner that. no one is aware of the contents of the
big‘ dark fourgons that go so quietly through the London
streets.

One precaution—and that of the simplest kind—
is however always taken. The Royal plate is moved in
broad daylight, and at a time when all the world is
out and about. i

186 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER XXIII
THE QUEEN AS A MUSICIAN AND ARTIST

HEN quite a little child, and yet in the laborious

and early stages of acquiring a technical know-

ledge of music, Princess “Drina” was told by her in—

structor that without industry and perseverance she would
never become mistress of the pianoforte.

“But what would you think of me,” cried the high-
spirited Princess, “if I became mistress of it in the next
minute?”

“That would be impossible without study. There is no
royal road to music.”

“No royal road, eh? And I am not mistress of my
own piano?” said Her Royal Highness briskly. “ I will
show you that I am, and that this is the royalest and
easiest road.”

With that the Princess shut down the instrument, locked
it, and popped the key in her pocket. “That’s being
mistress of the piano, and the royal road to learning is,
never to take a lesson until you’re in the mood for it.”

But despite her summary way of treating the art of
music, the Queen became in due time a most accomplished
performer. She read music—even the most difficult—
with ease and accuracy, played with spirit and excellent

OF THE QUEEN 187

taste, and sang quite delightfully. Besides this, her know-
ledge and her memory of the greatest standard works is
infallible.

Despite the simplicity of her bringing up, she, even as a
child, was taken frequently to the Opera, and long before
she came to the throne, she knew intimately all the
oratorios from hearing, singing, and playing them. Her
undoubted talent and love for music was first fostered by
her mother, the Duchess of Kent, who was devoted to
music and a fine performer, and subsequently by the
Prince Consort, who was a musician of a very high order
He sang with taste and style, composed exceedingly well,
and was a magnificent organist. The Prince and the
Queen in their early married days were very fond of
dining absolutely alone, and of passing the evening sing-
ing duets, with perhaps only a Maid of Honour with them
to play the'accompaniments.

In those days, even more than now, when the Queen has
Princess Henry of Battenberg and so many of her grand-
daughters to play for her, the Maids of Honour had to be
. very clever musicians. One or other was for ever being
sent for to try over new music, play duets with Her
Majesty, or accompany the Prince Consort. Almost the
first popularity won by the Liddell family at Court in
George IV.’s time was insured by their extraordinary
talent for music, and by the very lovely voices most of
them possessed. The three elder Misses Liddell, who
afterwards became Lady Hardwicke, Lady Barrington, and
Lady Williamson, often sang to the “First Gentleman in
Europe.” Lady Normanby, another of the family, became
Lady in-Waiting to the Queen on her accession. It was
she who one day took her youngest sister, a very charming
- musician, to sing before the Queen.

In fear and trembling the young girl sang a famous

188 THE PRIVATE LIFE

operatic scena, which was one of Grisi’s great airs, but
omitted the shake at the end. Her Majesty, who knew
accurately every opera then in vogue, said: “ Does not
your sister shake, Lady Normanby? ” Her LadyShip
smartly replied: “Oh! yes, ma’am, she is shaking all
over” ; at which the Queen was vastly entertained.

Shake or no shake, this same young lady soon after-
wards became a very dear and devoted Maid of Honour to
the Queen. Her Majesty was very partial to pianoforte
performances at quatre mains. She played all Beethoven’s
greatest works this way, and all the most difficult Masses as
duets. Frequently Michael Costa, the famous conductor,
would be commanded either to Windsor or Buckingham
Palace, to accompany Her Majesty or to practise with
her and give her hints on the great operatic scenas
which at that time it was so fashionable for amateurs to
sing.

The Queen can lay claim to having been one of the few
who ever understood the marvellously intricate score of
Spohr’s “ Creation of Sound,” which the celebrated
orchestra of the Philharmonic were unable to learn cor-
rectly till Spohr himself came over and explained it to
the musicians.

In fact, much of the Queen’s spare time was given up
to the thoughtful study and steady practising of classical
music, which nowadays young women condemn as being
“too dull and too difficult.” She frequently sang through
the whole of great works with her ladies, and a “ Miserere ”
of Costa’s found much favour with her, and was often
rendered by her and those about her who were musical.

The Queen’s first visit to Scotland, in 1842, made her
intimately acquainted with the bagpipes. She was much
pleased with them at Taymouth Castle, and ever since then
a piper has played within her hearing during breakfast time.

OF THE QUEEN 189

Ross, of whom the Queen possesses a beautiful statuette in
solid gold, was for years her favourite piper.

Campbell was another fine performer, whose duty it was
to play beneath the Queen’s windows early in the morning.

One of the prettiest incidents connected with the musical
side of the Queen’s life was her delightfully frank and
unaffected friendship with that sweetest of musicians,
Mendelssohn. He often went to the Palace to see Prince
Albert, and his last visit there was singularly pleasant.

“Prince Albert had asked me to go to him on Saturday
at two o’clock so that I might try his organ before I left
England. I found him alone, and as we were talking
away, the Queen came in, also alone, and in a. simple-
morning dress. She said she was obliged to leave for
Claremont in an hour, and then, suddenly interrupting
herself, exclaimed: ‘But goodness, what a confusion ! ’
for the wind had littered the whole room, and even the
pedals of the organ (which, by the way, made a very pretty
feature in the room) with leaves of music from a large
portfolio that lay open. As she spoke she knelt down and
began picking up the music; Prince Albert helped, and
I too was not idle. Then Prince Albert proceeded to
explain the stops to me, and she said that she would
meanwhile put things straight. I began my chorus from
‘ St. Paul’: ‘ How lovely are the messengers.’ Before I
got to the end of the first verse they both joined in the
chorus. Then the young Queen asked if I had written
any new songs, and said she was very fond of singing my
published ones. ‘ You should sing one to him,’ said Prince
Albert 3 and after a little persuasion, she said she would try
the ‘Friihlingslied ’ in B flat. The song could not, how-
ever, be found, and she offered to sing one of Glfick’s.
Eventually, a volume of Mendelssohn’s songs was dis-
covered, and the Queen chose “ Schoner und schoner

190 THE PRIVATE LIFE

schmuckt sich.’ She sang it quite charmingly, in strict
time and tune, and with very good execution. Only in
the line, ‘ Der Prosa Lasten und Mith,’ where it goes down
to D and then comes up again by semi-tones, she sang D
sharp each time, and I gave her the note the two first
times. The last time she sang D where it ought to have
been D sharp. But with the exception of this little
mistake it was really charming, and the last long G I have
never heard better or purer, or more natural from any
amateur.”

The Queen’s admiration for Jenny Lind was of the very
highest, and her appreciation for her both as a singer and
actress was unbounded. She always spoke of the famous
cantatrice as “quite a remarkable phenomenon,” and of
“the purity of her singing and acting as indescribable.”

The great Lablache, who had taught Her Majesty to
sing, was also a fervent admirer of Lind’s, and he and the
Queen spent many hours in talking over and going through
her various performances.

The Queen had a perfect passion for operatic perform-
ances, Fidelio, Les Huguenots, Don Giovanni, Il Flauto
M agz'co, and Le Prophe'te were the operas generally. com—
manded for State performances. On other occasions the
works of Rossini, Auber, and Donizetti have afforded the
Queen infinite pleasure.

One of the most magnificent gala performances the
Queen ever attended was given at Her Majesty’s Theatre
in 1855 when the Emperor Napoleon III. and the Empress
Eugenie were paying a State visit to this country. The
opera given was F idelio. It was during the Crimean War,
and the Emperor of the French was much struck by the
peculiar fact that the entwined initials of the four Royal
names, N. E. V. A., spelt Neva, and remarked on this to

the Queen. ‘

OF THE QUEEN 19:

Her Majesty’s own talent for art has always made her
very warm-hearted towards those who practise music'as
a profession. She entertained a sincere admiration for
Sir Michael Costa, Lablache, and for Mrs. Anderson, her
own and her childrens’ music mistress. It was “Andy”
who was present—giving a music lesson to one of the
younger Princesses—when the Princess Royal, in the act
of sending a letter to her fiancé, the Crown Prince Frederick
of Prussia, caught the muslin sleeve of her gown alight
and was severely burned on the right arm. Mrs. Ander-
son’s husband the Master of the Queen’s private band,
was of great assistance to Her Majesty at the time the
splendid new organs were selected and built up in St.
George’s Hall, Windsor, and in the New Concert Hall,
Buckingham Palace.

Since those lights of other days have faded out, the
Queen has admitted Madame Albani to a near friendship.
She frequently sends for her to Court, and dearly loves to
hear her sing the ballads and arias that were popular fifty
years ago. At the same time Her Majesty is not averse to
more modern music. She has derived immense pleasure
from Faust, while of Carmen she is quite fond. Many of
Sir Arthur Sullivan’s light operas she also likes, but Wagner
has found little or no favour with the Queen.

Other musicians whom the Sovereign liked to have about
her were Signor Tosti, who, until the Duchess’ death, used
to go for an hour every evening to St. James’s Palace and
sing and play to the aged Duchess of Cambridge ; and also
Miss Jessie Ferrari, the clever daughter of an able father.
Miss Ferrari taught Princess Henry of Battenberg to sing,
and when the Court is at Windsor is always a frequent visitor
. to the Queen’s private apartments. Here, until recently, she
accompanied the Queen in her singing and played duets
with her.

192 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Every piece of music, that is worthy of the name, is
always sent to the Queen, who listens and criticises, while
Princess Henry—-who is a fine pianist and organist—or a
Maid of Honour plays and sings.

The Queen’s taste in music is excellent, while her
knowledge enables her to sift the imitation from the
original. Mere noise and tuneless vapourings have, how-
ever, never found favour with Her Majesty.

It is scarcely the Queen’s fault that her education and
training in painting should not have been of so exceedingly
high an order as her cultivation in music.

The great masters of colour and form were all dead at
the time the Queen’s teaching began, and for over half a
century none arose to fill their vacant places. Yet that as
a child she must have had considerable taste in pictorial
art is shown by the delicate sketch of a girl she made
under the direction of her drawing master, Westall, in her
tenth year, and which she gave on his last birthday to her
uncle, George IV. During her girlhood she also made a
number of most delightful drawings and sketches, many of
them showing a great feeling for humour.

It was noticeable that after her marriage her taste and
style in drawing altered. Prince Albert was himself an
excellent artist and faithful delineator, and many of his
works in pencil, crayon, and colour, that hang in the
Queen’s private rooms, are charming. But an element of
Teutonism flavoured all his pictorial work, and under his
guidance Her Majesty lost some of the freedom and ease
of her style.

Early in her married life, the Queen and Prince COnsort,
under the tutilage of Thomas Landseer, R.A., a brother of
Sir Edwin Landseer, and an able etcher, took up etching,
and amused themselves by reproducing their own and each
other’s drawing of their children and pet animals. The

mam a-mv

 

 

OF THE QUEEN 193

little etchings which, though small and slight, were
exceedingly clever, and impressions from the plates of the
Royal artists were highly prized by those fortunate friends
to whom they were sometimes presented. At the same
time the Queen had a strenuous objection to any of her
work being exhibited or in any way made public.

A great scandal ensued therefore when in 1848 a man
called Jasper Tomsett Judge, who had been picking up a
living in Windsor as a journalist, announced an Exhibition
' of some fifty or sixty etchings by the Queen and Prince
Consort, and went so far as to circulate a catalogue of the
pictures. Her Majesty was greatly annoyed, and the
fellow was only stayed by an injunction obtained in the
High Courts, on affidavits sworn by Prince Albert and by
Mr. Brown, the Queen’s printer at Windsor, who had been
entrusted with the printing of the etchings, and from whose
works a dishonest printer had stolen the impressions.

Three or four years ago a portfolio of etchings was sold
in Dublin for a few shillings that proved to be the work of
the Queen and Prince Albert. They were those that the
Queen had once given to her friend, Lady Charlemont.

The Queen’s choice of foreign portrait painters to
perpetuate her own and her relations’ features has been
canvassed for years. As a matter of fact, Her Majesty was
forced by lack of native talent to patronise the Winter-
halters, and Professor von Angeli. The habit once
contracted has not been entirely broken through, though
Her Majesty possesses scores of portraits and pictures by
Englishmen and Scotchmen, and has herself often sat to
English painters.

Whenever it was possible the Queen gave commissions to
her '7 own subjects. A beautiful summer-house in the
grounds of Buckingham Palace was, in 1843, decorated
with eight fine panels in fresco, and the artists chosen to

I4

194 THE PRIVATE LIFE

paint these pictures, which illustrated Milton’s “Comus,”
were Sir Edwin Landseer, Sir William Ross, Dyce, East-
lake, Maclise, Leslie, Stanfield, and Uwins. The Queen
watched the work with the deepest interest, and would
frequently indicate an effect she wished produced.

At Windsor, almost all the leading modern painters are
represented, and Her Majesty had an unfeigned admiration
for the talents of the late Sir Frederick Leighton and the
late Sir John Millais.

Of sketching, the Queen was till recently very fond, and
she never started on the shortest of walks or pony-back
rides without her sketch-book. In this simple fashion the
Queen has accumulated a vast store of memorials of every
place she has ever visited. Her attempts at portraiture are
excellent. Many of her faithful gillies and maids have
been her sitters. _

In clay the Queen at one time showed very considerable
talent, and it has always been a matter of regret that such
a decided ability for modelling as she undoubtedly
possessed should, for absolute lack of time, have been
perforce neglected.

Her great artistic feelings and her extraordinary capa-
cities for performance have been transmitted to most of
her children. The Empress Frederick is a very good
painter indeed, and a beautiful pianist. The Duke of
Coburg’s capabilities with the violin are as well known as
are Princess Louise’s with the mallet and chisel. The
late Duke of Albany was a splendid musician, and
composed a great deal, and Princess Henry of Battenberg
sketches, acts, composes, sings, and plays.

OF THE QUEEN 195

CHAPTER XXIV
THE QUEEN’S PRIVATE HOUSES
Osborne

HERE is no doubt that the happiest hours of the
Queen’s long and glorious reign have been spent in
the quiet country retreats she, by wise economy and care,
was able to purchase for herself, and amid the simple
sanctity of family life. When all is said and done, Her
Majesty iS but flesh and blood, nerves and heart, like the
humblest and most irresponsible of her subjects, and it
must at times have been nothing but the Short intervals of
repose she was able to Snatch at Balmoral or Osborne which
enabled her to bear with such grand courage and wonderful
self-restraint the heat and burden of that long day which is,
even yet, not finished.
Very soon after the Queen’s marriage, She made up her
”mind that she must have some home of her very own,
where, beneath the Shade of clustering trees, and accom-
panied only by the song of birds, Her Majesty could cast
aside the splendour of Court life, forget for a time Prime
Ministers and Privy Councils, and give full vent to that
tender love for her husband and that maternal solicitude
for her young family which have been the two most beautiful
traits in a character ever “pure womanly.”

196 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Before everything, the young Queen, whose training as a
child had been entirely domestic, and the Prince Consort
had the most simple of tastes, while their affection and
appreciation of Nature’s fairest works was both mutual and
genuine. But greatly as they admired and enhanced the
beauties of Royal Windsor, the Queen and the Prince could
never forget that the great country retreat of kings and
courtiers was regulated by Public Departments which re-
duced life there to the semblance of a vast hotel instead of
a “ home,” the love of which is so strongly imbued in those
who have English or German blood in their veins. Her
Majesty soon made her feelings on this important subject
known among the more intimate members of her immediate
circle. She wished to buy Norris Castle, but the price asked
was in her mind prohibitive. It was on Sir Robert Peel,
whom by that time the Queen had come to regard as a tried
friend and most trusty servant, that the honour fell of first
bringing the estate of Osborne in the Isle of Wight before the
notice of the Queen and her husband. Its recommenda-
tions were many. It was not too far removed from London
and the various Governmental offices, yet it was so retired,
in fact almost unknown to the majority of people, that
among its shady walks and leafy groves the Queen would
easily obtain the privacy and retirement she so ardently
longed for. The bathing and boating in the vicinity were
excellent, and the panoramic views across the Solent to
Portsmouth, and the great roadstead of Spithead and farther?
down the Channel to where the swelling downs of Devonshire
rose palely through the summer mists made the little spot an
ideal marine home to replace the Pavilion at Brighton, which
her Majesty disliked so intensely.

On Sir Robert Peel’s recommendation, therefore, Osborne
House and the adjacent grounds, covering some eight
hundred acres, were bought from Lady Isabella Blatchford,

OF THE QUEEN 197

the purchase being completed on the 25th March, 1844. It
was soon found, however, that the existing mansion house
was totally inadequate to the requirements of the Queen,
her household, and a rapidly increasing family. It was at
once pulled down, and on the 23rd of June, 1844, the Royal
couple laid the first stone of what was afterwards destined to
be the happiest and most favoured of their houses. So
determined were the Queen and the Prince Consort that
Osborne should be their own, in creation as well as in
possession, that the Prince himself planned and designed
the house, subject always to the approval of the Queen and
to the technical advice of Mr. Thomas Cubitt, for whose
opinions the Prince had sincere respect.

Osborne House, as the Prince Consort designed and
knew it, took six years to build, although the pavilion at the
north-west end of the pile, where are situated the Royal
apartments and the nurseries, was pushed forward and
completed within a year. Prince Albert and Mr. Toward,
the land steward of Osborne, under him, were also some five
years in laying out and re-arranging to the fullest advantage
the lovely grounds, which have more than repaid the time,
trouble, and money expended on them. Since that time,
Osborne House and its environs have been considerably
enlarged. A new wing, the wonderful Indian Room, and
the Private Chapel, or Prayer Room, as it is called, have
been added to the mansion itself, while the manor and
farms of Barton, various cottages with their grounds, and
much woodland have increased Her Majesty’s holding in the
Isle of Wight to five thousand acres, extending the property
by the seashore to within a very short distance of Ryde,
while inland the celebrated Osborne preserves impinge
nearly upon Newport. When the Queen first acquired her
delightful new toy, she wrote to her uncle Leopold, King of
the Belgians, “ It sounds so pleasant to have a place of our

198 THE PRIVATE LIFE

own, quiet and retired, and free from all Woods and Forests
and other charming Departments, which really are the plague
of one’s life.” A few days later she again wrote, “It is
impossible to see a prettier place with woods and valleys and
points of View which would be beautiful anywhere, but when
these are combined with the sea (to which the woods grow
down) and a bush which is quite private, it is really every-
thing one could wish.”

A charming lodge of freestone, and gates which are
jealously boarded up, separate the grounds proper of
Osborne House from the road. Once within, a view
that is almost tropical in luxuriance of growth and colour
of flowers meets the eye. A very fine avenue here starts
for the House, but a sharp turn in it is cleverly arranged to
obstruct all view of the mansion till the leafy road runs
into the straight, when a fine panorama is unfolded.

All around is a most beautiful wood which frames the
velvety lawns, the terraces, and gardens of Osborne House.
The one break in the green belt is of a brilliant blue and
silver. It is the Solent, alive with white-winged yachts and
huge steamships, and in its turn bounded by the misty
outline of the Hampshire shore. In such a fair setting is
the Queen’s house proudly set.

The house of freestone is in the Italian style of archi-
tecture, judiciously modified to the exigencies of the English
climate. It is of pleasantly varied elevation, and has many
wings and facades, which lend to the building an air of
light picturesqueness, that might not perhaps be considered
quite orthodox by sticklers for conventionality as exempli-
fied by English domestic architecture. The features that
naturally first catch the eye are the Clock Tower, 90 feet
in height, and bearing a clock, the face of which measures
8 feet across, and the Flag Tower, I 12 feet high. This latter
fine campanile, which is at our right hand, rears its graceful

OF THE QUEEN 199

outline above the Pavilion, where are situated, on the
ground—floor, the dining-room and the Royal billiard-room,
adjoining the drawing-room. Above these are the Queen’s
private sitting-room, overlooking the Solent and the lovely
view beyond, and her bed and dressing-rooms. On the
top floor are the Royal nurseries, once in the occupation
of the Queen’s own children, but now given over to the use
of I-I.R.H. Princess Henry of Battenberg, who herself has
a fine suite of rooms in the New Wing. The three windows
of the Queen’s private sitting-room are set in a bay, and
may be distinguished from all others by the balcony before,
and the green Venetian canopy above them.

On the same level runs a graceful, open colonnade, along
which, and without the fatigue of intervening stairs, Her
Majesty can travel from her private apartments to the other
end of the house, even to the shallow staircase which leads
down to the prayer-room at the extreme left.

The entire aspect of the house, the flat roofs and low
chimneys inclosed within light balustrades, which are
pointed at intervals with gracefully carved urns and vases,
all suggest azure skies and southern suns, an effect which is
strongly intensified by the marble groups scattered amidst
the foliage, the statues standing in niches, and by a chance
glimpse of the Queen herself, sitting in the open air, having
tea in her favourite seat—the upper alcove. This spot is
at the left end of the house, and the daintily spread table
and two of the chairs are curiously carved from huge
blocks of English coal. From this elevation Her Majesty
enjoys in the summer a perfect view of the extraordinary
beauties of the Upper and Lower Terraces, the flower-beds
of which, cut boldly in the emerald turf, literally blaze
with brilliant bloom. The principal features which attract
notice are the curiously black hairy stem of a grand China
palm, a beautiful model in bronze of “ Eos,” that graceful

200 THE PRIVATE LIFE

greyhound which was the Prince Consort’s constant com-
panion 3 a spirited group comprising a chubby boy struggling
with a swan, and mythological figures of winged animals,
slim greyhounds couchant, and innumerable tazza-shaped
vases filled with growing flowers, which light up the long
sweeping line of the fretted balustrades.

From the Lower Terrace you must admire the effect of
a charmingly copied Italian percola, over which a broad-
leaved vine luxuriates in summer. No prettier sight,
however, can be seen than the pillars swarming with
heavy-headed roses of cream colour, red, and white, while
all around bloom, against their glistening dark leaves,
great masses of crimson and white camellias, and in the
distance sparkling fountains spring from the slender throat
of a bronze swan, and from the half-opened buds of
water lilies. Guarding a flight of twelve stone steps,
leading from the Upper to the Lower Terrace, are two
noble stone lions. Standing between them is an alcove
quaintly decorated with cockle shells, and the Valley Walk,
hedged with choice evergreens of many kinds and many
countries, in large square boxes. They were planted by
various members of the Royal Family, to celebrate, as the
aflixed labels indicate, May 24th, 185 I. Here, too, facing
the fountain, is the Lower Alcove, sacred to the Royal
children’s tea parties, when the weather is too wet for
these functions to be held on the sea shore or on the
lawn.

A little farther on is a large cypress tree. It faces the
Solent and is backed by some sheep penned within hurdles.
Here, also, Her Majesty frequently has a fancy, in fine
weather, to drink her tea of an afternoon.

The Queen’s entrance to Osborne House is less imposing
than that at Windsor, and scarcely so picturesque as that at
Balmoral. It lies in a sheltered nook between the two

OF THE QUEEN 201

wings. Before it is a great granite-edged circle, filled with
heather from the Scottish mdbrs. The walls of the hall are
painted to imitate marble. On the left of the entrance is
the Queen’s comfortable lift. In the centre of the well of
the bright staircase is alarge marble group, “ The Amazons,”
and at the foot of the pedestal is a brass gun taken at
Tel-el-Kebir and presented to Her Majesty by Lord Alcester
in 1882. On the right, facing the first flight of stairs, is a
low memorial altar of yellow and green-veined marbles,
relieved by ormulu wreaths supporting three busts, the
Prince Consort and his two elder sons, which are respec-
tively dated 187.1, I875, and 1879.

On the first floor are the Queen’s Private Rooms, con-
sisting of a sitting-room, bed and dressing rooms, and an
apartment for the wardrobe women. On the staircase, just
above this interesting suite, is a statue of heroic size of the
Prince Consort in Roman costume.

Her Majesty’s private sitting-room is lofty and large, and
almost square in shape, save where the curving bay, which
frames the three long windows, breaks the straight lines.
It is very light and cheerful, for an unimpeded View across
the sea is not veiled with voluminous curtains or shut out
by heavy blinds. The impression of the room is one of
extreme simplicity and homeliness. The walls, instead of
being as at Windsor, panelled in costly silk damask, are
plainly painted a pale, restful green. The ceiling is un-
decorated, save for a large plaster centre ornament, and
a very simple cornice, which is composed of the conven—
tional “egg and dart” and “ rope” borders, between which
runsva light floral scroll. The furniture is upholstered in a
very ordinary green and red flowered chintz, of a pattern
which has been a favourite with the Queen for many years.
The window curtains and valances are of the same material,
lined with green silk, and edged with a pompom fringe.

202 THE PRIVATE LIFE

The floor is covered with Indian matting of the chessboard
pattern. The effect of it all is very fresh and soothing.

The small mantelpiece, framing a highly-polished steel
grate, which glows all Christmas through with the beech-log
fires the Queen so loves, is of white marble, and severely
plain, while there is nothing distinctive about the large
square mirror which fills the space above. The clock is
square, and supports a well-modelled copy of Johann von'
Dannecker’s “Ariadne and the Panther.” To the right
and left of it on the broad mantelshelf are four vases
containing flowers, some half—dozen caries dc vz'site in
frames, a pair of five-light candelabras, and two small white
busts. These are somewhat dwarfed by a magnificent head
and shoulders in white marble of the late Prince Consort,
which stands on a tall pedestal at the left of the fireplace
and before which is always laid a Chaplet of fresh flowers.

Between the windows and the fireplace are the Queen’s
two brass-edged writing-tables, which are placed alongside
each other and are flanked by two smaller stands. One of
these holds the stationery case of black-edged note—paper,
stamped very unobtrusively with Her Majesty’s cipher,
V.R.I. 3 the other is laden with some dozen books of
reference and directories, all bound in green morocco and
stamped in gold.

Beneath are tiers holding the correspondence and despatch
boxes, which indicate that even in her country house the
Queen is never quite free from affairs of State and private
business connected with her great fortune and large family.
In front of the writing—tables stand two ordinary drawing-room
chairs, one of which is redeemed from Spartan simplicity by
the large round footstool before it, and a little square cushion
suspended across the back by ribbon loops. . AbOve hangs,
by three chains, a triple lamp of ormulu and china, which '
throws a brilliant light by night over a large collection of

OF THE QUEEN 203

photographs, miniatures, and statuettes, which are necessary
adjuncts to the Queen’s writing-tables wherever she may be.

Among the fascinating litter, which would well repay a
lengthened examination, places of honour are assigned to a
large, full-length likeness of the Prince Consort, and a very
sweet picture of the Duchess of Kent set in an oval frame.
A large round table near at hand bears, amid a host of
minor objects, a huge vase of flowers, which as often as
not are from the fields and hedgerows. The grand piano
is placed between the left-hand wall and the writing-tables.
A bowl of flowers, a pair of candlesticks, shaded with dainty
butterflies, and many photographs in plain folding leather
frames, are scattered over its broad top. Beneath the key-
board stands a music stool of the old-fashioned “screw”
type, which still survives here, though at Windsor, as we
have seen, Her Majesty’s dislike of change has been over-
come in this respect.

There are about fifty pictures on the wall, two-thirds of
which are interesting from a purely family point of view, for
they are principally portraits, at various ages, of her children,
her sons and daughters-in—law, and relations, most of them-'
being from the brushes of the two Winterhalters and H. von
Angeli.

To enumerate the many small tables and etagéres, with
their constantly changing burden of books which are being
read, art portfolios under inspection, and music in course of
being tried over, would be to stamp with perpetuity the only
features in the Queen’s life which are evanescent.

Her Majesty’s bedroom is a large airy apartment by no
means ‘ overcrowded with furniture, all of which is very
homely and substantial, the wardrobes being of mahogany
and the chairs and couches covered with the same patterned
chintz as in the sitting-room. The walls are painted salmon
pink. The most important article of furniture is the Queen’s

204 THE PRIVATE LIFE

bed, which faces the windows, and, like that at Buckingham
Palace, is large and almost square, with a large heavy fringed
canopy over the head. Above the pillows is a memorial
wreath, beneath which is aframed posthumous portrait of the -
Prince Consort. Hanging almost in the centre is the bell-
rope, and to right and left are two watch—pockets. At the
foot of the bed, which is covered with a down quilt, is a
large sofa. To the left of the bed is a door, above which
hangs Grissi’s picture of “Christ Breaking Bread,” and
immediately about the door the two walls are principally
devoted to sacred pictures, the most noticeable among
which are “The Madonna and Child,” by William Dyce, R.A.,
and a pencil sketch of Raphael’s most beautiful “Virgin and
Child.” On the right of the bed, hanging above a large
chest of drawers, is F. van Eycken’s panel “L’Abondance.”
Next to it is Winterhalter’s “ Cousins,” and above the fire-
place a large picture by G. Yager of “The Entombment of
Christ.”

The mantelpiece itself is of white marble, with a very
narrow shelf on which are ranged eight small busts, in
the centre of which stands a carriage clock. To the right
and left of the hearth are a portrait of the Prince Consort
in armour, and a large tapestry screen.

The toilette appliances at Osborne are pretty, but very
simple in design and pattern.

The dining-room which invariably is used by Her
Majesty is a commodious apartment looking south-east over
the Upper Terrace towards the Clock Tower and the Vinery.
The big bay-window faces the green marble mantelpiece
and sheds ample light on a handsome clock and pair of
bronzes by Deniére, of Bruges, and two quaint vases,
illustrating the fable of “The Fox and the Stork.” The
room is furnished entirely in mahogany, and contains, in
addition to a round table and a veritable crowd of chairs,

OF THE QUEEN 295

five full-sized Sideboards and an old-fashioned wine-cooler,
all supported on feet formed of winged lions.

At the far end from the door is the beautiful Winterhalter,
showing the Prince Consort in Court dress with the Queen
and their first five children. Another really delightful
picture is that painted in 1844 of the Duchess of Kent. It
shows her as a sweet-faced old lady in a poke bonnet,
walking down a country lane, and is full of atmosphere and
colour. Princess Beatrice in 186 3, by Lambert, wears half-
mourning for her father, whose miniature she holds in her
hand. A large picture of the late Emperor of Germany and
the Empress Frederick with their children, represents the
present Emperor wearing an ample blue sash, and Prince
Henry of Prussia in a pink cap and holding a coral and
bells. Princess Louise with the Princes Arthur and Leopold
are in a picture by Winterhalter, painted in 18 50 ; and
there are family groups of the Grand Duke and Grand
Duchess of Hesse, and the Prince and Princess of Wales
with Prince Eddie in a Scotch kilt.

The Drawing-room is a truly delightful apartment with
1a large bay-window looking on to the East Terrace. The
walls are distempered in.a 'cool shade of blue 3 the doors
are painted in white and gold ; and the ceiling, like that in
the Billiard-room, is Pompeian in decoration. Amid such
surroundings, the innumerable pictures and the amber-
covered damask furniture show to extreme advantage. The
grand piano and the wall cabinets are of tulip wood, inlaid
in plaques of Wedgwood jasper ware mounted in ormulu.
The mantelpiece is of plain white marble, and is sur-
mounted by a French clock in gilt and bronze, and four
good specimens of ivory and ormulu work. .. It is flanked
at either side by two vases of immense value. They are of
glass and gold, are five feet high, and, as a rule, are hidden
behind the doors of the cabinets which contain them. A

206 THE PRIVATE LIFE

dainty white screen with eight brackets decorated with gold,
stands always before the fire. The chandeliers of brilliant
cut glass, hang from the ceiling, and are always filled with
wax candles. Two pillars of glass, eight feet high, which
stand on either side of the bay-window, sometimes support
oil lamps. A characteristic break is made in the wall
decoration by six cabinets full of books of many nations
and all kinds. Among them figure Pearson’s Magazine,
Bronté’s and Dickens’ works, “Mountain, Loch, and Glen,”
and the “Vicar of Wakefield ” in French. Most of the
books are in the Queen’s favourite binding of dark green
morocco, and have her cipher in the centre of the
cover.

Running at right angles with the Drawing-room, and
only separated from it by handsome pillars, is the Billiard-
room, a magnificent apartment, which, like the Grand
Corridor that runs through the house from end to end,
contains a quantity of striking statuary.

Landseer’s most famous picture, “The Deer Pass,” hangs
in the Council-room, a beautiful apartment overlooking
the Upper Terrace. The Indian Room, with its exquisite
carvings and fairy—like sense of whiteness, is well-known to
the public through the medium of the illustrated papers.
The bedrooms above it have proved a valuable addition
to the accommodation of Osborne House.

Here in this restful domain the Queen spends many
happy hours. There are eight miles of drives on the
estate, and the cottages—in reality delightful villas—are
occupied by members of the Royal Family and the Court.
The bathing in Osborne Bay is excellent and the pheasant
shooting at Christmas time is adequate for Her Majesty’s
guests. In the summer the Queen goes every day to the K
tennis courts (one of which is asphalted) to watch her
children and grandchildren play.

OF THE QUEEN 207

Two charming proofs of the Queen’s remembrances for
all kinds and conditions of friends are in the Osborne
grounds. One is a granite seat erected in memory of John
Brown ; on it is inscribed——

MR. JOHN BROWN,
8:}; December, I826. 27!]; .Mare/z, 1883.

“A truer, nobler, trustier heart, more loving and more loyal, never
beat within a human breast.”-—BYRON.

Behind this is a granite table set squarely in the green
turf, on which is written——

WALDMANN.

The very favourite little dachshund of Queen Victoria.
Who brought him from Baden, April, 1872.
Dzled,july IIt/z, I881.

 

208 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER XXV
THE QUEEN'S PRIVATE HOUSES (continued)

Balmoral

T was on September 8th, 1848, that the Queen first

saw Balmoral. The estate had been purchased on
medical advice as a healthful and restful resort for Her
Majesty, who even then had shown a decided rheumatic
tendency. Balmoral is the driest spot in all Scotland, and
as such was deemed a suitable residence for the Royal
Family. Her Majesty was at once charmed with the little
castle, which was of granite, white-washed (“ harled ” is the
Scotch expression), and with many small turrets. The
accommodation was, however, very cramped, and it seems
impossible to imagine the Queen putting up for so long
with such lack of space and comfort. The hall was very
small, with a billiard-room and dining-room out of it ,' one
sitting-room, a bedroom and a “little dressing-room”
formed the private suite of the Queen and her husband.
The Royal children, with their governess, were lodged in
three rooms. The ladies lived below, and the gentlemen
upstairs. The accommodation for the servants was equally
poor. So wild and natural was the demesnevof Balmoral
in those days that on the very evening of the Queen’s first
arrival there the red deer came down to feed quite close to
the house.

OF THE QUEEN 209

In September, 1853, the Queen, amid her tenantry and

without any great show, laid the foundation stone of the
new house. It is of light granite, in the old Scotch Baronial
style. The handsome tower that tops it is 100 feet high,
while many smaller turrets break the outline agreeably.
/ The Dee runs right under the Castle windows, and, indeed, V
the whole building has been arranged and constructed to
catch all the finest vieWs and the fairest weather. The
Prince Consort took the greatest pains with the Balmoral
gardens, preferring rather to rearrange Nature’s handiwork,
_ than to replace it by merely artificial devices. The result
is admirable, for though flowers bloom rather late in those
parts, the foliage of the evergreens and trees is glorious.
The splendid arborial growth is so managed that every drive
and walk is well sheltered from the cold winds.

In the West Garden stands the Eagle Fountain, given to
the Queen by William I. of Germany, when still King of
Prussia. Round one angle of the Castle is a beautiful little
pleasance, encircled with a dense shrubbery. Here in very
fine weather Her 'Majesty breakfasts and transacts her
morning business. At other times she goes straight from
her private apartments to a charming cottage, near the
house, where she spends the morning hours. It was
originally designed for a gardener’s use, but Her Majesty so
liked it that it was transmogrified for her. It is, like so
many Scotch cottages, built of pine-wood and plaster, and
contains three rooms. The writing-room is hung entirely
with the Balmoral tartan, a plaid of grey and red designed
by Prince Albert, and quite distinct from the Victoria tartan,
in which there is a large admixture of white. It is this
same room, which is so arranged that on fine days one end
of it can be thrown open, so that the Queen can get all the
air without risk of damp or draught.

The interior of Balmoral Castle is extremely simple——

15

2Io THE PRIVATE LIFE

even homely—and in many eyes seems to lack diversity of
colour. Nearly everywhere, save in some of the bedrooms,
which are papered, the walls are painted in the pale, cold
tints which were so fashionable in the ’ 50’s. Except in the
Queen’s private rooms and in the drawing-room, where
hang several water-colour sketches from the brushes of the
Royal Family, engravings and photographs form the pic-
torial decoration. There are stags’ heads everywhere, and
in the big flagged entrance hall, which is used by Her
Majesty, is a boar’s head, once belonging to an animal shot
by the Prince Consort in Germany. A life-size statue of the
Prince, in Highland dress, by Theed, stands in an alcove of
the hall. The corridor, which goes through the house, is
quite lined with busts, among them being likenesses of the
late Emperor Frederick, and the late Dukes of Albany and
Hesse, Dr. Norman Macleod, and other faithful servants of
the Queen. In fact, Balmoral, more than any other of Her
Majesty’s houses, breathes almost exclusively of the past, and
for its Royal owner must be a house of memories.

The Drawing-room is quaintly old-world, and exceedingly
comfortable. Over the floor of square pine blocks is laid a
carpet of the Royal Stuart tartan, while the furniture is
upholstered with, and the curtains are made from, Victoria
tartan. Many tables, a fine grand piano, and a profusion
of large chairs are conspicuous in the apartment. That the
Queen likes the Stuart tartan is evinced by the fact that it
is used as the carpet pattern laid in most of the bedrooms
at Balmoral.

Her Majesty, when in her Highland home, generally
lunches and dines in the Library. It is under her private
apartments, and looks on to the Terrace. It is quite small,
and about nine people only can find room at the table. A
few of the Queen’s favourite books justify the name of the
room, which also contains ample Sideboards. Strips of

OF THE QUEEN zrr

crumb cloth on the floor round the table indicate a .truly
Scotch carefulness, and a desire to save the carpet from the
wear of the footmen’s tread.

The Household, as a rule, use the Dining-room of the
Castle. It is entered from the corridor that leads to the
Equerries’ entrance. It is very plainly furnished, but con-
tains a few interesting engravings—early portraits of the
Queen and Prince Albert, and one of the Queen on pony-
back, after her widowhood. _

The big Ball-room is a fine place built of pine, and hung
with tartan. Here all the theatrical-performances ever given
at Balmoral have taken place, but as a rule the little concerts
of which Her Majesty is so fond are held quite unostenta-
tiously in the Drawing~room. About these concerts it is
the custom of the Queen’s Scotch neighbours to consult
Her Majesty’s wishes, and to “put up” among themselves
such artists as she may wish to hear. With her dear friend,
Madame Albani, staying at Mar, and certain singers and
violinists and pianists visiting at houses near by, a charming
concert is easily and frequently arranged and much enjoyed
by‘Her Majesty. A shallow double staircase into the Ball-
room connects the apartments with the Queen’s private
suite. In the winter, unless the Court is in mourning,
the Queen’s Factor bids all the tenants and employés,
in Her Majesty’s name, to a big ball in this splendid
apartment.

The Service-room, where in later years the Queen has
chosen to worship on Sundays, is very plain, the walls being
of dark Balloch Buie pinewood and the furniture seated with
dark leather. Princess Henry of Battenberg generally plays
a small organ. The service here is always Presbyterian, and
the Queen communicates in the Scotch fashion, even as she .
used to do in the little kirk at Crathie, when two long,
narrow tables, covered with white linen, were placed the full

2 12 THE PRIVATE LIFE

length of the building, and all those who could sit together
at them communicated at the same time. The Queen has
been but little to Crathie the last few years, for she was
driven from her quiet worship there, as she was from the
pretty church at Whippingham, by crowds of vulgar and
noisy sightseers. Almost the last time that Her Majesty
partook of the Holy Communion there, she was much
shocked and annoyed by the conduct of a woman, who,
after joining in the Sacrament with the Queen (as she was
free to do), stood in the aisle and swept an obtrusive
courtesy as Her Majesty walked quietly back to her pew in
the gallery.

The great features of Balmoral are the Shiels and the
Cairns. Of the Shiels, or “ bothies,” there are four. The
nearest to the Castle is the Queen’s Shiel, then comes the
Danzig Shiel, the Glassalt Shiel, and that favourite retreat
of all, the Shiel of Alt-na-guithasach, where the Queen and
Prince Consort, with one lady and a few servants, would go
every year for some days’ real retirement. All are lined
with pinewood and upholstered with tartan, a few pairs of .
antlers and some photos and engravings forming the homely
decoration.

Of cairns, a truly Scotch institution, there are many.
Each child of the Queen has one, and every marriage or
death is identically commemorated. Other memorials at
Balmoral include a lovely cross of grey granite to the
memory of Princess Alice. The well-known bronze statue
of Prince Albert in Highland costume, and with a hound
at his side, stands on a rough granite base on the eastern
side of the Castle.

It is here, at the foot of this memorial, that on every
recurring 26th of August (the lamented Printe’s birthday)
the Queen, with her family and Court, her servants and
tenantry, meet together, amid the most impressive silence,

OF THE QUEEN 213

and with bared heads, drink to the memory of the
dead.

Nearly opposite this statue is the bronze figure of the
Queen, presented to her by her Scotch tenantry in the
Jubilee year. Not far off, and amid charming flower-beds,
is an obelisk to Prince Albert’s memory. There is also a
statue of Mr. John Brown.

One of the Queen’s favourite morning drives in her chair
is along a shady forest road on the east side of Craig Gowan.
Here is a memorial seat of fine grey granite, dedicated to
Prince Leopold, who died in 1884. In winter, this is ‘
carefully boxed in, to keep it from frost.

It is at Balmoral that the Queen is most at home. In
every cottage and but for miles round she is regarded as a
personal friend, for in her hours of leisure she has made the
sorrow and joys of her people her own. Everybody can
point to a “gift” from the Queen, many, indeed, owe
everything they possess to this most ideal “ Lady Boun—
tiful.” ' '

The list of the Queen’s private houses is not limited to
Osborne and Balmoral. Claremont, Abergeldie Castle and
Manse, Frogmore and others are hers. But they are merely
incidental, and not material to her private life, and do not
bear upon them the impress of Her Majesty’s strong
personality.

214 THE PRIVATE LIFE

CHAPTER XXVI

THE QUEEN AS A \VORKER

HERE is, perhaps, no better definition of the
difference between work and play than that contained
in Mark Twain’s inimitable incident in which the boys
come and jeer at Tom Sawyer, whose aunt has sent him to
whitewash the fence. The more they jeer, the harder Tom
works, and at last he jeers back at them for supposing he is
working. He laughs at their insinuation that he has to do
the whitewashing. He is only, he tells them, doing it for
fun—he hasn’t got to do it. The result is that one by one
the boys take off their coats and fall to playing the new
game of whitewashing the fence.

N o doubt most of my readers would think it fine fun to
be the Queen, and would take great pleasure in doing her
work instead of their own, but it would be a very diflerent
story if they had got to do it 3 but, as they have not, it is
not very easy to give an idea of the enormous amount of
hard work Her Majesty has to perform. It may be as well
therefore to commence by giving a few figures which may
enable the reader,'if he will keep them in his head, to
realise that the following account is not’ a record of
pleasure, but downright hard work, which no‘City clerk or
typewriter in a commercial house after the first week

OF THE QUEEN . 215

would undertake for any salary you could offer him, to
say nothing of doing it every day, without a single regular
holiday, for fifty years. O

In 1848, for instance, 28,000 despatches were sent from
and received at the Foreign Office. Every one of these
was closely studied, discussed, advised on, as well as
annotated by the Queen. It must be remembered that an
equal number emanated from the Home and Colonial
Offices. This is 'over an average of 230 a day, and of
course there were other things to'do as well. A special
Act of Parliament had to be passed in 1862 to slightly
mitigate the Sovereign’s labour in signing commissions for
the Army and Navy, as in that year it was found the Queen
was still signing commissions which, since 1854, had got
16,000 in arrears.

It may be said that these figures do not represent a
normal time in the life of Her Majesty. The answer to
this is, that week in, week out, the work of the Sovereign is
pretty much the same, and has been since as a girl of
eighteen she came to the throne.

Any lines written of the Queen as a worker must of
necessity be somewhat a fésumé of those various phases of
her everyday life which are mentioned in fuller details
in this work. Yet it may not be without interest to
collect and review them. No greater delusion exists than
that the Queen at any period of her life ever indulged
herself in idleness, or even in that modified form of “doing
nothing” that is more charitably called leisure. Her
surroundings and all the influence that was brought to
bear on her from her baby days upwards urged her on to
work, work, work. During the extreme delicacy of her
early girlhood, when it was rumoured that the little
Princess “ Drina ” (as she chose to call herself) would never
live to grow up; during the many enforced retirements of

216 THE PRIVATE LIFE

her married life; during the first sad years of her widow-
hood and the many terrible domestic griefs she had endured
since, Her Majesty’s one watchword has been “work.”
That it has been no empty phrase is well known by her
Ministers, her family, and her Household.

There is no doubt that at the time of the Queen’s birth,
her mother, the Duchess of Kent, felt very strongly the
responsibility of having given birth to one who stood so
nearly an heir to the throne. Thus it was that almost from
the beginning the child was taught habits of hard work,
methods of self-government. When the Princess was
only four years old her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess
of Coburg, wrote to the Duchess of Kent that one so young
should not be forced to acquire book-learning, but the little
girl’s lessons and strictly methodical mode of life were
scarcely mitigated. When still quite tiny she could speak
both German and English perfectly, and had acquired a
thorough foundation of French, Italian, and Latin.

The usual “ladylike” curriculum of studies of the first
quarter of the century was carefully laid down for the
Princess. History proved her favourite lesson, and with
intuitive quickness she studied the history of her grand-
father’s long reign and was for ever seeking information as
to the political and social improvements that had occurred
during that lengthened period. Almost exclusively under
the watchful eyes of her mother and the Baroness Lehzen,
who conducted her general education, and was always
present at the music lessons of Mrs. Anderson and during
the discourses of the famous divine, William Wilberforce,
to whom was confided the religious instruction of the young
Princess, the future Queen was brought up without the
faintest knowledge of what her position was to be.

Sir Walter Scott, who met the little girl when dining
with the Duchess of Kent, speaks of her as «being beauti-

OF THE QUEEN 217

fully educated, and so modest and simple that no one
would guess at her rank and prospective condition. Yet
the Wizard of the North insinuates that “some pigeon or
other birds of the air had carried the matter.”

How wrong was his suspicion, and how innocent was
the Princess, was afterwards shown by Baroness Lehzen
who, in a letter to the Queen in 1867, recalls the Whole
circumstances of how the knowledge of her true position
came to the young girl only six years before she ascended
the throne.

From that moment the Princess of her own accord drew
up a strict line of life to which she rigidly adhered until
that momentous day in 1837 placed her on the throne.
Within a few hours 0f hearing the news of her accession
she read an address to her Privy Council with the utmost
dignity and composure, and from that hour this young girl
of eighteen was plunged into a sea of responsibility, duty,
and hard work that might well tax the nerves and health of
the strongest man. . She at once instituted a habit of early
rising, and by the time she was ready to receive her mother
at nine o’clock breakfast she had already done an hour’s
work. Frequently during her married life, when business
pressed and her hours for outdoor exercise were curtailed,
she would ride at six o’clock for an hour before beginning
the day’s work.

The reading of. the leading papers, English and foreign,
of despatches and reports, occupied her until midday, when
she always had an' audience of her Ministers which was
frequently followed by a Privy Council. Every paper and
question has always been perused and criticised by the
Queen herself, who in her most high-spirited moments
has never permitted the slightest deviation from the hard
and fast lines of the business in hand which she had to do
herself, because the law would not allow a private secretary.

218 THE PRIVATE LIFE

A ride or a drive formed the Queen’s only relaxation in
those days, for her appearance at Ascot Races, the opera,
and theatre, partook more of the nature of duty to the
public than pleasure.

The question of her marriage soon added to her daily.
cares, but it is related of her by one who was present that
she settled the matter for herself with the same quiet dignity '
that distinguished all her other actions. She announced her
betrothal herself to the Privy Council attired in a plain
morning gown, but wearing a bracelet containing Prince
Albert’s picture. She read the declaration in a clear,
sonorous, sweet—toned voice, but her hands trembled so
excessively that it was wonderful she was able to read the
paper which she held.

After her marriage, the Queen, so far from drifting into
a leisure which would, under the circumstances, have been
excusable, worked harder than ever. Prince Albert was
devoted to music, and to please him she daily made time
to practice both her singing and playing. Her almost end~
less troubles as a housekeeper I have only space to again
refer to, and all the household reforms instituted by the
Prince added to her labours, as they were investigated by
Her Majesty down to the humblest detail. The vast alter-
ations and improvements made at Windsor Castle and
Buckingham Palace were all carried out under her own
eye and she often had to find time to inspect the various
Royal residences at Hampton, Kew, and Richmond. No
day, however long and fatiguing, passed without full entries
and most astute comment on passing events being made in
the Queen’s diary by her own hand, or without her writing
a great number of lengthy letters to all members of her
family on every conceivable subject of private interest.
Yet these were but adjuncts to a life given up to the
service of the State and came as relaxations to a mind

OF THE QUEEN 219

filled with every minute detail of Home and Foreign
policy. It is not my wish to dip into history, but I must
give some examples.

In the ’40’s Her Majesty was filled with anxiety concerning
the bad condition of English trade, and she found time to
plan and carry out many entertainments and projects to
mitigate the friction in the labour market and to alleviate
the wide-spread distress. In the ’so’s the Indian Mutiny,
and subsequently the Crimean War, laid fresh burdens on
her already over-weighted shoulders. 'And yet never for
one hour, either for reasons of sickness or pleasure, sorrow
or indolence, has the Queen failed to face or carry through .
the overwhelming duties of her worker’s life. And this, too, i
at a period when she was bearing and bringing up a larger‘"
family of children.

The immense amount of political work entailed by the
Crimean War already referred to, and simultaneous home
troubles, did not prevent the Queen from exercising her
more feminine talents, and after Florence Nightingale went
out with thirty-six other lady nurses to Scutari, the Queen
daily summoned her friends and Household to sit with her
to make every kind of wrap and garment for her sick and
dying soldiers.

Once when the Queen was in very delicate health, she
was yachting on the Irish coast, under the most trying
circumstances of stormy weather and its attendant dis-
comforts. Yet for many hours a day, the Queen sat in
the little cabin, reading, signing, and commenting on
government affairs, attending to every detail in the vast
machinery of her great kingdom, and neither for weather
nor ill health leaving one single duty unperformed.

But not only is the Queen’s work very hard, it is some-
times very painful, as may be imagined from the following
story, and is accompanied by long sleepless nights, the
result of over-wrought ,nerves.

220 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Once the Duke of Wellington brought her a death-warrant
to sign, the soldier being an incorrigible deserter. The
Queen evinced extreme reluctance to affix her signature,
and pressed the Duke for some reason for clemency. At
length the Duke admitted that the condemned man had
always earned the affection of his fellow-soldiers. The
Queen, with tears in her eyes, cried: “Oh, your Grace, I
am so pleased to hear that,” and hastily wrote “ Pardoned,
Victoria R.” across the slip of paper.

But for a strong sense of duty, the Queen would always
grant areprieve, especially in the case of women, for it is
easy to imagine the horror her refined nature feels in even
indirectly being the cause of any one’s death, and it has long
been said that the hour of any man’s hanging finds the
Queen on her knees praying for his soul.

When the condition of the Court of the Regent and
George IV. is remembered, it should not be forgotten
that the present high standard of honour, virtue, and
true goodness that prevails within the Queen’s Palaces is
entirely due to hard and very disagreeable work, and the
strictest personal supervision which the cleaning and
keeping clean of the Royal Augean stable necessitates.
Even nowadays Her Majesty finds time and energy
to overlook the Lord Chamberlain’s lists and, if need
be, to cut them down. The new regulations for the
Drawing—rooms, which have now been in operation for
three years, were due entirely to the Queen’s own action.

A glance at the COURT CIRCULAR any time during the
present reign gives no idea of the labour that is crowded
into the Queen’s waking hours. When the world reads of
the Queen driving out it naturally supposes that she is
lolling in a carriage doing nothing. Those about her,
however, know that she is more often than not making
a tour of inspection among her farms, through the scores of .

OF THE QUEEN 221

glass fruit, and flower houses, round the stables, dairies, 0r
kennels, and inquiring after the comfort and welfare of her
retainers. .All these various affairs the Queen manages her-
self with the same amount of care and thoroughness that
mark her consideration of an important debate and reply
to a question of International policy.

For many years past the Queen’s health and strength
have largely depended on her being almost perpetually in
.the open air, and it is necessity rather than choice that
obliges her to do all her morning’s work out of doors. At
Windsor the little Frogmore tea house, with its lovely sur-
roundings, is the chosen spot, and here, beneath the shade
of two magnificent evergreen oaks, the Queen’s writing-table
and despatch boxes are set out on fine mornings, while two
mounted messengers keep up perpetual communication with
the telegraph office and telephones at the Castle, and the
attendant secretary stands at her side.

The routine of the messengers when the Court is at
Balmoral is much the same as when Her Majesty is on the
Continent, allowing, of course, for a difference in the length
of the journeys. The messengers who are despatched
alternately by the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and the
Lord Chamberlain’s Office, leave London every day, except
Sunday, at 2. 30 pm, and travel straight through to
Aberdeen, whence a special train starts at 3. 50 am,
landing messengers, parcels, and papers at Ballater about
5 o’clock. Balmoral is reached at 6 o’clock, and all papers
are taken to the Private Secretary, who opens and arranges
everything in readiness for the Queen’s consideration by IO
o’clock, by which time the Minister in Attendance is pre-
pared to go to the Queen when he is sent for. All important
papers are ready for the return messenger by 2.30 pm. and
the Queen is then free to discuss and answer her own
voluminous correspondence, unless, indeed, very pressing

2 22 THE PRIVATE LIFE

affairs of State demand further work. At Windsor the
Queen has a double set of messengers going between
the Castle and the heads of the State department in
London, and when there she not infrequently works
before retiring to rest, though this is now done against
the advice of her body physicians. The Osborne posts
and messengers, as the following Official list shows,
leave little leisure even when the Queen is supposed to
be resting.

Osborne.

AUGUST, 1893.
A rrz'vals and Departures of Post and Queen’s fliessenger: to and from

 

London.
WEEK DAYS.
ARRIVAL.

Morning Post . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.30 and I I a.m.

Do. Queen’s Messenger . . . . . . . . 4.0 p.m.
Evening Post . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.0 p.m.

DEPARTURES.

Morning Post . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.30 and 12 a.m.
Afternoon, Queen’s Messenger . . . . . . 1.30 p. m.
Evening Post . . . . . . . . . . . 6.0 p.m.

Do. Queen’s Letter Bag. . . . . . . 8.0 p.m.

ARRIVAL OF FOREIGN MESSENGERS.
In London (Mondays) . . . . . . . . . . About 10 a.m.

At Osborne . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 p.m.
DEPARTURE OF FOREIGN MESSENGERS.

To Germany (Wednesdays). . . . . . . About I. 30 p. m.

From London . . . . . . . . . . . 6.45 p.m.

It will be seen that there is little enough time between
times to receive, read, answer and despatch the enormous
amount of correspondence which necessitates all this coming
and going. But on the other side of the card will be found:

OF THE QUEEN 223

SUNDAYS.
ARRIVALS.

Morning Post .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7.30 a.rn.
Afternoon, Queen’s Messenger . . . . . . . . 3.0 p.m.
DEPARTURES.

Afternoon, Queen’s Messenger . . . . . . . . 4.0 p.m.
Do. Post .. .. .. .. .. .. 6.0 p.m.
Do. Queen’s Letter Bag . . . . . . . . 8.0 p.m.

I will not worry the reader with the times of church and
trains and steamboats which this card also supplies, but
pass on to other things.

In addition to the public work, the self-imposed private
work done by Her Majesty is extraordinary. Every word
of the Parliamentary report which is daily made to her by
the leader of the House of Commons is perused by her,
and not unfrequently annotated in her own hand before
being filed.

Every morning the menus for all the meals are, as we
know, submitted to' and frequently altered by her. The
COURT CIRcuLAR passes through her hands, and is rigidly
criticised for errors. Nor must the large private corre-
spondence I have dwelt on be forgotten.

It may be imagined that a woman of such entirely active
habits of mind and body would never be able to forgive
indolence in those about her. A really idle or a merely
superficial, fussy person would not be tolerated for one
moment by the Queen.

It is too much the fashion in these Radical days to blame
the Queen for her life of privacy, and to insinuate that one
who draws such a large income from the people should be
more seen of them. I wonder how many of these grumblers
ever consider how long and how laborious the Queen’s life
has been, and how even now, at an age when most women

224 THE PRIVATE LIFE

lie abed, or sit with idle, folded hands and fading sensibili-
ties by the fire-side, the Queen is still working early and
late for the welfare of her vast Empire and the good of
her millions of subjects.

That Her Majesty avoids the glare and glitter of mere
State ceremonial is scarcely wonderful, but beneath the
shady trees of her peaceful country retreats she is taking
no well-earned repose; she lives in no slothful exis-
tence as the malcontents would imply. She is carrying
out to the end the precepts of the beginning, and is still
doing as she has always done, giving the best of her brain
and her heart to her country and her people. Surely she is
entitled to such rest as she can find. After all this it may
well be asked: “Does the Queen ever relax, and how?”
Yes ; she finds in needlework and in being read to, rest for
mind and body. The study of literature and art in the
library and print room, and in the box of books from
Mudie’s, are the favourite forms of idleness C") with the
Queen. Only in knitting was Her Majesty ever awkward, and
she acknowledges herself, with a hearty laugh, the justice of
a remark made by an old peasant woman, who, unaware of
the Queen’s personality, picked up a scrap of knitting that
Her Majesty had done, and curtly observed that she pitied
her “gude mon” if he got no better-made stockings than
that.

226 THE PRIVATE LIFE

the people of the “Royal Borough ” for a recreation
ground.

The South Terrace is quite differently arranged. It lies
between the Castle and the stables, and runs beneath the
windows of Princess Henry of Battenberg’s suite and of
the Queen’s private Audience Chamber. It is remarkable
for the splendid plantation of flowering trees which the
Queen has placed there. All the spring and summer
through it is sweet and gay with lilacs—of which Her
Majesty is very fond—may trees, laburnums, almond trees,
flowering currants, and a hundred others.

Near the Slopes is the beautiful Rock Garden, planted
with every kind of Alpine flower and grass. It leads to
Queen Adelaide’s Cottage, a charming retreat, before which
stands a beech tree, called “Luther’s Beech.” A slab
indicates that this tree was raised from the beech tree near
Altenstein, beneath which Martin Luther was arrested.
William IV., when Duke of Clarence, brought the little
sapling to England, and planted it in Bushey Park. At
Queen Adelaide’s request, Prince Albert moved it to
Windsor in 1850.

All large gardens have a “ Fairy Dell,” and that at
Windsor is near Herne’s Oak. More interesting, however,
is the “Jubilee Walk,” so called from the fact that it is
bordered by goodly specimens of the evergreen oak, which
were planted by the Queen and every member of the Royal
Family then in England, on the very day that saw the com-
pletion of the fiftieth year of her reign. Evergreen oaks
are a great feature of the Queen’s gardens, and there are
many magnificent ones both at Frogmore and Windsor.

The glory of Windsor is undoubtedly the East Garden,
which, as it lies sunk within the embraces of the splendid
raised East Terrace and the Castle, with the Victoria and
Prince of Wales’s Tower at either corner, and loggias and-

OF THE QUEEN 227

double staircases sweeping across the building, is the most
exquisite garden outside Italy that can be imagined. The
garden, which is over three acres in extent, was Charles II.’s
bowling green, but Sir Jeffery Wyatville designed its present
use.

It was, however, owing to the Queen’s perfect taste in
desiring that the flat surface of the garden should be
broken up by judicious plantings of handsome shrubs, and
by the delicate introduction of some very fine statuary, that
the aspects of this world—famous inclosure is so charming to
the eye. Two distinct plantings of flowers take place in
this garden every year, and the show of tulips in the spring
is particularly fine. But here, as elsewhere, no carpet
bedding is allowed by the Queen, who, indeed, is too
fond of Nature’s children to appreciate an aspect made up
of tiresome and monotonOus geometrical patterns. .

When the Queen is at Windsor and the weather is fine,
the Guard’s. Band plays on the East Terrace on Sunday
afternoon, and townsfolk and Royalties take their afternoon
stroll in common. The East Garden was ever a favourite
strolling ground with the Queen, and even now her chair
passes among the statues and flower-beds, all set in fresh
turf, on most days she is at the Castle.

These lovely gardens are, however, purely ornamental,
and, like the pretty little inclosure at the foot of the great
Round Tower, are made to be looked at only. To see
the fount from which the exquisite flowers, quaint palms,
rare fruits, and useful vegetables spring, that go to the
Castle at least once a day, the Home Park must be
traversed, Frogmore House, the Dairy, and Home Farm
passed, before the high brick walls and fine gates that
guard the celebrated F rogmore Gardens are attained;

Within the gates, to right and left, are two little cottages
completely overgrown with Virginia creeper. One is the

228 THE PRIVATE LIFE

lodge house, and, needless to say, an old servant of the
Queen’s dwells therein. The other is a storehouse for apples,
of which enormous quantities are grown at Frogmore. The
arrangements for keeping the fruit dry and sweet are most
excellent, a double-thatched roof being a great factor in
the building. Leading straight from the gates is a splendid
walk, with brilliant turf borders on either side. It is eleven
hundred and thirty-two feet long and twenty feet wide. To
the right is a magnificent line of fourteen vineries, broken
only in the centre by the picturesque house of Mr. Owen
Thomas, the head-gardener. On the left is a grand vista
of well-filled flower beds, and a charming bell-shaped trellis,
covered with roses, and also a thick, high hedge of tea roses,
flowers of which Her Majesty is extremely fond. Beyond
this fragrant barrier is an area of thirty-one acres, all
inclosed in double lines of walls, against which are trained
en cordon, or in the fan, pyramid, or standard style, every
species of wall and stone fruit.

This splendid garden was first made in the Frogmore
fields, by order of Act of Parliament, for the Queen’s use
early in her reign. Since then an apple orchard of four
acres and twenty acres of ordinary vegetable garden have
been added.

The finest sight at Frogmore is undoubtedly the con-
servatories and glass-houses. They are practically without
number, as additions are frequently made, and they form a
veritable township. The loftiest among them is the Palm
House, a really fine structure containing a most valuable
collection of palms, ferns, and foliage plants. Next in size
is the Conservatory, where are grown every year thousands
of splendid camellias, gardenias, and azalea blooms. The
camellias in particular are enormous plants.

The Queen’s favourite houses are those devoted "to the
more delicate kind of roses. These she is very fond/of

OF THE QUEEN 229

visiting. An interminable quantity of glass is also given
up to the cultivation of flowers and foliage of every kind.
It is noticeable that Her Majesty has never yielded to the
fashionable craze for orchids, and only a small house is
given up to the cultivation of a few ordinary kinds at Frog-
more. Two houses are, however, filled with the peculiar
“carnivorous ” plants, which are as uncanny as they are
curious, and which emit a most disagreeable odour.

The sight in these most wonderful Royal Gardens is the
Pineries. There are eight pits of a ”total length of four
hundred feet. On a hot morning when the pits are opened
and each ripening pine sits like a crowned queen on her
splendid throne of huge sword-edged grey-green leaves, the
sight is most imposing, while the perfume can be scented
half-way across the gardens. Pines fOr the Queen’s table
are grown of about eight pounds’ weight, and are served to
her all the year round.

Her Majesty has a fancy only to eat strawberries grown
on the Frogmore estate, and wherever she may be, at home
or. abroad, strawberries are sent to her every day.

There being over two miles of wall at Frogmore it is
easily understood that the quantity of outdoor fruit grown
is immense. Two hundred and fifty varieties of pears alone
are cultivated, and the same variety of apples. When fruit is
groWn under glass, as it ripens, each piece is carefully
inclosed in a bag of white tissue paper to prevent wasps or
flies from touching it.

And yet this immense garden—which is divided into
eight portions, each under a foreman, who is again respon-
sible to Mr. Owen Thomas—is scarcely large enough to
supply the Royal Household, and very often there are not
enough potatoes produced by the twelve acres devoted to
their. growth to serve the Royal residences all the year
round, and others have to be bought.

230 THE PRIVATE LIFE

Besides the outdoor asparagus beds, which are in length
two thousand two hundred and twenty yards, a great deal
of this delicious vegetable is grown under glass; there are
also five miles of peas. Of the fruit consumed in the
Royal Household the return of one year gives a fair idea.

1,673 dozens of dessert apples,

I, 500 dozens and 20 pecks of pears,

1,25olbs. of cherries,

5,1501bs. of grapes,

(to which the famous old vines at Cumberland Lodge and
Hampton Court contribute)

520 dozen peaches,

239 pineapples,

4oo melons,

2,7oolbs. of strawberries,

2,ooolbs. of currants,

1,9oolbs. of gooseberries,

220 dozen nectarines,
besides quantities of plums, cooking fruit, damsons, and
other things. Vegetables are, of course, in like proportion,
so it is easy to understand that the hundred and thirty men
employed are not idle.

The Queen and all the Royal Family are great consumers
of fruit and vegetables, and believe in their wholesome pro-
perties. As with the superfluous farm produce, all the
garden produce that is not required at the Castles, is given
away among certain people on the Royal estate.

Her Majesty is very well informed on the subject of
horticulture, and is, when at Windsor, a frequent visitor
to her gardens. ’

In Mr. Thomas’ house, there is a charming room kept
sacred to the Queen’s use. It is at one end of the building
and is entered direct from the wide main‘ walk by a large
French window which opens on to two shallow stone steps.

OF THE QUEEN 231

The wall-paper is blue with rings of gold on it. The furni-
ture of oak with cane seats is very simple, a table fills the
centre of the room, and a stuffed cockatoo gives a touch of
colour. Here, facing a stone-circled fountain and pond,
where some goldfish sport and a sweet-smelling Cape water-
weed flourishes, Her Majesty will sit and watch her grand-
children riding small bicycles up and down the broad path
and swimming boats on the pond.

The vast daily orders of fruit, flowers, and vegetables
required for the Castle consumption are received by Mr.
Thomas from the various departments every morning at a
small wooden office which rather disfigures the beautiful old
covered court just outside the door of the great kitchen.
The Clerk of the Kitchen, the chef, and the Table
Deckers whose business it is to arrange Her Majesty’s
board, all state to him what they want. Certain other ser-
vants are deputed to change the great plants and palms that
stand in the Grand Corridor, while an entirely separate
order is given for flowers wherewith to decorate Her
Majesty’s private apartments. Sometimes, by the Queen’s
special wishes, flowers are sought for among the woods and
hedgerows. In the spring particularly, the Queen likes to
see wild flowers in her rooms, and for days at a time blue-
bells and primroses will replace the rare roses and lilies that
are grown at the cost of so much toil and money.

Much as the Queen loves the great gardens that give so
freely of their fruit and flowers to her, the inclosed and
carefully kept retreat that lies round Frogmore House is
'dearer to her than all. It was at Frogmore that so many
happy days were passed in her early married life 3 it was at
Frogmore that her mother, the Duchess of Kent, died and
is buried; it is at Frogmore that the remains of Prince
, Albert are entombed ; and it is at Frogmore, within a stone’s
throw of the pretty Tea House, where in summer she and

232 THE PRIVATE LIFE

her grandchildren breakfast, that one day she will herself
lie in the peace that passes all understanding.

Frogmore House itself is, in these later days, a dull and
desolate place. It is white and square and two storeys 5
high. It is flanked by two low wings. Eight windows and
a porticoed front door break the ground-floor line. A broad
sweep of gravel lies before the house and encircles a great
oval bed of splendid rhododendrons, the whole being
secured to privacy within fine railings and gates painted
black and lightly touched with gold. The evergreens and-
trees that border the drive are most luxuriant and seem to.
flourish apace in the rather damp atmosphere which rises
from a small lake at the back of the house.

A set of horse-steps on the right of the front door
gives a hint of many a cheery riding party in the long ago.
Close by them is cut through the shrubbery the little path
that leads straight to the Tea House. This is a little
Bungalow of wood and “splatter work,” surrounded by a
small verandah, and having a conical roof of fancy red
tiles. A roofed, Open passage leads to a smaller building
where is the little kitchen, in which tea is made and where
the breakfast dishes sent every morning from the Castle in a"
pair-horse fourgon are warmed.

A polished grey granite fountain supplies the necessary
water, and cream, milk, and butter are brought fresh from
the Dairy opposite, which is kept and managed by two
excellent Scotch women named Stoddart. The interior of
the Tea House is furnished in oak. A very pretty paper"
with a flower-covered trellis-work pattern is on the walls, the I
ceiling being decorated with airy clouds and having a flying
swallow painted in the centre. ‘

The Queen sometimes takes her breakfast, which is here
served entirely on silver, in the house, sometimes beneath
the shade of two enormous evergreen oaks that grow before ‘

OF THE QUEEN 233.

it, while two pipers play merry Scotch tunes among the
trees. Tables are set on the grass, and there, with her pet
dogs and her youngest grandchildren playing about her, Her
Majesty dictates the ruling of her Great Empire.

A little way behind the Tea House, and hidden by the
closely-grown trees, is a light iron fence. This incloses
that retired spot which, in days to come, will be regarded as
the cemetery of the Royal Family.

It is very beautiful and intensely peaceful, and it is easy
to understand the Queen’s affection for it, and to appreciate
her reasons for visiting it almost every day when she is at
'Windsor.

There are two splendid Mausoleums here. Of the two,
that which forms the tomb of the Duchess of Kent, is the
more picturesque. It is shaped rather like an Indian
temple, having a cupola roof supported on sixteen granite
columns, and being surrounded by a terraced walk. A
statue of the late Duchess stands within a niche and a bust
of the Queen’s’half—sister is in a glass case. The building,
which is of Portland stone, is approached by a beautiful
little bridge swinging across the lake and half hidden by a
number of splendid weeping willows. The double flight of
steps leading from the bridge to the heavy oak doors is aléo
very picturesque. .

The Albert Mausoleum is larger and more imposing. It
is in the shape of a cross, and the fine flight of granite steps
is guarded by two imposing bronze figures of angels, one
with a trumpet and the other bearing a sword. Facing the
'door, under a fresco of Christ breaking out of the Tomb, is
the small altar. The other principal frescoes are the Cruci-
fixion and the Adoration. There are many statues, among
them being the figures of David, Solomon, Isaiah, and
Daniel. The eight windows, in the blue-and-gold cupola,
light up the white marblepillars, the golden walls, the inlaid

I7

234 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE QUEEN

floor, the handsome frescoes, the brilliant stained—glass, and
the four bronze and gold oil lamps given by the Prince of
Wales.

A very touching group is that of Princess Alice, the late
Grand Duchess of Hesse, lying as though asleep on a bed,
with the little child she lost her own life in trying to save,
clasped in the hollow of her arm. Above her memorial ’
hangs a picture of the Virgin and Child with St. Joseph
and the Shepherds and Merchants doing homage to Our
Saviour.

In the centre is Prince Albert’s tomb, on which lies the
imposing figure that Baron Marochetti carved in the like-
ness of the dead Prince. Yet most impressive of all, and
a sight that brings tears to even the most hardened eyes, is
the empty place by the Prince’s side. It is nothing but a
cold marble slab, but it cries aloud of a tender marriage, an
undying affection, and a faithful, prayerful desire for a
re-union in God’s good time. When the day of England’s
sorrow dawns, the Queen will be carried here, and laid in
the place where she now so often goes to pray on Sunday.

- Farther away among the trees, most of which have been
planted in loving remembrance by different members of the
Royal Family, is the principal entrance to the sacred
inclosure. It is of a lofty, classical design, having a
canopy supported on pillars of granite. A big bell hangs
above it. p

This veritable Garden of Sleep is much beloved by Her
Majesty, and is, by her orders, held sacred from all prying
eyes.

THE END.

UN\VIN BROTHERS, PRINTERS. \VOKING AND LONDON.

 

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