CHAPTER XV
QUEEN VICTORIA’S HOME
“I am born to this position; I must take it, and neither you nor I can help or hinder me. Surely, then, I need not fret myself to guard my own dignity.”--_Emerson._
This incident of an ordinary street boy getting three times into Buckingham Palace without being seen, spending hours there each time and wandering at will about the building, was naturally the talk of London. It was found that there was a space between the Marble Arch--which then formed the entrance in front of the Palace--and its gates which a boy could easily get through, but this was no excuse for the opportunity he seems to have had of entering the building itself. Extra police and watchmen were put on at night, but Stockmar considered the matter serious enough to warrant study, and he discovered a most curious state of things in the arrangement of the Royal Household, a discovery which led to a general and much needed domestic revolution; and in consequence, through the executive ability of Stockmar and the alleged economic spirit of Prince Albert, to years of dissension and discontent among the servants, great and little; from which at last arose a system of domestic comfort which allowed the Queen to be mistress in her own house. In actual fact, the conditions under which the Household had been run would have made a splendid subject for a Gilbertian opera.
[Illustration: BARON STOCKMAR.]
The chief officers of the Household were in the same position and doing the same tasks as they had filled and done for centuries, and though all the details of their work had changed gradually no new rules had been made for their guidance. These chief officers were the Lord High Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, and the Master of the Horse. These three were also great officers of State, were changed with every Ministry--between 1830 and 1844 one was changed five and another six times--they could not reside at the Palace, and often could not be in the same place as the Court. They were chosen by the Ministers for their political strength and opinions, without any reference to their powers as good housekeepers, good organisers, or good masters. This led to the curious situation that the Masters of the Queen’s Household could rarely attend to their duties, which had to be deputed to people who were perhaps incapable, or also not on the spot, and that in many trivial ways Victoria had no authority in her own home. There was no domestic to whom she could give orders, because the servants were under absentee masters, and neither she nor the Prince could ensure having a well-warmed room to live in. She was, in fact, so great a personage that it was arranged that every order to the servants should pass through other lips than hers, and as those other lips were generally miles away from the Royal domestic scene, the orders, if they were of a serious nature and outside the sphere of ordinary servants, were not given at all. So the Queen sat and shivered in her drawing-room, paid enormously for candles to light a room which would be in darkness when needed, and could not from inside tell the state of the weather because of the dirt on the windows.
There was also a lack of co-operation or agreement among these three high officials, so that there was never any unity of action. This was the more absurd, as the labour had to be delegated or re-delegated to actual servants who dwelt on the spot, and who did not seem to have the wit to do their work in conjunction. In no part of the Royal Household was there any real discipline, order, or dignity about the domestic work. The servants themselves often did not know who was responsible for certain duties, and, servant-like, were always careful never to do anyone’s work but their own. The great officials themselves were said not to know which parts of the Castle or Palace were under the charge of the Lord Steward or the Lord Chamberlain. When George III. was King the Lord Steward had charge of the whole Palace except the Royal apartments; in the next two reigns he was also held accountable for the ground floor, including the hall and the dining-rooms. But when Victoria came to the throne he gave over the grand hall and other lower rooms to the Lord Chamberlain, which seems to have left the mastership of the kitchen, sculleries, and pantries vague.
The authority over a room conferred responsibility over the most trivial matters, such as the laying of the fire, the cleaning of the windows, the brushing of the carpet. This authority had no place outside the room, nor outside the house; thus the Lord Chamberlain or his deputy might order the windows of the Queen’s boudoir to be cleaned inside, yet it remained for the Master of the Horse, who had authority over the woods and forests, to arrange when the outside should be cleaned. This sort of thing was complicated by the fact that the housekeepers, pages, housemaids, &c., were required to give obedience to the Lord Chamberlain, while the footmen, livery porters, and under butlers, being clothed and paid by the Master of the Horse, owned allegiance to him; and the rest of the servants, cooks, porters, &c., obeyed the Lord Steward.
In contemporary writings one frequently comes across hints of the discomfort of the Royal palaces, the draughts, the cold, the bad lighting, and it is scarcely to be wondered at, seeing the curious arrangements made by Her Majesty’s Ministers for her comfort. Victoria, feeling the cold especially one day, sent a messenger to Sir Frederick Watson, then Master of the Household, complaining that the dining-room was always cold. That perplexed gentleman, who either had no initiative or who knew that interference would be useless, replied gravely to the messenger:
“You see, properly speaking, it is not our fault, for the Lord Steward lays the fire and the Lord Chamberlain lights it.”
As to the lighting of the Palace, it was the duty of the Lord Chamberlain to buy the lamps, and see that there were sufficient both of them and of candles; but the Lord Steward was responsible for filling, cleaning, cutting, and lighting them.
Supposing a pane of glass was broken, so involved were the conditions for getting it repaired that it might be weeks before the necessary authority could be obtained. If the kitchen window happened to be smashed, the following process would have to be gone through. The chief cook would write and sign a request for the replacing of the glass, definitely describing where it was needed; this was countersigned by the Clerk of the Kitchen, then it had to be signed by the Master of the Household; from him it was taken to the Lord Chamberlain’s office, where it awaited his presence and pleasure. Having received his invaluable signature, it was then laid before the Clerk of the Works under the Woods and Forest Department. By the time the workman was ordered to put in the window it was not improbable that months had elapsed, and one really wonders whether the Queen’s cook did not resort to the time-honoured use of brown paper.
It is true that while these anomalies were going on there was a Master of the Household, but then his authority, which was of an attenuated character, was confined to the Lord Steward’s Department, and was there quite undefined; while the servants under the Lord Chamberlain, comprising the housemaids, housekeepers, and pages, were entirely outside his jurisdiction.
This naturally had its bad effect upon the servants, who were left without any real master. They went off duty when they chose, remained absent for hours on the day when they were especially expected to be in attendance, and committed any irregularity without anyone to reprimand them. The footmen, who slept ten or twelve in a dormitory, might smoke or drink there, but if anyone were the wiser, certainly there was no one who was in a position to remonstrate.
It is almost impossible to imagine a worse regulated establishment than that of the little lady who was the First Person in the Kingdom, yet who had not power to ensure decent attendance from her servants. I wonder if she was quite conscious of the inconvenience and indignity of it all, whether she knew the straits to which her visitors were sometimes reduced, and whether she felt a pang of shame at her enforced position of inaction. Guests might arrive at Windsor, and find no one to welcome them or to show them their rooms. Proper communication was not established among the innumerable servants; for the housemaids who obeyed the Lord Chamberlain, and who prepared the rooms, did not come into communication with the guests; and the footmen, who were under the Lord Steward, were not authorised to see to this matter; indeed, it was quite possible that most of the footmen were, in light and irresponsible fashion, seeing to their own business when the guests appeared. It all seems to have depended upon the right housekeeper being more or less accidentally in the right spot at the right moment, and she was not in the department of the Master of the Household. The usual course in such a case was to send a servant, if one could be found, to the porter’s lodge, where a list of rooms, &c., was kept. It was also no unusual thing for a visitor to be at a loss to find the drawing-room at night. He or she would start from the bedroom with more or less confidence, perhaps take a wrong turn, and wander about helpless and alone, one account says for an hour, finding no servants to give assistance to them, and coming across no one of whom the way could be asked.
When “The Boy Jones”--as _Punch_ delighted to name him--made his surreptitious visits, the public blamed those on whom depended the regulations for protecting the Queen. But there was no responsible person in the Palace at the time. The Lord Chamberlain was in Staffordshire, and the porters were not in his department; the Lord Steward was not in the Palace, and had nothing to do with the pages and other people nearest to the Royal person; nor could the responsibility be fixed on the Master of the Household, who was only a subordinate officer in the Lord Steward’s department. It did not occur to any of these good people, nor to the Government, that something more was needed than the adding of an iron bar to the front gate or placing an extra policeman in the front hall; and it was left to Stockmar to cause the whole arrangements of the Palace to be reconstructed. He advised that the three great officers of the Court, with their respective departments, should retain their connection with the political system of the country, but that each should in his own sphere be induced to delegate as much of his authority as was necessary to the maintenance of the order, security, and discipline of the Palace to _one_ official, who should always live at Court, and be responsible to the three departmental chiefs, but at the same time be able to secure unity of action in the use of the powers delegated to him.
As the abuses had been going on for many years, Stockmar’s suggestions and interference gave rise to violent feeling and much bitterness, and it was some years before the storm subsided into calm. I have come across an account of King William’s going to Ascot in 1833, when the Royal Household seems to have been absolutely disreputable, for _all_ the King’s grooms got drunk _every_ day, excepting (seemingly) one man, and he was killed going home from the races. What an argument for the virtue of drunkenness! The person who described the event added that no one exercised any authority over these servants, and the household ran riot. Favourite abuses of this kind were not easily abolished, but the Prince Consort accepted Stockmar’s advice and carried his suggestions into effect, firmly resisting all attempts to evade them, and appointing the Master of the Household as the delegate of the three departmental chiefs.
One interference in the Household led to another, and soon remarkable changes were made. Stockmar was doubtless at the back of them all, but upon the Prince Consort fell the odium. He had been brought up too economically not to know the value of money, and, like any other sensible person, he abhorred waste. There was one little matter which was particularly fastened upon him by his detractors. I remember an old lady speaking of him to me years ago with energetic scorn, and on my asking why, she replied: “Oh, I remember him! He was one of the meanest of people, for he actually saved the candle-ends.” “Well, why not, if he had the chance of doing it?” I asked. On looking up this matter I found that the great rooms were lit by hundreds of candles, and that some upper servant had acquired the perquisite of every day emptying all the receptacles and replacing the pieces by fresh candles; further, if a room had not been used, the candles were changed just the same, and the licensed looter carried off a rich booty. Prince Albert enforced a rule that this should no longer be done, and that the candles should remain to be burnt within a reasonable limit. Being an economist myself, I quite sympathise with him.
The lowering of salaries, however, created a tremendous _furore_. Thus there were about forty housemaids at Windsor, and the same number at Buckingham Palace, whose wages had been for many years £45 per annum. In the general revision this was reduced to £12 a year on commencing duties, with a gradual rise to £18, beyond which a housemaid could not go. A little book, “Sketches of Her Majesty’s Household,” published anonymously in 1848, shows that some of the economies were peculiarly unfair, as in the case of the sixteen gentlemen of the Chapel Royal who chanted the services, and who were given £73 a year each. They were required to attend on Sundays every other month and on saints’ days, &c. From each salary four shillings in the pound was deducted as land tax, which, added to further deduction for income tax, reduced the salary to £56. The same course was pursued with the organist, composers--all getting a nominal £73--and other people connected with the Chapel who received less. Think of the violinist who had to regard himself as “passing rich on forty pounds a year,” minus eight pounds deducted as land tax! It is a little difficult to realise this, for what could the land tax have to do with the chapel music?
From the same source we learn the regulations imposed upon the members of the Queen’s Private Band, who were paid from the Privy Purse. Their salaries were reduced from £130, with supper and wine, to £80 and £90, with no supper, in lieu of which a small sum was given at each nightly attendance. Sometimes a vacancy occurred in the State Band, which was paid by the State, and then a piece of very sharp practice was indulged in. The vacancy would be filled by a member of the Private Band, and as a consequence of this promotion the man had to play in both bands, for which he should have received an extra £40 for his services in the State Band. He duly received that £40, but when his salary was paid him as a member of the Private Band he would find that the sum of £40 had been carefully deducted before it was handed to him--on the assumption that he had already received it!
In this description of the anomalies in the Royal Household I have mostly given Stockmar’s view of the case. There was, of course, another aspect, and the English officially gave voice to it. In 1846 the Earl de la Warr, who was then Lord Chamberlain, said that he experienced such an “extraordinary interference in the performance of his official duties from parties at Court,” that he determined to resign, so he made “Free Trade in Corn” the excuse, and the day after Her Majesty’s _accouchement_ the announcement took place. Several noblemen refused the post, and at last it was semi-officially announced that Sir Robert Peel, in consequence of the uncertainty as to the life of the Government, would not at present fill up the appointment. So Lord de la Warr was virtually bribed to hold office for a time--that is to say, until Lord John Russell and the Whigs came in in July. One of De la Warr’s sons, Mortimer West, was given a commission in the Grenadier Guards; another, Charles, was made military secretary to the Commander-in-Chief in India; and a third, Reginald, was gazetted Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Her Majesty.
When Russell formed his Administration it was even then very difficult to fill the Lord Chamberlain’s office, everyone shrinking from the unofficial interference of Stockmar and the Prince. The Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Devonshire, and the Earl of Uxbridge all declined, but Earl Spencer was at last prevailed upon to take the responsibility.
The Inspector of the Palace was named Henry Saunders, and he gave in his resignation in March, 1844, because of “extraordinary interference with him in the performance of his duties by members of the Household unconnected with the Lord Chamberlain’s department”; but Lord de la Warr persuaded him to remain until the Prince Consort, who was visiting his home, returned from Germany. Saunders was believed by Anson to have given information of Palace doings to the Press, as many things had been made public, particularly about the wholesale discharge of servants in Saunders’s department, as well as other matters which had formed subjects of private inquiry. He was pensioned at the end of 1845 on £500 a year. After that different Inspectors were appointed for each Palace, to superintend the care of the furniture and to make arrangements for the reception of the Court and of Her Majesty’s visitors.
There was naturally a tremendous jealousy of the many German servants introduced by the Prince, and in 1848 it was pointed out by a newspaper that Richard the Second’s Chamberlain was impeached for introducing aliens into the King’s Household; the writer advocated a similar proceeding, though he added a belief that the Lord Chamberlain was not really responsible for the numerous appointments of foreigners.
Among these foreigners was a man named Heller, who came to England with the Prince as courier, and who was appointed by the Prince in 1842 to be Page of the Chambers, the impression being that among his other duties he was to be the “overlooker” of the other pages. These others, being English, bitterly resented this, and there were frequent rows between Heller and the other men. Once a page named Kinnaird was so enraged that, in spite of Albert’s presence, he threatened to throw Heller over the banisters, telling the Prince that he “would not be insulted by a foreigner.”
Another change made, and a very sensible one, was the abolition of fees for seeing the interior of Windsor Castle. Lady Mary Fox, a daughter of William IV. and wife of Major-General Fox, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, was the State Housekeeper, receiving a residence in the Norman Tower, a salary of £320 a year, and all the fees from the visitors, amounting from £1,200 to £1,500 a year. This post she held until the end of 1845, when she was duly compensated for relinquishing it.
Various matters relating to the Household becoming public made the Prince very angry, and he complained to the Duke of Bedford of the way in which the proceedings at Court were publicly known and discussed. He said that on the Continent it was the Government which knew by its secret agents what its people were doing; while in England it was the people who knew what the Court was about--the Court knowing nothing about other people’s affairs. He did not seem to realise that this was the tax great people had to pay for their position, and that as the public was curious about them the newspapers could and did secure all the information there was to be had. All his life in England Albert hated the “fierce light that beats upon the throne,” and his exclusiveness tended to make the Court unpopular with the multitude. It also led to trouble and annoyance among those who immediately surrounded the Throne, for the Prince and Queen would arrange very important matters in utter secrecy, news of which would leak into the daily papers, while the Queen’s advisers were in entire ignorance. Thus when they went to visit Louise Philippe at the Château d’Eu, the Duke of Wellington and others constantly about the Court knew nothing of it until two or three days beforehand. Yet this visit must have been a long-laid plan, for lawyers had to be consulted as to the necessity of forming a Regency during Her Majesty’s absence. Greville noted of this, “the Queen is to embark on Monday.... On Thursday I mentioned it to Arbuthnot, who said it could not be true. He asked the Duke the same day, who told him he had never heard a word of any such thing.”
In this case it was not difficult to keep the matter quiet, as the yacht _Victoria and Albert_ had just been finished and fitted up most gorgeously--gorgeously is really just the right word--and was in readiness for use. Concerning this yacht, by the way, there was very sore feeling among the officers, who found that their comfort had been sacrificed that the Royal flunkeys might travel in serenity. Thus two officers had to sleep in a little berth measuring seven feet by five, while the pages, who were really footmen, were given a large room with their berths ranged round it. The officers protested respectfully, and, willing to concede their dignity, implored to be allowed half the berths in the pages’ room, the displaced men sleeping on one of the attendant steamers, but their prayer was not granted, as it was thought inconvenience might arise if all the servants were not together.
* * * * *
I could write a book double this size if I included all the stories in which Queen Victoria figured, but I have come to the end of the space allotted me. Yet some of these stories are very tempting, among them being one told by Sir Robert Peel about the Lord Mayor, when the Royal pair went to a banquet at the Guildhall in 1844. It was of this event that Barham wrote:--
“Doctor Darling! think how grand is Such a sight! The great Lord May’r Heading all the City dandies There on horseback takes the air.
Chains and maces all attend, he Rides all glorious to be seen; ‘Lad o’ wax!’ great heaven forfend he Don’t get spilt before the Queen.”
He did not get spilt as did one of the Aldermen seven years earlier, but he had a curious mishap. It was muddy weather, and he put on enormous jack-boots over his dandy shoes and stockings to keep them clean. Waiting at Temple Bar, he tried to take off the boots when Her Majesty was near, but they were too tight, and would not move. One of the spurs caught an Alderman’s robe and tore it, so his friends came to his aid, the Lord Mayor standing on one leg while they tugged. One boot came off, and they started on the other, but it remained firm, the crowd watching in uproarious glee. When at last the Queen was but a few paces away, the agonised City King roared, “For God’s sake, put my boot on again!” So, backed by half a dozen friends and tugged at by another half dozen, he recovered the displaced boot, and had to wear both of them until after the banquet, when a less frantic effort removed them.
When the Whigs came back to power in 1846, for Peel’s return to office was of short duration, the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, found that he had to deal with a two-in-one Monarch. He was never received alone by the Queen. She and the Prince were always together, and both of them always said, _We_. This was far better than the early exclusion of the Prince, though it naturally led at once to the assertion on the part of the men that while the Queen bore the title, the Prince discharged the function of the Sovereign. The Prince had devoted himself to her and to her country with marvellous assiduity and rectitude; indeed, if he had taken the work more lightly and interfered less in the detail of matters, he might not have succumbed as he practically did to hard work. In 1862 the Duke of Gotha said that his brother, Prince Albert, had killed himself with hard work, and that from the time he came to England he did not know what it was to have “a joyous day.” Stockmar’s influence in this respect was to be deplored. He was like a Dutch art student with whom I once worked: “You paint the trees and get their character,” she said, “but I--I see all the little leafs, and must paint them.”
After the Prince’s death Lord Clarendon wrote:--“There is a vague belief that his influence was great and useful; but there is a very dim perception of the _modus operandi_.... Peel certainly took the Prince into council much more than Melbourne, who had his own established position with the Queen before the Prince came to this country; but I cannot tell you whether it was Peel who first gave him a Cabinet key. My impression is that Lord Duncannon, during the short time he was Home Secretary, sent the Prince a key when the Queen was confined, and the contents of the boxes had to be read and signed by her.”
Among those who helped to form Lord John Russell’s Government was the historian Macaulay, who became Paymaster-General; under Melbourne he had been Secretary at War. He could talk for hours without stopping, and Fanny Kemble said of him, “He is like nothing in the world but Bayle’s Dictionary, continued down to the present time, and purified from all objectionable matter. Such a Niagara of information did surely never pour from the lips of mortal man!” Someone else remarked that, “Macaulay is laying waste society with his waterspouts of talk; people in his company burst for want of an opportunity of dropping in a word;” and Sydney Smith also once said of him to Melbourne that he was a book in breeches. This, of course, Melbourne repeated to the Queen, so for a long time after whenever she saw her Secretary at War she went into fits of laughter. She once at Windsor offered him a horse to ride, drawing from him the remark, “If I ride anything, it must be an elephant”--thus alluding to his inability to remain on a horse if he once mounted. After dining at the Palace in March, 1850, he wrote: “The Queen was most gracious to me. She talked much about my book, and owned that she had nothing to say for her poor ancestor James the Second. ‘Not your Majesty’s ancestor,’ said I; ‘your Majesty’s predecessor.’ I hope this was not an uncourtly correction. I meant it as a compliment, and she seemed to take it so.”
When Peel resigned office in 1846 he begged the Queen to grant him one favour, and that was never to ask him to take service again; however, his political ardour was too great a habit to be repressed, and he was speedily leading the Opposition. He fell from his horse in 1850, and died four days after the accident.
As for Brougham, when office was suggested again to him, he shook his head, saying that now he was getting old, and he had nothing left for which to live; but he showed great activity still in the cause of law reform, and took great interest in the Social Science Association. He died at Cannes in 1868, at the age of ninety.
Lord Melbourne died twenty years earlier. He had refused all honours several times, begging the Queen not to press her intention of bestowing the Garter upon him. It was enough that he had lived honourably and done his duty, he said. His character was once summed up in the following couplet:--
“For a patriot too cool, for a drudge disobedient, And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.”
But as in his youth he had never sought favour, so in his age no one sought favour from him. The stirring world in which he had always lived had something more to do than to trouble about an old and ailing man, and he laboured under a sense of neglect, chafing daily at the indifference which was shown him by those who for years had pressed their friendship upon him. In real fact he was suffering from his lonely state; neither wife nor child was there to give him company, and his only two relatives seem to have been his sister, Lady Palmerston, and his brother. In happier domestic circumstances his end would have been happier and his sorrows non-existent. In November, 1848, he had another attack of illness, and died in unconsciousness at the age of seventy. He was a very remarkable man, more perhaps from his extreme honesty in a difficult position than for his great attainments, though those were sufficiently noteworthy. He was the most lovable man who had moved in the Queen’s circle, one who would never wittingly commit an injustice to anybody. When he was dead a letter from him was handed to his brother, in which he left a command that a certain sum of money should be given to Mrs. Norton, to help to some extent to show his sorrow for the trouble which his thoughtless friendship had brought her; and in this he solemnly declared that she and he were innocent of all evil in that friendship.
Queen Victoria was now, in a sense, in calm waters; she was happy domestically, she adored her husband, and in spite of her protest had a large family of children; the terrible leakage in her income, which had at one time threatened her with disastrous debt, had been stopped, and she was growing rich, though she was never so rich as the malcontents would have liked to believe, and did in many cases believe. George Anson told Greville in 1847 that the Queen’s affairs were so well managed that she would be able to provide for the expenses of Osborne out of her income, and those expenses would be £200,000. He also said that the Prince of Wales would not have less than £70,000 a year from his Duchy of Cornwall, and £100,000 had already been saved from it.
Though the Queen retained for a long time her Whiggish sympathies, she was now well on the road to strict Toryism, to the end of her life showing especial favour to her Conservative leaders, and more or less ignoring their rivals. This was caused more by the difference in their views upon foreign affairs than by her sentiments on home politics, and also by her keen sense of the dignity of the Crown. Though when displeased the Tories had shown themselves capable of dragging that dignity through the mire, yet when they were pleased they paid it all lip-service and outward homage. The Whigs, on the other hand, though inclined to take Royal disfavour with more equanimity, were also inclined to question the doings of Royalty in a calmer and, therefore from her point of view, more deadly way. When the party in power changed from time to time, she parted from Russell in anger, from Gladstone in coldness, from Aberdeen--whom she had detested on her accession--with a pang, and from Disraeli in deep dejection. It is the whirligig of time exemplified in the mind of a woman.
She had great Ministers to advise her in her work, but she was also a great Queen, for though she was no genius and had no surpassing intellect, she never shirked, she worked step by step through every difficulty, she was essentially a climber, and when more talented people might have given up she went bravely on, so that, to use the slang phrase, she always got there. Yes, Queen Victoria was absolutely admirable in her conscientiousness and in her determination to do well. It angered her ever to be likened to Queen Elizabeth, who was an historical _bête noire_ to her, yet she had something of Elizabeth’s greatness as well as more than a touch of her arrogance, added to a more intimately personal greatness of her own, that which comes from recognising the importance of little things. This did not come to its strength until after the death of Prince Albert, but it began in the days when, as a girl of eighteen, she sat surrounded by despatch-boxes while her maid was doing her hair.
THE END.
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK
INDEX
A
Abercromby, Lord, 139
Aberdeen, Lord, 329, 349, 383
Adelaide, Queen, 1, 8 _et seq._, 13, 16, 18, 24, 30, 32, 36, 39, 56, 59 _et seq._, 68, 78, 94, 96, 107, 110, 130, 160, 166, 168
Adelbert, Prince of Prussia, 223
Albemarle, Lord, 125
Albert, Prince Consort, 72, 84, 89, 92, 104, 139, 203, 229 _et seq._, 235, 277, 289, 291, 297, 300 _et seq._, 312, 314, 316, 320 _et seq._, 330, 331, 334 _et seq._, 341, 344, 346, 352, 357, 359, 364, 371, 374, 375, 376, 379, 384
Allen, Lord, 332
Althorp, Lord (_see_ Spencer, 3rd Earl)
Alvanley, Lord, 65, 158
Anglesey, Marquis of, 48, 244
Anne, Queen, 127, 214, 305, 309
Anson, George, 251, 312, 322, 324, 342, 351, 375, 382
Arran, Earl of, 21
Ashley, Lord, 71
Augusta, Princess, 226, 235, 316, 319
Augusta, Princess, of Cambridge, 226, 346
Aylmer, Lord, 70
B
Bagot, Emily, 66
Barham, R. H., “Ingoldsby,” 27, 199
Bean, the Hunchback, 360
Bedford, Duchess of (_see_ Tavistock, Lady)
Bedford, Duke of, 374, 376
Bedingfield, Lady, 57, 64, 226
Berry, Mademoiselle de, 105
Blessington, Lady, 174, 195
Bloomfield, Lady (_see_ Liddell, Georgiana)
Bosanquet, Sir Bernard, 121
Bradshaw, James, M.P., 251
Bradwell, Dr., 332
Brandon, Lord, 149
Brauhitch, Colonel, 339
Breadalbane, Marchioness of, 217
Brodie, Sir B., 280
Brookfield, Mrs., 73
Brookfield, W. H., 75, 318
Brougham, Lord, 37, 41, 43, 68, 148, 156, 165, 170 _et seq._, 208, 220, 248, 287, 381
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 107
Brunswick, Duke of, 89
Buccleuch, Duchess of, 343
Buckingham, Duke of, 195
Buckingham Palace, 126, 201, 237, 238, 268, 301, 315, 328, 361, 364
Buggin, Lady Cecilia (_see_ Underwood, Lady Cecilia)
Bülow, Count von, 184, 224, 238
Burlington, Countess of, 217
C
Calvert, the Hon. Mrs., 1
Cambridge, Duchess of, 226, 319
Cambridge, Duke of, 11, 147, 175, 282, 310, 311, 317, 318
Cambridge, Prince George of, 73, 91, 225, 306, 310, 317, 319
Campbell, Lord, 130, 240
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 77, 117
Cardigan, Lady, 66, 177, 244, 319, 328, 353
Carlyle, Thomas, 7, 123, 201, 315
Carolath, Prince Edward of, 91
Caroline, Queen, 205, 236
Castlereagh, Lord, 128
Cavendish, General, 187, 328
Chambers, Dr., 274, 275, 278, 280
Charlemont, Countess of, 217
Charlotte, Princess, 8, 22, 23, 90, 91, 291, 306, 333
Charlotte, Queen, 31
Churchill, Sarah, 214
Claremont, residence of Prince Leopold, 7, 22, 26, 72, 333
Clarence, Duchess of (_see_ Adelaide, Queen)
Clarence, Duke of (_see_ William IV.)
Clarendon, Lord, 379
Clark, Sir James, 146, 203, 234, 240, 257, 258 _et seq._, 283
Clarke, Sir Charles, 259, 261, 262
Coke, Mr., 52
Conroy, Sir John, 37, 41, 45, 48, 52, 54, 55, 72, 87, 103, 111, 113, 125, 137, 140, 143, 144, 169, 184, 188, 202, 259, 262, 287, 288, 316
Conyngham, Lady, 2
Conyngham, Lord, 111, 117, 125, 187
Cooper, Sir A., 280
Cork, Lady, 332
Cornwallis, Lady, 275
Coutts, Messrs., 189
Cowan, Alderman, Lord Mayor, 180
Cowper, Lady, 186, 244, 281
Creevy, Thomas, M.P., 21, 24, 28, 39, 41, 120, 126, 142, 175, 186
Croker, John Wilson, 73, 136, 219
Cumberland, Duchess of, 31, 39, 99, 108
Cumberland, Duke of, 11 _et seq._, 21, 28, 31, 99, 114, 119, 120, 129, 131, 147, 154, 222, 227, 304, 309, 310, 315, 317, 332, 334, 345
Cumberland, Prince George of, 20, 73, 91, 99, 310
D
Dalhousie, Lord, 201
Davys, Dr., 45
Davys, Miss, 47, 135
Delane, John T., Editor of _The Times_, 330, 356
D’Este, Augustus, 11, 21
D’Este, Ellen, 11, 21
Devonshire, Duke of, 374
Diestrau, Baron de, 234
Disraeli, Benjamin, 383
Dorset, Duke of, 69
Douro, Earl of, 225
Doyle, Dr., 265
Duncannon, Lord, 380
Dunmore, Earl of, 21
Durham, Lady, 43, 135, 184, 242
Durham, Lord, 40, 41 _et seq._, 71, 103, 113, 184, 240, 241
E
Edward VII., King, 84
Edward, Prince of Wales, 83
Egremont, Lord, 10
Ellenborough, Lord, 11, 12, 20, 310
Elphinstone, Lord, 76, 86, 226 _et seq._
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 364
Errol, Lady Elizabeth (Fitzclarence), 9
Errol, Lord, 9
Esterhazy, Prince, 197, 225
Exeter, Marquis of, 52
F
Fairbrother, Louisa, 319
Fairburn, Lieut.-Colonel, 13
Falkland, Lady (Fitzclarence), 9
Fane, Lady Georgina, 66
Féodore of Leiningen, Princess, 5, 6, 45, 46, 204
Fitzclarence, Lord Adolphus, 10, 96, 98
Fitzclarence, Lord Augustus, 10
Fitzclarence, Lord Frederick, 10
Fitzgerald, Captain Hamilton, 266, 269
Follett, Sir William, 152
Forbes, Viscountess, 278
Fox, Colonel, 9
Fox, Lady Mary (Fitzclarence), 9, 376
G
Garth, Captain, 19
Garth, General, 19
George III., King, 12, 20, 123, 137, 305, 340, 366
George IV., King, 1, 2, 11–14, 19, 22, 25, 27–8, 32, 45, 80, 108, 138, 236, 321, 345
George of Denmark, Prince, 234, 309
Gladstone, W. E., 383
Glenelg, Lord, 199, 240
Gloucester, Duchess of, 226, 265, 276, 282, 294, 319
Gloucester, Duke of, 175
Graham, Sir James, 55
Grant-Duff, Lady, 157
Grantley, Lord, 150, 154
Greville, Charles, 38, 55, 63, 70, 96, 154, 192, 209, 225, 252, 273, 305, 310, 326, 377
Grey, Countess, 185
Grey, Lady Georgiana, 142
Grey, Lord, 20, 39, 42, 55, 60, 134, 179, 214
Gurwood, Colonel, 252
H
Halford, Sir Henry, 265
Hanover, King of (_see_ Cumberland, Duke of)
Hardwicke, Lord, 194, 346
Hastings, Lady Adelaide, 262
Hastings, Lady Flora, 125, 222, 234, 257 _et seq._, 287–9, 353
Hastings, Lady Sophia, 255, 262, 264, 274–5, 278, 281–2
Hastings, Marchioness of (_see_ Loudoun, Countess of)
Hastings, Marquis of, 255, 259, 267–8, 270, 278, 280, 284
Hayter, Sir George, 179
Headfort, Marquis of, 244, 259
Heller, royal courtier, 375
Henry, Captain Charles, 261, 280, 283
Henry, Lady Selina, 261, 274, 282
Hertford, Lady, 2
Hesse-Philippthal, Prince Ernest of, 91
Hill, Lord, 55, 334
Holland, Dr., 280
Holland, Lord, 174, 240
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 40
Holmes, William, D.C.L., 17
Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck-Glücksburg, Prince of, 224
Hook, Dean James, 250
Hook, Theodore, 175
Horsman, Edward, M.P., 251
Howe, Lady, 63–4
Howe, Lord, 60, 61 _et seq._, 214, 298
Hume, Joseph, 15, 306
Hunnings, mad suitor of the Princess, 100
I
Ingestre, Lady Sarah, 253
Inverness, Duchess of (_see_ Underwood)
J
Jenkinson, Lady Catherine, 48
Jersey, Earl of, 125, 225
Jersey, Lady, 43, 134
Jones, The “Boy,” 361, 370
Jordan, Mrs., 8
K
Kemble, Frances Anne, 122, 182, 330, 348, 380
Kennedy, Lady Augusta (Fitzclarence), 9
Kensington Palace, 25, 86, 91, 95, 100, 102, 104, 110, 118, 125–6, 236
Kent, Duchess of, 1 _et seq._, 20, 26, 28, 30 _et seq._, 72 _et seq._, 82–3, 87, 91, 94 _et seq._, 108, 111, 115–6, 125, 133–4, 137, 140–1, 143–5, 151, 164, 168, 171, 178, 186, 188, 192–3, 202 _et seq._, 223, 236–7, 241, 255, 258 _et seq._, 271, 282, 288, 315, 321, 326, 331, 339, 345
Kent, Duke of, 24–5, 29, 37, 41, 109, 248
Kinnaird, royal page, 375
Knox, Admiral, 333, 360
L
Lade, Sir John, 166
Lamb, William (_see_ Melbourne, Lord)
Lambton, John George (_see_ Durham, Earl of)
Lansdowne, Marchioness of, 135, 137
Leader, M.P. for Westminster, 174
Lee, Sir Sidney, 284, 306
Lehzen, Baroness, 4–5, 45–7, 140, 142–3, 164, 199, 203 _et seq._, 218–20, 232, 234, 240, 256–7, 261, 272, 275, 284, 321, 324 _et seq._, 340
Leibnitz, 117
Leiningen, Prince of, 91
Leopold, King of the Belgians, 22 _et seq._, 31, 42, 72, 89–90, 93, 103, 113, 138, 140, 161, 165, 170, 179, 203, 229 _et seq._, 240–1, 288–90, 296–8, 306, 308, 320, 329, 334, 343, 344–5
Leslie, C. R., 180, 201
Leuchtenberg, Duke of, 80
Lichfield, Lady, 253
Lichfield, Lord, 252
Liddell, Georgiana, 238, 337, 339, 351, 359, 360
Lieven, Princess de, 20, 168, 185, 242, 244
Lisle, Lady de (Fitzclarence), 109
Lisle, Lord de, 91
Liverpool, Earl of, 48, 160, 315
Loudoun, Countess of, 255, 258 _et seq._, 267, 269, 276, 283
Louis, Mrs., 46
Louis Philippe, King, 80, 206, 358, 377
Lyndhurst, Lady, 129
Lyndhurst, Lord, 37, 127 _et seq._, 200, 309–11
Lyttelton, Lady, 135, 217
M
Macaulay, Lord, 76, 220, 380
Maria da Glorià, Queen of Portugal, 57, 80
Martineau, Harriet, 246
Mary, Queen, 84
McCarthy, Justin, 220
McMahon, Colonel, 138
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Grand Duke of, 346
Melbourne, Lord, 37; dismissed by William, 67, 113, 115; _The Times_ upon, 117; at the Privy Council, 118; commencement of his friendship with the Queen, 125, 130; Queen’s chief adviser, 134, 138; as private secretary, 140; returned to power, 148 _et seq._; and the Tories, 162, 163, 165; and the Queen’s favours, 167, 170; riding with the Queen, 178, 179, 183, 184, 188; and the Civil List, 189; association with the Queen, 191 _et seq._; blamed for Queen’s affection for Lehzen, 206; and Bedchamber crisis, 213 _et seq._; lines upon, 221, 227; and the Queen’s marriage, 231, 235, 238, 240, 242; spite against, 243; as scapegoat, 246 _et seq._, 253; and the Lady Flora Hastings scandal, 257 _et seq._, 287; the Queen’s reticence with, 295, 302; and the Tories, 307; and the Prince’s Treasurer, 313, 317, 319, 321; and the Prince, 325; his dinner party, 332, 338, 339; his resignation, 341; the Queen’s grief, 343; the Prince desires his help, 344; continued intercourse with the Queen, 348; and Baron Stockmar, 350; tenderness for the Queen, 355, 379, 380; his death, 381
Meredith, George, 330
Merriman, Dr., 279, 280
Minto, Lord, 70
Montgomery, Alfred, 174
Montrose, Duchess of, 253
Montrose, Duke of, 253
Moore, Tom, 177
Morpeth, Lord, 217, 240
Munster, Lord (George Fitzclarence), 9, 167
Murray, Charles, Comptroller of the Household, 338
Murray, Lady Augusta, 21
N
Nemours, Duc de, 224
Nevill, Lady Dorothy, 241
Neumann, General, 340
Norfolk, Duke of, 127
Normanby, Lady, 203, 218, 220, 238, 239, 343
Normanby, Lord, 250
Northumberland, Duchess of, 4, 44, 47, 74, 137, 324
Norton, Fletcher (_see_ Lord Grantley)
Norton, George, 150 _et seq._
Norton, the Hon. Mrs., 150 _et seq._, 157, 329, 382
O
O’Connell, Daniel, 4, 126, 237, 299, 356
Orange, Prince of, 89, 91
Orange, Prince Alexander of, 89, 228
Orange, Prince William of, 89, 91, 225
Owen, Robert, 248
P
Paget, Lord Alfred, 235
Paget, Sir Arthur, 175
Paget, Matilda, 359
Palmerston, Lady (_see_ Lady Cowper)
Palmerston, Lord, 68, 70, 178, 179, 229, 239, 244, 246, 356
Parris, Edmund T., 179
Peel, Sir Robert, 69, 134, 157, 176, 207, 210 _et seq._, 299, 304, 328, 329, 342, 343, 348, 350, 355, 356, 358, 360, 374, 378, 379, 381
Percival, Rev. H. P., 250
Pitt, Miss, 321
Portman, Lady, 135, 217, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265, 270, 274, 283, 349
Portman, Lord, 272
Princess Royal, 345, 362
Prussia, King of, 339, 345, 346
Prussia, William, Prince of, 223
R
Raikes, Thomas, 62
Rawdon, Lady Charlotte, 266
Reeve, Henry, 157, 175, 176
Reichenbach, maid to Lady Flora Hastings, 276, 278, 279, 280
Ribblesdale, Lord, 175
Rodwell, George Herbert, 74, 108
Rogers, Samuel, 314, 362
Rolle, Lord, 198
Ros, Lord de, 35
Rosebery, Countess of, 137
Russell, Lady, 242
Russell, Lord John, 67, 128, 162, 175, 209, 210, 214 _et seq._, 220, 242, 354, 356, 374, 379, 380, 383
Russell, Lord William, 223
Russia, Emperor of, 354
Russia, Tsarevitch of, 224
S
St. James’s Palace, 33, 73, 126
Sandwich, Lady, 343
Saunders, Henry, Inspector of the Palace, 374
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Albert, Prince of (_see_ Albert)
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Augustus, Prince of, 81, 85, 88
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Dowager Duchess of, 72, 293
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke of, 89, 233
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Ernest, Prince of, 89
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Ferdinand, Prince of, 85, 91, 224, 233
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Ferdinand, Prince of, the younger, 80, 85, 233
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Leopold, Prince of, 327
Schwartzenberg, Prince Paul von, 197
Sefton, Lord, 167
Seton, Sir Henry, 203, 234
Seymour, Lady, 329
Shafto, Robert, 174
Sheil, Richard L., 174
Sheridan, R. B., 150
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 48
Sibthorp, Colonel, 306
Smith, Sydney, 380
Somerset, Duchess of, 332
Sophia, Princess, 19, 45, 265, 275, 282, 319
Sophia, Princess of Brunswick, 166
Soult, Marshall, 196
Späth, Baroness, 45, 46
Spencer, 2nd Earl, 67, 68
Spencer, 3rd Earl, 374
Spring-Rice, Miss, 335
Spring-Rice, Rt. Hon. Thomas, 67, 189
Stanhope, Hon. Mrs. Leicester, 332
Stockledge, Mr., 236
Stockmar, Baron, 138, 142, 164, 203, 229, 230, 291, 294, 305, 307, 321, 322, 335, 345, 348, 350, 364, 370, 373
Strogonoff, Count von, 197, 199
Sturge, Joseph, 132
Surrey, Lord, 201
Sussex, Duke of, 11, 20, 30, 39, 113, 119, 120, 135, 178, 197, 220, 310, 317, 320, 323
Sutherland, Duchess of, 135, 142, 176, 216, 240, 251, 320, 343
Sutherland, Duke of, 251
Sydney, Lady Sophia (Fitzclarence), 9
T
Tavistock, Lady, 135, 177, 217, 219, 257, 259, 261, 265, 270, 274, 343
Tavistock, Lord, 272, 274
Taylor, Sir Herbert, 19, 137, 138, 140
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 341
Thackeray, W. M., 75
Thalberg, musician, 239
Thynne, John, 198
Tindal, Justice, 152
U
Underwood, Lady Cecilia, 21, 317
Uxbridge, Earl of, 225, 253, 374
V
Van Praet, Herr, 234
Venables, George, 75
Victoria, Princess, and Lady Conyngham, 2; her character and upbringing, 3; surveillance over, 5; first request as Queen to her mother, 6; loneliness, 7; Queen Adelaide’s affection for, 9; secret enemies of, 15, 20, 21, 23, 25; and Claremont, 26; and George IV., 32; absence from Coronation of William IV., 34; at the opera, 39 and 40; at Norris Castle, 42, 43; at church, 44; governess and tutor, 44; Baroness Späth’s affection for, 46; autumn progresses, 47 _et seq._; Heir-Presumptive, 48; educating for Queenship, 53; at a juvenile ball, 57, 64; bred a Whig, 71; her attainments, 71; her love for Claremont, 72; appearance, 73; her cousins, 73; love for music, 73; Lord Elphinstone’s acrostic, 76; at Ascot, 77; confirmed, 77, 79, 81, 82; and Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, 86; and Lord Elphinstone, 86; rumours of suitors, 88; arrival of many young German princes, 88; and Prince Albert, 92; withdrawn from Court, 94, 95; a terrible birthday banquet, 96, 99; and the mad Mr. Hunnings, 100; eighteenth birthday, 102; rumours about the first Victorian Cabinet, 103; her majority and the State ball, 107; deputations to, 108; the King offers an independent household, 111; offers income of £10,000, 111; and the quarrels between the King and the Duchess of Kent, 112; public ignorance of character, 113; _The Times_ advises her, 115
Victoria, Queen, announcement of her accession, 117; her first Council, 118; Carlyle on, 123; a royal proclamation, 123; the proclaiming of, 125; first Levée and Drawing Room, 126; dislike for Lyndhurst, 127; receives deputations and prorogues Parliament, 132; formation of royal household, 135; private secretary, 137; and Baron Stockmar, 139; her reading and education, 141; and Baroness Lehzen, 143; and Sir John Conroy, 144; emancipated, 146; and Lord Melbourne, 154; military review abandoned, 159; name used in elections, 161; method with her advisers, 164; thoughtfulness for others, 166; and Princess de Liéven, 168; and her mother, 169; and Brougham, 173; quick temper, 177; recreations, 178; Guildhall banquet, 180; opening Parliament, 181; political leaning, 183; rumours to marry Melbourne, 185; at dinner, 186; her laugh, 188; need of money, 189; Civil List, 190; and Melbourne, 191; her evenings, 193; Coronation, 197; and Baroness Lehzen, 205; Government crisis, 210; unpopular, suggestions of marriage, 222; State balls, 225; and Lord Elphinstone, 226; and Prince Albert, 229; mad suitors, 235; amusements, 238; simplicity in dress, 240; love of children, 242; and Melbourne, 244; public disloyalty, 245; and national education, 249; sermons before, 250; Tory disloyal speeches, 251; the Bradshaw-Horsman duel about, 251; hissed at Ascot, 252; quoted, 255; mother and Lehzen, 256; Lady Flora Hastings, 257 _et seq._; and Sir James Clark, 277; popular condemnation of, 280; in debt, 287; unevenness of temper, 288; loneliness, 290; proposes to Albert, 293; reticence with Melbourne, 295; Melbourne’s care for, 297, 305; how regarded by her Parliament, 306; wishes Albert to be King-Consort, 308; and the precedence of Albert, 309; and Albert’s secretary, 313; marriage, 314, 320; reticence with her husband, 321; Lehzen’s influence, 322; Melbourne’s protective care, 325; love of dancing, 327; accused of extravagance, 328; receives Mrs. Norton, 329; shot at by Oxford, 331; expects an heir, 332; birth of Princess Royal, 333; sensitiveness about Prince Albert, 336; love of round games and music, 337; walks on terrace at Windsor, 340; loses Melbourne, 341; tenacity of impression, 343; at wedding of Augusta of Cambridge, 346; retains friendship for Melbourne, 348; dinner party to new Ministers, 349, 351; goes to Chatsworth, 352; prejudice against second marriages, 354; and Melbourne, 355; the Peel Government, 356; visits Scotland, 357; visits Louis Philippe at Eu, 358; second attempt on life, 359; household arrangements, 365; desire for privacy, 366; use of royal _we_, 379; and Macaulay, 380; prosperity of, 382; character, 383
Villiers, George, 155
W
Wakefield, Mr., 16
Wangenheim, Baron, 24
Warr, Lady de la, 349
Warr, Lord de la, 373
Watson, Sir Frederick, 367
Wellington, Duke of, 2, 12, 30, 33, 36, 62, 68, 75, 114, 115, 120, 129, 135, 148, 155, 157, 160, 165, 208, 209, 210 _et seq._, 220, 264, 296, 302, 304, 306, 311, 320, 333, 349, 352, 377
West, Charles, 374
West, Mortimer, 374
West, Reginald, 374
Westmacott, Mr., 19
Wetherall, General, 37
Wetherell, Sir Charles, 17
Wilkie, Sir David, 179
Wilks, Mr., M.P., 241
William IV., 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 _et seq._, 11 _et. seq._, 21, 22, 30, 32 _et seq._, 60, 62, 67 _et seq._, 73, 75, 76, 78, 80, 82, 83, 87, 88, 89, 91, 94 _et seq._, 102, 105, 107, 110, 113, 115, 116, 117, 123, 134, 138, 143, 147, 153, 166, 185, 192, 196, 214, 306, 371
William, Prince of Löwenstein, 323
Willis, N. P., 77, 82
Wilson, Horace, 348
Wharncliff, Lord, 69
Winchilsea, Lord, 69
Windsor, 69, 95, 161, 174, 236, 238, 376
Wood, Captain John, 236
Wynford, Lord, 153
Wynn, Miss, 118
Wurtemberg, Prince Alexander of, 73
Wurtemberg, Prince Ernest of, 73
Y
York, Duke of, 23
R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK ST., S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] William Holmes, D.C.L., “the adroit and dexterous Whip of the Tory Party.”
[2] The pit in those days was still a fashionable part of the house, being where the stalls are now.
[3] “Mrs. Brookfield and her Circle.”
[4] A slang term, probably meaning to talk pompously or trivially.
[5] The Duke of Wellington had no official post at the time.
[6] The Bradshaw incident and others.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.
4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.