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_.

The early court of Queen Victoria · 第 15 / 15 章