Serving Victoria by Kate Hubbard

Author:Kate Hubbard [Hubbard, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Henry Ponsonby: Private Secretary

Whether due to the Brown effect or simply the passage of time, by the late 1860s the worst of the Queen’s grief had passed. In 1867 she admitted to Lady Waterpark, who had written to her on 10 February, her wedding anniversary: ‘the violent grief is past – I almost grieve for that, for there is a sweetness even in that’. The ‘constant blank and the constant cloud’ were always present, and she mourned the ‘total saltlessness’ of her life, but she no longer wished for death. Lord Clarendon, visiting Osborne two years later, took a robust view, declaring that ‘Eliza is roaring well and can do everything she likes and nothing she doesn’t.’

She could even indulge in a little merriment. In 1868, Henry Ponsonby, in attendance as equerry, accompanied the Queen on a trip to Switzerland. At dinner one evening, Dr Jenner (his pouchy face reminded Lucy Lyttelton of Voltaire, though the Queen, on first meeting, thought him not so ‘frightful’ as she’d been led to believe, despite his ‘large, long teeth like poor Mr Combe’) recounted an expedition that he and Miss Bauer (the princesses’ German governess, and also no beauty – ‘a dear, clever, sensible little person . . . extremely short’, said Her Majesty) had made up the Rigi mountain. Henry asked him ‘what the tourists thought of their relationship. He replied “Oh of course they thought she was Madame”, which created some laughter. Then he added “The guide was very decided and made us give up the horse we rode up and come down in a chair”. “What?” I asked. “Both in one chair?” Well, there is nothing odd in this – but everyone laughed. I turned to Mary Bids [Lady Biddulph]. She was purple. On the other side I tried to speak to Princess Louise. She was choking. I looked across to Jenner. He was convulsed. Of course this was too much. I gave way; and we all had a fou rire till the tears ran down my cheeks which set off the Queen. I never saw her laugh so much. She said afterwards it was my face. At last we got a pause when Jane [Lady Churchill] to set things straight again began with “Did you find it comfortable?” which started us off again.’ Victoria was far too literal-minded to appreciate subtleties of humour, such as irony or self-mockery, but she had a sense of fun and was prone to uncontrollable fits of laughter.

The following year, Sarah Lyttelton, now eighty-one but still in fairly good health, visited the Queen and thought her in good spirits. She ‘found H.M. very fat and rather red but by no means disagreeable to look at, and quite as charming as ever in manner and kindness. We had a long, long talk, not notable of course, but about everybody she could think of belonging to me . . . I asked her if it was true that a man had tumbled down before her

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