Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1852-03-10
THE QUEENS STABLES.

seneer, entitled Some Things about Wind
cor Castle and its Grounds" we take the
following account of the Stables OF the
Queen Of Great Britain:
From the apartments, we went to Visit
the Queens stable. Her majesty has a.
bout forty carriages here, when she Is at
Windsor, and horses in proportion. The
number of her steeds is in all about 200.-
The stables are handsome buildings OF
stone the floors are of the same material.
The stalls are wide, of stained oak, with
coarse straw mating under the horses. and
abundance of clean litter; the hangers
have an iron rim around them, and there Is
a hvdrant of water in each stable. was
very much pleased with the general ar
rangements, as being complete, but not IL
diculously expensive. Indeed, l do not see
but that every gentleman, who keeps pan.
of horses, would do well to have stable OF
lust the same sort, If he could make his
servants attend TO it properly. The only
thing that seemed ridiculous was that the
groom, who was rubbing down the horses,
was dressed in drab tights and fair-top
boots, which were shining as if he had just
come off Piccadilly. The horses are very
fine; some ponies, some saddle-horses, and
some coach-horSes. Each horse has his
name painted over his stall, and | took the
trouble to note down some of the names as
matters of curiosity, and specimens Of roy
al taste of onomatology-les roiei-Beau-
clerc, Perrot, Deacon, Ahmed, Omar, Zu-
lerka, Stella, Spanker, Ariel, Wildfre,
WiIdrose, Banter, and Dora. There are
four horses of what We sometimes call milk
and cider color-that is, bays with large
white splotches on them. Of course there
are carriages of all descriptions, from the
large travelling carriage, W ith a dickey fur
nished with holster pistols, down to the Po-
ny-pheton, and even something smaller for
the royal juveniles, as well as garden-car-
riage for her majesty this latter, however,
is drawn by hand; Prince Albert also has
his collection Of shooting carriages. There
is a very snowy looking thing presented by
Louis Philippe to the Queen. 1t is long
carriage, so sonewhat upon the char-a bane
order, with four seats, each seat holding
three persons 1t is entirely open, and has
overhead as covering, something like the
testertop of bed. cannot say admire
it it looked too much like a dandy omnl-
bus. Nor, indeed, do | think among her
forty carriages, her majesty has one which
she might not, with considerable gain, ex-
change for some that might be picked up in
Broadway. 1t is amazing what heavy stage
coach looking things, perched up on i'm
mcnse, old-fashioned springs, they like to
drive here. And to make them look still
more like stage-coaches, they paint the run
ning-gear red or yellow, and sometimes the
body also, though this latter is generally
dark. This clumsy heaviness is the less ex-
cusable here because they have certainly
the most delightful roads i'll the world in
deed if this wers not so, their horses, over
sized as they are, could never drag along
their numbering vehicles. 1t must be no.
tlced also, that their coachmen are as mag
nitudinous as their carriages. There Is a.
mong the Queens carriages one handsome,
light curricle, Of which the dash board, and
the front of the leathertop, are bound with
ivory, with very handsome effect. A.
mong the ornaments of her stables, is po-
ny sent to her majesty from Java, which Is
certainly the smallest specimen Of horse
flesh that ever / saw, though. of course, |
have seen good many Shetland ponies in
the circus. There is also, chained to a
bench, prodigious Angora cat. The at
tendant told us, with manner that show
ed he expected to awaken emotions of Won
der and Of reverence, that her majesty
would often come and sit for an hour upon
Mat bench, and play with that cat. The En-
glish are not a servile people-the farthest
from it in the world but they are very,
very royal. Doubtless they look upon the
sovereign as the representative of the ma
ton, and thus in honoring her, think they
honor themselves; but besides this, there
is a personal veneratlon for sovereign,
which is obvious enough to our American
eyes, and looks strange enough. 1t is ma
ton of classes, and they love classes, and
they do think some how or other, if not ju-
re divino, in some other way quite as etfica-
cious, the royal family are better flesh and
blood than themselves. While, as at pres
ent, the sovereign is delightful lady, the
mother Of fine family, that size loves and
cares for as mother ought to do, and is
every way most exemplary in her domestic
relations, this devotion, if not reasonabe.is
not ungraceful, and while we Americans
cannot see why the Queen must have hun
dreds of horses, scores of carriages, dozens
of palaces, and thousands, of acres of pleas
ure grounds, yet if these things must be so,
we are so much accustomed to honor the
sex at home, that we rejoice that the crown
falls upon the head of an interesting wo-
man, and join with our British brethren
most heartily in shouting in the street, or
more solemnly praying in the church, God
save the Queen. After leaving the royal
stables, we would gladly have visited her
majesty's dairy and aoairy, and especially
the Queens prirate kennel, containing dogs
of various species, brought from different
countries, and presented to her majesty
But we were there at the wrong hour and
thus were hindered much to my disappoint-
ment, who profess some small show of
judgment in such matters. will say here,
though it is DEPRESSION, that | was very
much disappointed in not seeing fine dogs
ill England | had often read OF the En-.
glish mastiff but the only specimen that
saw, was an overgrown stupid looking
brute, shut up like wild animal in cage
at the Geological Gardens. Indeed, some
gentlemen told me that they believed that
the breed was extinct, or nearly so. The
bull dug-but really, must reserve until
another time talk about dogs-I suppose
did see dog that was dog, though this
was not IN England, but on the Rhine.
LUDIcaoDs BLUNpER.-A Frenchman,
having frequently heard the word press
made use of 10 imnly alnrs,lndc -as tnrnce