The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-06
ENGLAND'S QUEEN IN 1887.
Entertaining Gossip and Small-Talk
About the Early Days of Her Reign.
Solemn Dinners and Card Parties at Windsor
Her Majesty's Innate Kindness-Ri-
dicul0us Scenes at the Coronation.
London Ietter.

London Letter.
Queen Victoria is terribly incensed with the
publication of the Greville memoirs. The
Queens anger is so great that she has consulted
the law officers of the crown to discover ways
and means to suppress the edition. But moth
ing Of the sort can be done. There is no law in
the kingdom under which the book can be with
held from sale. And after all, what is there in
the volumes to Justify such extraordinary petu-
lance as the Queen is exhibiting2 The youthful
sovereign is described in respectful language,
and the small imperfections frankly commented
on are not so very dreadful even in a queen.
The passage her Majesty most urgently wished
destroyed is that giving first impressions of the
newly-crowned successor to the Fourth William.
It is as follows;
mime. de Lieven told me yesterday that she
had an audience of the Queen, who was very
civil and gracious, but timid and embarrassed,
and talked of nothing but commonplace. Her
Majesty had probably been told that the Princess
was an lntriguante, and was afraid OF committing
herself. She had afterward an interview with
the Duchess of Kent, who (she told me,) it was
plain to see, is overwhelmed with v~exation and
disappointment. Her daughter behaves to her
with kindness and attention, but has rendered
herself quite independent of the Duchess. who
painfully leelS uer own lnSlSnlHcance. Inc al
most contemptuous way in which Conroy has
been dismissed, must be a bitter modification to
her. The Duchess said to Nine. de Lieven:
Quill NY await plus d'avenir pour ellie. qu'elle
netait plus rein; that for eighteen years this
child had been the sole object of her life, of all
her thoughts and hopes, and now she was taken
from her. and there was an end of
all for which she had lived heretofore.
Nine. de Lieven said that she ought
to be the happiost of human beings, to see the
nlavQfInp nf fhia child hor nrO1ipiny1o
and the praise and admiration Of which she was
universally the object; that it was a triumph and
a glory which ought to be sufficient for her-to
which she only shook her head with a melancholy
smile, and gave her to understand that all this
would not do, and that the accomplishment of her
wishes had only made her to the last degree un-
happy. King William is revenged, he little an
ticipated how or by what fundamentally; and if
his ghost is an ill-natured and vindictive shade, it
may rejoice in the sight of this bitter disappoint-
ment Of his enemy. In the midst of all her pro-
priety of manner and conduct, the young Queen
begins to exhibit slight signs of a peremptory
disposition, and it is impossible not to suspect
that, as she gains confidence, and as her charac-
ter begins to develop. she will evince a strong
will of her own"
Greville's ideas as to the Queens character
were confirmed by later observations, when he
wrote:
A that I hear of the young Queen leads to
the conclusion that she will some day play a
conspicuous part, and that she has a great deal
of character. 1t is clear enough that she had
long been silently preparing herself, and had
been prepared by those about her land very
property for the situation to which she was
destined. The impressions she has made con-
tinue to be favorable, and particularly upon
Melbourne, who has a thousand times greater
opportunities Of knowing what her disposition
and her capacity are than any other person, and
who is not q man to be easily captivated or daz.
zled by any superficial accomplishments or more
graces of manner, or even by personal favor"
Another passage which the Queen strongly OBJ
jects to, on the ground that it violates the privacy
of the royal apartments. is contained in a slight
~ supercilious description of a dinner party and
cards at the Queens palace. Greville writes:
1.-THE dinner was like any other great dinner.
After the eating was over, the Queens health
was given by Caveudish, who sat at one end of
the table, and everybody got up to drink it; a
be to drink her health elsewhere. it is bad taste
to have it given by her own officer at her own
table, which, in fact, is the only private table it
Is ever drunk at. However, this has been Gus
tomary in the last two reigns. George III never
dined but with his family, never had guests, or a
dinner party.
1.-The Queen sat for some time at table, talking
away very merr]y to her neighbors, and the men
remained about a quarter of an hour after the
ladies'. When we went into the drawing room
and huddled about the door in the half shy,
half-awkward way people do, the Queen ad-
vanced to meet us. and spoke to everybody in
succession. and if everybody's 'palaver' was as
deeply intesting as mine. it would have been
worth while to have had Quincy to take it down
in short hand. The words of kings and queens
are precious, but it would be hardly fair to re-
cord a royal after-dinner ~colloquy. y = .
After a few Insignificant questions and answers,
gracious smile and inclination of the head on
part of Queen, profound bow on mine. she
turned again to Lord Grey. Directly after l was
to my satiSfaction), deposited at the whist
table, to make up the Duchess of Kent's party,
a~I Il - -o-A 90 AL@
about a large round table 1.-THE Queen on the
sofa by it), where they passed about an hour
and a half in what was probably
the smallest possible talk, interrupted and en-
livened. however. by some songs which Lord Os-
sulston sang. We had plenty of instrumental
music during and after dinner. TO form an opin-
ion or the slightest notion of her real character
and capacity from such a formal affair as this is
manifestly impossible. Nobody expects from
her any clever, amusing or interesting talk;
above all, no stranger can expect it. She is very
civil to everybody, and there is more of frank
ness, cordially and good humor in her manner
than of dignity. She looks and speaks cheerful
ly; there was nothing to criticise, nothing par
ticularly to admire. The whole thing seemed to
be dull, perhaps unavoidably so, but still so dull
that it is a marvel how anybody can like such a
life. This was an unusually large party, and
therefore more than usually dull and formal;
but it is much the same sort Of thing every
day."
One of the most amusing sketches in the in
terdicted parts of the book is the description of
the coronation ceremony. and here certainly the
Queen has reason to feel anything but hattered
by the figure she is made to display. Following
is the extract:
''The different actors in the ceremonial were
very imperfect in their parts, and had neglected
to rehearse them. Lord John Thyme, who
oficiated for the Dean of Westminster, told me
that nobody knew what was to be done except
the Archbishop and himself (who had re-
hearsedl Lord WilIouphbv (Who ia exneriencad
in these matters), and the Duke of Wellington,
and consequently there was a continual diff
Guilty and embarrassment, and the Queen
never knew what she was to do next. They
made her leave her chair and enter into st.
Edwards Chapel before the prayers were con-
cluded, much to the discontinue of the Arch
bishop. She said to John Thyme: Pray tell
me what l am to do, for they don't know and at
the end. when the orb was put into her hand.
she said to him, What am 1 to do with il