Morning journal and courier., 1890-09-19


majesty. Operations are therefore at a
standstill, but enough has been done to
show what q splendid banqueting hall this
will be. The size is sixty by thirty feet,
and the work of the most solid descrip-
ton. The iron girders across the roof
weigh each two and a half tons, and the
walls have been strengthened with iron in
way that would make the ordinary
builder open his eyes. The corridors
around the hall are very spacious, and ella
borate arrangements have been made SO
that the dishes from the kitchen can be
delivered down both sides simultaneously.
The building alone will, it is said, cost
twelve thousand pounds.
The fruit garden and conservatories at
Osborne are not of much account. Suffi-
cient grapes and hothouse flowers are
grown to provide for the queens table,
but many things are daily sent down from
Windsor. The head gardener is an Eng
ishman. 1t is very hot in the grounds at
Osborne, and the visitor will be glad to
rest himself on the neat granite seat erect
ed along one of the pathways-as the in
scription on it records-to the memory of
the late John Brown. 1t appears that
whenever the faithful henchman could get
away from service he liked to come to
this shady spot to smoke his pipe When
sought him here. A brother of his-a
fine, stalwart Highlandman-is now in
charge of the lodge-gate
Down by the sea is a jetty, which is
used by the royal family for boating and
yachting purposes. There is bathing
machine here, and just beside it is curl
GUS arrangement to enable the ladies and
children to bathe in comfort and safety.
1t is great. gayly painted barge with hol-
low center, something like a canoe. The
bottom of this is SO arranged that when
the craft is run along its rails into the sea
the water comes in and the hollow space
becomes q tank, in which a child might
wobble about till it turned into a water
baby. A royal road to learning-how to
| swimI
Perhaps the most interesting sight about
| Osborne is the Swiss chalet and the de-
| hghtful garden surrounding it. Here is a
| pleasant record of the family of her ma
| jesty. Those tall bushes over there were
| planted many years ago by the queen and
| the prince consort-these smaller ones by
their different sons and daughters; the
tiny ones by their grandchildren. Each
tree has a plaque underneath, telling by
whom it was planted and when. That
umbrella pine was planted by the queen
in 1862, in memory of the prince consort
Further on, and side by side, are two
stately bushes-living memories of the
marriage-day of the Prince and Princess
of Wales. These two represent the Duke
and Duchess of Edinburgh, and the latest
| pair stand for Princess Beatrice and Prince
| Henry of Battenberg. The royal children
were trained-among other things-in
gardening here, and each of them had a
Bit of ground to keep in order. Every
thing is just as it was when they were
| children, and the gardener will show you
their different plots, which are side by
side, and all exactly alike There is neat
tool-house, in which are ranged their little
wheelbarrows, spades, etc., and the dom
key-cart in which they drove their pro-
duce to market. Everything is marked
with their different initials. There are
some seventy OF eighty rabbits just now in
the hutches here. These have been spec
tally brought over by her majesty from
Aix-les-Bains and Cannes for the sake of
their long, fieecy wool, which is regularly
| plucked for Princess Beatrice to weave up.
Here also is museum with part fitted
up for each member of the royal family,
and there are some wonderful curios
shown by the Prince of Wales and his
brothers, got during their foreign wander
ings-strange animals shot by themselves,
crocodiles from the Nile, tigers from In
dia: bustards, deer; all manner of strange
gifts from different savage chieftains, ele-
plants tusks given Sir Garnet Wolseley
at Ulundi, and a very special Egyptian
mummy-no doubt of the bluest blood o
his time. The chalet itself is a quain
building, the upper part of which is fittet
: up for the queen. Down below live thu
keeper and his wife-the former a hale
cheery-looking cockney, whose seventy
, years lie lightly on him. He is mar
with history. He was in the service ol
Earl Beaconsfield, and for many years act
. ed as coachman to the late Dean Stanley
Through the influence of Lady August'
Stanley he obtained his present place
some seven years ago, and the queen hai
. no more devoted servant. But all he
servants speak we'll of her. Most of he
work, they say, is done in one or other Q
the morquees erected by the house, an'
they add that she sticks at it early an'
late. There is one continual stream o
, messengers bearing documents TO be al
tended to. And if, in addition to stat
5 business, one thinks of the points whicl
; arise in connection with a property lik
l Osborne, ON all of which, was told, he
majesty herself has something to say, it j
easy to understand why her daughter
: have to beg her to be more punctual a
the nine-o'clock dinner.