The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-07-31
QUEEN VICTORIA AT HOME
Life With Her IsD't All Royal Sun
shine-Maggie Must Wear
a Sash.

woman in England there is non more
industrious than Queen Victoria, and,
like the majority of those who have
achieved any distinguished success in
the state of life to which they have
been called. she is a great belle e in
early rising. In Prince Albert's time
the royal couple had always break
TASTED, attended prayers with their
household in the royal chapel and
taken a walk together round the
grounds of their palace before half
past nine o'clock. when the real bust
ness of the day began. Although not
so young and hearty nowadays as
formerly. the Queen still rings for her
cup OF cocoa at seven o'clock and rises
an hour later. Breakfast is laid out
in the apartments of Princess Beatrice,
with whom Her Majesty also lunches
alone.
At Windsor the morning is spent in
signing state documents and general
ly studying state affairs, and if the
weather be ~propitious the work is car
ried on out of doors under n tent.
Like every good Englishwoman the
Queen dearly loves her tea and par
takes of the coy meal in company
with Prince Henry of Battenberg and
their little ones. The afternoon is en-
tirely occupied with driving, or some
times riding, an exercise Her Majesty
is very 10th to r~elinquish notwith-
standing years. The royal dinner
hour is nine o'clock, sometimes even
later-just about the time when the
Sovereign's eldest grandchild, the Em-
peror of Germany, thinks OF going off
-ft- L..
simple supper with his family and
friends. Fortunately no meal at the
royal castles is of long duration, and
dinner is dispatched in a mercifully
expeditions III guests have
been invited the Queen enters her
drawing room five minutes before the
hour strikes, and on the sound of
the gong leads the way to the dining
hall. Soon after ten the party retire
to the corridor de conversation, y and
the august lady addresses ali her
friends in succession, but does not re-
main with them much longer than
half an hour, when she returns to her
own apartments to write letters or
play duets on the piano with any of
her daughters who happen to be stay
ing with her.
At Balmoral, ''the dullest house on
this earth, ?" according to the late Lord
Beaconsfield, the monotony of exist
ence is almost oppressive. State bust
ness is, of course, conducted as at
Buckingham Palace and at Windsor,
in the early morning, after which,
more often than not, the whole party
is forced to proceed on a country ex-
petition in open landaus however
cold the weather may be, not ret urn
ing home until late in the afternoon
or evening. Luncheons and tea bas-
kets are Of course taken in the car
riages, and the repasts spread out in
picnic like fashion in some sheltered
nook. The Queen is particularly fond
of sketehing, and to the despair of
her shivering and blue faced ladies in
waiting, will order her camp stool to
be produced, and remain pldnte la,
transferring the landscape to paper,
while these unfortunate mortals stand
around, awaiting her good pleasure.
One of Her Majesty's most pronounced
peculiarities is an inordinate love of
cold weather. Fires are her abomina-
ton, and she will enter the room
where her people are assembled, suf-
fering severely from the effects of
those open windows, which are de
riglteuT wherever she is expected, ex-
claiming with provoking hilarity-
what a lovely dayi' What a COM
fort to see Jack Frost again."
1t must be whispered that the chief
lady of the realm is not on all occa-
sions the most considerable of com
panions. Besides her disregard for
the feelings of others. in respect to icy
apartments, she is apparently un-
aware that her ladies in waiting are
like ordinary mortals, capable of
bodily fatigue. They must always
be within earshot, always ready TO
produce the daily papers from which
every paragraph which might prove
distasteful TO their sovereign has pre-
viously been carefully removed) and
to read aloud standing for any length
OF time. French and German, as well
as English books, are discussed in the
presence of the royal circle after din
ner, when the Queen is not feeling in
clined for music, and woe betide the
maid who shows any sign of failing
strength. Many ladies have, indeed,
proved physically unequal to the
tasks thus imposed upon them and
have been dismissed without further
ado.
The queen is, as may be imagined.
a stern mentor in small matters as in
great. Her dislike to the ways and
manners of the modern English
woman is very evident, and only re-
Gently has she allowed her ladies to
indulge in such vanities as ''fringes,' :
or to disport themselves in listers oil
other outdoor gear displaying a mas
culine cut. To drive a dog cart was
also. in her opinion, an essentially