The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-08-28
THE QUEENS FRIEND.

oOllu bIdWi $ D6VOteQ service to EIlS- . lands Ruler-Anecdotes of Victoria's . Personal Attendant for Twenty Five
 Years-Grief of Her Majesty at Her
 Loss.
 In the old churchyard of Crathie,
 sweet with the scent of the brks and
 frs, are many of the Queens memor- ials to those who, having served their
 day and generation by their sovereigns
 side, have passed through the valley of
 the shadow to their rest. Is there, in
 the history of monarches, parallel to
 the dedication of Her Majest's second
 book More Leaves? ITO my Loyal
 Highlanders," it runs, and especially
 to the memory of my devoted personal
 attendant and faithful friend John
 Brown, these records of my widowed
 life in Scotland are gratefully dedi-
 cated'
 Prince Albert, when visiting the Bal | moral stables saw rough country youth whose father occupied the Bush,
 a farm in the immediate vicinity of Bal l iiiOldl, Oii lIle lIs sue OL lllC DSS' | Prince Albert found that in his stable | boy he had no sycophantic courier,
 but lad who spoke unaffectedy to him, with the ease that sits so well upon l l the Highlander. But let the Queen tell l | the story of the promotion of John l | Brown, who fin 1858 became my reg- |! uar attendant out of doors everywhere |
 in the Highlands, who commenced as ] | gilie in 1S49 and was selected by Albert | and me to go with my carriage. In 1851 | | he entered our service permanently, and | advanced step by step by his good con- | duct and intelligence. His attention, care and faithfulness cannot be ex- | ceeded. .. He has since, most deserv- edly, been promoted to be an upper ser- want and my personal attendant" What more Queen Victoria has to say of John Brown, is it not written in" Leaves and
 More Leaves? Was the hill pony to be led when the Queen sealed the bens
 with no courtiers by her side-none save
 the Highlanders who ate the bread they
 earned at Balmoral-John Brown was
 there. Was the royal carriage upset, John Brown was "indefatigabe in his attention and care" Was breakfast to be served to the Queen in her sitting always ready to wait upon his mistress. Had the news of friends deaths to be broken-such friends as Dr. Norman Macleod and the Prince Imperial-it was John Brown who was called upon to do the delicate work. It was Brown who had the keen eye for white heather, and it was Brown, too, who, with the superstition of the Highlander, would :. not pass a clump without picking some.
 John Brown dared to do what almost every man in these islands would have shrunk from, and to bear out this statement there are stories, still told among the hills that have not yet found their way into print When driving between Balmoral and BraemaT one day, the royal party was overtaken | by a shap shower of rain The car riage was stopped, John Brown got down, and suggested to Her Majesty that she should put plaid round her shoulders. The Queen declined the offer, and asked his to mount and let the drive becontinued "Hoots lassie', said Brown taking the plaid and placing 1t in position, "Tak the plaid roun' yer shoothers (shoulders) or yell get wat skim The story of the table at Glassalt Shel has already been told One day Her Majesty not in the best of humors was sketchng at the Glass alt Shel. She wished for a table on which she might sketch, and the ser wants had exhausted the stock, but still the sovereign was dissa tisfied. In their plight they went to Brown, who seized one of the rejected tables and set it down with bang. The Queen looked up surprised, whereupon Brown ex / claimed: :"They canna mak' tables to \ you up here, Your Majesty" His mis- tress took in the situation, and worked it off with laugh
 When, in 1872, the young madman S O'Connor rushed up to the Queens car riage in Buckingham Palace Garden with a petition in one hand and an old pistol in the other, it was appropriate that the faithful old retainer, Brown, hould disarm him. For this act Brown was presented by Her Majesty with a medal which is shown on a life size bronze statue by Boehm which stands in the Balmoral grounds
 John Brown died at Windsor in 1883, aged tffty-seven years, grieved for as l friend by the Queen, who afterward wrote: His loss to me. is irrepar- able, for he deservedly possessed my ,ntlre confidence; and to say that he is laily, nay, hourly, missed by me. S but feeble expression of the truth A truer, nobler, truster heart, more " oval and more loving, never beat with ,, human breast" Over his grave in crathe churchyard his mistress and Queen erected block of native granite, n the pedestal of which is a Scotch histle. The inscription runs to the fleet that John Brown, personal at endant and beloved friend of Qneen was "born at Crathenard December 8, 1926; died at Windsor Cas- le, March 27, 1883. That friend on whose fidelity you by circumstances XII XII 'ver which you have no control, was iod's own gift. Well done, good and aithful seryant.'"
 The Queen had erected large house or her faithful servant, who however, Jas destined to rest in it but one night, Br nd that night he was in his coffin, for