The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-17
TIE QUEENS FRIEND.
John Browns Devoted Service to Emo
lands Ruler.

/
lands Ruler.
| In the old church yard Of Crathie,
says the Royal Magazine, sweet with
the scent Of the birks and the frs, are
many of the queens memorials to those
who, having served their day and gen
GRAFTON by their sovereign's side, have
passed through the valley of the sha-
dow to their rest Is there, in the his
| tory of monarchies, a parallel to the
dedication of her ma esty's second book,
More Leaves?' ITO my loyal High
| landers," it runs, land especially to
! the memory of my devoted personal
attendant and faithful friend, John
1 Brown, these records of my widowed
life in Scotland are gratefully dedi-
Gated"
! Prince Albert, when visiting the Bal
moral stables, saw a rough country
youth whose father occupied the Bush,
a farm in the immediate vicinity of
| Balmoral, on the north side of the Dee.
! Prince Albert found that in his stable
boy he had no sycophantic courtier, but
| a lad who spoke unaffectedly to him.
with the ease that sits so we'll upon
the Highlander. But let the queen tell
| the story of the promotion of John
]
lar attendant out of doors everywhere
In the Highlands, who commenced as
gillie in 1S49 ana was selected by AL
| bert and me to go with my carriage.
| In 1851 he entered our service perma-
nently, and advanced step by step by
his good conduct and intelligence. His
attention. care and faithfulness cannot
be exceeded He has since,
most deserVedly, been promoted
to be an upper servant 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 oony
! to be led when the queen scaled 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 car
riage upset, John Brown was "indefati-
| gable in his attention and care" Was
| breakfast to be served to the queen in
her sitting room, John Brown-"Brown
VINO is always ready to do anything re-
quireG waited upon his mistress. Had
the news OF friends deaths to be brok-
en-such friends as Mr.. Norman Mac
ieod and the Prince Imperial-it was
John Brown who was called upon to do
the delicate work. 1t was Brown who
had the keen eye for white heather, and
1t was Brown, too, who, with the su-
prostitution of the Highlander, would
not pass 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 among
the hills that have not yet found their
way into print. When driving between
Balmoral and Braemar one day, the
| royal party was overtaken by a sharp
shower Of rain The carriage was
stopped, John Brown got down. and
suggested to her majesty that she
should put plaid around her should
ers. The queen declined the offer, and
asked him to mount and let the drive
De continued. Hoots, lassie" said
Brown, taking the plaid and placing it
in position TAX the plaid roun yer
shoothers (shoulders) or yell get a wat
skin" The story Of the table at Glas-
salt Shiel has already been told One
day her majesty not in the best of
humors. was sketching at the Glassalt
Shiel. She wished for table on which
she might sketch, and the servants had
exhausted the stock, but still the SOW
ereign was dissatisfied. In their plight
| they went to Brown who seized one of
the rejected tables and set it down
with bang. The queen looked up sur
4 p,i, ed, whereupon Brown exclaimed;
They Gamma max tables to YOU up
here, your majesty" His mistress took
in the situation, and worked it off with
| laugh.
When. in 1872. the young madman
! 0'Connor rushed up to the queens car
I riage in buckingham palace garden
with petition in one hand and an old
pistol in the other, 1t was appropriate
that the faithful retainer, Brown,
should seize and disarm him. For this
act Brown was presented by her majes-
\ ty with medal which is shown on a
4 life-size statue by Boehm, which stands
in the Balmoral grounds.
i John Brown died at Windsor in 1888,
1 aged 81 years, grieved for as a friend
by the queen. who afterward wrote
His loss to me is irreparable.
for he deservedly possessed my entire
confidence; and to say that he is daily,
nay, hourly, missed by me is
but a feeble expression of the truth. A
truer, nobler trustier heart, more loyal
and more loving, never beat within a
human breast" over his grave in
Crathie churchyard his mistress and
queen erected a block Of native gran
lite, on the pedestal Of which is u Scotch
thistle. The inscription runs to the eff
u feet that John Brown, personal at