THE LINN OF DEE. (From a Photograph by G. W. Wilson and Co.)
London was still dull and gloomy. Court mourning and the absence of the Prince of Wales (who was visiting his sister in Berlin) made the season of 1884 melancholy. On the 10th of May the Queen, the Grand Duke of Hesse, and the Princess Elizabeth paid a visit of condolence to the Duchess of Albany at Claremont, and on the 22nd her Majesty left Windsor for Balmoral. That she was much improved in health was evident, because not only were the public admitted to the railway-station at Perth, and Ferryhill, Aberdeen, but at the former she was able to walk from her carriage to the reception-room with a firm step and without assistance. It was a lovely warm day when her Majesty and suite drove along the north side of the Dee from Ballater to Balmoral. The sixty-fifth anniversary of her Majesty’s birthday was observed in London officially on the 24th of May, but Ministerial State dinners were not given owing to the Royal Family being in mourning. The anniversary was not to be kept at Balmoral, but at last the Queen directed that her servants, with those from Abergeldie and Birkhall, should dine in the Ball Room of the Castle, under the presidency of her Commissioner, Dr. Profeit. In the morning Mr. Boehm’s life-size statue of John Brown arrived, and it was placed on a pedestal in the grounds of Balmoral at a spot about two hundred yards north-west of the Castle, the site being selected by the Queen. The great sculptor superintended the ceremony of unveiling his work. On the 15th of June the Queen attended Crathie Church, for the first time since October, 1882, greatly to the relief of her God-fearing neighbours, who had begun to entertain a shocking suspicion that she had given up attendance at “public worship.” On the 25th the Court returned to Windsor, after a delightful holiday spent in the brightest and sunniest of weather. Every afternoon the Queen had been able to drive about Deeside, and she had even visited, though she had not stayed at, her cottage at the Glassalt Shiel. Though the return of the Prince of Wales to town from Wiesbaden early in June had given a fillip to a chilling season, Society was dull in the summer of 1884. Lord Sydney and Lord Kenmare had gently suggested to the Queen that her refusal to permit Drawing Rooms and State Concerts to be held was causing much disappointment at the West End, but without avail. Her Majesty, however, showed much tenacity in forbidding these functions, the proposal of which by the great officers of the Household she deemed disrespectful to the memory of her dead son. Nor was she conciliated by being reminded that during the season of 1861, after the death of the Duchess of Kent, she had held Drawing Rooms herself, whereas now she had the Princess of Wales ready to relieve her of the burden of attending them. Londoners, however, had their compensations. They discovered, in the gay and glittering gardens of the Health Exhibition at South Kensington, with their English and German bands and their brilliant combinations of Chinese lanterns and electric lamps, a delightful al fresco lounge. Here in the summer evenings the pursuit of pleasure was combined with a chastened homage to the cause of scientific enlightenment and social improvement. This was one of a series of specialised exhibitions, the organisation of which had been the work of the Prince of Wales, who also earned the gratitude of the town at this time by persuading the Queen to let him hold two Levees on her behalf. On the 20th of July the Queen and Princess Beatrice were at Claremont, where the Duchess of Albany gave birth to a son; after which her Majesty proceeded to Osborne on the 30th of the month, where she was visited by the German Crown Prince and Princess. An interesting event in the life of the Court in the season of 1884 was the reception given by the venerable Duchess of Cambridge at St. James’s Palace on the 25th of July to celebrate the completion of her eighty-seventh year. The season of 1884 virtually ended with the Garden Party which the Prince of Wales gave at Marlborough House on the same day. It ended, as it began, gloomily, and the social chroniclers lamented the poorness of the entertainments, the badness of the dinners, the mournfulness of the balls. They only brightened up when they recorded, with a transient gleam of joy, that, though all the “great houses” attended by Royalty had been closed, three had opened their doors since Easter, namely, Devonshire House, where Lord Hartington entertained guests twice; Norfolk House, where Lord and Lady Edmond Talbot gave a ball that was endurable; and Stafford House, where, at a small party in the middle of July, the Prince and Princess of Wales made their first appearance in Society since their mourning.
During August the Queen was much troubled as to the issue of the political crisis arising out of the Reform Bill debates, and the threatened conflict between the democracy and the House of Lords. She earnestly deprecated an attack on the Peers during the Recess, and Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues paid due deference to her opinions. She sent twice for Lord Rowton—better known, when Mr. Disraeli’s private secretary, as Mr. Montagu Corry—whom she regarded as the inheritor of Lord Beaconsfield’s ideas, to consult him on the situation. She made it clear to him that she was unwilling to use her Prerogative for the purpose of creating new Peers to force the Reform Bill through the Upper House. From this it was inferred that if the House of Lords resisted to the bitter end, the Queen would prefer to coerce them by a dissolution rather than by Prerogative. Lord Wolseley and Lord Northbrook were also summoned about this time to consult with her on the prospects of a campaign in Egypt. These anxious conferences were held after she had received the Abyssinian Envoys on the 20th of August. They had come to England bearing copies of a Treaty which had been concluded at Adowah with King John of Abyssinia. They were received by the Queen at Osborne, and at their audience they presented her Majesty with letters from King John and with various gifts, among which were a young elephant and a large monkey. Ere the Court left Osborne the Queen surprised the country by announcing her decision to confer the Order of the Garter on Prince George of Wales, for there was no precedent for giving the Garter to a junior member of the Royal Family in his minority. When the Queen came to the Throne there were only four Royal Knights of this Order, and pedants of heraldry now complained that there were twenty-eight, and that the Royal Knights outnumbered the ordinary ones.
On the 1st of September the Court proceeded to Balmoral, the Queen being accompanied by the Crown Princess and Princess Beatrice. The arrival of the Court at Balmoral, and the visit of Mr. Gladstone to Invercauld, had filled Braemar to overflowing. On the 18th of September the Queen held a Council at
THE QUEEN RECEIVING THE ABYSSINIAN ENVOYS AT OSBORNE.
Balmoral, at which Mr. Gladstone, Lord Fife, and Sir H. Ponsonby were present, Mr. Gladstone afterwards dining with her Majesty. Lord Ripon having resigned office as Viceroy of India, his successor, Lord Dufferin, visited the Queen at Balmoral in October. One by one the Royal guests fled southwards, and finally the Queen and Princess Beatrice left the Highlands for Windsor on the 20th of November—her Majesty’s return being hastened by grave political anxieties caused by the threatened collision between the two Houses of Parliament. Mr. Gladstone had at Balmoral so earnestly deprecated the obstinacy of the Peers, and so clearly pointed out to the Queen the difficulty of avoiding this collision whilst they persisted in their anti-Reform policy, that her Majesty subsequently used all her influence to bring about a compromise. It was with a view to renew her efforts in this direction that she returned to Windsor at the time when Lord Granville was offering to submit a draft Redistribution Bill for friendly but private inspection by the Tory leaders, provided the Peers would give a pledge to pass the Franchise Bill during the autumn Session. The appearance of Mrs. Gladstone’s name among the list of those who were at Lady Salisbury’s reception in Arlington Street on the 19th of November, was taken as an auspicious omen, and as indicating that the Conservative chiefs had not been insensible to the advice which the Queen had given to the Duke of Richmond in the Highlands. The supreme difficulty of bringing about the Reform compromise lay in breaking down the resistance of Lord Salisbury and the Tory Peers, who were resolved to force a dissolution on the basis of the old franchise. This resistance gradually weakened after Mr. Gladstone’s visit to Balmoral. That it finally disappeared was mainly due to the firm but gentle pressure which the Queen put on the Duke of Richmond in order to induce him and his colleagues to accept a compromise. The actual details of the Treaty between Mr. Gladstone and the Peers were settled in London. But the preliminaries of Peace were really negotiated by the Queen and the Duke of Richmond in Aberdeenshire, after the memorable “gathering of the clans” at Braemar in the autumn of 1884. After the return of the Court from Scotland many guests were received at Windsor, among whom Lord Sydney—who audits her Majesty’s private accounts, and, since the death of the Prince Consort, has been her confidential adviser—was one of the most favoured. On the 17th of December the Court removed to Osborne.