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By 1851, there were 306,000: Picard, Victorian London, 50.
increasing acidity and murkiness in the water: The smell was acute at low tide: the banks were piled with excrement and crawled with bright red worms boys called bloodworms. Ibid., 10.
“harassing fatigues and anxieties of official duties”: Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal 15 (1852), 160.
leaking excrement and crawled with rodents: In the words of one royal courtier, “There are more stinks in royal residences than anywhere else.” St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 328.
“the rat made an awful noise”: QVJ, November 22, 1849.
wearing a belt set with cast-iron rats: Black also provided rats for rat-baiting competitions, where a crowd of rats was placed in a pit and bets were held as to how quickly a terrier could kill them all. This was a popular mid-Victorian pastime.
they grew sick from “the fearful smell!”: QVJ, June 28, 1858. Sanitation was one of Albert’s myriad passions, though, and he was constantly experimenting with various sewage fertilization schemes on his properties, as part of his research into methods of improving the living conditions of the working class.
without having to hold handkerchiefs over their noses: But, wrote The Times, “that hot fortnight did for the sanitary administration of the metropolis what the Bengal mutinies did for the administration of India.” The Times, July 21, 1858, 9.
water temperature was at a record high: Testimony from a civil engineer, The Times, July 14, 1858, 5.
to avoid prolonged exposure to the fumes: In one case, on June 23, 1858, the judge in the Court of Exchequer said he would quickly sum up because of the stench. A juror agreed he was made ill by it and the judge responded: “I deem it my public duty to notice the condition of the river and its effect on all around me. It is impossible to conceal from one’s-self the fact that we are not sitting to try a most important case in the middle of a stinking nuisance.” (The Times, June 24, 1858, 11.) The Times campaigned for months to goad the authorities to clean the river, advising their readers to have a tumbler of sherry and ice to steel themselves, then walk to the Thames at low tide: “There you shall see in the brief space of half an hour and two or three miles a hundred sewers disgorging solid filth, a hundred chimneys vomiting smoke, and strange, indescribable, sickening vapors; a hundred broad acres of unnatural, slimy, chymical compost, a hundred pair of paddlewheels stirring up the mud. The water—the liquid rather—is inky black. Naked imps, issuing from dark arches or dropping from coal barges, play in mud and water like the monster brood of the Nile….We believe this to be the uncleanest, foulest river in the known world.” The Times, June 17, 1858, 8.
“most head-and-stomach distracting nature”: Quoted in Picard, Victorian London, 51–52. This account of the impact on the Thames is highly worth reading.
The stench was no respecter: There were lengthy delays and many arguments about money, responsibility, and solutions before Joseph Bazalgette, civil engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works, was permitted to embark on his plan of diverting sewage from the Thames by building intercepting super-sewers running north and south along the edge of the river, which carried the effluent to plants outside the city. (Paterson, Voices from Dickens’ London, 31.) In 1858, Parliament granted him three million pounds. His scheme began in increments as embankments were built alongside; under the streets, 165 miles of main sewers were connected to 1,100 miles of local sewers to carry the sludge away from the center of the city. It was fully functioning by the mid-1870s.
“Can I have no more fun in bed?”: Duff, in Albert and Victoria, 225, calls this “private information.” He wrote, “It has been passed down that he [Sir James Clark] revealed, to members of his own profession, the Queen’s reply to his advice that she should have no more children. The reply was ‘Oh, Sir James, can I have no more fun in bed?’ ”
“hardly able to do what is expected of her”: Letter dated March 3, 1857. Bolitho, The Prince Consort, 170. The month before Beatrice was born, Albert wrote to Viscount Palmerston saying Victoria’s health was bad and she needed to go to Windsor: “The Queen feels herself physically quite unable to go through the anxiety of a Ministerial crisis.” Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3:290.
“I have felt better”: QVJ, April 29, 1857. “Afterwards,” she wrote, “there was a small Party & a very pretty, gay little Dance, in the Saloon….Was surprised at myself,—at being so strong, that I was able to dance all the evening, after such a tiring Levee, & only 2 months after the birth of my 9th child! I am indeed truly thankful.”
“which I so much wished for!”: QVJ, April 29, 1857.
“A greater duck”: QVJ, December 18, 1857.
“the most amusing baby we have had”: Prince Albert to Baron Stockmar, April 2, 1858, Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:177.
“If only she could remain, just as she is”: QVJ, April 14, 1858. Then on January 23, 1859, she tried to draw her youngest: “Drew little Beatrice, who is the greatest love imaginable, so round & plump, & so lively.”
five Indian soldiers to one British: In 1856, there were 233,000 Indians to 45,000 Britons (Charlot, Victoria the Young Queen, 370). The sepoys were also angered by some cuts in pay, and an insistence that the Bengal army must serve overseas, which would make a high-caste person’s position perilous.
Victoria tried to goad the Cabinet into action: Queen Victoria to the Viscount Canning, December 2, 1858, Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3:389.
delaying the Chinese War by a year: The Chinese War was concluded on June 26, 1858. The Treaty of Tien-tsin further opened up China to British trade and diplomacy.
children’s shoes with the feet still in them: Victoria was horrified, writing in her journal on September 18, 1857: “After our breakfast with Jane C., reading newspapers with awful details of the fearful massacre at Cawnpore. 88 officers, 70 ladies & children, 120 women & children, & 400 residents perished! The courtyard with 2 inches of blood, tresses of hair & clothes of the poor ladies left,—all that was found!” She was later further distressed, on behalf of the dignity of the women, that the details of their torture became public. QVJ, December 14, 1857.
“the agonies gone thro’ of the massacres”: Queen Victoria to Lady Canning, September 8 1857, cited in Surtees, Charlotte Canning, 238. Victoria did write later, on October 22, 1857 (p. 243), to ask: “What I wish to know is whether there is any reliable evidence of eye witnesses—of horrors, like people having to eat their children’s flesh & other unspeakable & dreadful atrocities which I could not write?”
while they watched hundreds of rebels hanged: St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 306.
chastised his troops for this behavior: Lord Canning wrote to Victoria: “One of the greatest difficulties which lie ahead—and Lord Canning grieves to say so to your Majesty—will be the violent rancor of a very large proportion of the English community against every native Indian of every class. There is a rabid and indiscriminate vindictiveness abroad….Not one man in ten seems to think that the hanging and shooting of forty or fifty thousand mutineers, besides other Rebels, can be otherwise than practicable and right.” Viscount Canning to Queen Victoria, Calcutta, September 25, 1857, Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3:318–19.
“see them happy, contented and flourishing”: St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria, 307. The queen also wrote in her journal at this time—November 1, 1857—that she spoke “very strongly” to Lord Palmerston “about the bad vindictive spirit, exhibited by many people here & by some of the Press &c—, & of the absolute necessity for showing our desire to be kind to the peaceable inhabitants; also that the death penalty should not be enforced indiscriminately on all the mutineers, for there must be a wide difference between those who had committed murders & atrocities, or fought against us, & those who had merely left their muskets & knapsacks behind, & these I fear, have also been hung.”
which had governed most of India since 1601: It was established on December 31, 1600.
education and ability, not class or creed: Her statement read: “Firmly relying on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of our religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. It is our Royal will and pleasure that no one shall in any wise suffer for his opinions or be disquieted by reason of his religious faith or observance.” Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:335–36.
complained of Indians behaving “like animals”: QVJ, April 16, 1859.
“It is not every day”: Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon, October 25, 1857, Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3:321.
“I could hardly command myself”: QVJ, January 25, 1858.
“how long it may be before we see her again!”: QVJ, February 2, 1858.
The thought of separation was “especially painful”: Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:132.
She felt she owed her father more than anyone: Vicky to Prince Albert, Charlot, Victoria the Young Queen, 386.
“what a void you have left in my heart”: Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:146.
“and therefore shall miss her sadly”: Queen Victoria to King Leopold, January 12, 1858, Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3:333.
with Austria ruling the north: When the European map was redrawn at the Congress of Vienna, held at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814, Austria was given the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.
would ignite a full-blown European war: The French had also been furious when it was revealed that the Italian conspirators who had made an attempt on their emperor’s life had sought asylum in England, where they had hatched revolutionary plans and made grenades.
played a crucial part in staying Britain’s hand: This amounted to an agreement between France and Austria for a confederation of Italian states, which almost entirely ignored the desires of the Italians for self-rule, and annexed Nice and Savoy to France.
Victoria and Albert were now at the height of their powers: August 28, 1905, Brett, Journals and Letters, 2:103–6. See Ward, “Editing Queen Victoria,” 221.
“would have become very strained”: Esher continued in a private letter to his son, “Also there were signs of incipient trouble between him and the P. of Wales, young as the Prince was so that perhaps his early death was no great misfortune. Probably his mission was fulfilled and his work done, in the training which he gave the Queen. He lived long enough to sow the seed but not to see the ear ripen. Perhaps it was as well.” Esher to Maurice Brett, August 18, 1905, Brett, Journals and Letters. Quoted in Ward, “Editing Queen Victoria,” 229.
she called it “horrid news”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, May 26, 1858, Fulford, Dearest Child, 108.
“our poor nature becomes so very animal and unecstatic”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, June 15, 1858, ibid., 115. The full passage: “I think much more of our being like a cow or a dog at such moments; when our poor nature becomes so very animal and unecstatic—but for you, dear, if you are sensible and reasonable and not in ecstasy nor spending your day with nurses and wet nurses, which is the ruin of many a refined and intellectual young lady, without adding to her real maternal duties, a child will be a great resource. Above all, dear girl, do remember never to lose the modesty of a young girl towards others (without being prude); though you are married don’t become a matron to whom everything can be said and who minds saying nothing herself—I remained to a particular degree (indeed feel so now) and often feel shocked at the confidences of other married ladies. I fear abroad they are very indelicate about such things.” It was only in letters to Vicky that Victoria complained so robustly. See also ibid., 77–78, 94.
“relieved from a great weight”: QVJ, January 27, 1859.
“very severe”: QVJ, January 29, 1859.
Albert advised rest: Prince Albert to Vicky, March 16, 1859, Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:333.
hung weakly from its socket, paralyzed: QVJ, May 21, 1859.
“fine fat child, with a beautiful white soft skin”: QVJ, September 25, 1860.
“the best children I ever saw”: She now understood, she wrote, the “overflowing tenderness” her mother used to feel for her children. QVJ, August 16, 1861.
the queen grew slender and content: Wyndham, Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, 419.
“so peaceable & happy in this little cottage”: QVJ, August 30, 1849.
fancy black satin dress adorned with white ribbons and orange flowers: QVJ, October 9, 1861.
“particularly well, cheerful and active”: Prince Albert to Baron Stockmar, October 11, 1859, Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:411.
“Oh! if only the time did not fly so fast!”: QVJ, October 13, 1857.
“We danced in the New Year”: Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:424.
“we are like 2 sisters!”: QVJ, June 1, 1859.
they had both married and borne children: Victoria wrote to Vicky: “A married daughter, be she ever so young, is at once, on a par with her mother.” Queen Victoria to Vicky, April 21, 1959, Fulford, Dearest Child, 184.
as fulfillment of his “sacred duty”: Prince Albert to Baron Stockmar, February 15, 1858, Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:153.
“I might almost say, spasm of the soul”: Albert wrote, “I explain this hard-to-be-comprehended mental phenomenon thus. The identity of the individual is, so to speak, interrupted; and a kind of Dualism springs up by reason of this, that the I which has been, with all its impressions, remembrances, experiences, feelings, which were also those of youth, is attached to a particular spot, with its local and personal associations, and appears to what may be called the new I like a vestment of the soul which has been lost, from which nevertheless the new I cannot disconnect itself, because its identity is in fact continuous. Hence, the painful struggle, I might almost say, spasm of the soul.” Prince Albert to Vicky, March 10, 1858, Martin, The Prince Consort, 4:178.
“dependent on herself!”: Queen Victoria to King Leopold, February 9, 1858, Benson and Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3:334.
“how do your poor maids bear this hurry scurry?”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, February 6, 1858, Fulford, Dearest Child, 32–33. Victoria also regularly admonished her daughter for not writing frequently enough, or providing enough detail, including about cold sponging and the temperature of her rooms, even though Albert scolded her for being demanding. When Vicky failed to provide sufficient information about her health in telegrams, Victoria stomped her foot in print: “You don’t say whether your cold is better or not, but merely: ‘I am still unwell’ and—‘I am pretty well.’ Were you feverishly unwell with it or not?…Accustomed as I was to know everything about you from hour to hour, I get terribly fidgeted at not knowing what really is the matter.” Queen Victoria to Vicky, February 20, 1858, Fulford, Dearest Child, 54.
an oppressive zealousness and control: Victoria also suggested beginning her letters with headings, and asked for Vicky’s ladies to provide a list of her daughter’s outfits, a full account of all public and private presents she received and a sketch of how Vicky arranged her furniture.
“I watch over you as if I were there”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, December 11, 1858, Fulford, Dearest Child, 151.
“few people have good teeth abroad”: June 30, 1858, ibid., 120.
“you know how that fattens”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, April 14 1858, ibid., 90.
“overdid the passion for the nursery”: She warned her against losing time “if you overdid the passion for the nursery. NO lady, and less still a Princess, is fit for her husband or her position, if she does that. I know, dear, that you will feel and guard against this; but I only just wish to remind you and warn you, as with your great passion for little children (which are mere little plants for the first six months) it would be very natural for you to be carried away by your pleasure at having a child.” (Queen Victoria to Vicky, November 17, 1858, ibid.,144.) Victoria told Vicky, in a letter written on March 16, that she only really liked babies over the age of three to four months, “when they r
eally become very lovely.” (Ibid., 167.) It was newborns that she disliked, writing again, on May 2, 1859, that she only cared for them when they became “a little human; an ugly baby is a very nasty object—and the prettiest is frightful when undressed—till about four months; in short as long as they have their big body and little limbs and that terrible froglike action. But from four months, they become prettier and prettier. And I repeat it—your child would delight me at any age.” (Ibid., 191.)
put to bed only about four times a year: Queen Victoria to Vicky, May 14, 1859, ibid., 193.
given how harsh a disciplinarian she had been: Victoria had strictly disciplined Vicky as a child, and now credited her approach with having produced a woman with a sterling character. She regularly reminded her daughter what a great trial she had been as a child: “A more insubordinate and unequal-tempered child and girl I think I never saw!…The trouble you gave us all—was indeed very great. Comparatively speaking, we have none whatever with the others. You and Bertie (in very different ways) were indeed great difficulties….I am very curious to know whether I shall find still some of the old tricks of former times in you? The standing on one leg, the violent laughing—the cramming in eating, the waddling in walking.” Queen Victoria to Vicky, July 28, 1858, ibid., 124–25.
their belief that Albert was a demigod: Vicky to Queen Victoria, February 15, 1858, ibid., 46.
“very violent feelings of affection”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, June 9, 1858, ibid., 69.
“when he is away I feel quite paralysed”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, June 9, 1858, ibid., 112.
“those immense features and total want of chin”: Queen Victoria to Vicky, November 27, 1858, ibid., 147.
his large mouth, and his new hairstyle: Seven months later, Victoria bemoaned the fact that his mouth and nose were continuing to grow, with a hanging “Coburg nose” just like his mother’s and an absent chin. Queen Victoria to Vicky, June 29, 1859, ibid., 198.