Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter

by Lucinda Hawksley

  By thy dear name to be hereafter Known,

  Alberta shall it be!

  The couple sailed to New Westminster and were greeted by over 3,000 people from local tribes. When both Lorne and Louise shook hands with the wife of the local tribal chief the journalists watched in amazement.

  In December, Louise, Lorne and their entourage travelled to California, eager to escape the fierce Canadian winter and spend Christmas in the sun. They travelled to Los Angeles and San Francisco – where they were introduced to resident Canadians and went on a tour of Chinatown. Then they went on to Monterey, where they impressed the residents by refusing to travel in a carriage and walking from the station to their hotel (the two buildings were four blocks apart). On 24 December they arrived in Santa Barbara to enjoy a ‘Mexican style’3 Christmas. Louise became the first woman ever permitted to enter the sacred garden of its monastery. Louise loved Santa Barbara, where they stayed for a month for her health, but she was sad to miss the birth of Leopold and Helen’s first child, Alice. The baby was ostensibly named after her recently deceased aunt; although it is likely Leopold had also wanted to name his daughter after Alice Liddell, who had recently named her son after him. (Queen Victoria surprised even herself by her admiration for Leopold’s new daughter, writing to Vicky, ‘Though I am not an admirer of babies – I must say this is a beautiful child, so plump and so big with such neat little features and such a complete head of dark hair.’)

  From Santa Barbara, Louise and Lorne took the train through Tucson, where their train stopped for fifteen minutes in the middle of the night. Unwittingly they made an embarrassing faux pas – the local mayor and other dignitaries had turned out to meet them, but Louise and Lorne were fast asleep and missed the intended ceremony. In Nebraska, however, they charmed the locals. As a local paper reported,

  A farmer in Douglass County, Nebraska, writing to a friend says: ‘I have had a visit from the Marquis of Lorne. Along with him were the Princess Louise and suite. They came up to my house and stayed for three hours, and the Princess took a sketch of my whole place – farm-house, stabling, wire fence, and all the trees I had planted myself about three years since. The Marquis and Princess both shook hands with me when they left’.

  The couple travelled through St Louis to Richmond, where they were expected to meet the Governor of Virginia, but ‘owing to a case of smallpox in his family’ the Governor was quarantined and had to send his apologies. From Richmond they continued by sleeper train to Charleston; Louise was still feeling unwell and the local papers reported with scorn, ‘The Princess remained in bed until 4 o’clock in the afternoon, at which time she was dressed by her attendants.’

  At Charleston the couple parted. Lorne travelled to Washington, where he met the American President, before returning to Canada. Louise, however, was off on another solo adventure. Unwilling to spend another winter in Canada, and supported by the Canadian government whose fears about the Fenian threats to her life were growing stronger, she was off to discover a new part of the world: she would spend the winter months on the island of Bermuda.

  CHAPTER 17

  Escaping the Fenians in Bermuda

  My sojourn upon these Islands in that ‘Eternal Spring, which here enamels everything’, among such a frank and genial people will, I assure you, be ever gratefully remembered by me.

  Princess Louise to the Mayor and Corporation of St George’s, Bermuda

  Louise’s decision to travel to Bermuda was partly due to the fear that she was in danger from terrorists, partly to avoid another harsh Canadian winter, partly to discover a new country with which she had become intrigued – and to allow herself and Lorne more time away from each other. She reached the island at the end of January 1883, on board the Dido. To thwart any Fenian attempts on her life, reports had been sent out that she would be spending the winter in Charleston, Virginia. In an effort to avoid any further editorials about Louise hating Canada, an official statement was sent to the newspapers, claiming Louise went to Bermuda ‘at the advice of a London physician, and by the express command of Her Majesty’.

  As soon as it was known on Bermuda that the princess would be arriving, there was a flurry of activity to make the island fit for royalty. The streets were cleaned up, houses were repaired and painted, gardens and fences tidied up and there was a sudden sprouting of flagpoles. Shortly after two large welcome arches had been constructed, the news arrived, via a ship bringing post and newspapers, that the princess was not coming to Bermuda – she was staying in Charleston after all. The islanders refused to believe it and continued with their preparations, festooning the island in garlands of flowers and evergreens. At midday on Monday 29 January, with just forty-eight hours’ notice from another news-bearing ship, the Dido arrived in Grassy Bay. A thick red cloth had been laid down as a carpet and a large group of people waited to greet the princess, including the mayor’s young daughter, who presented the royal visitor with a bouquet. An observer noted, ‘It seemed as if all the inhabitants of Bermuda had poured into Hamilton to bid her welcome.’

  There had been a discussion of where the most suitable place would be for Princess Louise to stay. After deciding Government House would not afford enough privacy, local businessman James Harvey Trimingham offered the exclusive use of his family home, Inglewood House. In 1842, the Trimingham family had founded the island’s first department store and the current owner was one of the richest men in Bermuda.1 James was also a member of the Executive Council and of the Governor’s Council. The Triminghams moved out of their home and into their old family house, Waterville, at the bottom of the hill below Inglewood, for the duration of Louise’s stay.

  Inglewood had been built for a large family, so it had twelve bedrooms, ample room for the princess and her small suite of staff, and the grounds boasted a shooting range and tennis court.2 Louise became friendly with Trimingham and his family, who were welcomed to her parties and social events, and she often went sailing on their yacht. Trimingham’s daughter, also called Louise, was a regular visitor to Inglewood, where she often played tennis with Louise’s lady-in-waiting. At times her brother would join them and play alongside Louise’s equerry. Other local people also recalled being invited to play tennis. Louise Trimingham reported that Princess Louise did not play, but would watch their matches. For someone who loved sport and exercise as much as the princess did, this is surprising, but perhaps it would have been too painful after her sleighing injury. In a repetition of the scarlet fever in Ottawa story, it was noted, with some astonishment, that when James Harvey Trimingham was ill and infectious, Louise went to visit him bearing gifts.

  *

  During her time in Bermuda, Louise was made aware yet again of insidious gossip about the feud between her and Lady Macdonald. Determined to scotch these rumours, she wrote a letter to the Prime Minister telling him how upset she was about the baseless stories, how fond she was of Lady Macdonald and what a perfect wife she thought Lady Macdonald to be – she was, Louise declared, a woman Louise would hold up as an example to all other wives. The sincerity of her letter has often been debated by academics, but the whispers about the two women’s supposed animosity are impossible to prove or disprove. (This letter would be made public when Prince Arthur became Governor-General of Canada in the early twentieth century and rumours were still circulating about the supposed feud between the two women.)

  Towards the end of February 1883, Louise attended a garden party held by the Governor of Bermuda and his wife. The photographer James B. Heyl, when gathering material for a book about the island which he published in the 1890s, asked people about meeting the princess. Amy Tucker recalled that, as a schoolgirl, she had met Louise at the garden party and remembered her saying ‘Everybody in Bermuda has given me such a warm welcome: even the red birds come to my window every morning, and say, “Louise! Louise!”’ Amy also remembered what a ‘bright smile’ the princess had. Interestingly, a local diarist recorded that instructions had been issued to the Bermudian fami
lies who were likely to meet Louise and these claimed to be indicative of her personality: ‘The public was advised that the Princess had a good mind and was in general serious, but never grave. She had a bright smile with a sense of fun. By inclination, she sailed whenever she could, and avoided dances if possible.’ Louise had always enjoyed dancing, so the fact that she was now avoiding it was something very new; perhaps, like the fact that she no longer played tennis, it was because of the severe injuries sustained in the sleigh accident.

  As she did in England and Canada, Louise carried out several official engagements on the island, but the pace of her life in Bermuda was far more relaxed. She attended local parties, visited hospitals and schools, opened bazaars, attended regattas, watched amateur theatricals and handed out cups at dinghy races. She spent hours walking around the island (often on her own), sailing or driving out in a carriage with one of her ladies-in-waiting to sketch and paint the views.

  One of the most well known stories about Princess Louise’s time in Bermuda is still repeated on the island today.3 Louise often took off on her own to walk and sketch. On one such occasion, she became very thirsty and stopped at a remote house to ask for a glass of water. Inside the house, Mrs McCarthy was alone and busy ironing her husband’s shirt. She was bemused by this strange white woman who suddenly appeared, and told her visitor that she had no time to get water until she had finished ironing the shirt. Her mysterious visitor promised Mrs McCarthy that if she would take the time to fetch a glass of water, the stranger would iron the shirt for her. Mrs McCarthy told her that she didn’t trust a stranger to do it right and she had to finish the shirt because she had so much to do before tomorrow – as the following day she was travelling to St George to get a glimpse of the princess. When asked if she had already seen the princess, Mrs McCarthy said she’d seen her when she arrived. ‘Do you think you would recognise her if you saw her again?’ was the enquiry. Mrs McCarthy admitted that she wasn’t sure. Louise is reported to have said, ‘Well, take a good look at me now so you will be sure to know me tomorrow.’ The flustered Mrs McCarthy rushed off to get water – and when she came back she found Louise calmly ironing the shirt. (Shortly after Princess Louise’s death, over fifty years later, the McCarthy family were interviewed by a journalist and said that they still owned the shirt.)

  Shortly before she left Bermuda, on Easter Sunday, the weather turned cold and Louise requested a fire to be lit in her room. Somehow, the rug in front of it managed to catch fire. Although it was quickly put out and no damage was done except to the rug, the story quickly got into the papers and reports spread around the globe that Louise had narrowly escaped a house fire.

  A few days later, on 10 April, Louise reluctantly boarded the HMS Tenedos to return to Canada. As on her arrival, the streets and harbour were crowded with cheering well-wishers and yachts were taken out to see the regal ship on its journey. On the evening of her departure, the Mayor of Bermuda – a keen gardener to whom Louise had promised to send a consignment of plants he was unable to get on the island – wrote in his diary that Louise was ‘one of the most charming ladies ever to tread Bermuda’s soil, so dignified, kind, courteous, thoughtful’. The year after her visit, a new hotel was built in Bermuda. It was named the Princess Hotel, in honour of Louise, and was opened in 1885. Louise may not have been the island’s first tourist, but she was certainly the most prominent of her era and she helped to put the island firmly in the centre of the international tourist map. In 1998, Bermuda held the first ever exhibition devoted to watercolours painted by Princess Louise.

  CHAPTER 18

  Return to London – and tragedy

  [Leopold’s] life had been hurried & feverish of late, & he never seemed able to do half he wished to do, or see half the people he desired to see – But his heart went out to them just the same – amid all the hustle and unrest of the world.

  Major Robert Collins to Max Müller, 31 March 1884

  HMS Tenedos reached New York City on 14 April 1883 and Louise travelled straight to Boston, where Lorne was waiting to greet her. They visited ‘the principal points’ of the city before travelling to Montreal where Louise was pronounced ‘as brown as a berry’ and ‘in the best of health and spirits’. When they reached Ottawa, the mayor gave a public address to welcome Louise back to the city. The couple were proud to attend an exhibition at the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. At the exhibition, Lorne purchased paintings by four Canadian artists whose works he admired and sent them to Queen Victoria for her ever-growing art collection. In Louise’s absence, Lorne had founded the Royal Society of Canada for the Encouragement of Science and Literature. Yet despite their apparent popularity, all was not well, and the threat to the couple’s security was worsening. Louise found the fussing frustrating and claustrophobic and at first she refused to pander to the need for increased security. After shots were fired in the grounds of Rideau Hall, however, she took it more seriously. Lorne insisted she be accompanied at all times by a detective who acted as her personal bodyguard.

  At the end of May, the author Mark Twain arrived in Ottawa, where he spent five days with Louise and Lorne. He later related that they ‘kept him with them almost continually, and were loath to let him go’. He was there for the opening of Parliament, to which he travelled in a carriage with Louise (Lorne was in the first carriage with his local dignitaries). When the salute to the procession was fired, Twain reputedly turned to Louise and said ‘Your Highness, I have had other compliments paid to me, but none equal to this one. I have never before had a salute fired in my honor.’1 On his return to America, Twain sent both Louise and Lorne copies of his works.

  While Louise was enjoying her final months in Canada, a time when the weather was beautiful and she was popular with the general public, the queen had been plunged back into deep mourning and grief. John Brown had died at the end of March from erysipelas. In June, Prince Arthur wrote to Louise, ‘Poor Mama has been terribly upset by Brown’s death – and her knee has given her so much trouble, she is still very lame.’ (The queen had slipped and hurt her knee several weeks beforehand; unable to walk unaided, she had had to be supported at John Brown’s funeral by leaning on Beatrice’s arm.) Victoria wrote to her grandson (who would become King George V), ‘I have lost my dearest best friend who no one in this World can ever replace … never forget your poor sorrowing old Grandmother’s best and truest friend.’ Despite her deep dislike of John Brown, Louise felt sadness for her mother. On the anniversary of his death in 1884 she would write the queen a tender letter sending her ‘warmest sympathy’ for ‘the loss of a friend no other can replace’. The queen was very touched by this kindness. (She was struck again by her daughter’s thoughtfulness in 1895, when she sent a telegram to Louise who had written to her on the anniversary of her coronation: ‘Many loving thanks You are the only one of my children who remembers this day’.)

  In mid-September, Louise and Lorne welcomed Louise’s nephew, Prince George of Wales, to Canada. They met him in Toronto, where they declared open the city’s Industrial Exhibition. He had arrived just as the viceregal couple had started preparing to leave the country. For Lorne, the departure was a huge wrench – yet it was he who had arranged, while Louise was away in Bermuda and without consulting her, to finish his time as Governor-General early. When she returned, to find that they would be returning to England in the autumn, Louise is said to have been furious. She attempted to change the arrangements, writing to her mother to tell her. Louise must have known that it would not be possible to change the date: the new Governor-General had already been named. It seems that her apparent fervour to stay for the allotted time was an intelligent PR move – and worked. Louise left Canada on a wave of good wishes from the Canadian people. Lorne’s sadness at leaving Canada was more heartfelt, and he reportedly wept ‘like a child’ when they departed from Rideau Hall. As Lorne, who had been so happy in Canada, is unlikely to have left early by choice, it is probable that the queen had become deeply concerned about the co
nstant threats to their safety and had ordered them to come home early.

  The Sardinian, commanded by Captain Dutton, arrived in Liverpool in the late morning of Monday 5 November 1883. For Louise, the most important sight was that of Prince Leopold waiting to greet them. Leopold had travelled by overnight train, accompanied by his former tutor Major Collins, who was now his secretary. Despite heavy rain and a ‘cutting northerly wind’, the people of Liverpool had turned out to welcome the Lornes, and Leopold’s arrival to greet them was ‘loudly cheered by the large crowd’. The rain had delayed the ship, which for the ever-seasick Louise was frustrating in the extreme. Eventually, the Sardinian was reached by the Lancashire, carrying Leopold, the Mayor and other dignitaries. The Princess went against protocol by shaking hands with the captain, much to his delight. Following her precedent, Lorne and Leopold did the same.

  At their homecoming a band played ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘The Campbells Are Coming’ and journalists reported that the sight of both Prince Leopold and Princess Louise encouraged the crowd to raise ‘hearty cheers’. Lorne was no longer the Governor-General, he was no longer his wife’s superior: he was back in England, a commoner and the lowly husband of a princess, outranked as soon as he set foot in Liverpool not only by his wife but by his young brother-in-law. At the mayoral reception, Lorne made a heartfelt speech: ‘We have left a land on the other side of the Atlantic which has become very dear to us and have left very many friends … but, in spite of the sorrow of leaving Canada, we feel that it is very pleasant indeed to find ourselves among our friends and our countrymen, and to be greeted with those hearty ringing cheers which met us this morning on the streets of Liverpool.’ A little later, after a private conversation with his wife, Lorne told the people of Liverpool from the balcony: ‘The Princess has asked me to tell you how happy she feels to be again amongst you.’