1005. Mary Russell Mitford to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 72–73.
Three Mile Cross,
Sept. 9, 1842.
I have to-day a letter from Marianne Skerrett. She says the Queen’s procession, nine carriages and four, Life Guards and Highlanders, winding along those woody mountains and by the side of the lakes—every nook and corner and turfy hillside covered with crowds of people—was beautiful beyond all beauty. [1] She speaks well of the three duchesses, particularly of the Duchess of Norfolk, a woman, she says, of wonderful reading and knowledge, and great kindness. [2] Lady Willoughby d’Eresby, chief of the Clan Drummond, through her father the Earl of Perth, is also, she says, a very charming woman. [3] She wore at dinner, in compliment to the Queen, the chieftain’s bonnet with two eagle’s feathers.
My nearest relation, except my dear father, his first cousin and my namesake, Mary Mitford—a little, active, buoyant, cheerful, good-humoured old maid—who is on a visit to the Duchess of Athole, told me that among the preparations to receive her Majesty were thirty tents on the lawn at Dunkeld for a thousand kilted Highlanders in Murray tartan; whilst in a splendid tent for the Queen and her party is to be laid out a sumptuous luncheon, which Gunter and his people were to come from London to prepare! [4] Is not this a very amusing conjunction of names and things?—a singular union of the old times and the new?
The Queen does not mean to visit the places which would interest me—those which Scott and Burns have commemorated. Heaven bless you!
M.R.M.
Text: L’Estrange (2), III, 160.
1. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, having embarked in the royal yacht at Woolwich on 29 August, arrived in Edinburgh on 1 September for their first tour of Scotland. During their stay, they visited the seats of several members of the aristocracy.
2. The Duchess of Norfolk, Lady of the Bedchamber, travelled with the Queen from London. The Duchess of Buccleuch, Mistress of the Robes, with her husband, who was Captain-General of the Queen’s Body Guard in Scotland, joined the royal party on its arrival at Edinburgh. The third duchess was probably Argyll, whose husband was Master of the Household, but could have been Roxburghe or Sutherland, also present at some point during the royal tour.
3. Clementina Sarah, Lady Willoughby de Eresby (née Drummond), was the Queen’s hostess at Drummond Castle, 10–13 September.
4. The royal party visited Dunkeld on 7 September, being received by Lord and Lady Glenlyon. The Duchess of Athole, Lord Glenlyon’s stepmother, was too infirm to join in the celebrations. The pavilion erected for the royal guests “was floored with timber, covered with crimson cloth … it formed one great, perfectly uninterrupted, and extremely handsome saloon, 64 feet long by 20 feet wide. The interior was dressed out with flowers and flags, and a magnificent mirror, ten feet by six, was placed at one end” (Memorial of the Royal Progress in Scotland, by Thomas Dick Lauder, 1843, p. 253). Gunter was a celebrated London pastry-cook and confectioner.
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