1822. Mary Russell Mitford to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 37–39.
Three Mile Cross,
[ca. 25 January 1845] [1]
What a very cheap thing childish happiness is! You will be astonished to hear what (besides a sharp feverish attack and writing to you) has occupied my last week—very much astonished. This, dearest, is the fact. I found that the Queen’s visit to Strathfieldsaye had strongly excited the interest and curiosity of the little children here, and I determined they should see her and have a holiday. Everybody expected that she would return by Reading (indeed the unlucky mayor sent me word, so late as yesterday morning, that “he had no conviction of her not returning through his town,”—a very grand diplomatic message); and it was only on Wednesday afternoon that I finally ascertained that she would go back by Wokingham, as she came. I then arranged to take all the children (two hundred and ninety) in waggons lent by the kind farmers, as far as Swallowfield Lane, the point where her Majesty turned off from the Basingstoke Road into the Cross Lanes which lead to Wokingham; that they and their schoolmasters and mistresses should meet at nine o’clock at my house, to have delivered to each of them a pretty hand flag of pink and white, made by Jane (who has fitted up three yachts and was flag-maker-general to the Isle of Wight); that we should then march in procession to the lane, the children riding in waggons decked with laurel and large flags of the same colours: which was done accordingly, I leading the way with Mrs. Amott and her children, the clergyman’s family, and some other gentry, followed by a body-guard of great boys, who seeing me walk would not ride (was not that pretty of them?), and meeting there eight or ten carriages containing all the gentlemen’s families of the parish.
We had chosen our place well, for the Queen was escorted to that point by her noble host, who took leave of her just in front of our waggons, which looked between the laurels and the pink and white flags like so many masses of painted-lady sweet peas. The party made exactly such a pause in parting, and afforded such a little incident as allowed to everybody the fullest and pleasantest view of those they came to see. After this we all returned, I the last, this time, with Miss Lay—still walking, though I had got into Mrs. Praed’s [2] pony chaise to see the sight. We all returned—carriages, waggons, body-guard and all—to my house, where the gentlefolks had sandwiches and cake and wine; and where the children had each a bun as large as a soup-plate, made doubly nice as well as doubly large, a glass of wine, and a mug of ale. All this seems little enough; but the ecstasy of the children made it much. They had been active from four o’clock in the morning. They had been shouting and singing all day. They did sing and shout all the afternoon, for I had made it my particular request to the schoolmistresses and masters that there might be no scolding or keeping in order—flinging ourselves upon the children’s own sense of right. And well did they justify the trust! Never was such harmless jollity! Not an accident! not a squabble! not a misword! It did one’s very heart good. Of course we took care of the mistresses and masters also; and their pleasure in the children’s pleasure was very good to see—the sympathy all through. To be sure it was a good deal of trouble, and Jane is done up. Indeed, the night before last we none of us went to bed. But it was quite worth it—one of the few days of promised pleasure which in spite of Seyed, Emperor of Ethiopia, do sometimes keep their word. [3] It rained I believe, somebody said so; but nobody minded it, the children least of all. I shall never forget their delight.
The Queen looked pale and ill—simply dressed—smiling and well-behaved; the horses going at a foot pace, and the glasses down. Prince Albert is decidedly handsome. Our Duke [4] went to no great expense. One strip of carpet he bought, the rest of the additional furniture he hired in Reading for the week! The ringers at Strathfieldsaye (and the church is so near the house that William the Fourth, when Duke of Clarence, who had a genius for blundering, when visiting poor Lord Rivers asked if it was not the dog-kennel!)—the ringers, after being hard at work for four hours, sent a can to the house to ask for some strong beer, and the can was sent back empty! Also a poor band, who had been playing till the breath was out of their bodies, begged for a little dinner, and received such a piece of bread as is laid on a napkin for dinner and such a piece of cheese as is sent round on a napkin after dinner. The Duke is a just master—as Johnstone, his gardener, said to me once when I idly asked if he were a kind one—and not a very bad landlord; but he has no open-heartedness. He is without that high sense of what is due to his own position which made Napoleon, with all his spirit of order, so truly magnificent. It was a fine balance in Napoleon, which made him equally displeased at Madame Mère’s economy and Josephine’s debts. [5] The Duke looked relieved beyond all expression when he had made his last bow to his royal visitors; his whole countenance said plainly, “Thank God it’s over!” and no doubt he felt so. There was only one most extraordinary thing in our children; Sir Robert Peel passed us, going to town by railway, just at the top of the village, and Jane says that they hissed him! Is not this most remarkable? All our gentry are Conservatives. Now that my dear father is dead, we have not a Whig in the parish. But they said, “There goes Sir Bobby,” and they hissed him!
Text: L’Estrange (2), III, 182–185 (as Autumn 1844).
1. Conjectural dating provided by the reference to Miss Mitford’s party of children going to see the Queen upon her return from Strathfieldsaye on 23 January, and by EBB’s reply to this letter in no. 1826.
2. We have been unable to identify Mrs. Praed, Mrs. Amott or Miss Lay.
3. We are unable to explain the significance of this reference to the Emperor of Ethiopia.
4. i.e., Wellington, to whom Strathfieldsaye had been given by the government in 1817. In light of Miss Mitford’s comment, it is interesting to note that the report of this visit in The Times (23 January 1845) stated “that the same extended facilities would not be afforded to all the papers by the Duke of Wellington as have been given at the mansions of other noblemen who have been similarly honoured by Her Majesty. The fact is, that not even the usual facilities have been afforded to the papers generally.”
5. Napoleon’s mother’s strict economy and Josephine’s extravagances were often noted by the memoirists.
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