A Day Trip to Windsor by Janie Hampton

Granny insisted on taking us on a history lesson

Last Saturday, two of my grandchildren and I went out for a history and anthropology lesson. We could have gone to Legoland in Berkshire but chose nearby Windsor instead. Bill, 10, Delilah, 8, and I left Oxford by train at dawn and were surprised by how many other people were waiting at Slough station for the six-minute ride into Windsor. It was a glorious, sunny morning and the train passed over the River Thames not far from where King John signed Magna Carta in 1215. Bill looked at his train ticket and asked ‘What’s an etton?’ ‘Eton is a small town just over there, on the river. It’s famous for a boarding school started in the 15th century for poor boys. It’s a charity, but the fees are more than what most people in Britain earn. Most British Prime Ministers went there.’ ‘Did Teresa May go there?’ ‘No, they still only allow boys, who have to wear tail coats.’ ‘I wouldn’t like that,’ said Bill. This led to a discussion of educational rights, privilege and power. Arriving at Windsor and Eton station, we compared Queen Victoria's taste for ornate architecture, with the concrete minimalism of the 21st century shopping mall now attached to it.

Oh look! There's a Royal Wedding on today! 

When we saw that the ancient winding streets of Windsor were decked with bunting, we realised that something was up. Apparently two lovely people were getting married – a British prince and an American TV star! Kindly policemen with machine guns ushered us towards the Great Park. ‘This is certainly a long walk,’ said Delilah as we looked up the Queen’s two-mile front drive. Above the Long Walk rose Windsor Castle, begun by William I in 1070, soon after he conquered England. Over the centuries the castle grew and became more and more elaborate. In 1992 after a curtain caught alight, a fire raged through the state apartments because royal residences don’t have to adhere to fire regulations. They also don’t buy house insurance, but craftspeople rallied round and everything was rebuilt even better, and safer, than before. Delilah noticed the huge Royal Standard fluttering above the Round Tower. ‘That means the Queen is at home,’ I told her. ‘And that’s where she lived as a child during the Second World War, safe from the Blitz.’

Windsor Castle on fire, 20 November, 1992.

We found a spot on the grass under a flowering chestnut tree and joined thousands of people enjoying picnics. In front of us was a huge screen on which we watched the participants of our social anthropology study arriving at St George’s Chapel. The men all wore a uniform of mid-20th century dark suits and ties. A few had tail coats, perhaps harking back to their school days at Eton. Most of the women wore the costume of aristocracy when attending Ascot races: pastel-coloured silk frocks, large hats and ridiculous stiletto-heeled shoes. It was a miracle nobody tripped on the 15th century flagstones. The conversation around us gave us an insight into both the viewed and the viewers.  People wondered why Princesses Eugene and Beatrice always look so frumpy; why Victoria Beckham looked so grumpy; and why Princess Anne was wearing her father’s dressing gown. While  the Duchess of Cambridge was commended for recycling her ivory suit – it had been seen at least twice before.

Swoons from the crowd for George Clooney, and admiration
for Amal's outfit by Stella McCartney. copyright Gareth Fuller/PA 

The first royal wedding at Windsor was in 1121, between Henry I and his second wife, the young and beautiful Adeliza of Louvain in Belgium. When the divorced, bi-racial, American bride, Ms Rachel Meghan Markle appeared, everyone cried. Her dress was a perfect blend of simplicity and grandeur; and her make-up did not hide her freckles. Her five-metre silk veil was both beautiful, and a political statement: the 53 flowers embroidered round the edge were a nod to the leaders of the Commonwealth who had voted for the Prince of Wales to take over as head when the Queen dies. The missing teeth of the page boys added homely reality. And the whispered endearments of His Royal Highness Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales brought sighs from all the women around us whose hopes were now dashed.

Page boy John Mulroney's reaction to the trumpet
fanfare on entering St George's Chapel.

St George’s Chapel was commissioned by King Edward IV in 1475 and is a masterpiece of Perpendicular Gothic architecture. The English matrimonial rite has been evolving for 1,000 years and this one was a traditional post-Reformation, Anglican marriage, with modern twists. The last mixed-heritage British royal was Queen Charlotte who married George III in 1761 and this ceremony certainly celebrated diversity. We had the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop, the Jamaican Chaplain to The Queen, and African-American Episcopalian Bishop Michael Curry. He broke with decorum and preached with noisy passion about love, slavery, equality and poverty – an unexpected blend of theology, history and politics that brought cheers from the crowd. 

Queen Charlotte was descended
from African Portuguese royalty 

The service was also a glorious lesson in the history of English music, beginning with the motet ‘If ye love me’ by Thomas Tallis (1505-85). Ever since 1348, boys have sung eight times a week in St George’s, including at Christmas and Easter, in exchange for a free education. My brother was a chorister there, and at the end of each term my family and I attended Evensong in the Quire before taking him home. As George Clooney admired the fine East Window dedicated in memory of Prince Albert, and the banners of the Knights of the Garter, he sat in the same 15th century carved oak stall as I did, nearly 60 years ago. The 600 VIP guests in the nave had to be content with looking up at the 16th century vaulted ceiling and frieze of 250 carved angels from their fold-up chairs.

George Clooney and I sat in the back row on the left,
behind St George's choir, only 60 years apart.

The sublime English music continued with Rutter, Elgar, Vaughn Williams and Holst and exquisite playing by teenage ’cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. The highlight in the Long Walk came when the crowd joined the Kingdom Gospel Choir in singing ‘Stand By Me’ by Ben E. King. My, did we sing our hearts out! How many people knew this was originally a slave song?

Friendly police officers offered to share their helmets.

As the guests in the chapel and 120,000 others gathered outside, stood to sing the National Anthem, I was aware that this could be the last time my grandchildren would witness their 92 year-old Queen feted in this way. Then it was time to rush to the fence to watch the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex pass by in their open landau, pulled by four prancing horses. ‘I saw her,’ said Delilah panting with excitement. ‘She was really beautiful.’ ‘And I saw the soldiers with gold  helmets, holding real swords as they galloped along,’ exclaimed Bill. Bill and Delilah’s history lesson on Saturday was certainly an Excellent Adventure.

The Long Walk, Windsor Great Park. Can you spot us in the crowd on the right? 

Janie Hampton

Queen Victoria's first railway journey by Janie Hampton

Exactly 175 years ago this month, Queen Victoria, who had then ruled Britain for five years, was the first British monarch ever to travel by train. The first railway line in Britain had been opened in 1830, between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, when Victoria was 11 years old. Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, loved new inventions, and persuaded her to try this new form of transport.
On June 13, in 1842, the 23-year-old queen and her family took a horse-drawn carriage from Windsor Castle to Slough railway station, four miles away. There they boarded the royal saloon carriage, specially designed like a grand home. It had a padded silk ceiling, blue velvet sofas, matching silk curtains, fringed lampshades, fine mahogany wooden tables and thick carpets. The Times described it: "the fittings are upon a most elegant and magnificent scale, tastefully improved by bouquets of rare flowers arranged within the carriage." 

Imagine traveling from Slough to Paddington in this carriage!

The train was pulled by a locomotive engine powered by coal and steam, and took only 25 minutes to reach Paddington Station in West London. (Today the fastest journey from Slough to Paddington takes 14 minutes.) The engine was called Phlegethon of the Fire Fly class and had been built in 1840. A replica of the original Fire Fly is now at Didcot Railway Centre in Oxfordshire, just up the Great Western Line from Slough. On the footplate was Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the famous engineer who had designed Paddington station, the railway line from London to Slough and the world’s first iron ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean the SS Great Britain. The young queen wrote to her uncle, King Leopold of Belgium, that she was ‘quite charmed by this new way of travelling’. However, the Queen worried that the normal speed of 43 miles per hour would affect her health, so she insisted that her trains never went more than 30 miles per hour. Later a signal was fitted to the roof of the royal saloon in case the Queen wanted to tell the train driver to slow down.
The next day The Times newspaper reported: "Yesterday Her Majesty the Queen, for the first time, returned from her sojourn at Windsor Castle, accompanied by her illustrious consort, Prince Albert, Count Mensdorf, &c.by way of the Great Western Railway. The intention of Her Majesty to return to town by railroad was first intimated to the authorities at Paddington on Saturday afternoon, and in consequence preparations on an extensive scale were ordered to be made for the transit of the Royal pair from Slough to the Paddington terminus, which were carried into effect with the greatest secrecy."

Queen Victoria and her family of 11 children spent every summer holiday at Balmoral Castle, 500 miles north of London, near Aberdeen in Scotland. To travel by road from London to Scotland took several days by horse and carriage. But by train it took only one day, or a night sleeping on the train.

After Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria went even more often to Balmoral, always by train. The local railway station, Ballater, had a special platform long enough to accommodate the royal train made up of a locomotive, coal truck and up to eight carriages. Queen Victoria’s royal saloon carriage was the first in the world to have a lavatory. Another carriage had a fully-equipped kitchen and separate dining room. At night time, servants prepared the beds with fine linen sheets. Each sleeping compartment had hinged sinks that tilted into the panelled wooden walls. Next to each bed was a special hook to hang one’s watch, with a suede-leather pad to prevent the watch-glass from breaking as the train rattled over the points or swerved round corners. One carriage carried the servants – dressers, valets, footmen, maids and tutors. There were special carriages for the royal horses and another carriage for the royal luggage. The royal dogs went too, among them greyhounds, Skye terriers and pomeranians. Even the royal waiting room at Paddington station was designed like a palace with a marble fireplace, gold painted furniture and glass chandeliers.

Queen Victoria’s grandchildren ruled seven of the European monarchies, so dukes, princes and aristocracy often came from all over Europe to visit Balmoral Castle. The men wore Scottish kilts, and went shooting deer or grouse on the heather moors. Pony carts carried baskets of fine food and wine for picnic lunches, with special treats such as grapes grown in glass houses.

From The Home Alphabet Book, 1857 Dean & Son, London

In 1897 Queen Victoria had been on the throne for sixty years. After a grand procession through London for her Diamond Jubilee, she went by royal train to Balmoral. For this special occasion, the engine trains were not their normal black: from London to Crewe they had been painted red; from Crew to Carlisle, near the Scottish border, they were white; and from there to Balmoral they were red – all the colours of the British flag! By then trains could travel from London to Edinburgh in less than ten hours.

Queen Victoria's funeral train took the same
journey as her first trip.

Queen Victoria was 82 years old when she died in 1901 on the Isle of Wight. Her coffin was transported to the mainland by sea and then transferred onto a train to London. From Paddington in London it went by train to Windsor – the same journey she had made 61 years earlier. She was buried in the Royal Mausoleum in Windsor.

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated the anniversary of her great great
grandmother's train journey by opening the new electric
train line to Paddington on 13 June 2017.

www.janiehampton.co.uk

Cleopatra and other royal connections. By Adèle Geras

I wish I kept a diary. Then I could date the occasion (I think sometime in 2006) when I had a personal brush with royalty. Sort of. In a way. My dealings with Cleopatra go back to 2005, when my agent rang to tell me that Kingfisher Books had invited me to write about Cleopatra for children of about 9 or 10. This book was to take the form of a diary written by a child (to give the child’s eye view) and would be very lavishly produced and illustrated in full colour throughout. One half of the book would be the diary, written by me and the second half would be full of proper historical, factual information that students of the period might want to know. The second half, it was made quite clear, would NOT be my responsibility, but researched and written by someone else. This is a picture of the hardback (which led to one of the best emails I ever got in my life: So sorry we can’t send you a colour proof of the cover but we’re having a bit of trouble embedding the jewels. Yes, those emeralds and rubies you can see at the top and bottom of the picture are in fact very authentic-looking bits of plastic which give the book the kind of glamour its subject would have appreciated. The paperback, which appears on the 15th of this month, is less dazzling but perhaps more child-friendly and also shows off the wonderful artwork by M.P.Robertson.

My first impulse was to wonder why a story so full of sex and death would be suitable for 9 year olds and then I thought: why not? They’re as interested in both subjects as anyone else. My second thought was a panicked question: what on earth do I know about Cleopatra? Well, I’d seen the George Bernard Shaw play so I knew about her arriving wrapped in a rug and being unrolled in front of Julius Caesar. I’d read Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and knew the speech . “The barge she sat in like a burnished throne” etc. But most clearly of all, I knew Elizabeth Taylor in yellow chiffon (when in Egypt) and gold from top to toe (for Rome and her triumphal procession) wearing more viridian eye shadow than any eyelid should be required to carry and with black eyebrows like small caterpillars over each violet eye, fainting with desire in the arms of the slightly square but very delicious Richard Burton. Of course I agreed to write my part of the book at once. I couldn’t resist.

My editor and also the chief writer of the other half of the book, and the person who was in charge of sending me all the research notes I needed was the excellent Alison Stanley. At a certain point (oh I wish I’d kept a diary) Alison emailed me proposing a meeting. We could either meet in Manchester, where I was living back then, or I could come down to London to the Kingfisher offices, or I could come to her house in Windsor. Her husband, Roger Judd, was assistant organist at St George’s Chapel, a post he held for more than twenty years. Well, which would you have chosen? Of course I accepted Alison’s kind invitation.

Alison and Roger have moved since then but at the time they lived in a house known as Marbeck, after the first organist and choir master John Marbeck who took up his post at St George's in in 1551. In those days, the choristers used to live and work in the same house as their master. Next door to Alison and Roger’s house was Vicars' Hall which is said to have been the venue for the very first performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor. I couldn’t believe I was going to have lunch in such a place.

The fun started when Alison and I walked in past the guard at the gates of Windsor Castle. Alison greeted this soldier, complete with busby, by his first name and he just waved us through. I don’t remember anything about the editing, though we must have discussed the book, I’m sure. I remember a very delicious lunch - how come I can ALWAYS remember meals? - and then a private tour of St George’s Chapel which, because I was with Alison, meant we could go up to the organ loft and look down at the whole Chapel. I was shown the small hidey-hole with a view over the nave from which Queen Victoria witnessed the marriage of the Prince of Wales in 1863,when her mourning for Prince Albert prevented her from appearing in public. Every member of the Chapel staff whom we met was kindness itself and showed me things not generally seen by the public, such as a kind of filing system for clerical robes and other accoutrements: a chest -of- drawers made up of many very wide , thin drawers in which fabrics could lie flat until they were needed. Anyone who’s been to St George’s Chapel will know how beautiful it is. This link,http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/worship-and-music/experience-st-georges/st-georges-panorama.html if you click on it, will take you to some virtual tours. I loved being there and I’m still grateful to Alison for making that possible. I’m also grateful to her for making the second half of my book a really terrific resource for anyone studying the clever, sexy, dangerous and tragic queen of Egypt whose lustre is undimmed, many centuries after her death. Shakespeare, as usual, said it exactly: Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety.