education was conducted out of school. He learned the arts of deerstalking, fish spearing, rowing, swimming, shooting, and riding the Highland breed of ponies known as garrons, which were used for rough hill work. He learned how to walk the mountains, climbing and tackling gradients at speed. He became an expert on the flora and fauna of the area and learned how to forecast the weather. Victoria came to pay close attention to his weather lore; she always averred that if Brown said it would rain or snow, even on the finest day, then it would. He was fluent, too, in the Gaelic names of the glens and mountains, the shepherds’ greetings and their whistle calls to their dogs. And all this information he shared with Victoria as he walked at her horse’s head from the early days of his royal appointment.
While John Brown was learning his trade and adopting the lifestyle of a Highland laddie, Princess Victoria was going through a very emotional part of her life as heiress presumptive to her septuagenarian ‘Uncle King’. The stress led to mental exhaustion. As part of her education the Duchess of Kent took her on ‘royal progresses’ to various towns and historical sites, much to the annoyance of the King, who believed that his sister-in-law was deliberately keeping his niece from his court, where Princess Victoria was already being groomed in royal protocol by Queen Adelaide. It was true. The Duchess, supported by Sir John Conroy, her ambitious Comptroller of the Household, was attempting to influence Victoria in case the King died before she came of age. In such an event the Duchess would probably be declared Regent, with Conroy as her chief adviser; the prizes would be rich for both.
During one of these tours the Duchess gave her daughter a book of blank pages in which to record her impressions. Thereafter she was to keep a daily record of events for the rest of her life. By the time of her death in 1901, her writings stretched to several dozen volumes. From her accession in 1837, though, the extant Journal is the truncated version prepared from the original sheets by Princess Beatrice, Victoria’s youngest daughter and co-literary executor, who removed ‘anything which might cause pain’. Thus much (innocent) information about Queen Victoria and the early life of John Brown was ‘sanitised’.
In 1836 Princess Victoria was seventeen and as her legal majority approached there was increased talk of her marriage prospects. Pools of suitors were divided into rival Court groups. At St James’s Palace King William was keen to introduce her to eligible young men of his choice, particularly if they were not favoured by the Duchess of Kent whom he now detested. So he invited the Prince of Orange, the eldest son of the King of the Netherlands, to visit, along with his sons William and Alexander. In Brussels, Princess Victoria’s uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians (and King William’s bête-noire largely because he was the Duchess of Kent’s brother), cherished his sister’s hope that Victoria would form a liaison with her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. This would mean a German alliance, a move which King William deprecated. First, though, came the Dutch brothers whom Victoria found ‘plain’. Then arrived the Coburg princes, Albert and Ernest, whom she found ‘amiable, very kind and good . . . Albert is very handsome.’ 25 Although Albert was ill during his trip and did not take to Court life, Princess Victoria wrote thus to her Uncle Leopold:
I must thank you, my beloved Uncle, for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert. Allow me, then, my dearest Uncle, to tell you how delighted I am with him, and how much I like him in every way. He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy. He is so sensible, so kind, and so good and amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly
While John Brown was learning his trade and adopting the lifestyle of a Highland laddie, Princess Victoria was going through a very emotional part of her life as heiress presumptive to her septuagenarian ‘Uncle King’. The stress led to mental exhaustion. As part of her education the Duchess of Kent took her on ‘royal progresses’ to various towns and historical sites, much to the annoyance of the King, who believed that his sister-in-law was deliberately keeping his niece from his court, where Princess Victoria was already being groomed in royal protocol by Queen Adelaide. It was true. The Duchess, supported by Sir John Conroy, her ambitious Comptroller of the Household, was attempting to influence Victoria in case the King died before she came of age. In such an event the Duchess would probably be declared Regent, with Conroy as her chief adviser; the prizes would be rich for both.
During one of these tours the Duchess gave her daughter a book of blank pages in which to record her impressions. Thereafter she was to keep a daily record of events for the rest of her life. By the time of her death in 1901, her writings stretched to several dozen volumes. From her accession in 1837, though, the extant Journal is the truncated version prepared from the original sheets by Princess Beatrice, Victoria’s youngest daughter and co-literary executor, who removed ‘anything which might cause pain’. Thus much (innocent) information about Queen Victoria and the early life of John Brown was ‘sanitised’.
In 1836 Princess Victoria was seventeen and as her legal majority approached there was increased talk of her marriage prospects. Pools of suitors were divided into rival Court groups. At St James’s Palace King William was keen to introduce her to eligible young men of his choice, particularly if they were not favoured by the Duchess of Kent whom he now detested. So he invited the Prince of Orange, the eldest son of the King of the Netherlands, to visit, along with his sons William and Alexander. In Brussels, Princess Victoria’s uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians (and King William’s bête-noire largely because he was the Duchess of Kent’s brother), cherished his sister’s hope that Victoria would form a liaison with her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. This would mean a German alliance, a move which King William deprecated. First, though, came the Dutch brothers whom Victoria found ‘plain’. Then arrived the Coburg princes, Albert and Ernest, whom she found ‘amiable, very kind and good . . . Albert is very handsome.’ 25 Although Albert was ill during his trip and did not take to Court life, Princess Victoria wrote thus to her Uncle Leopold:
I must thank you, my beloved Uncle, for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert. Allow me, then, my dearest Uncle, to tell you how delighted I am with him, and how much I like him in every way. He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy. He is so sensible, so kind, and so good and amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly
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