The Queen’s State Coachman.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6243, 16 June 1890, Page 2

The Queen’s State Coachman.

The Queen’s State coachman, George Payne, has just retired from Her Majesty’s employ after half a century of service. A London journalist the other day visited the old man in the cosy little cottage on the hanks of the Thames to which he has retired, and had a chat with him about the sights he had seen from his point of vantage on the box of the royal carriage —himself in his gold and scarlet uniform, one of the features of the numerous splendid processions in which he has taken part. It is fifty-two years since Mr Payne then a lad of thirteen, was first employed in the Royal stables at Windsor. Fifty-two years is a long time, and as the old man put it, when a man is getting on for seventy-years bis hands become a little shaky, and the eyes rather dim, so he thought it wiser to resign in time before an accident might happen to spoil his record. In all the crowds through which this veteran charioteer has steered tho great ones of all countries, he never had a single mishap. “ What is the greatest crowd through which you ever drove the Queen, tho Jubilee, I suppose ? ” asked the reporter. “No, no, no, not the Jubilee, by any means," was the reply, given very slowly and thoughtfully, while, with eyes fixed steadily on the ground, the old state coachman evidently saw the pageants of many years pass before his mental eyes. “ The Jubilee crowd was comparatively small, because it was dispersed along the whole route from the Palace, up Constitution Hill, along Piccadilly, and on to the Abbey. It was child’s play to drive through it compared to making one’s way through some crowds I have seen. The worst, I think, was when the Princess of Wales first came to England. I was not on the Royal bos, because that was before I was appointed her Majesty’s State coachman, though I have driven the Princess, and the Prince too, times without number on later occasions. But I bad a good deal to do with the supervision of the procession, and I never saw the like of that crowd. At the Mansion House and the Bank it was something terrible; the Volunteers who were stationed there were bodily lifted up, guns and all, right above the crowd, and

one mounted officer and his howe got under the carriage of the Princess, which for a moment, was in great danger of being upset. When the Queen opens Parliament in State the crowd is always bad, because she goes by the nearest way from the Palace to Westminster, and it is no joke to drive the eight cream-coloured, ponies even when there is no crowd to make them nervous.” Mr Payne indignantly denies the slanderous rumour that the cream-coloured ponies were “ circus ponies,” even going so far in his indignation as to say that he was a circus pony himself if they were. They were bred at Hampton Court, brought up to town when they were three years old, and kept at tho Royal Mews, in Buckingham Palace road, whore their chief business was “to stand and eat their heads off.” As to “ Monarchs he has known,” there isn’t a Sovereign in Europe whom he hasn’t had in the carriage behind him, and he retains handsome mementoes of most of them in tho shape of gold watches, pins, and chains, and so forth.wbich they have presented to him in acknowledgment of his skill. What he prizes most highly’s a diamond tie pin which the Queen gave him on his fiftieth anniversary of his entrance into the Royal service. Tho Queen evidently knows how to treat her servants, and the latter are not wanting in loyalty and affection to their Royal mistress.— Press.