The Queen's Household.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 7190, 25 June 1902, Page 8 (Supplement)

The Queen's Household.

THE IMPORTANT POSITION OF MISTRESS OF THE ROUES.

QUEEN ALEXANDRA has a household of her own, her gentlemen being under the orders of her Lord Chamberlain, Lord Colville of Culross, and her ladies under the direction of the Mistress of the Robes. With the advent of the present reign, this last othce ceased to posiess a ministerial character. When Queen Victoria was on the Throne, it was considered to be endowed with so much influence as to necessitate its occupant changing wiih the administration; and each time a new cabinet came into

The Orb. Sceptre with the Cross. Sceptre with the Dove The King's Crown. The Queen's Crown.

The following notes will be found interesting: — October 19, 1216.—King John lost his crown in the Wash. His little son, Henry 111, was therefore crowned with his mother's bracelet—or, according to others, a plain gold circlet. Edward 11., Richard 11., and Henry VI. gave up the crown. James 11. left it behind. The crown fell off the helmet* of Richard 111. at the' Battle of Bosworth, and was picked up under a thorn bush. Up to this time there were no arches to the crowns, so that it could be slipped oil to a conical steel cap. Charles I. sent his wife, Henrietta Maria, to the Low Countries to pawn the regalia. List of new regalia which Sir Edward Walker, Garter Principal King-at-Anns, had to provide for the coronation of King Charles 11. owing to the destruction of the regalia during the Commonwealth : — " Two Imperial Crowns sett with pretious Stones, the one to be called St. Edward's Crowne, wherewith the King was to bo crowned; and the other to be putt on aftre his Coronation before his Ma.ties rctorne to Westminster Hall. Also, an Orbe of gold with a Crosse sett with pretious Stones; a Scepter with a.Crosse sett with pretious Stones, called St. Edward's; a Scepter with a Dove sett with pretious Stones; a long Scepter, &c."

The crowns reproduced here are the two principal items of the British Regalia. The one known as St. Edward's Crown was never worn by the Confessor, but was made for Charles 11. in imitation, of the old crown destroyed during the Commonwealth. The Queen's Crown will resl on the head of the present Consort. Queen Victoria's crown was specially made for her.

olliee, the Queen had to select a new Mistress of the Robes from among the Duchesses belonging to the; political party in power Tliis was due o he fact that Victoria was a Queen Hciiant, whereas Alexandra is merely a Queen Consort, and the consequence is that the Duchess of Uuccleuoh and Queensberry is likely to hold her post of Mistress of the Robes for the remainder of her days, providing she does not cease to please the Queen. Nextin rank to the Duchess, who.is only to be seen by the side of Her Majesty on ceremonial occasions, are ihc tour Ladies of the Bedchamber, who must be Peeresses of the Healin They are at present the Countesses of Antrim and of Gosford, the widowed Countess of Lytton, and Lady Sullield. The last is a member of the house of Baring, and an old friend and neighbor of the Queen at Samlrinjfham. Lady Lytton is a sister of the Earl of Clarendon, and widow of the poet peer who wrote 80 brilliantly under the name of " Owen Meredith," and who died as Ambassador at Paris after serving a term as Viceroy of India. Lady Gosford is a daughter of the Duchess of Devonshire, a sister of the late Duke of Manchester, and, therefore, an aunt of the present Duke, while Lady Antrim is a sister of the Countess of Minto,wife of the Governor-General of Canada, and, like her, a daughter of that gallant and courtly old Genera Gray who accompinied King Kdward on his visit to the United States, some forty yeara ago. Each of these four Udies of the Bedchamber is expected to spend three months out of the twelve in personal attendance upon the Queen, at whatever palace H°r Majesty may happen to be. They receive the Queen's visitors before admitting them to her presence, entertain her guests, attend her when driving or at entertainments, and in fact, relieve her of all unnecessary trouble and annoyance. "Jane, Lady Churchill, Lady of the Bedchamber to Oneen Victoria, was that sovereign's most intimate confidante and associate during the last twenty years of her reign; and there is no doubt th .t the sudden death of Lady Churchill, who was found dead in her bed hst Christinas Day at Osborne, helped to precipitate the demise of her Royal mistress. In emergencies the duties of a Lady of the Bedchamber are likely to be more varied, as may be gathered from the fact that the old Countess of Macclestleld was called upon to act in the capacity of physician and nurse, in the

On May 9, 1071, Coloiib. Blood, an ex-officer of Cromwell's disbanded army, attempted, under the disguise of a clergyman, to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London. The keeper was old, but the position of the Martin Tower was very far from the gateways of the castle. After ingratiating himself into the confidence of the old \ keeper and his family by several weeks of intimacy, j it was actually airauged that his nephew should marry the keeper's daughter, and on the fated May 9 Blood appeared with the supposed bridegroom and two friends from the country who would like to see the jewels. No sooner had the old man opened the cage than he was overpowered and rendered senseless. Two of the accomplices commenced to file the sceptre in two as it would have shown under a cloak, and blood battered down the arches of the crown in order to hold it easily under his arm. But for the romantic arrival of a son of the old keeper from foreign parts at this very moment the thieves might have got off, but the young man raised the alarm. Mood and the others rushed for St. Catherine's Gate, but he and two others were stopped, and the jewels recovered. Blood was taken before King Charles, who presumably for some former service, pardoned him, and shortly afterwards gave him a substantial pension.

absence of these impo; lunt functionaries, on the occasion of tlio somewhat unexpected arrival in the world of the late Duke of Clarence, eldest son of Queen Alexandra. The Women of the Bedchamber fulfil much the same duties as the Ladies of the Bedchamber. They are not peeresses, though they are recruited exclusively from the aristocracy. Those just appointed by Queen Alexandra are the Hon. Mrs. Charles Hardingc, Lady Kmily Kingscote, Lady Alice Stanley, who ia a sister of Lady Gosford and of the late Duke of Manchester, and the lion. Charlotte Knollys. The last occupies the same position in the intimacy and confidence of the Queen as Lady Churchill filled in the case of her late Majesty ; in fact, she has never lelt her Royal mistress's side since she first joined her household five and thirty years aj;o. Of the ladies of the Queen's household, she alone has no set teiin of duty. Queen Alexandra lias, so far, appointed only four Maids of Honor, two of whom are the lovely twin daughters of the laic Lord Vivian, who died as British Ambassador at Home. The regular number of Maids of Honor in eight, and two are always in waiting. They carry the Queen's gloves, fan, and (lowers, .11 tend her when driving, play the piano or read to her—in abort, they perform those duties that would fall to a well-born demoiselle de eompaqnie, or by a young girl for a mother to whom she was devoted. The Ladies and Women of the Bedchamber have a salary of hx hundred pounds a year; the Maids of Honor receive four hundred, scarcely enough to pay for their dresses. When a Maid of Honor marries, the Queen gives her a thousand pounds to purchase her trousseau.