HOW QUEEN VICTORIA TRAVELS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 51, 23 December 1893, Page 548

HOW QUEEN VICTORIA TRAVELS.

tf •VELVE or fourteen years ago (} leen Victoria, making acknowledgement of the care that watches oxer her railway journeys, commanded that a circular letter should be xvritten to the managers of the railways she is accustomed to use, expressing her will and pleasure that the railway movements of * the meanest of her subjects ’ might be cared for with equal diligence. Precisely what answer was made by the railway managers .— to this kindly st ggestion I do not know. But talking it over, even at this day, they loyally but ineffectually attempt to repiess a smile. It was an observation of which, like some of Captain Bunsby'e, • the bearings lajs in the application of.’ When the rrader has mastered the following details surrounding the Queen's journeys by rail, he will be in a position to decide how far the ordinary third class passenger might be dealt with in similar circumstances. The Queen’s journeys within the I'nited Kingdom runs in pretty monotonous lines. She either travels to and from Windsor to Ballater, for Balmoral, or between Windsor and Gosport, for Osborne. There are two saloon carriages in ordinary use ; one, for day journeys, belongs to the Great Western Railway, and is perhaps the most beautiful coach on the English lines ; the other, used for night journeys to Scotland, belongs to the North West Company. I have before me, as I write, a plan of the royal train on its last journey from Ballater to Windsor, and it may be interesting and convenient to show how it was made up and occupied. The first after the brake van is a sleeping carriage apportioned for men servants. Behind them is a day saloon for pages and upper servants ; then come dressers and ladies' maids. After these human buffers we come abruptly upon duchesses and the like. There are the Dowager Duchess of Roxburghe, the Hon. Frances Drummond, Miss McNeill and Miss Cochrane, ladies in waiting to the Queen. These have a double saloon to themselves. The adjoining carriage, also a double saloon, is allotted to the use of the Queen’s grandchildren, the already numerous Battenberg family, and their attendants. Next the very centre of the train are the royal saloons. The centre portion convertible into a sleeping apartment was, on the occasion of which I write, occupied by her Majesty and the Princess Beatrice. A smaller compartment on one side was allotted to the Queen’s Dressers, and on the other to her maidservants. In a saloon in the rear of the royal carriage the Princess Frederica, of Hanover, travelled. Then in another double saloon, came the officers of the household, Sir Henry Ponsonby, Lord Burleigh, Major Bigge, Doctor Reid, and Mr Mother. _ In the next saloon rode the Indian servants, who of late years are partially, at least, filling the place in Her Majesty’s esteem formerly occupied by that faithful old servant, John Brown. A double saloon and fiist-class carriage, immediately to the iear of this, the directors of the railway have judiciously set apart for themselves. There has always been on the part of the public a desire, in making a railway journey, that one of the front carriages should contain a drrcctor or two in case of accident. The directors place themselves in safer quarters at the rear of the train. Behind the directors’ carriages comes a truck containing what is known as the Queen’s ‘ fourgon,’ being a vehicle containing much portable property. Another brake van completes the making up of the train. Onedetailin connection with itsai rangemen t will show what infinitecare is bestowed upon the Queen’s comfort. At each of the teinrinal of the railway journeys the companies have provided a special entrance and waiting-room for the Queen's pleasure. At Paddington, as at Windsor, on the Great Western line, there is a charming room, occupying valuable space, sumptuously furnished, fired and illuminated by the electric light. The problem of the management is to get the royal train drawn up at a siding, so that the door of the royal saloon may open immediately opposite the door of the waitingroom. How is it to be done ? A skilled engine driver can make a guess at the precise spot where he must pull up in order that a particular carriage maybe halted somewhere near a specified spot. That would be near enough for distinguished travellers like Mr Gladstone, Lord Salisbury or others whom a popular reception awaits. But it would not do to have the Queen landed a foot this way or that way out of the precise line of the doorway. The ingenuity of man has, however, been equal to this as to other rmergencies, and this is the way in which it is met: The space between the door of the royal saloon and the rear of the engine is measured to an inch. The length of this part of this train in the Queen’s last journey is set down at two hundred and sixty-two feet six inches. The space forward, from the door to the waiting-room is measured with equal minuteness, and at the other spot to which the two hundred and sixty-two feet six inches run, a porter with a flag is stationed. There he stands, bolt upright; and when the rear of the engine is precisely level with the bridge of his nose, it follows, as the light follows the day, that the door of the royal saloon carriage is immediately opposite the door of the royal waiting-room. I wonder if, amid her cares of state, the Queen has ever noticed the precision and regularity with which she, on her various journeys, is always brought to a halt right before the door of the waiting room, and if she sometimes marvels how it is done? Railways had been in ordinary u«e for years before the Queen would venture to use them. Long after her marriage, she always went by road from Windsor to London. It was the Prince Consort who, of the loyal household, first braved the novel dangeis of the railroad. When he had travelled up and down once or twice, and no harm had come of it, the Queen, greatly daiing, ventured ; and having once expeiienced the convenience and advantages of this mode of locomotion, she became a pretty constant traveller. Whenever she sets forth she must have a s|>ecial train, surrounded by all the precautions hereafter set forth. In

this she differs from the Prince of Wales and the rest of the Royal family, who only on rare occasions and in eircamstances of urgency have a special train. Their usage is to take an ordinary train, of course having a carriage reserved for them. That, it may be observed, is regaided as a personal transaction much more satisfactory to railway directors and shareholders than are the movements of Her Majesty. Everyone of her journeys, appropriating as it does for a certain time, a laige part of the resources of the railway company, must cost an enormous sum, not to speak of the interruption of public traffic and the inconvenience caused to hapless passengers who happen to cross the Queen’s path. Her Majesty, however, anxious, as appears from the circular letter quoted, to be treated on equal terms with her subjects, pays the ordinary charge for a special train, neither more nor less. Sometimes when all the arrangements are made for a royal journey on a day and at an hour specified, there conies a telegram or note to say that the Q reen will travel on some other day. But when it is meant that the journey shall actually take place at the specified time, the Queen is there to the moment. In talking over the matter with high officials I noticed that at this point there is visible on their faces and in their manner the only gleam of enthusiasm evoked by consideration of the business. Punctuality is the politeness of monarchs, and the Queen is certainly punctual. Her Majesty, unlike tome of her subjects, objects to travelling at high speed. About thirty-five miles an hour, a low speed for first class trains in England, is the average pace of the royal train On a somewhat recent journey taken to the north of Wales the Queen travelled at night, and desired that the accomplishment of the journey should correspond with her usual hours of sleeping. This was a fresh and difficult task for the harassed railway managers, since the journey would in the ordinary way be made in five hours. They could not, like the ingenious cabman desirous of deluding a foreign fare, make a detour so as to give an illusive appearance of length to the journey. The only thing to be done was to drive slowly ; and so the journey was strategically accomplished, being concluded at the usual hour of Her Majesty’s leaving her bedroom to commence the day.

Henry W. Lucy.