Queen Victoria eBook

He had, too, in her mind, a special connection with Albert.  In their expeditions the Prince had always trusted him more than anyone; the gruff, kind, hairy Scotsman was, she felt, in some mysterious way, a legacy from the dead.  She came to believe at last—­or so it appeared—­that the spirit of Albert was nearer when Brown was near.  Often, when seeking inspiration over some complicated question of political or domestic import, she would gaze with deep concentration at her late husband’s bust.  But it was also noticed that sometimes in such moments of doubt and hesitation Her Majesty’s looks would fix themselves upon John Brown.

Eventually, the “simple mountaineer” became almost a state personage.  The influence which he wielded was not to be overlooked.  Lord Beaconsfield was careful, from time to time, to send courteous messages to “Mr. Brown” in his letters to the Queen, and the French Government took particular pains to provide for his comfort during the visits of the English Sovereign to France.  It was only natural that among the elder members of the royal family he should not have been popular, and that his failings—­for failings he had, though Victoria would never notice his too acute appreciation of Scotch whisky—­should have been the subject of acrimonious comment at Court.  But he served his mistress faithfully, and to ignore him would be a sign of disrespect to her biographer.  For the Queen, far from making a secret of her affectionate friendship, took care to publish it to the world.  By her orders two gold medals were struck in his honour; on his death, in 1883, a long and eulogistic obituary notice of him appeared in the Court Circular; and a Brown memorial brooch—­of gold, with the late gillie’s head on one side and the royal monogram on the other—­was designed by Her Majesty for presentation to her Highland servants and cottagers, to be worn by them on the anniversary of his death, with a mourning scarf and pins.  In the second series of extracts from the Queen’s Highland Journal, published in 1884, her “devoted personal attendant and faithful friend” appears upon almost every page, and is in effect the hero of the book.  With an absence of reticence remarkable in royal persons, Victoria seemed to demand, in this private and delicate matter, the sympathy of the whole nation; and yet—­such is the world—­there were those who actually treated the relations between their Sovereign and her servant as a theme for ribald jests.

II

The busy years hastened away; the traces of Time’s unimaginable touch grew manifest; and old age, approaching, laid a gentle hold upon Victoria.  The grey hair whitened; the mature features mellowed; the short firm figure amplified and moved more slowly, supported by a stick.  And, simultaneously, in the whole tenour of the Queen’s existence an extraordinary transformation came to pass.  The nation’s attitude towards her, critical and even hostile as it had been for so many years, altogether changed; while there was a corresponding alteration in the temper of—­Victoria’s own mind.