1850

DEATH OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.

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Lord Carlisle at Castle Howard; on the 29th to Edinburgh, where we shall put up at our new halting place in Holyrood, and I am to lay the foundation stone of the National Gallery; and on the 31st to Balmoral.

I received while in town your letter about Gervinus; at the prorogation of Parliament I saw Gervinus and had a long conversation with him. I agree entirely with all you say about the Protocol policy, but it is impossible to make any impression here upon that subject. The fixed idea here is, that Germany's only object in separating Holstein with Schleswig from Denmark is to incorporate them with herself, and then to draw them from the English into the Prussian commercial system. Denmark will then become a State too small to maintain a separate independence, and so the division of European territory and the balance of power will be disturbed.

'I grant that this is a tenable view, and that Germany (especially Prussia) has given cause for it; but assuredly this affords no ground for doing violence to law, to honour, to equity, and to morality, in order to defeat an eventuality which has not been brought about by ambition or caprice, but by the nature of things. Schleswig is entitled to insist on union with Holstein; Holstein belongs to Germany, and the Augustenburgs are the heirs. How is it possible to get over these things?

Germany appears to me to be going utterly to the deuce under the miserable policy of its rulers, and to be becoming a still readier toy for the next revolution. Are there no longer in it men of heart and head, who might avert the disaster? It is altogether too sad..

'Osborne, 25th August, 1850.'

Next day brought the tidings of the death of King Louis Philippe. The event was not unexpected, as his health had for some time been visibly declining. It was the Prince's birthday, and the event somewhat saddened what was always made a day of special pleasure by the tributes of affection which it drew from the many loving hearts by whom the Prince was surrounded. Writing to the Dowager Duchess of Coburg from Castle Howard (28th August), where the Royal party rested for a day on their way to Scotland, he

says:

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JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND.

1850

Alas, I too spent the 26th in ruminating with a sad pleasure on my native country, the paternal home, my early youth. We celebrated the day quietly and peacefully at Osborne with the children. It was, however, unhappily a day of mourning. Just before dinner came the news of the death that morning of poor old King Louis Philippe. By starting at six in the morning we managed yesterday to pay a flying visit to the afflicted family. They are all greatly stricken down. Still, the Queen is wonderfully composed and resigned.

6

We go to Edinburgh to-morrow, where we are to stop at old Holyrood for the first time, and I have a ceremony of laying a foundation stone to perform. The four eldest children are with us. We shall reach Balmoral on the 31st. Charles [Prince Leiningen] started yesterday to join Mama at Abergeldie.'

Next day the Queen and Prince proceeded by railway to Edinburgh. The great railway bridges over the Tyne at Newcastle, and the Tweed at Berwick, had just been completed. At both they got out, and performed the ceremonial of formally opening these magnificent structures, amid vast crowds of spectators. Edinburgh was reached by five o'clock. The Duke of Buccleuch, at the head of the Royal Archers, who claim the privilege of forming the Royal body-guard in the Scottish metropolis, accompanied the Queen's carriage on foot, on its way to Holyrood Palace from the station. road,' says Her Majesty's diary, 'the new one under Arthur's Seat, was beautifully kept by cavalry and infantry, and thousands were assembled. The Salisbury Crags were like an anthill, black with people. The sun shone brightly. The sight was a very fine one, and the good Scotch people most enthusiastic. In the court of Holyrood was a guard of honour of the 93rd Highlanders, and Lord Morton, as Captain General of the Royal Archers Guard, received us.'

The

Not since Queen Mary quitted that scene of sad remembrances had the halls of the old Palace been trodden by queenly footsteps. What wonder if the hearts of the assembled thousands beat quicker, and their cheers rang with a deeper tone at the spectacle of their Queen taking up her abode in the only palace now left in their land, and one which is to them a cherished memorial of their national story! The Queen herself was too much excited by the associations of

1850

HOLYROOD PALACE AND CHAPEL.

261

the spot, to care for rest after the fatigues of the day. Scarcely pausing to look at the rooms provided for their reception, the Royal guests hurried to see the more striking objects of the Palace. We wandered out,' says the Queen's diary, with the two girls, and Miss Hildyard [their governess], to look at the old ruined Abbey, which adjoins the Palace, and which you see from our windows. It is beautiful inside. One of the aisles is still roofed in, but the other is not. It was originally an Abbey, and the very old tombstones are those of friars. It was afterwards the Chapel Royal, and Queen Mary, my unfortunate ancestress, was married to Lord Darnley at this very altar, of which you see the remains. It was restored in the time of James VII. of Scotland and II. of England. Later, it was used as a parish church. There are many tombs in it-some of the Sutherland and Erroll family, Lord Strathmore, &c., and I discovered the grave of Flora MacDonald's mother.'

The great beauty of the east window, and the other striking features of the ruin, did not escape notice. But there were in the Palace itself rooms which had an even stronger fascination for its present occupants. When we returned,' the diary continues, we saw the rooms where Queen Mary lived, her bed, the dressing-room into which the murderers entered who killed Rizzio, and the spot where he fell, where, as the old housekeeper said to me, "if the lady would stand on that side," I would see that the boards were discoloured by the blood. Every step is full of historical recollections, and our living here is quite an epoch in the annals of this old pile, which has seen so many deeds, more bad, I fear, than good. In the long gallery is a collection of most frightful pictures of the Kings of Scotland, beginning with a full-length picture of a king 330 years before Christ. In Queen Mary's room we saw a piece of her work, the armour and lance of Lord Darnley, and other more doubtful souvenirs. The old housekeeper did not know who I was, and only learned it from Mr. Charles Murray [deputy-keeper of the Palace] afterwards.'

2

1 The Flora MacDonald here mentioned is not the devoted adherent of Charles Edward Stuart, but one of the Queen's then Maids of Honour (now Bedchamber woman), who bears the same name, and is the daughter of the Clanranald, a scion of the same family as the celebrated Flora.

2 The Abbey of Holyrood, on the site of which the Palace now stands, dates back to the twelfth century. Some portions which remain of the chapel were probably of that age. Only a small portion of the Palace has any claim to

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VISIT TO EDINBURGH.

1850

Next morning at ten the Queen and Prince, with the four Royal children, drove along the magnificent drive, then recently completed, round Arthur's Seat. When we had driven some little way,' the Queen writes, 'we got out and walked quite to the top, a good height, and, after a year's disuse of climbing in England, hard work; but it is nothing to the Highland hills, for it is quite smooth under foot. The view at the top amply repays the trouble. You see the beautiful town, with the Calton Hill, and the bay, with the Island of Inchkeith, stretching out before you, and the Bass Rock quite in the distance, rising behind the coast. Unfortunately, it was a little hazy. Coming down, we had a small crowd, who came down with us. The view, when we gained the carriage, near Dunsapie Loch-quite a small lake, overhung by a crag, with the sea in the distance-is extremely pretty. . . . The air was delicious.'

At a little before one, the same record proceeds, the Prince went off to lay the first stone of the National Gallery, which is now one of the ornaments of the City, and contains within its walls a collection of pictures, both ancient and modern, of the highest excellence. The Prince,' the Queen writes, 'felt rather nervous about the speech he had to make on the occasion.' But critical as Edinburgh people are reputed to be, they would have been captious indeed had they not been

antiquity. This is the North Tower, in which the apartments are situated, which are shown as having been occupied by Queen Mary, when Rizzio was murdered. These apartments correspond exactly with the description of them given by one of the active agents in the murder, Lord Ruthven, in his very vivid Relation' of its incidents. He describes the conspirators as passing through the Queen's chamber to the Cabinet, where he found the Queen's Majesty sitting at her supper at the middle of a little table, the Lady Argyle at one end, and Davie at the head of the table with his cap on his head; the King speaking with the Queen's Majesty, and his hand about her waist. The said Lord Ruthven, at his coming in, said to the Queen's Majesty :-" Would it please your Majesty to let yonder man Davie come forth of your presence, for he hath been over long there." Rizzio was dragged from the Cabinet to the utter chamber,' at 'the Queen's far door' of which he was slain, and left lying gashed and gory, and with Darnley's dagger sticking in the wound he had inflicted. A great portion of the Palace was burnt on 13th November, 1650, while in the hands of Cromwell's soldiers. The Protector gave orders for its restoration, and this was completed in 1658. But the greater part of the Palace, as it now stands, was built under the direction of Charles II. James II. restored the chapel, and tried to re-establish the Roman Catholic form of worship in it, but the Edinburgh mob settled that question by making havoc of the interior in December, 1688. About the middle of the last century, the roof, which had become ruinous, was restored, but the old walls and shafts would not bear the weight of the new roof, and it fell in, crushing the columns, and reducing the structure to a state of ruin, which no effort was for many years made to arrest.

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SPEECH BY THE PRINCE.

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more than satisfied. What was said by the Prince gratified their nationality in its most sensitive points, and showed how well he appreciated the best features of the Scottish character -its love of improvement, its strong practical sense, and its self-dependence. A large portion of the funds for the construction of the gallery was the produce of an old grant for the encouragement of the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland, which her prosperity had long since rendered superfluous. The allusion to this fact by the Prince was most happy:

'It must be an additional source of gratification to me to find, that part of the funds rendered available for the support of this undertaking should be the ancient grant which, at the union of the two kingdoms, was secured towards the encouragement of the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland, as it affords a most pleasing proof that those important branches of industry have arrived at that stage of manhood and prosperity when, no longer requiring the aid of a fostering Government, they can maintain themselves independently, relying upon their own vigour and activity, and can now in their turn lend assistance and support to their younger and weaker sisters, the Fine Arts.

'Gentlemen, the history of this grant exhibits to us the picture of a most healthy national progress: the ruder arts connected with the necessaries of life first gaining strength; then education and science supervening and directing further exertions; and lastly, the arts which only adorn life becoming longed for by a prosperous and educated people.'

The Prince's apprehensions about his speech were soon dispelled. Albert, the Queen's diary records, 'returned at two. Everything had gone off beautifully; the speech most successful, and thousands of people there; 70,000 tickets had been sold. The rest of the day was spent in driving through some of the finest parts of the city and in inspecting its monuments and public buildings. Among the former the Scott monument, finished since the Royal visit eight years before, and among the latter Donaldson's Hospital, then just completed, was much admired. The return to the Palace was by way of the High Street and Canongate, 'that curious old part of the town, where the population is very poor,' and where, it appears, in the exuberance of their loyalty, 'they were a good deal excited.' Before entering the Palace, the drive was continued along the then newly completed road under Arthur's Seat, which forms "the Park,”- a beautiful park indeed, with such a view, and such mountain scenery in the midst of it.'

An agreeable circle in the evening concluded a delightful day. The Buccleuchs, the Roxburghs, the Mortons, Lord