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| A bust of Queen Victoria. Image from Wikimedia Commons |
Queen Victoria spent her last Christmas in relative quiet
and peace at Osborne. The Queen, up to the end, was a stickler for the things
she was accustomed to. Holly and mistletoe were decorated in Osborne and the
Christmas tree maintained its honoured place in the royal retreat.
While people in all parts of the country were getting
ready for Christmas, the here cooks were roasting the Queen's baron of beef in
the great kitchen of Windsor Castle—a ceremony that was witnessed every year by
hundreds of people, who derived amusement from the basting operations as long as
they can stand the heat from a great ocean range. About a hundred bundles of
wood, as many billets, and half-a-ton of coals are used to cook a joint of beef
weighing close upon 200 lbs.
Covered in thick cartridge paper, it revolved slowly on
the spit, the motive power of the machinery being the smoke-Jack. Ten to twelve
hours was sufficient for the roasting, and then it was placed in a cool larder,
and was afterwards carefully packed, together with a boar's head, a couple of
woodcock nnd game pies that took days to make, and all were despatched to
Osborne and placed on the Queen's side table on 'Christmas Day, with the
Queen's monogram upon the joint in shredded horseradish.
The Queen, by this time, however, could not enjoy this
fare, since her eating habits were already sparse and irregular. She would take
tea little more than arrowroot mixed with milk and consume Bengers food, a
typical invalid diet which well illustrates the weakness of one who had enjoyed
such a royal love of eating. She was also instructed to take a ‘a little milk
and whisky several times a day’, wrote Delia Millar in the book Queen Victoria’s life in the Scottish
Highlands.
The Duke and Duchess of Connaught and their children,
joined Princess Christian and Princess Henry and their families, in spending
Christmas with the Queen. Their Royal Highnesses, together with Princess Henry
of Battenberg, Princess Ena of Battenberg and her three brothers, went to
Whippingham on the Monday before Christmas Day and distributed the Queen's gifts
to the children attending the school.
In the Durbar Room at Osborne, where Queen Victoria held
both ceremonial dinners and theatrical entertainments, a great Christmas tree
would be found, where gifts are laid on the tables. The aged Queen loved to personally
hand in her gifts to her loyal servants, but by her last Christmas, she was
having a hard time since she could hardly see to distribute her presents
writing: “I felt very melancholy, as I see so very badly,” she wrote in her
journal. While the great hall was illumined, it could not be denied that her last
Christmas was a dim one.
The Queen was horrified when she learned of the sudden
death of Jane, Baroness Churchill, at Osborne on Christmas morning. The Dowager
Lady Churchill was still in perfect health on Christmas Eve, but when her maid
brought her a cup of early-morning tea, she found her mistress dead in bed. She
was the Queen’s lady of the Bedchamber and confidante. Since her husband’s
death in 1886, Lady Churchill had spent the most part of her time with the
Queen at Windsor, at Balmoral, or at Osborne. A short memorial service was held
for Jane in the Drawing Room at Osborne. Princess Beatrice played the harmonium
and the mourning queen mused sadly: “The loss to me is not to be told… and that
it should happen here is too sad.” Shorly before her death, Jane told her own
maid that the Queen seemed by now “a dying woman.” Indeed, barely a month after
Christmas, Queen Victoria would pass away.
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