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End
of an aristocratic era of style, opulence... and overdrafts The death of Britain's Queen Mother marks the end of an era of aristocratic splendour and opulence. Throughout her life she maintained the habits and hobbies of the Edwardian era into which she was born, one in which price was not considered to be a subject of polite concern. She lived as she had when her husband, George VI - 'my dear Bertie' - was alive. A Faberge bell for service at home was essential. Footmen stood behind nearly every chair. At her lodge on the Balmoral estate, flowers were planted to bloom to coincide with her arrival in August, and a log fire burned in every room, even in summer. In her bedroom at Clarence House, her London home, the two cherubs on her four-poster bed had their angel's clothes washed and starched every month. She maintained a staff of 50 to minister to her every need. They included housekeepers, butlers, footmen, pages, chefs, equerries, ladies' maids, ladies-in-waiting, dressers, gardeners, chauffeurs and a watchman who sat outside her door every night. Her staff travelled with her on her visits to her five homes - Clarence House, Birkhall at Balmoral, the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the Castle of Mey in Caithness, and Walmer Castle, near Deal in Kent. Whatever time she got to bed, a curtseying maid would tap on her bedroom door at 7.30 the following morning. The maid would enter carrying a tray with a bone-china teacup, pink roses and a copy of the Racing Post, and place it next to her bed. After an early-morning bath, the Queen Mother would walk to the breakfast room, where she would sit down to a plate of fruit, toast and a free-range boiled Buff Orpington egg. Lunch was her favourite meal. While the Queen still takes pride in eating simply during the day - scrambled eggs, grilled fish or a sandwich - her mother would have regular tables at London's finest restaurants, the Connaught, Claridge's, the Ritz or, out of town, at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, near Oxford. Friends say she often invited politicians, tycoons and patrons of the arts to her table. They recall a lively talker and an attentive listener. Ann Morrow, author of Without Equal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother , recalls: 'She was a good listener with a readiness to be amused.' The Queen Mother loved to entertain. 'It was one of the joys of her life,' one friend remembers. 'And it was on a magnificent scale.' Weekend invitations were the most prized. The invitation would arrive three weeks in advance. Guests were encouraged not to arrive before 6p.m. on Saturday: Saturday afternoons were for watching racing on television. A servant would carry guests' bags to their rooms, where a maid would unpack, iron and press the contents. The Queen Mother liked to greet her guests at 8p.m. for gin and tonics, with a dash of Angostura bitters and lime juice. After dinner the women would briefly 'withdraw', before rejoining the men at around 10.30p.m. Over whisky and port, guests would sing songs around the piano or play cards. At large parties in London she invited musicians. Fittingly, one of her favourite performers was that other high-spending bon viveur, Sir Elton John. After a light breakfast, Sunday lunch was a grand affair. She liked to serve souffle, lobster croquettes, rare lamb, new potatoes and peas from Windsor with sugar sprinkled on top, followed by raspberries with Jersey cream or meringue with black cherries in liqueur. For tea, she enjoyed scones, chocolate cake and Earl Grey poured from an eighteenth-century silver tea kettle with her family crest. The Queen Mother
lived and died as the last great Edwardian lady. Accountants may
have taken over in the City and in industry, and might even have
advised the Queen herself, but they had no place in her household.
As one regular guest at her weekend parties puts it: 'When you were
with the Queen Mother, enjoying her company and hospitality, it
was like going back in time to a world that has now - with her death
- vanished forever.' |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
clothes,
entertained every guest as though they were all royalty themselves,
owned a dozen racehorses and travelled only by chauffeur-driven
car, private train, plane or boat. She spent more than any other
member of the royal family after the Queen, and when the royal bankers,
Coutts, drew her attention to the delicate matter of her £4
million overdraft, she refused to economise or sell any of the objets
d'art from her London home, Clarence House, which boasted enough
porcelain, antique silver, paintings and eighteenth-century furniture
to fill a museum. 
