QUEEN VICTORIA'S UNCOMFORTABLE LODGINGS.—The Times, which shares with Punch a
deservedly high repute for facetiousness, has this morning an amusing paper touching Mr. Blore's report on Buckingham Palace. We ex- tract some passages. "In the first place, the private apartments of the Queen and the Prince in the North wing were not calculated originally for a married Sovereign.' What could the architect have been about when he designed to ac- commodate the occupant of the throne in lodgings for a single man' or a single woman? What right had he to presume on the celibacy of the wearer of the crown, and provide apartments not fitted, according to Mr. Blore's report, for the accommodation of the head of a family'? What is enough for one is very often not enough for two; and we can sympathize with the Royal pair, who have been managing' for the last few years in a small suite of rooms only de- signed for an unmarried lady or gentleman. In addition, however, to the in- sufficiency of space, it appears that the Queen and the Prince have been un- dergoing the further infliction of living over a workshop! The Lord Chamberlain, it seems, has his smith and upholstery establishment, where he is constantly boiling his glue and carrying on other offensive operations, immediately under the private apartments of the Sovereign. We have no patience with Mr. Blore's calmness when he talks of the 'obvious impropriety' of the arrangement.' He, however, warms up a little under the recollection of the great truth, which he lays down with considerable force and distinctness, that oil and glue are both of them inflammable substances.'
"The second grievance brings us to the distressingly contracted state of the Royal nursery. It seems that a few rooms in the attics of the North wing' are all the nursery accommodation 'available to meet the growing wants of an increasing family.' The rapid succession of happy events ' must, of course, have materially added to the inconvenience existing in this particular portion of the Palace. Some of the servants have accordingly, been dislodged from their attics and packed in small compartments on the ground-floor, where one room has been cut down into two 'by the assistance of a false ceiling.' This shocking but in- genious contrivance reminds us of the system of stowing away the Blacks in slave-vessels.
"The third grievance relates to the want of accommodation for the Lord Chamberlain; who, notwithstanding that he is perpetually hammering and boiling glue under her Majesty's private rooms, has not sufficient scope for his extensive operations. We were not aware that the Lord Chamberlain's department included so much carpenter's business in ordinary and smith's work in general. The igno- rant in these matters might imagine that the workshop so near the person of the Sovereign may have something to do with the making or repairing of the Cabinet. It seems, however, that so extensive is the business of the Lord Chamberlain in the upholstery line, that he keeps up branch concerns in St. James's Palace and in still more remote quarters.' Where can these 'quarters' be that are even more remote' than St. James's Palace ?
" The culinary department is the next to which the report refers, in language so strong as to declare, that 'the kitchen has defeated every attempt to prevent its being a nuisance to the Palace.' The obstinacy of the cuisine, which has triumphed over every attempt to keep it down, must have been indeed remarkable. We presume that odours of stews and hashes were the weapons by which the de- feat alluded to has been accomplished. The kit hen must have carried its sauce to a fearful height thus to have flown into the very face of the Sovereign! "The reception of illustrious guests is another most important matter referred to in the report, which tells us there is but one suite of apartments that her Ma- jesty can offer to distinguished visiters. Thus it happens, that if two great potentates should arrive in England at the same time on a visit to the Queen, as their Majesties of Russia and Saxony did, there is only a spare bed for one of
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