John Brown

by Raymond Lamont-Brown

  John Brown attended a few raithes21 at Crathie school. Crathie’s first parish schoolmaster had been appointed in 1710, but his post had fallen out of use.22 By 1719 a charity school had been set up by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge23 and this was one of the thousand parish schools still extant at the time of the Scottish (Education) Act of 1803. At Crathie it cost the Brown family 3s 6p per quarter for a high standard of primary education. At school the Brown children learned the Gaelic language in parallel with English.24

  On John Brown

  ‘John Brown stands out as a striking figure of a man in my boyhood memories. Often as I was playing with other children on the green slopes in the Castle grounds Queen Victoria would come along in her chair drawn by a pony.

  ‘A groom sometimes attended the pony, but by the Queen’s side there always seemed to be John Brown with his rich Scots brogue. The Queen would always smile and say a few words to us, then pat the head of the nearest. On several occasions that was me. John Brown might also say “Good-day” but he was just a little too stern to get really friendly with us.

  ‘Wherever the Queen went, in the castle grounds or about the rooms, John Brown was always at her side. When he died the Queen had a two-foot high brass plate erected in memory of her “true and faithful” servant in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore. But when King Edward came to the Throne he had the plate removed, and I never heard what happened to it. Everyone about the Royal house knew that the Prince of Wales disliked John Brown.

  ‘Brown was popular with the servants at Windsor, although they went in awe of him. He was just in settling disputes and obtained for them many little extra comforts and privileges.’

  H.L.F. Gale,

  son of a Queen’s Messenger at Windsor Castle

  Most of John Brown’s education was conducted out of school. He learned the arts of deerstalking, fish spearing, rowing, swimming, shooting, and riding the Highland breed of ponies known as garrons, which were used for rough hill work. He learned how to walk the mountains, climbing and tackling gradients at speed. He became an expert on the flora and fauna of the area and learned how to forecast the weather. Victoria came to pay close attention to his weather lore; she always averred that if Brown said it would rain or snow, even on the finest day, then it would. He was fluent, too, in the Gaelic names of the glens and mountains, the shepherds’ greetings and their whistle calls to their dogs. And all this information he shared with Victoria as he walked at her horse’s head from the early days of his royal appointment.

  While John Brown was learning his trade and adopting the lifestyle of a Highland laddie, Princess Victoria was going through a very emotional part of her life as heiress presumptive to her septuagenarian ‘Uncle King’. The stress led to mental exhaustion. As part of her education the Duchess of Kent took her on ‘royal progresses’ to various towns and historical sites, much to the annoyance of the King, who believed that his sister-in-law was deliberately keeping his niece from his court, where Princess Victoria was already being groomed in royal protocol by Queen Adelaide. It was true. The Duchess, supported by Sir John Conroy, her ambitious Comptroller of the Household, was attempting to influence Victoria in case the King died before she came of age. In such an event the Duchess would probably be declared Regent, with Conroy as her chief adviser; the prizes would be rich for both.

  During one of these tours the Duchess gave her daughter a book of blank pages in which to record her impressions. Thereafter she was to keep a daily record of events for the rest of her life. By the time of her death in 1901, her writings stretched to several dozen volumes. From her accession in 1837, though, the extant Journal is the truncated version prepared from the original sheets by Princess Beatrice, Victoria’s youngest daughter and co-literary executor, who removed ‘anything which might cause pain’. Thus much (innocent) information about Queen Victoria and the early life of John Brown was ‘sanitised’.

  In 1836 Princess Victoria was seventeen and as her legal majority approached there was increased talk of her marriage prospects. Pools of suitors were divided into rival Court groups. At St James’s Palace King William was keen to introduce her to eligible young men of his choice, particularly if they were not favoured by the Duchess of Kent whom he now detested. So he invited the Prince of Orange, the eldest son of the King of the Netherlands, to visit, along with his sons William and Alexander. In Brussels, Princess Victoria’s uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians (and King William’s bête-noire largely because he was the Duchess of Kent’s brother), cherished his sister’s hope that Victoria would form a liaison with her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. This would mean a German alliance, a move which King William deprecated. First, though, came the Dutch brothers whom Victoria found ‘plain’. Then arrived the Coburg princes, Albert and Ernest, whom she found ‘amiable, very kind and good . . . Albert is very handsome.’25 Although Albert was ill during his trip and did not take to Court life, Princess Victoria wrote thus to her Uncle Leopold:

  I must thank you, my beloved Uncle, for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert. Allow me, then, my dearest Uncle, to tell you how delighted I am with him, and how much I like him in every way. He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy. He is so sensible, so kind, and so good and amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see.26

  Other foreign suitors came and went but by the next year Princess Victoria’s mind was occupied with more serious matters. On 20 June 1837 King William IV died and Princess Victoria succeeded to the throne. Styled ‘Victoria, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith,’ she was crowned at Westminster Abbey on Thursday 28 June 1838. She settled down to learn the profession of monarchy against a background of political intrigue. On 12 October 1839 Queen Victoria wrote again to her Uncle Leopold:

  The dear cousins [Albert and Ernest] arrived at half past seven on Thursday, after a very bad and almost dangerous passage, but looking both very well, and much improved . . . Albert’s beauty is most striking, and he so amiable and unaffected – in short very fascinating.27

  The outcome was that Queen Victoria finally made up her mind and proposed marriage to Prince Albert. He accepted, and on 23 November she informed the Privy Council of her intention to marry. On 16 January 1840 she officially announced to the country her betrothal in a speech from the throne. She married Prince Albert on 10 February at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. On 21 November 1840, nine months and eleven days after the wedding, Princess Victoria (‘Vicky’) Adelaide Mary Louisa, the Princess Royal, was born at Buckingham Palace.

  By 1840, at the age of fourteen, John Brown had finished with formal education and had become a member of the workforce at Crathienaird. Like many of his Scots contemporaries, despite his poor circumstances, John Brown was a keen reader. Old John had encouraged his family to read at the very least the two books to be found in every Scots house, the Holy Bible and The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, the first edition of whose poems had been published at Kilmarnock on 31 July 1786, when the Brown family were already firmly established at Crathie.

  As tenant farmers of the Farquharsons, the Browns were better off than the average crofter of Crathie parish, with their Black-faced (Linton) sheep and small black-horned cattle, scratching a living from niggardly plots, but it is an exaggeration on the part of the Marquis of Huntly to suggest that the family were ‘well-to-do’.28 To augment the family coffers in the early 1840s, John Brown took work as an ostler’s assistant and then as stable lad at the coaching inn at Pannanich Wells, which had been redeveloped by Francis Farquharson. Some time later he found work on the Balmoral estate, which at that time was leased on a 38-year agreement by the Hon. Sir Robert Gordon from the trustees of the estate of the late James, Earl of Fife. How John Brown secured the post is not known, but in these days, outside the special hiring fairs u
sually held quarterly, jobs were obtained by word of mouth. John Brown’s duties included the herding of ponies for 13s a week.29 His work being satisfactory, he took up the position of one of the Balmoral gillies and was in this employment when the royal family appeared on Deeside.

  By now Balmoral had become the centre of social life in Deeside as guests came and went, hosted by Sir Robert Gordon and his sister Lady Alicia. John Brown and his fellow gillies had a lot of extra duties taking care of the house guests who came with their own liveries, mounds of luggage, guns, rods and dogs. Much to the dismay of John Brown and his fellows, some women took up deerstalking. The gillies stood by, cringing and ‘watching their language’, as Sir Robert’s female guests – ahead of their time – scaled the deer hills. Lady Randolph Churchill remembered the first female deerstalkers:

  I cannot say I admire [deerstalking] as an accomplishment. The fact is, I love life so much that the unnecessary curtailing of any creature’s existence is more than distasteful to me. Not long ago [at Balmoral] I saw a young and charming woman, who was surely not of a blood-thirsty nature, kill two stags one morning. The first she shot through the heart. With the aid of a powerful pair of fieldglasses, I watched her stalk the second. First she crawled on all-fours up a long burn; emerging hot and panting, not to say wet and dirty, she then continued her scramble up a steep hill, taking advantage of any cover afforded by the ground, or remaining in a petrified attitude if by chance a hind happened to look up. The stag, meanwhile, quite oblivious of the danger lurking at hand, was apparently enjoying himself. Surrounded by his hinds, he trusted to their vigilance, and lay in the bracken in the brilliant sunshine. I could just see his fine antlered head, when suddenly, realising that all was not well, he bounded up, making a magnificent picture as he stood gazing around, his head thrown back in defiance. ‘Crash! Bang!’ and this glorious animal became a maimed and tortured thing. Shot through both forelegs, he attempted to gallop down the hill, his poor broken limbs tumbling about him, while the affrighted hinds stood riveted to the spot, looking at their lord and master with horror, not unmixed with curiosity. I shall never forget the sight, or that of the dogs set on him, and the final scene, over which I draw a veil. If these things must be done, how can a woman bring herself to do them.30

  The increasing inclusion of women in such activities soon became the least of John Brown’s and his colleagues’ worries; the sudden death of Sir Robert Gordon brought to the estate a pall of gloom with much fear of loss of jobs. But soon a rumour started to circulate that Queen Victoria and her family were intent on the tenancy. And so it was that the Fife Trustees successfully negotiated the lease of Balmoral with Prince Albert. The royal family had now grown to six children – Princess Vicky, Albert Edward (b. 1841), the Prince of Wales, Princess Alice (b. 1843), Prince Alfred (b. 1844), Princess Helena (b. 1846) and Princess Louise (b. 1848) – and Queen Victoria planned to include them all in her September 1848 Scots holiday. It was the beginning of a new era for the area around Crathie and the commencement of immortality for John Brown.

  One of the greatest changes was the prospect of new employment. The royal family’s decision to make Balmoral their Scottish home meant steady work for coachmen, footmen, gardeners, housemaids, launderers and labourers, as well as an increase in groundsmen and gillies. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert took great interest in the lives of the Crathie folk, particularly the families of those who worked at Balmoral. Throughout her life Queen Victoria made regular visits to the cottages on the estate and to Crathie, and she knew well not only John Brown’s immediate family – his uncles, aunts and cousins – but also their lifestyles, too; she sampled their diet of oatmeal and milk, oatcakes and scones, black puddings and potted head (boiled sheep’s head in jelly). She admired the women’s skills in making blankets, plaids and clothes from local sheeps’ wool they spun themselves, and often tailored her gifts to them to supplement their diet and apparel. Just as she enjoyed taking a glass of whisky with her tenants – probably illicitly distilled nearby – she turned a blind eye to the poaching of salmon from her stretch of the Dee or of venison from the hills.

  John Brown and the Crathie folk who were to be employed at Balmoral soon realised that their new employers were very enlightened in their views concerning servants. Encouraged by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria was generous in ensuring that the working conditions at Balmoral were conducive to getting the best out of their employees. In later years John Brown and his family would all profit from Queen Victoria’s largesse and many estate families benefited from secure tenancy agreements and annuity schemes which were introduced at Balmoral from 1849.

  A record of Queen Victoria’s attitude to her employees was published by ‘One of Her Majesty’s Servants’ in 1897, in a privately circulated publication entitled The Private Life of Queen Victoria. It averred:

  Nearly the most charming and womanly phase of the Queen’s character is displayed in her relationship to her servants. Of course, all her subjects are her obedient servants, and the greatest grandee of all her large household is bound to render her loyal and faithful service, and indeed does so cheerfully. But I would speak of those humbler beings whom the average man and woman treat as mere menials, but who are, in the eyes of Her Majesty, fellow creatures and friends. There are few people in the world who have received such kindnesses from the Queen as her servants, and few who regard her with more sincere devotion and admiration.

  And, indeed the Queen’s servants should be faithful to her, for she stands by and protects them to the last. The small lodges at Windsor, Osborne and Claremont [Claremont House, near Esher, Surrey, Queen Victoria’s childhood home], and the many cosy cottages at Balmoral are filled by men and women who have grown grey in the service of the Royal Family. It is the same at Hampton Court, her palaces in London, and houses at Richmond and Kew. Wherever the Queen has any personal jurisdiction and a post or home to give, there may be found old retainers who have served not only her gracious self, but any member of her family. The royal gardens and kitchens, laundries, farms and stables are full of such ancient folk, many of whom remember the Queen as an infant, and whose only talk is of the beneficence of their beloved royal mistress . . .

  At the same time it must not be thought that the Queen is a weak mistress. Far from it. The service she exacts is always most responsible, and she desires that it should be performed punctually and well. She is, herself, far too thorough and hardworking a servant of her State and her People not to appreciate and expect the first fruits of everyone’s powers. The Queen is a strictly just and honourable woman and expects justice and honour from those about her, from the highest to the lowest.

  These character traits of Queen Victoria greatly appealed to John Brown; he believed this was how employers should behave, and his respect for her grew as he got to know her better.

  When Queen Victoria came to the throne there were two Deans of her Chapel Royal in Scotland, as well as the Dean of the Thistle. These appointees, part of the Royal Household in Scotland, she met but rarely. The Scottish clergy she encountered most frequently were the Presbyterian ministers of Crathie within the united parish of Crathie and Braemar, and the influential Presbytery of Kincardine O’Neil, Synod of Aberdeen. These were not employees of the Balmoral estate but fiercely independent clergy in the spirit of the Disruption of 1843 which had split the Scottish Kirk in matters such as education, poor relief and clergy placements. Thus the clergy were still very influential in Scottish parishes as teachers, counsellors and welfare officers. And as Dr R. Wilson McNair pointed out in his Doctor’s Progress: ‘Everyone sat “under” one or other of them, and it was a point of honour to uphold your choice as the finest preacher in the country.’

  By and large the Queen got on well with her Crathie clergy, who were invited to a wide range of royal functions to read prayers, say blessings and generally socialise. Among long-standing ministers like the Revd Archibald Alexander Campbell (d. 1907), there were colourful pastors such as the Revd Archib
ald Anderson (d. 1866) and the Revd Dr Norman MacLeod (d. 1872); the latter, famed for his extempore sermons, introduced the Queen to the works of the poet Robert Burns by reading them to her, and the Queen turned to him for spiritual succour after the death of Prince Albert. The Revd Anderson was deemed a ‘character’ and many a royal anecdote about him abounded in the parish and beyond. His church was the one built in 1804 to replace the old building of St Monire, which had been used until the end of the eighteenth century. In her volume Recollections of a Royal Parish the late Mrs Patricia Lindsay remembered:

  One member of the congregation in [Queen Victoria’s first years at Balmoral] used to excite much interest and amusement among strangers. This was the Minister’s collie, who was a regular attendant at church, following Mr Anderson up the pulpit steps and quietly lying down at the top. He was always a most decorous, though possibly somnolent listener, but he was also an excellent time keeper, for if the sermon was a few minutes longer than usual ‘Towser’ got up and stretched himself, yawning audibly.

  When the Queen first came, Mr Anderson feared she might object to such an unorthodox addition to the congregation, and shut up ‘Towser’ on Sunday. Her Majesty next day sent an equerry to the Manse to enquire if anything had happened to the dog, as she had a sketch of the church in which he appeared lying beside the pulpit, and if he were alive and well, she would like to see him in his old place. Greatly to Towser’s delight he was thus by royal command restored to Church privileges.