spacious grounds and views across the Solent, it was an excellent holiday home for them all. The children learned to swim in the bay, using either the small pier or, later, the swimming bath, made from pontoons, with a wooden grating floor open to the sea. Each fine summer day would find parents and children aboard the royal yacht Victoria and Albert , or the smaller steam yacht Fairy . There was always something to keep everyone on board occupied, whether looking out to sea through their father’s telescope, sketching on deck, or pretending to steer.
Affie, who adored anything to do with the sea, was particularly in his element at Osborne. An excellent swimmer, he revelled in the outdoor life and, being naturally darker in colouring than the rest, tanned easily. With his mechanical mind, he quickly mastered the essentials of the Fairy , and was more effective than his father at fixing any minor faults. So did Helena, the tomboy of the girls, who also had a knack with machinery. She and Affie both studied the motors and machinery with interest, never minding how dirty or greasy their hands became in the process.
Princess Helena, or ‘Lenchen’, as she was always to be known en famille , was a placid, even-tempered child. She had none of the obstinacy or tendency to answer back of her eldest sister Victoria, the precocious, self-willed Princess Royal, and none of Alice’s tendency to be easily crushed. Bertie and Affie were quick to realize that any attempts at teasing or bullying her would result in a short sharp blow where it hurt. Lady Augusta Bruce, lady-in-waiting, noted that at six years of age the Princess ‘resented much being called a Baby by her eldest brother and threatened to slap his face if he persisted!’ 15
To the children, a never-ending delight of Osborne was the Swiss Cottage. Prince Albert had always loved the Schweizerei , or Swiss Dairy Farm, at his childhood home, Rosenau. Though it was long assumed that the cottage was a prefabricated building manufactured abroad and imported in sections prior to being erected at Osborne, it was more probable that the estate carpenters constructed the buildings themselves, possibly with assistance from a Continental carpenter, or under the Prince’s guidance.* It was made to imperial measurements, with basic overall dimensions of twenty-five feet by fifty feet, and erected on a rubble plinth about half a mile east of the house. The external logs, nine inches square, were initially coated with burnt umber, and later blackened with tar.
The children laid the foundation stone in 1853, and the completed dwelling was presented to them on 24 May 1854, their mother’s thirty-fifth birthday. The first floor balcony and other details were in imitation of a traditional Swiss-style farmhouse. The interior was scaled down to child-size in every detail, with a fully-equipped kitchen and range. Here the Princes could learn carpentry and gardening, the Princesses housekeeping and cookery. Family parties were held in the dining-room on the first floor with an informality which was out of the question at the house. Miniature tea, dinner and dessert services, with plates inscribed ‘ SPARE NOT, WASTE NOT, WANT NOT ’, were used by the royal children for many years.
Much of the furniture and ornaments were collected by Prince Albert, mainly from Lucerne. They included a secretaire , or writing desk, embellished with wood carvings of rural Swiss life. Less homely was a carved table incorporating an ornate engraving, captioned ‘ DIE SOHNAE EDUARDUS IV ’, in which the young Princes in the Tower were about to be smothered as they lay sleeping. Perhaps the lesson was not lost on Queen Victoria’s young sons that they were lucky not to have lived in medieval times.
In one room there was a doll’s house grocery shop, ‘Spratt, Grocer to Her Majesty’, where they learned the prices of everyday goods. The commodities on display included coffee, cocoa, several different kinds
Affie, who adored anything to do with the sea, was particularly in his element at Osborne. An excellent swimmer, he revelled in the outdoor life and, being naturally darker in colouring than the rest, tanned easily. With his mechanical mind, he quickly mastered the essentials of the Fairy , and was more effective than his father at fixing any minor faults. So did Helena, the tomboy of the girls, who also had a knack with machinery. She and Affie both studied the motors and machinery with interest, never minding how dirty or greasy their hands became in the process.
Princess Helena, or ‘Lenchen’, as she was always to be known en famille , was a placid, even-tempered child. She had none of the obstinacy or tendency to answer back of her eldest sister Victoria, the precocious, self-willed Princess Royal, and none of Alice’s tendency to be easily crushed. Bertie and Affie were quick to realize that any attempts at teasing or bullying her would result in a short sharp blow where it hurt. Lady Augusta Bruce, lady-in-waiting, noted that at six years of age the Princess ‘resented much being called a Baby by her eldest brother and threatened to slap his face if he persisted!’ 15
To the children, a never-ending delight of Osborne was the Swiss Cottage. Prince Albert had always loved the Schweizerei , or Swiss Dairy Farm, at his childhood home, Rosenau. Though it was long assumed that the cottage was a prefabricated building manufactured abroad and imported in sections prior to being erected at Osborne, it was more probable that the estate carpenters constructed the buildings themselves, possibly with assistance from a Continental carpenter, or under the Prince’s guidance.* It was made to imperial measurements, with basic overall dimensions of twenty-five feet by fifty feet, and erected on a rubble plinth about half a mile east of the house. The external logs, nine inches square, were initially coated with burnt umber, and later blackened with tar.
The children laid the foundation stone in 1853, and the completed dwelling was presented to them on 24 May 1854, their mother’s thirty-fifth birthday. The first floor balcony and other details were in imitation of a traditional Swiss-style farmhouse. The interior was scaled down to child-size in every detail, with a fully-equipped kitchen and range. Here the Princes could learn carpentry and gardening, the Princesses housekeeping and cookery. Family parties were held in the dining-room on the first floor with an informality which was out of the question at the house. Miniature tea, dinner and dessert services, with plates inscribed ‘ SPARE NOT, WASTE NOT, WANT NOT ’, were used by the royal children for many years.
Much of the furniture and ornaments were collected by Prince Albert, mainly from Lucerne. They included a secretaire , or writing desk, embellished with wood carvings of rural Swiss life. Less homely was a carved table incorporating an ornate engraving, captioned ‘ DIE SOHNAE EDUARDUS IV ’, in which the young Princes in the Tower were about to be smothered as they lay sleeping. Perhaps the lesson was not lost on Queen Victoria’s young sons that they were lucky not to have lived in medieval times.
In one room there was a doll’s house grocery shop, ‘Spratt, Grocer to Her Majesty’, where they learned the prices of everyday goods. The commodities on display included coffee, cocoa, several different kinds
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