General Chat

This weekend, Canadians from sea to sea (well, except in Quebec) join in toasting the birth of the old Queen.

Yes, we colonials like our monarchs, dead or alive.

The ... what is it, 3rd? 4th? ... Monday in May is a national civic holiday in honour of Alexindrina Victoria, otherwise Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India.

She was the monarch who presided over the confederation of the various bits of North America that became Canada, in 1867, whereby we acquired responsible government.

(The Governor General involved may have been my grx2 grandfather's brother, but that's another story. ;) )

Oh well! I'd always understood this was her "official" birthday, not her real birthday at all -- but it transpires that May 24th was indeed her real birthday, hence "May 24th weekend" as it is commonly called, although Monday falls on the 23rd this year, for instance. I guess we make it the last Monday before the 24th.

Also otherwise known, it seems, as 2-4 weekend, although I've never heard it called that by anyone I know. A 2-4 is the case of two dozen beer (never "beers" in Canada) that people buy to toast with.

So join us, all you Commonwealthers, and even you revolting types on the southern part of this continent, and hoist a bottle or a can.

? Happy Birthday dear Alexandrina Victoria,
Happy Birthday to you! ?

Oh well, those ?s bracketing my chorus looked like musical notes when I posted them ...

Just been given a biog of the pinkcheeked one by Christopher Hibbert; not read it yet as I prefer social history.

But yup, cheers to Vicky!

Well at least somebody is in the proper spirit of forelock-tugging then.

I've never noticed them celebrating the occasion on East Enders. (The Queen Vic ...)

Since it's something like October 2008 in Albert Square on BBC Canada ... and I am a good three weeks behind on my taped episodes watching and will likely just have to give up and start over now, I couldn't say ... but I've never noticed it. Tsk.

Oh, I neglected to mention, she was born 24 May 1819, so that calls for 192 cheers, I think.

Weeeellll, I must admit that to me *that* family are just another bunch of google-able reference points.

EE is grim - have you tried Hollyoaks??

;-)

No, that may have been on here briefly ... my mistake, too, BBC Canada took EE away from us a year ago and it came back months later on the multicultural religious channel Vision. Which shows it at 9 pm nightly, smack in the middle of prime time, an atrocity. If we didn't have time-shifting so we could watch one prime-time network drama at 9 pm and whatever other one is on at the same time at midnight on a west coast station, I would have had to abandon EE. Vision shows that other thing after it, a rural sort of soap opera that people are addicted to hereabouts, but I can't remember the name of it ...

Happy Birthday Vicky ! It looks like we might even get a day of sunshine at last !! Okay it almost stayed dry yesterday all day.......I need to get my garden in !!!!!.....and the grass cut =0)

Sadly, we don't even celebrate the birth of Queen Elizabeth II ne'er mind dear old Queen Victoria - wot a woman!


Yes........Happy Birthday to you Queen Victoria. Cheers indeed :-)




Cx.

Well, a fine bunch of republicans there are around here!

I think we should all share our fond memories of old Vic ... ;)

She was nice to Canada ... not so much to India, South Africa ...

They're probably thinking 'Vicky' is a friend of yours JC :D


I inherited from my dad, who collected antiques, a pair of Vick's knicks (as we called them). The genuine article with her monogram sewn inside. Apparently they could fetch quite a bit at auction but I have passed them on to a member of the family.

Oh Cynthia, that's ... tacky. ;)

And do you have the provenance then?

Lifted by a chambermaid ancestor of yours?

Tacky? I don't want to think about that...

But you bet I'll lift a glass (of Curmudgeon Ale, it seems only appropriate) to the old girl... and to you all. And I just put up my new maple leaf flag, too.

MJH

I think Cynthia's right about the Vicky!

But having popped back and seen that Vick's knicks have been mentioned - those very knicks may have been handled by my OH's ancestor. Probably only in passing them on to a "lowlier" servant!

This is from a kind member of another site who has done some work in the Bedchamber field!

Frances was one of the Queen’s original ladies-in-waiting at her Accession. St James’s Palace announced her appointment as a Woman of the Bedchamber on 29 August 1837 (see, for example, its publication in *The London Gazette*), although her ‘waiting’ began a few weeks earlier in July. Frances held this post until 1 November 1874, after which (the following day) she became an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber. Previously, Frances had attended Queen Victoria as a Woman of the Bedchamber at her Coronation in 1838.

:D

Nothing tacky about it all Janey. She had many, many pairs of them at her various residences apparently. Don't know where my dad got them from but he used to give talks on Victoriana - A day in the life of the Victorians - sort of thing.

You may like this 'brief'' ;-) link!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/7533696.stm


Cx

Well you can raise a glass to your dad on Victoria Day too then!

Jen is obviously a cut above all of us here. Bedchamber maid to the mighty.

My mum and I visited Brighton Pavillion on our trip to England, and admired Vic's bed, several mattresses piled on top of one another with a ladder to climb up onto. I wondered whether there was a pea in there somewhere. I must be related too. In my paternal grandmother's very old age (she lived to her "99th year" as she said), she grandmother had herself a bed like that, an extra mattress or two piled on. Not sure why, as she was about 4'11" at her nadir. ;) Reminded us all of the Queen Mum; I think she was 363 days younger. Much nicer, though.

I just have to reproduce that link, what with it being about Victoria and a Canadian and all.

Maybe they were 50" at the waist -- but had a drawstring??

_________________________________-


A pair of bloomers that once belonged to Queen Victoria have been sold for £4,500 at an auction in Derby.

The knickers have a 50in (127cm) waist and date from the 1890s, which indicates the monarch had a large girth as she approached her old age.

It was thought the bloomers would fetch £500 but a Canadian buyer spent £4,500 on the pants which are monogrammed with VR for Victoria Regina.

The knickers had been owned by a lady-in-waiting to the Queen.

They had remained in the woman's Lincolnshire family until now.

'Very wide girth'

Auctioneer Charles Hanson said: "These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting... we know that they are hers [Queen Victoria]."

Mr Hanson said the bloomers were an interesting piece of social history that indicated Queen Victoria was "a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth".

The knickers are made from a fine cotton and are hand-made.

A chemise with a 66-inch (167cm) bust, which also belonged to the UK's longest-reigning monarch, sold for £4,000 while her nightdress went for £5,500 at the auction.

You weren't that Canadian by any chance ...????? :D

Jen is obviously a cut above all of us here. Bedchamber maid to the mighty.

:-(

Oi! Not me, I am of union stock, remember? Afore t'Labour Party was born!

;-)

OH is the one with ancestor guilt!

Well phew, Jen. You just decided to marry into the ruling class then.

Me spend $9,000 on underwear, Cynthia? I admit to having several dozen items of the stuff, but that's because I'm not much for doing laundry, not because I spend my entire income on it.

Don't have to worry about that anymore anyway, now that I have a personal washerman. I like to think of No.1 as the hired help ...