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’.
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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 usually held quarterly, jobs were obtained by word of mouth. John Brown’s duties included the herding of ponies for 13
s
a week.
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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.
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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 Archibald 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.
Queen Victoria soon began to appreciate the religious fervour of her new Crathie neighbours who were steeped in the traditions of the Scottish Reformed Kirk. Ready admonishment was heaped upon the shepherd, for instance, who went in search of a straying lamb on the Sabbath, or a youth humming a popular tune on the Lord’s Day, or a girl finishing her sewing – she would be made to unpick each stitch she had sewn on the holy day. For the Calvinist worshippers, Communion Sunday in late June was a great gathering when folk flocked to Crathie Kirk by cart and pony, or by a stiff walk over the hills. The sacrament lasted some six hours and although her position as Head of the Church of England precluded her from taking part for some decades until she attended in 1871, the Queen’s actions on the day of rest were closely monitored by her neighbours – including actions for admonition. Local tradition has it that Queen Victoria was upbraided to her face by one of the elderly parishioners for doing a good deed on the Sabbath. The Queen pointed out to her: ‘Our Lord undertook acts of charity on the seventh day.’ ‘Ah weel,’ replied the relict, ‘then I dinna think any more of Him for it.’
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One long-term effect of the royal family’s appearance on Deeside that the ordinary folk did not expect was the inundation of their village by journalists eager to extract every detail of gossip about the royal family at Balmoral, to satisfy the growing hunger for newspaper coverage of royal events. In due time John Brown became adept at chasing newsmen away from the places where the royal family picnicked.
On his service to the Queen
‘I wish to take care of my dear good mistress till I die. You’ll never have an honester servant.’
John Brown
A special broadsheet carrying only stories of royal visits was published in Aberdeen and people would scan the columns of the
Aberdeen Journal
(Established 1748) at breakfast time to see where the royal family might be that day. Artists set up their easels to capture local colour to run alongside the stories. The newspapers covered royal plans weeks ahead so the burgeoning ranks of royal watchers could gather in towns and villages along the royal route from Aberdeen or Braemar to catch a glimpse of the Queen and her entourage, and the many displays of loyalty and devotion set up along the roads she travelled. And for the first time press stories about royalty in Scotland began to be filed for the London press on a regular basis. Here is what one correspondent reported about Queen Victoria’s first visit to Balmoral and Crathie in 1848:
Ballater was reached at half-past 1, where their approach was announced by the booming of cannon on the height of Cairn-darroch [
sic
]. An immense assemblage of the inhabitants and summer residents and neighbouring gentry were dressed in full Highland costume. They attracted the attention of the Queen, and Prince Albert beckoned one of the clansmen to the side of the carriage, and questioned him as to the ‘sept’ he belonged to: several gentlemen had, also, the honour of paying their respects to the Prince.
As soon as the horses were changed, the Royal carriages set off at a rapid pace, crossing the bridge, and taking the south side of the river, and notwithstanding the uneven nature of the ground the journey of nine or ten miles was performed in little more than an hour, bringing Her Majesty to Balmoral about a quarter to three o’clock. At Crathie, about a mile and a half this side of Balmoral, the last public demonstration took place. There was an arch, and in large letters the phrase ‘Welcome to your Highland home, Victoria and Albert.’
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