Free John Brown by Raymond Lamont-Brown Page A

one such outing early in his royal service in 1851 the Queen remarked it was ‘The best cup of tea I ever tasted.’
    ‘Well, it should be, Ma’am,’ replied Brown. ‘I put a grand nip o’whisky in it.’
    It was Prince Albert’s custom to fill every moment of his waking life with something practical, so he took a lesson in Gaelic from gillie Macdonald as they walked. Queen Victoria described the scene that met them in a journal entry that would be repeated many times for all their Scottish trips:
    We arrived at our little ‘bothie’ at two o’clock, and were amazed at the transformation [after their first trip to Balmoral they had given orders that the sheil be altered]. There are two huts, and to the one in which we live a wooden addition has been made. We have a charming little dining-room, sitting-room, bedroom, and dressingroom, all en-suite; and there is a little room where Caroline Dawson [Maid of Honour] sleeps, one for her maid, and a little pantry. In the other house, which is only a few yards distant, is the kitchen, where the people [ie, her personal attendants] generally sit, a small room where the servants dine, and another, which is a store-room, and a loft above in which the men sleep. Margaret French [the Queen’s maid], Caroline’s maid, Löhlein [Prince Albert’s Jäger ], a cook, Shackle [a footman], and Macdonald, are the only people with us in the house, old John Gordon and his wife excepted. Our rooms are delightfully papered, the ceilings as well as walls, and very nicely furnished. We lunched as soon as we arrived, and at three walked down (about twenty minutes’ walk), to the loch called ‘Muich’ [sic]; which some say means ‘darkness’ or ‘sorrow’. Here we found a large boat, into which we all got, and Macdonald, Duncan, Grant and Coutts [all gillies] rowed; old John Gordon and two others going in another boat with the net. They rowed up to the head of the loch, to where the Muich runs down out of Dhu Loch, which is on the other side.
    The scenery is beautiful here, so wild and grand – real severe Highland scenery, with trees in the hollow. We had various scrambles in and out of the boat and along the shore, and saw three hawks, and caught seventy trout. I wish an artist could have been there to sketch the scene; it was so picturesque – the boat, the net, and the people in their kilts in the water, and on the shore. In going back, Albert rowed and Macdonald steered; and the lights were beautiful. 36
    Queen Victoria was now living in close proximity to her highland retainers and began to know them by name and personality. And soon one name was to stand out: that of John Brown.

CHAPTER TWO
F ASCINATING J OHNNY B ROWN
    Queen Victoria first mentions John Brown in her Journal entry for 11 September 1849. She is describing a visit to Dhu Loch with Lady Douro, later the Duchess of Wellington, and lists the gillies in attendance as ‘Grant, Macdonald (who led my pony the whole time, and was extremely useful and attentive), Jemmie Coutts (leading Lady Douro’s pony), Charlie Coutts, and John Brown going with us: old John Gordon leading the way’. The Queen and Lady Douro rode in a carriage as far as ‘Linn of Muich’ where the party changed to ponies. Over dreadful tracks in a howling wind they climbed above Dhu Loch to ‘some very welcome luncheon’ in a sheltered hollow.
    On the way down Queen Victoria reported:
    The road was rough, but certainly far less soft and disagreeable than the one we came by. I rode ‘Lochnagar’ at first, but changed him for Colonel Gordon’s pony, as I thought he took fright at the bogs; but Colonel Gordon’s was broken-winded, and struggled very much in the soft ground, which was very disagreeable. 1
    Part of their return journey was by boat, with John Brown joining the rowers. The Queen concluded:
    We were only an hour coming down to the boat. The evening was very fine, but it blew very hard on the lake and the men could not pull, and I