Free Censoring Queen Victoria by Yvonne M. Ward Page B

asking his advice as to ‘which were the best pictures’. He would then need to seek the King’s permission to have the portraits photographed. Unbeknown to Benson, however, Hallam Murray had already asked Cust if Benson might be admitted to Buckingham Palace to view some portraits in the King’s private sitting rooms. Cust asked Lord Knollys, the King’s secretary. Knollys ‘consents, not very graciously,’ Benson recorded in his diary; protocols had been upset. Trying to smooth things over, Benson wrote to Esher:
    Cust is very anxious that he should not be thought to have interfered. As matters stand he is at present engaged to take me to Buckingham Palace some day soon at 10 a.m. … Will you put this right on Monday? There is no necessity to visit Buckingham Palace in this solemn way, as if we were going to value for probate.
    Meanwhile Knollys complained to Esher about ‘Cust’s interference’ and Esher summoned Benson to his room, insinuating that the King was annoyed. Esher referred waspishly to Cust as an ‘awful meddler, always asking for things’ and offered Benson some advice: ‘“No greater mistake,” said E. smiling, “than to ask for anything in this world unless you are nearly sure to get it.”’ Whereupon Benson was at pains to distance himself from Cust’s inept assertiveness.
    In an elegant display of power and
savoir faire
, Esher then airily conducted Benson down to the King’s private rooms ‘to see what pictures there were …’ Benson soon forgot his discomfiture and was captivated:
    There are some lovely things. There is a little audience chamber of QV’s fitted up so by Prince Albert with pictures and miniatures – very Victorian but such treasures. A row of heads of George III’s children by Gainsborough. So strange to see those fussy, absurd, big, voluble men as graceful boys with low collars. The Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex are simply charming. Then to the Queen’s rooms – such exquisite things and to the King’s room where there is a Winterhalter of Queen Victoria with an unbound tress of hair – such a touching,
intime
thing – and a ludicrous Landseer where Prince Albert sits in a drawing room in shooting clothes, with the ribbon of the Garter and a table covered with hares, ducks and kingfishers. It is high day, but the Queen stands beside him dressed for dinner.
    Before this visit, Benson knew the Queen as a little old lady in her widow’s weeds and deep black bonnet. He had probably seen very few, if any, pictures of her as a young woman.The Winterhalter painting he described was a beguiling portrait of the young Queen with her hair down and her head tilted back, exposing her bare neck and shoulders. It was commissioned by Victoria as a surprise birthday present for Albert in 1843, in the fourth year of their marriage. It was significant that Benson saw these very intimate portraits so early on in the editing.
    After this meeting with Esher, Benson lamented in his diary that he had managed to ‘fall foul’ of the King ‘thrice times already’. Poor Benson! The King almost certainly knew nothing of his offences. Esher and Knollys, both experienced courtiers, artfully ensured that those around them were permanently anxious about Court protocol. That evening, in a bid to recover face, Benson concluded his diary with: ‘Wrote a snappish note to Cust …’

Chapter 5
T HE E DITING
    B ENSON WAS ASTOUNDED AT the rapidity with which Esher did his editorial work. One Friday afternoon about eight weeks into the editing, Esher came to collect ‘all of their work to date’. Benson’s diary entry conveyed some resentment:
    Went up to the Castle & got there very hot. Esher came in as if he had nothing in the world to do – cool, graceful, charming. I showed him our materials and he carried it all off in a tin box. What a luxury to