Virginia Water Their Majesties’ Pleasure
Virginia Water 29th June 2002

‘What a changement de scene, wrote Charles Greville when he visited Windsor after the accession of William IV. ‘No longer George the 4th, capricious, luxurious and misanthropic, liking nothing but the society of listeners and flatterers. . . but a plain, vulgar, hospitable gentleman, opening his doors to all the world’.

George IV had died on 26 June 1830. Within a few weeks, Greville was writing in his diary: ‘All the late King’s private drives through the Park are thrown open, but not to carriages. We went, however, a long string of four carriages, to explore, and got through the whole drive round by Virginia Water, the famous fishing pagoda, and saw all the penetralia of the late King, whose ghost must have been indignant at seeing us scampering all about his most secret recesses’.’

Ten days later, Greville’s friend, Lady Sefton, ‘asked the King to allow her to see Virginia Water in a carriage, which is not allowed, but which His Majesty agreed to. Accordingly we started, and going through the private drives, went up to the door of the tent opposite the fishing house. They thought it was the Queen coming, or at any rate a party from the Castle, for the man on board the little frigate hoisted all the colours, and the boatmen on the other side got ready the royal barge to take us across. We went all over the place on both sides, and were delighted with.the luxury and beauty of the whole thing . . . We had scarcely seen everything when Mr Turner, the head keeper, arrived in great haste, having spied us from the opposite side, and was very angry at our carriages having come there, which is a thing forbidden; he did not know our leave, nor could we then satisfy him that we were not to blame’.

For another century Virginia Water remained a Royal pleasure lake. In 1867 the Chinese Fishing Temple was converted into a Swiss Fishing Cottage, but this was not demolished until 1936. The flotilla of boats, with changes and additions, continued to grace the lake. No place was more beloved by members of the Royal family when the Court was at Windsor. They rode on horseback or in carriages round the lake. They visited the Belvedere. They picnicked at the Fishing Temple (even when it was transformed into a Swiss Cottage, it was still often called the Fishing Temple). They were rowed on the water, on special occasions there were festivities, with fireworks and illuminations.

William IV, in the few short years that were left to him of life, soon discovered the attractions of Virginia Water. His own birthday and that of Queen Adelaide were both in August — and August was a month when the Court was often at Windsor. In 1831, the year following his accession, the Queen’s birthday on the 13th was celebrated at Adelaide Lodge, the new residence in the Home Park and ‘at four o’clock the party went in the royal carriages to Virginia Water, where the day’s celebrations were continued.’ The Windsor Express of 27 August 1831 reported that the King and Queen continued ‘to take daily excursions in the Great Park and at Virginia Water where they spend a lot of time on the lake. On Monday their Majesties, with the Court, visited Fort Belvedere. Prince George of Cambridge drove the junior members of the party in his pony phaeton. As it was the King’s birthday, the guns at the Fort fired a salute on the party’s arrival. The King and Queen with their guests subsequently sat down to an elegant collation in the banqueting room’.

The young Princess Victoria, soon to become Queen, was kept aloof by her protective mother, the Duchess of Kent, who did not approve of the two Royal uncles. There were encounters, however. In 1826, when she was seven, the Princess was staying at Cumberland Lodge with her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, who took her over to the Royal Lodge. ‘When we arrived’, she remembered, ‘the King

took me by the hand saying ?Give me your little paw? ‘. The next day she went for a drive with her mother and they met the King who was going to Virginia Water in his phaeton. ‘And he said, ?Pop her in?, and I was lifted in and placed between him and aunt Gloucester who held me round the waist. (Mamma was much frightened) I was greatly pleased’. The King took her across the lake in his barge and, on another occasion, she was taken fishing. But it was not until she herself ascended the throne in 1837 that she in turn came to know the delights of Virginia Water.

Queen Victoria’s Journal provides many intimate glimpses into the pleasure she found in the Park and the Lake. Here she found relaxation from affairs of state. ‘Moroccan affairs look very threatening’, but the Park was all ‘extremely pretty’, ‘quite bea . . The clich?s abound, but her simple delight shines through the unaffected phrasing of her descriptions. Occasionally she is more expansive. ‘I have never seen the Park in more luxuriant beauty, the splendid trees all in the richest foliage of the freshest green, which in another few weeks ?will deepen and darken? ‘.

The first visit of her reign to Virginia Water was on 12 September 1837. The Queen drove out from Windsor with her mother in a ‘small open carriage’. Ladies of the Court followed in other carriages and the gentlemen ‘all rode with us. We went to the Fishing Temple and there all got out, and the gentlemen all dismounted. I went on the water (the Virginia Water) in the Barge, with Aunt Louise, Mama, Lady Mary Stopford, Miss Lister, Lady Tavistock, Lady Charlotte Copley, Lord Melbourne and Lord Lilford. Some of the other gentlemen rowed; and Lord Palmerston who joined us there also rowed. After being on the water for some time, we landed, and all remained in the Temple for some time; the little frigate fired a salute, and we then came home, as we went, at a ? p 6. It was a very pleasant Partie’.

One member of the party was Byron’s friend, John Hobhouse, and he recorded his own description. He had, he wrote, ‘never looked at the scene before, and could fancy himself on the banks of some Swiss or Tyrolean lake. The Queen and her attendants got into the state barge, with the standard of England flying on it, and were rowed to the opposite bank. . . The Royal Party landed at the Pavilion, and the Queen ordered the frigate to be got under way. This pretty miniature man-of- war was manned by a lieutenant and six sailors. When opposite the Pavilion the frigate began to salute, and fired her one-and-twenty guns with great precision. A very pretty effect was produced by the smoke, burnished by the setting sun, rolling away on the surface of the lake’.

These outings rang the changes on the many possibilities the Park afforded. ‘We took a beautiful and very long ride, all round by the opposite side of Virginia Water’. ‘It was a beautiful long ride; we rode to the Belvedere on the opposite side of Virginia Water’. ‘We rode round Virginia Water, the contrary way to the other day’. ‘We rode through the Wood and Plantations near Virginia Water, through the Norfolk Farm’.’? ‘We drove through the Rhododendron Drive, by the Obelisk, and round the inner side of Virginia Water’.? Some of the Queen’s entries give the impression that she could hardly wait for the opportunity to visit the lake. For example, she returned to Windsor from Buckingham Palace on 17 August 1839. It was a wet day, but ‘at 5 it ceased raining. We set off in the pony carriages for Virginia Water. . . When we got to the Fishing Temple we had refreshments there, after which we went on the water in the Barge’.’ took great pleasure in showing Virginia Water to her visitors and was delighted with their appreciative comments. Louis Philippe, King of the French, came to Windsor on a state visit in October 1844. He was made a Knight of the Garter and afterwards accompanied the Queen into the Park. ‘We drove round Virginia Water’, she recorded, ‘the King after saying: ?il n’y a rien de plus beau que Windsor’ ?.‘

In the early years of her reign the Queen often rode on horseback herself, cantering through the woodland glades with her gentlemen and her ladies. Lord Melbourne, her Prime Minister, was her constant companion and she basked in his avuncular pleasantries. Lord Palmerston, animated and garrulous, also often accompanied the Queen, but never so much in her affections as ‘dear Lord Melbourne’. Once, as they were returning from Virginia Water, her horse swerved and threw her. ‘I fell on one side sitting’, she wrote, ‘not a bit hurt, or put out, or frightened, but astonished and amused, — and was up, and laughing, before Col. Cavendish and one of the gentlemen, all greatly alarmed, could come near me and said, ?I’m not hurt?. . .‘. She records Melbourne’s concern, but continues, ‘I instantly remounted and cantered home’. The great charm of Queen Victoria’s Journal is that she was always herself. She records the accident as if it were of no account, but the very next day admits to herself that she was ‘rather stiff, all down my right hip, which is somewhat bruised by my fall’. She was riding in the neighbourhood of Virginia Water on four days out of five in the following week.

A change came after her marriage with Albert in 1840. She delighted in introducing Albert to the Park, but it was not long before he (literally) took over the driving seat. ‘Albert drove me out’ is the refrain of many entries from this time on. They still went to the Fishing Temple and to the Belvedere, but they also went to see Albert’s Kennels and Pheasantry at Virginia Water. Albert sometimes went shooting and joined the Queen later. Pheasants were the most usual target, but the deer were also coursed in the Park, as they had been by princes and courtiers over the centuries. On 10 February 1851 the Queen recorded: ‘Albert shot 4 roes — such pretty creatures, but they do a deal of mischief’.’

Soon the children enter the scene. First was the Princess Royal, christened Victoria after her mother and known in the family as ‘Vicky’. On 18 August 1841 the Queen wrote: ‘Near Virginia Water we met our good little Pussy driving and we took her and Mrs Roberts into our carriage, taking them home’.’ Next came Prince Albert-Edward (‘Bertie’), who was to be the Prince of Wales for almost sixty years before he ascended the throne as King Edward VII. Other princes and princesses followed. They all came to know Virginia Water; some became fond of it. The girls accompanied their mother to the lake and went on the water, while the older boys went shooting with their father.

Virginia Water plays a prominent part in Royal birthday celebrations. Two, in 1842 and 1843, are described by the Queen in some detail and obviously with considerable satisfaction. The first of these was on 17 August 1842, the birthday of the Duchess of Kent. After breakfast with Mama at Frogmore, the Queen was occupied with a report from the Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, about the rioting at Preston, Blackburn and Bolton where there had been a wave of strikes against the reduction of wages. Victoria recorded the report rather summarily and not unnaturally expressed the official view: ‘the troops, in self were compelled to fire, several persons being killed and wounded among the rioters’. When the Queen came to write up her Journal on the following day, the industrial troubles had receded and, the events of the evening were uppermost in her mind. ‘At ? p 6’ she wrote, ‘we drove with Papa, Dss [ Duchess of Norfolk], Lehzen and the two Maids of Honour following, to Virginia Water, where at the Fishing Temple, all our usual dinner party were assembled . . . A Band was stationed in a boat close, opposite the Temple. We went on the water in the Barge. . . When we returned we found Mama had arrived. We dined in the Fishing Temple at ? p 7. Mama’s health was drunk. By the time dinner was over it had become quite dark and th was shining brightly, casting such a lovely reflection in the water. We went down and sat under the upper room, and it was so warm and fine. Just as we came down, the smallest Frigate was towed round, all lit up, which had a very pretty effect, — the Band playing Rule Britannia and the guns of the Belvedere saluting. . . It was really quite fairy like, looking at the Temple, all lighted up, and going round the illuminated Frigate. We all came home at ? p 10 driving in open carriages, and it was very pleasant, but it was rather foggy’.

A sketch of the scene appeared in the Illustrated London News. The Queen cut it out and added a note in her own handwriting: ‘Eveng of Aug 17 — Very Like’.

Albert’s own birthday also fell in August and in the following year even grander celebrations were staged at the lake. The Queen was ecstatic. ‘At 7 we drove to the Fishing Temple at Virginia Water where we were to dine. The room was illuminated as well as the Barge, in which was stationed the Band of the 1st Life Guards. The Band of the Coldstreams was stationed in the garden. Towards the end of dinner my dearest Albert’s health was drunk, the Battery and the Belvedere saluting. Afterwards we all went to the verandah and the illuminations and fireworks began. I must say they were extremely pretty and Albert, who is fond of that sort of thing, was very pleased. The Bands were playing the whole time. The Frigate was lit up with coloured lamps, as also two little ships, and they came round opposite to the Fishing Temple. Blue and red lights, and endless rockets were let off, which had such a charming effect reflected in the water. Everything succeeded so well, the evening was so calm and the ?locale? so beautiful, that nothing could have been nicer and more beautiful. What with the music and the illuminations on the banks and on the water, the effect was quite fairy like. We came home at ? p 10. My dearest Albert was full of love and tenderness, saying how pleased he was with the whole day, which certainly had been a very happy one. May we see many returns of it, — and my beloved husband be spared to me till a good old age’.’

Ten years later, on 5 July 1853, the lake was the scene of a different spectacle in the shape of military manoeuvres. The Royal party travelled to Windsor from London. ‘At the Gr. Western station we got into carriages and drove to Virginia Water, where Ld Hardinge [ Commander-in-Chief] met us and with us, got into a large Barge rowed by 6 men of the ?Victoria and Albert?. The manoeuvres of which I can give no very clear or technical description had begun by a demonstration, tremendous firing from Artillery and Infantry, the smoke of which rose in thick clouds from the roads surrounding Virginia Water. We were rowed up under the bridge and back, the banks being full of soldiers under the trees, who kept up a tremendous cross-fire, which had a very picturesque effect. We then were rowed to the other end, opposite to Turner’s [ Keeper’s] house, and here we saw the Sappers and Miners throw a pontoon bridge over Virginia Water. It took about 40 minutes to do, and a pretty sight it was’. The day ended with a march past on Smith’s Lawn.’

The Queen’s visits to Virginia Water were mostly in the summer, sometimes too in the spring or the autumn ifthe court was at Windsor. In the winter months she was more often at Buckingham Palace and it was not until January 1861 that she records going to Virginia Water on an ‘exceedingly cold’ winter’s afternoon. The lake was ‘splendidly frozen over. A good many people there. We were driven on the ice, which was as smooth as glass and afterwards watched a very animated game of Hockey’. On the following morning the Queen went to Virginia Water again and the Royal party were driven in sledges on the ice. Albert and the Princes had gone shooting but in the afternoon they too went to Virginia Water and enjoyed themselves skating.

Before the year was out Albert was dead. Over the forty years that still remained of her reign the Queen never recovered from the shock and the tragedy of her personal bereavement. The light had gone out of her life. It would not be true to say that she gave up going to Virginia Water. But she could no longer take the same pleasure in her visits, as she had done during the many happy excursions with Albert. As the years passed, she went for longer drives in the neighbourhood — Englefield Green, New Lodge, Sunninghill, Datchet. But for some time her horizons when she was at Windsor seemed hardly to extend beyond Frogmore and the Mausoleum where her dear Albert had been laid to rest. She spent less time at Windsor and more at Osborne and Balmoral.

This did not mean she no longer took an interest in Virginia Water. Decisions were often referred to her and reports made to her, even when she was at far away Balmoral. She was asked for her approval for the Prince of Wales to have a sailing boat on the lake and gave it, providing it was safe. Complaints about the unsanitary condition of the lake were reported to her. She was consulted about requests for the use of the lake. She was told about the dangerous condition of the ‘Ruins’, and replied: ‘These stones may be pulled down as suggested and allowed to remain where they fall’.

The Royal Family could come and go; their interest in the lake could rise and fall. Some measure of continuity was provided by Captain David Welch of the Royal Navy. He was appointed to the office of ‘Keeper of Her Majesty’s Boats and other Vessels at Virginia Water’ in September 1861 at a salary of ?150 per annum. He was still in the position at the time of his death in 1912, over fifty years later. He was then over 90 years of age and had progressed to the title of Sir David Welch KCVO. At first he was based on Portsmouth, but later he came to live in the newly Virginia Water Cottage, the house built on the slope above the Fishing Temple. He was appointed as Keeper of Virginia Water Fishing Temple and Cottage in 1890. There are hints that he did not move with the times. One of the first actions of his successor, Captain George Broad, was to ask for a telephone and an efficient drainage system at the Cottage. There was some discussion about the use of trees as against poles for the telegraph wires, but the King (George V) insisted that the Post Office must put everything underground.

Welch was obviously very much liked by members of the Royal Family. The future George V, who was often at Virginia Water, especially in Ascot Week, refers to this spry retired naval officer as ‘little Welch’ and makes the comment that he was ‘in good form’ — which probably meant that he had a fund of good stories. The scores of letters which he wrote to the various officers of the Royal Household and others testify to the assiduous and conscientious way in which he discharged his duties. He was constantly badgering his superiors about the condition of the boats, of the boathouses, of the lake itself.

The most revealing instance of Welch’s concern about the condition of the lake was in 1885. There was a flurry of letter-writing when Welch reported that Virginia Water was dangerously insanitary. ‘For years’, he wrote, ‘the rushes and weeds have been allowed undisturbed. . . in the different creeks (notably China Island, Blacknest and Egham Wick). Where twenty years since a boat can be taken, they are now unapproachable, the result of which is that in a dry summer like the present . . . the stench is unsupportable, more especially at Blacknest’. Asiatic cholera was raging on the Continent and, if Virginia Water was allowed to be a ‘fever and cholera Den’, the danger could be a real one. There was some scepticism about Welch’s report, but the medical journal, the Lancet, was taking an interest and there was a fear that the name of a member of the. Royal Family such as Prince Christian, the current Ranger, might be brought in. Itwas easy to diagnose the problem. ‘As you must be aware’, wrote one Royal official, ‘it is extremely difficult to know how to deal with a large area of water comparatively stagnant as is the case with Virginia Water and into which masses of foliage are constantly falling and the weeds grow with an extraordinary rapidity, all of which tends to block up the water way’. But there was general agreement that something must be done and the lake was dredged.

In 1867, as we have seen, George IV’s Chinese Fishing Temple was transformed into a Swiss Cottage. Fashions had changed and the passion for chinoiserie which had produced not only the Temple at Virginia Water but the grandoise Pavilion at Brighton had diminished. The Chinese Temple had lasted for forty years; the Swiss Cottage was to grace the lakeside scene for another seventy. It still preserved some of the features of the earlier building such as the interior rooms and the balcony above the lake.

The Office of Woods and Forests, the government department which had charge of the Royal estates, was responsible for the maintenance of the Fishing Cottage. George IV, however, had succeeded in the 1820s in getting the Admiralty to provide for the frigate, the barge and the yacht that formed the nucleus of the Royal flotilla. In William IV’s reign a new frigate named in honour of his Queen, the Royal Adelaide, was added. The chequered history of the little fleet is not easy to follow, all the more because the use of many nautical terms such as frigate, brig, galley, gig, wherry, skiff and barge does not always make for clarity. From time to time the Admiralty tried ineffectually to rid itself of the responsibility for this superfluous addition to the country’s naval forces. The Royal Adelaide was in such a bad state of repair by 1862 that the question of a completely new frigate was raised. W.G. Romaine of the Admiralty wrote to Sir Charles Gore of the Office of Woods and Forests: ‘I should think a new frigate would cost two or three thousand pounds complete, and of course there is no sum tabled in this year’s estimates. Is this vessel ever used or is it only retained as an ornament to the lake?’ The Queen herself expressed the opinion that ‘she wanted the vessel to be ?ornamental? only’. So repairs were decided on. Welch, who had raised the matter in the first instance, became more and more exasperated by the delays. He asked for an early decision ‘if it is possible for the Woods and Forests to decide anything’. When he was given approval to go ahead, he then said it was too late in the year to do the work. In the next spring the Admiralty was still prevaricating about putting the cost of the ‘ornamental’ boats at Virginia Water on the Navy Estimates. The controversy surfaced from time to time over the years, but when the little fleet was finally dispersed in 1936 the officer in charge reported that ‘the whole job ?. was carried out at the Admiralty’s expense’. In 1873 the War Office ‘made provision for ‘the supply of the ammunition demanded for the use of the ?Royal Adelaide? Frigate at Virginia Water’, presumably for the firing of salutes. In 1877, however, an Admiralty survey showed that its timbers were rotten and recommended that it be broken up. This recommendation was carried out in the autumn of the same year.

In the meantime the condition of the Royal Barge was giving cause for concern. In the summer of 1873 Welch reported that ‘this boat has been in constant use the last ten years for the Royal personages who have visited Virginia Water, but in consequence of the bad state she is now in, it was found impossible to use her on the visit of H.M. the Shah of Persia to this place last week. As we have now no boat fit for the reception of Royalty I have to request that you will be pleased to move the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty either to put this boat in a state of repair or to supply us with a new one’. The Admiralty unexpectedly decided to provide a completely new Royal Barge ‘at a very great cost . . . for the use of Her Majesty at Virginia Water’. Welch wanted the new Barge in time for the visit of the Emperor of Russia, Alexander II, in May of the following year and, when the Admiralty expressed doubts if the new vessel could be ready in time, made the impatient comment: ‘It is not every day we get a live Emperor in this part of the world’. Arrangements were, however, made for ‘the small Admiralty Barge now at South Kensington being conveyed to Virginia Water for the use of Her Majesty at the commencement of May’. It was just as well that this arrangement was made, as the new State Barge was not ready for delivery until December

1875.

Welch took great pride in the new Barge. ‘She is beautifully turned out’ was his comment on one occasion. His chief worry now seemed to be the condition of the Boathouse in which the Barge was kept. ‘I cannot keep the Barge on the water’, he wrote in 1903, ‘or she will be water sodden. What I am to do with her I know not, at any rate I cannot take responsibility of this boat being ruined after the Admiralty spending such a large sum of money on her’. Two years before, in April 1901, the Barge had been fitted up with electricity at a cost of The Queen had died in January and presumably this action was taken on the initiative of the new King Edward VII. He had in fact originally wanted a new electric launch, but had to be content with something less.

Other boats made their appearance on Virginia Water from time to time. Two early boats are mentioned by Welch: ‘The Galley is a four-oared boat built for the Duchess of Kent in 1841. The White Boat [ is probably the one referred to by George V as the White Rose] was built in 1840, the other two boats in 1850, the skiff as here when I came in 1861, but I don’t know when she was built’. In 1876 ‘a sort of Indian Launch’ arrived from Calcutta for the Prince of Wales. In 1904 a Royal Brig King Edward VII, originally a 42-feet Launch, was converted and rigged out to scale as a ten gun brig. She was fitted out at Sheerness Dockyard and towed up the Thames to Brentford, whence she was taken by road to Virginia Water. In 1919, on being surveyed, the hull was found to be ‘in a very bad condition of dry rot which would run into great expense to make good’. The Admiralty accordingly ordered that she should be broken up. Among the boats still at the lake in 1936 was a Canadian birch bark canoe, which had been presented in 1901 to the future George V and Queen Mary by the lumbermen of Ottawa Valley.

Use of the lake was always controlled, and was generally restricted to members of the Royal Household. Requests from local country gentlemen to have a boat on the Water were normally refused. Sandhurst Cadets were allowed to use Virginia Water for rowing practice in 1919, but the authorities were not happy about what they regarded as a departure from tradition.

What really set the cat among the pigeons was the use of Virginia Water in 1931 for speed-boats by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor). His brother, the Duke of Kent, and several of the Prince’s friends joined him. Some of the boats arrived at the lake without prior warning. The authorities were extremely worried about the dangers. The Keeper reported: ‘A life buoy is in readiness on the landing stage. I have satisfied myself that my personnel are familiar with the latest method of resuscitating the apparently drowned’. This was followed by a note in red typescript: ‘A speed boat capsized the other day. The occupant had no belt on and was recovered by the row-boat as he was clinging to the fin keel. It would be dangerous to wade ashore in most places on account of the depth of vegetable ooze’.

Five years later it was the same Royal personage, now King Edward VIII, who ordered the demolition of the Fishing Cottage and the dispersal of the boats. By this time the Cottage was in a decrepit state and its demolition was strongly urged by the Crown Estate Commissioners on the grounds of its almost total decay.

In September E.H. Savill, the Deputy Ranger, recorded: ‘the Royal Barge is going to Portsmouth, the Sailing Cutter to Dartmouth, the Canadian Canoe to Chatham and the small Royal Barge and the 12 foot dinghy Prince George to the Training Ships ‘Arethusa’ and Mercury’.

For many years the use of Virginia Water by members of the Royal Family had been declining and the events of 1936 marked the end of an era. Henceforward Virginia Water would be what it is today, one of the finest lakes in England, no longer the preserve of Royalty but open to all who come to enjoy its beauty.