June 30, 2006

Pinky Needs a Royal Dairy, Too

The Royal Dairy

"Burleigh" furnishes the Boston Journal with the following account of Queen Victoria's Dairy:—

"The building occupies a lodge at the gate of the palace. The interior is exquisitely fitted up. The walls and the floor are of the finest china. The royal arms and medallion likenesses of the entire royal family surround the room. Fountains play, and ingenious arrangements have been made for ventilation and to keep the temperature even, at all times of day and all seasons of the year. The presiding genius of this establishment is a Welch woman, scrupulously neat, in the peculiar garb of her country, the conspicuous part of which was a low-crowned, peculiar-shaped hat. The milk used on the royal table at the castle and in London is obtained from this dairy. The pans, about fifty in number, are of china and of a peculiar shape, made from models furnished by Prince Albert. The milk from twelve Alderney cows is kept by itself for the Queen's special use. From this the butter is made that is placed on the royal table. It follows the Queen wherever she goes. Daily the couriers start from Downing-street with their box of dispatches for Osborne, Balmoral, London, or wherever Her Majesty may be. Just as regular [sic] starts the messenger with the royal butter to find the Queen. At Osborne and Balmoral the Queen has her own dairy for milk, but the butter she must have from Frogmore. I saw rolls of golden butter ready to be sent off. It was very tempting to the eye and sweet to the tooth. The churn used at Frogmore is a metallic one, in shape like a barrel, and rotary. Pans, pails, and cans all bore the royal monogram— 'V.R.' The dairy is called the modern dairy. But no one without a royal revenue could afford such an arrangement. Conspicuous in the room in golden letters is the announcement that the dairy was constructed by Prince Albert 'in the 21st year of Her Majesty's reign.'"