Inside the Castle Where the Kaiser Spent Three Weeks, 1907

In the third week of November, 1907, a postmistress from Christchurch set up a post office in the cellar of a castle on a cliff in Hampshire. It had its own stamp. It was made for one guest: the German Emperor. A calm, unhurried history for sleep - no music stings, no cliffhangers. Dim the lights and let it run. If these quiet histories help you sleep, subscribe - new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. The castle is Highcliffe, on the cliffs between Christchurch and the New Forest (then Hampshire, now Dorset). From the 18th of November to the 10th of December, 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm II stayed there as the guest of Colonel Edward Stuart-Wortley, after a state visit to Windsor. This is that visit from below stairs: seven days to make the house ready, the King's own cook sending food down the line from Jermyn Street, sea water carried up the cliff every morning for the Emperor's cold bath, motor cars in the winter lanes, an oak on the drive, a six-foot cake, and the conversations in the library that became the Daily Telegraph affair a year later. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Post Office in the Cellar 4:16 On the Cliff Top 13:44 The Telephone Call 21:49 Seven Days 29:32 Rosa Lewis 37:52 Monday the Eighteenth 45:57 Sea Water 54:23 The Motor Car 1:02:17 On Sundays 1:09:28 Royal Visitors 1:17:06 Advent Sunday 1:24:04 The Extra Week 1:30:30 Putting It Back 1:37:46 What the House Kept SOURCES Local history of Highcliffe, "Armistice at Highcliffe 1918" (Bournemouth Coast Path): the post office in the cellar and Miss Mary Fuller, the postman Steve Martin, the gardener Fred Purton, William McArdle and the Daimlers, the ford in Millhams Lane, the bidets, the tenant with parrots and monkeys, the oak, the St Andrew's Day tea and the six-foot cake, the extra week, the postcard, the eagle window John Van der Kiste, on the Kaiser at Highcliffe: Count Metternich's telephone call, "lend, not lease", the cliff walks and the library Highcliffe Castle Trust (history of the house); Dorset Life Wikipedia: Highcliffe Castle; Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley; Daily Telegraph Affair; Rosa Lewis; Hinton Admiral railway station National Trust Collections: terracotta bust of Wilhelm II at Kingston Lacy Wilhelm II, "My Memoirs: 1878-1918" (1922), on the Highcliffe conversations, as quoted in secondary accounts The Daily Telegraph, 28 October 1908 Sunrise and sunset times are calculated, not observed. Full research notes and every archival image credit: pinned comment. #historyforsleep #belowstairs #edwardian