Inside the House the Day a Queen Invited Herself to Lunch, 1890

On 14 May 1890 Queen Victoria asked a banker whether she might come to lunch. Twenty four servants had to make it happen, and not one of them is named in the record. 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 house is Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire: a French Renaissance chateau built on top of a levelled hill by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, with central heating, running water and, from 1889, electric light. The royal visit of 14 May 1890 - the six course lunch, the lights the Queen asked to see again and again, the tree she planted - is told here from the other side of the baize door. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Missing Name 1:12 A House Made Out of a Hill 7:45 The Hill That Was Moved 14:58 The Man Upstairs 22:03 The Nearest Complete List 33:30 What They Already Did 40:23 The Weeks Before 48:32 The Fourteenth of May 56:20 The Menu 1:04:22 The Lights 1:15:02 The First Sound 1:24:21 What the Records Keep SOURCES Waddesdon Manor (Rothschild Foundation / National Trust): history of the house; the 1890 royal visit; the surviving lunch menu Rothschild Archive: Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire (the Queen's request to visit; her journal entry; the Hartington anecdote) Ferdinand de Rothschild, typed account of the visit of Queen Victoria to Waddesdon on 14 May 1890 (Waddesdon archive 1070.1995), as described by the house Bucks Herald, 17 May 1890 (extract reproduced by Tring Local History Museum) Illustrated London News, 24 May 1890 (engraving of the tree planting) Jewish Chronicle, "Waddesdon Manor - the Jewish Downton Abbey" (1891 staff list after Michael Hall, Waddesdon Manor: The Biography of a Rothschild House) Wikipedia: Waddesdon Manor; Ferdinand de Rothschild; Alice Charlotte von Rothschild Full research notes and every archival image credit: pinned comment. #historyforsleep #belowstairs #victorian