The Very Elaborate Way Queen Victoria Had Her Eggs | Royal Upstairs Downstairs | Real Royalty

[Music] just what you have to do when a queen decide she's gonna pop in to see you and not just any old Queen Victoria like a pair of obsessed Victoria groupies we're pursuing her around the country to the posh pads she visited we'll be delving into her personal Diaries to reveal what happened behind closed doors today Holcomb Hall even from here you can see that this place was built to impress a well with the drive to do miles long you have plenty of time to have merit and as someone who spent a lifetime getting excited by antiques I'll be exploring upstairs including an amazing architectural trick that would have tickled Victoria this is an all salon and as a chef who's passionate about all sorts of food I'll be getting a flavour of the work for low stairs and creating a wonderful 19th century recipe that was served to Victoria I'm so pleased and offering Tim an eyeful of tasty treats what a vision [Music] Princess Victoria came to glorious Holcomb Hall on the North Norfolk coast in 1835 for a two-day visit she was just 16 years old and was brought here by her mother the Duchess of Kent keen to show her off to her future subjects they've been on the road for about eight hours and had got through four sets of horses by the time they got to nearby King's Lynn where she was greeted in a most unusual way a group of enthusiastic agricultural laborers decided to detach the horses from all around the town for a couple of hours as an expression of their extreme loyalty but when she did eventually get here I'm sure she thought it was worth the wait in her diary she wrote it is a fine large house well I suppose if you inviting royalty to stay at the very least you wanted to think your house is big enough well roast me I think it's time to find out what was going on at the house when they eventually got here they must be for dinner well I'm going to go and find out what they did in the kitchen a whole crowd of people were lined out to greet Victoria that late afternoon and they became increasingly concerned at her non appearance later on a carriage was spied and Thomas William cook the host stepped out and gave an immense bow I need to discover that it wasn't Victoria's coach it was some servants that have come in an advance party and they scurried away Victoria eventually arrived in the dark at 8:00 p.m. when it was raining and just look of magnificence that was here to greet them this is the renowned marble hall at Holcomb except it's not marble at all the brown vein stone is actually Derbyshire alabaster which was mined in the 1720s and shipped here and then it took 20 years to craft into the beautiful edifice that we see today the most striking feature for me has to be this ceiling all this beauty seems to escaped Victoria because she records in her diary that she's well nigh dead by the heart and fatigue of this long and tiresome day and so she goes straight upstairs to be ready for dinner at nine o'clock Victoria might have been tired but there was no rest for the teams of servants working frantically in the vast downstairs of the house this is where the servants would have come in and I have been told that the kitchen wing is in that direction the kitchen was a sacred place and only those actually involved in the cooking would have cross the threshold but the different downstairs teams still had to talk to each other so they install the latest technology this is the tube where they used to communicate to the kitchen the footman will come here and sort of say hello and look at this little window you can see right into the kitchen you can see everything now let's see if this works I've been are you there our food historian Ivan day has made it to the other side of the door luckily for me because together we're going to be cooking in this amazing kitchen which still has its original pots and pans from the time of Victorious visit I thought it'd be wonderful to make something with these you know what they are what are they Ivan has discovered some molds in the kitchen called balance they date from the time of Victoria's visit and they have inspired us to recreate a very special recipe that would have impressed the young princess but this sweet are they we're gonna make a dish which is called foie gras imperio but we're not going to use real foie gras we're going to use some duck liver instead from birds that have been raised very happily this cold on tray as it was known was supposed to refresh the appetite which they probably needed because amazingly the diners would have already stuffed their way through for other courses before they got this foie gras dish while preparations for dinner were underway downstairs Victoria was still being shown to her room by her host Thomas William cook cook was 81 at the time of Princess Victoria's visit he certainly liked the young ladies as is clear by his choice of second wife Lady Anne Victoria picked up on the astonishing age gap in her diary noting Lady Anne is some 49 years younger than his no wonder he's got a smile on his face the 16 year old princess Victoria would have been completely pooped as the evening wore on so she no doubt was delighted when assured to her bedroom this is the green state bedroom and it's quite likely that the princess was ushered in here they didn't actually have records of precisely which rooms the Royals occupied in their visit but because this is the state room and it's called a state room because it's the bedroom that was set aside for any head of state that happened to be visiting and whilst Victoria was still only a princess she was only a heartbeat away from becoming Queen she must have been impressed and indeed intrigued by the contents of this room because it's one of the most richly endowed and decorated spaces in Halcomb and they certainly didn't spare any expense to make it so extravagant the 257 yards of three colored velvet used on the bed and the upholstered furniture cost 899 pounds alone an absolute fortune at the time in fact in today's money you wouldn't get much change from 80 grand the room also contains an intriguing piece of furniture an 18th century sofa bed no less the Duchess was so paranoid about protecting her daughter that she fourth Victoria to sleep in the same room as her so perhaps the young princess had no choice but to sleep here one thing's for certain though Victoria did have a good night's Kip because she writes in her diary I woke at 9 o'clock after a very good night's rest but still rather tired and headache II got up directly at 10:00 we all breakfasted according to a later account of the visit written by a descendant of cooks when she awoke she was greeted by one of the cook children and her cousin Bessie dressed in white muslin frocks embroidered in coral silk they were sent hand-in-hand to inform her when breakfast was ready a summons which must have presented some contrast to the ceremonious etiquette with which she was accustomed to be treated Charlie as far as we can tell from the records that were seven children in the house during Victoria's stay and judging by an entry in her diary the princess like any opinionated teenager had plenty to say about them Lady Mary's second little girl is a dear quiet little thing she is quite the reverse to little Margaret cook who is the greatest little fidget and chatterbox imaginable back downstairs were getting to grips with our dish of the day little bombs of foie gras an aspect typical of the grand food served on such special occasions it's labor intensive and requires great attention to detail this intricate dish was really what aristocrats ones it on their table something that as beautiful as the furniture and the decorations in the room yes so the first thing we need to do is to chill the mold oh yeah and then we mask them with this aspect jelly and all you do is you swirl it around in the mold and tip it out again it's just to make a very very thin lining it's just plain aspic jelly it's a beef stock that's had pigs trotters boiled in it with some herbs and then it's been clarified by putting it through a jelly bag so not such a simple aspect after all and I put this one back on the ice this thin coating of aspect will give the little balls of foie gras a lovely glossy finish the ballots are placed on ice to set for the next stage lining the molds with an egg garnish it's made with egg yolk mixed with a little cream colored with a tiny bit of caution eel and season with some salt Oh brilliant and I'll put it out on the deck and we've also got a very similar egg garnish yes but this one has been made with egg white so this one is white very firm aren't they they need to be because we're going to cut them into very very thin slices if you cut about three slices of that oh yeah there were so many stages to these elaborate dishes it's exactly like cutting and egging next we have to cut small circles with these very special Victorian cutters [Music] Victorian notes in her diary on the 22nd of September that there were at least 21 local high browse for dinner you have to wonder whether those tops upstairs really appreciated just what it took downstairs to produce even the smallest morsels I hope Tim appreciates all this effort this is going to take us hours on the afternoon following her arrival Victoria went for a ride around the vast Holcomb estate there was much to see she wrote saw the hot houses kitchen garden and a little further on the boundless free ocean is visible drove around the park in which mr. Cook has planted all the trees and improved the whole thing so much that it is really quite wonderful cooked certainly did plant all the trees he was mad about them was dr. Susana Wade Martin's who has written extensively about the great man explains he said to have planted two million trees did you say two million trees two million trees have recorded in the estate documents as having been planted between about 1790 and 1820 so when Queen Victoria came some of them would not have been more than fifteen years old and so that would have looked very different but on the other hand she would have been able to see how it would develop this memorial was built to honor cook but not just for his obsessive tree planting he's a fascinating chap an agricultural innovator pioneering landlord and a bit of a self publicist he'd been offered a peerage several times but had steadfastly refused ding Glen's greatest commoner as he became known had some radical views he despised both King George's and called the House of Lords the hospital for the incurables but still he was much admired by the 16 year old Victoria who writes he is an astonishing person he is in his 82nd chair but is as active and strong as any man thirty years younger and later when she became queen he finally accepted a peerage what I think so interesting is that he's he's turned down all the offers of a peerage from every monarch before that but when it came to the young Victoria when she came on the throne two years after her visit to Holcomb it was all different wasn't it by this time he had sons had a direct heir to the state and so he was more interested in the fact that they should have a title to go with it I can't help wondering if it wasn't just his sons who changed his mind over accepting a peerage but Victoria herself who charmed him into wearing the ermine it's not just the stories above stairs that were intriguing I've been captivated by one servant story in particular archivist Marianne Geary has a fascinating tale about a baby below stairs that made an appearance as a result of Princess Victoria's visit so tell me about this extraordinary story that I've heard whispers about well the story goes that one of the children's nurse whose name was Jane salmon had secretly married the head gardener Hugh Garvin really and was pregnant and the excitement brought on by the arrival of the Royal party meant that she went into a premature labor and gave birth to the baby the day that Princess Victoria arrived because the wedding was a secret most of the household thought she was a single mom and the child was illegitimate which would have been a huge scandal especially during the raw visit but in fact she was married and all was well so why keep the marriage a secret generally speaking when a male married first of all they would ask permission from their employers to get married and if they got permission which they very often did then they would receive a nice wedding present and have their wedding breakfast paid for by their employers but they usually retired due to be a good wife and mother but of course she may just kept the marriage a secret because she was fond of the children and wanted to go on working in the nursery whatever the real reasons for the secret marriage the surprise arrival of a young baby in the downstairs of the house during Victorians visit caused quite a stir upstairs Princess Victoria who was only 16 at the time was also very intrigued by this and demanded to see the baby and out of respect for the Queen baby was a girl luckily and was christened Julie christened Victoria Jane what a lovely lovely story as well as a tour of the grounds the princess and her mother took a tour of the house exploring its long orful add the name for an alignment of rooms running the entire length of the building this is an all salade literally a series of rooms that interconnect via a series of doorways each of which are lined up precisely it's an architectural defeat but there is another purpose to these series of interconnecting rooms and that's social hierarchy the higher you are up the social pecking order the more of the rooms that you can penetrate running along the Olfa lured by the time Holcomb was completed in the 1760s this arrangement of staterooms connected by an Olfa Lodge was already considered incredibly old-fashioned families wanted more privacy but if you think I've walked a long way down the Olfa LOD you've got another thought coming because this Olfa lard is a whopper apparently 340 feet from one end to the other I wonder well a Victoria walked all this way on her tiny little legs cool she'd be dad if she did all very well Tim this morning about in the armful art while we're still slaving away over our elaborate duck pate entree it would have been served halfway through a dinner that was frequently a seven-course affair we're moving on to the next stage of our dish with our tiny egg decorations I'm gonna pick out one of these and plug it right in the middle of the ballot mold and then I'm going to go for a white one so you're doing this alternate alternate rings yes different colors that they will stick to the jelly inside so we now go for another night pink one and we gradually build up a little mosaic pattern in the mold so how long would it take to make one of these it takes about probably 10 minutes if you're good if you're a novice it will might take you half an hour but just think this is one mouthful so I'm just like that the servant spends all afternoon making them and it just takes a second to eat I've also got the top as you see it's got a little funnel yeah top which is very important so what's that for well that's the personal aspect through but the next stage is to actually put the filling in right which is the foie gras yeah the cooked liver duck in this case not goose is put into the bled and then I'm doing to put the lid on it okay which I'd have to do very carefully it's wonderful like so well all we have to do is to fill it with some cold aspect yes this is in a seed it's setting it's beginning to gel beautifully perfect timing and these are very cold so with a spoon you just carefully fill the balance it won't take very much but it'll completely fill all of the gaps inside it's amazingly simple to do when you think about it but just time-consuming back upstairs the entertainment was as important as the food and they put on quite a show for the teenage princess a karaoke session Victorian style and we know that Victoria joined in with enthusiasm mezzo-soprano karen harris has a keen interest in the music of the era and the knowledge of the princesses love of singing now do we know what tunes Victoria saying that evening here at Holcomb she first of all sang an aria from the opera faliero by gaetano donizetti she also sang a bar Corolla which is a Venetian folk song for the gondolas and she is sang also an aria from Ebury Thani called archaic Cairo so were those what one might call trendy pop type numbers for a 16 year old at the time very much so very much so and she really was passionate about her opera whether any other composers that she was particularly fond of indeed she loved Rossini it is noted in her diary that a couple of years before she came here she actually went to see The Barber of Seville Princess Victoria clearly loved the Opera and have had the chance to indulge in her passion must have cheered everyone up after all putting a smile on a teenager's face isn't always easy royal or otherwise no singing for Ivan and me we have to add the finishing touches to our Victorian delicacy fragra in aspic the Victorians loved to dress their food and we're ranging artichokes and broad beans to decorate our plate in the 19th century everything was done with such finesse and precision goodness it's like creating a work of art they always been to look rather pretty it is very pretty and here comes some chopped-up aspect and we're going to lay a bed of it down the center very jewel like the diamond we go and then we can just even it out that's lovely imagine what it looks like in candlelight though because every little every little facet glistens right so we're going to get these ballots and we need to dip them into some warm water right just for a second or so okay and that will melt the journey on the outside and we'll release them so we're ready with number one okay so just count two one two three they need to be wiped and then we can take the top off so that should come off and look there's it's come out beautifully yeah and I've got two then very carefully tip it into my hand and then I'm going to put it exactly I know the middle is it's perfect I'm so pleased we did that that's right touched sits on me assure you that's wonderful just as it looks like a mousse it is amazing yeah beautiful now I'm going to finish seven one two three [Music] final one perfect that's nothing no I think that looks stunning it does but if we're going to follow this recipe exactly we've got to dress it with some homes finally we sprinkle on chervil and tarragon for flavor as well as decoration I think that's enough I think you know what what something that hasn't changed for me enough is les is beautiful absolutely now the last thing I have to do is go and present it to Tim well I hope he enjoys it I say gosh what a name what a vision though it's so beautiful isn't it that is absolutely stunning it really is do you know what it is I haven't got the foggiest idea but obviously for a girl yes but what is that well they look a bit like spaghetti hoops but they can't they turns this is egg it's cut off I must tell you Tim yes it is so time-consuming only a house with lots of staff could bring a lot me and like that to the dining room table it is so labor intensive it's unbelievable so would you like some yes please okay so I've got my artichoke now you've got your lovely artichoke with some broad beans with a little dressing on the top that's emotional a please that's a more jelly you're being very fussy tonight I want I want ready good get around that because I tell you what it looks like what is it it looks like fractured mineralized ice in some way which i think is absolutely gorgeous so I'm going to cut it vertically like that and then reveal inside that's it's solid the fire and delicious flaw I'm going to quarter that because it's incredibly rich this isn't it when you think about it they had virtually only two mouthfuls and we'd take at least half an hour to make one of these things I have my mouth former yes [Music] now that that is absolute this stuff that you do get the egg don't you and you do get this delicious aspect my dear girl this is just stunning isn't this beautiful and I think the young princess would actually love to have seen that I think she would have been really amused by the balls you know Rose me I've got a theory that Victoria was so incredibly happy at her time here at Halcomb as a result of all these children the little ones running around all the little brothers and sisters from the cook family and of course she was so young herself must been great fun and the other thing that she was incredibly keen on was after dinner entertainments all those little opportunities to sing and perform and of course she had a great passion for the Opera oh I love opera do you I really do seriously yeah seriously you're gonna thoroughly enjoy this a treat I've got for you this is intriguing [Laughter] [Music] what a marvelous end to our visit listening to one of the young princesses favorite tunes from celebrated composer receive the next Victoria visit we follow comes three years later when she'll be 19 years old and Queen we're off on holiday with her to Brighton [Music]

Channel: Real Royalty

Views: 893,141

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Keywords: real royalty, real royalty channel, british royalty, royalty around the world, royal history

Id: p4HKB0NqsWg

Length: 28min 54sec (1734 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Seiban]

This may be apocryphal but I once watched a documentary that mentioned a historical anecdote about Louis XIV's head chef. The story goes that during a particular feast the king had planned, a delivery of an absurd amount of an ingredient he needed for the main dish didn't arrive on time, and so rather than disgracing himself in front of the king, the chef killed himself.