Chatsworth Royal Upstairs Downstairs


Chatsworth

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Just what do you have to do when a Queen decides she's going to pop in to see you?

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And not just any old Queen... Victoria.

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Like a pair of obsessed Victoria groupies,

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we're pursuing her around the country

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to the posh pads she visited.

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We'll be delving into her personal diaries

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to reveal what happened behind closed doors.

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We start off here at the magnificent Chatsworth House,

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deep in the Derbyshire countryside.

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And as someone who's spent a lifetime getting excited by antiques,

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I'll be upstairs exploring just what would have excited Victoria

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on her visit here.

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This was the setting

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for Princess Victoria's first grown-up dinner party.

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And as a chef who loves great food,

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I'll be rediscovering

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an amazing 19th century approach to ice cream-making,

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perfect for serving the young Princess Victoria.

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Look at that!

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And tantalising Tim's taste buds.

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That is just an explosion in your mouth.

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Cor, look at this, Rosemary. Chatsworth House.

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Now, this is what I call a pukka country house.

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And it is, of course, what Princess Victoria would have seen

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in October 1832 on her arrival.

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Princess Victoria, seen here as a child

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next to her ma, the Duchess of Kent,

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was only 13 years old when she came to Chatsworth,

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just a year after finding out that she was to inherit the crown.

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This four-day visit hosted by the 6th Duke of Devonshire

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was part of a PR exercise by Victoria's mum,

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who was keen to introduce her to her future subjects.

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The royal party travelled to Chatsworth from Eaton near Bakewell

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by horse and carriage.

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They must have hit traffic because they turned up a bit later than planned,

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at 6.30 in the evening.

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No satnav, I guess. Huh.

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We've come here right at the beginning of our journey,

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tracing Victoria's progress across Britain.

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But what I'm really interested in is discovering exactly how she got on

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in this early royal visit in the upstairs domain.

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While I'm going to the engine room of the house,

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downstairs to the servants' domain,

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to find out about the cooks, the maids, the footmen and the stewards,

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just to see how they kept the show on the road.

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The 6th Duke of Devonshire was loaded,

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and was known as a bit of a charmer.

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This was his big chance

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to show the Princess just what a hotshot he was.

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Victoria kept a journal, so we have an idea of her daily life.

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She started her writing

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at the time that she started these journeys around the country.

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But at this stage, they're simply the jottings of a 13-year-old.

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When she arrived at Chatsworth, she described it as "beautiful",

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and in this extract from her diary, she wrote,

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"It's built in the shape of a square,

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joined by an arch, under which one must drive."

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And that is the arch that we've just walked through.

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She would have swept up the drive with her mother,

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and admired, probably, the north wing.

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Now, the 6th Duke was remodelling the house,

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and he was very keen that everything should be ready

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for the Princess's visit.

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The Duke managed to get the builders out,

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and the new north wing was knocked up just in time for Princess Victoria's arrival,

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doubling the size of the house.

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But believe it or not, this wasn't the Duke's main house.

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That was down in London,

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and was run by about 30 staff.

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This massive Chatsworth estate was run by half that number.

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-Well, it

-was

-only his second home.

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To make sure he wasn't caught short during Victoria's visit,

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he brought up additional troops from his London pad to help out.

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I'm heading downstairs to explore their world.

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Here we are in the engine rooms of the modern Chatsworth.

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These corridors are still used by staff today

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to get from one end to the other when this place is full of people.

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This would have been a hive of activity when the Princess and her mother came here for their visit.

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This maze of corridors in the basement

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houses the central heating pipes today.

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But in 1832, it would have been crammed with servants

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getting ready for Victoria's visit.

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There are 61 rooms down here.

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Most are empty now, but back then they would have been larders,

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pantries and pastry rooms.

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This is the old kitchen.

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It's a dusty, woodworking room now,

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but this is how Victoria would have found it

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on a guided tour during her stay,

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and she was quite impressed.

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In her journal, she writes,

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"It was superb for its size and cleanliness."

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And it was the perfect place to cook for the visiting Princess.

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Now, it's my guess that when Victoria arrived here,

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she was absolutely shattered and needed to rest after the journey.

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She was only 13, after all.

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But the Duke was having none of it.

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He wasn't going to let the Princess to her room

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before showing off the Cavendish family album.

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And appropriately, at this half landing,

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surrounded by a clutch of other portraits of the Cavendish family,

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is the 1st Duke.

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HORSE WHINNYING

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Can you see him astride his charger?

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But our hero is the 6th Duke that you see up there, top left,

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in a portrait painted by Sir George Hayter in 1816.

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So that's a cool 16 years before Victoria's visit.

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But I reckon that that's probably more or less what he looked like

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when he ushered her up this very staircase.

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While Victoria was checking out the family album upstairs,

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the servants were preparing dinner.

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Food was very important in all of Victoria's visits,

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and throughout this series,

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I'll be joined by food historian and chef Ivan Day.

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We'll be working in some of the finest Victorian kitchens across the country,

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recreating some amazing dishes that were served to Victoria.

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-The juices of the meat drip down.

-How delicious! That is beautiful.

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The Chatsworth kitchens no longer exist,

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so I've been to Ivan's own kitchen

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to create a dish that's perfect for Victoria.

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A few years ago I was working at Chatsworth,

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and I discovered in the cellars

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this incredible hoard of pewter ice cream moulds.

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We have to make ice cream. It was almost certainly served to the young Princess.

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At Chatsworth, the gardener grew fabulous pineapples.

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So we have to make pineapple ice cream.

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-Right.

-Here, on the ice and salt to keep it really cold,

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I've actually got a pewter ice cream mould of a pineapple.

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That is beautiful. And look at the detail.

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To make the ice cream,

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a wonderful container called a sorbetier is in a pail of ice.

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Into that, we've put some pineapple flesh

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that's been boiled in water and pureed,

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then sweetened with sugar, and a half pint of cream added.

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Then the sorbetier has been spun to make the mixture freeze.

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This is called an ice spaddle.

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We want to make this really light.

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-This is for a Princess, so it's got to be absolutely like baby's breath.

-Yes, yes.

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That means we've got to get air into it.

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And the way you aerate it is by spinning it.

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So what I'm going to do, I'm going to spin it round like this.

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-Oh, right.

-Have a go yourself. Just spin it round.

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-Oh.

-That's perfect. Keep it going.

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Lift it up and down as you do it,

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and that will bring the air into the mixture.

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That will make it much lighter.

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You can already see, actually.

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Now we have to add the colour to the basic ice cream, to match the real pineapple.

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What you have to do is to make an orange for the pineapple body.

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And for that, we have to use this material here.

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Don't eat it, whatever you do.

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These are little cochineal beetles that grow on prickly pear cactus.

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That makes a very interesting red.

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And if we mix that with a little bit of yellow made with some saffron,

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we'll get a pineapply colour.

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Green for the leaves is extracted from spinach.

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So these are natural dyes.

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-And the colours used in the period.

-Right, fantastic.

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Once the colours have been added to the ice cream,

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we have to freeze it before we can fill the mould.

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It's amazing to think that at the time Victoria visited Chatsworth,

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the gardeners were able to produce exotic fruit like pineapples.

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Joseph Paxton was the man who was responsible

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for everything horticultural here back in Victoria's time.

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His crowning achievement was the great conservatory.

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This was no off-the-shelf greenhouse.

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At the time, it was the biggest glass building in the world.

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In her journal, the 13-year-old Victoria described it as,

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"out and out, the finest thing imaginable of its kind."

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Sadly, it's no longer here and there are no pineapples today,

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but there are plenty of other Victorian glasshouses,

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and one other special fruit

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that was here when Victoria visited the Cavendish family in 1832.

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The current head gardener is Steve Porter.

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I do feel as if I'm in a real jungle here.

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Now, I've been told you grow a very special fruit here.

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We do, and we're standing under it. This is Musa Cavendish Dwarf, Cavendish dwarf banana.

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It came here in 1829.

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Joseph Paxton head gardener for the 6th Duke

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obtained the plant and grew it in a glasshouse here

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where it flourished, fruited and produced these wonderful bananas.

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From here, they were taken to Samoa and elsewhere, becoming a commercial crop that's still grown there.

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It wasn't only exotic fruit.

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There's another amazing plant imported from the Amazon,

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that Paxton's green fingers managed to get to flower.

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And it has a close connection with Victoria later in her life.

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This is the Victoria Lily.

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This was grown here, also by Paxton and the 6th Duke.

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But it was later that it flourished and flowered here in 1849,

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and Joseph Paxton actually took a leaf and a flower

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down to Windsor Castle, and presented it to Queen Victoria,

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who then named it the Victoria Lily.

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She must have been absolutely thrilled with that.

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By the time Victoria got to her room,

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she must have been ready to just chill out.

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But no such luck.

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The Duke had laid on a dinner party starting at seven o'clock.

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He even had a dress rehearsal the night before

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because this particular dinner was so important.

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This wonderful dining room was the setting

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for Princess Victoria's first grown-up dinner party.

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But after all the build-up, it didn't go quite to plan.

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She didn't turn up.

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Victoria, in her journal, writes,

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"I dined by myself in my room, with Lehzen."

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That's Baroness Lehzen, her governess.

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And you can hardly blame her.

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She'd only arrived at Chatsworth

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half an hour before dinner was to be served.

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But the Duke must have been cheesed off, after all that effort he put in.

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Downstairs, the staff were busy preparing the evening meal,

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and we're making ice cream,

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just as it would have been served to Victoria.

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The green and orange pineapple-flavoured ice creams

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are frozen and ready to put into the pineapple mould.

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The one we need first is the green.

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If you take the napkins off and just put them aside,

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-I'll show you how to do it, and then you can try it out yourself.

-OK.

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So this is actually a nice consistency.

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-You want about a half spoonful each time.

-Right.

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And you're going to put it onto the leaf.

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I'll do this one, actually.

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Now, put it on very gently,

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and then with one spoon,

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paddle it in, pushing it in quite hard like that,

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so that you get the impression.

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-Mm-hm.

-Now, you've got to work very quickly.

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That's perfect.

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Leaves done. Now for the body.

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-And a bit more.

-Yep.

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The secret with this is being very slow and gentle.

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Everything is so intricate!

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-And time-consuming.

-And time-consuming.

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And remember, cooks didn't do this at all.

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At Chatsworth, this was done by the Duke's confectioner.

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Now, we have to leave it like that, standing up.

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-Steady it with just one finger.

-Oh, sorry.

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The mould is now filled

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with the rest of the orange-coloured ice cream.

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This was not done in the kitchen at all.

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It was done in a completely separate room with a cold area,

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which was the confectionery.

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It was a long way from the kitchen.

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It couldn't have fires in there.

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He must have had quite a bit of help, labour.

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Oh yes, there would have been a kitchen maid called in.

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Possibly a male, as confectionery tended to be done by men at this period.

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-Really?

-Yeah.

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Then finally, more green ice cream to form the base.

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Imagine doing this for a princess.

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It must have been, I would say, event of their lives, almost.

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Now, if this pineapple is going to sit on the table and stay firm,

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we've got to freeze it much harder than that.

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And bizarrely, for that, we need some lard.

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We're going to rub it into the seams

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because we're putting this into a mixture of ice and salt,

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and the salt could get into the ice cream and spoil the flavour,

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so we have to seal it.

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How very clever!

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With the seams sealed with lard,

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the mould's wrapped in paper

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so that when it's plunged into the bucket of ice,

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the ice doesn't stick to the pewter.

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The final thing we need to do,

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if you put salt onto ice, it acts as a refrigerant,

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and you get a temperature of about minus 13,

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which will rapidly freeze anything that you put in one of these pots.

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It'll take another three hours for it to freeze solid.

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Upstairs on the first morning of her stay,

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Princess Victoria awoke to enjoy her first glimpse of Paxton's gardens.

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In her journal, she writes, "I breakfasted soon after nine,

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in a room overlooking the cascade."

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She may have been keen to see more of the gardens,

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but the Duke, of course, had the day all set out.

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And it began inside, with a guided tour starting in the library.

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The 6th Duke was a bit of a globetrotter,

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and it was on his travels that he built up his massive collection

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of 50,000 books.

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Victoria, well-read herself, was clearly impressed,

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describing the library as "beautiful".

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The next event on the Duke's itinerary

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was something completely different.

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Anyone for cricket?

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On the afternoon of her first day,

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the Chatsworth doors were thrown open to the public,

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and over 300 people flooded in to watch a special match,

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that was laid on in Victoria's honour.

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There was even a band who played God Save The Queen,

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to rapturous applause.

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As the current Chatsworth cricket team put their best bats forward,

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cricket historian Keith Hayhurst tells me more.

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The teams were made up of gentlemen and workers?

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That's correct. Most of them would have been the workers.

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There would have been two or three gentlemen who wouldn't work so hard.

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They would direct the fielders to catch the ball and find the ball.

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-What, the gentlemen wouldn't really do the fielding?

-Not a lot of it.

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They wouldn't do much of the bowling, either.

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You'd get the strong workers for the estate to do the bowling,

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and maybe some of them were employed, just as good cricketers.

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Cricket during Victoria's time was hugely popular,

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both with the gentry and their staff,

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but you might be surprised that, like today,

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the fans liked to have a flutter.

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There was a lot of gambling,

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especially in the cricket of the 1750s to 1850.

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And huge amounts.

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Something like 1,000 guineas a match were put on these games.

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You would get people coming from Manchester, from Chesterfield,

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from all around the district,

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to watch that game.

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And that would bring the money in?

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-That would bring the money in.

-Yes, quite.

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Owzat!

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With the royal visitors wandering around,

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the gardeners would have had the grounds looking immaculate.

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And there was one particular treat

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that the 13-year-old Princess Victoria took a real shine to.

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So this is the most unusual feature in Chatsworth garden.

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It was built for the 1st Duke.

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The design was based on a willow tree,

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and it's been restored a couple of times during its life.

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The Princess Victoria called it "the squirting tree".

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She must have had such a lot of fun here.

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I think it's rather quirky.

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When later asked what she liked best about her stay at Chatsworth,

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Victoria answered, "The squirting tree".

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The gardeners must have been thrilled.

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I'm keen to find out more about the men and women who laboured so hard

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in the gardens and downstairs at Chatsworth.

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Luckily, the house has some amazing documents from the period,

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that house collector Matthew Hurst tells me

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offer an intriguing insight into that world.

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Well, Matthew, I believe you've got some information for me.

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We're looking at 1832, when Victoria came here,

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and I'm really interested to find out more about it.

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So can you show me?

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Absolutely. What we've got here

0:18:430:18:45

are the household accounts covering 1829 to 1833,

0:18:450:18:49

-so it fits absolutely the period you're interested in.

-Fantastic.

0:18:490:18:53

And if we open it up here,

0:18:530:18:55

-we can see the wages.

-Oh, look at this.

0:18:550:18:59

Absolutely, let's have a look.

0:18:590:19:01

We have got a Thomas Howard and Charles Coote.

0:19:010:19:05

They both were on £150.

0:19:050:19:09

That's a lot of money.

0:19:090:19:11

It is. It is. And they would have been the senior male servants.

0:19:110:19:15

So they would have been the butler,

0:19:150:19:17

or sometimes called the steward of the household,

0:19:170:19:20

who was essentially the man in charge of the whole household.

0:19:200:19:24

Interestingly, when you look at the women of the household,

0:19:240:19:27

the highest-paid woman has a salary of £40 a year.

0:19:270:19:31

She would have been the housekeeper,

0:19:310:19:33

so she was the most senior female servant.

0:19:330:19:36

And you can see that their salaries drop as you go down the list.

0:19:360:19:40

Well, I think the least we've got

0:19:400:19:42

is for a Harriett Sheffith?

0:19:420:19:44

-Sherriff, I think.

-Sherriff.

0:19:440:19:46

Six pounds, two shillings and sixpence,

0:19:460:19:49

-so that...she must have been the scullery maid.

-Absolutely.

0:19:490:19:52

What is so fascinating with this,

0:19:520:19:54

there's a huge hierarchy situation.

0:19:540:19:56

It must have been like an upstairs downstairs in this little domain.

0:19:560:20:00

The scullery maid would probably have been

0:20:000:20:03

a girl of between 14 and 16 years old, when they started,

0:20:030:20:06

so very young as well,

0:20:060:20:09

in contrast to somebody like the housekeeper.

0:20:090:20:12

What's interesting is that the scullery maid would have been

0:20:120:20:15

near the same age as Victoria when she came.

0:20:150:20:18

Pretty much, yes. We don't know her exact age,

0:20:180:20:20

but she would have been around the same age,

0:20:200:20:23

and it's extraordinary to think, the contrast.

0:20:230:20:26

The contrast of lives. Unbelievable!

0:20:260:20:30

Victoria may have escaped dinner once,

0:20:300:20:33

but on the following night, she wasn't so lucky.

0:20:330:20:36

There was another attempt to hold her first grown-up dinner.

0:20:360:20:40

Walking through the house to the dining room,

0:20:400:20:42

she couldn't have failed to notice the semi-naked figures.

0:20:420:20:46

Of the Duke's statues, that is.

0:20:460:20:49

He was a great collector, and luckily for him,

0:20:490:20:52

the young Victoria clearly enjoyed the exposure.

0:20:520:20:55

To the sculptures, that is,

0:20:550:20:58

writing in her diary that, "There are some beautiful statues."

0:20:580:21:01

Oi! Fish face! What are you staring at?

0:21:030:21:06

Eventually, in the dining room, the big moment arrived.

0:21:080:21:12

She sat down to dinner with 35 fellow guests at this stunning dining table.

0:21:150:21:21

However daunting it must have been,

0:21:240:21:26

we know that she admired the gilded surtout de table

0:21:260:21:30

that is still here today, describing it as "magnificent".

0:21:300:21:34

Quite something for a 13-year-old to notice, don't you think?

0:21:340:21:38

Absolutely.

0:21:380:21:40

While the guests tucked into dinner upstairs,

0:21:400:21:43

downstairs, the cooks would have been preparing the dessert.

0:21:430:21:46

In our preparations,

0:21:460:21:48

the pineapple-flavoured and shaped ice cream has been in ice for three hours.

0:21:480:21:52

Now, the moment of truth. Will it come out in one piece?

0:21:520:21:56

Look at that!

0:21:570:22:00

How's that?

0:22:000:22:01

Oh, that is beautiful!

0:22:010:22:05

I'm going to try and just lever that out with the knife, like so.

0:22:050:22:09

And then put it onto there,

0:22:090:22:11

right into the middle,

0:22:110:22:12

and hey presto!

0:22:120:22:14

-Oh, that is...stunning!

-How about that?

0:22:140:22:18

I love it!

0:22:180:22:21

Amazing as this pineapple-flavoured, coloured and shaped ice cream is,

0:22:210:22:25

it would not have been enough

0:22:250:22:27

to serve to the 13-year-old Princess Victoria.

0:22:270:22:30

There are more water ices and ice creams,

0:22:300:22:33

starting with a delicate asparagus spear.

0:22:330:22:36

Beautiful.

0:22:360:22:38

I've got to get the knife in between.

0:22:390:22:42

And still they keep coming.

0:22:420:22:43

Sometimes this fails, but...

0:22:430:22:46

Oh!

0:22:460:22:48

-There we are, look at that.

-Look at that!

0:22:480:22:50

A fig, a pomegranate, and a melon and some grapes.

0:22:500:22:55

Fingers crossed.

0:23:000:23:02

Wow! It's like magic.

0:23:020:23:05

-This is what we call a pillar mould.

-Right.

0:23:060:23:09

-See the fluted columns?

-Yes, yes.

0:23:090:23:11

-And this has made a strawberry ice cream.

-These moulds are incredible.

0:23:110:23:16

It's quite tricky. It's going now, I think. Yeah, here we go.

0:23:170:23:21

Come on. Just drop out nicely.

0:23:210:23:23

Way! How about that?

0:23:230:23:25

Fantastic!

0:23:250:23:28

Beautiful.

0:23:280:23:29

Oh, look at that.

0:23:290:23:31

Lever it. That's it.

0:23:310:23:33

-Yes.

-That's my boy, there we are. That's my boy.

-That's my boy.

0:23:330:23:38

This is a basket mould.

0:23:380:23:39

Lovely.

0:23:400:23:43

Gently lever it out.

0:23:430:23:44

-Is it coming?

-Whoopsy.

0:23:440:23:47

Right, get it up like that, OK?

0:23:470:23:49

Oh, that's beautiful.

0:23:490:23:51

Ah, but we've got more.

0:23:510:23:52

That's just part of it.

0:23:520:23:54

Some strawberries. Yeah, OK, they should just drop out.

0:23:540:23:58

OK, now, that isn't all because...

0:24:000:24:03

Whoo!

0:24:030:24:04

I've got some strawberry leaves.

0:24:040:24:07

Oh, how wonderful!

0:24:070:24:09

Which have been sitting in cold water, so they should freeze on.

0:24:090:24:13

You may have to hold them on a little while.

0:24:130:24:16

They'll freeze to the strawberry,

0:24:160:24:18

so hold it for about four seconds.

0:24:180:24:20

Look, isn't that absolutely super?

0:24:200:24:23

Look, that is the most...

0:24:230:24:24

That is just beautiful.

0:24:260:24:28

I absolutely love it!

0:24:280:24:30

These Victorian ices of all flavours and shapes

0:24:310:24:34

are so elaborate.

0:24:340:24:35

Now, we just need to serve them to my own gentleman of the house, Tim.

0:24:350:24:40

That's nice, Rosemary, thanks.

0:24:400:24:42

But I can't compete with our host, the Duke.

0:24:420:24:45

By all accounts, he was renowned as a great entertainer,

0:24:450:24:48

and showed exactly why with the after-dinner entertainment he laid on in the ballroom.

0:24:480:24:53

Young girls would need to be at least 15

0:24:530:24:56

before they're allowed to attend a formal ball.

0:24:560:25:00

And as Victoria was far too young,

0:25:000:25:03

the Duke provided alternative entertainment

0:25:030:25:06

in the form of charades,

0:25:060:25:07

which were popular at the time.

0:25:070:25:10

And we think that that is what took place here.

0:25:100:25:13

In her diary, Victoria tells us that the titled guests,

0:25:130:25:18

including Lady Blanche, the Duke's niece,

0:25:180:25:22

performed scenes from Bluebeard and Tom Thumb.

0:25:220:25:28

Parlour games such as charades were extremely popular in Victorian times,

0:25:280:25:33

especially for the wealthy upper classes.

0:25:330:25:36

Even Victoria joined in.

0:25:360:25:38

And during the charades, there was another treat in store for her.

0:25:380:25:43

Head gardener Joseph Paxton

0:25:430:25:45

had arranged a spectacular show of illuminations in the gardens

0:25:450:25:49

using coloured flares.

0:25:490:25:52

Lady Cavendish, the Duke's niece,

0:25:520:25:54

wrote in a letter after the visit,

0:25:540:25:56

"The little Princess seemed to enjoy herself beyond anything,

0:25:560:26:00

and was extremely excited about the cascade."

0:26:000:26:03

"It was like an enchanted castle. The water seemed turned into fire,

0:26:030:26:08

rockets going up in every direction."

0:26:080:26:11

Gosh. "Even the Duke himself

0:26:110:26:13

had to admit he had never seen anything like it before."

0:26:130:26:18

So, with the upstairs entertainment drawing to a close,

0:26:180:26:21

it's time for me to serve up the ice cream and water ices.

0:26:210:26:25

It's a feast fit for a princess,

0:26:260:26:29

and just think, all these exquisite dishes are just the dessert.

0:26:290:26:33

Victoria would have had at least ten courses beforehand.

0:26:330:26:37

Tim may not be a queen, but he can be a bit fussy.

0:26:380:26:42

I wonder what he'll make of these.

0:26:420:26:44

-Rosemary! What

-have

-you been up to?

0:26:440:26:48

Well, I thought while the table was laid up for a dessert,

0:26:480:26:52

I would give you a dessert.

0:26:520:26:54

Well, this is quite extraordinary, isn't it?

0:26:540:26:57

These shapes, the design.

0:26:570:26:59

How long did it take you?

0:26:590:27:00

-About five hours.

-Did it really?

0:27:000:27:02

And I must say, it was fascinating.

0:27:020:27:05

I have to say, this is the first time

0:27:050:27:08

that I've ever addressed an ice in the form of a piece of asparagus.

0:27:080:27:13

And it does look extraordinary.

0:27:130:27:15

It is extraordinary. To actually see the process...

0:27:150:27:18

I'm going to taste the first bit.

0:27:180:27:20

-You taste the first bit and I'm going to take a little bit.

-Mm.

-Mm.

0:27:200:27:25

That is just an explosion in your mouth. Isn't that just delicious?

0:27:250:27:30

It's extraordinary, and it's so smooth. It's so delicious!

0:27:300:27:35

Unbelievable.

0:27:350:27:36

We're going to have a lot more Victorian food as we follow Victoria's journey.

0:27:360:27:41

I can't wait.

0:27:410:27:43

For the 13-year-old Princess Victoria,

0:27:430:27:46

life would never be the same after Chatsworth.

0:27:460:27:49

She was firmly on the road to becoming Queen.

0:27:490:27:53

Next time on Royal Upstairs Downstairs,

0:27:540:27:56

we're with the teenage Victoria at Shugborough in Staffordshire.

0:27:560:28:01

Where upstairs, I'll be discovering

0:28:010:28:04

how her mother's national PR offensive continued.

0:28:040:28:07

And downstairs, I'll be experiencing

0:28:070:28:09

what life was like for the servants during a royal visit.

0:28:090:28:13

-You'll make an excellent maid.

-Oh, it's coming off, too!

0:28:130:28:16

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0:28:400:28:43

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