Blair Royal Upstairs Downstairs

Just what do you have to do when a queen decides she is going to pop in to see you?

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.

Welcome to the Scottish Highlands.

Today we're at Blair Castle, the northernmost point of our journey.

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

I'll be exploring the curiosities of the castle that would have surprised Victoria.

Antlers, antlers everywhere.

You might think there's been a tremendous bloodbath.

And as a chef who is passionate about great British food,

I will be re-creating a rustic Victorian dish to warm the cockles of the queen's heart.

Oh, look at that.

And having a Highland fling just like Victoria.

-Have you got something under your skirt?

-Everything that I need!

Goodness sake, control yourself, woman!

Shucks.

By the time Queen Victoria came to Blair, she had been on the throne seven years, and had dropped in at

more stately homes than she'd had hot dinners, but this trip was different.

Queen Victoria didn't come here just for one night,

this was one of the longest visits she made on her travels.

Indeed, Rosemary, she came here in September 1844 for three long weeks.

Her husband, Prince Albert, thought it would be the ideal place for her to recuperate

following the birth of her fourth child, Prince Alfred, who made an appearance a few weeks earlier.

Baby Alfred was left at home so Victoria could get some well-deserved rest.

The poor girl had churned out four sprogs in four years and she was only 25 years old.

Lord Glenlyon, the host of Blair Castle, had a brother who worked at the Royal Court in London,

who Albert used as his travel agent to make the arrangements.

In a letter to Lord Glenlyon two months before the visit, his brother wrote, "Prince Albert is extremely

"anxious that after the Queen's confinement she should make a little trip for the benefit of her health.

"They wish to go quietly and without any state, just as a nobleman would go down for a little shooting."

The royal couple had said to their hosts, Lord and Lady Glenlyon,

"we don't want to you take any trouble, but..." and this is the killing bit - they did request

full access to the entire estate for the whole of the three weeks.

And as a result, Lord and Lady Glenlyon had to move out.

Well, you certainly can't refuse a Royal request like that, could they?

-No.

-Well, I'm looking forward to heading downstairs to see how they coped with such a long visit.

Good luck with that, Rosemary. I'm heading upstairs to find out quite why they enjoyed the place so much.

Because of the private nature of the visit,

Albert had given strict instructions to keep this top secret.

Fat chance of that!

They arrived by sea on the royal yacht after sailing all the way from London to Dundee.

By the time they docked, hordes of adoring subjects and

a 21-gun salute were awaiting them to celebrate the Queen's arrival.

The royal couple may have left baby Alfred at home,

but they did bring their eldest, Princess Victoria.

From Dundee, they made the four-hour journey by horse and carriage to Blair Castle in Fife.

When Queen Victoria arrived, there were 200 Highlanders lined up to greet her.

They formed, effectively, her bodyguard for the duration of her stay.

They formed part of the Scottish Infantry Regiment known as the

Atholl Highlanders, commanded by the Duke of Atholl,

whose traditional home was here at Blair Castle.

This photograph taken at the time of the visit shows the guards lined up outside the castle.

As a present for guarding her during her stay, Victoria gave

the Atholl Guards their own coat of arms, making them, to this day, the only private army in Europe.

She also threw in a couple of cannons for good measure.

Well, today, we have not 200 Highlanders,

-we have a single bagpiper.

-SHE PLAYS BAGPIPES

And she is female.

I don't know what Queen Victoria would have to say about that!

The royal couple arrived here

on Wednesday, September 11th, 1844.

Victoria wrote in her diary, "Lord and Lady Glenlyon, with their little boy, received us at the door."

The castle would have looked more like a house, because at the time there were no turrets or towers.

These little jokes were added later so, in fact, it looked pretty bleak.

But that's what Victoria loved about it.

She didn't want pomp and ceremony.

She got plenty of that back home at Buckingham Palace.

Gosh, look at this. This is very much the epitome of what you would expect

a Victorian entrance hall in the Highlands to look like.

But pride of place in the hall is occupied by this chap,

known affectionately as Tilt.

The story of Tilt is this.

When he was 13 years of age, quite an old codger for a stag,

he would have been defending his territory from another stag, and sadly he died.

Now the thing is, when Victoria and Albert were here, Tilt would have been about seven years of age.

He would have been in his prime, so there is every possibility that

when the royal couple were out there touring the estate extensively,

they could have seen old Tilt here,

literally roamin' in the gloamin', poor old boy.

On arrival at their Highland hideaway,

the royal couple wasted no time in exploring Blair's stunning estate,

heading straight to the vegetable garden which fed the house.

This is not just a vegetable garden.

Queen Victoria came here on her very first day of visiting Blair Castle.

She wrote in her Highland diary, "We then went into the kitchen garden and to a walk from which

"there is a magnificent view, this mixture of great wilderness and art is perfection."

How lovely.

The Hercules Garden, as it is known today, languishes across nine acres of the Blair estate.

Here, Hercules guards its fruit trees and vegetable beds and, more interestingly,

a Chinese bridge and a folly, where I'm joining food historian Ivan Day.

Before we decide what to cook, we need a bit of inspiration, and we are hoping to find it in this

wonderful book recording details of that very trip.

"Her Majesty and Prince Albert and suite arrived at Blair Castle at quarter before two o'clock."

And then, the clerk has written the list of the entire royal party.

So you have Her Majesty, and Albert, of course, the Princess Royal, and then all the notables like

the ladies in waiting, but when you get a little bit further down, you see all of the royal servants.

They had brought all of them from London,

one governess, one nursery maid.

-Three cooks.

-Plus one...

Pastry cook. Confectioner.

I can't believe this.

One roasting cook.

She must have brought almost her whole household.

This is what happened when a monarch went on a progress, they tended to bring everybody with them.

But think about the organisation, how they house them.

But most importantly, how would they feed them?

And how would they feed them?

That's why you have got this huge number of kitchen staff.

When you look at the bottom, the total comes to 114 people in the royal party.

To keep all these servants ticking over like well-oiled machines, the royal kitchen must have been

churning out meals like a sausage factory, and there was no shortage of booze either.

You have enormous numbers of provisions being brought in from market, porter in gallons.

16 gallons of porter and, of course, there is a brew house here as well, and it tells you how much beer was

brewed, and it is an enormous number of barrels of beer.

And, of course, this isn't for the Queen and Albert,

it's for the Atholl Highlanders and all the servants.

And while Victoria's table would have been laden with venison, there was plenty of other meat as well.

On the 10th September, slaughtered two sheep, a bullock.

On the 11th, four sheep and on the 13th, another sheep.

Something keeps popping out at me, which is mutton.

So it seems to me we have got to do something with mutton.

That sounds a very, very good idea.

Today we're going to be making a dish that was popular upstairs and downstairs.

I love the fact you have that oyster juice in it.

A Victorian surf and turf, mutton and oyster sausages.

So while Rosemary and Ivan are dabbling with mutton, I've found

out where some of the other meat for this royal visit came from.

It appears that Prince Albert was quite a deft hand at bagging a stag or two for the royal table,

judging by the entries in this beautiful record of the hunting trips during this very visit.

Now what we've got here is the game book, which I've turned to 1844, the year of the visit.

This gives the monthly return of game shot here,

and if we run down the list of the stags,

that's the heart, hind and roe deer, very few are shot through

the month of August and September,

until we come to the patch when Albert is here, look at this.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert shot one on the 18th,

he shot one on the 19th, he shot one on the 23rd, on the 25th he got two,

and on the 26th, three harts.

That's big ones, and if you look over here at the weights, look at the monsters, 20 stone, this stag.

The next day he shoots another one, another whopper at 20 stone.

I think he must have been pretty good at this.

Albert would have been in his element here.

A chance to turn hunter-gatherer and to show off his animal instincts.

Look at this,

antlers, antlers, antlers, everywhere.

You might think there's been a tremendous bloodbath, but you would be wrong.

Because what these stags do is to shed their antlers annually.

And here is our old mate, Tilt, in 1840, as a three-year-old. And you follow his progress as

a four-year-old, a five-year-old, a six-year-old and, here we go look, as a seven-year-old.

In 1844, the year of our visit, these are the antlers he shed that

year out there on the hillside and,

who knows, they could be the antlers Victoria and Albert saw.

Imagine that!

And continuing the rather appropriate antler theme, they have even got one of these

whacky things, a candelabra made entirely out of deer horn,

but this time constructed in Germany.

Despite being told not to go to any great expense or trouble, the Glenlyons did upgrade

some fixtures and fittings to bring its rooms up to scratch.

It was the Queen, after all.

In the dining room, she might have been drawn to

these many paintings of the natural wonders surrounding Blair, in particular, this one of Bruar Falls.

Because we know she made quite an effort to get to the real thing,

dragging Albert on a three-mile hike.

And judging by her diary entry, she thought it was well worth it.

"At every turn, the view of the rushing falls is extremely fine, and looking back on the hills, which

"were so clear and so beautifully lit up, with the rapid stream below, was most exquisite."

160 years on, you can see what she meant.

It was all very well for Victoria and Albert swanning about the glens,

but the kitchen staff really had their work cut out feeding everyone

with dishes like the mutton and oyster sausages we're making today,

and it is quite a squishy job.

The most important ingredient is this lovely mutton,

which actually comes from a four-year-old sheep.

Oh, wonderful.

In the 19th century, a four-year-old,

or what was called an eight-tooth mutton, because it had eight teeth, was considered to be the finest.

-Really?

-I agree. Now the other ingredient which is essential are

-the oysters, so perhaps you would like to put those on, Rosemary.

-Yes, absolutely.

Added to the mince is some suet, and after throwing in our oysters, we toss in some parsley and chives.

In they go.

I know you love to get your hands dirty.

I do. I do. I have washed my hands.

-Mix it all together.

-In I go.

I love the fact you've got all that oyster juice in it.

Absolutely wonderful.

As well as the herbs, I crushed a little bit of garlic up with some

salt and put that in there, and you can almost certainly smell that.

Oh, the smell I'm getting is extraordinary, actually.

It's slightly fishy, but not over fishy.

Mutton has got the scent of the hills and oysters have got the

wonderful atmosphere of the ocean, and it really is surf and turf.

Now that looks pretty good to me, but we do have to add a little tiny bit more of the sea in there.

-There are just three anchovies, just enough to make a difference.

-Right.

So who would have eaten this?

Well, sausages were popular with everybody.

It cut across all classes, really.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Her Majesty did have some for breakfast,

but we know she did favour some of the traditional Scottish dishes.

-She was fond of oatcake and while she was here apparently she tried out Scotch broth.

-Lovely, yes.

One newspaper report tells us that she

-was acquainted with the wonderful Scottish iconic dish, the haggis.

-That's interesting, isn't it?

This visit was the beginning of a love affair with Scotland, its people and, of course, its food too.

Now add some ingredients to spice it up -

starting with ground black pepper.

There's an awful lot in there.

-This is Scotland, think about haggis and white puddings, they love their food seasoned.

-Yes.

We also need a tiny bit of nutmeg as well.

Just a tiny bit, and then finally, some salt, so that's it.

That's the mix complete.

-Fantastic.

-We have some skins, so my job next is to actually get this into some skins.

Easier said than done.

Apparently, Victorian sausage-making was quite a tricky business.

For Queen Victoria and Prince Albert this was the start of a love affair with Scotland, and they spent

as much time exploring the great outdoors as the weather would allow,

making the most of the privacy they could never get in London.

The Queen was a creature of habit, even on holiday, and the newspapers

reported that when at Blair, she was often seen walking in the castle grounds at 7am.

She liked to breakfast between 8am and 9am.

She had lunch at two o'clock, and in the afternoon, around

three or four o'clock, she would head off around the estate either in a carriage or on a pony.

And on top of this, the Queen insisted that every day a bouquet of

fresh pulled heather and a bottle of spring water from the nearby Glen Tilt should be put in her room.

And over there, just tucked inside the trees,

is a substantial property called Old Blair.

Now, this was the house that was occupied by the Glenlyons' agent,

or factor, and it is the house that the Glenlyons had to retire to

for the three weeks of Victoria's visit.

Of course, that meant that Captain MacDuff, the factor, had to move out also.

So you see, there was quite a lot of rearrangement of accommodation

to enable the Queen's Highland holiday.

While I wash the smell of oysters off my hands, I have left Ivan

to finish making our sausages

in exactly the same way the Victorians would have done.

He is using this sausage forcer to pipe the fillings into the skins

which are made from hog intestines.

This recipe for oyster sausages is grounded in tradition.

We know they have been made for a couple of centuries and you might

be surprised to know that, unlike today, in Victorian times,

oysters were in such plentiful supply that

everyone ate them, from the very poor to the rich aristocrats.

There we go.

One oyster and mutton sausage.

For Victoria, Blair's vast open landscapes were the perfect

postnatal tonic, but for Albert, this trip was all about indulging in his passion for deer stalking.

The estate today is a massive 140,000 acres, but that's just half

the size it was when the royal couple visited.

Just one gamekeeper looked after the whole lot.

Aha, Sandy.

And more than 160 years on, it's still down to one man, Sandy Reid.

Do you think the stalking game has changed a lot since Albert was out on the hill having a go himself?

It's changed a bit, I suppose, but not as much as people would think.

The most important thing in the stalker's life is the direction

of wind, and that's the first thing a stalker would do in the morning.

-Smell the weather.

-Check what the wind is doing.

Because this silent approach is the same, irrespective of which century you are in, isn't it?

-It doesn't matter.

-So how close, in the 1840s,

would Albert have to have got to his stag before he could have a go?

-They would try to get within 80 or 100 yards.

-80 to 100 yards.

Need to be close or closer than that.

-And the whole stalking game is going on your belly?

-Yes.

Maintaining the lowest profile, so the Prince is there scrabbling around on his tum.

-Yes.

-Going through a little burn to get down wind and up to this magnificent beast, so 80 yards.

The Illustrated London News, the popular rag of the day,

produced a number of sketches from the visit to Blair.

Here we can see Albert taking aim at some fleeing deer with Lord Glenlyon to his left.

Now, we know that Albert wracked up some big numbers, but interestingly,

when his wife was in the hunting party, it appears he wasn't quite as fortunate.

Recalling one of these trips, she wrote, "He has been very unlucky

"and lost all his sport, for the rifle would not go off

"just when he could have shot some fine harts."

Was it the pressure of the trouble and strife looking over his shoulder?

Well, Sandy, my gosh, you can tell you're in the Highlands here, can't you?

Sandy has brought me to a wonderful viewpoint, and from here

we can see where Victoria's favourite jaunts took her.

We've got the castle down there.

The castle. And then we have got Tulloch.

Ah, Tulloch Hill.

Now, Victoria was very keen on that, because she put in her diary that she had the most romantic

drive that you can imagine, which supposedly would have been with a pony, would it?

-Oh yes, aye, they'd have the ponies and have a picnic up on the hill.

-Have a picnic.

-And is it a good view from the top?

-The views from the top are fantastic looking back up into here.

And this is that very view Victoria and Albert

would have enjoyed, seen in a drawing in the report of her visit.

In the distance, in the centre of the valley, Blair Castle.

Victoria wrote, "The view is like a panorama.

"You see the falls of the Bruar and a whole range of distant hills.

"Blair itself and the houses in the village look like little toys from the great height we were on.

"It was quite romantic."

As idyllic as these romantic outings were for Victoria,

they never got in the way of her other passion - food.

Her Majesty would insist on getting back to base in time for dinner at 8pm sharp - or else.

Ivan and I had better pull our socks up.

Oh, look at that.

We've made our mutton and oyster sausages.

Now they're frying away in the pan.

I don't know why people prick sausages.

Well, I think it is because they think if they prick it, the fat will come out of it.

Unbeknown to them,

it can help split it.

So you shouldn't prick your sausage.

This is a saute pan, I am sure you will recognise that, but in

the 19th century, a saute pan nearly always came with a lid,

which means that you can turn it into a miniature oven.

And the other thing you can do with it, you can put burning coals on top, so you can cook your sausages

-from above as well as below, so a very, very flexible way of cooking.

-Fantastic.

Well, I think we're getting there.

That looks wonderful.

-Let's see if we can get that.

-Look at that.

-That looks wonderful.

-That looks absolutely wonderful.

I would like you to get rid of all the fat and just put it in there, and we've got

all these wonderful juices which have caramelised on the bottom.

I'm just going to pour a little bit of porter in there,

just to deglaze that.

-What is porter?

-Porter is what people now call stout.

OK. It was called porter in those days.

Yes. It is the best way to clean a saute pan, because you deglaze it,

and I've seen so many people fry their sausages and go and put the frying pan in the washing up.

It's where all the flavour is.

It's all lurking in the bottom.

Well, we are going to make this wonderful porter reduction of those sausage juices

and then I'm going to pour it over your sausage.

Well, I can't wait to try these mutton and oyster sausages.

I am not sure there will be enough there for Tim, though.

A visit to Blair wouldn't be complete without a Highland fling, and despite instructions not to fuss, the hosts,

Lord and Lady Glenlyon, insisted on putting on a ceilidh for the royals.

-How wonderful is this?

-I know, isn't it brilliant?

I mean, Queen Victoria records in her journal

that they had some wonderful evening entertainments here,

including a particularly fine display of Highland dancing.

-I want to find out more about this Highland fling.

-Yes, I would too.

Shall I grab one? Shall we get in? Come on.

This local dance group are giving me itchy feet,

I quite fancy a go at this, but with all these kilts on show,

there is one thing I'm desperate to find out.

Can I ask you the very question?

Have you got something under your skirt there?

Well, I have got everything that I need!

We don't know, do we?

We all want to know, don't we?

Rosemary, for goodness sake, control yourself, woman.

Shucks.

-Not only have I got everything I need, it's all working.

-Ooh!

I hate to break you two up and all that, this is a family show!

Tell me, Robin, who would have been dancing when Victoria was here?

-All social orders or simply the toffs?

-The whole lot, everybody.

I think it is great fun. Actually quite exhausting too, cos these dances last a long time.

And you have chosen one of the longest ones, yes.

I think you should have a go, Rosemary.

-Do you think so?

-I think you should.

Like Prince Albert, I'm going to stand back.

-No, what about you?

-I am going to stand back and watch, actually.

-Coward.

I'm up for it.

Time to see if Twinkletoes is as hot on the dance floor as she is in the kitchen.

The last Friday night of their stay in the great hall, Victoria

and Albert attended a ball with an exhibition of national dance.

Although we have no record they danced together, it's quite likely they were in the mix, after all,

we do know Her Maj loved to boogie, and so I can't imagine she would have passed up a chance like this.

It must have been a great party, because the next morning Victoria and Albert complained of head colds.

Well, it seems our very own queen of the cooks is also a bit of a mover, so watch out Strictly Come Dancing!

-Great fun, I really enjoyed it.

-I wish all my beginners were as good as that.

-If my shoes weren't falling off.

-That's your chat-up line!

That was quite tiring. I think we should go and get some sausages now.

Well done, Rosemary,

that was brilliant.

Well, after all that Highland dancing I've built up quite an appetite.

Time to reveal our tasty sausage treat to Tim.

Mutton and oysters, a long forgotten recipe.

Now this would be the sort of thing that, I suppose, if Victoria and Albert were going off for a picnic,

-they'd take a sausage like this with them?

-Exactly.

I have to tell you I particularly like the period cutlery that we have

got here, slightly rusty and good for your intestine, nice stag horn handle.

Eat.

-Mm. Mm.

-That is different.

-It's what they call a belter.

It's a belter.

-It is a very, very strong sausage.

-Well, there we are.

They would drink it with a good old stout, a good old strong beer.

Yes, that's what we've got in here.

-Cheers, my dears.

-To the Highland fling.

-Absolutely right. Lovely.

For Victoria and Albert, this three week holiday at Blair Castle planted

the seed for a life-long passion for Scotland, and eight years later, this love affair was cemented with

the purchase of their own Highland retreat, Balmoral Castle, just over the hills from Blair.

But our next stop on Victoria's tour takes us south of the border to another stately home,

Burghley in Lincolnshire, where the royal couple have a christening to attend.

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