Scone Royal Upstairs Downstairs

'Just what do you have to do when a Queen decides 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.

'Today, Scone Palace.'

We've come north of the border to the gateway of the Highlands

-in the steps of Queen Victoria when she journeyed to Scotland in 1842.

-Och, you're right, pet.

'As someone who has spent a lifetime getting excited by antiques,

'I'll be upstairs exploring just what would have excited Victoria on her visit here.'

These Scots have got our chair.

'And as a chef who's passionate about all sorts of food,

'I'll be going downstairs to the kitchen where I'll be rediscovering a fantastic 19th century recipe

'that was served to Victoria.'

Give it a good breathe. Get breathing on that.

-'And letting Tim take the biscuit.' To Queen Victoria!

-Queen Victoria!

PLAYS: "Scotland The Brave"

Here we are in Scotland

and what a wonderful setting!

It sure is.

It's nearly 140 years

since Victoria and her almost newly wed husband set out

on their ground-breaking tour of this northern outpost

which started a lifelong love affair with Scotland.

For the young married couple, this was a pleasure trip.

Now, they had left their two young children at home,

but they didn't know how this visit was going to be received.

That's because it was less than 100 years since the English massacre of the Scots at Culloden,

so Victoria had to find a way of reconnecting with the Scottish people

and what better place for this charm offensive than Scone Palace

where all the ancient Kings of Scotland were crowned.

What a fascinating place!

I can't wait to have a look and see what it looked like when Victoria arrived in 1842,

so I'll be heading upstairs.

I'm heading downstairs to see how the servants coped north of the border for the Queen's visit.

Victoria and Albert, who had been married for two years,

travelled from Edinburgh and arrived here on the evening of Tuesday, September the 6th.

This was a whistle-stop tour of Scotland and they had to leave the very next morning for Perth.

Amazingly, their host, the Earl of Mansfield, had been planning the trip for two years,

but ended up with just 12 hours to impress the Queen. No pressure then!

It would have been just like this for Victoria

because she too was piped in to Scone,

except by masses of bagpipers.

You can imagine the scene -

her carriage majestically driving up this driveway through that rather quaint archway behind me.

Well, you'd be wrong

because actually that archway was too small for her carriages

and the Earl of Mansfield had especially constructed a massive new driveway into the palace,

so that Scone Palace would have looked like this.

In her diary, Victoria recalls "a fine-looking house of reddish stone".

And that was it!

The poor old Earl of Mansfield might have been hoping for a slightly better write-up,

given the incredible DIY job he did on the place.

He not only laid a new driveway, he completely renovated the palace.

Of course, it wasn't strictly a do-it-yourself job. He was far too posh for that.

The architect William Atkinson was charged with re-establishing the Gothic style,

based on the original medieval building,

but there were one or two problems along the way.

His clerk of works misunderstood instructions

and as a result, a lot of those original medieval features were lost for ever.

A great shame, but strangely reassuring that even in the early 19th century,

there were cowboy builders.

Let's hope the Earl had enough dosh left for the inside.

Today, these corridors lead to the offices that keep the modern palace running,

but in 1842, they would have been bustling with maids, housekeepers and butlers.

Once room does remain downstairs -

the kitchen where all the royal food was prepared.

Our own head chef, food historian Ivan Day, has been researching

just what Scone served up for Victoria and Albert.

-Hello, Ivan.

-Rosemary.

-I'm so excited to be in Scotland!

So what have you got for Scottish cookery for me today?

Well, it's very, very Scottish and it's something that was actually served to Queen Victoria.

We're going to be making shortbread and what's so exciting about it

-is that an Italian confectioner was brought up from London, William Jarrin...

-Jarrin.

-Very famous.

He produced a wonderful ornamental shortbread in the form of a thistle.

So very, very simply, we've got butter, flour and sugar which are the main elements.

We've got two ounces of self-raising flour which we're going to put into 19 ounces of plain flour.

And then two ounces of rice flour that goes in.

And we're specifically told in this Victorian recipe to put half of the sugar in.

So I'm going to put about four ounces. There's eight ounces there altogether.

-Then the next job, which I'm going to give to you...

-Good. I've just rolled my sleeves up. I'm so pleased.

If I cut the butter in for you, you can start to rub it in.

-That's holding together nicely.

-It's holding together brilliantly.

What we do now is I'd like you to stop. You, nowadays, would not moisten this with an egg.

-No, I wouldn't.

-What would you...

I'd bring it together, get it into the ball

and then I would literally just mount it round and press it down.

-We'll add an egg because that's how it was done in the 19th century.

-How interesting!

-We're going to put the sugar in.

-Right.

-We're going to break the egg into that, OK?

You rub the egg into the sugar and gradually work it with the tips of your fingers

until you have it completely evenly amalgamated throughout the bowl. OK?

I'll do a bit of clearing away while you do that.

'This is what it's all about, preparing real Scottish fare,

'just as they did for the Queen in 1842

'and in this very same kitchen.

'Apparently, Victoria was very fond of her shortbread

'and I can't wait to try it out on the nearest I'm going to get to royalty today - Tim.'

Queen Victoria and her party would have descended from the carriages outside

and come into this delightful space called the Octagon.

And I bet you a quid she would have noticed this table

which is a particular treasure of Scone Palace

and is of course octagonal to fit this room.

It was created by the Regency cabinetmaker George Bullock

who was a specialist in cut brass

and most appropriately, the border running round the outside

is inlaid with the quintessential Scottish element -

a thistle in cut brass.

One thing that Victoria would not have done, though, I promise you,

is to hunker down like this and sniff the drawer lining.

Not many visiting Queens go round sniffing drawer linings in stately homes,

but if she had, her nose would have told her

that that's made of solid cedar.

And I reckon that a cedar will have fallen in the park

and George Bullock will have taken that timber away

and crafted this extraordinary object.

-Timber!

-LOUD CRASH

Many trees on the Scone estate ended up as beautiful furniture, made just for Victoria's visit,

and most of it was produced by a local company called Ballingall's

who formed a close alliance with the Earl.

It was a bit sticky, all this, for the Earl of Mansfield.

He knew two years beforehand that Victoria was due to visit,

but yet he was sworn to secrecy.

He wanted to upgrade the facilities inside the palace.

And he writes, "I have been obliged to take Ballingall into my confidence,

"otherwise, my furniture would not be ready."

We know that the Earl spent the equivalent of £75,000 with Ballingall,

doing re-upholstery in the palace before Victoria arrived.

And it's also known that he provided this suite of dining room furniture.

There's one interesting thing that I've loved finding out from the family papers

and that is that the Earl, when writing to his mother on the 8th of August, 1842,

so barely a month before the Queen's arrival,

he's saying that "the visit is very inconvenient, yet impossible to decline".

But such is his pride in playing host to Her Majesty that he simply couldn't say no.

Here at eight o'clock, just an hour after she arrived,

with the porcelain, crystal and silverware gleaming in the light of candles and lamps,

Victoria dined with her loyal subjects.

The guest list, carefully chosen by the Earl, included the Duchess of Norfolk,

the Earl of Aberdeen, the Earl of Liverpool. Even the Prime Minister Robert Peel was here.

Ballingall, the interior furnisher, makes another appearance here in the drawing room

because, no doubt as a part of his £75,000 re-upholstery bill,

he provided for the Earl all this silk for the panels in the drawing room walls,

specifically for Victoria's visit.

Now, they look somewhat "deshabille",

which is a French word for "clapped-out".

That's because the brilliant sunshine streaming into this room

has faded them and made them brittle,

but originally, when Victoria walked through this room,

they would have been as blue, as blue...

..as blue as my eyes.

'As Victoria was being ushered through the drawing room,

'downstairs, the kitchen would have been in full swing.

'I'm making an original shortbread recipe with food historian Ivan Day

'which was served to the Queen during her stay.'

Isn't it wonderful? 'So far, we've mixed sugar, butter and flour.

'Next we press and roll the dough, ready to place in the mould.'

-We're going to start off by making a very traditional shortbread.

-Right.

It will be in this form here, which I'm sure everyone has seen.

It's a shortbread mould. This is a 19th century one, probably from the time of Victoria's visit.

It has another bit of kit which is absolutely essential, which is this.

-This is called a docker. You know the little holes you get in biscuits?

-Yes.

That's a biscuit or shortbread docker.

So what we've got to do is to ensure that we can get this out of the mould.

We'll dust it with some rice flour.

We're also going to put a little bit on the board.

So this is the traditional way of dusting your board.

-We're going to take a little bit more than half a pound off the...

-It's gorgeous, Ivan.

-Isn't it beautiful?

-I have to tell you, this is absolutely beautiful.

I'm going to make it into a round.

-I'm going to pop it on to the mould.

-Mm-hm.

Like that. Then with a great deal of care, again with a hand, we're going to push it in.

And using the knife, we first of all trim a little bit off from one side.

OK.

We can then get the excess off which I'd like you to just gently roll up into a little ball

-and we can make some smaller ones with that.

-Good.

Now I'm going to separate the edges out, so that they're not touching.

And I'm going to push that in like that.

The next thing is to make sure this is going to come out and we can guarantee that

by banging it,

and then it's a very swift and careful movement and there is our perfect shortbread.

That is brilliant.

Then you take your docker...

Be very careful because the first one... We'll be able to test the quality of the dough.

-Right.

-If we put it in like that...

-You go right to the bottom?

-You go right through.

The docking is essential. It stops the shortbread from puffing up.

Any air that gets trapped is released when you put the holes in.

The next thing is to get it onto the baking tray. Just let it go... You've got room for another one.

-Can I have a go?

-Yeah, definitely.

Why don't you make one in the form of a thistle like Jarrin?

Fantastic.

-Pat that out into a round.

-I need to do my flour.

-Exactly.

Get it exactly in the middle and make sure that it's even.

OK, now a gentle push.

Stop. Take it off.

-Perfetto!

-How wonderful!

Just cut it carefully. It should fit exactly.

That's perfect. Lift it off. Look at that!

-That is beautiful.

-Just a quick slide underneath it.

OK. Perfect.

And again just gently next to the other one.

-Isn't that beautiful?

-I think that is absolutely stunning.

'The shortbread now goes into the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

'Or in those days, a moderate oven.

'And when it's ready, Ivan and I will be adding some right royal decorations.'

The Queen didn't want to sleep upstairs, so requested ground floor apartments instead.

Just what the cash-strapped Earl didn't want to hear!

So once again, in came the builders to create a new suite,

fitted with a private dressing room for Albert and, of course, the royal boudoir.

All this work for a 12-hour visit, about six of which would have been spent in this bed

which Victoria and Albert shared.

Pretty unusual for the monarchy!

But Victoria was not strait-laced.

She was on her hols after all and the kids were at home. Nudge, nudge, say no more!

On arrival in her rooms, Victoria would have been on a mission.

I mean, aren't most women, having been in an open carriage all day, on a mission?

Where do they go when they're on a mission? Well, logically, not to a bookcase.

But this is a bookcase with a difference.

If you reach round here to that secret button and press it,

the jib door which is this bookcase itself opens up.

And Victoria would have headed inside to her other throne.

-TOILET FLUSHES

-Or at least, what's left of it.

'The Earl had thought of everything, even a secret lady's room.

'But it wasn't just the renovations upstairs that he had splashed out on.

'The house archivist Sarah Adams has a revealing account

'of exactly what he spent on the catering and the staff downstairs.'

-Hello, Sarah.

-Hello.

-I believe you've got a very special book to show me.

-Yes.

We have a book of expenditure from the time that the Queen was at Scone.

So it shows us what was spent on food and groceries and also on servants as well.

'For a flying visit of just 12 hours, it's remarkable how much food was ordered in.'

"Sum paid for butcher and meat - 38 pounds, 14 shillings and 9 and a half pence."

'That's about £1,700 in today's money.'

When we compare it with what was paid in preceding weeks,

we've got £14 the week before and £6 the week before that, so there was quite a significant jump.

The total for that week was 69 pounds, eight shillings.

That would be in today's figure, about £3,000?

'The Earl spent all this money on food, but it looks like Victoria might have been on a detox plan.'

"Skimmed milk?" Were they worried about skimmed milk in those days?

"Green tea!" That's quite healthy and organic, something you get in health shops.

'If the Earl pushed the boat out on all the meat and groceries, you should see the booze list!'

-Something else that may be of interest was how much they spent on wine and beer.

-As always!

So on the 7th of June, they spent one pound, eight shillings,

but in September, they've spent...

52 pounds and six shillings!

-It's no wonder they had to save up for this particular visit.

-Yes.

-And I should think when it was done, it was a big relief.

-Yes.

Then they spent the next few years trying to recover!

'The man who served up the booze to Victoria was the butler.

'It was said in all establishments it was his duty to rule.

'Derek Brown knows all about the man in charge on that special day in 1842.'

Tell me about this butler.

What was so special about him?

His name was Matthew Gloag and he was the butler and cellarman here

and gained quite a degree of experience in good, fine wines and spirits and food.

He was, at a young age, in charge of the cellar here and he's probably in his late teens.

And he, at the same time, started a family business in Perth.

The Gloag family were from the area

and he utilised the experience gained here at the palace

to set up this business selling good food, fine wines and spirits.

'Before Victoria's visit, Matthew Gloag had stopped working here

'to concentrate on being an entrepreneur.

'But his food and wine business grew such a fine reputation

'that the Earl called him back into service for the Queen's stay. This was the ultimate honour.'

During Victoria's visit, what exactly was his role here?

He would have done everything from polishing the plate on the entrance into the palace

to making sure that everything was in the right place in the bedrooms

to the pre-dinner drinks, to the service at dinner

and co-ordinating the position in which the Queen would sit at dinner.

In these days, the Queen would never sit with her back to the windows,

so it would be Matthew's job to make sure all those little details were looked after.

'It's amazing just how much effort went into this visit, especially as it was only 12 hours long.'

On the morning after Victoria arrived, she wrote in her diary,

"We walked out and saw the mound on which the ancient Scotch kings were always crowned."

They were crowned on top of this, the Stone of Scone.

Except this one is a fake here for the tourists.

Where the original is is a bit of a mystery.

We know that after Edward I was crowned here, he decided to have the stone shipped down to Westminster,

but many Scots still cling to the belief that the stone that was moved wasn't in fact the original.

The story goes that the Abbot of Scone knew that Edward was heading to the monastery

with the precise intention of nicking the stone,

so he had a quick one knocked up as a replacement and it's that that he gave to Edward to take away

whilst preserving the original safely.

If it's true, this would mean that the stone that's been used in London

for the coronation of generations of monarchs,

including Victoria, is bogus.

I wonder what Victoria's take on all this was?

After all, she was on somewhat of a charm offensive in Scotland

and yet she surely would have liked to have sided with Edward's story.

No-one really knows the absolute truth,

but in 1996, the stone in Westminster was returned to Scotland

and it now stands in Edinburgh Castle.

But somebody around here is taking the mickey because have a look at this!

Inside the Earl's shed, I've got Edward I's coronation chair

which has been nicked from Westminster Abbey.

These Scots have got our chair!

And in this box back here,

we've got the Stone of Scone ready to tuck underneath.

What's going on then? It's a disgrace!

The truth of the matter is this is a film prop,

a replica made for a movie that's been left behind in this shed.

At least, I think it is.

This is all very confusing.

'What a saga! While Victoria was admiring the Stone of Scone,

'downstairs, the royal shortbread was baking away.

'After 20 minutes in the oven, it's left to cool

'and as Scone's master confectioner Maitre Jarrin would have done,

'it's time for Ivan and me to add a very special bit of decoration.'

We're going to use some of the techniques that Jarrin used to ornament foods like shortbreads.

I thought the most appropriate thing to do for Victoria

is to use a mould from his time.

You press sugar paste into these and this makes a crown.

-And you build it together?

-Yeah.

-I've made one earlier.

-Let's have a look.

-There it is.

Oh, that is amazing! Look at this!

The traditional symbol of the crown was a crown on a cushion.

-So shall I put that on top?

-Put it on the cushion.

But we're going to gild this, so it looks like gold.

-Oh, how incredible!

-I've actually got some gold leaf.

-Mm-hm.

And it's on what is called a gilder's pad,

which is this soft chamois leather pad.

-It's very delicate stuff, isn't it?

-Yeah.

The technique that I'm using is one that Jarrin tells us about.

He tells us, the day before you gild your sugar,

to paint gum arabic and sugar solution on to it,

-so I did that yesterday and I've let it dry for 24 hours.

-Why?

If you feel that, it doesn't feel sticky, but it's covered with gum arabic.

You used to get it on stamps and you licked it. Instead of licking it, we breathe on it.

-Do that on that area there.

-All round?

While you're doing that, I'm going to cut a little bit of gold leaf

and then with a great deal of care, I lift it up from the pad.

-Like that. You can let me have that.

-I think it's sticky enough.

We'll concentrate on that bar there

and we'll just drop the gold on to it like that.

And then using a very fine brush,

we will tap it down.

And then we're going to brush it off.

-Can you see what happens?

-Mm-hm.

So it only goes on to the actual yellow bit, OK?

-And I'll get you to do the cross on the top.

-Right.

-So give it a really good breathe. Get breathing on that.

And I'm going to cut you a piece of gold.

-OK? Pick up...

-Yeah.

Right now, just let it sort of go of its own volition...

-No, go a bit lower. Can you see it will go to it?

-Yes.

You've got it. Perfect. Fold it down the other side. Don't worry too much.

-No.

-Just sort of damp it down, so it goes into all the little creases of the design.

And on the back as well.

Lovely. Just a little tap.

Tap, tap, tap. And then once you're sure you've got it all attached, you can gently brush the excess of

and it will shine like real gold. That's a very good attempt.

-That's brilliant.

-That's nine out of ten.

-Thank you, Ivan, very much.

'Nine out of ten? I'm pretty chuffed with that!

'It's time to present our gilded treat to our own lord of the manor himself

'and what better way to wash it down than a glass of Scotch whisky!'

Now, Rosemary, I thought you'd be cooking scones here at Scone.

-And you've been doing shortbread.

-I think it's very appropriate.

First of all, have you ever seen anything quite so grand in terms of shortbread?

The array of shortbread, I am knocked out by this. Tell me about this joker with a crown on the top.

-This is gold leaf.

-Is it really?

You wouldn't have eaten it, just presented it. I think Queen Victoria would have been absolutely thrilled.

I don't like to break this. It's your special creation. I am longing to taste it.

-There we go. I'm going to give you that bit.

-Oh, yes.

-There we go.

-For my nibble?

-For your nibble. I'm going to take a little bit off here.

-Hmm!

-Hmm!

-It's buttery.

-Mm-hm.

-It's crumbly.

I love this. I absolutely adore it.

I think Ivan's very clever. I really do.

I think you're both very clever, almost as clever as Queen Victoria.

Here we are seated underneath this tree,

a tree that she referred to in 1842.

And she wrote, "Before our window stands a sycamore tree,

"planted by James VI."

-This is the very tree. Don't you think that's extraordinary?

-I think this is a magnificent tree.

'But the most remarkable thing is that the Earl spent two years planning this fleeting visit.'

Despite all this work and effort, the new driveway, all this cookery you've been doing,

the expenditure on the furniture, the whole flim-flam for this visit

and Victoria was only here for 12 hours!

It's incredible.

-Therefore, I think we need to have a drink.

-A toast.

-To Queen Victoria!

-Queen Victoria! Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Ah, yes.

-Hmm!

'Next time on Royal Upstairs Downstairs...'

Wonderful Walmer Castle in Kent.

'Like Victoria and Albert, we're going to take in the sea air

'as they try to escape the glare of the royal spotlight for a romantic getaway by the coast.'

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2011

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