Everyone is taking the air. This visit to Balmoral of Nicholas and Alexandra is chronicled in the book Imperial Tea Party by Frances Welch. The weather during their visit was cold, rainy and miserable. There were downpours on their arrival carriage ride (in OPEN carriages, for Pete's sake) from the train station to the castle. Horrid drenching. This film must have been taken on a day when it was clearer. Nicholas just wanted a VACATION but he was forced to go on constant stag hunts at which he shot no stag, trudging through rain and drizzle...and he was pigeon-holed with the prime minister for hour and a half long meetings which he hated. Meanwhile Alix stayed back at the castle with Victoria and baby Olga. In this film you can see Nicholas and Alexandra in civilian clothes and the Munshi is there too. A servant is guiding Queen Victoria's carriage horse by the bridle, but it is not John Brown because he died in 1883. Everyone is sort of walking aimlessly around in circles as the Queen's carriage goes in circles too, probably for the camera, but also because it was one of the few nice days on that vacation. I am rather surprised at how many people are there. Georgie and Mae were also visiting and David, their son aged 2 (Edward VIII who abdicated) was a toddler a year older than Olga. At one point she fell down and he helped her up and kissed her. Olga was one month older than David's brother "Bertie" who became George VI, both approx one year old at this visit. Victoria received MANY well wishes on the achievement of her longest reign, and remarked several times in her diary that MORE kept coming; she was pleased at this. This film is amazing. Imagine how amazed the royals were when this film was officially shown to them -- they probably sounded like our own families when we spot one another in a video -- "Look! There's Mom! And there is cousin Ray..."
I know it was fashionable to walk with a cane, but would you know if Nicholas has a limp in this film? He looks to be walking like an old man even though he would have only been 28, but maybe it just looks like that in this old footage.
@@ianfigures I think it is the choppiness of the footage and the fact that someone had to hand crank the film through the camera, so those early films were choppy because no matter how smoothly the filmmaker would turn the crank, it still came out jerky. On this trip he spent hours and hours tromping over hills and dales hunting for game with his British cousins, which means either he was in good enough health to hike for miles, or that he turned his ankle on one of those treks, but accounts I have read do not refer to any injury, and they surely would have. All he wanted to do was rest and enjoy his family, but he was taken on these outings when he really didn't want to go, and he was closeted with the prime minister on several occasions for 1-2 hour meetings where he was forced to be noncommittal about topics since he was an autocrat and UK had a parliamentary system. As to the cane, it was quite common for men in civilian clothes to carry a cane; it was part of a gentleman's outfit in the UK, Paris, the Riviera, NYC..... Also Alexandra is carrying one which I suspect was an umbrella since it has a bulge over a thin point. Scottish weather is fickle, it can be pure sunshine and ten minutes later there is a downpour, ten minutes later, sleet, ten minutes later back to sunshine (I know this from experience being in Scotland). His stick looks more like a cane and I have seen another close-up photo of him alone in civilian clothes on this trip, holding the same cane horizontally across his body like a staff, as if he psychologically was trying to close off the photographer from revealing too much of his inner self. His coat sleeves are overly long, which betrays poor tailoring.... On such trips overseas he was able to wear civilian clothes (termed mufti) except when required to wear a uniform, often of army or navy of the other country. He was the ceremonial leader of the Royal Scots Greys and was shown in photos of this visit wearing their uniform, one with a formal photo of Queen Victoria, Alix holding baby Olga, Nicholas standing behind them and Edward VII off to the right. Nicholas's civilian clothes often look poorly tailored compared to Edward VII who had expert tailoring and loved beautiful clothes and had access to the best woolens and other fabrics. Nicholas's normal day to day clothing at home in his palaces was a tunic (red...) reaching to over his hips with the side placket of buttons at the neck ala Dr. Zhivago if you recall that style, with a leather belt cinching the tunic, and loose trousers tucked into high boots. During the war he would wear a khaki military tunic with epaulets with similar trousers and boots.
I love love love this video of Queen Victoria with her Volpino Gena. This is just amazing, thank you!!!!!
Amazing!
Everyone is taking the air. This visit to Balmoral of Nicholas and Alexandra is chronicled in the book Imperial Tea Party by Frances Welch. The weather during their visit was cold, rainy and miserable. There were downpours on their arrival carriage ride (in OPEN carriages, for Pete's sake) from the train station to the castle. Horrid drenching. This film must have been taken on a day when it was clearer. Nicholas just wanted a VACATION but he was forced to go on constant stag hunts at which he shot no stag, trudging through rain and drizzle...and he was pigeon-holed with the prime minister for hour and a half long meetings which he hated. Meanwhile Alix stayed back at the castle with Victoria and baby Olga. In this film you can see Nicholas and Alexandra in civilian clothes and the Munshi is there too. A servant is guiding Queen Victoria's carriage horse by the bridle, but it is not John Brown because he died in 1883. Everyone is sort of walking aimlessly around in circles as the Queen's carriage goes in circles too, probably for the camera, but also because it was one of the few nice days on that vacation. I am rather surprised at how many people are there. Georgie and Mae were also visiting and David, their son aged 2 (Edward VIII who abdicated) was a toddler a year older than Olga. At one point she fell down and he helped her up and kissed her. Olga was one month older than David's brother "Bertie" who became George VI, both approx one year old at this visit. Victoria received MANY well wishes on the achievement of her longest reign, and remarked several times in her diary that MORE kept coming; she was pleased at this. This film is amazing. Imagine how amazed the royals were when this film was officially shown to them -- they probably sounded like our own families when we spot one another in a video -- "Look! There's Mom! And there is cousin Ray..."
I know it was fashionable to walk with a cane, but would you know if Nicholas has a limp in this film? He looks to be walking like an old man even though he would have only been 28, but maybe it just looks like that in this old footage.
@@ianfigures I think it is the choppiness of the footage and the fact that someone had to hand crank the film through the camera, so those early films were choppy because no matter how smoothly the filmmaker would turn the crank, it still came out jerky. On this trip he spent hours and hours tromping over hills and dales hunting for game with his British cousins, which means either he was in good enough health to hike for miles, or that he turned his ankle on one of those treks, but accounts I have read do not refer to any injury, and they surely would have. All he wanted to do was rest and enjoy his family, but he was taken on these outings when he really didn't want to go, and he was closeted with the prime minister on several occasions for 1-2 hour meetings where he was forced to be noncommittal about topics since he was an autocrat and UK had a parliamentary system. As to the cane, it was quite common for men in civilian clothes to carry a cane; it was part of a gentleman's outfit in the UK, Paris, the Riviera, NYC..... Also Alexandra is carrying one which I suspect was an umbrella since it has a bulge over a thin point. Scottish weather is fickle, it can be pure sunshine and ten minutes later there is a downpour, ten minutes later, sleet, ten minutes later back to sunshine (I know this from experience being in Scotland). His stick looks more like a cane and I have seen another close-up photo of him alone in civilian clothes on this trip, holding the same cane horizontally across his body like a staff, as if he psychologically was trying to close off the photographer from revealing too much of his inner self. His coat sleeves are overly long, which betrays poor tailoring.... On such trips overseas he was able to wear civilian clothes (termed mufti) except when required to wear a uniform, often of army or navy of the other country. He was the ceremonial leader of the Royal Scots Greys and was shown in photos of this visit wearing their uniform, one with a formal photo of Queen Victoria, Alix holding baby Olga, Nicholas standing behind them and Edward VII off to the right. Nicholas's civilian clothes often look poorly tailored compared to Edward VII who had expert tailoring and loved beautiful clothes and had access to the best woolens and other fabrics. Nicholas's normal day to day clothing at home in his palaces was a tunic (red...) reaching to over his hips with the side placket of buttons at the neck ala Dr. Zhivago if you recall that style, with a leather belt cinching the tunic, and loose trousers tucked into high boots. During the war he would wear a khaki military tunic with epaulets with similar trousers and boots.