Queen Victoria WAS amused, after all

This photo is from the cover of Alan Hardy's 1976 book of (almost) the same name as this post's title. The gist of the book is that Queen Victoria, who was nearing the end of her long reign when Gilbert and Sullivan were collaborating, was not at all the sour-faced prude whose public image has been summed up for most people by her famous remark ,"We are not amused." I wrote at some length on this topic in our most recent Patter Post newsletter (which, if you don't receive, can be yours every quarter for a minuscule $25 membership in our organization).

I won't repeat all that now, but I did want to share one example that's just too good to keep to myself.

One of her grandsons told a story of the Queen's 1878 luncheon with an elderly admiral who came to report to her on the wreck and later salvage of HMS Eurydice:

"After she had exhausted this melancholy subject, my grandmother, in order to give the conversation a more cheerful turn, inquired after his sister, whom she knew well. Whereupon the Admiral, who was hard of hearing and had not caught the change of topic, replied in his stentorian voice: 'Well, Ma'am, I am going to have her turned over and take a good look at her bottom and have it well scraped.' "The effect of this answer was stupendous. My grandmother put down her knife and fork, hid her face in her handkerchief, and shook and heaved with laughter till the tears rolled down her face."

Not the reaction of a sour-faced prude, I'd say! For a pleasant evening or two of reading, look for Queen Victoria Was Amused next time you're in your local library.