THE QUEEN'S HIGHLAND HOME BABBLE ABOUT BALMORAL.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 335, 19 January 1889, Page 6

THE QUEEN'S HIGHLAND HOME BABBLE ABOUT BALMORAL.

Mb, G. W. Smalle'y gives the following interesting aqeount of Balmoral in fche "Tribune:" ■■ riTl^ doacOrWß'aliafcor t'tf Braerqar will 'give you twice or thrice a day a, near vie.w of the' grey turrets and walls of the Queen's highland home. Probably ib strikes you as ,being curiously near tho public highway for a Tloyal, residence. The ' grounds-come clovyn to'bhe opppsiLe bank of tho Dee along which Uie road is carried ; you can throw a stone into the Queen's grounds, if you think tlbdtagodd way of signify ingy our Republican disliko to Royalty. -Her Majesty will see you. A belt of thick shrubbery hides the castle from" tho road and the road from the -casl/le, its upper windows and outlying buildings exeepted.

COLOSSAL JOHN BROWN. Of these latter you note many; none with more curiosity " than the house occupied during the later years of his life by John Brown, the Queen's gillio ; the confidential servant who fills so much space in that journal of 'her life in the Highlands which her Majesty has doigned to lay bofore her faithful subjects and tho .rest of the world. Curiosity presently gives place to amazement. Thoro is a statue of . Brown as well as a houpe. You may have heard of it, but not till you liavo seen it with' your eyes can you conceive the ofl'oct of the sculptured effigy of thi& hero. A bronze statuo, colossal in size ; standing at an angle of the garden appertaining to his house ; upheld by what seem to 'be 1 huge slabs of stone, four square-, and frjoui this fortress T liko pedestal gazing steadfastly upon the palace of his Royal ! mistress. >

v . h '.M-R"BQEHM, NO^bESS. ' J TheA'i;fcUfc ; of lmnWhs hb'leks a pei-so'nago than Mr Boefhra, 'by common consent fii's of living English seulpbons ; not' less bo bo t cause ho happens to be German by bivth

as is bhe Sovereign herself, if uot by birth yet by direct unbroken descenl, wjhich does not prevont her people from believing her to be quite English. To approach Balmoral without seeing this bronzo colossal Brown is impossible ; he is in the placo and of it, and if not. quite at the entrance gate, so near that he towers above all coiners as they arrive ; as it were, the presiding genius of the Queon's household, now as when in the flesh.

THE CAIRN TO BROWN. , The house is still shown- as John Brown's house ; whether kept empfcy in honour o* him and his names I know not. . Other monuments to his memory rise higher still ; highest of all, a great cairn of piled | stones on the brow of a mountain that looks' down on the scene of his earthly triumphs ; higher, I think, and higher piled than any other, save that which was raised by tho same pious hand to the late Pj-ince Consort. No one has ever succeeded to Brown There is still a Queen's gillie, but he inherits only the shade of a great name, and the more humble of the great man's duties.

"THE WIDOW." "HER MOST GRACIOUS." Ido not know whether: I may venture to repeal in print the colloquial familiarities which aic to be heard in tho mouths qf somo of her Majesty's lieges on Deeside. You will easily recognise her when referred to as " tier Most Gracious,'" or you may, without; at first quite understanding 1 who is meant, hear her spokon of as " The Widow. " This latter title is, so £ar<as I know, confined to Deeside, but I heard.it thevo years ago, and have heard ib more recently. The tourist is said to explore this neighbourhood more than most others, partly for its singular and admirable beauty, partly also out of that enthusiasm of loyalty which is a characteristic ot the tourist.

THE ETIQUETTE OF DEESIBE. He has perhaps a f.iint hope that he may see the, . Queen. I doubt whether ho ever does. The Queen drives' daily, bub never till five in the afternoon, and then for the most part in her own or her neighbour's forests, and not on the high road. And the etiquette of "Deeside is peculiar. "W hoover may by chance meet the Queen on these excursions will do well to behave as if ho had not mot her, nor seen her, nor let her see him. 110 will get behind a rock or tree, or otherwise as best he may make himself invisible, and act as if he had neither eyes to see nor ears to Hear. Such is His Majesty's wibh ; poriectily understood 'of those -who live in her vicinity, and studiously obeyed.

A SMILE -FOR THE MASSES, A FROWN FOR THE CLASSES. If, on the other hand, the passer be neither, tourist nor of such position as may entitle him to bo known, but a gillie, or groom, or labourer, the chances are that, upon a pignal fiom the carriage, the postilions will pull up their four smoking ponies, , , and the Queen will a&k a kindly question or two of the man about himself and his family. Her Majesty has a strong liking for the masses. As for the chibses, what is difference of rank or station, a little more or a little le*?, to one who deems herself immeasurably i»he highest of her subjects ?— " Pull Mall Gtuotte."