In June 1850, Mary Elizabeth Lucy arrived in London to with the intention of presenting her youngest daughter, Caroline Lucy (best known as Carry) to Queen Victoria. However, things didn’t quite go as planned.
Typically there would be several Drawing-rooms each month. However, all official ceremonies were suspended in spring 1850 whilst Queen Victoria awaited and recovered from the birth of her seventh child, Prince Arthur, on 1st May. As a result, there was a large backlog of over 250 young ladies waiting to be presented at court on 20th June 1850.
Unfortunately for Carry and her mother, the great volume of people caused a ‘crowd and crush of ladies… so great that it was simply impossible to make one’s way through the door’ of St James’s Palace. Making matters worse, that summers day was one of great heat and the squeeze of the ‘immensely full’ drawing room was enough for anyone to struggle, including poor Carry. Trying to protect her daughter from the suffocating corridors of St James’s, Mary Elizabeth attempted to shield Carry in a ‘large room or gallery next to the throne room,’ but unfortunately it was too late and Carry fainted amongst the crowd.
The young woman was swiftly taken towards a window for fresh air and many of the attending ladies offered their smelling bottles to help bring her round. In addition to this, the palace officials offered smelling salts and water but it took a long while of anticipation before anything proved successful. In fact, it had taken Carry so long to regain consciousness that they missed the presentations all together, having entered the throne room just as the Queen was leaving. Luckily some family acquaintances and one of the Lords-in-waiting saw what had happened and introduced them to the Lord Chamberlain, who in turn offered to inform the Queen of the incident.
The next day Carry received a letter from Queen Victoria ‘hoping she was quite recovered, and saying that she should consider her as having been presented – that the name Lucy was well known to her’. Soon after the mother and daughter duo received an invite to a ball hosted by the Queen, which was to take place on 9th July. However, this is where I discovered two different stories of what happened next.
In her memoirs, Mary Elizabeth Lucy writes that they had almost been late to the ball due to an error made by their coachman. According to her, her coachman named Brown went against her order and insisted that he take Mary Elizabeth and Carry to the private entrance at the side of the palace to avoid the line of carriages out the front. However, just as Mary Elizabeth had predicted, the footman refused them entry. Wanting her daughter to experience a royal ball, Mary Elizabeth Lucy pleaded with the man until he let them in and took them upstairs just in time for the Queen to enter. Quite interestingly, the mistress of Charlecote is very specific in mentioning that they stood at the side as the Queen gave them ‘a most gracious smile’ as she passed.
What makes this account particularly intriguing is that the ball that Mary Elizabeth and Carry had been invited to on 9th July was actually cancelled the day before due to the death of the Duke of Cambridge. From what I can find through research, the ball was never rescheduled so we can only presume that they were invited to a ball on a different date, although it seems unusual that Mary Elizabeth doesn’t mention this. I personally have a suspicion that Mary Elizabeth was hesitant to admit that the ball was cancelled in case it showed weakness towards her position in society, so instead she either recycled a story from a different event or made up the tale of the coachman to entertain the reader of her memoir. Although we will never know what truly happened.
Are you enjoying learning about Queen Victoria and the Lucy family? Let me know in the comments!
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