Punch on Buckingham Palace
Punch, the satirical magazine was not deferential in the early year's of Victoria's reign.
Queen Charlotte, George III's wife had brought up her 15 children in the much smaller Buckingham House and Victoria and Albert with a smaller family and a larger palace were asking for extensions to be made.
Punch was not impressed and lampooned the couple.
A CASE OF REAL DISTRESS
"GOOD PEOPLE,PRAY TAKE COMPASSION UPON US.IT IS NOW NEARLY SEVEN YEARS SINCE WE HAVE EITHER OF US KNOWN THE BELSSING OF A COMFORTABLE RESIDENCE. iF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE US, GOOD PEOPLE, COME AND SEE WHERE WE LIVE AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE,AND YOU WILL BE SATISFIED THAT THERE IS NO DECPTION IN OUR STORY. SUCH IS OUR DISTRESS, THAT WE SHOULD BE TRULY GRATEFUL FOR THE BELSSING OF A COMFORTABLE TWO-PAIR BACK, WITH COMMONLY DECENT SLEEPINMG-ROOM FOR OUR CHILDREN AND DOMESTICS. WITH OUT SLENDER MEANS,AND AN INCREASING FAMILY,WE DECLARETO YOU THAT WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO. THE SUM OF ONE HUNDRED AND FITY THOUSAND POUNDS WILL BE ALL THAT WILL BE REQUIRED TO MAKE THE NEEDFUL ALTERATIONS IN OUR DWELLING. DO,GOOD PEOPLE, BESTOW YOU CHARITY TO THIS LITTLE AMOUNT,AND MAY YOU NEVER FEEL THE WANT OF SO SMALL A TRIFLE."
Underline where you think Punch is being ironical.
Can you work out who the child is holding Victoria's hand?
Make a hoop and stick like the boy on the left.
Punch was clearly not happy with the loss of the old Buckingham Palace to the new design.
In the strange adaptation of the famous painting of Napoleon bidding goodbye to the Old Guard at Fontainebleau the cartoonist has produced a weird lament to the loss of the old Buckingham Palace with a cast of characters who would not be out of place in Alice's Wonderland.
Print out and colour.
Napoleon at noon on April 20th 1814 said goodbye to the Old Guard at Fontainebleau before being sent into exile on Elba. His army had been defeated by the 6th coalition and the Russian, Prussian and Austrian armies had entered Paris.
He made a stirring speech which left many of his soldiers in tears.
"Soldiers of my Old Guard I bid you farewell. For twenty years you have bee4n my constant companions on the road to honour and glory...
With men such as you our cause would not have been lost, but the war would have been interminable, it would have been a civil war, and France would only have become unhappier still. I have therefore sacrificed all our interests to those of la Patrie. I shall depart."
The painting is Les adieux de Fontainebleau.
Antoine Alphonse Montfort (1802-1884) . Clearly not painted from memory.
What happened to Napoleon after this?
ENLARGED AND (NOT) BEAUTIFIED
Punch clearly did not think much of the new front to Buckingham Palace. and joked that the ground floor should be turned into shops to help the shops in Oxford Street. They thought it would be good training if the royal children would help out as shop assistants. A long way from the deferential press at the end of Victoria's reign.
What sort of shops would suit Buckingham Palace?
