Alan Hardy (3) (1932–)

This was written to counteract the well-known image of Victoria as a stern old lady saying "we are not amused" offering numerous anecdotes to show that the queen from youth to old aged was frequently highly amused, often by very simple forms humor. Many of the anecdotes are the sort of feeble trivia which are preserved only because they are connected to an illustrious personage, but a few are genuinely funny. I had known that the queen was fond of Gilbert and Sullivan, bu I had not known she herself had once sung "I'm called little Buttercup." On more serious level, I was struck by her rebuke of the Sabbatarian aristocrats who wanted to close museums on Sunday. She said bluntly that it was all very well for people who had nothing more to do than go to church two or three times on Sunday and rest in between, but for people who had to work hard during the week, denying them museums on the only day they were free to see them was "mere cruelty."… (mehr)