Cookie of the Day: The Butterscotch Cookies

In past years, I’ve mentioned the “friendly” rivalry in my family regarding these cookies. They are, without a doubt, one of the top contenders for the title of Favorite Christmas Cookie. We will squabble about who gets to eat the last of these gorgeous, cakey, butterscotch cookies. This year, I’m happy to report, I got to eat the FIRST one! Ha! 

So, what could cause our usually mellow little group to launch a war? Only the tenderest, most beautiful of cookies, flecked with nuts and topped with the creamiest, most delicate of butterscotch frostings—adorned with colored sugar. They are truly exceptional. You know I’m ready for this year’s battle. I’ve got all sorts of tricks up the sleeves of my many cardigans. 

And, thusly, I offer a warning to my mother and father:

It’s on! They’re mine.  

Mr. Punch of Belgrave Square, Chapter 217

Chapter 217 
What I Am



“Where you been?” Hortence snapped as Orpha let herself into Eudora’s musky parlor.

“You’re hardly in a position to be questioning me,” Orpha replied casually.

“Now, you listen to me,” Hortence growled. “Maybe at the Duke’s house we was in different classes, but here, you ain’t no governess and I ain’t no chamber maid. You was a poor workhouse girl and I had me a family. So, maybe it’s me what should be talkin’ down to you.”

“I beg your pardon, my Lady.” Orpha smirked, bowing theatrically.

“What’s all this, then?” Eudora sniffed, coming into the parlor as she scratched herself. “Why are the two of you always squabbling?”

“It’s our deep love for one another.” Orpha laughed.

“Ellen, you been gone a long time. We got a lot to talk over.” Eudora grimaced.

“My name is not Ellen!” Orpha snapped.

“Well, dearie,” Eudora shrugged, “you spent so much time tryin’ to convince us that you was Ellen, you can’t fault us for not remembering what name you’re usin’ now.”

“I suppose that’s flattering.” Orpha replied.

“Ask her where she’s been, Eudora.” Hortence snarled.

“She’ll tell us by and by.” Eudora yawned.

“I shall indeed.” Orpha smiled.

“Well, wherever you was,” Hortence began, “you sure weren’t helpin’ us. Old Hutch got hisself taken away by the Queen’s guards.”

“You could have guessed that since the Duke and his companion were going to the palace that they’d report what had happened here to Her Majesty.” Orpha answered airily.

“After all we told ‘im?”

“Please, Hortence, you really didn’t expect that we’d intimidate the Duke of Fallbridge?”

“Didn’t we?” Hortence frowned. She looked at Eudora.

Eudora put her hands on her hips. “I thought we did.”

“You’re both so delightful.” Orpha grinned. “But, no, this has played out exactly as I had anticipated.”

“You gonna share with us?” Eudora smirked. “Last I heard, we was tryin’ to get some gold off of the loony Duke.”

“And, we shall.”

“Not now he’s got the Queen’s special men standin’ outside the ‘ouse, we ain’t.” Hortence barked. “We told him that if he didn’t do what we said, we’d tell the world that his precious boy is his sister’s bastard, and what’s more, we’d take that boy from his arms. We can’t get to the little brat now!”

“We don’t need to.” Orpha laughed.

“Why not?” Hortence asked.

“Eudora,” Orpha ignored Hortence, “have you room for three more children here?”

“I ain’t got room for me own brood, let ‘lone any more. Why?”

“I’ve brought three little visitors with me.” Orpha winked. She walked across the parlor and opened the front door, ushering in three children.

Little Fern wrinkled her nose as she walked in—the foul smell of the place overwhelming her.

“What’re these?” Hortence squawked.

“These, dear, dear Hortence,” Orpha smiled. “Are our key to the Duke’s coffers as well as a knife in the throat of the man who made me what I am.”





Did you miss Chapters 1-216 of Mr. Punch of Belgrave Square? If so, you can read them here. Come back tomorrow for Chapter 218.  

The Home Beautiful: Christmas Trees of the Duchess of Kent and the Royal Children at Windsor Castle, 1850

Queen Victoria's Christmas Tree
William Corden, the Younger
after James Roberts, 1851
The Royal Collection

Queen Victoria loved Christmas! She loved it. I think she loved it largely because she really liked to get presents. I mean, she really, really liked to get presents. And, Prince Albert liked to give her presents. So, the Queen had her own little tree on a table upon which she could show off the many opulent gifts she received, and she would admire them and make visitors do the same.  

The image to the left shows one such display of gifts at Windsor Castle in 1851.

So, as you can see, Her Majesty really enjoyed Christmas.  And, why not?  Look at what she was given.  Still...

At a point, she also had nine children. I would assume that most of them enjoyed getting presents, too. But, they, naturally, didn’t get to put their gifts on the Queen’s gift table. They had their own. And their own tree.

Oh, yes, and the Duchess of Kent—Queen Victoria’s mum. Victoria didn’t like her mum too much most of the time. They had, after all, some rather strange history stemming back to the Kensington Palace days. But, Christmas meant that the Duchess of Kent would be hanging around Windsor Castle, and, since she was the mother of the Queen, she did deserve some cheer as well. So, she got to share the royal kiddies’ spot. She did, however, get her own tree. 

How nice. 

And, here’s a drawing of that phenomenon. Created by James Roberts (1800-1867), this beautiful watercolor shows a topographical view of a gorgeous, but unnamed, room in Windsor Castle. Painted in 1850, this image gives us a glimpse at the Christmas trees—dangerously aglow with candles--of the Duchess of Kent and the Royal children and a look at the gifts that they received that year.

Throughout the year, Victoria and Albert commissioned these watercolor drawings of the Royal residences to serve as records of their decor.  Their Majesties always made a point to have paintings created of their Christmas displays.  The Royal Collection contains several such scenes.

The Christmas Trees of the Duchess of Kent and the Royal Children
James Roberts, 1850
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Object of the Day, Caption Contest: A Snow Scene

I couldn’t even begin to guess how many hundreds of thousands of trade cards were printed in the late Nineteenth Century. As you know, some were commissioned specifically for a business while others were meant to be purchased by a business owner who would stamp or overprint them with their own information. These stock cards offered a variety of visuals, many corresponding with a specific season.

Here’s one such trade card. Obviously meant to be distributed in winter, the chromolithograph hints at a Christmas theme, but it was never printed or stamped with any business’ information. Still, someone handed it over to someone else for some reason, and thus, it’s a handsome survivor of its kind. 

So…since we have no clue who used this card and for what reason, let’s have a caption contest. Who are those three stubby little people trudging through the snow? Where are they going? What are they carrying? The snow is fresh.  After all, some of the trees are still green.  Why did the snow only cover part of the landscape?  Is it really snow?  Is it potato flakes?  

Go on, put your warped little minds to work. Answers in the comments section, please.    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Mastery of Design: The Prince Albert Bracelet, 1844

Portrait Bracelet
Commissioned by Prince Albert, 1844
William Essex
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

William Essex (1784-1869), a well-known jeweler and miniaturist favored by the Court of Queen Victoria was commissioned in 1844 by Prince Albert to create a portrait bracelet for (one of) his Royal wife’s Christmas present that year.

The bracelet of gold and enamel consists of five gold knots and four enamel panels of York and Lancaster roses, each one surrounded by a Garter. The piece terminates in a watercolor on ivory portrait miniature of Prince Albert.

Albert (1819-1861) quite enjoyed designing jewelry for Queen Victoria—a fact which I exploit in Mr. Punch of Belgrave Square. However, he really did have a good head for such design work and also had a knack for incorporating sentiment into the pieces which he commissioned.

Prince Albert asked Essex to copy in miniature his countenance from Thorburn’s portrait of the prince in armor. That painting has been presented to the Queen as a birthday gift from Prince Albert that same year. She wrote in her journal on May 24, 1844 of Thorburn’s portrait:

“My beloved Albert is painted in armour, which I so much wished … I cannot say how beautiful it is, nor how exactly [it] portrays the dear original.”

The Prince Consort also cleverly incorporated into the bracelet the design of the collar of the Garter which had been made especially for Queen Victoria. Her Majesty was quite pleased with the bracelet and wrote in her journal on Christmas Eve that year:

“[Albert] took me to his room, where he gave me a most lovely bracelet, with his dear picture, also after Thorburn beautifully enamelled, set with a replica in small of the Collar of the Order of the Garter, in enamel work. It is his own exquisite taste & one of the loveliest things I ever saw. How I shall value it, & what extreme pleasure it gives. I put it on at once, & it was much admired.” 

By all accounts, the Queen really did favor the bracelet and wore it frequently. She is pictured wearing the piece in a watercolor by Carl Haag, “Evening at Balmoral Castle.”

"Evening at Balmoral Castle"
Carl Haag
Watercolor, 1854
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Drawing of the Day: The Three Kings, c. 1965

The Three Kings
Marion Wilson
Circa 1965
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Created around 1965, this drawing of colored ink depicts the tradition of the Three Kings.

The piece is the work of Marion Wilson (born, 1933) whose work typifies the style of 1960s graphic design. Completed in pencil, paint, inks and ball point pens, the drawing was made by Wilson as a design for a Christmas card published by the Gordon Fraser Gallery. 

The Home Beautiful: A Vintage Biscuit Tin, c. 1920

Biscuit Tin Bank
England, 1920s
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This biscuit tin from the early 19th Century was made for the Christmas season. After the First World War, the typical English biscuit tin—a convention which arose in 1861—had become more reserved than the Nineteenth Century, opulent, printed tin models. The exception to this was the Christmas Season when fanciful and clever designs were produced for biscuit companies wishing to appeal to children and their parents. 

These tins were made to be saved, and, often, they’d offer a feature which gave them extended use. This one, for example, was made to serve as a money box or bank after the cookies had all been eaten. It is decorated with printed scenes from “Alice in Wonderland” as well as depictions of Nursery Rhyme characters. The coin slot at the top could be punched out when the biscuits were all gone.