John Brown | ?-1883 The Queen's trusted servant and friend from 1864 till his death in 1883, he succeeded in bringing Victoria out of deep mourning over Albert, but their relationship caused tongues to wag and engendered disrespect for and intense displeasure with the monarchy. The Prince's gillie had now become the Queen's personal attendant -- a body servant from whom she was never parted, who accompanied her on her drives, waited on her during the day, and slept in a neighbouring chamber at night. She liked his strength, his solidity, the sense he gave her of physical security; she even liked his rugged manners and his rough unaccommodating speech. She allowed him to take liberties with her which would have been unthinkable from anybody else. To bully the Queen, to order her about, to reprimand her -- who could dream of venturing upon such audacities? And yet, when she received such treatment from John Brown, she positively seemed to enjoy it.... To have submitted her judgment to a son or a Minister might have seemed wiser or more natural; but if she had done so, she instinctively felt, she would indeed have lost her independence. And yet upon somebody she longed to depend.... He had, too, in her mind, a special connection with Albert. In their expeditions the Prince had always trusted him more than anyone; the gruff, kind, hairy Scotsman was, she felt, in some mysterious way, a legacy from the dead. She came to believe at last -- or so it appeared -- that the spirit of Albert was nearer when Brown was near.... Eventually, the "simple mountaineer" became almost a state personage. The influence which he wielded was not to be overlooked. Lord Beaconsfield was careful, from time to time, to send courteous messages to "Mr. Brown" in his letters to the Queen, and the French Government took particular pains to provide for his comfort during the visits of the English Sovereign to France. It was only natural that among the elder members of the royal family he should not have been popular, and that his failings -- for failings he had, though Victoria would never notice his too acute appreciation of Scotch whisky -- should have been the subject of acrimonious comment at Court. But he served his mistress faithfully, and to ignore him would be a sign of disrespect in her biographer. For the Queen, far from making a secret of her affectionate friendship, took care to publish it to the world.... In the second series of extracts from the Queen's Highland Journal, published in 1884, her "devoted personal attendant and faithful friend" appears upon almost every page, and is in effect the hero of the book. -Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria