I visited Osborne House on the Isle of Wight recently and found that it gives a fascinating insight into the private lives of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's children. Prince Albert was especially keen on ensuring the children were well educated and in the grounds of the Osborne estate you can still see the Swiss cottage which formed part of their education. It was built in 1853-4. Bertie and Alfred - the older princes played an active role in laying its foundations.
The grounds pictured here still give a sense of what they might once have looked like. Each of the children had their own piece of land where they could grow flowers, fruit and vegetables. This is strongly resonant with the teachings of Friedrich Froebel (1762-1852) whose kindergarten was in Bad Blankenburg. His ideas were highly influential on the education of children in what was then Prussia and beyond, in the nineteenth century to this day (Tovey, 2019).
One of Froebel's key ideas was the importance of the garden. In Froebel's kindergarten, the garden was divided into individual plots. Not only did the garden bring children in touch with nature (and god), the intention was that they would gain a sense of responsibility by tending their own piece of land - learning how their efforts contributed to the whole. After all, if their plot was left untended it would 'spoil' the whole garden. Given Prince Albert's enthusiasm for education and current ideas it is very likely he was keen to replicate such ideas in his own children's education. He was certainly keen to instill a sense of responsibility: his children were destined for positions which carried with them a high degree of responsibility towards others in the future. Given the children did not stay at Osborne the whole year, Thomas Warne - the under-gardener at Osborne - helped the royal children to cultivate the garden and he maintained it when they were away.
Another link to Froebel's kindergarten can be found in the wheelbarrows. Each child had their own (in this case monogrammed) wheelbarrow (seen right) to help them with bringing in their produce. Alongside fostering responsibility, there may have been a very practical benefit. Having their own wheelbarrows may well have helped avoid squabbling had there only been one!
Prince Albert bought the children's produce at the market price and this money formed part of the children's pocket money. Of course these children and their parents were incredibly wealthy and hardly needed the money. It was the learning opportunity that was foremost in Prince Albert's mind. Selling their produce provided a very real and meaningful context for the children's mathematics education.
There was also a lesson in leadership and perhaps citizenship being fostered. Alongside buying gifts for each other, the children were encouraged to give money earned to charity and to share their produce with poor people living in the neighbourhood. The intention was to remind the children to be charitable to others less fortunate than themselves although of course this did little to ameliorate the poverty of poorer families long term.
The Swiss Cottage also provided a space in which children could learn about food preparation and could learn to cook. Inside the cottage is a perfect replica kitchen and scullery. To a smaller adult it looks well proportioned but it is in fact around two thirds of the size of a typical kitchen. Louisa Warne or 'Warnie' (the under-gardener's wife) helped the children (most likely the princesses) with food preparation and cooking. The kitchen was full of mod-cons. It had a smaller version of a coal-fired range of the latest design which was used for roasting and baking. Less modern in design was the chafing oven which burned charcoal below (see image below left) allowing food to be cooked on a hob over the top: a little like a barbecue. Grilling, toasting and even jam-making may have been possible on the chafing oven. The children cooked using family recipes and ones suggested by friends. On my visit there was an 1842 recipe from Prince Albert for 'Albert Croutes' on display, which was a recipe for scrambled eggs with ham on toast, sprinkled with cheese then toasted.
The children also 'ran' a grocer's shop in Swiss Cottage in which they sold basic foods as well as more exotic spices. Again this may well have served as a vehicle for mathematics education but with an ever-expanding empire it may well have linked in with a sense of their family as colonial rulers. The children's museum housed nearby gives a sense of world geography - people, customs and places.
There was certainly a great deal of learning to be had about food as well as through the vehicle of food at Osborne House and you get a strong sense of this when visiting.
The royal children seem to have felt a great deal of affection for the Warne's who were - in effect - their teachers about cookery and gardening. These servants lived at Swiss Cottage for 27 years until their deaths in 1881. They are buried in St Mildred's Church (as are other members of the royal household) which is in Whippingham, near to Osborne.
By Deborah Albon
Reference
Tovey, Helen (2019) 'Friedrich Froebel, His Life and His Ideas', in T. Bruce, P. Elfer, Sacha Powell, and L. Werth (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Froebel and Early Childhood Practice, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 7-13.
Images - all Deborah Albon's own.
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