The Lifting of the Fog

Abstract

When Victoria died on 22 January 1901, the empire may have mourned, but there were some who felt that the age had grown vicious and that viciousness was exemplified by the small woman in black who had ruled for too long. She saw much, did nothing and said nothing, choosing, when convenient, to interfere in matters of lifestyle or of state, and to record her impressions of her subjects in private journals. Of one visit to the Black Country in 1852, she had written:

It is like another world. In the midst of so much wealth, there seems to be nothing but ruin. As far as the eye can reach, one sees nothing but chimneys, flaming furnaces, many deserted but not pulled down, with wretched cottages around them … And to this a thick and black atmosphere … and you have but a faint impression of the life … which a third of a million of my poor subjects are forced to lead. It makes me sad!