Note 202 — Chapter XXVII · GENERAL GORDON’S MISSION.

The Claremont Estate was bought by the Crown in 1816. It was granted to the lamented Princess Charlotte and her husband, Prince Leopold—the Queen’s uncle—with benefit of survivorship. It was a place full of gloomy associations, but Prince Leopold kept it up pretty well till 1848, on the £60,000 a year which he had from the nation. In 1848 the exiled Orleans family occupied it, and were prodigal in spending money in improving the grounds and gardens, which were almost as productive as those of Frogmore. On the death of King Leopold of Belgium, Claremont reverted to the Crown, and Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone passed an Act granting it to the Queen for life. In 1881 Sir Henry Ponsonby, as trustee for the Queen, bought the reversionary interest of it for her from the State for £70,000, and since then it has been her private property, like Osborne and Balmoral. That Claremont is the property of the nation is a strange delusion fondly cherished by many critics of Royalty.