Edith Mary Gell

Deeply conventional in outlook, Edith Lyttelton Gell for many years published or circulated her writings amongst her extended family and social circle.

When she was married, she was presented to Queen Victoria and describes her experience at court as follows: The actual entry into the Throne Room was really dignified.

On your left was a great mirror which contributed to an appropriately stately carriage; the march had to be slow as the train in front occupied the ground.

If you were adroit, you got in three more to the chief Royalties, and one to the lesser lights, before your beautiful train was unceremoniously bundled over your arm by an usher, and you went out at the other end of the Presence Chamber backwards.

but that is all wrong”, he exclaimed; “it should be soaked in treacle and then smoked”, adding mischievously as he saw her astonishment: “This is like eating my old boots!” He had been so pestered that he found the only method of defence was an abruptness bordering on brutality.