“We are not amused”, Queen Victoria is supposed to have said (there is no evidence that she ever did). However, a smile might have been brought to her lips if protesters in Glasgow, who put jam on a bust of her in early March, had known what she liked to eat. The incident, reported in The Daily Telegraph on 4 March, prompted the following short letter from Alistair Lexden, which was published on 6 March.
SIR -- Queen Victoria was notoriously greedy. When her doctor tried to put her on a diet, she dutifully ate his healthy choices in addition to her normal huge meals.
One of the few things she did not care for was jam. She would have regarded it as quite unsuitable as an adornment for the marble bust of her in Glasgow (report, March 4). She loved orange jelly. If the environmental protesters had chosen that favourite food, she might have been amused.
Lord Lexden
London SW1
