Queen Victoria was a lovely young girl. With all the talk of mistresses we seem to have forgotten the mattresses. So back to them but not for breakfast. Among her list of visitors to Windsor we have: The Tsar came and his first act was to send to the stables for a bundle of straw to sleep on. The French King came and it was insisted on that he had a hard bed with a horse hair mattress laid on a plank. The Shah of Persia ate his meals on the carpet. he was entertained with bagpipers. Which serves him right for eating his is meals on the carpet. Queen Victoria disliked smoking and forbad it in all rooms and corridors of the castle except the billiards room.
A visitor, a Count Hatzfeldt could not be bothered to walk all the way to the billiard room so he lay on his bedroom floor and a blew the cigar smoke up the chimney. Prince Hatzfeldt's motor-car driver, Robert Dennis, was fined £5 and £3 7s costs at the Bakewell Petty Sessions yesterday for driving along the Buxton road, near Haddon Hall, at an excessive speed. A constable with the aid of an ordinary watch had calculated the speed at over thirty miles per hour, but the prince, who was the principal witness for the defence, gave sworn testimony that his 12-h.p. car was absolutely unequal to such a speed, and was, moreover, geared specially low for hill climbing in the Peak. Dr. Tyler Pleydell Carter corroborated Prince Hatzfeldts evidence, but the Bench, in convicting, reminded the latter that less wealthy and influential people had an equal right to the safe usage of the roads, and they looked to motorists in his position to set a better example. Upon which Prince Hatzfeldt lit his cigar and blew smoke in the judge's face and stomped out!
From where the expression 'smoke in your eyes' may originate...
To UL The first capture is of an ashtray with the cigar... pinched from a bar in Lyon... while the second and the overlay is of my crossed hands... somewhat distorted with a stretching of the overlay... both captures were adjusted for costrast levels and finally the hand overlay... over the cigar was erased to allow the cigar to become clear... I trust that me meaning or explantion is as crystal clear as smoke!
0 
