The meanie millionaire
QUESTION Why was Venetia James called the most frugal Victorian aristocrat?
Venetia James, a member of the aristocratic Cavendish-Bentinck family and granddaughter of a prime minister — William, 3rd Duke of Portland — was the Queen mother’s cousin and godmother to the Queen. Despite being a millionaire London society hostess and racehorse breeder, she was noted for her frugality.
in December 1885, she married John arthur James, the son of wealthy american merchants living in Liverpool. they were friends with edward Vii, and Venetia was reputed to be his mistress.
Her great nephew Christopher simon sykes shares extraordinary stories about Venetia’s infamous parsimony in the Big House: the story Of a Country House and its Family.
On one occasion, she was overheard exclaiming: ‘What? Only one baronet and one viscount? What a mangy weekend.’ Yet she was known to return uneaten bacon to the butcher on a monday morning and demand her money back.
During a dinner party for ten people, she passed a note to her butler: ‘DCsC.’ this was shorthand for ‘Don’t cut second chicken’ because she had decided just one bird was enough to go around.
she preferred to host Catholics on Fridays because their religion required them to eat fish, which was cheaper than meat. if meat was on the menu, she would hiss: ‘Fish for the papists!’
On being invited to tea, her niece audrey Coates was astonished to overhear Venetia telling the housekeeper: ‘emily, if the cat has left any of its milk, bring it up for miss Coates.’
after being summoned to attend to a dog, a vet was asked to look in on an ailing maid because doctors were ‘a ridiculous waste of money’.
Yet Venetia could be charming, particularly to edward Vii. His private secretary Frederick Ponsonby wrote that she was ‘full of humour and high spirits, walking with the King and keeping him amused’.
after she was widowed in 1917, she paid for a new department at the Hospital of st Cross, Rugby, in memory of her husband. she continued to breed horses, winning the Victoria Cup and the 1932
Coronation Cup. she died childless in 1948 and left her jewellery to the Queen, her paintings by titian, Joshua Reynolds and thomas Gainsborough to the national Gallery and furniture to the Victoria & albert museum.
Linda Murphy, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leics.
QUESTION Did U.S. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson grow giant vegetables?
tHOmas JeFFeRsOn, the author of the Declaration of independence and third U.s. president, was obsessed with growing vegetables.
the notion to grow giant cucumbers came late in his life. the story appeared as a vignette in michelle Obama’s 2009 gardening book, american Grown, and was much reported at the time, yet it was only a footnote to Jefferson’s remarkable horticultural career.
at 21, Jefferson inherited 5,000 acres of land near Charlottesville, Virginia, including a slave plantation at monticello, where he established a 1,000ft terraced vegetable garden.
He grew imported squashes and broccoli from italy, beans and salsify collected across Louisiana, French figs and mexican peppers. He cultivated countless varieties of bean and 15 types of pea, which was his favourite vegetable. He was fascinated by american varieties, particularly when they were bigger and better than their european cousins.
Jefferson was an early advocate of a plant-based diet: ‘i have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that . . . as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet.’
Just a few months before his death in 1826 aged 83, he received the seeds for a ‘mammoth cucumber’.
During the previous winter he’d read in a newspaper that a gardener in Ohio had grown ‘4ft giants’ and was so excited that he had immediately written to the former governor there with the request that he ‘spare a few to a beggar’.
this vegetable is thought to be akin to the ancient serpentine cucumber, Trichosanthes colubrina, but may have been a type of gourd or squash.
He’d felt his death was long overdue and used nature as a metaphor to make his point: ‘man, like the fruit he eats, has a period of ripeness. Like that, too, if he continues longer hanging on the stem, it is but an useless and unsightly appendage.’
michelle Obama was inspired by a visit to monticello, where the garden is still maintained. in the spring of 2009, the White House garden was planted with seeds and plants of Jefferson’s favourite vegetable varieties: tennis Ball and Brown Dutch lettuce, prickly seeded spinach and marseilles fig.
Amelia Forrest, Belfast.
QUESTION Who is the youngest world leader?
in 2019, 34-year-old sanna marin of the
social Democratic Party became the world’s youngest serving state leader and Finland’s youngest ever prime minister.
next on the list is Chad’s General mahamat Deby, who was 37 when he took control as acting president last year after his father died while commanding troops in the northern Chad offensive.
third is north Korea’s Kim Jong-un, 38. He was declared supreme Commander
of the Korean People’s army in 2011, at the age of 29.
the oldest head of government is President Paul Biya of Cameroon, aged 88. the oldest ceremonial head of state is, of course, our 95-year-old Queen.
Simon Anstey, Bristol.
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