Named for the aristocrat who married Queen Victoria’s daughter, governed Canada, and named a whole province and a lake after his wife
The Marquis of Lorne in Clapham holds two hundred and sixty-two reviews and a 4.4 – a solid score on a good sample – and it is named after a genuinely fascinating aristocrat: the Marquis of Lorne, who married Queen Victoria’s daughter, governed Canada as its youngest-ever Governor General, and named an entire Canadian province and a famous lake after his wife.
The princess’s husband
The Marquis of Lorne was the courtesy title of John Campbell, who later became the 9th Duke of Argyll, head of the great Scottish Clan Campbell. In 1871, he married Princess Louise, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria – and the marriage was genuinely historic. It was the first time since 1515 that a daughter of the reigning sovereign had married a British subject, rather than a foreign prince or royal. For over three and a half centuries, royal daughters had been married off to the princes of Prussia, Denmark, Russia and the rest; Louise broke the mould by marrying a British aristocrat.
The public loved it – a British princess marrying a British subject, rather than being shipped off to a foreign court. Queen Victoria herself, who supported the match, called the marriage “the most popular act of my reign.” Not everyone approved – Louise’s brother, the future Edward VII, found it appalling that his sister should marry “below her class” – but the wedding, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, was a genuinely popular royal occasion.
The youngest Governor General
In 1878, Lorne was appointed Governor General of Canada – at thirty-three, the youngest in Canada’s history. He and Princess Louise sailed across the Atlantic to represent the Crown in the young Dominion, and their arrival caused enormous excitement, for it meant that Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s residence in Ottawa, would have an actual royal princess in residence.
The couple proved a genuine success, and made lasting contributions to Canadian life, especially in the arts and sciences. Under their patronage, some of Canada’s most important cultural institutions were founded or encouraged – the National Gallery of Canada, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and the Royal Society of Canada. They were unexpectedly informal and warm for royalty, opening their home to ordinary Canadians, throwing ice-skating and tobogganing parties, and travelling extensively across the vast young country. Princess Louise, an accomplished artist and sculptor, even designed herself a portable shed to sketch in and a mosquito helmet for drawing outdoors.
The province and the lake
Lorne’s most enduring Canadian legacy is written across the map. As Governor General, touring the vast western territories, he proposed the name for a great new province – and named it “Alberta,” in honour of his wife, whose full name was Princess Louise Caroline Alberta. So the Canadian province of Alberta, one of the largest and most important in the country, bears the name of Queen Victoria’s daughter, given to it by her husband. And the beautiful and world-famous Lake Louise, jewel of the Canadian Rockies, is named directly after the Princess herself. A whole province and one of the most beautiful lakes on earth carry the names of the woman the Marquis of Lorne married.
There are few better examples in this survey of a pub name opening onto genuinely remarkable history. “The Marquis of Lorne” sounds like just another aristocratic title over a pub door – but behind it lies a historic royal marriage, the governance of Canada, and the naming of a province and a lake that millions know. It is a wonderful thread of history to find in a Clapham pub.
The pub
A solid, well-regarded pub doing a fair 4.4 across a good sample, named after the Marquis of Lorne – who married Queen Victoria’s daughter, governed Canada, and named Alberta and Lake Louise after his wife.
Verdict
Solid, well-regarded, and named after a genuinely remarkable man – the Marquis of Lorne, royal husband, Governor General of Canada, and namer of a whole province.
Have a pint at the Marquis of Lorne, and raise it to the man behind the name – who married a princess in “the most popular act” of Victoria’s reign, and wrote his wife’s name across the map of Canada, on a province and a lake alike.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
The precision of “managed decline” as both diagnosis and policy is too good. That’s not satire, that’s reportage.
My therapist said I use humor as defense. I showed her this and she said “yes, continue that, it’s justified.”
Read this on the actual Piccadilly Line after delays, experiencing actual London transport dysfunction. The metaphor of how London operates was perfect.