Gillie

British royalty scandals didn’t start in the twentieth century

Today’s New York Times Spelling Bee letters:

G, H, I, L, N, W, and center E (all words must include E).

Merriam-Webster says…

Silly little dictionary! Don’t you know gillie can’t possibly be a word if the New York Times says it ain’t?

For further fascinating facts, check out the Spelling Bee Master.

What’s your favorite dord* from today’s puzzle?

My Two Cents

I won’t add on to the controversy surrounding Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and the Queen. I am not the kind of person that throws gasoline into a fire or tries to pile on when the mound of crap is already sky-high. I’m above that kind of stuff.

What I’m not above is trying to take advantage of the situation for my own monetary good. Hence this article and its subtitle.

What? Don’t roll your eyes! I’m a logophile, not a saint.

A ton of meanings

Those three definitions of gillie I showed you earlier, from Merriam-Webster? That’s just the beginning. Here are some other meanings:

▹ As a verb, to serve as a gillie (duh, I guess..)

▹ A stupid person

▹ A woman of easy virtue… whatever that means

▹ a measure of liquor

▹ a lumber wagon hired for hauling circus or carnival paraphernalia (usually spelled gilly)

▹ a traditional Scottish shirt

▹ a military camouflage outfit

▹ a type of portable water boiler

That’s an eclectic list. Seems like, if you want to just make up something new ,instead of inventing it you take an existing object and put “gillie” or “ghillie” or “gilly” in front of its name.

For example, with a dress show or a ballet flat:

The most famous gillie of them all

John Brown was Albert’s gillie. Now, this wasn’t just any old Albert. It was Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria. At the beginning Brown’s main role was described as “shooting guide and gun-loader”. By 1851, however, Brown was given a “permanent role” as the leader of the Queen’s pony. This was not a euphemism… I think.

After Prince Albert passed away, Brown became one of Queen Victoria’s personal attendants… and eventually, according to rumors, her most personal attendant of them all. Rumors had it Brown was brazen enough to sleep in the room next to the queen’s bedroom. Of course that was very much frowned upon, although perhaps not as frowned upon as when Harry married Meghan. (Sorry! I couldn’t resist making one dig!)

Victoria’s daughters even joked about “mama’s lover”. Maybe that’s why she “wasn’t amused”. The queen’s second son (then Duke of Edinburgh) complained that he had been kicked out of Buckingham Palace for refusing to shake Brown’s hand.

In 2004, a PhD student named Bendor Grosvenor was rummaging around the family archives of Lord Cranbrook, one of Queen Victoria’s ministers. And I assume they gave this guy access because his name was Bendor Grosvenor. I don’t think they’d let Meghan Markle in. (Okay, okay, two digs. But that’s it, I promise.)

The note was handwritten to Cranbrook by a troubled and tormented queen just after Brown died suddenly in March of 1883.

“The Queen has let her pen run on … The Queen is not ill, but terribly shaken and quite unable to walk … missing more than ever her dear faithful friend’s strong arm… The Queen feels that life for the second time is become most trying and sad to bear deprived of all she so needs … the blow has fallen too heavily not to be very heavily felt.”

First off, Victoria talking about herself in third person… that was a thing back then.

And then, the part that says “for the second time”? Hmm…

I assume the first time was when Consort Albert died. If Brown’s death carries the same weight as that of her husband’s, what does that say about Queen Victoria’s feelings about him when he was alive?

To top it off, when the queen died, a lock of Brown’s hair, his photograph, a handkerchief, and some letters were placed in her coffin alongside mementos belonging to Albert.

The coffin is in a mausoleum. Now, perhaps if we write enough letters to Bendor Grosvenor or start a change.org petition, we can convince him to request access to the tomb so he can extract the letters and publish their juicy content. It has to be him though, because they certainly won’t let a certain someone I won’t name go in there. Ah, well… it will probably stay a mystery ’til the end of days.

In any case, we are free to draw our own conclusions.

Perhaps John Brown was indeed Queen Victoria’s second husband. Or maybe he was just her lover. Or simply a confidante.

But he couldn’t have been her gillie, right?

And that’s because the editors of the Spelling Bee puzzle decided that the word gillie is a dord.*

Please check out my previous entry on another dord*:

*What the heck is a dord, anyway? Here you go: