When Queen Victoria had first ascended the throne, she loved taking guests from room to room on tours, not even sparing the kitchens of Buckingham Palace.
Some said that tours of Buckingham Palace had begun in Queen Victoria's era, because it was only after her accession that Buckingham Palace became a royal residence, with the Guards changing shifts at its gates every day.
But no one knew whether that was actually true, just as most staff who interviewed at Buckingham Palace never found the hidden dead fly.
There had always been all sorts of stories surrounding the royal family. One tale claimed that when Queen Victoria mourned William IV, being short of money, the Duchess of Kent dyed one of her dresses black with ink to save expenses.
That tale was naturally false. The Queen had worn a brown ankle-length dress that day, elegantly tailored with pleated long sleeves. Still, it was true that the Queen was strapped for cash. Since she had not inherited the throne of Hanover, she could not receive Hanover's income. Nor did she have much inheritance to claim. Therefore, providing for the Queen's civil list and allowing her to live as a "Queen" ought to depended on Parliament.
The royal family had originally possessed hereditary lands, but in exchange for a fixed annual income, George III had already surrendered a large portion of the revenue from those hereditary estates. George IV gave up even more—he had been a famously extravagant playboy. By William IV's turn, he had surrendered all income from royal lands except the revenues from the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster.
There was a Secret Service attached to the King, and its expenses had originally belonged to the King. However, after William IV ascended the throne, he stipulated that expenditures