Here's the second part of the series on Victorian ladies, this time featuring a lady from an altogether different class. I have to admit that these American ears couldn’t catch more than half of what Princess Alice said.
Photograph of Princess Alex of Teck (aka Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone), courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA (editing mine).
Please note: Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle where the video ought to be. To watch the video, please click on this link to the Two Nerdy History Girls blog.
One of us -- 
7 comments:
Oh, you're right. It's hard to understand her. I had to listen very, very closely! British English sounds so different from American English. Thanks for sharing.
My computer played this delightful clip quite clearly. I could understand her very easily. Granted, she was very old and all, but her diction was clear and understandable. I believe you must have had a bad connection on your computers.
Do you have any idea of the date of the photo of Alice and her children? I shared the photo of it showing her hat on a Mad Hatters Society on Facebook.
Val
Wow, she looked great for her age! I remember when my husband and I visited London years ago and we had a terrible time understanding people! Those movies of Victoria were amazing. The pomp and circumstance hasn't really changed all that much, has it?
Nancy & Priscilla & Susan: It's like traveling in other parts of the U.S. Some accents are perfectly understandable;others sound like a foreign language. Same with British accents: No trouble understanding any of the present royals. No trouble understanding the previous Victorian ladies video clip. So I'm sure it isn't my computer. It's just my ear: not attuned; e.g., I couldn't make heads or tails of speech in Edinburgh, but in Glasgow it was perfectly clear. Time Traveling, if you click on the link to the photograph (below the video, on attribution line), you'll end up on the Library of Congress page and all the info available. There's also a link (above) to the Wikipedia page, with more about Princess Alice.
Needed a few subtitles on that one. Went to Wikepedia to see more info on her. Whenever I go there about a European Royal it makes my head spin with all the titles & cross connections.
This is amazing, ladies! Thanks for sharing it with us. I'm finishing my novel featuring Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's 4th daughter, and have started work on another about Beatrice, the baby of the family. The Wild Princess will be out August 1. Your books look amazing. I'm off to Amazon to order a Scott and a Chase right this minute. Cheers, Kathryn Johnson
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