Joanne Major

Newspapers, plays and paintings portrayed the romance of elopement — but what was the reality?

Despite Queen Victoria writing that it had been a ‘very fatiguing day, in the Garden at Buckingham Palace, where I used to sit so often in former happy days,’ her journal suggests that she spent little time outside.

Among the personages here attracting public notice, is an original, or would-be original, generally known by the appellation of ‘The Green Man.’ He is dressed in green pantaloons, green waistcoat, green frock, green cravat, and though his ears, whiskers, eyebrows and chin are better powdered than his head, which is, however, covered with flour, his countenance, no doubt, from the reflection of his clothes, is also green.

His rambles take him all along Piccadilly, Oxford Street, Regent Street... He has one questionable habit, which is a liking for tobacco...