The archives at Windsor Castle provide an insight into Queen Victoria’s view of Monte Carlo. She visited the principality but refused to enter the casino. This is what she wrote in her journal on 30 March 1882.
‘One saw very nasty disreputable looking people walking about in Monte Carlo, though many respectable people go there also for their health. The harm this attractive gambling establishment does, cannot be overestimated.’
Joseph Hobson Jagger was almost certainly at the casino at this time. Queen Victoria’s dismissal of the place and its sordid clientele was echoed by much of the press at the time and by Thomas Cook who ran excursions to the Riviera but who frowned on the gambling that was so popular there. These attitudes must have added to the feelings of shame that Joseph felt on his return to England.
FROM THE MILL TO MONTE CARLO 