Elizabeth Jane Timms

The regal tradition of scratching signatures in windowpanes is long established and well known. The windows – particularly when in rooms of royal residences – formed a kind of living ‘guestbook’, often accompanied by the date the visit or signature, was made. These windowpanes are silent witnesses to vanished royal gatherings on long ago summers or essential occasions, represented today by the grouping of names that remain.

Local Prague legends say that W. A. Mozart was locked in a room at least twice in the Bohemian capital as a playful exercise to compel him to compose something. The fruits of this seemingly involuntary confinement are thought to have been his 6 German Dances, K509, and on a later occasion, his scena for soprano, Bella mia fiamma, K58. The locations for both works are listed as Prague in the Köchel catalogue, but is there any evidence to support the legends?

Of the nine children of Queen Victoria’s children, one daughter married in London another on the Isle of Wight and one son in St. Petersburg. The remaining six married at Windsor, five at St. George’s Chapel and one in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle.