For reigning monarchs, the notion of a royal residence can take on many forms, whether a palace, castle, or grand country house.

These vast estates can be relatively calmer places to conduct state business or retreat from it entirely or, more realistically,

something in between. Most monarchs with recent reigns have had several residences from which

to choose outside their base in London, and certainly Queen Victoria was no exception.

Throughout her reign, Victoria used Windsor, Buckingham Palace, and Belmarrel,

but it was her summer residence on the Isle of Wight that perhaps most captured her heart

and soul. Throughout the 19th century, the Isle of White, a small island in the English Channel,

only several kilometers in length, served as a source of creativity and

inspiration for a variety of writers, poets, and artists, including Tennyson, Keats, Dickens,

and perhaps one could even say for Victoria herself.

Victoria found the world that she created here a personal place and a personal space.

She even thought of Osborne as un-palis-like, an idea that modern visitors visiting the

property might find curious, but for her it was.

For us today, a visit to Osborne House can give us a unique and very personal view into Victoria

and her inner world like nowhere else.

To help us interpret Osborne for our modern eyes, I am joined today by curator Christopher

Worley Lack, with whom I'll discuss how Osborne came to be, what it meant to Victoria

before and following Albert's death, and what it can mean for us today.

Hello. Hello, I'm Carl Raymond, the host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast, where every two weeks we journey into worlds light and dark of America's Gilded Age, France's Bel-Epac, and England's late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Queen Victoria first saw Osborne as a young queen in 1845. She had visited the Isle of

White as a child, but now seriously considered the spot as an escape from the

court in London. She and Albert purchased the property, which at the time had a previous house,

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