^°Xv KING EDWARD VII (PRINCE OF WALES, 1841-1901) THE PRIVATE LIFE OF KING EDWARD VII (PRINCE OF WALES, 1841-1901) BY A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY MDCCCCI ^-' O NE COPY trecn VEP, HJbrwry of Con!,f«,v FEB. 11 1301 ! second copy i U4 Copyright, 1901, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. PREFATORY NOTE The purpose of this book is to present a true picture of the personality of the English gentleman who has been known to the world as the Prince of Wales for so many years that the general public will be slow to substitute the title of King Ed- ward VII. A formal biography would be of comparatively slight interest, but the writer of this book has had the peculiar advantage of a close point of view, due to official association, which offers the happiest re- sults for the reader, who will gain from these pages an actual acquaintance with the character, the pre- dilections, the occupations and amusements, the domestic and the social life of the Prince who has now ascended the throne of England. His home life at Sandringham is pictured in pages of peculiar interest, since country-house life plays so large a part in English social existence. The daily events iii The Prince of Wales at Marlborough House are sketched against a back- ground rich in associations with the past and sug- gestions of English royalty's widespread relations with distant peoples and lands. The Prince's life as a student, his relations with the Church and the arts, his travels, his patronage of the turf, and his personal habits are placed before us in a light and always entertaining fashion. The author proves the value of suggestion, since these touches and hints, these notes of dress or diet, or stories of social adventure which the graver historian might contemn, are apt to stick in the memory of less serious mortals, because they illustrate habits and an attitude which are the out- ward expression of character. Better than state papers or set addresses are the vivid details of a book like this, if we would acquaint ourselves with the personality of England's King. As to one point assuredly there has never been any doubt, and that is the reverence shown through life by the son to the mother, whose wonderful reign has closed amid a sorrow that has known little dis- tinction of race or creed. It has been said truly enough that the new King of England has been everywhere and seen iv Prefatory Note everything and everybody. The force of the state- ment is illustrated in a summary of the chief facts of his life. Born in Buckingham Palace, Novem- ber 9, 1 84 1, and created Prince of Wales on Decem- ber 4th, he was educated by private tutors, and at Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge, and in i860 already appointed a colonel in the army. He vis- ited Canada, and came southward to receive a most cordial greeting in the United States. On his re- turn he underwent a course of military instruction in camp, at the Cunagh, Kildare. He was rapidly promoted to the rank of Field Marshal, and he holds high rank by courtesy in many European armies. In 1862, with Dean Stanley, he travelled on the Continent and in the East, visiting Jerusalem, and returning to take his seat in the House of Lords as the Duke of Cornwall. His marriage to the Prin- cess Alexandra, eldest daughter of the King of Denmark, was celebrated March 10, 1863. Jour- neys which ranged from Sweden to Athens; a nearly fatal attack of typhoid fever in 1871; his ad- mission in 1875 to the Masonic Order, of which he has been Grand Master; a remarkable visit to India in the same year; his prominent part in the v The Prince of Wales Paris Exhibition of 1878; his tour of Ireland with the Princess in 1885; his part in founding the Im- perial Institute, at South Kensington, in 1889, and the General Hospital Fund in 1894 — these may be cited among the various phases of an active life which has also included a leading role in great cere- monials, like the obsequies of the late Czar, the Queen's Jubilee, and the Diamond Jubilee, innu- merable functions and journeys, and a monotonous succession of minor ceremonies, like the often- repeated laying of corner stones. Even if this bald outline were developed in his- torical detail, it would lack the life, colour, and actuality of such a series of personal and intimate pictures of the living man as this volume affords. Doubtless the younger years of the Prince of Wales were not devoid of the frailties of youth, and these may have held the popular imagination sometimes unjustly in later years. That the at- mosphere of Marlborough House was not that which enveloped the Queen is hardly a matter for surprise, but an exaggerated conception of the for- mer has led to some erroneous estimates. The tact, discretion, excellent judgment, and wide knowledge of the Prince are qualities which have vi Prefatory Note exercised a silent but potent influence in Euro- pean politics, unless the hints of unwritten history are to be disregarded. These hints, and his con- stant friendship for America, invest this book with more than a passing interest, since it is of conse- quence to all Americans to know the personal character of the Prince who is now King of Eng- land and Emperor of India. vn CONTENTS CHAPTER I. — The Prince and the people II. — Life at Sandringham . III.— The Prince in the country IV. — The Prince at Marlborough House V. — Domestic life . VI. — The Prince as a student VII. — The Prince and society VIII. — The Prince's set . IX. — The Prince as a churchman X. — The Prince as a patron XL— The Prince at play XII.— The Prince on the course XIIL— The love of his life . XIV. — The Prince and his clothes XV. — What the Prince eats and drinks XVI. — The Prince as a Freemason XVII. — The Prince a good fellow . XVIII.— The Prince as a son PAGE I 18 34 52 80 106 120 143 160 181 191 207 225 243 256 26S 277 290 IX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE King Edward VII (Prince of Wales, 1841-1901) Frontispiece Sandringham Palace 18 Dining room, Sandringham Palace 26 Duke of York's Cottage, Sandringham .... 48 Marlborough House, London 54 The Princess of Wales ....... 86 The Prince of Wales, and Princesses Victoria and Maud 98 Sandringham Church 161 A garden party at Sandringham 201 The Prince in Masonic regalia 270 The Prince at seven years of age 297 Osborne House, Isle of Wight ...... 304 XI THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES CHAPTER I THE PRINCE AND THE PEOPLE The very general and sincere affection with which the Prince of Wales is regarded by English- speaking people was never more clearly demon- strated than in a letter written by a French an- archist to a secret society in France. The man had been sent to England just after the Prince had recovered from his attack of typhoid fever, to ascertain personally the feelings of the British public toward the Royal family. The report made was scarcely promising from an anarchist point of view, for part of it read as follows: " The peo- ple are all mad with joy, and will probably be all drunk to-night. There is no chance of a revo- lution here for the next fifty years." On an- other occasion, a socialist speaker of some stand- ing, when addressing a mass meeting in Hyde The Prince of Wales Park, had practical proof of the Prince's popu- larity. He was delivering a violent harangue against the Queen and the Royal family, and his fiery periods were received with some applause; but the crowd, as the speaker approached his highest flights of rhetoric, suddenly melted away, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them across the grass to the drive. The astonished orator inquired what had led to this sudden break in the meeting. The reply was intensely charac- teristic of the real feelings of English men and women: " Some one said that the Prince of Wales was driving by, and they have all run to have a look at him." Such incidents indicate that the heir to the Throne has undoubtedly made his own position secure with the people at large. Gladstone, who was no great courtier, always acknowl- edged that circumstances had tended to throw upon the Prince an unusual amount of public duty, and that every call had been honourably and de- votedly met. Yet the Prince, even while he has done his best to fill his position, and to perform duties that by right belong to the wearer of the Crown, has ever, as a rule for himself and for every 2 The Prince and the People one about him, insisted upon the fact that he is but a subject of the Queen, and that as such he is merely her representative at the great functions in which from time to time he takes the leading part. It has always been a favourite theory of the Prince, and one up to which he acted in the training of his own sons, that the respect due to Royalty should not begin until its responsibilities are under- taken and acted upon. The Prince's public re- sponsibilities began when he was still a very young man, and he quickly added to them by taking a wife. The month before he was married he held his first levee on behalf of the widowed Queen, and from two o'clock in the afternoon till past five he bowed, and shook hands with a continuous stream of people. His common sense at once showed him that State functions were part of his life, and that he could no more put them aside than he could avoid the ordinary difficulties and duties that pre- sent themselves in the life of every man. The Prince's character had originally a strong tinge of quick temper, which he inherited from his Hanoverian ancestors; but his courtesy and tact, and the self-control which he has taught himself to exercise, have mastered this hereditary 3 The Prince of Wales failing, and now he is notably slow to act when put out or annoyed, and makes a point of considering every side of a question before regarding his own. In speech he is quick and impulsive, and this trait often leads him to give direct orders to servants and others of his household, instead of waiting to put the somewhat complicated machinery of his estab- lishment into motion. When not engaged in con- versation the Prince of Wales wears a thought- ful expression, but the charming smile he as- sumes when he speaks to friends quickly dissi- pates this. One particularly notable and noble attribute is his: he has never been known to bear a grudge, or to do the proverbial ill turn to anybody. He possesses to an extraordinary extent the truly Royal attribute of never forgetting a face, a name, or the tastes and habits of the person to whom they belong. He has never been known to blunder, as so many others do, by making inquiries after a daughter who may be dead or a son who may have gone to the bad. Keen to inquire about the affairs of people in whom he takes an interest, he never puts to an ill use any information that may be given him, and even the most trivial gossip that is brought 4 The Prince and the People to his ears is regarded by him as entirely sacred from repetition or public comment. It is difficult to say whether the Prince is at his best among the people or in society. Those of the humbler classes who have come in contact with His Royal Highness are invariably brought to re- gard him with the deepest affection and respect. They feel, when they are talking to him, that they are laying their troubles before a man who is abso- lutely sympathetic, and genuinely anxious to alle- viate them. It has been the Prince's lot to receive many scores of deputations of workingmen, and he will show their representatives as much courtesy as he would an assembly of crowned heads. He makes it a rule to enter fully into the subjects of such addresses, and frequently by his influence will achieve for a little band of workers the end that they themselves are unable to bring about. When this is impossible, he will assure them in the kindest way that their wishes have his fullest sympathy, and that he will see them again at any time. More than once the excellent advice that he has given the working classes has proved of infinite use and ad- vantage to them. In fact, the Prince of Wales is what old-fash- The Prince of Wales ioned politicians would have called a Whig, for he appreciates and encourages to the full any efforts that the lower classes make toward self-improve- ment and self-government. At a festival dinner in aid of the Cab-drivers' Be- nevolent Association, at which the Prince once took the chair, he stated his belief that cabmen are, as a body, a most honest and hard-working set of men, and that he considered the attacks so frequently made on them by an unthinking public unreason- able and untrue. The Prince backed up his opin- ion by telling a story of a gentleman who, having been driven to a shop where he had some difference with the shopman, walked away, leaving behind him a box containing £2,000 worth of jewelry. The shopman, who had been annoyed by the argu- ment, tossed the jewel case into the waiting cab. The Prince did not comment on the temptation that such a chance must have been to a man who works hard for his daily bread, but he ended up his story by saying that the cabman drove straight to Scotland Yard and deposited the jewels at the Lost Property Office. On another occasion the Prince not only com- mended the manner in which the Metropolitan 6 The Prince and the People Police perform their delicate and arduous duties, but indorsed his opinion by subscribing largely to a fund that was being raised for the purpose of presenting a testimonial to Sir Edmund Hender- son, who was retiring from the office of Chief of the Police in consequence of very sharp and, as the Prince obviously thought, undeserved criticism from high quarters. Whenever the Prince is occupied in laying foun- dation stones, opening hospitals, or in other public ceremonies, which he always performs with the greatest good will, his first thought is for the people, who always assemble in thousands to give him a loyal and hearty welcome. Over and over again these ceremonials have taken place under condi- tions of heavy rain and bitter cold, but the Prince will never, if he can help it, disappoint the subjects of the Queen. Once, when he was at York, an enormous crowd gathered to welcome him and his family. A terrible storm broke just as the Royal procession through the city began, but the Prince, in order that the people should not suffer further disappointment, stood up in the carriage bare- headed in the midst of a tropical downpour. On another occasion he and the Princess ordered their 7 The Prince of Wales carriage to be opened and to be driven slowly along the crowded streets, though a storm of great vio- lence was raging. By the people on his own estate, and by the members of his household, the Prince is positively adored. He goes among the country people in the simplest possible way, and many are the quaint tales, full of unconscious familiarity, that the worthy Norfolk folk tell of him. In his early days at Sand- ringham, a man called Pooley, who was a great character in the neighbourhood, vastly amused the Prince by his odd methods of speech. Pooley was a well-known dealer in wild ducks, which, when they came through his hands, were always of the best and plumpest. The Prince, seeing him one day by chance, said to him, according to Pooley's own version of the conversation, " Pooley, hey yer got any wild ducks to-day? " " No, yer Royal Highness," says I, " I ain't." " I'm sorry for that, Pooley," says he, " for if yer had I'd bought some on yer." But if the Prince is lenient with the social short- comings of those from whom he does not expect better knowledge, he can become very Royal when any undue familiarity is attempted by people who 8 The Prince and the People should by birth and education be observers of eti- quette. He once had occasion to snub a country Town Clerk of pronounced Radical tendencies, who afterward frankly admitted his fault, saying, " I felt I was before the Majesty of England." Now and again people who consider that they have effected an intimate friendship with the Prince of Wales receive a very serious check and a lesson they are not likely to forget, for, however much of a good fellow and a kind friend His Royal Highness may be, he never forgets or allows those about him to forget that he is a prince of the blood Royal, and heir to the throne of the greatest kingdom in the world. John Bright fully appreciated the Prince's position when he said: " Consider how great he is; not Caesar, not the crowned Macedonian, reigned over so wide an empire as that which he will be one day called to rule." It was this sense of what is due to his personal dignity that induced the Prince of Wales, who is generally the most good-natured of men, to resent an attempt made by the committee of an upstart Cock and Hen Club to use his name as an advertise- ment for their venture, and to publish in the press the fact that the Prince of Wales would attend the 9 The Prince of Wales inaugural entertainment of the club. The adver- tisement of the Prince's patronage was so widely published, and he was so obviously being made use of as a stalking horse, that he abandoned whatever idea he may have had of patronizing the ven- ture, and when the new club opened with a great flourish of trumpets, and a large assemblage of musical and theatrical folk, a letter from the Prince's private secretary was found posted in the hall, stating in very short terms His Royal Highness's inability to be present. On the contrary, the Marlborough Club, which is in Pall Mall almost opposite the gates of Marl- borough House, received from the first the fullest support and encouragement from the Prince, even though it was not directly founded by him. At the time this new club was opened, the famous "White's" in St. James's Street, of which the Prince of Wales was a member, as George IV and William IV had been before him, was rent asunder on the question as to whether smoking should or should not be permitted in the club outside the very narrow limits of the smoking room. The older members of the club were against any altera- tion of the standing rules, but the younger men, 10 The Prince and the People among whom was the Prince of Wales, were natu- rally anxious to have more scope and comfort for their enjoyment of the fragrant weed. The Prince, from his position, was unable to take any active part in the controversy, but when the influence of the older members prevailed, and smoking was practi- cally " taboo " at White's, the Prince took a keen interest in the formation of the Marlborough Club, where it is permitted, by his special wish, to smoke all over the house, the dining room alone excepted. Not unnaturally, the Prince considers that his nomi- nation and support of any candidate for election at a club should be sufficient to insure election. He was therefore not best pleased when the " Travel- lers " saw fit to blackball a would-be member who had received his support, and he at once withdrew his name from its list of members. These little stories illustrate one phase of the Prince's character, yet, though he has been brought up in an atmosphere of Court etiquette and cere- mony, he is the first man to disregard petty regula- tions. When Frederick Watts, R. A., was paint- ing a portrait of the Prince that now hangs in the hall of the Inner Temple, His Royal Highness, who became most friendly with the artist, asked in the ii The Prince of Wales course of conversation if he had received an invita- tion for the Princess's garden party at Chiswick. Watts replied that some years he received a card and some years he did not. The Prince then asked if he would go to the party if a card were sent him. Watts, whose artistic temperament never submit- ted to the conventionalities of society, replied that he feared he could not go, as he had no top hat. Whereupon the Prince, with much amusement, cried: "What does that matter? Come without one! " In fact, although the Prince demands observ- ance of etiquette from others, he, like the Queen, is sufficiently great to brush aside on occasions the hard-and-fast rules of Court customs and observ- ances. When he went to India, there was at first much talk as to the position he would take in State processions with regard to Lord Northbrook, who, as the Viceroy and the Queen's representative, practically assumed the dignity due to a crowned head. Both in England and India there was con- siderable doubt in official circles as to how the Prince would comport himself under these circum- stances. But any anticipations there might have been of argument and difficulty were at once put a 12 The Prince and the People stop to by the Prince's good sense, for he is most punctilious in paying all due respect and honour to the Crown. Some years later a similar illustration of proper precedence was given at Paddington Station, when the Queen was travelling from London to Windsor, accompanied by her eldest daughter, the Empress Frederick. On reaching the door of her saloon car- riage the Queen motioned the Empress to enter before her. The Empress Frederick, who was the daughter of the Queen before she was the widow of an Emperor, laughingly refused, and wished to take the place she had always held, and to follow her mother. But the Queen absolutely refused to enter the carriage first, and the Empress was obliged to give way. There are occasions on which the Prince, out of sheer goodness of heart, has waived etiquette alto- gether. He was once at Nice, and travelled back by the last train to Cannes. Every seat was taken, and there were still two English ladies left standing on the platform without places. They were natu- rally in some distress, when a gentleman ap- proached them with a message that the Prince of Wales would be only too pleased to give them 13 The Prince of Wales seats in his compartment. On another occasion, when the Prince made his first State visit to Ire- land for the purpose of opening the International Exhibition at Dublin, the crowds were enormous, and many people were unable to obtain a view of the royal party. Suddenly a young Irish lady, mounted on a fine horse, dashed through the crowd, forced her way past the mounted escort, and rode right up to the carriage, saying, " Now that I have seen the Prince I shall go home quite happy." So far from being annoyed at this very daring and unusual act, the Prince raised his hat to the young lady, and gave her a smile that must have rewarded her for all her efforts. From time to time a certain section of the pub- lic have set themselves up as arbiters of the Prince's comings and goings. This does not please the Prince, who considers that he has long ago proved his right to do what he pleases. A notable instance of unwelcome interference with his actions oc- curred when the Teetotal and Nonconformist par- ties preached violently against him, and sent mon- ster petitions touching his promise to take the chair at the festival of the Licensed Victuallers' Associa- tion. This unwarrantable interference much an- 14 The Prince and the People noyed the Prince, whose reply was both discreet and decisive. He answered those who attacked him, and who declared that by his presence at this festival he was encouraging the vice of drunken- ness, by stating that his father before him had pre- sided over meetings of the Licensed Victuallers, and that as his father never patronized an object without inquiry into its worthiness, he himself felt fully justified in following that example, and in lending his support to a great and much-needed charity. The Prince's popularity is as great in Paris as it is in his own country. There is much truth in what the famous actress Judic once said to His Royal Highness: "You should settle in France, sir, to make Royalty popular here." The Prince's an- swer was equally true, and exceedingly witty: " Vous usez vos Rois trop vite dans ce pays." With this proper sense of the dignity of his own position, the Prince has brought up his children in the utmost simplicity, and it is with his assent that the Duke and Duchess of York allow their little ones to make friends among the children of various members of the aristocracy. A tea party in the nurseries of York House is a common event, and 15 The Prince of Wales the little Princes and the baby Princess squabble and fight with future Dukes and Marquises over picture books and tin soldiers. One little scion of nobility, whom it pleased his mother to dress in the embroideries and laces of a baby until he was nearly four years old, one day got a rare drubbing from little Prince Edward of York, who, on being intro- duced to his befrilled and beribboned guest, promptly knocked him down, exclaiming that he didn't want to play with girls. When Prince Eddy was still a lad he happened to go on board the yacht Osborne. From the deck of another yacht the Prince of Wales, to his aston- ishment, saw the Royal Standard hoisted as his son stepped on board. Being a very consistent man, the Prince, though he laughed at the time at the incident, subsequently reproved his son, telling him that it was merely an accident of birth that made him what he was, and that he had not yet earned the right to be treated as a person of im- portance. The Prince's attitude toward France since that country became a republic has often been com- mented -on, but he, being one of the most broad- minded of men, maintains that every country has a 16 The Prince and the People right to choose its own form of government. He made this remark once in the presence of Gambetta, who replied: " C'est pourquoi la Royante restera a l'Angleterre, comme elle serait reste en France si nous avons eu des Souverains comme vous." Aft- erward, when repeating this conversation to a friend, Gambetta added: "Those English are in constant luck. Their very Princes are fonder of popular liberties than our very Liberals." 17 CHAPTER II LIFE AT SANDRINGHAM When the Prince of Wales is in residence at Sandringham an extra train is run every afternoon from St. Pancras to Wolverton Station. It goes by the name of the " Prince's Special," and by this not only the Royal family but all guests and people travel who have business with their Royal High- nesses. The journey is not a long one, and the in- vited guest is whirled at the rate of forty-five miles an hour from the dingy environs of North London to the gray-green fiats and well-wooded lowlands of Norfolk. The Prince of Wales showed his usual acumen when he decided that the railway should come no nearer his home than Wolverton, a prosperous little township about two miles from Sandringham Hall. The station, for a country one, is quite smart, and beautifully kept. A large addition to the place was made, nearly twenty years ago, by the Prince him- 18 Life at Sandringham self, who built a comfortable suite of waiting rooms, which are approached by an imposing covered en- trance. The rooms are prettily decorated and well furnished, and are used as luncheon rooms and a harbour of refuge by the Prince and his friends, when a big rabbit shoot is going on in the warrens just outside Wolverton. Well-horsed station omnibuses, carriages, and luggage fourgons meet the " Prince's Special " whenever guests are expected by it. The drive from the station to the Hall is through a charming country, which recalls the more sheltered parts of Scotland. The characteristic appearance of extreme flat- ness which prevails along the whole of the Norfolk coast is well broken by plantations of pines, firs, and hardy shrubs, round which cluster patches of heather and gorse. The road quickly strikes the boundary wall of the estate, which it follows, and the invited guest, as he is whirled along, catches peeps of quaintly gabled roofs and twisted chim- neys among the thickly growing trees, and, as he nears the house, of the gray spire of St. Mary Magdalene. The principal entrance to the grounds is 19 The Prince of Wales through the famous Norwich gates, a splendid specimen of wrought-iron work, which were exhib- ited by Barnard of Norwich at the great Exhibition of 1862, and were presented by the county to the Prince of Wales soon after the Sandringham es- tate was purchased in 1861. These fine gates are surmounted by the Prince of Wales's feathers and a golden crown, while grif- fins in bronzed iron are designed to support shields on which are emblazoned the various arms which the Prince is entitled to bear. The scheme of decoration is further carried out in delicate tracery of the national emblems, twined among climbing vine leaves. The keynote of the Prince's life in the country, and of the simplicity and homeliness that prevail at Sandringham Hall, is at once struck by the appearance of a single policeman, who is the sole guard of the person and property of the Heir Apparent to the Throne. A comfortable lodge nestles among the clumps of evergreens. The carriages dash up the avenue, which is .ar- ranged in the same manner as that at Osborne, with a sharp turn in it that successfully hides all view of the house from the road. The only bit of building that is seen is the end of the wing that was added 20 Life at Sandringham to the house after the great fire some years back. This is surmounted by a tall tower containing the clock, that was erected by the Prince's tradespeo- ple in the neighbourhood as a special memorial to the late Duke of Clarence. A few minutes bring the visitor to the east front of the house itself, when it is seen that the Hall is built of handsome red brick, with stone dressings. Everywhere are large win- dows, set in well-designed stone mullions, and giv- ing a great sense of light and air. The house is certainly not very pretty, for the Elizabethan style in which it is designed has been rather crudely mod- ernized, but it is intensely comfortable-looking. The added wing, which contains the new ballroom and some dozen bedrooms above, goes by the name of the " Bachelors' Wing." It stands at right angles to the house itself, and this has rather a pretty effect. Above the porch is a legend which says, " This house was built by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Alexandra, his wife, in the year of Our Lord 1870." The house was purchased from Mr. Spen- cer Cowper for £220,000, which had been amassed by the careful management of the Prince Consort out of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall. Mr. 3 21 The Prince of Wales Cowper, whose wife was the widow of the cele- brated Count d'Orsay, had allowed the place to fall into sad disrepair, and during the first few years of the Prince's married life enormous sums of money were spent in efforts to restore the estate and the house on it to something like order. The Queen sent her own land-steward from Osborne to over- see the rebuilding of the farms and of the cottages, which were carefully improved on plans used in former years by the Prince Consort. The mansion, however, proved past all repair, and, as the legend on the *Wall says, the house was practically rebuilt in 1870. But before anything was done to his own residence, the Prince himself saw that every cot- tage and farm on the estate was either rebuilt or repaired, while he made it a sine qua non that their cattle and horses should be lodged as well as, if not better than, the tenants themselves. His active supervision frequently led to most amusing scenes, and when the question of the rebuilding of Apple- ton Hall arose he caused considerable confusion to the then occupants by dashing into the house and up steep staircases and ladders to the rooms they occupied, looking into every cupboard, sur- 22 Life at Sandringham veying the roof and the cellars in the most business- like and thorough manner, and with an entire lack of ceremony that speedily put his new tenants at their ease. From the first the Prince of Wales determined that Sandringham should be his home in the real English sense of the word. He established at once the most cordial relations with his neighbours and tenants, gentle and simple alike. His daily life is practically that of an ordinary country gentleman, though it must never be forgotten that he takes upon himself every responsibility in connection with his large estate, and with the people who live upon it. If his life in Norfolk is simple and less tied by etiquette than in London, his personal re- sponsibilities are greater, and are never shirked. The Prince is practically his own agent, and noth- ing happens on the estate without his hearing and inquiring about it. The Prince speedily became very much attached to Sandringham, although it was said of the place that much had happened there that had been trying and sad, and although, strange- ly enough, the house had the reputation of bringing ill luck to its owners. Whatever thoughts may be conjured up by the 23 The Prince of Wales outward appearance of this charming country- house are speedily dispelled when the visitor passes beneath the porch into the entrance, and, turning straight to the left, enters what is known as the saloon, a great apartment, half hall, half living room, where family and guests meet for work and music, for tea and talk. The first impression of this fine apartment is that of oak, the ceiling being of beams crossed and recrossed, the dado of carved oak panels, and the end of the room charmingly broken by several light high arches. The walls are also of oak, but of these little is seen, as they are covered with pictures and sketches of all sorts. The floor is polished, and covered with rugs, which lie beneath a marvellous collection of lounges and chairs of all kinds, many of them covered with needlework done by the Princesses, a fine grand piano, screens, groups of palms, stands of flowers, and two small bronze cannons, one called " Eu- genie " and the other " Louis Napoleon," which were given to the Prince by the late Emperor of the French. The pictures on the walls are most interesting, being intimately connected with the family life of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Two oil paint- 24 Life at Sandringham ings, dated 1863, show two of the Danish Palaces. Sir Edwin Landseer is represented by a picture of Dunrobin, painted in 1866, when the Prince visited his great friend, the late Duke of Sutherland. M. Zichy has painted an excellent portrait group of the Prince and Princess and their children at tea, as well as several pictures of Highland life, including deer- stalking and dancing by torchlight. There are ex- cellent portraits of the Kings of Spain and Den- mark, a picture of Sir Edwin Landseer and his dog, a drawing of the " Serapis at Sea," when the Prince was en route for India, several memories of the Prince shooting, riding, and driving, and pictures by the Princesses Louise and Beatrice, and other relations. Sandringham Hall is decorated on all sides with trophies of magnificent arms. Some of the finest, which show beautiful inlaid work of gold and silver, are arranged in the saloon, as well as an interesting collection of weapons taken from the fields of Gravelotte, which the Prince made when he visited the battlefields of the Franco-German War in 1871. On sundry tables, under glass cases, stand caskets of gold and silver containing addresses which have been presented to the Prince from time to time. 25 The Prince of Wales There is also the hoof of " Eclipse/' the great race horse, innumerable pieces of silver, and curios from India, Egypt, and Turkey, the whole making up a delightful assortment of homelike treasures. Here the Prince cordially welcomes his guests, who pres- ently make for the wide corridor, which is lined on either side with glass-covered cases filled with arms of all countries; this leads to the main staircase, on the wall of which hangs a speaking likeness of the Princess in riding costume. Before turning to the Visitors' Rooms, the schoolroom, where the young princes were educated under the care of Dr. Dalton, is passed. If the visitor is a lady, she is ac- commodated with one of the many charming suites of rooms on the first and second floors of the house. A bachelor is generally housed in the new wing. In every case refreshment is served on arrival in the guests' apartments, while their servants make ar- rangements for dressing for eight-o'clock dinner, which, according to Sandringham clocks (always kept half an hour fast), is served at 8.30. The dining room itself is of a comfortable size. Its great fireplace gives promise of ample warmth, while the high oak roof makes for coolness and plenty of air. The wainscotting and furniture are 26 Life at Sandringham of oak, finely carved, while the floor, like those of the other reception rooms, is highly polished. The walls are panelled with fine tapestry, given by the late King of Spain to the Prince, and set in simple gilt moulding. This tapestry was nearly ruined by water when the destructive Sandringham fire took place, but, being cleverly dried and cleaned, it was, to the Prince's great delight, found to be in- tact. Where there is no tapestry, there are good pictures. One is a beautiful Landseer, called " Mare and Foal." There are also a portrait of the Prince in the Colonel's uniform of the Tenth Hussars, and good likenesses of the Empress Fred- erick and her husband, when they were Crown Prince and Princess of Germany. The chairs are entirely covered with blue leather, slightly touched with gold. The principal piece of furniture is the sideboard, which is built into an alcove, and which, when covered with the gold and silver racing and yachting cups won by the Prince, presents a very imposing sight. The table is narrow for its length, and oval at each end. The Prince has a great ob- jection to any form of high decoration, and though candelabra are set at frequent intervals, the flowers and the rest of the plate are always kept very low. 27 The Prince of Wales The Prince and Princess do not take the head and foot of the table, but sit facing each other at its centre. After dinner the party go to the drawing room, passing through a large anteroom, which is deco- rated largely with tiger skins, tusks, and stuffed victims to the Prince's prowess as a mighty hunter. The drawing rooms at Sandringham occupy the west side of the house, and from the windows there is a beautiful view over the lake to the Rockeries and the Park. The big drawing room is very French in colouring, being pale blue and pink, cream and gold, with a charming painted ceiling. The hangings are of dull gold silk. The furniture is of pale blue silk brocaded in soft red and gold. For everyday wear pretty chintzes hide the silk up- holstery. The principal object in the room is a great centrepiece formed from palms and flower- ing plants, set in rockwork, and surrounding a fine group of " Venus and Cupid." The angles of the room are broken with palms reflected in several large mirrors, set like panels from floor to ceiling here and there. There is a wonderful quantity of china, the most important of which is the Sevres and Dresden in the drawing room. The bulk of it 28 Life at Sandringham is cleverly arranged on a series of shelves, built across the face of a looking-glass after a design that the Prince thought out. One striking feature in the room is the tall screen of deep crimson silk, on which hang three delightful autotype portraits of the Prince's daughters. There are many scores of photographs, in every kind of frame, scattered about the drawing rooms, for the Prince and Prin- cess have a truly Royal fancy for liking to see their friends' faces always about them. A delightful addition to the drawing room is the conservatory, which is reached from the centre windows. It is of a simple bow shape, and is fur- nished with mattings and ample basket-work chairs. Tea is often served here, under the shad- ow of the palms, and in winter evenings it is a popular smoking room. It is relieved from the commonplace by a charming group of " Girls Bathing " and a beautifully posed life-size white swan. If the invited guest was so lucky as to be bidden to one of the three annual balls which took place be- fore the Duke of Clarence's death, he would find the great ballroom in the new wing gaily lit up after dinner, and the whole house in as great a ferment of 29 The Prince of Wales excitement as though the Royal host and hostess were the simplest people in the world. For many years the Sandringham balls, which were given respectively to the County, the Farmers, and the Servants, were held in the saloon; but the Prince's hospitality outgrew the accommodation, and the great ballroom was added. Built from the designs of the well-known architect, Colonel Edis, it is a finely proportioned room, with large bay win- dows at either end and along one side; the other being occupied by a handsome fireplace, set in a deep alcove. The dado is, like those in the rest of the house, of carved wood, and between the win- dows are comfortable lounges for the lookers-on and sitters out. The walls are painted in panels of a pale colour, and are decorated here and there with shields and weapons collected by the Prince in the East. At one end is a gallery for the orchestra, which, with his extraordinary energy, the Prince invariably keeps hard at work the whole time. A Sandringham ball is always opened with a quadrille, in which the Royalties and the house party, who have been receiving the principal guests in the drawing room, and who walk from thence in procession to the ballroom, take the leading part. 30 Life at Sandringham The Prince and the Princess always take the top and bottom, and the sides are filled by people staying in the house, and any of their neighbours and tenants whom they may ask to join in. The Prince is a most energetic partner, and always " dances to the tune," as he himself expresses it. Sitting out is at a discount in the Sandringham ballroom, and every one, old and young, is expected to dance, not only " squares " and " rounds " but Highland flings, jigs, country dances, Sir Roger, and the " Triumph," a boisterous measure which is immensely popular with His Royal Highness. Dancing over, an adjournment is made by the Prince to the billiard and smoking rooms. The smoking room is reached through the corridor, which repays inspection, as it is a veritable armory, and leads on to the bowling alley, which was built a few years ago by the Prince, after the best American models. It is a long, narrow apartment, with good light from the roof. The sunken floor is surrounded by comfortable seats, where the ladies of the party sit to watch the game. The Prince is devoted to bowls, and both before dinner and at the end of the evening likes to have a game. So far, in- deed, does the Prince carry his affection for this 3i The Prince of Wales sport that the moment midnight strikes on Sunday he always repairs to the bowling alley, and plays for an hour before going to bed. On one occasion a popular preacher with a tender conscience had been invited to Sandringham from Saturday to Monday, for the purpose of preaching the sermon at St. Mary Magdalene at morning service. As the hour for the usual game of bowls approached on Sunday night the worthy gentleman was induced to re- tire to rest, as it was thought his susceptibilities might be shocked by the knowledge that bowls was played so near the Sabbath. The next morn- ing, however, at breakfast, the little plot was in- advertently betrayed by a fellow-guest, who said to him: "You were a lucky man to get off so well last night. They got me into the bowling room and kept me there till four o'clock in the morning! " Parallel with the bowling alley is the billiard room, where the best of tables and every requisite of the game are to be found. Sporting sketches, many of them by Leech, are on the walls, and, being a comfortable apartment, it is most popular in the long winter evenings. As may be guessed, bedtime is a movable feast 32 Life at Sandringham at Sandringham, but, save under exceptional cir- cumstances, it is not very late, for the Prince when in the country is keen on early rising, and frequently does half a day's work before his guests are served with their first cup of tea. 33 CHAPTER III THE PRINCE IN THE COUNTRY The breakfast hour at Sandringham is half past nine, and places are set at round tables for six or eight people. The Prince of Wales has wisely ar- ranged that as a rule neither he nor any members of his family appear at this meal, which they take in their own apartments. This provides for every- body's convenience, as all are not such early risers as the Prince. Unless shooting is afoot, breakfast is not hurried over, but in the event of a hard day's work with the guns, the hour for assembling is fixed overnight, and the sportsmen are expected to be ready, and waiting at the rendezvous, by the time His Royal Highness appears. During the spring and summer months the days at Sandringham are delightful to any one who takes interest in a charming country beautifully kept, high farming, and well-bred stock. Breakfast over, the Prince's more intimate friends adjourn for a 34 The Prince in the Country little while to the library, a room on the right of the entrance hall. Meanwhile the owner of Sandringham has all the cares of his estate upon him. Every morning he spends at least an hour in a small business room just off the saloon. Here, in company with the Comptroller of his Household, and his secretary, Sir Francis Knollys, the Prince receives reports of all kinds. Mr. Jackson, the head gamekeeper, has a word to say about the hatching out or rearing of young pheasants. The stock keepers give advice as to what should be fattened for show and what should be killed. One man has heard of new machinery, another reports on the advisability of building more glass houses. Every detail of the management of the estate is laid before His Royal Highness, and is duly considered, weighed, and commented upon. No complaint is neglected and no reasonable request refused. The room in which all this work takes place is severely plain, with its writing tables and desks, and half a dozen chairs. The walls are simply painted, and their surface is only broken by a few portraits and Vanity Fair caricatures, the most striking being a sketch of the Prince's old racing friend, Admiral Rous. 35 The Prince of Wales While the gentlemen of the party are waiting in the library and saloon for the Prince, the Princess sends for any lady who may be on terms of intimate friendship with her. The Princess's boudoir is on the first floor, and close to the bay-window bed- room, papered in blue and white and open to the fresh Norfolk breezes, where years ago the Prince lay at death's door, and where there still is in the ceiling the hook to which a pulley was attached, which he used during his long convalescence to raise and lower himself in the big blue and white bed just below. Beyond this bedroom is the Prin- cess's dressing room, large and airy, and simply arranged. A number of singing birds are always here, and at one time the famous " Cocky " alter- nated between this dressing room and the big sa- loon. Here also flew about at will a beautiful blue pigeon of which the Princess was very fond. The boudoir itself is pretty, homelike, and marvellously full of the many odds and ends that indicate the life of an active woman. The general impression of the room is a tender pink, but the walls are covered with sketches in pencil, crayon, and water colour, and favourite engravings hang on every side, shouldered by brackets full of china. The multi- 36 The Prince in the Country tude of photographs is bewildering, for they stand in crowds on the tables that are further rilled with books and music, drawing materials, needlework, correspondence from relations and friends, and the many pretty trifles that have been given to the Prin- cess, often by very humble folk, which are prized by her less for their own sake than for the love that prompted them. If the Princess is not seeing her friends in her boudoir, she often spends the early hours in the morning room, a delightful, sunny apartment over- looking the gardens, which is used almost exclu- sively by the family. Here again is a quantity of china and quaint pottery, while a huge writing table, which stands in a deep bay window and is partly screened from the rest of the room, denotes that much private correspondence is despatched in this homely corner. The chief charm of this room is a series of sketches by many of the most famous artists of the day, depicting deer-stalking scenes in the Highlands. Millais, Leighton, and others no less famous, have contributed to this little gallery. When the morning is well aired, the Prince, in knickerbockers, thick boots, and smoking a large cigar, starts out with such guests as care to accom- 4 17 The Prince of Wales pany him on his daily round. The first thing that strikes the eye on leaving the house is the extreme beauty of the gardens, especially when it is remem- bered that much of the land about Sandringham was, when the Prince bought the estate, in a most neglected state; perseverance and clever gardening have done wonders, and the terrace that runs along the western side of the house, the beautiful lawns, and the artistically arranged clumps of flowering shrubs and evergreens are ample evidences of the Prince's taste. Below the terrace is an Italian garden, but with- out the formality of stiff ribbon bordering, to which all the Royal family have a great dislike. Beyond this lies the lake, a fine expanse of water, which the Prince, a few years ago, supplemented with another, dug out in the Park; the two are connected by a small stream, and well stocked with black bass. The Prince then shows with some pride a charming rockery and waterfall, which, with its rustic bridges, miniature caves, and water-sprayed ferns, forms a cool and pleasant retreat on a hot summer day. Near by is the Alpine Garden, a favourite nook of the young Princesses; it is wild and characteristic, and one blaze of flowers. Nearer the house is an 38 The Prince in the Country- avenue of trees of considerable interest, for every one of them has been planted either by a member of the Royal family or by some person of note. Each tree is labelled, and in years to come this avenue will form a memorial of the long list of guests who, year in and year out, are bidden to share the hospitality of the most genial Prince the world has ever seen. The fruit and kitchen gardens, as well as an im- mense quantity of glass, lie at some distance from the house. The newest appliances are used here, and the supply of fruit and vegetables is abundant and good, though sometimes, if the Prince is enter- taining a guest of great importance, the famous Frogmore gardens contribute a choice show of fruit. Before leaving the vicinity of the Hall, and turn- ing to the beautiful avenue of lime trees and the stables and kennels, visitors are always shown an interesting Chinese joss house. This genuine specimen of fine metal work was brought by Ad- miral Sir Henry Keppel from China some years ago, and presented by him to the Prince, with a pair of most extraordinary Japanese lions, carved with considerable skill from huge blocks of granite. When these Eastern curiosities have been duly ad- 39 The Prince of Wales mired, the business of the morning commences in earnest, and the Prince leads his party to the planta- tions on the right, which hide from the windows of the house the coach-houses and the stables. These are admirably arranged on the system of courts brought to such perfection at Windsor and Buck- ingham Palace by the late Prince Consort. They are built round a great square courtyard, the right of which is known as the harness side, and the left as the saddle side, the horses being used respectively for driving and riding. There are about sixty stalls, which are nearly always full, as the Prince frequently has his race horses over to Sandringham, when they are taken out of training. The stalls and loose boxes are built on the most sanitary principles, and are both lofty and airy. From the horses that are shown the guest will gather that the Prince affects those that come from Hungary. A magnificent team of dark-brown Hungarian horses draw the big family wagonette, which is so well known in the Norfolk roads as the favourite vehicle for conveying the family to flower shows and fetes, picnics and school feasts. These horses are generally harnessed with the picturesque trappings of black and red with long black tassels 40 The Prince in the Country used in Hungary. Another team frequently draws a big char-a-banc, which was purchased from the late Emperor Napoleon. Postilions are generally used when four horses are taken out. A great pet, which always comes in for much notice from the Prince, is his shooting pony, a sturdy, well-built ani- mal. On the saddle side are the ponies of the young Princesses, and the horse used by the late Duke of Clarence. In former days the Prince's children liked noth- ing so well as taking their mounts out into the Park and riding races. They all had fine seats, but the Duke of Clarence and Princess Maud were excep- tionally good riders. Princess Maud shares with the Princess of Wales the reputation of being a first- class whip. The Princess of Wales has two or three carts of her own; one is known, as the "Blues' Cart," its cushions being of Guards' colours, blue edged with red. Another is a basketwork Ralli car, in which either she or one of her daughters fre- quently drives tandem. The coach-house also shel- ters many kinds of carriages, several graceful sledges, an interesting specimen of a Canadian cart, and a very beautiful rickshaw of the finest Japanese lacquer. 4i The Prince of Wales The Prince is pardonably proud of the saddle room, which is quite a museum of interesting and historical objects. There are a number of very good oil pictures of dead and gone horses. Among them is " Victoria," a bay mare which was almost the first present given by the Queen to the Princess of Wales. Several old sporting prints, each of con- siderable value, surround a good collection of por- traits of jockeys and their most famous mounts. Below the pictures is a long line of mounted hoofs, and a comprehensive collection of bits of Arabian, Persian, Indian, and Chinese work. An Australian buck-jumper's saddle displays some beautifully em- bossed leather work on the flanks, and a set of Mexican harness with silver mounts and innumer- able tassels, such as is used on gala occasions, is re- markable for its beauty. Through the stables to the kennels is but a few yards, and here the arrival of the Royal party is the signal for an outburst of barking from nearly a hundred dogs. The kennels are well arranged, with inner rooms for sleeping, excellent grass runs, and a perpetual supply of running water. The ex- ercising of these many dogs is also carefully attend- ed to, the larger breeds being taken out every morn- 42 The Prince in the Country ing, and the smaller ones in the afternoon, by Bruns- don, a trusted servant of the Prince, who has almost entire charge of all the Sandringham pets. The Prince is not exclusive in his love of dogs, for nearly every breed finds a place in his kennels, and he has a cheery whistle and a kind pat for each canine friend. There are wolf-hounds, Borzios, terriers of all kinds, long- and short-haired Newfoundlands, St. Ber- nards, Scotch deerhounds, a beautiful white collie, dachshunds, a number of spitz dogs of which all the Princesses are very fond, various setters and pointers, which are taken to Scotland whenever the Prince goes there, several Esquimaux sledge dogs, and of course the famous original Chow dogs, that the Princess has bred so successfully. Out of these numbers, however, the Prince and his family have their special favourites. For years His Royal Highness never moved without " Bobeche," a French poodle, which he took with him to India, as well as " Flossie," another great pet. After the Duke of Clarence's death the Prince added " Ven- nie," his son's dog, to his train, and a later fa- vourite still is " Peter," a French bulldog. He is also devoted to rough basset hounds; the original pair, " Babil " and " Bijou," were presented to him 43 The Prince of Wales by the Comtesse de Paris. The Princess, on the other hand, affects smooth bassets, and takes prizes for those she has bred whenever she shows them. Her Royal Highness, who seldom travels without two or three dogs, has lately made great pets of some quaint little Japanese spaniels, and " Pun- chie " and " Billie " are well known to all her friends. " Facey " has been immortalized in Luke Fildes's lovely picture of the Princess. Fox terri- ers, which Princess Maud prefers to other dogs, are also successfully bred in the Sandringham kennels. From the kennels the move is made to one or both of the two farms which the Prince has kept for his own use, and where he has his Booth shorthorns and his celebrated South Down sheep. The Prince has also been very successful with Devons, while a number of Alderneys are kept for dairy purposes. These home farms cover nearly a dozen acres, many of which have been reclaimed, foot by foot, from the seashore near Wolverton. Wherever this has been done, pine trees and shrubberies have been planted, with the view of protecting the cattle and the land from the keen east winds which so often blow on the Norfolk coast. The Prince has a great sale of his famous stock every four years, 44 The Prince in the Coun try- when a large party of gentlemen is put up at Sand- ringham. The Prince's estate is famous for a fine breed of pigs, known as " Improved Norfolks," and when he started on his Indian tour he took out some of these animals on the " Serapis," as a present to his brother-in-law, the King of Greece. An old Nor- folk countryman was put in charge of the pigs and some cattle, and his account of his visit to King George, and his opinion of the country over which he reigned, entertained the Royal family much when this village worthy returned. He gave it as his opinion that " His Majesty were a very nice- spoken gentleman, and were very pleased with the pigs; but," he added, " I wouldn't care to live in them parts myself." He also told the Princess of Wales, to her great amusement, that " the King sent his love to them all." The general survey of the estate and the animals being over, a return is made to the Hall for lunch- eon, which is also served at round tables, but at which meal the Prince and his family very seldom appear, preferring to lunch alone, and talk over the business of the morning and the plans for the after- noon. These often comprise the opening of a ba- 45 The Prince of Wales zaar, giving prizes at local sports, admiring floral efforts of their neighbours at a flower show, or visit- ing schools and the many clubs which the Prince has founded and built and won over on his estate, and which have proved of incalculable benefit to his tenants and to others on his property. Every village now has its schoolhouse, where the children look picturesque in their pretty cos- tumes of red and blue that the Princess arranged, and where at any moment the Prince or Princess may call to hear the singing or the reading, or per- haps to examine a class on some particular subject. The workingmen's clubs, for which all who are over fourteen are eligible, have long been the Prince's special pride and care. In each village he has built a picturesque clubhouse, with a billiard room and comfortable reading rooms supplied with books, papers, and writing materials, and there a man may have as much good beer to drink as is well for him, though he may not waste either his sub- stance or his health. The regulations, which were based upon the principles of Dr. Arnold's system, are not many, but they are strictly enforced, and it would be well that those who some years ago del- uged the Prince with violently worded petitions, 46 The Prince in the Country imploring him not to attend the dinner of the Licensed Victuallers, should know that on the Prince's estate there is no such thing as a public house, and that drunkenness is absolutely unknown. During an afternoon walk the Prince often drops in at one of these clubs, talks to the men, and plays a game of billiards. This has always been His Royal Highness's method of getting at the affections and the requirements of his people, and it is small won- der that under such a landlord the Sandringham estate is a model of what an English property should be. The Prince early decided that where a large establishment of over a hundred servants is kept there must necessarily be the risk of illness. He accordingly fitted up a large, airy farmhouse as a hospital, with suitable kitchens. To this charm- ing spot is sent any ailing servant, whether em- ployed on indoor or outdoor labour, and the best available doctoring, nursing, and food conduce to a speedy recovery. Should the Prince have an absolutely free after- noon, he likes best to take his guests farther afield over the estate, passing as he goes by York Cottage, which for many years was called the Bachelors' 47 The Prince of Wales Cottage. It was here that Prince Eddy with his tutors and one or two friends, chosen from among his fellow-midshipmen on the " Bacchante," was prepared for his entrance to Cambridge University. After that, this most cosy little abode was fitted up entirely for the use of bachelor guests. When the Duke of York married, the Prince gave his son the choice between Appleton Hall and the Bachelors' Cottage as a country residence. We know that the latter was chosen, and that the little house was at once enlarged and redecorated. With an increas- ing family further improvements soon became necessary. A billiard room was built, as one of the Princesses says, " at the end of all things," a new dining room was added, and the old dining room transformed into a drawing room. The Duchess of York was thus able to arrange a boudoir next to her bedroom for herself, and contrive a room close at hand for the reception of her guests. Life at York Cottage is of the simplest and plainest. Its occupants always speak of Sandringham Hall as the " House," and with their guests walk up there to dine without any ceremony or formality. When York Cottage and the bonny grandchil- dren have been duly inspected, a move may be made 48 The Prince in the Country for Brunsdon's house, near which is a creeper-cov- ered cottage rilled with birds. This little spot was originally built as a monkey house, and was occu- pied by the various monkeys and marmosets that the Prince of Wales and his sons had collected dur- ing their travels. About that time, too, the Prince was the proud possessor of a miniature Zoo, for Sandringham boasted a bear pit, some wild pigs, and sundry small elephants, young tigers, kanga- roos, and a number of curious wild fowl, which, however, in due time found their way to the larger Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. Close by the bird house is an aviary full of snow-white doves, presents to the Princess. Brunsdon, the keeper of these feathered treasures, has a charming cottage close at hand, which is filled with all kinds of stuffed pets. Here now lives the Princess's cockatoo " Cocky," who has little left of his feathers but his " topknot." He is devoted to his Royal mistress, and shrieks loudly whenever he sees her or hears her voice. More interesting to the Prince than the birds are the fine deer, red and fallow, which to the number of over three hundred roam in the glades of Sandring- ham Park. Great pains have been taken to rival 49 The Prince of Wales in beauty the famous herd in Windsor Forest, and it is a source of much gratification to the Prince that he has had such success. Once outside Sandringham Park itself, Park House comes into view. It was built by the Prince for his Comptroller and old friend, Sir Dighton Probyn, who, in addition to his duties at the Hall, keeps a watchful eye on the Hackney Stud Farm, which is a successful hobby of the Prince. A little beyond Park House are the Alexandra Cottages, beautifully built houses, with gardens and sheds, and every possible comfort, which are let at the rate of £4 a year to labourers on the estate. Other cot- tages, the Louise and Victoria, lie nearer to West Newton, a delightful village where the Prince spent a great deal of money in restoring the old church, and where he also built a water tower which sup- plies most of the houses on his estate. By this time there is talk of tea, a most substan- tial meal in the Prince's Household, which at the Hall is often served in a charming room uphol- stered in warm red and dull gold. Places are set all round the long tables, and there is an abundant supply of cakes, hot and cold, sandwiches of all kinds, rolls, and jams; but when the weather is fine 50 The Prince in the Country and the Prince and his guests are in the grounds, the Princess extends the hospitality of her beautiful tea room, which adjoins her own particular dairy. This picturesque little establishment is housed in a Swiss cottage of characteristic design. It contains five rooms, and the dairy itself, lined with beautiful tiles especially made in Bombay, and fitted with the newest appliances, is a picture of fascinating cleanli- ness. The tea room is just dainty, its principal fea- ture being the china it contains; many of the plates, plaques, and tiles in it have been painted for the Princess by her relations and friends, while other pieces have been given to her, and the collection grows every year. Here the Royal family are quite in their element, cutting up cake and bread and butter, and pouring out tea, and waiting on their guests with that particular charm of manner and easy friendliness which make a visit to Sand- ringham an event in life to be marked with a white stone. 51 CHAPTER IV THE PRINCE AT MARLBOROUGH HOUSE If Sandringham is regarded as the centre of the Prince of Wales's home life, Marlborough House must certainly be reckoned his official resi- dence. It is the scene of much hard work and of many duties both social and political, and it is but natural that the Prince himself and his family should prefer the simple charm and country quiet of their Norfolk home to the stricter etiquette and necessary formalities that surround life in the big, square brick house that Sir Christopher Wren de- signed and built nearly two hundred years ago. When the nation and the Crown decided that the services of the great Duke of Marlborough to his country demanded a substantial reward, search was made in the then limited Court quarter of the town for a suitable site on which to erect a mansion where the conqueror of Blenheim, Ramillies, and Malplaquet could pass the evening of his days in 52 The Prince at Marlborough House suitable state and comfort. Whatever any one else may have desired, the masterful Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, quickly decided that she would like her town house to stand in the immediate precincts of St. James's Palace, and she obtained from Queen Anne a fifty years' lease, on wonderfully easy terms, of over four acres of Crown land. The spot had formerly been the pheasantry of St. James's Palace, and over an acre of the property had formed part of the garden occupied by the Right Honourable Henry Boyle, principal Secretary of State to Queen Anne. At the time the lease was granted an old house called the Friary occupied the centre of the thick grove of chestnut trees which then grew in profusion on either side of the Mall. The granting of the property to the Duchess of Marlborough was gazetted on April 18, 1709, and Wren immediately began to build the original Marlborough House, with a centre and two wings of the dull-red brick of the period, ornamented with stone copings and bal- ustrades. Before the first Duke of Marlborough had lived in his house four years he lent it to the Prince and Princess of Wales, and it is a remarkable coinci- dence that a house lent to one Prince of Wales 5 53 The Prince of Wales should come in time to be the residence of another. For some years Marlborough House was the scene of many entertainments and much magnificence, till the Duke fell into imbecility, and the Duchess quarrelled with the Queen, and used with her daughters to loll out of the upper windows on levee days in outrageous negligee, to let the fashionable world know that they had " cut the Queen." First the Duke and then the Duchess of Marl- borough died there, after which the history of the house was of no interest, till in 1817 it was bought by the Crown, as a suitable residence for the young Princess Charlotte on her marriage with Prince Leopold. The Princess died before the purchase was com- pleted, but her husband lived quietly there until he was offered and accepted the Belgian Crown, when the house was again left empty. In 1826 Marlbor- ough House came to be considered something of a white elephant, and as the town began to grow, and the necessity for making new roads arose, there was serious talk of sweeping it and its gardens away, and building a fine street on the site; but the acces- sion of William IV caused a change of plans, and on his death Marlborough House was settled as a 54 The Prince at Marlborough House dower house on Queen Adelaide, and was occu- pied by her until her death in 1849. After that event the Queen and Prince Consort decided that Marlborough House should become the Prince of Wales's London residence when he was of age and required one. Meanwhile the ground floor was used as a gallery for the Vernon pictures, the upper part being given over to the library and museum of the Department of Practical Art and School of Design, in which the Prince Con- sort took deep interest. It was here that the fu- neral car for the great Duke of Wellington was de- signed, and in the courtyard it was subsequently exhibited to the public. A few months before the Prince Consort's death Marlborough House was taken in hand and more or less put in order. It was in a shocking condition of neglect; the grounds were overgrown with un- trimmed bushes and matted grass, and were rilled with broken bottles, dead cats, and refuse of all kinds. The interior of the house was in a like condition of disrepair. It was while the cleaning and redecorating were going on that Prince Edward of Saxe- Weimar in- formed the Queen that the walls of the grand stair- 55 The Prince of Wales case, the second staircase, and the great saloon were magnificently decorated with fine mural paintings. His information of their existence was speedily con- firmed by the removal of a quantity of canvas, paint, and paper with which the frescoes had been plastered over at some unknown period. Mr. Mer- ritt, the famous restorer of paintings of that day, who assisted Sir George Richmond, R. A., to re- store the interesting picture of Richard II, found in Westminster Abbey, and Signor Pinti, an Italian artist, succeeded in uncovering the paintings, which occupied a space of over five hundred square yards, and proved to be a series of representations of all Marlborough's battles and sieges. It was dis- covered that they were painted by Louis Laguerre, an artist who for years had worked under the famous Neapolitan Verrio, and who was respon- sible for many of the paintings at Hampton Court and in the great mansions throughout England. He was considered such a fine portrait painter that Sir Godfrey Kneller himself asked him to decorate the staircase at his country house at Witton. The portraits of Marlborough and his staff, and the accuracy of the arms and accoutre- ments, make these pictures of extreme interest. 56 The Prince at Marlborough House The Prince of Wales values them so highly that in 1889, having discovered the original engravings at Windsor, he had them again restored at great ex- pense by Mr. Richards. In addition to restoring these fresco paintings, the Prince of Wales has from time to time greatly improved Marlborough House, where many ad- ditions have been made. There are now over one hundred rooms available for the Prince's establish- ment, while electric lights and an excellent system of hot-air pipes must be reckoned among recent improvements. Spacious as the mansion looks, however, there is none too much room for a household which num- bers over one hundred persons. The top floor is principally in the occupation of the resident un- married equerries, the Prince's librarian, Mr. Holz- mann, the three dressers of the Princess of Wales, the Prince's three valets, the house steward, the chief cook and other upper servants, and the pages. Beneath this is what is called the nursery floor, where many years ago a serious fire broke out. On this occasion the Prince and some of his friends, who were hastily sent for from the Marlborough Club opposite, worked with such prompt energy 57 The Prince of Wales that when Captain Shaw arrived with the Fire Bri- gade he laughingly remarked that he had never seen a house so deluged with water in his life. He also found the Prince black from head to foot, having with his own hands torn up a quantity of burning boards, and having also run the risk of serious in- jury by falling from a great height across a beam. The Duke of York's old room is here, and next it is the room used by Prince Eddy, which since his lamented death has been kept locked by the Prin- cess, and in the same state as during his lifetime. The rooms of Princesses Victoria and Maud near by are simply and comfortably furnished with bright chintz and pretty pictures. Here, too, Miss Knollys, the dear friend of the Princess of Wales, has a charming bed-sitting room, full of pretty knicknacks, and delightfully furnished in ebony and gold. Mile, Vauthier, once the Princesses' govern- ess and now Mrs. Johnson, whom with the family love of nicknames her pupils always call " Maddie," also lived on this floor. The first floor is most spacious and airy. Here there are bedrooms and two sitting rooms for Royal visitors, and the private suites of both the Prince and Princess of Wales. 58 The Prince at Marlborough House An early visitor to the Prince is admitted into the entrance hall at Marlborough House by a Scotch gillie in national dress, and is there met by two scarlet-coated and powdered footmen. His coat and hat are given in charge of the hall porter, a picturesque individual in a short red coat and wear- ing a broad band of leather across his shoulders. If the visitor is to be granted an immediate audience, one of the pages, who is always in attendance about the Royal apartments, conducts him to the ante- room that gives access to the Prince's private sit- ting room. The pages, who usually wear the very simple livery of dark-blue coats and black trousers that the quiet taste of the Prince prefers, on great occasions exchange their black trousers for black velvet breeches, silk stockings to match, and gold garters. Passing upstairs, the visitor is conscious of the flittings of many maids, all in neat uniform, whose business it is to maintain the character of the Prince's residence as the best-kept house in London. The antechamber, which is used by the Prince for the transaction of purely private business with his tradespeople and those persons who are grant- ed special interviews, is panelled in walnut wood. 59 The Prince of Wales On the walls are hung trophies of swords and guns which the caller may admire at his leisure, till suddenly an unseen door, which is part and par- cel of the panelling, is opened. A broad-shoul- dered figure stands in the centre of the room, a small, plump hand removes a large cigar from a smiling mouth, and a genial voice, with just the least suggestion of a " burr " in it, gives greeting and an invitation to walk into the Prince's private sanctum. A sense of comfort and taste, though not of extreme luxury, pervades the Prince's immediate surroundings. The walls and the ceiling of his sit- ting room are panelled in dark wood, and the velvet curtains and the leather upholstery of the numer- ous chairs form a symphony in dull soft blues, a col- our of which the Prince is very fond. The room might be too sombre, but that the two large win- dows look due north, across the courtyard, to where the roar and rattle of busy Pall Mall roll past the entrance gates. As the Prince chats and smokes he paces to and fro, now moving to the high writing desk, to which he alone can obtain access with a little gold key he always wears, and where his private correspondence 60 The Prince at Marlborough House is answered and kept; then over to a larger table where books, papers, and memoranda concerning the fixtures for the current day are strewn. While discussing the morning's news the Prince from time to time presses one of the half-dozen knobs set in a movable frame, that communicate with the Comp- troller or Private Secretary in their offices below. Sir Dighton Probyn and Sir Francis Knollys an- swer questions through call-pipes, and messages are constantly being brought and sent, without, how- ever, disturbing in the least " Vennie," the late Prince Eddy's Irish terrier, or " Peter," a well-bred French bulldog, which lie soft and warm on the Oriental carpet, and take the place in the Prince's affection of a green parrot of many attainments. This delightful snuggery and work room con- tains several bijou pictures brightening the polished walls. The panels are further broken by a shelf about five feet from the floor, which runs round the room and is filled, as are sundry brackets, with pho- tographs, a quantity of china, some good bronzes, and quaint ornaments of all kinds. A conspicuous place is given to a beautiful bust of Prince Eddy, and among the crowds of photos are excellent like- nesses of the Prince of Wales's daughters. 61 The Prince of Wales By-and-bye the Prince repairs, by way of the anteroom, to his dressing room, which is large and very bright. The view from the two windows, which look west, is quite charming, embracing as it does a peep of the garden, St. James's Park, and the picturesque outline of St. James's Palace. The fur- niture is very plain, and more for use than orna- ment. Two ample wardrobes, a spacious dressing table, laden with toilet necessaries bearing the Prince's cipher, A. E., and a long couch in front of the fireplace covered with down pillows, are the most striking objects. What little is seen of the walls above the furniture which is placed very close- ly round the room, shows them to be hung with blue silk, patterned with what is known as " bird's eye." Suddenly a rustle of skirts is heard outside, fol- lowed by the sound of a gentle tap and a sweet voice speaking. Beyond the vision of the Princess's graceful form is seen the short corridor that sepa- rates her bedroom and boudoir from the Prince's suite. In these simple rooms the Prince spends many of the spare hours of his London life, often looking out at the club that is so near his own home, and 62 The Prince at Marlborough House ruminating, perhaps, on the historical past of the street lying almost at his feet. Pall Mall was once called Catharine Street, out of compliment to the ill-used Queen of Charles II, Catharine of Braganza. It was then shaded by a row of one hundred and fifty tall elm trees. The houses, all built on the south side, had large gar- dens; the north side was principally occupied by hay fields, and stacks of hay were built where the Junior Carlton Club now stands. At that period the finest mansion on the Mall was Schomberg House, dating from the Commonwealth. Later, the Duke of Schomberg, who came to England with William of Orange, bought the house and greatly improved it. Each successive duke of the line em- bellished the mansion, the third in particular spend- ing immense sums of money on some wonderful mural paintings by Peter Berchett. Parts of this house, with some of the outer decorations placed there by John Astley, now form a portion of the mass of buildings known as the War Office. Almost opposite lived Nell Gwynn. The Army and Navy Club now stands on the site of her house, and in the visitors' room there is still a looking-glass that belonged to the frail beauty. 63 The Prince of Wales Later she moved to a residence next Schomberg House, and it is believed that the raised terrace in the gardens of Marlborough House is part of the one originally made by her order. Another Royal favourite, the famous Mrs. Fitz- herbert, had her residence in Pall Mall, in near vicinity to Carlton House, where the Prince Regent had a brilliant court for so many years. This was only pulled down in 1820, when Regent Street and Waterloo Place were being laid out. Relics of Carlton House can now be seen in the Corinthian pillars which form the facade of the National Gallery. The first Prince of Wales who chose Pall Mall as a place of residence was Frederick, father of George III. He had as a neighbour the famous George Bubb Doddington, who, while he was in favour, had a key to the garden gate of the Royal Domain, and the Prince used to roll him in a blanket and trundle him downstairs, as well as bor- row large sums of money from him. The usual fate of Court favourites overtook Doddington, for the Prince of Wales bricked up the garden door, had the locks of his house altered, and cut his for- mer friend whenever he met him. 64 The Prince at Marlborough House " The Star and Garter," a well-known club of the time, also stood in Pall Mall. Here Lord By- ron, great-uncle of the poet, killed Mr. Chatworth in a duel. He was afterward tried for murder by his peers, but found guilty of manslaughter only, and released on payment of a fine. Mrs. Abington, the celebrated beauty and ac- tress, who ran a gambling hell for the great ladies of her time in the various mean lodgings she rented in low parts of the town, also lived and died in the Mall. Pall Mall was the first thoroughfare in London lit by gas in 1810, by a German named Winsor. A pillory stood in the centre of the road till about 1 7S°y when a woman convicted of a gross breach of morals was placed in it. Only very intimate friends of the Prince of Wales are ever admitted above the ground floor of Marlborough House, which from time to time has been altered and rearranged under His Royal High- ness's supervision. It is noteworthy that whenever it has been necessary to purchase new hangings or carpets, preference has always been given to articles of English manufacture. Most of the silk used has been made at Spitalfields, the larger carpets are all 65 The Prince of Wales Axminster, and the bulk of the furniture has been made in London by English hands. The saloon, an important feature of Marlbor- ough House, was formerly a vestibule, where in the old days suppliants for ducal patronage used to wait. It is a square of about thirty feet either way, and well lit from above. Over the south entrance runs a gallery that connects the visitors' rooms with the Royal apartments. Underneath it, on either side of the wide doorway, are splendid panels of Gobelin tapestry, presented to the Prince by Na- poleon III, and representing some of the best- known scenes from " Don Quixote." The tapestry on the western wall was also a gift from Napoleon, and depicts the Massacre of the Mamelukes in the time of Mehemet Ali. On the east wall is a hand- some white marble mantelpiece, surmounted with an overmantel of gilded oak, on which is inscribed the date of the Prince's marriage. The three sides of the saloon corresponding with the gallery are covered with the celebrated frescoes of Laguerre, showing the battle of Blenheim and the murder of Marshal Tallard. The carpet, that in a quaint fashion is laid crookedly, so as not to interfere with the jutting fireplace, was a wedding present. 66 The Prince at Marlborough House It has a large star in the centre which does not quite come under the middle of the dome. A couple of handsome inlaid cabinets, in which the variegated woods are relieved by medallions of carved ivory and ormolu mounts, stand against the north wall. Two very fine lanterns placed at either end of the west wall are supported by brackets formed like semi-nude Egyptian arms. The prevailing note of furniture and hangings is dark blue, relieved by panels and bands of tapestry. Many palms fill the corners, and form delightful backgrounds for bust portraits of the Princess's mother and brother. What used to be the library has, since the Prince's Eastern tour, been known as the " Indian Room," and is filled with a valuable museum of the rarest and most wonderful Indian work, in gold, sil- ver, jewels, and embroidery of all kinds. It is a popular resort with the Prince, and when the family are comparatively alone it is used as a dining room. The walls are panelled with a soft, wine-coloured figured velvet, the couches and chairs of English oak being covered with gold cloth. These rich col- ourings serve as an admirable background to the collection of Oriental treasures which are carefully arranged in oak and rosewood cases set all round 6 7 The Prince of Wales the room. In the five windows stand tables with glass tops filled with gold and silver trowels, presen- tation keys, medals, and memorials of all kinds. A splendid vase, given by Alexander II, makes an im- posing show on its marble pedestal, and across one corner of the room are many silver wedding presents. The number of richly ornamented swords, scab- bards, and daggers in the cases is bewildering, and their value is almost beyond calculation. The rare collection is not, however, confined entirely to weapons. One case is made brilliant by a crown which blazes with jewels. On either side of it hang necklaces of exquisite workmanship. A fly-whisk mounted in gold is most elegant, and a procession of little brass cavalrymen is quaint to a degree. The enamels, for which the province of Jeypoor is so famous, include the largest dish ever made in that kind of work, a beautiful inkstand shaped like a boat, and many smaller examples of the art. A tray of solid gold comes from Mysore, and more of the precious metal has been wrought into scent flasks, boxes, dishes, and drinking vessels. A scabbard of gold is one mass of chased work, while an ivory gunstock has been lavishly deco- 68 The Prince at Marlborough House rated by the carver's hand with boars, lions, and tigers. Over two of the cases hang a pair of gold- mounted elephant tusks of enormous size and fabu- lous value. Another pair is arranged above a door. Painted palm leaves and shields are grouped with spears on the velvet walls. There are also a num- ber of quaint idols, and figures of men and animals, placed on the top of the cases. Other dainty relics of the Indian tour are the many delicately worked boxes and cases of pure silver that were given to the Prince, with addresses of welcome in them. A shield, roughly valued at £20,000, is the greatest treasure that this interesting room contains. When a large dinner is in progress, the state din- ing room, a magnificent apartment over fifty feet long, is used. It runs north and south, and has a fireplace at either end, which is filled with flower- ing plants behind a glass fire-screen. The mantel- pieces are of dead-white marble supported on each side by draped figures. Over the fireplace at the southern end of the room is a full-length portrait of the Queen after Winterhalter, faced by a picture of Prince Albert by the same artist. Under each pic- ture is a clock with candelabra. Two of the seven 6 69 The Prince of Wales windows of the room are on either side of Her Maj- esty's portraits, and opposite them are two doors, above which hang portraits of the late German Em- peror and the Dowager Empress, who has painted the pair of flower studies that also grace the walls. Portraits of George I, George II, and George III further enhance the rich effect of the ruby-col- oured walls and hangings. The ceiling is white and panelled, and the furniture mahogany, with scarlet leather. A Turkey carpet covers the floor. The Prince sits in the middle of one side of the table, with his back to the five windows that over- look the east lawn of the garden, and his face to the mahogany sideboard, on which are displayed the gold and silver cups that he has won from time to time. About forty people can dine with comfort in this room, and that is the number usually asked to the Derby Day dinner, which the Prince for some years has given at Marlborough House. A silver service made by Garrard, the Queen's goldsmith, on the occasion of the Prince's marriage, is used in the big dining room. At the time it was designed it was not the fashion to use flowers as table decorations, and the three great centre pieces, the largest of which is over five feet in 70 The Prince at Marlborough House length, are complete in themselves; but the newer fashion now prevails to some extent, and the Marl- borough House dinner table is exquisitely deco- rated with orchids and other hot-house flowers. A smaller dining room lies to the north of the large apartment. It properly appertains to the Household, but when a big dinner is given the Household have to dine an hour earlier, so that their room shall be available for the purposes of serving the dinner. A band plays in the room dur- ing dinner time, and both there and in the drawing room whist tables are set out when the Prince is giving a man's party. The large drawing room at Marlborough House is a magnificent apartment, running almost the en- tire length of the south side. Its general effect is white and gold and pale pink, and is saved from the appearance of vastness by being broken by pillars of white and gold. The floor is of polished oak, and the Axminster carpet that lies in the centre was one of those bought when the Prince was married. Two large fireplaces fully warm the room in winter, and in summer pale blue blinds subdue the glare. Endless mirrors reflect the electric light which has been cleverly put into the splendid ormolu fit- 7i The Prince of Wales tings that once held gas and candles. Most of the furniture is upholstered in deep red, though the effect of this is broken by draperies of Indian em- broidery and a profusion of silk cushions. Two concert grand pianos, made by Broadwood, stand close together, and are often used by the Princess of Wales and her daughter. They are covered with rare embroideries that were used as elephant cloths when the Prince went to India. A beautiful carved screen of Indian design is covered with photo- graphs of the Prince's children, while a Chinese screen of ebony, upholstered in silk and covered with photos of relations, contributes a welcome note of colour. There is an abundance of china, and flowers, photographs, small statuettes, and trinkets of gold, silver, and enamel crowd the many tables. A beautiful service made of Australian gold has a corner all to itself, and there is also a valuable col- lection of beaten-gold Indian ornaments. The cab- inets, which are filled with china, are of the best French period, and are finely inlaid with carved ivory panels. In the spring this room is redolent of lilies of the valley — the Princess's favourite flower — which are sent up daily in abundance from Sand- ringham. 72 • The Prince at Marlborough House Through one of the drawing-room windows direct access to the garden is gained by a short flight of steps. Another flight gives on to a small conservatory, furnished in approved Turkish fash- ion, which is used as a lounge, tea, or smoking room, and is a great embellishment to the house. From the conservatory steps, on such occasions as when the trained nurses are bidden to spend a happy afternoon among the smooth lawns and shady trees of the gardens, the Prince address- es a few words of counsel and comfort to his guests. When drinking tea on the big lawn, that is only divided by the terrace walk, a hedge of evergreens, and a narrow strip of railed-in ground from the roadway in St. James's Park, it is difficult to be- lieve that the Prince's house is in the very heart of London. Except Marlborough House itself, with its dull-red brick walls, and the stone medallions on which the well-known triple plumes are carved, no other building is visible, for the evergreen oaks, the elms, and chestnut trees, that were the boasted glory of the " King's Garden " in olden days, still form an impenetrable screen against prying eyes. They also make a harbour of refuge for robins, 73 The Prince of Wales thrushes, wood pigeons, starlings, and many other birds not often seen in London. The lawns, that practically surround the house on three sides, have been but little cut up. Only a few paths, and here and there beds of brilliant ge- raniums, break the expanse of green turf. Further colour is given by stone vases filled with gaily flow- ering plants, and by picturesque bay trees set in painted wooden tubs. The garden entrance, which opens directly into Marlborough Gate, is flanked by a pair of brass mounted guns, arranged on the " La Hitte " princi- ple. The inscription on them states that they were " taken September 13th, 1883, mounted on the right of the intrenchments, Tel-el-Keber. Pre- sented to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, by Ad- miral Lord Alcester, G. C. B." When the summer afternoons are long and warm, the gardens at Marlborough House are often brilliant with smart frocks and gay parasols, while the terrace rings with merry voices and light laugh- ter. The Prince and Princess like nothing so well as receiving a few intimate friends to tea, quite sans ceremonie. On these pleasant occasions bright- ly striped tents, Oriental rugs, and well-cushioned 74 The Prince at Marlborough House garden seats supplement the accommodation af- forded by the pretty rustic tea-house, that under the apparent guardianship of a superb stuffed peacock, and furnished with numerous basket chairs and tables, fills a shady corner of the lawn. Another corner of the grounds is sacred to the memory of four of the Princess's pets, each of which sleeps beneath a tiny tombstone. The late Colonel Oliver Montagu's dog " Boxer " — without which for years he never went anywhere — also lies in the little burial ground. Except the conservatory already mentioned, there is no glass in the Marlborough House gar- dens. Such flowers as are needed to fill daily the three hundred vases that are the special care of two men, are supplied by contract by the Prince's Lon- don florists, though a certain quantity of blossoms are sent from Sandringham. Charming and restful as are the gardens of his town house, the Prince has but little time to pass in them. Every one of his days in London is fully mapped out, and were he not a singularly punctual, active, and businesslike man, he could never com- pass half the duties arranged for him. He believes firmly in early rising, and not infrequently is to be 75 The Prince of Wales found taking a brisk stroll in St. James's or the Green Park soon after eight in the morning. At nine o'clock the Prince has his second breakfast, served in his sitting room, where he subsequently works with his Private Secretary till about 10.30, when he sees Sir Dighton Probyn, the Comptroller of the Household, in his offices on the ground floor, directly below the Prince's sitting room. To him the Prince gives half an hour of his valuable time. Then follow a series of interviews with artists, contractors, tradesmen of all kinds about all sub- jects, in the anteroom; or there are deputations and commissions to be seen in the great saloon down- stairs. Sometimes the business connected with the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall is disposed of at Marlborough House; sometimes the Prince at- tends at the offices of the estates. Almost daily the Prince visits his stables, where about sixty horses generally stand in the season, in roomy stalls, above which each animal's name is inscribed on an en- amelled iron plate. Soon after midday the Prince's own brougham comes round. It is a " Hooper,'* very quiet in style, with linings of dark blue, and is lit at night by 76 The Prince at Marlborough House a most clever installation of lamps. The interior is cunningly fitted with all a smoker's necessaries, and sundry pockets for holding books and papers. The Prince pays visits, often of a ceremonious or busi- ness character, before luncheon, which at Marlbor- ough House is served at 2.30, and for which open house for relations is usually kept. The Prince's Household, which breakfasts between nine and ten o'clock, lunches at two and dines at seven; so that all are ready for the work of the afternoon, which comprises every kind of function calculated to pro- mote and encourage the well-being of the public. Dinner at Marlborough House is of necessity a movable feast, dependent on the engagements for the evening. The Prince's town house is served by about one hundred and twenty servants, indoor and out — not an undue number, considering the size of the man- sion and the ever-varying needs of its occupants. Ten years of service entitle a domestic to retire on a pension, but it speaks volumes for the kindness and consideration of the Prince and Princess that their servants hardly ever leave them, although but little above the average rate of wages is paid. The Prince's piper wears the Stuart tartan. 77 The Prince of Wales The suite at Windsor Castle known as the Prince of Wales's rooms must be considered as an adjunct to the business side of Marlborough House, and as such demands a short description. The suite is made up of four rooms, which are situated in the York Tower, from whence there is a lovely view down the Long Walk and over the Home Park. Like all the rooms at Windsor, they are numbered, and are 238 to 241, inclusive. The sitting room, which is not large, is hung with yellow silk, the cur- tains and draperies being of the same material. Such chairs as are not upholstered in tapestry are covered with silk to match the walls. A rosewood piano fills one corner, and a splendid sideboard of fine black lacquer and brass, with a white-marble top, stands opposite the fireplace. The furniture is principally of Amboyna wood with chased ormolu mounts. The frames of the mirrors and the ceiling are white and gold. Among the pictures are por- traits of the Duke of Connaught in the dress he wore through the last Egyptian campaign; the Duchess of Kent with the Queen, at the age of three; several of the Prince's brothers and sisters; the Duchess of Cambridge; a good likeness of the Duke of Albany in Scotch full dress, and a Parade 78 The Prince at Marlborough House at Potsdam in honour of Queen Victoria, August 17, 1858. In the bedroom the large wardrobe is of mahog- any inlaid with satinwood; the bed is small, and, like the chairs, is of Amboyna. The room con- tains, among many interesting pictures, a delightful study by Westall of the Queen as a child, playing with a black-and-tan terrier. The wall paper has a gold ground. The adjoining bathroom is round in form, and simple to absolute severity. When- ever the Prince pays a flying visit to Windsor, where he generally transacts a quantity of family business, he occupies this suite of apartments. 79 CHAPTER V DOMESTIC LIFE Few people outside the Royal family and the circle of the Prince of Wales's intimate friends are aware of the high standard of domestic life that he set himself and always has observed. The true af- fection that exists between the Prince and his rela- tions is remarkable when judged by the records of other Royal families, who as a rule are anything but united. George II openly disliked his eldest son Frederick, Prince of Wales, whom his own mother spoke of thus: " My dear firstborn is the greatest ass and the greatest liar, the greatest canaille and the greatest beast in the whole world, and I heartily wish he was out of it." His sister, on more than one occasion, avowed that she grudged her brother every hour he lived, and the following squib on him at his death expressed the generally accepted esti- mate of his character: 80 Domestic Life Here lies Fred, Who was alive and is dead ; Had it been his father, I had much rather ; Had it been his brother, Sooner than another ; Had it been his sister, There's no one would have missed her ; Had it been his whole generation, Best of all for the nation ; But since it is only Fred, There's no more to be said. While the Prince of Wales as a husband and fa- ther has never deserved any such scathing criticism, he has never been fully credited with the affection and devotion he has shown as a family man. The romantic love that induced him, when little more than a boy, to overcome all obstacles to his union with Princess Alexandra of Denmark, has never waned. During the illness which in the late six- ties kept her for many months bound to her couch, his devoted attention to her slightest wish, his grief at her sufferings, and his delight at her restoration to health, were proofs of his sincere affection. It was practically at the Prince's instigation that the long holiday that followed her convalescence in Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, and Greece was planned, and he more than once expressed his delight that 81 The Prince of Wales the journey, which lasted for many months, proved so successful in restoring the Princess to complete health. The same touching affection which exists be- tween the Prince and Princess of Wales was again displayed during his own illness, when Her Royal Highness scarcely ever left her husband's bedside. Other trials, that must come to all people who undertake to journey through life together, be they princes or peasants, have only served to draw closer the bonds of affection that unite the Royal pair. Further proof, if such were needed, of the Prince's claim to be considered a thoroughly do- mesticated man, is the wonderful love and respect that from the very first his children have shown to him. Boys are very quick to see holes in their fathers' armour when they exist; but the Prince's two sons have always regarded him as the beau- ideal of all that a father, a man, and a Prince should be. They rightly considered that in points of eti- quette, tact, and knowledge the Prince could do little wrong, and in all ways they have regarded his taste as a reliable model. The Prince's marriage was a romance savouring of the most poetical traditions of the middle ages. 82 Domestic Life Before the Prince Consort's death it had been al- most settled between him and the Queen that the Prince of Wales should seek a wife among the Ger- man Princesses; and the young Prince, brought up as he had been in the strictest habits of obedience, was prepared to accede to the wishes of his parents, till the merest accident upset all calculations. A young German officer, who was a friend of the Prince, informed His Royal Highness one day that he was engaged to be married, and that he would like to show him the portrait of his bride-elect. He gave the Prince a photograph of a beautiful young girl, wearing the plainest of white muslin frocks, with her hair brushed back from her brow, and a narrow black velvet ribbon tied round her throat. The Prince immediately asked the name of the original, when the young officer discovered that by mistake he had given the Prince the portrait of the King of Denmark's second daughter. When the mistake was explained, the Prince refused to re- turn the photograph, and a few days later, on see- ing a miniature of the same lady in the Duchess of Cambridge's drawing room, he declared there and then that he would marry only the original of these two pictures. 83 The Prince of Wales There is no doubt that at first the Queen was not disposed to abandon her original intention; but the young Prince, full of ardour and enthusiasm, pleaded his cause so well with King Leopold of Bel- gium (the Uncle Leopold of the Queen's diaries), that when, a little later, Her Majesty paid the Bel- gian King a visit at Laeken, he succeeded in induc- ing her to consent to the marriage. Previous to this the Prince, as though by acci- dent, had met the Princess Alexandra of Denmark at Heidelberg. The Danish Royal family and the Prince of Wales chanced at the same time to be vis- iting the beauties of the old University town. In this artless fashion the Prince met his bride, and fell more deeply in love with her than he had with her picture. There is no doubt that His Royal High- ness had every excuse at that time for his passion. The Princess was exceedingly attractive, of the fair Scandinavian type, with golden-brown hair, very fine blue eyes, and a brilliant complexion. Her smile was as sweet then as it is now, and her mouth was singularly beautiful. The Princess's arrival in England, and her marriage to the Prince of Wales in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, are matters of history, and from 84 Domestic Life that moment the Prince, as the happiest and proudest of bridegrooms, assumed a manly pro- tectorship over the Princess, who had her popular- ity to win. From the first the Prince of Wales was enthu- siastic in praise of his wife's beauty; and when, as a young married couple, they paid a visit to King Leopold's Court in Brussels, he was never tired of extolling the charms of his lovely Princess. At a great reception held at the Palace in honour of the newly married pair, the Prince turned to a lady of the Court whom he knew, just as the Princess was passing by on the King's arm, and whispered with eager emphasis: " Is not she a pet? Is not she a darling? " The Prince's affection for the Prin- cess was as practical as it was tender. Soon after he was married he was breakfasting with Her Royal Highness, who at the time was most anxious for news from Denmark touching the war between her native country and Germany. An equerry, with scant ceremony, burst into the room and announced that the Danish troops had sustained a severe defeat. The Princess, overwhelmed with sympa- thetic grief for her country, burst into a flood of tears. The Prince was much annoyed, and, after 7 85 The Prince of Wales consoling his wife, gave his indiscreet retainer a very bad quarter of an hour. The rebuilding of Sandringham and the re- modelling of Marlborough House owed much to the combined taste of the Prince and his bride, and their mutual attachment was cemented by the births of their sons and daughters, while in questions of business, sport, travelling, and racing, Her Royal Highness has always shown a lively interest. The Prince, on his part, has made it a rule to give the Princess every pleasure he can compass. She has only had to express a wish, for the Prince to seek to gratify it, and scores of times he has planned sur- prises and impromptu pleasures for her. When the Royal pair have travelled together he has always sought to provide entertainments, such as concerts on board ship, theatricals, or fireworks, donkey- rides, incognito shopping excursions, or anything that might amuse her by its unexpected novelty. When the Royal family are at Sandringham it is the most ordinary sight in the world to meet the Princess driving the Prince about the estate in one or other of her carts, or on the small coach which, with a team of ponies, was his parting gift to her before he went to India. 86 THE PRINCESS OF WALES Domestic Life The truest evidence of the affection that exists between the Prince and Princess of Wales was wit- nessed by the thousands who thronged Westmin- ster Abbey at the great service in February, 1872, when the Queen and all the Royal family repaired there to return thanks for the Prince of Wales's re- turn to health after his serious attack of typhoid fever. The drive and the ceremony had been long and exhausting, and at the conclusion of the service the Prince, as he rose from his chair to take his place in the procession, appeared pale and weak. Without any regard for ceremony the Princess went to her husband's side, drew her arm through his, and with most tender solicitude led him very gently down the steps of the chancel and along the aisle of the abbey. The Prince and Princess have, of course, been subject to the "fierce light that beats upon the throne," but, so far as their domestic life is con- cerned, they can afford to laugh at and defy criti- cism, while they remember that a good husband has other and graver duties in life than paying atten- tions to a pretty wife. The 8th of January, 1864, brought a new happi- ness into the life of the Prince of Wales, for on that 87 The Prince of Wales day the Princess gave birth to her first child, who was known best in his own family by the name of " Eddy." The baby's arrival was quite unex- pected, and totally unprepared for. The Prince and Princess of Wales were spending the winter at Frogmore, and had been at Virginia Water. A few hours after their return Frogmore House was in a state of turmoil. The Princess was ill, the Prince was suffering the deepest anxiety on her account, and there was not in the house even the proverbial piece of flannel ready in which to wrap the coming baby. But the little Prince proved wonderfully strong and healthy, and was a source of delight and pride to his parents. The Prince's family subse- quently grew till the nurseries at Marlborough House held five happy, healthy little beings. The Prince, the memory of whose own child- hood lay not far behind him, took the deepest inter- est in the bringing up of his sons and daughters. Simplicity was the first law in his nurseries; and though the Royal children were seen when neces- sary by Dr. William Jenner, anything that savoured of coddling was absolutely unknown. The chil- dren, by the Prince of Wales's special order, were never addressed by the Household and servants as 88 Domestic Life " Royal Highness," but merely as Prince Eddy or Princess Louise. The young Princesses, who were always spoken of by their father as " the little girls," had their tea at the same table with their nurses, and were kept in order and corrected as are the children of humbler rank. They were given but few toys, and were never permitted to accept even those ex- cept from relations, and then only if they were of an ordinary and inexpensive kind. No fuss was ever made about nursery casualties and accidents. Once, when Prince Eddy was quite young, he fell off a chair, so bumping his head that a big blue bruise appeared at once on his forehead. Neither his father nor mother expressed the smallest dis- composure, but merely told him to be brave and not to cry. When it was necessary, as it frequently was, for the Prince and Princess to leave their children for a time, daily letters were written to and received from their head nurse, whom they lovingly called " Mary," and in whom their fond father and mother had the greatest possible confidence. As the chil- dren grew older a French and a German governess were added to the nursery staff, with the view of familiarizing the little people with the languages 89 • The Prince of Wales that the Prince considered essential to the proper education of English ladies and gentlemen. Out of this very ordinary arrangement at one time grew the popular error that the Prince and his family were in the habit of always speaking German among themselves. This is quite absurd, for when Prince Eddy was grown up and went to Heidelberg under the charge of Professor Ihne, with a view of attend- ing certain lectures at the famous University, he knew so little of the German language that he was obliged, under the Professor's guidance, to study the tongue for several weeks before he was able to understand or appreciate the course of lectures. The Prince of Wales's first grave anxiety with regard to the health of his children rose from an at- tack of typhoid that Prince Eddy had in 1877. The young Prince recovered from the illness, but it left him with a constitutional delicacy that he never quite shook off. At this time the Prince of Wales began to carry out his ideas regarding the educa- tion of his sons. Young enough to remember the manner of his own education, he felt that, wide as it had been from a literary point of view, it had for years been narrow as regards the study of men and the ways of the world. He was most anxious that 90 Domestic Life his sons should escape the nervousness and con- straint that surrounds a court, and from which he had himself suffered. He was desirous that they should be able to read men as easily as books, and that the small adulations and petty restraints that fetter Princes of the blood Royal should not be felt by them. Putting aside the fashion of the time, he was too much a man of the world not to know that the syc- ophancy and flattery of a public school, as well as the risk his sons would run of making undesirable friendships that might influence their future lives, made ordinary modes of education undesirable. He therefore decided that a training ship would be the best place in which his boys could be educated. One of his chief reasons for wishing to send them to sea was his anxiety that they should, as he said, be taught to do something with their hands. He knew that, as midshipmen in Her Majesty's Navy, they would be made useful and unaffected members of society, that their moral training would be ex- cellent, and their education pursued under most healthful circumstances, away from the temptations that beset a boy in the ever-changing, haphazard assemblage of a public school and its surroundings. 9* The Prince of Wales The young Princes were therefore entered as stu- dents on board the Britannia training ship, where, by their father's express desire, absolutely no differ- ence from the rest of their shipmates was made in their position. The Prince of Wales and his brothers were once described by an old retainer as having been " rare young toads," and the Prince was most desirous that his sons, like other boys, should rough it with the rest, for as a wise man he knew they could eas- ily learn refinement, but that there is no salvation for a boy who is once branded as a muff. Accord- ingly, his sons' clothes were merely ordinary train- ing-ship kit; they drilled, studied, messed with the other cadets without the smallest distinction of rank; they had to submit to the strict discipline that rules on board a training ship, and their only dissi- pation was a chance visit from their parents. Following the Prince's intention, his sons went through a course of very useful instruction. They were taught carpentering, every detail of a ship's rigging, a certain amount of engineering; were obliged, in common with the rest, to darn their own socks and mend their own clothes; had to go aloft, and in every way fight their own battles. The boys 92 Domestic Life themselves liked the life; their shipmates soon saw that there was going to be no favouritism; and after a year or so the Prince reaped the reward of his re- solve, for he found to his delight that his sons were growing fine, manly boys, that they were acquiring all the education he deemed necessary for their future well-being, that they were becoming adepts at sports of all kinds, and, above all, could take their own parts, not being afraid to give and take a blow with the best. The success of this experiment de- termined the Prince on the still more important step of sending them as cadets on a long cruise in H. M. S. " Bacchante." The young Princes joined their ship on August 6, 1879. The first cruise taken was comparatively short; but the second, during which they visited Egypt, India, the Australian colonies, Japan, and South Africa, occupied nearly a year. The Rev. J. N. Dalton went with the Princes as acting chap- lain to the " Bacchante " and guardian to the Royal cadets. The midshipmen and cadets who were their companions and classmates were eleven in number. During these two cruises, Prince Eddy and Prince George came in for a good deal of roughing it, and plenty of fun, as will appear. 93 The Prince of Wales The first journey, which took them to the West Indian Islands, gave them a charming experience of Bermuda, where they enjoyed the splendid hos- pitality of the Governor and Lady Laffan. While they were there it was arranged that they should visit in a steam launch the various small islands that in those latitudes star the sea in all directions. A large party was made up for the purpose, which in- cluded the Princes and other of the " Bacchante " midshipmen. At the first island on which they set foot the authorities, who wished to present Prince Eddy with a bouquet of Bermuda lilies, anxiously inquired the Prince's identity among the group of naval cadets. Prince George, ever ripe for a bit of fun, gave the most misleading answer, with the re- sult that this embarrassing bouquet was presented to every midshipman until it at length reached the hand for which it was intended. After this cere- mony the party again went out on the launch, where the high spirits of the young Princes led them into a joke which greatly astonished the dig- nitaries of the next island on which they landed. They sat together in the bows of the launch, and, during the short voyage between the islands, amused themselves in ornamenting each other's 94 Domestic Life noses with the pollen of the brilliant orange sta- mens of the Bermuda lilies. The astonishment of the islanders may be imagined when they beheld their future King landing on their shores with a brilliant yellow nose! Like all healthy boys, the young Princes were full of pranks and fun, and it was probably the inci- dent of the Bermuda lilies that induced them not to contradict the statement which early in 1880 was published to the world that they, in common with the rest of the cadets, had been tattooed on the nose with a large anchor. For a long time the report was believed, and the Prince was much troubled, till telegraphic communication assured him and the nation that, though the Princes had been, like their Uncle Alfred, tattooed while in Japan with the fig- ures of a big dragon in blue and red twisted round their arms, the story of the anchor on the nose had not a line of truth in it. Going from the Cape to Australia, the " Bac- chante " encountered a terrible storm, which not only smashed the steering gear, but reduced the cabin and the mess rooms to a condition of consid- erable discomfort. After the storm was over, and until the ship arrived in port, the midshipmen's mess 95 The Prince of Wales was reduced, as regards its crockery, to two or three teacups and a very limited number of plates, yet the Princes roughed it and enjoyed it with the rest, and indeed seemed to appreciate the whole business as much as when, on Prince Eddy's birthday, they had a cake as a treat, an interesting fact which was commented upon in the letters written home to the Prince. In Australia Prince Eddy made his first speech in public, and, as the " Bacchante " made for home waters, he began to prepare for the position he knew he must occupy as the eldest son of the Prince of Wales on his return to England. Prince George, too, began to discard some of the language he had learned from his fellow-middies, who ad- dressed Prince Eddy as the " Herring " and Prince George as the " Sprat." The Prince and Princess also devoted great care and thought to the bringing up of their three daughters. The simplicity of their nursery days was in no way relaxed when they passed into the schoolroom. French and German, music, history, and mathematics were the principal branches of education insisted upon by the Prince, while the Princess was most particular that her daughters should learn dressmaking and sewing in all their 9 6 Domestic Life branches, cooking, dairy work, the superintendence of a garden, the management of a house, and, in- deed, every detail of ordinary domestic life. The Princesses were devoted to their govern- esses, and established with them friendships that will be lifelong. As they grew to womanhood they were encouraged to cultivate individual tastes. The Princess Louise, who is now Duchess of Fife, developed quite early in life a positive mania for fishing, and for every kind of work connected with the management of a country estate. She is as keen with rod and line as any lady in the kingdom, and as a judge of farm stock is equal to many men who pride themselves on their knowledge. She has shown and taken prizes with cattle, and, like her mother, infinitely prefers country to town life. The Duchess of Fife is most charitable, and thoughtful for the wants of the people on her husband's estate. She is very quiet and gentle in manner, exceedingly well read, and devoted to music and to her two little girls. The Prince's second daughter, Princess Vic- toria, is deeply attached to her mother; she is of the most domestic turn of mind, and during the last few years has largely supervised the management 97 The Prince of Wales of the households at Marlborough House and Sand- ringham. She has considerable taste in art, and a great eye for effect in arranging furniture, flowers, and hangings. Like her sisters, she is an adept at photography. Princess Maud, who from her tomboy tricks and merry disposition was always called " Harry " in the family circle, is the Prince's favourite daugh- ter. She is brilliantly pretty, and as clever as she is beautiful. As an all-round sportswoman few of her own sex can touch her. With horses, dogs, and birds she is wonderful, and she is also really fond of yachting. There are few arts and crafts that Prin- cess Maud has not tried her hand at, and at which she has not proved herself more or less skilful. She plays really well, and is credited with being the only Royal lady who has ever ridden a bicycle through the public streets. That the Prince of Wales be- lieves in the happiness of a love match is proved by the fact that he permitted both his eldest and youngest daughters to marry the men of their choice. When the Princess Louise's engagement to the Earl of Fife was first announced, the world in general chose to imagine it impossible that the Prince would permit his daughter to marry a man 98 THE PRINCE OF WALES, AND PRINCESSES VICTORIA AND MAUD Domestic Life who was sufficiently old to be an intimate friend of his own. But the world was mistaken; the Prince approved of the union, and it reflects credit on his good judgment that the marriage has been so suc- cessful and so happy. For his favourite daughter, Princess Maud, there is no doubt that the Prince cherished great ambitions, for she was clever and beautiful enough to aspire to a Crown; but when once her choice was made, the Prince, like the sympathetic, kindly father he is, put his daughter's happiness before his personal feelings, and warmly upheld her marriage with Prince Charles of Denmark. But, in order that his youngest daughter should not be entirely separated from him by her marriage, he has lent her, for an indefinite period, Appleton House, a beautiful place on the Sandringham es- tate, which has quite a romantic history, and even in modern times became famous for having been for some years in the occupation of Mrs. Cresswell, who, under the signature of " A Lady Farmer," published a book detailing various differences she had with the Prince. Though she represents him as a little hard on the subject of shooting and the preservation of game, on all other subjects her book 99 LofC. The Prince of Wales is a warm tribute to the Prince's general good- fellowship. When the Princess Maud is not in residence at this delightful country house, she and her husband occupy a flat of twenty rooms on the ground floor of Amamalianborg Palace, at Copenhagen. The yellow drawing room, blue boudoir, and the dining room, arranged in the Jacobean style, all reflect English taste; but, needless to say, the Princess always returns to her home near Sandringham, and the delightful memories it recalls, with infinite pleasure. Since her marriage Princess Maud has practically abandoned her pseudonym of Miss Mills, under which the Prince often permitted her to visit her old governess, Mile. Vauthier, now married to Mr. Johnson, who, since he has abandoned the rep- resentation of Exeter in the House of Commons, lives in the west of England. The first duty that the Prince fulfilled to his sons, when they returned from their second long cruise on the " Bacchante," was to arrange for their confir- mation in the small church at Whippingham, near Osborne. At this ceremony the Queen and all the Royal family in England were present. Very soon after this it was decided that Prince George should ioo Domestic Life continue his life at sea, Prince Eddy being destined for education at Cambridge and the army. The house at Sandringham which is now known as York Cottage, but which was then called the Bachelors' Cottage, was arranged by the Prince for his son's use. It was then quite a small place, with only ac- commodation for half a dozen gentlemen and a few servants. The Prince gave the greatest possible thought to the choice of his son's companions and tutors. They included Mr. Stephen, a brilliant Cambridge man, Canon Dalton, a son of Lord Strathmore's, and a French gentleman, who as- sisted Prince Eddy in the study of language. A favourite shipmate completed the party. At Cambridge, where the Prince sent his son in the October term of 1883, Prince Eddy occupied two sets of rooms at Trinity College, overlooking Nevile's Court, a charming old quadrangle, in- closed with a fine facade of Wren's designing at one end. While Prince Eddy was still at Cambridge the Prince of Wales was much exercised as to the choice of a regiment into which he should put his son. The fact that he himself was Colonel of the Tenth Hussars probably influenced his final choice. 8 101 The Prince of Wales The fact that Prince Eddy was a horseman of ex- ceptional ability further influenced the Prince of Wales's decision. It speaks volumes for the educa- tion of the young Prince that, after he had come to years of discretion, and was as much his own mas- ter as a member of the Royal family can ever expect to be, he set himself to work hard at his career. He was never known to shirk his duties, and neither the chances of shooting or hunting would ever persuade him to abandon work which he thought ought to be done. At the same time he retained the simplicity of character which had been so strongly cultivated in him from his childhood, and after he had received from the Queen the title of Duke of Clarence and Avondale he wrote a delightful boyish letter to the Rev. W. Rogers, in which he signed himself " Ed- ward." In a postscript to this letter he said, " I am, as you see, signing myself in the name you knew me by when a boy, which I prefer with old friends, as I hope I may call you." The Prince was particularly proud of his chil- dren, and of the results they showed of all the care and thought he had bestowed upon them. One of the happiest days of his life was when he took his eldest son to the House of Lords, there to be re- 102 Domestic Life ceived as a peer of the realm. A second unique oc- casion was marked by the bestowal of the Order of the Garter by the Queen upon Prince Eddy, when for the first time the heir apparent to the Throne and his son both held this order. One day at Sandringham, when a party were out with their guns, Prince George complained of feel- ing unwell. The Prince's fatherly anxiety imme- diately took alarm, and the Princess being on the Continent at the time, he took the whole responsi- bility on himself of nursing his son. The shooting party was hastily broken up, the Prince of Wales and Prince George were driven to Wolverton Sta- tion, and a " special " was ordered to bring them to town. The Prince himself nursed his son with the tenderest assiduity until the arrival of the Princess, and then, just as reward seemed sure, his elder son sickened. The sad details of Prince Eddy's illness and death, and the enduring sorrow which that event brought to his father, are still remembered. Those who saw the Prince at Sandringham during that awful time will never forget the expression of almost hopeless despair with which he followed his son's body from Sandringham Church to the rail- way station, walking as he did in the depth of win- 103 The Prince of Wales ter along the country roads close behind the gun carriage that bore the coffin. His grief during the splendid ceremonial that subsequently took place at Windsor was heartbreaking to witness, and those who till then might, from ignorance or want of thought, have believed the Prince to be but an indifferent father, were forever disabused of that notion. The overwhelming sorrow of those days forged perhaps the closest link of love between the Prince and Princess of Wales. For many weeks after that sad event the Princess would see no one but the Prince, and he, and he only, as husband and father who shared her sorrow, was able to con- sole her. But in due time a new interest crept into the Prince's life, and a sincere affection that had always existed between the Prince of Wales and his cousin the Duchess of Teck served as an additional reason for the great joy that he felt when his son, Prince George, wooed and won Princess May of Teck. The wife of his son's choice had always been the prettiest as she was the sweetest of the younger Princesses, and the union has brought happiness to all connected with the young couple. To the Prince of Wales this marriage has ever been a sub- 104 Domestic Life ject for congratulation. Whenever his son and daughter-in-law are near him, either in London or at Sandringham, the Prince never lets a day pass without seeing them and their lovely children. Of his grandchildren the Prince is extremely proud and fond. Little Prince Edward is a great pet, and it is the Prince's delight to shower gifts and treats on the tiny people, who in their turn are deeply at- tached to one who, as far as they are concerned, is the most indulgent grandfather in the world. 105 CHAPTER VI THE PRINCE AS A STUDENT The Prince of Wales's student days may be said to have begun when he went as an undergraduate, first to Oxford, where he had rooms at Frewen Hall, and later to Cambridge, where he lived with his suite at Madingly Hall, about two miles from the town. The ease with which he matriculated proved to those who then had charge of his studies how excellent and thorough had been the course of education laid down for him, and carried out by the Queen and the Prince Consort. Not only was he as well acquainted with Latin and Greek as an ordi- nary boy who has passed through the strict training of the best public schools, but he had in addition the immense advantage of speaking perfect German, excellent French, and very fair Italian, besides pos- sessing more than a smattering of other modern tongues. This modern branch of education has always 1 06 The Prince as a Student seemed to the Prince most necessary to success in the struggle for life, and when addressing educa- tional bodies or young people he often refers to the excellent results that follow an intelligent study of foreign languages. From his boyhood the Prince was given every opportunity of studying men and manners in other countries than his own. When he was only four he went to the Channel Islands, and a little later to Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. He knew France and Germany well when he was still a child, and when sixteen spent some time with his tutors at Konigswinter, a delightful village on the Rhine, near the university town of Bonn. Italy, Spain, and Portugal were then visited, and not only their marvellous art treasures but their political conditions carefully studied, before he took up his residence at Holyrood Castle, Edinburgh, with a view to attending Dr. Lyon Playfair's lec- tures on chemistry and Dr. Schmitz's Roman his- tory classes. It was Dr. Playfair's system to give his Royal pupil practical illustrations of the sub- jects of his lectures. To this end many manufac- tories were visited and experiments demonstrated. It was on one of these occasions that Dr. Playfair 107 The Prince of Wales asked the Prince to plunge his naked hand into a caldron of lead that was many degrees above the boiling point. There are few who would unhesi- tatingly accede to such a request, yet the Prince, with the coolness born of knowledge and of con- fidence in his preceptor, thrust his hand into the white-hot mass and withdrew it unscathed. The Prince also studied science in many of its branches. He regularly attended Professor Fara- day's lectures, and he always availed himself of every opportunity of inspecting works and facto- ries. His knowledge of mathematics was quite up to the average, and Canon Heaviside, who instructed him in this branch of learning for some time, was well satisfied with his progress. Under all these circumstances the Prince's pro- jected arrival at Oxford, at the opening of the Mich- aelmas term in 1859, was anticipated with pleasure, alike by those who were to supervise his education, and by younger men who were to be his fellow- students. It was arranged that the Prince should be an undergraduate of Christ Church, where he was duly received in " Tom Quad " by Dr. Liddell and 108 The Prince as a Student Archdeacon Clerke, who were Dean and Subdean respectively. Tom Quad is so called from the fa- mous bell, Great Tom of Oxford, hanging in the main gateway of the college quadrangle, which is the largest in Oxford. Tom Gateway, and Canterbury Gateway which forms the eastern entrance of Christ Church, are the only gateways in Oxford wide enough to admit of a carriage driven through them. The flat faces of the buildings round the Quad are unrelieved by such cloisters and covered walks as form the princi- pal beauty of so many other college quadrangles. The level expanse of Tom Quad is only broken by the stone-edged basin and fountain in the centre, which is known as " Mercury," from the fact that once upon a time a statue of that god stood there. Mercury is surrounded with a halo of stories, both humorsome and tragic. Unpopular people have been ducked in its waters, and daring undergrad- uates are said to have gone sliding on it in the dead of a frost-bound winter's night. The Prince on his arrival was at once escorted to the Deanery, where his name was entered in the college books, a ceremony which, strangely enough, was omitted when he went to Cambridge. 109 The Prince of Wales Dr. Lidclell and the other Dons of Christ Church then walked with him to the house of Dr. Jeune, who was Master of Pembroke College and Vice- Chancellor of the University, and who subsequently became Bishop of Peterborough. Amid such distinguished surroundings the Prince passed his examination, and duly received his certificate of matriculation, written in scholarly Latin. He then went with his suite to Frewen Hall, the charming residence that had been taken for him, where he spent a quiet evening with his gentlemen — an extraordinary contrast to the recep- tion at Oxford of his ancestor, George IV, who, as Prince of Wales and undergraduate of Christ Church, was entertained at a huge banquet in the Great Hall of the college, and toward the end of the evening was scarcely in a fit condition to sign the college book. The Prince has always been a profound believer in a sound education. Almost the first thing he did on acquiring the Sandringham estate was thor- oughly to overhaul the condition of all the schools in his immediate neighbourhood, and to inquire into the capabilities of the teachers, and degrees of knowledge or ignorance of the scholars. It is en- no The Prince as a Student tirely owing to his efforts that every village within hail of Sandringham is now equipped with an excel- lent school. The Prince has also founded scholar- ships at the schools at Kings Lynn, and he frequent- ly examines scholars there and gives away the prizes, and always displays special interest in those who have won the medals he presents. The Prince's tastes in literature are very sound, and always tend to mental improvement. For many years the bulk of his library was kept at Marl- borough House, in the apartment now arranged and known as the Indian Room. When, however, the enormous accumulations of treasures and cu- rios collected by the Prince in India required a com- plete rearrangement of the reception rooms at Marl- borough House, the bookcases and their contents were moved to Sandringham, where they form the nucleus of a first-class library. That the Prince is a serious student of literature in his quieter hours is evinced by the fact that his fine store of books forms the chief decoration of three rooms communicating one with another on the right of the entrance hall at Sandringham. The first and largest of these rooms contains the bulk of the library from Marlborough House. The books in The Prince of Wales are arranged in cases of light pollard oak, embel- lished with small panels of marquetry work. The furniture is also oak, and of plain design; the up- holstery and the curtains that drape the long win- dows are blue. The room beyond is generally used by the equerries, and writing tables, easy chairs and lounges, and suitable books make it a quiet retreat. The third library is the Serapis Room, so called from being decorated with the fittings of the Prince's stateroom on the great white troop ship that took him to India. Here the walls are quaint- ly decorated with golden Prince of Wales's plumes and the cipher A. E. A glance at the crowded shelves gives some idea of the Prince's choice of books. The classics of England, France, and Germany occupy prominent places, and current literature is abundantly in evi- dence. A number of biographies, diaries, and let- ters are headed by the Greville " Memoirs." The histories, reports, and books of travel that were read by the Prince before he started on his journey to India completely fill one case. There is also an ex- haustive collection of works on the Crimean War, and Nelson's despatches and various accounts of his victories, the Campaigns of Wellington, the " His- 112 The Prince as a Student 1;ory of the Seven Years' War," and of the " Rise of the Mahometan Power in India," are but a few out of the many works on kindred subjects. The " Badminton Library " is conspicuous among a number of other books on sport of all kinds, while of works that have to do with farming and stock breeding there is an ample collection. To Mr. Maurice Holzmann, the Prince's libra- rian, is left the task of introducing into the Royal libraries the best fiction and other up-to-date literature. When Carlyle was seeking the matter necessary for the writing of his great " History of the French Revolution," he was astonished to find that the only exhaustive collection of works on the subject was to be found in " The King's Library." In the burst of unwilling admiration that this fact forced from him, Carlyle declared that the greatest monument left by George IV was the splendid collection of learned books with which " the first gentleman in Europe " established the nucleus of the British Museum Library. The Prince of Wales may inherit his love of lit- erature from his great-grandfather, George III, but he certainly buys his books in a more royal man- ii3 The Prince of Wales ner than did his great-grandmother, Queen Char- lotte, who was content to get her reading from the second-hand bookstalls, and used to send an old servant to rummage among the battered volumes and bring her any that seemed to contain literary amusement. The Prince is a generous purchaser of editions de luxe, and no new book of any worth, whether fiction, travel, biography, or poetry, that is recommended to him by his friends or secretaries, is ever overlooked. At the same time, like all edu- cated people, he holds very strong opinions on liter- ary subjects, and is none too well pleased when he has been induced to spend time over a book which he considers unworthy of notice. Nevertheless, he is very catholic in his tastes, and is always ready to appreciate qualities that interest, even when he admits an absence of true literary form. Among his favourite novelists place must be given to Mrs. Henry Wood. When the Prince made his tour through the Holy Land, with Dean Stanley for a companion, he was reading with great interest " East Lynne," and was so absorbed in that novel that he was perpetually urging the Dean to read it. Almost one of the first books the Princess of Wales read after her marriage was Mrs. Wood's 114 The Prince as a Student " Shadow of Ashlydyat," which was recommended to her by the Prince, when the Prince was giving sittings to W. Frith, R. A., who had been commis- sioned by the Queen to paint a picture of the wed- ding of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The pic- ture was seen by the Royal family, and when the Queen and the Prince complained that the portrait of the Princess was not satisfactory, the artist was compelled to admit that Her Royal Highness moved so constantly it was impossible to catch a good likeness of her. To the next sitting the Prin- cess brought Mrs. Wood's exciting romance, and the picture was repainted to the satisfaction of all interested in it. As a student of current events the Prince is in- defatigable. Before starting on any expedition or visiting any sight, he prepares his mind for what he is going to see by a course of the most thorough reading. This same earnestness he carries into the smaller details of his life. If he visits a manufac- tory, or a coal mine, or any historical spot, he reads up the whole subject beforehand, with the result that he invariably surprises those who act as his guides by the aptness of his remarks and the quick intelligence with which he grasps facts. Yet, with ii5 The Prince of Wales all the information he thus acquires, the Prince is never above asking questions, which he does in the short, quick way characteristic of all the Royal fam- ily. He never requires to have anything explained to him twice, and he is too shrewd to jump to any rash conclusion. These qualities place him among the best-informed men of his day. Even his holidays are used for the purpose of acquiring knowledge. The months he passed in Egypt some years ago were spent in a series of expeditions and explorations which many people might have thought dull and unnecessary. When- ever there was anything to be seen, to be found out, or to be learned, the Prince did not avoid the subject because he was in the hottest of tropical countries. He visited the great ruins that border the Nile, delv- ing into old tombs, listening to long explanations of the quaint paintings found on the walls, examin- ing broken slabs, demanding information of all and every kind, content with a hasty picnic lunch, that he might soon start to work again, seeing, explor- ing, and adding to his stores of knowledge. When he was in India he found time in the midst of State duties frequently to converse with Mr. Mudd, the talented botanist who was attached to his suite, by 116 The Prince as a Student whom plants and flowers of a rare kind were always shown to the Prince. On his shooting expeditions in strange lands the Prince is always accompanied by a good taxi- dermist, who is expected to preserve all rare birds and animals shot by him. Mr. Baker accompanied him to the Nile in this capacity, and had a work- shop on board one of the steamers, where the Prince would often visit him and watch the process of stuffing rare specimens. The Prince has never been known to speak in public on a matter he has not thoroughly mastered. Hence it is that, as a speaker, he is always concise and accurate. His statistics are correct, and his statements lucid and indisputable. From time to time he has spoken neatly and epigrammatically, showing a complete mastery of such intricate and diverse subjects as English literature, art, ship- ping, dramatic history, military matters, civil en- gineering, the study of the Bible and mission work, civic institutions, the status of the clerk, collegiate education, the management of life-boats, the his- tory of Egypt, the Irish question, foreign travel, ambulance and first-aid training, workmen's ex- hibitions, rescue work, agricultural improvements 9 117 The Prince of Wales and live-stock breeding, the reclaiming of barren land, the management of hospitals, colonial ques- tions, training ships, medical treatment of wom- en and children, the history of volunteering, housing of the poor, the antislavery movement, the Darwinian theory, the schoolmaster problem, railways and their management, the necessity of athletics, musical training, and indeed on every recondite or practical problem that interests the thinking world. The Prince has spoken at length on these subjects without notes, and not infrequent- ly without notice. Thus he fully carries into daily practice Pope's famous dictum, " The proper study of mankind is man." His Royal Highness is, too, a keen and quick student of the essential points and qualities of those with whom he comes in contact, and a shrewd judge of character. His kindly nature prompts him to take a broad and lenient view of human foi- bles, but it is a great mistake to fancy that his generous disposition blinds him to people's faults. Although the Prince of Wales is too busy a man to write daily to the Queen, as do the rest of her family, he is very apt and witty with his pen. His letters are always to the point, frequently exceed- 118 The Prince as a Student ingly amusing, and generally contain pungently expressed views about people with whom he comes in contact; and while all the Royal family are very clever with their pens, the Prince has the rare gift of writing letters which comprise deep thought, keen criticism, and delightful humour. 119 CHAPTER VII THE PRINCE AND SOCIETY The influence that the Prince of Wales has ex- ercised on society since his marriage, and his posi- tion as a social leader, have, taken as a whole, worked for good in those complex circles that start in Mayfair and widen out in ever-increasing rings to the farthest limits of Bayswater and South Ken- sington. His influence has done much to minimize the extreme exclusiveness which, until i860, forced separate sets of men and women into narrow and exclusive grooves. His determination to do the best for and to get the best out of the world even- tually succeeded in breaking down many barriers, with the result that the upper classes of English so- ciety nowadays welcome with open arms all that is witty and charming from every country and from every rung on the social ladder. No doubt the Prince's ideas with regard to so- ciety were largely influenced by the visit he paid 120 The Prince and Society in i860 to Canada and the United States. The lat- ter he visited as Baron Renfrew, one of his many titles, though everywhere he was spoken of as " the Prince." His extreme delight at his first introduc- tion to a purely democratic people had great results, and his sincere affection and admiration for the Americans date from that visit, which he always recalls as one of the most delightful remembrances of a life that has been full of memorable experi- ences. While visiting the States the Prince proved him- self to be both unaffected and unspoiled by his position. He went almost everywhere that he was asked, and enjoyed himself thoroughly at the en- tertainments that were given in his honour. In many cities big balls and receptions were arranged for his amusement; but one of the pleasantest visits he paid was a quiet call at the house of Bishop Mc- Kinley, where he took tea with the Bishop and his wife and family; and when, ten years later, that emi- nent divine came to London, the Prince of Wales not only recognised him in the Park, but invited him to Marlborough House, and, with the consid- eration and courtesy he invariably shows to stran- gers, he made a personal point of bidding the Bishop 121 The Prince of Wales and his party to a garden party the Princess was about to give. This is an indication of the Prince's broad views in society — views that have made Americans and Jews welcome in the greatest houses in the land; views that are responsible for much good feeling and friendship between nations and people who might otherwise be estranged. The Prince, in fact, has always used his influence and his position with worthy motives, and he has often undertaken with extraordinary patience and delightful tact to smooth over family troubles, and advise the aban- donment of cases that might lead to grave scandals. More than one foolish couple have been reunited by his unaided efforts, and many a wild life has been retrieved from follies and dangers by the sound ad- vice and kindly counsel of the Prince of Wales. It is said, and with truth, that he is the repository of more secrets than any man alive; and this is due to the fact that he has never been known to betray a confidence, or to use the knowledge acquired by him for anything but the best and wisest purposes. A certain section of the public love to rail against the doings and sayings of society; but of one thing such critics may rest assured: if it were not for the 122 The Prince and Society wholesome influence and the restraint that from time to time the Prince of Wales has introduced, society would have earned a far worse character than it possesses. It is commonly supposed that the Prince's ad- miration and encouragement supported the cult of the " professional beauty." The ladies who were known to the public by that term were many of them members of circles in which the Prince of Wales moved; but it is not generally known that when, after a time, the Prince found that the profes- sion of beauty was becoming scandalous in its vul- garity and advertisement, he decided to put a stop to the whole business by practically refusing to accept or to know those who were making a trade of their good looks, and whose photographs adorned the mantelpieces of every callow youth who chose to waste his money on acquiring them. The Bazaar mania, and the ridiculous means re- sorted to by smart ladies and well-known actresses to extort money from their patrons, also received-. a severe check from the Prince of Wales, who on one occasion was kind enough to lend his personal patronage to a great Fancy Fair got up at the Al- bert Hall. In the course of the afternoon he hon- 123 The Prince of Wales oured the refreshment stall by his presence and asked for a cup of tea. The tea was priced at a figure sufficiently exorbitant to cover the calls of charity; but the fair vender, thinking to amuse the Prince, before handing him the cup drank from it herself, saying, " Now the cup of tea is five guin- eas! " The Prince gravely paid the money asked, handed back the tea, and said, " Will you please give me a clean cup? " It is needless to say that this quiet and justifiable snub largely helped to sup- press all such vulgar devices as were resorted to by ladies of a certain section of society. The Prince's tolerance of persons who have somehow managed to gain a foothold in society never wavers unless his good nature is abused, as it was some years ago, when the caricature of a cer- tain gentleman was published in a well-known so- ciety paper the week after that in which a portrait of Prince George had by special permission been published. The Prince on that occasion felt that his tolerance and that of society at large had been grossly abused, and it was noteworthy that within a few hours of the appearance of the offending pic- ture the gentleman in question left England hur- riedly. 124 The Prince and Society While as a leader of fashion the Prince is all- powerful, he is good-natured to a degree with re- gard to the imitation of his hats, coats, the cut of his collars, or the pattern of his sleeve links. So long as these imitations, which any one but the Prince might consider the sincerest form of flattery, are confined to personal details, he does not mind; but when they touch his status as a Prince he is quick to show his displeasure. All the world knows that both the carriage and saddle horses of the Prince of Wales have, as part of their equipment, a fore- head band of the colour known as Royal scarlet. When the Prince and his daughters ride in Hyde Park their horses are therefore distinguished from those of other people by these particular forehead bands. One morning the horses of a certain finan- cier and his two daughters were conspicuously adorned with red bands that are by etiquette re- served for the use of Royalty. The Prince and the young Princesses, who were riding in the Row, could not help noticing this vulgarity. On the fol- lowing day it was seen that the Prince had replaced his scarlet forehead bands by others of plain black leather, and that the financier and his daughters had it all their own way in the matter of Royal red. 125 The Prince of Wales With regard to social entertainments, and the acceptance or refusal of invitations, the Prince has generally worked on rules formulated by himself early in his married life. Any one aspiring to gain a foothold in the higher ranks of society can only hope to do so by receiving as a guest His Royal Highness, and consequently many who have ample means try their best to get a personal friend of the Prince to persuade him to fix a date for their prof- fered hospitality. The majority of these invita- tions are refused by him, for the people he visits who are by birth outside the aristocracy, or who are not personal friends of his own, are very few in num- ber. One of the chief reasons that influence him in refusing wholesale hospitality is, that the entertain- ment offered is generally arranged on a scale of ab- surd extravagance and lavish expenditure, extremes which he particularly dislikes. When he visits a private house in town or country, he infinitely pre- fers that his coming and going shall be attended with as little ceremony as possible, and, though hosts and hostesses always make some special effort to entertain him, he is best pleased when things are done without any ostentation. The Prince's pleasure with regard to country- 126 The Prince and Society house visits or dinner parties in London is often made known through a third person, an arrange- ment tacitly understood by those among whom he moves. For many years this delicate task was un- dertaken by Mr. Harry Tyrwhitt Wilson, whose business it was not only to arrange any visit the Prince wished to pay, but also to submit to the host a list of guests likely to meet with his approval. These lists are, of course, never questioned by peo- ple who are to have the honour of receiving him. There is always, however, an exception to every rule. Society, some years ago, repeated with great gusto a story about a certain Duchess who (not being to the manner born), on reading the list of guests that the Prince wished invited to the house party he proposed to attend, struck her pen through the name of a certain lady whom His Royal High- ness particularly wished to meet, remarking, " I have not the pleasure of her acquaintance." Some- times, when intimate friends of the Prince are ex- pecting him on a visit, a list of the other guests is submitted for his approval, and, though he can not always care for the company selected, he seldom re- moves a name from the list, though he often may add others to it. 127 The Prince of Wales Until quite recently the Prince's visits to coun- try houses were made occasions for a great county ball and a lawn meet or garden party, according to the time of year. But latterly he has placed shoot- ing before any other attraction that can be offered him, and his principal visits are paid between Au- gust and February. When the Prince has intimated that he would like to shoot with any one at a given date, the game is strictly preserved for him, and as a rule not a gun is fired in the coverts until his arrival. Among his friends there is always keen competition to show him good sport, and on these visits an effort is made to amuse him during the evenings with a concert or some good theatricals. At such entertainments the Prince is a delightful guest, for, though he has seen things wonderful and brilliant all over the world, he most thoroughly appreciates all home efforts on his behalf. The Prince's visits to country houses have been notable for one thing, if for nothing else: he has done his best to abolish the system of tipping servants and gamekeepers, which a few years ago grew to such extravagant proportions that it threatened to put country-house visiting beyond the reach of any but the rich. The Prince's method is most sensible, 128 The Prince and Society and invariably gives satisfaction. He leaves be- hind him, wherever he visits, such a sum as he thinks adequate for the servants of the house, and this money is always distributed after he has left. He has also largely encouraged " tipping boxes," which many hosts have found it wise to put up in the halls of their houses as a check to the promiscu- ous brigandage which, till a short time ago, made the lives of visitors to country houses a positive terror. When it is remembered that the Prince of Wales travels everywhere with an equerry, his own valets, a footman who waits upon him at meals, two gillies who take entire charge of his guns, as well as other servants, it must be admitted that the domes- tics of a household are scarcely troubled at all to wait upon him. The same rule of taking a footman who stands behind his chair at table and serves him with every dish and wine, prevails when he dines out. When the Prince desires to call on a personal friend a message to this effect is sent earlier in the day, and it is etiquette that the person called on should receive no other visitors, and that no other member of the family should be present during the visit, unless inquired for by the Prince. Informal invitations to luncheons at Marlborough House are 129 The Prince of Wales sent out in the same simple way. If, during the morning, the Prince or Princess would like to see certain people quietly and without ceremony, little notes are written and despatched. Infor- mal and sudden as these invitations may be, they are regarded in society in the light of a " com- mand " that must not be disregarded, except in illness. Mention of the Prince's hosts would not be com- plete without a few names of those who have enter- tained him over and over again, and have given him, as he would express it, " fine sport and splendid times." Chief among them are the Duke and Duch- ess of Devonshire, whose almost regal hospitality has often been exercised on behalf of the Prince and Princess of Wales. After Prince Eddy's death, the Duke of Devonshire lent Compton Place at East- bourne to the Prince and his bereaved family; Hardwick Hall has been visited by him, and also Chatsworth; while the wonderful fancy dress ball given by the Duke and Duchess to their Royal Highnesses a few seasons ago is not yet forgotten. Lord and Lady Cadogan are also favourite hosts with the Prince and Princess. The late Lord Londesborough entertained the Prince of Wales 130 The Prince and Society more than once. It was always believed that it was during a visit to Londesborough Lodge, near Scar- borough, that the Prince of Wales contracted the germs of typhoid fever; and this was further con- firmed by the fact that Lord Chesterfield, who was of the party on that occasion, sickened and died, as also did a favourite groom of the Prince. Lord and Lady Londonderry have often played host and host- ess to the Prince of Wales, as have the present Earl and Countess of Warwick. The temptation offered by the magnificent shootings of the late Baron Hirsh attracted the Prince so far afield as the heart of Hungary; and the Lord Alington in the west of England, the late Duke of Beaufort, Sir Edward Lawson, who has given the Prince some splendid shooting at Hall Barn, are among the many whose hospitality the Prince enjoys. He does not, how- ever, confine his visits to the homes of English-born aristocracy. Soon after Miss Vanderbilt became Duchess of Marlborough the Prince paid a visit of several days to the stately pile of Blenheim, with which he first made acquaintance when quite a boy. Mrs. Mackay is another American lady who, with Mrs. Arthur Paget, must be reckoned among those who have won his friendship. All the Rothschilds 131 The Prince of Wales have entertained the heir to the Throne from time to time, and he has always enjoyed his visits to houses that are both models of comfort and muse- ums of art. The Duke of Richmond, an old and faithful servant of the Queen, and a very true friend of the Prince of Wales, has often received His Roy- al Highness with the Princess and their sons and daughters at Goodwood House, for the Good- wood week. In this ducal mansion the Prince and Princess are superbly lodged, in rooms that are crowded with exquisite pictures, rare old furniture, and art treasures of every sort. The Prince has also been more than once at Eaton Hall, the seat of the Duke of Westminster. He found his principal amusement there in going over the great racing stables of the late Duke. On one occasion he spent Goodwood week at the delightful place of Mr. and Mrs. William James, with whom he has also stayed during the shooting season. One of the most interesting visits ever paid by the Prince and Princess, and one they genuinely en- joyed, was to Penrhyn Castle, the seat of Lord Pen- rhyn, owner of the famous Bethesda slate quarries. On that occasion, after the Prince had been to the Eisteddfod, Lord Penrhyn took his Royal guests H2 The Prince and Society over the quarries, where a large blasting was ar- ranged, and where they also witnessed the interest- ing process of cutting up Duchesses, Countesses, and Ladies, the names by which the different-sized slates are known. To mention the names of courts and countries where the Prince of Wales has been an honoured guest would be to enumerate half the countries and all the crowned heads of the world, for the Prince has travelled everywhere and seen everything. Two incidents, however, are interesting, as showing the strange experiences that he has been through. When he was staying in Egypt, at Esbelieh, he slept in a bed made of solid silver, which had cost over £3,000, while the wash-hand stand was of very ordi- nary description. Perhaps the strangest place in which he ever found himself as a guest was the zenana of a high-caste native in India, a sanctuary within which no other white man has ever been per- mitted to set foot. His visit to this particular ze- nana was arranged with some difficulty, but it duly came off, and the Prince was immensely interested and impressed by all that he saw there. A decided cachet is given to any hostess whose dinners or parties are honoured by the Prince of 10 133 The Prince of Wales Wales, while a country-house visit at once places the entertainer in the ranks of the best set; and many a young bride, either from America or from the ranks of English commoners, has at once achieved a position, simply from the fact that the Prince has danced at her ball in London, or spent a few days at her place in the country. But if the Prince is pleasant as a guest, he is charming as a host. The unlimited hospitality he has shown at Sandringham on every possible occa- sion has been made more delightful and acceptable by his geniality, and by the thoughtful pains he takes to please each individual guest. So far, in- deed, does he carry his care that once, when he knew a worthy gentleman of somewhat infirm habit was expected, he himself selected an apartment on the ground floor for him. A particularly pleasant form of entertainment that supplements house parties at Sandringham takes the form of simple evening re- ceptions, the invitations to which are frequently taken by the Prince himself. On these little even- ings the guests as they arrive are ushered into an anteroom, from which they walk in single file to the drawing room, where the Prince and Princess re- ceive them. Music, a conjurer, or sometimes mere- 134 The Prince and Society ly chat, while away the evening, at the end of which a sit-down supper is served. When at Sandring- ham the Prince makes a point of receiving with the greatest cordiality any relations or friends of his neighbours and tenants, even though they are not personally known to him. The evening skating parties and the three delightful balls that have been discontinued since Prince Eddy's death, further help to enliven the neighbourhood. At Marlborough House entertainments are of necessity on a more formal scale, though on one occasion at least a delightful impromptu party was given by the Prince and Princess. They with other Royalties had been present at a great fancy ball held at Willis's Rooms, to raise funds for the Walter Scott Memorial at Edinburgh. The ballroom was very crowded, and as the evening wore on the Prince elected that he and his friends should return to Marlborough House for supper. After a merry meal the party set to work to dance till daylight. It was this entertainment that made the Prince think out the great fancy dress ball that he gave on the last Friday in July, 1874. The feature of the evening was a series of quadrilles, arranged accord- ing to costume, and danced by the most important 135 The Prince of Wales of the Prince's guests. The first was Venetian, and was led by the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Teck. The second was of the Vandyke period, in which the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Teck took part. The " Cards " quadrille was arranged by the Princess Christian and Princess Louise; the " Fairy Tales " were chosen by the Duchess of Buc- cleugh and the Duke of Connaught; and a quaintly prim " Puritan " quadrille was arranged by the Dowager Lady Radnor, who was then Lady Folke- stone. For that famous ball the great lawn at Marl- borough House was entirely covered in by a tent, where supper was served, and dancing lasted till nearly six in the morning. Favourite entertainments of the Prince at one time were breakfast parties, which he gave at Chis- wick House, and to which smart society drove out in the summer mornings. It is some time now since there has been a ball at Marlborough House, but for many years the Prince received society an- nually at two big balls, and often gave small dances and children's parties. The second ball was always fixed for the last Friday in July, three days before the Royal family left London for Goodwood. No other hostess of any position ever entertained that 136 The Prince and Society- night, which was always set aside for the Princess, and as the close of the London season. The principal entertainment of the year nowa- days at Marlborough House is the Derby dinner, a feast given since 1887 on the evening of each Derby Day to the members of the Jockey Club. The guests are all gentlemen; they number from forty to fifty, and include the leading patrons of the turf. The dinner hour is 8.45 p. m., and though the menu is not specially short, the meal is, by the Prince's wish, timed to last about an hour. State liveries of scarlet, blue, and gold are worn on this occasion, and the beautiful silver service decorates, with the addition of a few flowers, the long tables in the state dining room. The sideboard, that faces the Prince, makes a splendid show with its load of gold and sil- ver racing cups. On these evenings the Prince always has a string band playing in a saloon outside the dining room. The dinner, which is cooked en- tirely in the Marlborough House kitchens, is of the very best, and the Prince always expects that his chef shall make special effort to introduce a novelty on the occasion. The menu cards are extremely plain, having scalloped edges lightly touched with gold, and the Prince of Wales's feathers inclosed 137 The Prince of Wales in the Garter with a crown above are stamped in blue. The moment dinner is finished smoking begins, and the Prince rises to propose the toast of the even- ing, the health of the Derby winner. Very soon after a move is made to the drawing room, where whist tables are set out, and where the party play cards or chat until an early hour the next morning. Like all Royalties, the Prince of Wales now and then prefers to go into society incognito, and with the true spirit of an Englishman he has the strong- est dislike to the espionage of detectives and police that in most countries are considered necessary for the protection of such important persons as him- self. It was therefore very annoying to him, when the Fenians were threatening death and destruction to the property and lives of the heads of the nation, that the neighbourhood of Sandringham was pa- trolled by detectives, a large body of whom were sent to guard the farms and houses on the Royal estate. When the Prince was in India, too, he was also rather annoyed to find that the Government considered it necessary to employ large bodies of police to surround the particular palace or hunting camp where he might be. At one time seven hun- 133 , The Prince and Society dred and sixty native policemen were thus told off as a guard for the Prince's person. His Royal Highness feels this supervision all the more when he is abroad, for when he is at home he often walks in the West End entirely unaccom- panied. St. James's Street, Pall Mall, and Picca- dilly are traversed by him without his suffering the smallest molestation or annoyance. In this freedom he is aided by the curious fact that there are in society several gentlemen who bear an ex- traordinary resemblance to him, and who take some pride in dressing and moving exactly like him, so that it is often very difficult to identify him as he passes in the street on foot or in a hansom cab. Once, when the Prince was in Paris, he flattered himself that he was as free of detectives as he is in the habit of being in London. Attired in a pot hat and a tourist suit he was one morning strolling down the Rue de la Paix when he met a friend, and with some glee commented on the fact that he was for once not being " shadowed " by any members of the police force. His friend congratulated him on the event, but as he moved off he saw that the Prince was all the time being closely watched by three plain-clothes men. When either the Prince 139 The Prince of Wales or the Princess desires to shop or visit in London quite unnoticed, they use a perfectly plain brough- am, on which neither cipher nor crest appears. In Cairo and Constantinople the Prince and Princess did most of their shopping on foot, and under the alias of " Mr. and Mrs. Williams." Dressed very quietly and with only a gentleman as escort, they were thus able to visit the bazaars and bargain with the shop people, without being either overcharged or mobbed. On one occasion " Mr. and Mrs. Williams " sat down in a little eating house and ordered a dish of " kabob," a favourite Eastern method of preparing meat. The Prince often has visited the strangest as well as the poorest parts of London, and though the police who accompany him may guess at his identity they are not expected to reveal it. On one of these nocturnal expeditions he saw all over the Chinese opium den made famous by Charles Dick- ens in " Edwin Drood," but since pulled down to make room for another of " London's lungs." When the Prince wishes to remain incog, noth- ing vexes him more than to be addressed or treated as a Royal personage. On one occasion he had arranged to lunch quietly at the house of a friend, 140 The Prince and Society but his astonishment and vexation were extreme when, on driving up at the hour appointed, he found red cloth laid down everywhere, the hall filled with bowing servants, and the drawing room overflow- ing with guests who had been bidden in a hurry " to meet the Prince of Wales." Another stronger proof of the Prince's desire to be allowed to take his enjoyment in a quiet and ra- tional way may be adduced from the etiquette he has instituted with regard to himself at the opera. Every year he and a few of his most intimate friends subscribe for the sole use of the large omni- bus box on the pit tier, at the left hand of the stage. The subscribers to the box may, by the Prince's permission, come and go as they please, but they are specially requested never to rise from their seats and bow ceremoniously when the Prince enters; they are merely expected to make a slight inclina- tion, and to take no further notice of His Royal Highness, who always sits in the corner facing the stage, almost entirely concealed behind the curtains. So little ceremony, in fact, is allowed, that no stranger would ever guess from the demeanour of the three or four gentlemen sitting in the box that the Prince of Wales was there. 141 The Prince of Wales The Prince when still an undergraduate at Ox- ford made a signal failure in an attempt to preserve his incognito. He wished to come up to London without either his suite or his tutors being any the wiser, and he flattered himself that by the dint of clever management he had left Oxford station to- tally unrecognised. What was his astonishment, therefore, on arriving at Paddington, at being met by a Royal carriage and pair, and a couple of foot- men, who stopped him as he left the train, and gravely asked him where he wished to be driven! It is said that, despite his annoyance, the Prince was equal to the occasion, and, jumping into the car- riage, said, " Drive me to Exeter Hall! " 142 CHAPTER VIII The Prince is one of the hardest-worked men in the world, and yet he has fewer real holidays than most people of his acquaintance. Much of his life, it is true, has been spent in what other men might consider to be rounds of pleasure. There is no form of relaxation so delightful as change of scene and foreign travel, but these, to become real holidays, should be very far removed from any form of re- straint; and though the Prince of Wales has from time to time spent many months in foreign coun- tries and among strange people, he has nearly always been hard at work the while. His first important trip abroad took the shape of a visit to Canada, which was purely official, and when he was surrounded by ceremony and etiquette. It is only fair to say that the favourable impression he then made has, more than anything else, ce- mented the Dominion to the mother country. So 143 The Prince of Wales great was the stress of this long visit that the invita- tion of President Buchanan of the United States was gladly accepted on behalf of the Prince, who hoped that, under the title of " Baron Renfrew," he would be allowed to secure some little rest. His popularity, however, was so great that the entire United States seems to have made general holiday in his honour, so that the Duke of Newcastle said, " If the Prince remains here much longer there is danger of his being nominated to the presidency, and elected by unanimous consent/' So exhausting, indeed, did the good time ar- ranged for the Prince by the hospitable Americans prove, that he, with the Duke of Newcastle and a couple of friends, was glad to run away to a little village and spend a quiet day pottering about with a gun and shooting rabbits. Breaks like these are the only real holidays the Prince ever gets, and it is in simple incidents, such as the chat he had with Blondin, the famous rope walker, and the peaceful hours he spent under the roof of Bishop McKinley, that he finds some pri- vacy of life, apart from the pageantry and state that attend so many of his journeys. The Prince's visit to America ended with an 144 The Prince's Set incident that was not only quite unrehearsed, but which tested to the fullest extent his powers of cour- age and endurance. In i860 American liners were not the floating palaces they can now claim to be, and the Prince's voyage out had been made in H. M. S. " Hero," a frigate. The same ship, under the escort of the " Ariadne," the " Styx," and the " Nile," started with the Prince and his party for England on October 20th; but bad weather drove the " Hero " out of her course, and early in Novem- ber two men-of-war were hurriedly despatched to search for the missing vessel. The Prince did not reach Plymouth till the middle of the month, after roughing it for several days and living on salt junk. But it must not be thought that the Prince is at all bored by sight-seeing, however encumbered the process may be with pomp and ceremonial. It must be remembered that he is insatiable in the ac- quisition of knowledge and as a student of human nature. But, not unnaturally, he sometimes likes to take his pleasures in simple guise, and when in India he had driven in magnificently appointed carriages of state, been carried in the palanquins of mighty Rajahs, and ridden on elephants capari- 145 The Prince of Wales soned with thousands of pounds' worth of embroid- eries and jewels, he made his desire to see some exquisite mountain scenery and marvellous tropical vegetation the excuse to don a rough suit and pug- garee hat, and with his great friend the late Duke of Sutherland made a day's journey on the engine of the train that carried his party and suite. When the Prince and Princess first visited the Crimea, every arrangement for their suitable recep- tion and accommodation was made at the various places they stopped at during their trip. But the parts of the tour they best enjoyed were the long drives at breakneck speed over a rough, wild coun- try, and the simple hospitality of black bread and salt that the peasants brought them when they alighted at some poor village. In December, 1868, the Prince of Wales planned a holiday that, while it must of necessity include a certain amount of state and ceremonial, should also allow several weeks of absolute freedom from court restraint. The only place in the world where it seemed possible for the heir to the English Throne to be thus untrammelled appeared to be — on the face of it — a desert; and the companions necessary to such a brief spell of independence as 146 The Prince's Set the Prince desired for himself and the Princess re- solved themselves into a select few of their very intimate friends. Chief among these were Lieu- tenant-Colonel Teesdale, Lord Carrington, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Mr. Oliver Montagu, the Marquis of Strafford, Lord Albert Gower, Mr. Sum- ner, Major Alison, Colonel Marshall, Colonel Stan- ton, Captain Ellis, Sir Samuel Baker, Professor Owen, Mrs. Grey, the favourite lady in waiting of the Princess, and a few others. In addition, only the requisite number of dressers, valets, and serv- ants of the Prince and Princess, Peter Robertson, the Prince's favourite gillie, and Allister, the Duke of Sunderland's piper, were taken. A man would have to be as hard worked and as punctilious in all forms of courtly observance as the Prince of Wales thoroughly to appreciate his hap- piness when he, the Princess, and their friends left Cairo behind them, and on a series of steamers and dahabiehs turned their faces up the yellow Nile waters to the wide freedom of dead cities and the desert. The party was arranged in a regular fleet of vessels. The " Alexandra," on which the Prince and Princess, with Mrs. Grey, and their valets and dressers lived, was towed by a special steamer. 147 The Prince of Wales There was also a big steamer, on board of which about half the gentlemen were lodged, a steamer used exclusively for cooking purposes, a small tug which towed the provision boat, and " The Ornament of the Two Seas," on which the Duke of Sutherland and the remainder of the gentle- men had their berths. The flotilla was accom- panied as far as the first cataract by still another tug, towing a barge on which lived the Princess's white donkey, the Prince's mule, half a dozen horses, and a French washerwoman with her husband and family. This holiday was one of the most delightful the Prince ever spent. The sport he enjoyed and the researches he made, added to the cheery compan- ionship, the absolute putting aside of all court cere- mony, and the open-air life, rendered it a delight- ful experience. Every available opportunity was seized upon for a picnic, luncheon, or tea, which would be eaten amid the ruins of a temple or under the shadow of a hill. The Princess generally rode her white donkey, and the Prince walked or rode as he pleased. On one occasion the Royal party started out without their steeds, and had to use any they could find in a small village, the Princess be- 148 The Prince's Set ing content to ride a donkey with an old cushion strapped across its back. These extremely informal excursions were va- ried by shooting, fishing, walking, or boating, as occasion offered. There were no regular hours kept, and no functions or entertainments to be taken into consideration. Dinner was the general rallying moment of the day, and by the Prince's wish was always served on the Duke of Sutherland's steamer; and after dinner it was the Prince's great- est pleasure to invite his friends from the other boats to his own, when the Princess would play, and the Prince lead cheery choruses, till one and two in the morning. So little was the Prince bound by any rule, that he would often start at dawn for a long day's sport, while the Princess, if she did not care to ride or walk, used to work, play, or sketch on board her own little dahabieh, which was charmingly fitted up in blue and gold. Bathrooms and dressing rooms were everywhere, and the upper deck was al- ways a picture, with striped awnings, bright rugs, and comfortable lounging chairs. The Egyptian part of this six months' holiday of the Prince wound up with a short cruise on Ismail Pasha's wonderful yacht the " Mahroussa," a most gorgeous boat, the ii 149 The Prince of Wales rooms in which were furnished like apartments in a palace, with tapestries, gilt furniture, mirrors, gold and silver plate, and wonderful silken hangings. It was said to have cost £200,000; but neither the ex- travagant decorations nor the luxury of the service at all compensated the Prince for the termination of one of the few real holidays he has ever had in his life. Of later years, since the Prince's social and busi- ness responsibilities have increased, his only holi- days, in the true sense of the word, may be said to consist of a short visit to the Riviera during the winter months, and of a three weeks' cure at a for- eign watering place at the end of the London sea- son. Life on the Riviera suits him extremely well. He lives with little ceremony, often lunching with a few friends on a yacht, and dining at one or other of the many lovely villas that dot the seaboard. As a rule, he goes about with only an equerry in attend- ance, and prefers that his presence anywhere shall, as far as possible, pass without notice. For many years the Prince patronized Homburg for his summer outing. The quiet life, the charm- ing country, and the fact that he met exactly the people he wished to see, endeared this delightful 150 The Prince's Set spot to him. But the Prince's popularity ended by- spoiling both Homburg and his holiday. From being a quiet retreat where he and his friends could pass a pleasant three weeks, unfettered by the rules of court life and unmolested by any business, this favourite spot has lately become the resort of a set of people who believe they imply acquaintance with the Prince of Wales by drinking the waters at Homburg. Some few years ago the mobbing to which the Prince was subjected at his favourite holiday haunt became so unbearable that he made his annual " cure " at Royal-les-Baines, in Auvergne; but that delightful place was then undeveloped, and the Prince did not repeat the experiment. Later he has patronized Marienbad, where the " cure " is much stronger, and to which the ruck of society has not yet penetrated. There is no doubt that the Prince thoroughly enjoyed his jaunts to Homburg in the seventies and eighties. There he was able to do exactly as he liked, free to make new friends, at liberty to accept the most lavish or the most simple hospitality, and to entertain whom and where he pleased. At the " Elizabeth " spring, in the morning, he walked first 151 The Prince of Wales with one friend, then with another, and often issued his own invitations to luncheon at Ritter's or the Reirhans by word of mouth. Two or three times during his stay he joined the wonderful picnics in the pine woods, which were arranged for his amuse- ment by Mackenzie of Kintail, whom a society wit nicknamed " The Laird of Tinpail," and for an in- vitation to which everybody sought in vain. Only intimate friends of the Prince were ever bidden to these entertaining feasts, at which, after luncheon, all sorts of sports and games took place for hand- some prizes. The Prince also often strolled to the tennis courts, and more than once presented the trinkets played for. The only rules he was forced to observe at Hom- burg were those drawn up by his doctor, which en- forced, among other things, early hours. But even those, which were rigidly kept, admitted of attend- ance at the delightful dances at the Kurhaus, at which all the prettiest and smartest English and American beauties used to appear; of little dinners at Frankfort, followed by a visit to the opera house, and of small parties in the privacy of the Prince's own corner in the balcony at Ritter's Hotel, where he and a selected few of his friends could quietly 152 The Prince's Set dine. All this served to make Homburg a delight- ful holiday resort for a man who, all the rest of the year, works as hard as does the Prince of Wales. A little deer-stalking with such good friends as the late Dukes of Sutherland and Hamilton, the Duke of Fife, Mr. Farquharson of Invercauld, Lord Glanesk, and others, generally brought the Prince's holidays to a close, and carried him to the months when his own shoots at Sandringham, visits to the stately homes of the aristocracy, perpetual business calls to London and Windsor, and all the routine of an etiquette-bound life, have to be arranged for and seen through. But reference to the Prince's holidays would be incomplete without mention of some of those men whom honest friendship, true words, and faithful service have endeared to the Prince of Wales. Re- ferring to the loss of a good friend, Princess Alice said to another member of the Royal family, " Dear Bertie's true and constant heart suffers on such oc- casions, for he can be constant in friendship, and all who serve him serve him with warm attachment." Since those words were written the Prince has mourned the loss of scores of friends whom he can never replace. 153 The Prince of Wales Memories of Homburg evoke the shadow of Mr. Christopher Sykes, that most genial and good- tempered of men, whose admiration of the Prince of Wales was quite touching. Other friends of earlier days include Lord Dupplin, whom society called " Duppy," and Count Jaraczewski, who re- joiced in the nickname of " Sherry and Whisky," and who for some years was the Prince's partner on the turf. Among others often seen in the Prince's com- pany when holiday-making, Sir Allen Young, Mr. " Jimmy " Lowther, and Lord Brampton, better known as Sir Henry Hawkins, were conspicuous. Lord Hardwicke, who from the extraordinary shini- ness of his hats was called " the Glossy Peer," Lord Roseberry, and Lord Derby claimed his friendship. Admiral Sir George Keppel is a very old friend of the Prince and his family, and the intimacy now includes Mr. and Mrs. George Keppel. Count Al- bert Mensdorff is a distant cousin and a great fa- vourite of the Prince's, and is a frequent visitor at Marlborough House and Sandringham. Among diplomatists the Prince has perhaps the sincerest friendship for Mr. de Soveral, the Portuguese Min- ister, affectionately known by his intimates as 154 The Prince's Set " Blue Monkey." Lord and Lady Farquhar have long been on terms of intimacy with the Prince and Princess, and they are hosts whom their Royal Highnesses frequently delight to honour, both in London and at Castle Rising, their beauti- ful place in Norfolk, which was let to the Duke of Fife at the time he married Princess Louise of Wales. The intimacy of the Prince with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire is of long standing, as is the affection His Royal Highness bears to Lord Charles and Lord " Bill " Beresford. Mr*. Harry Tyrwhitt- Wilson was fidus 'Achates to the Prince, and most clever and tactful in arranging parties and amusements. The Prince's affection for the late Colonel Oliver Montagu dates from his early days, and was most sincere. At his death His Royal Highness broke through his rule, and attended in person the funeral of this very dear friend. Others, past and present, who have enjoyed proofs of the Prince's friendship include the late Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Aylesford, so well known in smart London society as " Joe " Ayles- ford, Colonel Fitz George, Lord Albert Paget, Colonel Owen Williams, Lord Carrington, the Duke of Richmond and all his family, Lord and 155 The Prince of Wales Lady Dudley, Lord Russell of Killowen, Lord and Lady Warwick, the late Duke of Westminster, many of the families of Ormonde and Grosvenor, Lord Clommell, Count Kinsky, Sir Eyre Massey Shaw (under whose long reign as Chief of the Lon- don Fire Brigade the Prince was present at scores of historical fires), Lord and Lady Cadogan, and Lord Allington, who is distinguished in society as being one of the few entertainers to whose dances the Princess of Wales used to take her daughters when they were young girls. The Prince's connection with the turf made him intimate with many good sportsmen, among whom should be mentioned the Duke of Portland, Sir George Wombwell, several of the Sassoons, the Rothschilds, the late Lord Sefton, Mr. Henry Chap- lin, the Earl of Zetland, and Sir Frederick John- stone. In this connection must also be mentioned Sir John Astley, " the Mate " who has gone before, while Lord and Lady Claud Hamilton, Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish Bentick, " Rim " McDonald, Sir William Russell, Lady Dorothy Neville, many of the Churchills and Pagets, Mr. and Mrs. William James, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur James, Sir Edward Lawson and his son-in-law, Sir Edward Hulse, Lord i 5 6 The Prince's Set and Lady Gerard, and Lord and Lady Carnarvon are among the many friends who are left. Among hostesses, few are more resourceful in providing novel entertainment for the Prince than Mrs. BischofTstein, whose parties are most amusing. Mr. Arthur Rothschild is also a great favourite with the Prince, and vies with Sir Arthur Sullivan in the arrangement of delightful Sunday evenings, at which the newest of everything is seen and heard. Lord James of Hereford heads the list of the Prince's shooting friends, among whom used to be Sir Charles Hall, Q. C, Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster, who first endeared himself to the Prince's heart by the equal skill with which he handled a gun and performed conjuring tricks. Other blanks in the brilliant Marlborough House circles have been left by Mrs. Washington Hibbert, that good Freemason and courteous gentleman Lord Lathom, and that witty and marvellous wom- an, Maria, Marchioness of Aylesbury. Of the Prince's kindness to artists of all kinds little need be said. Sir Charles and Lady Halle were frequently honoured by both the Prince and Princess of Wales, who often invited them to play at Marlborough House, and who delighted to spend 157 The Prince of Wales quiet musical evenings at their own residence. The late Sir Frederick Leighton, too, on more than one occasion received the Prince and his family at his beautiful studio, where among most artistic and lovely surroundings the best music was to be heard. Further evidence of the Prince's amenity and sympathetic tact is found in the sincere attachment that exists between himself and those members of his Household who are brought into almost daily intercourse with him. Lord Suffield, Sir Francis Knollys, and Sir Dighton Probyn in particular, are, by nature of their offices, in most intimate touch with His Royal Highness and his affairs. The fullest confidence exists between the Prince and his officials, who would do anything to serve one whom they regard with deep affection. Another favourite member of the Prince's Household is Captain George Holford. Captain Holford was at one time equerry to the Duke of Clarence, and the last letter the dying Prince wrote was to this dear friend. After his son's death the Prince of Wales made Captain Holford an extra equerry, and has honoured him with many proofs of his regard and affection. 158 The Prince's Set The Prince's manner toward those whom he knows less intimately is always cordial and charm- ing". He treats each of them graciously, and wishes them all to regard him as a good and a stanch friend. 159 CHAPTER IX THE PRINCE AS A CHURCHMAN When the Prince of Wales was quite a young man travelling abroad, and while the love of sport of all kinds was running high in his veins, a friend of his, hoping to give him pleasure, proposed to arrange a shooting expedition for a particular date. The offer was exceedingly tempting, but the Prince, after a moment's grave thought, replied, " It is impossible that I should come, for the date you mention falls on a Sunday." The keynote of the Prince's observance of that day is struck in those simple words. From his youth up he has of his own free will, and out of his firm convictions, kept Sunday apart as a day that should be devoted to religious exercises, quiet fam- ily life, and such occupations as entail the least labour on those who are in his service. Sunday at Sandringham is in fact the ideal day of the English country gentleman. A holy peace and calm reign 1 60 The Prince as a Churchman over the whole estate, and the air that during the week rings with shots from sportsmen's guns and the whir of the latest improvements in agricultural machinery, is broken only by the sound of the bells ringing the Royal Household and the peasant alike to service in the little church that stands within bowshot of Sandringham House. It has long been the established custom at Sand- ringham for the Princess of Wales and the ladies staying in the house to drive through the shrub- beries to St. Mary Magdalene, a small church in the late perpendicular style, which stands on rising ground to the left of the Royal residence. Like most eastern county churches, it has quaint battle- mented walls, and an old square tower which is seen for many miles around. A small churchyard, as care- fully kept by the Prince's express desire as though it were part and parcel of the Royal gardens, sur- rounds the quaint old building, which nearly forty years ago was in a dilapidated condition, but which has been restored and embellished from time to time by the Prince and Princess, who ask for noth- ing better than to worship there on quiet Sunday mornings among their servants and their tenants and the humblest labourers on their estate. 161 The Prince of Wales A picturesque lichgate gives entrance to the churchyard, and for the Royal family and their guests there is a private entrance to the church, which is only used when they are at the Hall. The Prince, after a quiet morning cigar, always walks to church with the gentlemen of the house party, and awaits in the churchyard the arrival of the Princess and the other ladies. Immediately on the left of the private entrance is a row of oak seats, carved in Gothic design. Here the Royal family sit, their guests having sim- ilar accommodation on the opposite side of the chancel. The party from York House also have seats close at hand, while the servants of both estab- lishments occupy a certain number of benches in the body of the church. The little building is full of beautiful things, many of which have a touching reference to some great event in the Prince's family, while others are memorials of relations and friends who have died. Above the Royal seats is a fine painted window, one of four through which the light filters into the sacred edifice. That on the south side of the chancel is in memory of the baby, Prince John, the last child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, who 162 The Prince as a Churchman died on April 7, 1871, a day after his birth. Close to the Royal entrance in the chancel is a fine brass, with an inscription to the memory of Colonel Gray, who held the position for many years of equerry to the Prince, and who was regarded by him as a close and true friend. Almost opposite this brass is another to the memory of the Rev. William Lake Onslow, who long held the living of Sand- ringham during the earlier years of the Prince's occupation of the estate. He was highly cultured, and the Prince, with his usual quick perception, soon observed that he was a man of attainments, infinite tact, and deep religious feeling. He was admitted to terms of the sincerest friendship in the Royal household, and in such small troubles with the tenants as the Prince encountered during his first years at Sandringham he was always called in to smooth away any difficulty and to make peace. Directly his children were of an age to appreciate and understand religious training, Mr. Onslow was called upon by the Prince to supervise this part of their education. When they were still quite small he used to give them simple portions of the Bible to learn, and hymns suitable to their tender age. At least once a week he held a small religious class at 163 The Prince of Wales Sandringham Hall, and on one occasion when little Princess Victoria had repeated the well-known hymn " From Greenland's icy mountains " quite faultlessly, she was promised the reward of hearing it sung in church the following Sunday. The reredos of St. Mary Magdalene has been beautifully decorated by the Prince with the finest Venetian mosaic work; and in the church is a very lovely medallion, bearing a profile portrait in mar- ble of the Princess Alice of Hesse, by Boehm, and beneath it a most touching inscription written by the Prince of Wales himself. This memorial is faced by a medallion of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, who, though the youngest of the Queen's children, and precluded by his delicate health from joining in the active sports of his more robust brothers, was regarded with the deepest affection by the Prince of Wales, whose grief at his sud- den death at Cannes was most profound. Other medallions recall memories of the late Emperor Frederick, whose untimely death has always been mourned by the Prince, and of the Duke of Clar- ence, the favourite son of his mother. The beauti- ful lectern is a thank offering that was given by the Princess to the church on the recovery of the 164 The Prince as a Churchman Prince of Wales from his terrible illness in 187 1. On it is engraved: To the glory of God, A thank offering for His mercy, 14 December 1871. ALEXANDRA. " When I was in trouble, I called upon the Lord, and He heard me." When the establishment at Sandringham is in full swing, the list of visitors who are invited to stay- there from Saturday till Monday generally includes a notable divine, who is expected to preach on Sun- day. Men of almost all opinions have stood up in the carved pulpit, but the Prince follows the Queen's example in preferring short to lengthy ser- mons. At the same time, whether the preacher be brilliant or dull, the demeanour of the Royal family in church sets an excellent example to the rest of the congregation. The Prince's natural gravity is always heightened at these times, and he is most attentive to and observant of the entire serv- ice. The Princess of Wales's devotion when in church is most touching. Prince Eddy, whose like- ness to his mother extended to more than outward resemblance, was always very thoughtful and atten- tive, and the young Princesses follow the service 12 165 The Prince of Wales with devout attention. All the notable clergy of the last half of the century have spoken in that quiet country church, but the Prince's favourite preachers were Dean Stanley, the Rev. Charles Kingsley — whose special delight it was to spend a Sunday at Sandringham — and the famous " Jack " Russell, one of the last as he was one of the best of the old- fashioned sporting parsons. The Rev. John Russell was one of the keenest men who ever flung his leg across a horse, and his love of sport was so thor- ough that a great joke sprang into existence in the Prince's family when he once delivered a sermon at Sandringham on the text, " Foxes have holes." Other Sunday visitors include ministers of state, naval and military men, and artistic celebrities. Sir Frederick Leighton was a favourite guest. Lord Beaconsfield openly declared that he preferred the delightful home life and quiet peace of a Sun- day at Sandringham to anything else in the world. Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone also visited there, but the great Prime Minister preferred solitary rambles dur- ing the afternoon to the pleasant strolls about the farms, stables, and kennels that the Prince and the rest of the party generally enjoyed. Service over, the hour before luncheon is occu- 166 The Prince as a Churchman pied either in visiting York Cottage, walking to some farm where improvements are in progress, or to the houses where Jackson, the gamekeeper, or Brunsdon, who looks after the pets, lives. After luncheon the whole party sit or walk in the grounds, taking tea either at " The Folly " or the Princess's dairy. Before dinner the Royal family and their guests generally drive to the church at West Newton, or to St. Margaret's, Kings Lynn, which was restored as a thank offering for the Prince's recovery, at a cost of nearly £7,000. The church of St. Peter and St. Paul at West Newton has from the beginning been a favourite place of worship with the Prince of Wales. In architecture it is very like St. Mary Magdalene, only the nave is divided from the aisles by a splen- did arch, said to be over four hundred years old. The Prince has spent thousands of pounds on this church, and has practically, at his own expense, re- stored it from foundation to roof. It is full of the most interesting memorials, most of them offer- ings of gratitude, given by the Royal family and the Prince's friends in thankfulness for his restoration to health. The organ was presented by the Queen, and the beautiful communion plate that enriches 167 The Prince of Wales the altar was given by the Crown Prince and Prin- cess of Germany. The Duke of Cambridge gave the altar cloth. The east window was put in by Mr. Christopher Sykes, and the stained-glass window at the west end of the church was an offering from the brothers and sisters of the Prince of Wales; be- neath it is a shield bearing their coats of arms. A third window, representing SS. Peter and Paul, was given by the Grand Duke of Hesse, and opposite is one representing SS. Cecilia and Gregory, given by gentlemen who hold responsible positions in the Prince's Household. Set in the north wall of the building, that they may be truly called an edifice of memorials, is a brass on which is inscribed, " This church was restored and the north aisle rebuilt by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, Lord of the Manor, and Patron of this Living, 1881." When the Prince of Wales first bought Sand- ringham, and with it the little church of St. Mary Magdalene, the local ideas of organ playing and choral services were crude in the extreme. The Princess and Mr. Onslow for some time tried to remedy the existing state of affairs, and by their own efforts to some extent improved the singing, choosing the best voices they could find among the 168 The Prince as a Churchman servants, stable hands, and men employed on the estate; but the organist was beyond redemption, and every week acutely tried the Princess's good nature by his wretched efforts. The Princess, with her usual kindness, begged as a personal favour that he should not be sent away abruptly, saying that it would be unkind to hurt his feelings when he had done nothing really wrong. For some time, there- fore, the Prince tolerated this most discordant state of things; but on one occasion, when Gladstone was staying at Sandringham, the music on Sunday was unusually bad; and when the service was over, the Prince, who feared that such faulty playing would distract the attention of the congregation, said to the Princess and Mr. Onslow, " Come here, both of you," and followed this abrupt summons with an announcement of his firm determination to dis- miss the offending organist there and then. Since those times great pains have invariably been taken with the choir at St. Mary Magdalene. The service is fully choral, and is beautifully rendered. The Princess herself frequently attends the practices, and often sends down to Mr. Hervey, the present rector, an intimation as to the hymns she would pre- fer for Sunday. The homely peace of Sunday even- 169 The Prince of Wales ing at Sandringham is, by the Prince's wish, often accentuated by the singing of hymns, which the Princess herself likes to play. When the Prince is at Marlborough House he often " commands " one or two musicians for the evening, to sing and play music of a serious char- acter. In other respects a Marlborough House Sun- day is very quiet. The Prince and his family in- variably attend service in the morning, often at the Chapel Royal, and the Princess sometimes goes to a children's service or flower service in the afternoon. For many years the Prince and Princess went on Sunday afternoon to St. Anne's, Soho. Toward the end of the season, when London becomes un- bearably hot, the Prince leaves town from Satur- day till Monday, and either spends a very quiet day on the river with his friend General Owen Williams, or joins a small house party at the Duke of Devon- shire's seaside residence, Compton Place, near East- bourne, or at one of the splendid country seats in the vicinity of London that his friends possess; but wherever he may be, church service is the first and most important obligation of the day, and invariably precedes an afternoon on the river, 170 The Prince as a Churchman or a stroll round the stables and gardens of his friends. While he was at Oxford the Prince was remark- able for his punctual observance of the rules that govern attendance at prayers. The day after he became an undergraduate was St. Luke's Day, and he walked from Frewen Hall, where he lived, to cathedral service at Christchurch at eight o'clock in the morning. On other days he attended col- lege prayers in Latin, which were read at 8 a. m. in the winter and 7 A. m. in the summer term. In 1 86 1 these Latin prayers were discontinued, college prayers in English being substituted. It was no- ticed by the authorities of the University that whenever the Prince paid a visit to some country house in the neighbourhood of Oxford for an after- noon's shooting, or for an evening's dancing, he was always in his place at the appointed hour for prayers the following morning. On Sunday after- noon, during his year of Oxford life, the Prince generally went to hear the University sermon at St. Mary's. He kept up the same strict observance when he was at Cambridge. It was while the Prince was at Oxford that he first came under the direct influence of the Rev. 171 The Prince of Wales Arthur Stanley, who subsequently proved such an important guide in his life. Despite Stanley's theo- logical opinions, which scarcely agreed with the views of the Queen and the Prince Consort, Her Majesty sent for him a month after Prince Albert's death, and begged that he would accompany the Prince of Wales on a journey to the Holy Land, which it was deemed advisable that His Royal Highness should take for the purpose of distracting his mind from the great sorrow he suffered at the loss of his father. During an interview with Gen- eral Bruce, the Prince's governor at that time, who was authorized by the Queen to sound Stanley on the question of this journey, it transpired that Prince Albert had said that Dean Stanley was the only man in Oxford to whom he would intrust the religious training of the Prince of Wales. Though Stanley's mother was dying at the time, he acceded to the request of the Royal family, and consented to accompany the Prince on what proved to be a most interesting and instructive tour. It is quite clear that the Prince of Wales under- took his trip to the Holy Land determined to profit by all that he saw there, and with the intention of realizing in his mind the thoughts and conceptions 172 The Prince as a Churchman he had formulated in his study of the Scripture story. He was extremely anxious to go every- where and see everything, though it is noteworthy that he approached no spot out of mere vulgar curi- osity, but always in the most reverent spirit. Every arrangement was made by General Bruce, and both attention and honour were shown to the Prince wherever he went. The Turkish Government per- mitted him to enter shrines that had never been opened since the days of the Crusades. Thus the tomb where Abraham is supposed to be bur- ied was thrown open to him, though the guard- ians of it informed His Royal Highness's at- tendants that only to the eldest son of the Queen of England would they have accorded this great privilege. The special request made to the Prince that he would not enter the shrine of Sarah, being that of a woman, was courteously acceded to by him; and although he was most anxious to enter the tomb of Isaac, he consented to view it only from the outside, on being told that Isaac was proverbially a jealous man, and it would be very dangerous to do anything to annoy him. In every way the Prince of Wales laid aside his own convenience and suppressed his own wishes 173 The Prince of Wales when it was a question touching the susceptibili- ties of others. His consideration, however, did not always meet with the reward it deserved, for when he made his entry into Damascus, the Mussulman population at large refused to render any act of courtesy or civility either to the Prince or any mem- ber of his suite. During this most interesting tour Dean Stanley not only studied with the Prince every evening the history of the places visited during the day, but acted as chaplain to the party; and on Easter Day, when the party was on the shores of the Lake of Tiberias, he administered the Holy Sacrament to the Prince and others. The Prince paid another visit, some years later, to the Holy Land, taking the Princess with him. On this occasion it was feared that a disturbance would take place, as the Prince particularly wished to enter some sacred shrines wherein no Christians had set foot for over a thousand years, and it was considered dangerous for the Prince to make the attempt. His usual tact and courtesy, however, overcame all difficulties, and the visit passed off most successfully. Almost directly after his marriage the Prince of Wales invited Dean Stanley to Sandringham, to 174 The Prince as a Churchman make better acquaintance with his beautiful bride, and to instruct the Princess in such differences as exist between the English and Danish Church serv- ices. It was Easter time, and the Prince was as usual going to take the Sacrament on Easter Sun- day. Easter Eve was passed by the Prince and Princess in consulting with Dean Stanley, when the Communion Service was carefully gone through and explained to Her Royal Highness. It was then that the Dean learned what a truly religious woman the Princess was, and he always rejoiced in the fact that he administered the first English sacrament to one whom he always spoke of as " the angel in the Palace." Neither the Prince of Wales nor the Princess are merely theoretical " good people." Their char- ity is immense, and is seldom, if ever, advertised. They both have passed many anxious hours plan- ning and devising for the good of their fellow- men, and more especially for the lower classes, with whom they are personally brought in contact on their estate. The Princess in particular is remarkable for the good works she actively performs, while the truth and beauty of her religion are well known to all 175 The Prince of Wales those who have sat Sunday after Sunday with her in the little church at Sandringham. During the greatest trials of her life — the terrible illness of the Prince of Wales, and the crushing loss of her elder son — the Princess has always found her greatest consolation in religion. The only times she ever left the sick-beds of her husband and her son were to steal away for a few minutes' prayer in church. The first act of the Prince and Princess of Wales after His Royal Highness's illness was to go to a quiet little thanksgiving service at St. Mary Magdalene, where the few people who were present were struck by the expression of thankfulness and adoration on both their faces. Whenever the Prince is travelling, Sunday is always set aside as a complete day of rest, and little short of actual necessity or press of business in- duces His Royal Highness to travel on that day. When the Prince is at sea, he always prefers to read prayers himself on Sunday morning to the as- sembled officers and crew of the ship. Every Sun- day that he was on the Nile all the people from the various boats and steamers that made up the expedition were expected to appear at morning prayers, which were read most impressively by him. 176 The Prince as a Churchman When he went to India, the Rev. Canon Duck- worth, and Mr. York, who was chaplain on the troop ship " Serapis," used to hold morning service on the quarter-deck every Sunday. There was a harmonium, which one of the bandsmen played, and the Prince's chair was always placed beside it. The Royal suite, his friends, and Captain Glynn sat immediately round him; and at right angles to them were grouped the officers of the ship. Oppo- site were placed the choir, the crew, and marines, and beyond these the servants. The service was always fixed for a quarter to eleven o'clock, and was most impressive. When the weather was bad, service was held in the saloon; but at no time during his long absence in the East has the Prince ever been known to omit a due and proper observ- ance of Sunday. A strong note in the Prince's religion is the ex- treme reverence he has for the dead. When he visited the Crimea he was deeply moved and troubled to find that the burying places where the English lay were in a shocking condition of neglect. Many of them were almost obliterated for want of care, and there was frequently no record of the names of those who lay beneath 177 The Prince of Wales the sod. So deeply did the Prince feel on this subject, that on his return to England he agi- tated very strongly for some improvement in this matter, and worked so persistently at the question, that at length the late Lord Clarendon, then Secre- tary of State for Foreign Affairs, had to take steps to inclose the graves of the men who had fought and fallen for their country. It was then that the Prince visited with great interest the house where Lord Raglan had lived, and where a small tablet had been let into the wall to his memory. Lord Raglan's heart was buried just outside the house, beneath a marble slab on which this fact is recorded. The little churchyard that lies about Sandring- ham church, and is scarcely divided from the grounds of Sandringham Hall, is a model of what " God's acre " ought to be. The Prince from the first took the greatest pains to keep in repair the few tombs of former owners of the property. Here and there a simple headstone records the fact that beneath it lies a faithful servant of the Prince. Here, too, is buried his youngest son, beneath a simple grass mound surrounded by gilt railings. On the cross is the baby's name, the date of his death, and the text, " Suffer little children to come 178 The Prince as a Churchman unto Me." The funeral of the baby Prince was as simple and touching a sight as could be seen. The tiny coffin was carried to the graveside by an old servant, and the Prince and his young children were the only mourners. Some half dozen of the tenants were allowed to be present and to shower flowers on the grave before it was filled up. The whole ceremony might have been the quiet funeral of a humble countryman's child. It was the earnest desire of both the Prince and Princess that their eldest son should be buried at Sandringham, under the shadow of the church where they have suffered so much and rejoiced so greatly. But heirs to the Throne can not be buried without pomp and ceremony, and the Prince was finally convinced that a state funeral was the right and proper thing for one who, in the ordinary course of events, would have worn the Crown of England. But the simple services at Sandring- ham, and the tender sympathy of his humble neigh- bours, were more consolation to the Prince in his hour of trouble than the magnificent state cere- monial that took place a few days later in the gor- geous chapel of St. George at Windsor. If the Prince were not really a religious man, 179 The Prince of Wales he would probably profess the Church's outward form from a sense of duty and responsibility to the people, but it is more than mere conventional good example that takes the Prince Sunday after Sun- day to divine service. His views are decidedly broad, and he prefers that a service should be choral, and accompanied by due observances and dignity. Yet his admiration for the picturesque has never induced him to attend service in anything but an English church, al- though he has of course visited as a sight-seer all the great cathedrals in Europe. The Prince was once in Rome at Easter, a time when the rest of the world puts aside all religious conviction and flocks to see the splendid ceremonials at St. Peter's, or at other famous fanes of the papal city. Yet the Prince on Easter Sunday, when people of every sect and religion were crowding into Roman Catholic churches, went quietly into the plain little English church, remarking as he did so that when Church of England people were in Rome they should be more than usually particular to uphold their own form of faith. 1 80 CHAPTER X THE PRINCE AS A PATRON The days of patronage as a part of the house- hold expenses of every great man have long since passed. There was a time when the old vestibule of Marlborough House was filled during a great portion of every day with better-class beggars of all kinds. Ragged geniuses, poets with manuscripts in their pockets, artists with drawings and paintings in portfolios, soldiers who sought promotion, waited the great man's pleasure and the great man's purse. Even Dr. Johnson, as we know, had to wait long, and knew the bitter heartsickness of such hope deferred. It is well for art and literature that such patronage has ceased, though certainly those times produced greater literary and artistic giants than the present age. We have nowadays no Johnsons, Swifts, Goldsmiths, or Popes, and it is remarkable that the only men who have risen to eminence in poetry during the Victorian era have been men 13 181 The Prince of Wales whose circumstances have allowed them that leisure which the higher cultivation of the Muses requires. Browning, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Rossetti, and Swinburne have all been far removed from want, and it is possible that if patronage were still popular, natural genius would become more fruit- ful. Be this as it may, many opportunities for pa- tronage have been taken out of the hands of the Prince of Wales by the circumstances of the times, so that needy genius does not come under his im- mediate notice. The Prince had therefore to seek far and to seek carefully to find worthy objects for patronage with- in the scope of his income. According to his means he has done well; he has always been ready to lend his time, his patience, and his purse to anything which he has found worthy of his attention. The establishment of the Royal Academy and its ban- quet have brought into only too sudden notice any budding Joshua Reynolds or any coming Consta- ble, while the enormous growth of the daily and weekly press provides an opening for literary genius and merit. With pictures and poetry and letters thus supported, the Prince of Wales turned his at- tention to music. All his life he has been a de- 182 The Prince as a Patron voted patron of the opera and the better forms of musical expression. The radical papers frequently gibe at fashionable ladies who, they allege, only sup- port opera for a few weeks between half past ten and eleven. This charge is unworthy, for it is fashion- able people who support all the better and more costly forms of art. The best pictures are found in the best houses, expensive editions are only pre- served in established libraries, and the best music and the best singers in the world are listened to by fashionable London. The Prince of Wales taught smart society to support the opera. We may be an unmusical na- tion as a whole, and music may be an acquired taste with us, but the fact remains that London has be- come its headquarters, and an undoubted fact that the Prince has taught fashionable people by his example to be in their boxes or their stalls when the curtain rises, and that it is bad form to leave them except at proper opportunities. When, after the death of Sir Augustus Harris, the opera was in danger of becoming a mere com- mercial speculation, the Prince came forward and supported an artistic syndicate with his purse. It can not be argued that His Royal Highness only 183 The Prince of Wales upheld opera because it was a fashionable lounge, for there is very little of this about the performance of Wagner's " Ring." For a busy man, after a tir- ing day, to be dressed and in his place at 6.30, and to go without any proper meal till midnight, is scarcely the act of a flaneur. Nor can it be argued that the Prince's patronage of Wagner was only a flitting social craze, such as the sudden rage for blue China, or the transient partiality for a particular breed of lapdog. Such statements can not for a moment stand in the face of the Prince's years of hard work that culminated in the founding and en- dowing of the Royal College of Music. Nothing but a sincere love of music, and a firm determina- tion to make England a music-producing country, could have survived the very carping criticism which his attitude on this subject inspired. The Royal College of Music was not likely to pro- duce in the first six months, or even the first six years, Purcells, or even Balfes and Vincent Wal- laces, and it was scarce likely that Peckham and Wandsworth, Clapham and Cornwall would sud- denly develop a Mario, Julini, Trebelli, Patti, Nor- man, Neruda, Piatti, or Paderewski. It must be evident, therefore, that the Prince's patronage was 184 The Prince as a Patron hardly likely to bring him immediate fame, or even instant praise. As to the theatres, it is often said that Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft did much for the play when they took the Prince of Wales's Theatre, hung curtains in the private boxes, and spread antemacassars over the backs of the stalls. It is a popular belief that Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft opened the Prince of Wales's Theatre with one of Tom Robertson's plays. As a matter of fact, Mr. Bancroft was not a partner, or even the husband of Marie Wilton, when she first went into possession of the little house off Totten- ham Court Road. Marie Wilton and Henry J. Byron were the first lessees and managers of that theatre, and they did not produce any of the now famous Robertson comedies, nor were they at all successful when they started business. Success only came when the Prince of Wales discovered the great qualities of Tom Robertson's cup and saucer comedy " So- ciety," which Alexander Henderson had produced in Liverpool, and brought all the fashionable world to the Prince of Wales's Theatre to see it. His taste is good, and he has done much in an unostentatious way for plays and players ever since. That he is a I8S The Prince of Wales sound judge of real merit is well illustrated by a story which the late Sir Augustus Harris used to tell against himself. Circumstances once compelled him to put a comic-opera tenor into a grand opera part, and when the Prince met him, he said, " I see, Sir Au- gustus, you have found a new tenor." " Yes, sir," said the manager, " I hope he meets with your ap- probation." " Well, I don't think much of him," said the Prince of Wales. Determined to turn the occasion to his profit some way, Sir Augustus fell back on the excuse that the singer was an Eng- lishman, adding, " It is only fair to give every one a chance of showing what he can do, sir." " In that case," said the Prince, " I suppose you are going to bring out my old friend Christopher Sykes as a barytone," and the apt reductio ad absurdum left the clever manager at a loss for a reply. It is a popular belief that the Prince's visits to the playhouse are by invitation. This is an error. The Prince makes his own selection of the theatres he will visit, after consulting with his friends, and he pays, and pays handsomely and promptly, for his box. He is the best critic possible, easily amused at light plays and quickly interested in stronger 1 86 The Prince as a Patron forms of dramatic art, and is only bored when a play is not as good as it pretends to be. When he is pleased with a play, he is a walking advertisement for it. He goes among all his friends, and says: "You must go: it is excellent. Let me know as soon as you can what you think of it." Then with- in twenty-four hours the Bond Street libraries are besieged, and the street in which the lucky play- house stands is rilled with smart carriages. But even when the Prince is bored he is generous. If he does not like a play, he will try and praise the scen- ery or the costumes. Even if these are not to his taste, and the acting is generally bad, he will pick out some one who is good for favourable comment; and, of course, when once the manager is sent for, no one is to know that his account of the interview is a little overcoloured. The Prince's patronage has thus saved many a tottering manager from bankruptcy. He is as punctual at the theatre as at the opera, and during the performance he always keeps a smiling face and remains to the end. His good sense and dislike to ostentation soon put an end to the ridiculous old-fashioned custom of the manager receiving Royalty and walking upstairs backward with a pair of lighted candles in his hand. 187 The Prince of Wales He also did away with the inconvenience of the curtain being kept down till he arrived, and he has allowed it to be known that he strongly objects to the National Anthem being played as the signal of his arrival. Indeed, he gives less trouble than the majority of his inferiors. The Royal party always enter a theatre very quietly, and the most that they demand is that the Princess may look at the manu- script of the play, either before or during the per- formance, and that the Prince may have an oppor- tunity of smoking a cigarette between the acts. Though the Prince of Wales has never been an advocate for minor actors and actresses getting, as they call it, " into society," he has received the more representative of the theatrical profession, and has entertained them at dinner at Marlborough House. Nor did his patronage end there. For many years after his father's death the Queen's retirement brought an end to the " command " performances, which were so frequent — and so popular — when Charles Kean was Master of the Revels. The Prince's good sense saw that the appointment of a Master of the Revels was very undesirable. It had led in the old days not only to a great deal of jeal- ousy and heartburning, but to the scandalous ap- 188 The Prince as a Patron pearance of an actor at a police court, offering as a protest the paltry sum which he had received for performing before Her Majesty, to the Poor Box. The Prince, however, was anxious that the Queen should not entirely neglect dramatic literature; so, when Her Majesty was visiting him at Abergeldie Castle, he brought over a provincial company one evening to perform " The Colonel," then a popu- lar play. It came upon Her Majesty as a surprise, and she was delighted. The Queen's old love for the theatre came back, as the Prince knew it would, and his very clever piece of diplomacy led to Her Majesty command- ing Mr. and Mrs. Kendal and Mr. Cathcart to ap- pear before her at Osborne. She subsequently had performances by all the principal players and singers at Osborne, Balmoral, and Windsor. The Prince has never been injudicious enough to make a friend of an actor, but he has frequently supped with Sir Henry Irving at the Old Beefsteak Clubroom in the Lyceum Theatre, and it was by the Prince's ad- vice that he was knighted. He was also friendly with Mr. Toole at one time, though his pleasure in the society of players is, needless to say, much exaggerated by them. The Prince of Wales also 189 The Prince of Wales broke down the foolish old prejudice against Music Halls by taking the Princess to a box at the Alham- bra. He has, however, hardly more than tolerated the appearance of members of the aristocracy on the stage, and his daughters are perhaps the only members of the Royal family who have not played at acting, and this though private theatricals were very popular in the Queen's nurseries, and the Prince on more than one occasion took part in these childish performances. 190 CHAPTER XI THE PRINCE AT PLAY There is scarcely a pastime or sport that the Prince of Wales has not some knowledge of, for he not only likes to see everything wherever he goes, but also as far as possible to try his skill at any fresh game that he meets with. As children, he and his brothers were fascinated by the game of " soldiers," encouraged by permission to build in the grounds at Osborne a fort, which, though in miniature, was complete in all details. The Prince always re- gretted that the form that his education took pre- vented him from becoming an adept at cricket and football. A story is told to the effect that, playing in a cricket match at the Viceregal Lodge, Dublin, he not only missed two easy catches in the field, but when he went to the wickets succeeded in securing a " duck's egg." During the Prince's residence at Oxford and at Cambridge he spent many happy hours on the river, 191 The Prince of Wales and during " Eight's Week " at Oxford was to be seen every evening on the Christchurch barge, watching with the deepest interest and excitement the " bumping races " between the rival colleges. For many years the Royal family always wound up Ascot week by giving a water-picnic on the beautiful lake at Virginia Water. On these occa- sions boats and water-velocipedes were provided for the Prince and his friends, and he himself liked nothing better than to do an hour's hard rowing before they landed and dined in the little Swiss cot- tage that overlooks the lake. These cheery infor- mal gatherings generally wound up with a small dance, at which the Prince and Princesses, all in morning dress and boating flannels, used to enjoy themselves immensely. During his University days the Prince also took up hunting, but a somewhat serious acci- dent he had when at Cambridge rather subdued his ardour in the field, and of late years, though he has often ridden to cover, and played host at' the most delightful lawn meets at Sandringham, he has given up following hounds. He has always been a great supporter of the chase, and despite the strict- ness and care with which game-preserving is con- 192 The Prince at Play ducted on his estate, he is never averse to young foxes being laid down at the outlying farms, and is most anxious that when meets are held in the neigh- bourhood of Sandringham good sport should re- sult. Early and constant training as a horseman has given him an excellent seat. Nowadays he requires a weight carrier, but he is as much at his ease in the saddle as in an armchair. When lawn tennis was first introduced, the Prince, whose marvellous energy never found suffi- cient outlet on a croquet lawn, went quite wild about the game, and played it on all possible oc- casions. So devoted was he to this capital form of exercise, that when the " Serapis " was being equipped for the tour to India, arrangements for playing tennis on deck were insisted upon by him. In the hottest weather, when most of his suite and friends were exhausted by the tropical climate, the Prince would rush into flannels and play deck tennis until his partners and opponents cried him mercy. Real tennis, the modern equivalent of the fa- mous old French game jeu de paunie, is almost the only game that is too fast for His Royal Highness. Only those who know it by experience can realize 193 The Prince of Wales the violent strain on the muscles and the strenuous exertion that are needed to make a good tennis player. But the Prince, if he does not play, loves to watch this game, and is an excellent judge of form and style. His son-in-law, the Duke of Fife, has a tennis court at Sheen, and whenever a good match is being played there the Prince likes noth- ing better than to drive down to see it. A few of the Prince's friends also have tennis courts, and when he is visiting them a match is often arranged for his amusement. Quoits was another favourite game with him on shipboard, and was afterward introduced at Sand- ringham, by using ladies' silver bangles, which with great dexterity he would toss over the slim fingers of their owners. The Prince's love for a game of bowls is well known. He is very proud of the bowling alley he built at Sandringham, which is considered, for per- fection of arrangement and appointments, the best in England. A favourite time with him for a game is, as we have seen, the hour before dinner, or before going to bed. His billiard room is equally well arranged, and he and his daughters handle the cue with very fair 194 The Prince at Play success. The Prince was taught billiards by the father of John Roberts, the champion. It is generally considered that, of all amuse- ments, games at cards stand first in his affections. It has even been said that he can not go through twenty-four hours without cards in some form or other. It is needless to say that this sweeping as- sertion is absolutely devoid of truth; the Prince thoroughly enjoys a game of cards within the limi- tations that bind a man who is enormously busy, and whose social duties frequently absorb his lei- sure hours. During the whole time he was travelling to and from the East, and while he was taking long jour- neys through India and Ceylon, he only once sat down to a rubber of whist, and this although he had with him intimate friends and men whose tastes were presumably akin to his own. It is on record that this single game, which was started by the play- ers under tropical circumstances and in the lightest clothing, was very soon brought to an end, as the heat was too great for the exertion of laying the cards on the table. In clubs also the Prince does not play cards, and he has over and over again made it his serious 195 The Prince of Wales business to dissuade younger men than himself, or the sons of old friends, from forming the habit. It is of course true that he has often played cards and enjoyed the pastime, but to assume that he pursues this amusement to excess, or that he shows a bad example to less level-headed men than himself, is as absurd as it is untrue. Of dancing the Prince of Wales has always been extremely fond. For many years his friends de- clared that he danced the Highland fling better than any one in the kingdom, and during his an- nual holidays in Scotland torchlight dances or balls at which reels, jigs, and flings were prominent in the programme, were the Prince's delight. At the balls that he gave at Sandringham he himself was an indefatigable dancer. Never resting him- self, he never permitted any one else to show fa- tigue, and if for a moment he pleaded exhaustion, the supper interval and his indomitable spirits al- ways set him going again for another two or three hours. The slow waltz never found favour in court circles, where the German or " hop " waltz alone is danced. The Prince is as fine a skater as he is a dancer. When quite a little boy he and the rest of the 196 The Prince at Play Queen's children were put upon skates and taught to get about on them, so that by the time he was a young man he was a graceful and expert skater. His year at Oxford was marked by a long and severe frost, and every afternoon he found special pleasure in going with a few friends to the flooded and frozen Christchurch meadows for a couple of hours' skat- ing. It was during this frost that a great firework display was given on the ice, and the Prince, whose love for fun of all kinds was irrepressible, was chief among the party that undertook to let off the squibs and crackers, rockets and Catharine wheels. To gratify his taste for such displays during his holidays, there have been arranged, in the various cities he has visited, the most elaborate fireworks and illuminations that ingenuity can devise. The Easterns are adepts at the pyrotechnic art, and more than once the Prince has been astounded at the beauty and the lavish cost of the illuminations ar- ranged for his amusement. On one occasion, when he was at Constantinople, the sight of the Golden Horn, the Piraeus, and the quaint old city itself picked out by millions of lamps, was, the Prince declared, one of the most beautiful he had ever seen. 14 197 The Prince of Wales Hockey has always been a favourite game, and the Duke of York has inherited his father's love of this manly sport. Whenever the lakes at Sand- ringham are frozen over, the Prince and those of his household who can play immediately begin to prac- tise hard. The neighbours receive challenges to matches, and the greatest fun and enjoyment re- sult from this delightful exercise. During the terrible winter of 1894-95, when for many months every lake and pond in the country was icebound, the Prince of Wales, who was spend- ing some weeks in London, instituted a Sandring- ham hockey team, which daily challenged other teams, captained by friends of the Royal family. The matches took place on the big lake in Buck- ingham Palace Gardens. On these occasions the Prince of Wales was captain of his team, which gen- erally consisted of the Duke of York, Mr. Frank Mildmay, M. P., Lord Marcus Beresford, Lord An- naley, Mr. Ornley Davenport, M. P., the Hon. E. Stonor, and Mr. Ronnie Moncrieffe. The Prince used to play as " back," and the Duke of York was the most active of the " forwards." A ball was used instead of a bung, with the result that play was ex- tremely fast and falls numerous. One of the best 198 The Prince at Play matches was played against the House of Com- mons, for whom appeared among others the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, Lord Stanley, Lord Willough- by de Eresby, and Mr. Victor Cavendish. The sports thus instituted by the Prince on the ice were so excellent that one day Her Majesty spent some hours in the gardens enjoying the fun; while the Princess of Wales, the Duchess of York, the young Princesses, and many of their friends used to watch the play every day. The cold that winter was intense, and it was often only possible to play from midday till two o'clock. As the Feb- ruary days lengthened, however, and the frost still held, these hockey matches began at three and con- tinued till five. Great braziers of coal warmed the air in the vicinity of the spectators, and from a small tent hot soup, coffee, and drinks of all kinds were served. Much of the Prince's most enjoyable Hospitality at Sandringham has taken the form of ice parties. Whenever the lakes on the estate are frozen and fit to skate on, the Prince sends out invitations broad- cast, bidding his neighbours and his tenants spend every evening on the ice so long as the frost lasts. Everything is beautifully arranged, ample illumina- 199 The Prince of Wales tion is given by charcoal fires, torches, and lanterns, while lavish refreshments are served from cosy tents. The Prince himself will often stop skating for an hour, to see that his guests are warm both with- out and within. With his genial face beaming, he passes to and fro carrying negus and soup to the ladies, and it is always noticeable that his kindly attentions are not measured by the rank of the re- cipient. The farmer's wife receives the same cour- tesy and charming kindness from his hands as his own family, or any great lady who may be present. The villagers on these occasions are cordially in- vited to come to the park and watch the sport, which by the Prince and the Royal Family is al- ways conducted with the greatest vigour and ani- mation. When the frost has given and warmer weather sets in, the good fellowship that binds the Prince to his country neighbours does not cease. When he is at Sandringham he gives up many afternoons to the patronage of village sports, at which he likes to distribute prizes, and to encourage fun and activ- ity by his own example. Any games that may be going on at West Newton, Dersingham, or Kings Lynn are always certain of the Prince's support and 200 The Prince at Play presence, and he laughs as heartily as any school- boy at the struggles that attend the tug of war, or the comic misfortunes of the aspirants to the prize at the top of a greasy pole. For fishing the Prince of Wales never had much taste. It is too quiet, one might almost say too lazy, a sport to appeal to him. His own lakes at Sandringham have been carefully stocked with black bass, and when he is in Scotland he some- times, though very seldom, goes out with a rod and fly. Both the Duke of Clarence and the Duchess of Fife have, however, been ardent followers of this sport. The Prince at one time had a fancy for net- ting fish, and when on the Nile worked hard at dragging in some nets that had been set near a large sand bank. He also once got a thorough wetting in the surf outside Goa, when he persisted in help- ing the sailors to haul in a huge seine net, and waded and paddled about in the surf with as much anima- tion and energy as a longshoreman. The Prince was delighted with this sport, and returned to the " Serapis " wet to the skin. Neither he nor any of his brothers, except the Duke of Coburg, have been good swimmers. On one occasion, when the Prince and the Duke were deer-stalking 201 The Prince of Wales in Scotland, the stag they had wounded swam into the middle of a small loch. It was necessary that the animal should be put out of its misery, but, on cross-examining the hunting party, it was discov- ered that no one was sufficiently at home in the water to swim far enough to despatch the quarry except the Duke of Coburg, who promptly swam out and killed the deer. The Prince of Wales has always been devoted to the sea. His yachting experiences began almost with his life, and it is said .that only in the English Channel has he ever felt the effects of mal-de-mer. As a yachtsman, and as Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Prince has been a great suc- cess. His ardent patronage of Cowes Week and other regattas on the south coast have done much to bring those functions into a fashionable and flourishing condition. When, on July 18, 1887, the Prince of Wales was gazetted " Honorary Ad- miral of the Fleet in Her Majesty's Fleet," certain radical papers criticised the appointment in most unmeasured terms. They were, of course, quite unaware that, as a practical sailor and manager of a yacht, he had no rival in the Solent. The Prince is a capital steersman, and knows more about the 202 The Prince at Play general management of a ship than the majority of yachtsmen. When the Prince owned first the " Aline," and later the " Britannia," his racing yacht that was built under the advice of Mr. William Jameson, His Royal Highness swept the board of prizes. For at least two seasons the " Britannia " was the most successful large racing yacht afloat. At the Prince's wish she was often steered by Mr. Jameson, in whom the Prince had the greatest possible belief. He generally was on board during the progress of an important race. Many of the finest cups and pieces of plate that grace the sideboard at Sand- ringham and Marlborough have been won by the Prince at regattas; but it is characteristic of his open-handed generosity that all prize money won by his yacht has been given to Captain Carlin and the crew, in addition to the handsome pay they always received. That the Prince is a good sailor is easily seen by any one who may be with him on board a yacht or steamer. He quickly settles down into the rather cramped surroundings, and, whatever the weather may be, is to be found in the smoking room or the saloon; on the captain's bridge one hour, and down 203 The Prince of Wales in the engine room another. On one occasion, when the Prince and Princess of Wales were making a short trip on a magnificently equipped yacht be- longing to the Viceroy of Egypt, a sharp storm came on. The Royal party were at dinner at the moment, and the table was set in honour of the guests not only with the most beautiful plate, but with china of great value. The first pitch of the ship sent these costly things, as well as all the wine and food, on to the floor, where a moment later the Prince and Princess and the rest of the company also found themselves. Their Royal Highnesses were luckily good enough sailors to disregard such an awkward mishap, though they regretted the de- struction of the Sevres dinner service and of the beautiful cut glass which a moment before had been glittering under the lamps. Of late years the Prince has patronized the sport of pigeon-flying. He and the Duke of York own several very valuable birds, and he has won more than one of the leading races instituted under the rules of the National Pigeon-Flying Club. His birds are bred and kept at Sandringham, and are a source of great interest and amusement to him. Among the Prince's minor hobbies must be 204 The Prince at Pi ay mentioned that of collecting arms of all kinds. Both his town and country house are veritable ar- mories, and a picked selection from the swords, guns, pistols, spears, shields, and weapons of offence and defence of all kinds, would result in a collection perhaps the most valuable in the world. The Prince also takes considerable interest in the hobbies of his children. He himself has from time to time added rare carvings to Princess Maud's almost unique collection of ivories; and the Duke of York, who is a great buyer of stamps, invariably enlists the Prince's interest when he has acquired a more than usually rare specimen. Chess, which was a favourite game with Prince Leopold, is not popular with the Prince, for he has never had opportunity to master the game. He is a great tricyclist, and both in the gardens of Marl- borough House and in his own ground at Sandring- ham is often to be seen on an excellent machine, which has been made especially for him. His latest acquisition in vehicles is, of course, a motor car. The moment the construction of motors became im- proved the Prince had one built for him by Hooper, who has made most of his carriages, and took les- sons in the art of driving it. His first motor was a 205 The Prince of Wales Daimler, the engine being made at Coventry; the carriage is very light and smart. A few months later he ordered another of a different make, and is now often to be seen driving his horseless vehicle over the country roads round Sandringham. 206 CHAPTER XII THE PRINCE ON THE COURSE In breeding and running race horses of the first class the Prince is following in the footsteps of a long line of Royal patrons of the English turf. " The sport of kings " first made a mark in this country in 1377, when the Prince of Wales, who afterward became Richard II, matched a horse against one belonging to the Earl of Arundel. The owners rode, and the Prince was beaten, but subse- quently bought the winner for a sum equal in our days to about £4,000. Henry VIII kept a fine stud, which included several Arabs. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, went a step farther, and not only had many horses in training, but attended race meet- ings and arranged matches herself. In those days Croydon was a fashionable course, and Queen Eliza- beth seldom failed to attend the races there, using a grand stand that had been specially built for her at an outlay of thirty-four shillings. James I of Eng- 207 The Prince of Wales land was the first king who brought Newmarket and its now celebrated Heath into vogue; and Charles I and Charles II also kept the ball of racing rolling right royally. There has been much discussion as to whether the Mr. Oliver Cromwell who owned race horses was the great Protector, or merely a relation of that personage; but there is no doubt that even in the Puritan days horse races, or " matches " as they were more generally called, were a popular form of amusement. James II was as poor a patron of the turf as he was a king, but William of Orange was a thorough sportsman, and the course of his reign was marked by the institution of innumerable " King's plates " and the breeding of some really fine ani- mals. Queen Anne was a thorough sportswoman, and her colours were over and over again seen on the turf. At York she won the Gold Cup in 1712 with a gray gelding, " Pepper," and " Star " was an- other first-class racer belonging to her. The Ascot meeting was founded by Queen Anne only three years before her death, when she gave a handsome cup and attended the races. The general condi- tions of Ascot were vastly improved by the Duke of Cumberland, who was called the " Father of 208 The Prince on the Course Ascot," and was the breeder of the celebrated " Eclipse." Ascot in 1768 witnessed the extraordinary ex- hibition of a lady riding one hundred miles in ten hours for a bet of £5,000 made by her husband. The gentleman further offered to stake another £5,000 that his wife would eat a whole leg of mut- ton and drink two bottles of claret into the bargain. Although the first two Georges did little to encour- age racing, and George III merely contented him- self with presenting a cup to Ascot for horses hunt- ing with the Royal hounds, the Jockey Club was founded in George IPs reign, and speedily proved itself a very useful medium for formulating rules and suppressing abuses on the turf. The Prince Regent was a thorough turfite, and his hunting stables cost him enormous sums of money. He and the Jockey Club fell out with re- gard to his jockey, Sam Chifney, who was accused of pulling a horse. The Prince was so angry at the Jockey Club for insisting that Chifney should ride no more, and for saying " no gentleman would run against him," that he gave up the turf until after he came to the Throne, when in 1826 he again raced, his registered colours being blue body, red sleeves, 209 The Prince of Wales and black cap. His brother, the Duke of York, also raced in a sportsmanlike manner; and when William IV came to the Throne, he ran in that same year the first three for the Goodwood Cup. It was William IV who gave the hoof of " Eclipse " mounted in gold to be run for by horses belonging to members of the Jockey Club at Ascot. The Queen first went as a young girl to Ascot in 1834, taking part in the Royal Procession that George IV with his love of pageantry had intro- duced. Her Majesty went again in 1838, and in 1839 witnessed a very fine race for the Ascot stakes. She was much amused on this occasion by the win- ning jockey, a boy called Bell, to whom she gave a f 10 note, at the same time asking him his weight. Bell replied ingenuously, " Please, ma'am, master says as how I must never tell my weight to any- body." Since those days, racing, race courses, and grand stands have been immensely improved, and the Pa- vilion at Ascot, which sixty years ago was but a very rough erection, is now a charming rendezvous. The drawing room is hung with a pale-green paper, broken with sprays of foliage here and there. The hangings and upholstery are of cream cretonne pat- 210 The Prince on the Course terned in soft green. The dining room, to which, on the Tuesday and Thursday of Ascot week, lunch- eon is always sent over from Windsor Castle, is arranged to look like a tent, the roof and walls being draped in white linen striped with a china-blue pat- tern. The Grand Stand at Ascot was built by a company in 1839. It was nearly burned to the ground in 1856, and in later years has been con- siderably improved. The little box close to the course at Ascot was always known as " Weatherby's pew," for the late James Weatherby, head of the firm that issues the " Racing Calendar " and the " Stud Book," always sat there from the begin- ning to the end of every Ascot meeting. Although the Prince of Wales has from time to time expressed his opinion regarding the arrange- ment made for admission to the Royal Inclosure at Ascot, the subject has little to do with His Royal Highness's private life, and need not be touched on here. When racing at Newmarket, the Prince of Wales generally occupies a suite of rooms at the Club. They are comfortable, and very convenient- ly near the Heath. Goodwood meeting, differing from all others, partakes of the nature of a delight- 211 The Prince of Wales ful picnic. One or two days during the week the Prince lunches with those with whom he is staying. On other days he strolls about among his friends, taking lunch or tea at the tables spread under the trees — a fashion which has lately superseded the picnics on the grass. It is not to be wondered at that the Prince should have taken so keenly to the glorious sport of racing when almost every one of his ancestors had been its patrons. From the first he proved himself an adept in all turf matters, and it was a mat- ter of regret that luck was so often dead against him. His first trainer was John Jones, who lived at Epsom, in a house built by the late Lord Dup- plin. Here the Prince sent his steeplechasers to be trained, and here he often passed a pleasant hour chatting to his trainer and going over his stables. John Jones began life in the stables of the well- known trainer, Fothergill Rowlands, of Pitt Place, but when he set up for himself he won the patron- age of Colonel Arthur Paget, Lord Charles Beres- ford, " Tops " Hartopp, Mr. Arthur Coventry, as well as of the Prince of Wales and his commissioner, the late Count Jaraczewski. In his drawing room he had lithographs of the Prince and the Count, 212 The Prince on the Course signed by themselves and presented to him in re- membrance of the victory of " Playfair," the horse he rode in March, 1882. The small boy Jones who won the Prince's second Derby for him with " Diamond Jubilee," and has since piloted that horse to many a great turf victory, is one of John Jones's sons, whom the Prince took into his racing stables with another of his brothers, in grateful remembrance of a faithful servant. Young Jones has well repaid the Prince's kindness, for, though he started as the humblest stable lad, the fact that " Diamond Jubilee " would allow no one else to touch him or to cross his back, ended by bringing the boy into the position of the most famous jockey of his year. Although the Prince's luck with " Persimmon " and " Diamond Jubilee " came after years of wait- ing, no victories have ever been more popular than those won by his horses. Both these great racers were bred by him at Sandringham, while a four- year-old called " Sandringham," who was full brother to " Diamond Jubilee " and " Persim- mon," was bought at a high price for America. " The Prince and Princess want to see Jones up in the box." Such was the message brought to 15 213 The Prince of Wales Lord Marcus Beresford, in the unsaddling paddock at Epsom, a few minutes after " Diamond Jubi- lee's " jockey had been passed by the clerk of the scale on the memorable Wednesday, May 30, 1900. "All right, ,, replied Lord Marcus Beresford; " I'll send up the boy on a tray." The present Prince of Wales has inherited a taste for " the great game " from the Georges, and the vast improvements on the turf are due as much to the aptitude, love of sport, and, above all, even mind, of His Royal Highness, as to any amendment in the morality of the period. The Prince has had his share of losses and ill luck, and while he can bear success with the calm front of a paladin of old, those who noticed his face all wreathed with smiles as he conversed with the daughter of the owner of " Merman," close to the weighing room, just after the defeat of " Diamond Jubilee " at the first July meeting at Newmarket, 1900, can testify to the fact that he is as good a loser as ever registered racing colours. For years before success came to him at flat- racing the Prince of Wales dabbled in the sister sport — in the dark ages of the early sixties it was 214 The Prince on the Course called the " illegitimate sport " — of steeplechasing. His first horse was an imported Arabian, which was under the charge of the late Mr. Fothergill Row- lands, at Pitt Place, Epsom. His Royal Highness had not long returned from his visit to India, where at that time the Arab was more esteemed for fleetness than is the case at present. At all events, " Alep " proved himself to be no match for even a fifth-rate English race horse, and not long afterward the Prince sent a few jumpers to train with John Jones at Epsom, under the supervision of Lord Marcus Beresford, to whose guidance in racing matters he has trusted ever since. His most successful steeple chaser was " Magic," a brown gelding by " Berzerker," bred in Ireland. He twice carried the Royal colours in the Grand National Steeple Chase at Aintree, finishing, in 1888, eighth to Mr. " Eddy " Bairns " Playfair." On this occasion " Magic " was rid- den by Arthur Hall, head lad to the stable, and an excellent jockey; and the following year the train- er, Jones, had the mount, and " Magic " was rid- den into fifth place, the winner being Mr. Maher's " Frigate," ridden by the redoubtable " Tommy " 215 The Prince of Wales Beasley. " Magic " won many steeple chases while in the possession of the Prince. Among his principal successes may be mentioned the Grand Sefton Steeple Chase at Aintree, worth £420, in 1888, and the Prince of Wales's Steeple Chase of £239.19.?., at Derby, in the following No- vember. In 1889 the old brown won the Great Lancashire Steeple Chase at Manchester, worth £875; and during his career between the flags he carried off many smaller events. He could not be called a steeple chaser of the highest class, and as a dreadfully hard puller he wanted a man with " hands " on his back, and did not always get him. With " Hohenlinden " the Prince took many minor events, poor " Roddy " Owen being in the saddle on more than one occasion. " Hettie," a chestnut mare by " Sir Bevys " out of " Emblemat- ical " (the breed read like jumping), won him a good race or two, after having been purchased from Mr. Ronnie Moncrieff. "The Scot," a chestnut gelding by " Blair Athol," was a com- parative failure over fences. It was just after this chestnut had taken part in the Grand Na- tional of 1884 that a telegram was placed in the 216 The Prince on the Course hands of his Royal owner, announcing the un- timely death of his brother, the Duke of Albany. Although in June, 1883, His Royal Highness nominated Mr. Pierre Lorillard's " Iroquois " (the Derby winner of 188 1) for the Stockbridge Cup, we do not find him as an owner of flat-racers till some years afterward. His knowledge of racing was, indeed, limited, as the following little story goes to prove. While on a visit to his training quarters early in the spring, conversation arose in connec- tion with a three-year-old filly. " I'm afraid^ your Royal Highness," said the trainer, " I shall not be able to get her ready in time for the Oaks. ,, " Well, it doesn't matter," was the reply; " if she doesn't win the Oaks this year she might win it next." The first win for the Prince on the " flat " oc- curred in a selling race at Goodwood in 1889, with " Galliglet," a chestnut colt by " Energy " out of " Fanchette." The stakes were worth £102. A similar sum was won — also in a selling race — for him by "Shamrock II," by "Petrarch" out of " Skelgate Maid," in the Boveney Plate at Wind- sor the same year, the winners being subsequently purchased by Sir Charles Hartopp. For pur- poses of easy reference, a table of the Prince of 217 The Prince of Wales Wales's winnings may be given from 1889 to 1899, inclusive: 1889 won ,£204 1895 won ^8,281 1890 " 694 1896 ' « 26,819 1891 " 4,148 1897 ■ ' i577o 1892 " 190 1898 « 6,560 1893 " 372 1899 ' 2,189 1894 " 3,499 In 1891 his two-year-olds, possessing such promising names as " Luck," " Success," and " Triumph," failed to score. " County Council " won him the Ham Stakes at Goodwood, value £550, while on the " Imp " the " purple and red sleeves " were successful in the De Trafford Handicap at Manchester (£437), the Ascot High Weight Plate (£555), and the Drayton Handicap at Goodwood (£202). With the three-year-old filly "Pienetic," by "Mask" out of "Poetry," His Royal Highness won twice; the Esher Stakes at Sandown Park (£925), and the Portsmouth Park Inauguration Stakes (£415). In this race the Royal colours were worn by Richard Ch aimer, who in 1 891 could ride 6 stone 8 pounds. In 1892 the horses belonging to the Prince of Wales and Baron Hirsh left Kingsclerc, John Por- ter having, as he thought, too many to superintend, 218 The Prince on the Course and for other reasons which need not be mentioned here. To Richard Marsh, at the palatial Ellesmere House, near Newmarket, the Royal horses were intrusted, and at about the same time a Royal stud was founded at Sandringham. Here the mating of " Perdita II " (a Hampton mare formerly the property of Lord Cawdor) with " St. Simon " produced the flying " Persimmon," whose own brother " Florize " had just previously made a profitable little bit of turf history on his own account. As a four-year-old he, in 1895, won six races out of the seven in which he took part for his Royal owner, viz., the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Epsom (£177), the Prince's Handicap Gatwick (£875), the Manchester Cup (£1,947), the Ascot Gold Vase (£580, and vase), the Goodwood Cup (£390), and the Jockey Club Cup (£390). The debut of his two-year-old brother " Persim- mon " was made at Ascot, in the year just named, and was naturally looked forward to with consider- able excitement. It was in the Coventry Stakes that he made his first appearance. The opposition was weak, Melo, Dynamo, and Gulistan being the mounted attendants on " Persimmon," who won easily by three lengths. 219 The Prince of Wales A still worse lot opposed him at Goodwood, in the Richmond Stakes, when he easily landed the odds of 2 to i. But he met defeat in his third race as a two-year-old in the Middle Park Plate at Newmarket, in October, which was won by Mr. Leopold de Rothschild's " St. Frusquin,' , who beat the " flying " mare " Onladina " by half a length. " Persimmon " was third, five lengths away, and that his form was not true was shown conclusively ere many months had elapsed. In the Derby of 1896 " Persimmon " beat "St. Frusquin " " with all out " by a neck; and although the tables were once more turned, and " St. Frus- quin " was half a length in front of the other, it was at an advantage of three pounds in weight, and the Prince of Wales's horse was probably the better animal of the two over a long distance. 1896 was, as may be gathered from the above table, a great year for the Prince, who, besides tak- ing the Derby, the Leger, and Jockey Club Stakes — one of the " ten-thousand-pounders " — carried off the One Thousand Guinea Stakes (which was worth £1,500) at Newmarket with "Thais," a weedy daughter of " St. Serf " and " Poetry," who never won another race. In 1897 " Persimmon " 220 The Prince on the Course won the Ascot Cup (value £3,380), and later on the Eclipse Stakes (value £9,285), and he after- ward retired — all too soon in the opinion of many — to the stud, at which, should his stock justify, or even partially justify, the prices paid for certain yearlings, he should be even a greater success than his illustrious sire. As for the Derby hero of 1900, " Diamond Ju- bilee," he has not yet put the seal on his fame, and it will be time enough to jot down his record twelve months hence. But mention must be made of " Ambush II," who in the hands of Anthony so gallantly won the last Grand Steeple Chase for his Royal owner. " Ambush II," who is a brown gelding, five years old, by " Ben Battle " out of " Miss Plant," has more than once distinguished himself over a country, and ran fairly well in the " National " of 1899 when palpably overtrained, and it is quite possible that another victory is in store for him at Aintree. The scenes on Epsom Downs on both occasions of the Prince winning the Derby have been unpar- alleled in the history of the turf, for the public al- ways love a good sportsman, and appreciate to the full a man who has pluckily faced so many defeats. 221 The Prince of Wales The winning of " Diamond Jubilee " was a great surprise, for the horse was reputed to have a very- cranky temper. As is usual on such occasions, a new set of the Prince's colours — purple body, red sleeves, and black velvet cap trimmed with gold — had been made for this race, but for fear the bril- liant silk should upset the horse, Jones, by the Prince's wish, wore a faded old jacket. It was an extraordinary coincidence that both " Persim- mon " and " Diamond Jubilee " ran the Derby in identically the same time, which proved to be a record, of 2 minutes, 42 seconds. The Prince and all the Royal party went into the paddock to see the horse saddled, and His Royal Highness had a narrow escape from being badly kicked by " Revenue," an excitable chestnut who was let- ting out in all directions after the Woodcock Stakes. It is needless to say that the Derby dinner, at which the Prince has entertained the members of the Jockey Club at Marlborough House since 1887, had an added interest on the occasions when the Royal host himself was unable to propose the toast of the " Winner of the Derby." The Prince of Wales has in his stables at Sand- 222 The Prince on the Course ringham a few interesting relics of the turf, which are placed among the many mounted hoofs and por- traits of old favourites. Among these are a racing saddle used by Fred Archer, and a girth in the Prince's racing colours. He also possesses the shoe worn by " Ormonde " when he won the Two Thousand, the Derby, and St. Leger, in 1886. The Prince has had it gilt and framed. An interesting present made to the Prince by the late John Porter is a memorial tablet in silver, with monograms of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and " Or- monde's " own name worked in that horse's hair on white velvet. Round the tablet are the names of thirty-three famous winners, also worked in their own hair. A relic of past racing days that the Prince values is a picture of " Baronet," the prop- erty of the Prince Regent, ridden by Sam Chifney in 1 79 1. This horse won races at Ascot, Lewes, Winchester, and Canterbury, always with that no- torious jockey on his back. Chifney's peculiari- ties were evidently different from the methods adopted by latter-day jockeys. Pie invariably rode with a slack rein, and depended on a big rush to bring him in at the finish. After he was warned off the turf he fell in evil ways, and 223 The Prince of Wales died at the age of fifty-two, in the Fleet Prison, for debt. The Prince's racing career has lately become so interesting that it will be closely followed, not only by racing men, but by all who believe in persever- ance and fair play. 224 CHAPTER XIII THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE The love of shooting may be said to be a posi- tive passion with the Prince of Wales. His nega- tive position in the State, and the fact that, as a member of the Royal family, he has been precluded from taking the active part in political life that he would have chosen, has forced him of necessity to cultivate other tastes. Had he been encouraged in his young days to take a deeper interest in public affairs, he could not have devoted so much of his spare time to a sport which has literally become the love of his life. That a taste for the chase was inherent in him may be inferred from the fact that the Prince Con- sort, though never a very good shot, was a thorough sportsman, and most patient and painstaking in the pursuit of game of all kinds. Prince Albert showed from the first that he believed in the cultivation of open-air sport as an important factor in the up- 225 The Prince of Wales bringing of children. The Prince of Wales was only a child of seven when he was first taken out on a deer-stalking expedition by his father, and taught the various methods of successful approach to such wary quarry. All the Queen's sons were early in- structed in the use of firearms, and it is not aston- ishing to find that, during the Prince's residence at Oxford as an undergraduate, he frequently took the chance of a day's shooting over the large estates in the neighbourhood, and that, when a little later he visited the United States as Baron Renfrew, a day's rest, which was deemed necessary for his health after a long course of travelling and entertainments, was devoted to sport. It was during the Prince's residence at Cam- bridge University that he first became aware of the extraordinary game-preserving facilities of the east- ern counties. Nowhere is it possible to cultivate rabbits and pheasants as in Norfolk and Suffolk, and it was this fact that largely influenced the Prince in his choice of a country residence. When he bought Sandringham from Mr. Spencer Cow- per, the house itself, the farms, and the estate gener- ally were utterly out of repair, but money and per- severance speedily put matters on a better footing, 226 The Love of his Life and in ten years from the time he entered into possession the Prince's " big shoots " were already becoming famous. Although he never permitted anything to interfere with the hours of work he de- voted to the rebuilding of cottages, churches, and farms, much of the rest of his time as a young mar- ried man was passed in riding over the estate, and personally supervising arrangements for the preser- vation of every kind of game that could be kept there. The sandy soil about Wolverton was ar- ranged as rabbit warrens; certain parts of the woods were at once utilized as pheasantries; keepers' cot- tages were built in sunny spots that would facili- tate the hatching out and rearing of young birds; a small patch of heather land was stocked with grouse that the Prince imported from the York- shire and Scottish moors, in the hope that they would breed and thrive so far south. The Prince also, in consultation with his head keepers, mapped out the estate into a series of drives, and settled on the procedure that was to govern the big battues that he and the other famous shots brought into fashion. A battue, or big shoot, at Sandringham is an important event that occurs only a few times during 227 The Prince of Wales each year, when house parties, assembled either for the Prince's or Princess's birthday — both of which fall in the middle of the shooting season — and for the Christmas holidays, always include among the number of guests from four to six crack shots, who enjoy what is practically the best shooting in Eng- land. On each farm at Sandringham a game- keeper and one or two assistants always live, in a cottage built for them on the property. These keepers are expected to supervise the preserv- ing of game, to guard against every kind of poaching or starvation, and to report regularly to the head keepers the approximate number of hares, rabbits, partridges, and pheasants that they believe are on the farm. These reports are from time to time laid before the Prince, who, with his head keeper, decides where and how the battues shall be arranged. To such a state of perfection has game-preserving been carried at Sandringham, that on a late summer afternoon the roads surrounding the estate are often filled with pheasants feeding, and one convoy of partridges after another tops the hedgerows. A walk across the fields will put up plenty of hares, while rabbits about Wolverton swarm. 228 The Love of his Life Mr. Jackson is now the head gamekeeper at Sandringham, and has a charming house on the es- tate. It is his duty to rear ten thousand pheasants a year, the eggs for which are placed in Hearsons's incubators until within four days of hatching, when they are intrusted to barndoor fowls, of which at least one thousand are requisitioned for mothering purposes. The task of looking after one thousand hens sit- ting in one thousand hatching boxes is enormous, and the successful end of the hatching season is always welcomed by Mr. Jackson. When hatched out, the young birds are arranged in pens, to be carried in their coops all over the estate on trolleys built for the purpose. Every farm has to keep, rear, and grain-feed a certain number of birds. They are only turned out when they are practically full grown, but the long period of feeding on grain, and the great care that is exercised in their rearing, make them plump, white, and tender. The day before a battue, notice is given all over the estate, and particularly at the farms in the vicin- ity. All work has to be stopped, and on the morn- ing of the day itself no one is expected to show him- self on the roads or the surrounding hills except the 16 229 The Prince of Wales people engaged as beaters. All farm machinery has to stop working, as the Prince insists that the birds shall not be disturbed by any kind of noise, save by that made by the boys and men whose business it is to drive them toward the guns. Soon after dawn a number of lads and farm hands, with blue and red flags, are taken to their places by the keepers, who wear the Royal livery of green and gold. The beat- ers wear smocks, with a hatband of scarlet, to dis- tinguish them from any stray yokel who may try to intrude himself into the day's proceedings. Mr. Jackson goes over the whole ground on a sturdy cob to see that the men are properly disposed. Game carts are sent betimes to the various spots where the fire is expected to be hottest, and by about eleven o'clock, when all is ready, the wagon- ettes and country carts containing the Prince and his guests arrive on the scene. The Prince's party seldom exceeds eight or ten guns, and it is needless to say that they are chosen by him for their skill. Every sportsman works with two loaders, and from two to four guns. The sight, when the driven birds finally rise with a whir of wings just above the guns, is most extraordinary, and is only to be seen on es- 230 The Love of his Life tates that are as carefully preserved as that of the Prince. His Royal Highness had for many years an attendant called Robertson, who loaded for him. Robertson was a typical broad Scotchman, and was as devoted to good sport as is his Royal master. The Prince of Wales is considered by good judges the best shot in the kingdom. His most successful efforts are overhead shots at rocketers. The guns used by him at a big shoot are hammer- less, and always of the latest pattern. Purdey, Hol- land, Grant, and Lancester are but a few of the lead- ing makers who annually add beautifully finished weapons to the gunroom at Sandringham. This apartment, lined with glass cases, shows a splendid collection of the finest possible sporting guns of every calibre, as well as various ornamental weap- ons which have been presented to the Prince from time to time. The spot for luncheon at a Sandringham battue varies, according to the arrangements made for the day's sport. When the rabbit warrens are shot over, the midday meal, which is always substantial though plain, is served in the rooms the Prince added to Wolverton Station. Sometimes notice is 231 The Prince of Wales sent to a farmhouse that His Royal Highness and his party will take luncheon there, but the favourite rendezvous is a delightful little cottage called The Folly, which is built in a small plantation over- looking the public road. In the summer the Prin- cess often has tea there. When the weather is suf- ficiently fine, and no building is w T ithin easy access, a tent is put up, and the lunch sent from Sandring- ham Hall is laid therein. Hares are driven in the same way as pheasants, and the boys who are employed to wave their red and blue flags to prevent the birds from flying back from the guns are equally useful in preventing the timid creatures from escaping. As the party moves from place to place, underkeepers go over the ground and collect the wounded game. The Prince always has the result of the day's sport laid out for him to see before it is carried to the game larder, which is the second largest in the world, and can hold over six thousand heads. The game book at Sandringham is most ac- curately kept, and reference to it shows that every year the results of the battues are larger. From 1870 to 1880 the season's head of game varied be- tween sixty-eight hundred and eighty-seven hun- 232 The Love of his Life dred. Since 1880 the bags have grown from ten thousand to sixteen thousand, this latter figure being reached in the big shoots in 1885-86. The average result of a single shoot is nowadays be- tween two thousand and three thousand head of game, of which the greater number are pheasants. When a clearance of rabbits is necessary at Wolver- ton, a large party of first-rate shots is invited, and six thousand are generally killed. The Dersingham Woods, Woodcock Wood, and the copses that are called Comodore Wood, are the favourite places for a big pheasant drive. Sometimes the shoot is at Flitcham, sometimes in the near neighbourhood of Appleton or West New- ton. In fine weather the Princess and such ladies as are staying in the house generally join the sports- men at luncheon; but it is a noteworthy fact that both the Prince and Princess have steadfastly set their faces against the latter-day fashion of ladies walking with the guns. The Prince's sport has not been by any means confined to shooting among the preserves and woods of the south of England. Deer-stalking is with him a most popular form of sport. During his residence at Abergeldie Castle, where at one time 233 The Prince of Wales he spent many weeks every autumn, he was out in the forests and across the moors almost every day with his gun. In those days he was very fond of shooting grouse over dogs, and only quite late in the season cared to sit in a butt for a grouse drive. His friendship with the late Duke of Sutherland, his son-in-law the Duke of Fife, Mr. Mackenzie of Kintail, and Colonel Farquerson of Invercauld, not to mention scores of other owners of deer forests, has been cemented by the excellent sport these gen- tlemen have shown him. With his brothers and a few friends, the Prince likes nothing better than a day's stalking. He does not fear the exposure to weather, or the long hours of crawling among stones, through mountain streams, gorse, and heather, so long as the end of the day shows a bag of several head of deer. The custom at Abergeldie was that, at the end of a day's sport, the bag with great formality was laid out by the gillies on the drive before the porch. This still prevails at Mar Lodge, and after dinner the Prince and all his guests come out and comment on the size, weight, and tines of the deer. The pipers are present, as a matter of course, and all the gillies and servants stand round with torches, making a most 234 The Love of his Life picturesque scene. Toasts are given and healths drunk, and sometimes the Prince and his visit- ors fling themselves into a Highland dance, and open an impromptu ball that lasts for two or three hours. Since the Prince has given up Abergeldie Cas- tle, and done so much of his deer-stalking from Bal- moral and Mar Lodge, he has frequently spent sev- eral days at a time at a small house on Dee side, called The Hut. It is a modest little shooting-box, containing two sitting rooms and half a dozen bed- rooms. The room generally used by the Prince is simply upholstered in pretty chintz of blue and white. The dinner and coffee services are deco- rated with the Prince's feathers in blue. Here he delights to enjoy a few days' rest with a friend or two as appreciative of good sport and fine scenery as himself. The Prince has not only stalked deer in Scot- land, but from time to time has had splendid sport with the Emperor of Germany and the Duke of Co- burg in the immense forests of central Europe. On these occasions game and deer of all kinds are driven, and the bag is eminently satisfactory to such thorough sportsmen. 235 The Prince of Wales He also visited the late Baron Hirsh's enormous estates in Hungary, where game of all kinds abso- lutely swarmed. Baron Hirsh's game larder, larger than that at Sandringham, is acknowledged to be the biggest in the world, and is capable of holding nearly ten thousand head. Deer, chamois, wild boar, and roebuck were all found in the Baron's for- ests, besides herds of many kinds that are never seen in our islands. An ordinary day's bag for a party of ten guns included nineteen hundred hares and three thousand partridges, besides several hun- dreds of different kinds of ground game and birds. Whenever the Prince goes on a shooting visit he takes his own gillie and loaders, who have com- plete charge of his guns, and always attend him during the day's sport. It was Peter Robertson, his favourite gillie, whom the Prince chose to ac- company him both to Egypt and India, where he knew that the finest big game shooting was to be had. As his trip to the Nile was a complete holi- day, it was only natural that such time as the Prince had to spare from visiting ancient ruins and study- ing the relics of the past should be given to his fa- vourite sport. His greatest ambition at first was to shoot crocodiles, with which the Nile toward the 236 The Love of his Life first cataract literally swarms. It is interesting to know that the patience displayed by him during the many days in which he unsuccessfully essayed to stalk these wily animals was something quite exem- plary. He often was out, and hidden behind stones, or lying in the ooze on the Nile banks, before six o'clock in the morning, and would spend many hours in a tropical sun without food or comforts of any kind, in the hope of getting a shot at a croco- dile. Sometimes he and his companions spent the whole day lying in hollows dug in the sand, without even the sight of a scaly monster to reward their patience. Needless to say that after these long efforts the Prince's first crocodile was made the oc- casion of a regular fete. Even the Princess was greatly excited on this occasion, and went out in a small boat, so that she might have a near view of the creature. When no crocodiles were reported in the neigh- bourhood, the Prince would spend a whole morn- ing in a punt, going after flamingoes, spoonbills, and storks. On one occasion he came back with twenty-eight flamingoes, a bag of which any one might be proud. At other times he would go after duck in the punt, and pelicans, and never failed to 237 The Prince of Wales return with an interesting bag, the more rare items of which he always had stuffed and set up by the taxidermist on board the steamer. On this expedi- tion the Prince spent several nights out of bed in the hope of shooting hyenas. These expeditions were not crowned with success, and proved very exhausting, as these beasts only leave their lairs at night. He was luckier on his visit to the gigantic tomb of Rameses IV, where he caught an enor- mous bat. It was when returning from this trip that the Prince stopped the boat on which he was travelling home, and landed on the Albanian coast for a long day's wild-boar hunting. The work on this occa- sion was very hard, and the bag comparatively small, nevertheless the Prince was delighted with the novel experience. The next time he went after " pig " was in India, when he indulged in the dangerous sport of pig- sticking, for which he showed considerable apti- tude; but he was badly mounted on that occasion, and his English horse, which had never been trained to the sport, practically spoiled the day for him. Those of the party, however, who were more suit- ably mounted managed to get several pigs, so that 238 The Love of his Life the Prince, though he did not share in, at least witnessed the fun. On another expedition, at which the Prince was much to the fore, he suc- ceeded in sticking a pig. The ambition of all sportsmen, however, turns to what is known as big game, and His Royal High- ness's greatest longing from the moment he set foot in India was to hunt elephants and shoot tigers. He did both under circumstances of considerable danger but with immense success. He killed his first tiger in Nepaul. A few days later he bagged no fewer than six in a morning, two of them being killed with single shots. The Prince on these ex- peditions astonished even those who knew him best, by the coolness and courage with which he faced these terrible animals. He would measure his dis- tance with the utmost confidence, and wait for the proper moment to lodge the ball in a fatal spot. Native dignitaries, who had been accustomed more or less all their lives to shooting tigers and lions, expressed unmitigated astonishment at the aptitude the Prince showed for this most exciting sport, which taxes even the strongest nerves. Before he left India the Prince had accounted for a great number of tigers, most of the skins of which are 239 The Prince of Wales at Sandringham or Marlborough House, and serve to remind him of one of the most exciting times he ever spent in his life. A large sloth bear also fell a victim to his prowess, as well as many kinds of deer, cheetahs, leopards, and other big game. The hunting camps, which in several of the provinces were arranged for the Prince's conven- ience, were on the most elaborate and luxurious scale. One camp in particular, which was built for the Prince and some thirty of his friends and at- tendants, proved to be a positive city, for it con- tained over twenty-five hundred persons. There were two hundred and fifty camels, one hundred horses, sixty teams of oxen to draw the same num- ber of carts, and one hundred and nineteen ele- phants, all of which had been used for transport pur- poses. The camp followers included twenty draw- ers of water, twenty cleaners, twenty messengers, over six hundred coolies, sixty men to pitch and look after the tents, and a large detachment of na- tive police. The camp was guarded by seventy-five non-commissioned officers and men of the Third Goorkhas, and a detachment of the Eleventh Ben- gal Cavalry, and the band of the Goorkha regiment 240 The Love of his Life played after dinner, which was served in a beauti- fully decorated mess tent. The sport which was shown on these occasions was very fine, and gave the Prince immense pleasure. Sport in India was not, however, always such safe and easy work. During one elephant hunt the Prince, in turn with several members of his suite, was chased by a must elephant, and if His Royal Highness had not been well mounted things might have gone badly with him. As it was, on that occasion Prince Louis of Battenberg was knocked up, and there were several falls and contretemps of all kinds. The Prince was present at more than one ele- phant drive, on which occasions he was obliged to spend hours on a small platform built at the top of a tree. He shot his first elephant in Ceylon, and, according to custom, cut off the tail himself. On this occasion he returned home bearing on his per- son marks of the hard day's work he had been through. His clothes were wet through and torn to rags, and he himself was exhausted with the heat of the day and his exertion. The Prince's visits to Denmark have always been marked with a white stone by him, for in the 241 The Prince of Wales beautiful forests that stretch for miles round the Royal Palace of Freclensborg there is splendid sport of all kinds. At Rhenardsbrunn, too, the Prince always enjoyed the shooting that the late Duke of Coburg was able to give him. 242 CHAPTER XIV THE PRINCE AND HIS CLOTHES There is in existence a clever sketch, in the form of a triptych, from the facile (and sometimes cruel) pencil of Thackeray, that shows a king, crowned and robed in all the panoply of state, on the left of the design. In the centre panel are the Royal robes hitched over a stand. Empty as they are, they still retain a measure of grandeur, and are more capable of commanding admiration than the shivering, shrunken form of the disrobed king, who on the third panel is depicted emerging from a bath. Viewed from the standpoint that the greatest rulers of the world are merely men and women under the diamonds and the purple, it is always easy to pour ridicule on the pomp that sur- rounds Royalty. The Prince of Wales has shown great restraint and wisdom in all that concerns his wardrobe. He has always been fully alive to the fact that a people 243 The Prince of Wales is prone to model its manners and dress on the fan- cies and foibles of its Royal family. Had he ever entertained any doubts on the subject, they must have been rudely dispelled when, after a serious ill- ness of the Princess, a number of would-be fashion- able women assumed what was known as the "Alex- andra limp." It is such vulgar apings of Royal peculiarities which make the judicious thankful that the Prince of Wales has always been a healthy- minded English gentleman, of simple habits and quiet tastes. From the hour he had any voice in the management of his own wardrobe he has been distinguished for the plainness of his attire and the simplicity of his toilet accessories. Yet in his time the Prince has endured more than the usual amount of " dressing up." The Queen's private apartments at Windsor contain pictures of her sons and daughters in every con- ceivable national, military, and fancy costume; but the prettiest portrait of the Prince is in the White Drawing Room at Windsor. He was three years old at the time it was painted, beautifully fair and plump, and with fair, curly hair. He wears a long frock of cream satin, fastened by a narrow waistband and a huge rosette round the waist. A charming 244 The Prince and his Clothes statuette shows him as a bonny boy in a man-of-war suit, which was made for him by the man who cut out and sewed the clothes for the crew of the Queen's yacht. The first time he appeared in it the sailors expressed the greatest delight. When, in 1859, the Prince of Wales formally matriculated at Oxford, and became an undergrad- uate of Christchurch, acting on the wishes of his parents the Prince always wore the gold-tasselled velvet cap and full-sleeved black silk gown which form the regulation undress of an undergraduate nobleman. Although the Prince himself donned this rather conspicuous costume during the year he was at Oxford, it is noteworthy that when his son, Prince Eddy, went to Cambridge, he was content to wear the ordinary costume of an undergraduate commoner. When, in 1863, the Prince's marriage with the beautiful Alexandra of Denmark was about to be celebrated, it is needless to say that almost as much interest was taken in the dress to be worn by the youthful bridegroom as in that of his bride. On the day the Prince of Wales went to meet her he wore, according to the fashion of the time, pale gray trousers and a dark blue surtout. On their 17 245 The Prince of Wales wedding day he went to the altar in the magnificent robes of a Knight of the Garter, which he subse- quently wore on several important occasions. Al- most the last time he was seen in them was when he introduced his elder son, the late Duke of Clarence, to the House of Lords to take his seat as a peer. Every year that has passed since then has developed in the Prince a stronger dislike to display, and though he has frequently to wear one or other of the many scores of uniforms he possesses, his State robes seldom see the light, save when they are brushed and folded by his valets. For many years as a young man the Prince of Wales employed Poole as his tailor in chief, and by doing so made the artist in clothes so much the fashion that all the would-be well-dressed men in England patronized him. It is said that the Prince first found out Poole by accident. He was at the theatre one night, watching the famous French actor Fechter playing " Robert Macaire." The ad- venturer's coat was apparently a mass of rents and patches, but the Prince's keen eye quickly noted that the garment was singularly well cut. After the play the Prince sent for Fechter and asked him who his tailor was. The actor replied that Mr. 246 The Prince and his Clothes Poole had made the coat he was wearing. The next day the Prince sent for the tailor, who from that hour was a made man. The Duke of Clarence had great faith in the Prince's taste, and always modelled his dress on that of his Royal father. The Duke of York's taste is also largely ruled by that of the Prince of Wales. When the Prince requires new clothes, patterns of materials are sent to him. He has a correct eye for effect, and can tell at once how a piece of stuff will look when made up, which is in itself an art. He takes a very few minutes to make up his mind, always chooses a soft, light material, and for country clothes and " ditto " suits has a partiality for broken checks. He also makes up his mind with com- mendable quickness as to fit and alterations. About the former he is most particular, though his clothes are made of a sensible looseness. The Prince's extraordinary memory has also served him more than once with regard to minor details of his wardrobe. On one occasion, when some trousers were accidentally made from a material that he had not chosen, he immediately found out the mistake, although he had only once seen the pattern of the material he had ordered. 247 The Prince of Wales When his position and the exigencies of his life are taken into consideration, it can not be said that the Prince is extravagant with his clothes, and per- haps it is the fact that he possesses the largest ward- robe in the world of uniforms and State robes, that induces him to restrict himself in the matter of what may be called mufti. But what is wise economy in a Prince might be considered undue extravagance in a subject. It must be remembered that, as a matter of course, the Prince's wardrobe includes every variety of attire for ordinary and for special use, so that suits for wear in town, or adapted for smart and quiet race meetings, are in abundance. His valets have charge of all shades and makes of tweeds, checks, shooting, fishing, and riding equip- ment, and Norfolk suits, which the Prince's exam- ple has made so popular for country use. There also are clothes used only for travelling, light, cool suits for wear at the foreign watering-places the Prince visits annually, besides fine furs and over- coats of every pattern and texture. The Prince holds complimentary naval and mili- tary appointments in most countries, and each ne- cessitates four uniforms, comprising full dress, un- dress, mess kit, and overcoat; and nearly fifty hel- 248 The Prince and his Clothes mets, swords, and uniform belts, besides the full robes of the Knights of the Garter, Saint Patrick, and the Thistle. Of Orders of Chivalry the Prince possesses nine that are English and fifty that are foreign. All these have their respective collars and decorations. Besides these His Royal Highness has full regalias of various degrees of masonry. It will thus be seen that the Prince's wardrobe is literally immense, and that two valets who have charge of this enormous mass of valuable property have enough to do in brushing, shaking, and refold- ing part of it every day. The bulk of the Prince's clothes, namely, those which are not in frequent wear, are kept in what is called the " Brush Room," on the top floor of Marlborough House. Some years ago certain mischief-making people accused the Prince of Wales of not sufficiently en- couraging home industries, and of purchasing an- nually hundreds of pairs of gloves on the Continent. The charge was on the face of it unfair, for the Prince has consistently supported the home facto- ries of silk, woollen, and other goods. That it was also untrue was speedily proved by Sir Francis Knollys, the Prince's secretary, who stated publicly that His Royal Highness's use of gloves was limited 249 The Prince of Wales to under two dozen pairs a year, and that these were all bought in England. He seldom wears white gloves except with uniform, and as a rule he prefers pale gray stitched with black. Neither the Prince nor any member of the Royal family ever adopted the mode that prevailed for a while among a certain section of smart people of appearing in public un- gloved. The Prince's hats are extremely characteristic, and he seldom, if ever, alters the shape of them. His size is 7-J. It is needless to say that the Prince's head gear gets very hard use, and that the brims speedily wear out. The soft felt hat, now so popu- lar, was first worn by the Prince at Homburg, near which watering place is a famous felt-hat factory. On the occasion of his first visit he bought several for himself and his friends, and he seldom wears a round hat since he has taken to the softer kinds. It is etiquette for men to follow the Prince's lead in the matter of hats at race meetings, and until His Royal Highness one year appeared at Goodwood in a round hat no one ever dreamed, even in the hottest weather, of attending these races save in a silk hat and frock coat. But, luckily for the world at large, the Prince's popularity and good sense broke 250 The Prince and his Clothes through old-world prejudices, and now a hot sum- mer afternoon sees Goodwood Park dotted with men in blue serge, white duck, flannel suits, and the lightest and shadiest of straw hats. The Prince affects easy boots, with fairly high military heels, but the pointed toe has never found favour with him. His size is 8. Apropos of the Prince's boots, that class of wealthy Americans that forms its society manners on those of London, and models its dress after that of English leaders of fashion, was sorely exercised by a rumour that in the picture of the Royal family painted by Orchard- son, R. A., and called " Four Generations," the Prince appeared in a frock coat and brown boots. The rumour thrilled the English-speaking world, but the question was speedily set at rest by assur- ances that the Prince's boots in the picture were black, and that he reserved his brown boots for country wear. The Prince has a great dislike for eccentricity in dress, and startling neckties, fancy waistcoats, and, above all, a profusion of jewelry, are strictly shunned by him. However handsome may be his scarf pin, links, or watch chain, they are invariably plain in design. He is always properly dressed, be- 251 The Prince of Wales cause his clothes are always appropriate for the occasion. At Sandringham, tweeds, gaiters, and strong country boots are the order of the day until dinner time. The Princess assiduously supports the Prince in this respect, and her daughters seldom appear dur- ing the daytime except in a simple shirt and cloth skirt short enough for comfortable walking, and a perfectly plain straw or felt hat. It is expected that the unwritten code of the house, that discounte- nances a perpetual change of toilets, elaborate tea- gowns, frills and furbelows, and extravagant even- ing gowns, shall be known and observed by all who are invited to visit Sandringham. One lady who, out of sheer ignorance, or perhaps with a wish to display her lavish wardrobe, ignored this sensible rule and appeared in a different toilet four times a day, was not invited again for some time, and received a very plain hint as to the reason why. When travelling, the Prince and Princess wear the plainest possible suits, always chosen with a view to climate and neat appearance. In Scotland the Prince always wears a kilt, and in the evening appears in full dress of the Stuart tartan. The sil- 252 The Prince and his Clothes ver ornaments he wears with Highland dress are exceedingly handsome and of great value. For shooting and deer-stalking he prefers either the Stuart hunting tartan or a kilt of heather mixture. When in India His Royal Highness adopted the usual comfortable costume worn by Europeans when hunting in that country. A khaki jacket and knickerbockers and a solar topee with a very wide brim, and a pugaree, formed his everyday hunting dress. Leech gaiters, when necessary, were also worn. They are loose bags as long as a stocking, and are drawn over the foot and tied above the knees before the boots are put on. They are not becoming, but are absolutely necessary to keep out the swarms of leeches which infest some of the Indian and Ceylon hunting grounds. When the Prince spent a few days at the court of the Khedive of Egypt he wore an Indian helmet, a bright blue undress frock coat with a Field Mar- shal's ribbon, and white duck trousers. It was on this trip that the Prince invented for his own wear, and that of his friends and the suite accompanying him, a most comfortable form of dinner dress. It comprised ordinary evening trousers and a dark- 253 The Prince of Wales blue cloth jacket with silk facings, and gold buttons bearing the Prince of Wales's feathers. With this a black necktie was worn. The costume was called the " Serapis " dinner dress. On his return from his tour the Prince introduced at Sandringham, and at quiet dinners at Marlborough House, the short jacket which has since become so popular, and is now accepted everywhere save at formal dinners and the opera. Another most sensible innovation, made by the Prince in the style of dress worn about town during the London season, was introduced by him some six years ago. The Prince always appears in public in a frock coat, a garment particularly suited to his fig- ure. With a view to increasing the comfort of so essential a portion of a gentleman's wardrobe, he in- vented a smart modification of the frock coat, and had one built for himself with the fronts so cut away that they scarcely met across the chest. Some summers the Prince wears this shape of coat lightly drawn together by two plain buttons on a link; at other times the fronts of the coat do not meet at all. It is needless to say that this sensible mode, doing away with a quantity of superfluous cloth, has be- come highly popular among men who, like the 254 The Prince and his Clothes Prince, desire to preserve the conventionalities of social life and yet to be comfortable. At big dinner parties at Marlborough House plain evening dress is always worn, except under ceremonial circumstances; for, unlike his imperial nephews of Germany and Russia, the Prince of Wales has a great dislike to the display and the discomfort that the wearing of uniform entails. 255 CHAPTER XV WHAT THE PRINCE EATS AND DRINKS From 8 a. m., as a rule, the Prince of Wales concentrates all his energies on business, public and private. During the morning he has walked and driven, supervised his Household, interviewed a score or more of people, paid and received formal calls, and presided at a meeting or two, all on a light breakfast of eggs, tea, and toast, which is served to him in his own sitting room while he opens and reads his correspondence. At 2.30 he makes a hearty luncheon, which, with the best of food per- fectly dressed, and the healthy hunger of an ex- ceedingly hard-working man, he enjoys with true Royal appetite. Meals in the Prince's Household are served at most reasonable hours, in town and country alike. Breakfast is about nine, luncheon at 2.30, afternoon tea at five, and dinner from seven onward, accord- ing to the arrangements made for the evening. 256 What the Prince Eats and Drinks The Prince's favourite meal is supper. It is his special delight to proceed to either the Marlborough or the Turf Club about midnight, and with two or three intimate friends to attack a variety of dishes that would appal men of less vigorous mould. After so late a meal it is not astonishing that he only takes a cup of tea at eight o'clock before the morning stroll, with which he generally starts his day in London, and his nine-o'clock breakfast is of the lightest possible order. At Sandringham this simple meal is exchanged for a country breakfast, which the Prince finds necessary as a prelude to his long morning's work in the open air. Tea, which the Prince drinks as a morning beverage, is much to his taste. Afternoon tea at Sandringham is a time for dainties of all kinds; for the Prince and his family, like the Queen, are fond of sweet cakes and biscuits, and all such confections appear at tea time. With characteristic common sense the Prince and Princess started the fashion of very short din- ners. The ponderous meals that prevailed till the sixties have been entirely done away with since the Prince set up his establishment and began to enter- tain at Marlborough House. Service a la Russe has also been popularized by the Prince, and the 257 The Prince of Wales time spent at the dinner table has thus been greatly- lessened. The Prince must not, however, be ranked with the man who adopts as his motto, " Fate can not harm me; I have dined to-day." Once, when he with the Princess and a large party of friends were exploring ruins on the banks of the Nile, the picnic luncheon that was carried into the desert was eaten so late, and proved so satisfying a meal, that when the Royal party returned to Cairo they abandoned all ideas of a set dinner, and straightway dressed to go to a ball at the English embassy which commenced at the early hour of 8.30. When the Prince arrives at the opera for early performances, such as those of Wagner's great cycle, which commenced as early as 6.30, His Royal Highness is seen in his omnibus box as the curtain rises, and a short dinner is served to him in his private room at the back of the box during the twenty minutes' interval between the first and sec- ond acts of the performance. This brief meal is fol- lowed by a cigarette, and then the Prince is once more in his place. Considering the great amount of cooking that is required at Marlborough House. 258 What the Prince Eats and Drinks neither the kitchen accommodation nor the staff can be called extensive. A chef, a confectionery cook, two under-cooks, and four kitchen maids have to work in kitchens far inferior in size to those found in many private houses. The principal kitchen has but one open fire for roasting, but this is supplemented by various hot plates and a good oven. The confectionery kitchen, though beauti- fully fitted and arranged, is not large; yet the big- gest dinners, for from forty to sixty persons, are cooked in the house, and the refreshments for the largest parties at Marlborough House are all pre- pared in the Prince's establishment. In these lower regions also are unpacked and arranged the magnificent fruit that is often sent from the Queen's gardens at Frogmore, when the Prince has a big reception. The Prince of Wales prides himself on having the recipe for the famous Moselle Cup, which is such a feature at all the Queen's entertainments, and which was originally brought from Germany by the Prince Consort. The daily menu is generally submitted to him, and, like his mother, he alters it when not to his taste, which he has made known from time to time, 259 The Prince of Wales by writing on the menu that stands before his plate comments which find their way to the kitchen re- gions, and to the heart of the chef. Whenever the Prince visits his friends considerable pains are taken to find out his likes and dislikes in the matter of dishes, and clever hostesses make every effort to compass some novelty for his table. A well-known bon viveur, who has often had the honour of playing host to His Royal Highness, once achieved a tri- umph by serving to the Prince tiny chickens on toast. These little birds, which yield but a few delicate mouthfuls of tender white flesh, are known in the poulterers' trade as poussins, and in London are sold at a price that makes them a rare dainty. The Prince would be heartily amused if he knew that these choice morsels, served to him as a bonne bonche by millionaires, are brought to the kitchen door of every house in the west of Ireland and sold by barefooted peasant girls at sixpence apiece. When the Duke of Sutherland gave his famous Nile party to the Prince and Princess of Wales and a number of mutual friends, a Spanish cook and several Italian stewards were among the staff en- gaged. The Spaniard proved a past master in the 260 What the Prince Eats and Drinks art of confectionery, and at one particular dinner that the Duke of Sutherland gave on the deck of his own steamer, to which the Prince came from the boat in which he lodged, much admiration was evoked by a wonderful tower of burnt almonds which was surmounted by a flag and the Prince's motto, " Ich Dien" It was on this trip that the Prince's steamer had more than once some ado to keep up with the boat used for kitchen purposes, and some fun was now and then caused by the fact that the passenger boats could not always keep in touch with the steamer that carried cooks and provisions. The commissariat of this wonderful Nile expe- dition was arranged from a steamer full of stores, which included twenty thousand bottles of soda water, three thousand bottles of champagne, over four thousand bottles of claret of various kinds, be- sides liqueurs, bottled beers, sherry, and spirits. How much of this vast sea of liquid was ever con- sumed neither history nor tradition can say. Of oysters the Prince is very fond, and when they are in season an oyster supper is frequently arranged for his entertainment by his friends. The oyster suppers given to the Prince by Sir Edward 18 261 The Prince of Wales Lawson in Arlington Street were the best functions of their kind. The parties were for men only, and numbered among the hundreds invited all the po- litical and social celebrities of the time. Many of the Prince's holiday trips, especially those he takes for his health to Homburg or Marienbad, entail a considerable reduction in the quantity and quality of his meals. When the Prince makes a cure he is always most careful in his observation of the regulations and orders of his doctor. In this he sets a good example to that large number of people who profess that they can not give up, even for the regulation period, any of the pleasures of the table. The Prince is so conscientious in these matters that he derives considerable benefit from his annual visits to Con- tinental watering places. At least once in his life, however, the Prince was dieted without the addition of water-drinking. When he went on his tour to India a French chef of considerable ability formed part of his train. So irresistibly good and so generous were the dishes provided by this worthy, that at the end of the week Dr. Fayrer, who was attached to the Prince's person as medical adviser, was obliged to insist that the 262 What the Prince Eats and Drinks dietary should be considerably curtailed. Only two hot breakfast dishes were permitted, luncheon was reduced to the plainest of fare, and three courses were bodily struck out of the dinner menu. Having in view the trying climate in which he was to spend so many months, the Prince cheerfully submitted to these rather drastic alterations in his mode of living. When deer-stalking in Scotland, or shooting in Norfolk, the Prince prefers a homely if substantial luncheon, which, when possible, is partaken of in the open air. Two hot dishes are sent to the luncheon place in a specially arranged cart, and the rest of the meal is cold. At one time of his life the Prince was almost exclusively a champagne drinker, and it was his partiality for that beverage that gave a new expression to the language. One broiling hot summer day the Prince went with a large party of friends for a picnic, and the women were tired and the men hot as the luncheon hour arrived. Everything was beautifully cooked and cooled to a turn; but what appealed most to every one were bottles of champagne standing in silver pails of ice, with white wet napkins round their heads and necks. While the men of the party were giving the lobster salad and chicken mayon- 263 The Prince of Wales naise a twist, a small " Tiger Jim " was told off to fly about and spill the frappe nectar into the glasses that every one presented with the unanimity of a comic-opera drinking chorus. There was little ceremony observed, and the lad was distracted from the usual routine of service by cries of "Here, boy!" " I say, boy! " " This way, boy! " which gradu- ally got abbreviated into staccato calls, "Boy!" "Boy!" "Boy!" Seeing one little lady more bashful than the rest, sitting silently with her plate untouched before her, the Prince said, " Are you waiting for anything? " " Yes, sir," said the mod- ern Miss Muffet, " I am waiting for the boy." " Oh," said the Prince, " pray take this," handing his glass in exchange for her empty one. " Now I'll have some boy too." The magic sound of the Prince's voice brought the boy to his side, and for the rest of the afternoon when any one's glass was empty the Prince kept up the joke by saying, " Have some boy!" The word caught on, as words sometimes do, and it has since spread through all classes of society, till " boy " has be- come an even more popular name for champagne than " fizz." For some years the Prince has taken little else 264 What the Prince Eats and Drinks but claret of a particular brand, and sometimes a chasse of brandy with his coffee. Apropos of brandy, visitors to Marlborough House have often noticed in the entrance hall a small flask of that spirit standing on a side table. The story that ac- counts for this is that on one occasion an intimate friend of the Prince was suddenly ill in the hall at Marlborough House. No brandy was at hand to restore the sufferer, and the illness proved fatal. From that day, by the Prince's orders, a small quan- tity has always been kept in a convenient place. The Prince is not in any sense a beer drinker, as is his nephew the Emperor of Germany. It is, how- ever, very remarkable that when he regained con- sciousness after the crisis of his terrible illness in 1 87 1, the first thing he asked for was a bottle of Bass's beer, which was given to him. Apart from his meals the Prince seldom takes anything to drink; if he should break this excellent rule, he generally has a lemon squash, which he has made popular as a fashionable and wholesome beverage. He is also credited with having composed an excel- lent " cocktail." It consists of a little rye whisky, crushed ice, a small square of pineapple, a dash of Angostura bitters, a piece of lemon peel, a few drops 265 The Prince of Wales of Maraschino, a little champagne, and powdered sugar to taste.. This " short drink " is often asked for at the clubs which he frequents. The Prince has a dislike, which he does not at- tempt to disguise, to seeing ladies take more than a very little wine; so particular, indeed, is he on this point, that iced punch and the various sherbets, all of which are flavoured strongly with liqueurs and spirits, are by his express orders seldom found on the Marlborough House menu. The Princess and her daughters set an example of extreme modera- tion. The Prince also greatly disapproves of the fashion that prevails in some country houses of sending champagne and other pick-me-ups to the ladies' dressing rooms. Except in cases of rare ne- cessity such a thing is never done at Sandringham. It is largely owing to the fact that the Prince likes to smoke when he has finished dining that after-dinner drinking has gone entirely out of fash- ion during the last twenty years; for what is done at the Prince's table rules in all classes of society. As soon after dinner as is possible cigarettes are handed round, a practice which must be attributed to Royal influence. The Prince popularized ciga- rettes some years ago, and they are now smoked by 266 What the Prince Eats and Drinks half England. For his own use he prefers the best Egyptian, which are made expressly for him by the well-known West End firm of Dembergi, but he does not confine his taste in tobacco to cigarettes. Good cigars are equally popular with him. In every room he uses, appliances for smoking are ready to his hand, and he frequently carries with him in the country a little pocket hold-all invented by Princess Maud, which contains two cigars, a pipe, a small quantity of tobacco, six cigarettes, and a box of matches. The Prince is not the only member of the Royal family who considers a good cigar as part of his dinner. Some time after the Duke of Wellington discountenanced the habit of smoking at the mess table, the Duke of Cambridge was dining at the mess of a smart regiment quartered in Dublin. At the end of the dinner he pulled out his cigar case, saying to the colonel and officers generally, " I don't know what you fellows are going to do, but I am going to smoke," and he forthwith struck a light, and handed his cigar case round. 267 CHAPTER XVI THE PRINCE AS A FREEMASON No biography of the Prince of Wales would be complete if it failed to speak of him as a Freemason; for to him, as Grand Master of the Order under the English Constitution, is due the remarkable strides that Freemasonry has made in this country during the last quarter of a century. On the 29th day of December, 1868, the Duke of St. Albans wrote a letter to the Earl of Zetland, then Grand Master, conveying the information that the Prince of Wales had been made a Freemason in Sweden at the hands of the King of that country, himself an ardent member of the craft. This letter was written by desire of the Prince, and may be taken to have been the introduction of His Royal High- ness to English Freemasonry. The rank of Past Grand Master was conferred on him at that quar- terly communication of the Grand Lodge of Eng- land, in September, 1869. 268 The Prince as a Freemason On the 24th day of February, 1871, he paid his first visit to an English lodge. The occasion was the celebration of the centenary of the Jerusalem Lodge (No. 197), of which the late Sir Charles Hut- ton Gregory, K. C. M. G., was Worshipful Master, and other leading and well-known brethren in the craft were members. The meeting was, though unreported, a notable one. It took place at Free- masons' Hall and Tavern on the 24th day of Febru- ary, 1 87 1. The Prince had been already, on the 2d day of May, 1870, elected a member of the Royal Alpha Lodge (No. 11), then meeting at Willis's Rooms, but was for the first time present and installed Worshipful Master of the lodge on the 3d day of July, 1871. He has several times since filled the chair of this lodge, and is now its senior member. In the year 1875 the Marquis of Ripon, then Grand Master, resigned that distinguished post, and the Prince of Wales was with entire and enthusiastic unanimity elected as his successor. On the 28th day of April in that year a mass meet- ing of ten thousand English Freemasons was held in the Royal Albert Hall, for the installation of His Royal Highness, which took place with memorable pomp and ceremony. He has since been annually 269 The Prince of Wales re-elected Grand Master, to the great benefit of the craft. On the 23d day of January, 1872, the Prince be- came a joining member of the Prince of Wales's Lodge (No. 259). In 1874 he accepted the office of Worshipful Master of that lodge, and has so con- tinued ever since, an annually appointed Deputy Master acting under him, as laid down by the Book of Constitutions in the case of a Prince of the Blood Royal occupying the chair of a lodge. On the 24th day of March in the same year, His Royal Highness being in the chair, Prince Arthur of Connaught and Strathearn was initiated into Freemasonry, of which he has since become so great and useful an orna- ment and supporter, both in far-off India and at home in the county of Sussex, of which he is Pro- vincial Grand Master. In the Royal Alpha Lodge, on the 17th day of March, 1885, the Prince of Wales, as Worshipful Master of the lodge, initiated into Freemasonry his eldest son, the late Prince Al- bert Victor of Wales, afterward Duke of Clarence and Avondale, who became Worshipful Master of the lodge in 1888, and was appointed successively a Grand Warden of England and Provincial Grand Master of Berkshire. 270 THE PRINCE IN MASONIC REGALIA The Prince as a Freemason In the mayoralty of Sir Francis Truscott, him- self a Past Grand Warden of England, a great Ma- sonic banquet was given by the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, at which were present all the nota- bilities of the English craft, with the Royal Grand Master at their head. On this memorable occasion the Prince of Wales appointed Prince John of Glucksberg, a Danish Freemason who was among the distinguished guests, to the honorary rank of Past Grand Warden of England, the regalia of which rank was then and there presented to him by the Grand Lodge. In his capacity of Grand Master the Prince of Wales has availed himself of innumerable oppor- tunities of doing good, and more especially with ref- erence to the benevolent institutions connected with Freemasonry. The oldest of these, the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, held its Centenary Festival in the Royal Albert Hall on the 7th day of June, 1888, under the exalted presidency of the Most Worshipful Grand Master. The Prince was accompanied by His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, His Royal Highness's " father " in Freemasonry, who honoured the Festival by acting as a Steward on the occasion. The Duke of Clar- 271 The Prince of Wales ence and Avondale was also present. This Festival was a signal success, the then unprecedented amount of nearly £52,000 being the result of the Royal Chairman's advocacy and the Stewards' ex- ertions. The Prince of Wales also presided at the Girls' School Festival in 1871, and at the Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution in 1873. In 1898 he took the chair at the Centenary Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys, when an absolute record was made in the annals of English charities, and the immense amount of upward of £141,000 was announced as the sum brought up by the Stewards on the occasion. As the immediate outcome of this enormous influx of funds, new schools are now in course of erection near Bushey, to replace the old and worn-out buildings at Wood Green. No better illustration can be furnished of the great growth of Freemasonry under the Prince of Wales's rule than by comparing this with the sum of £5,500 collected at the first Festival, over which, in 1871, His Royal Highness presided, when, how- ever, the benefits of the Masonic Schools were en- joyed by a far smaller number of girls and boys than at present. 272 The Prince as a Freemason Among the many notable occurrences during the Prince's Grand Mastership was the adoption by the Grand Lodge, over which His Royal Highness himself presided, on the 15th day of March, 1882, of an Address to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, expressing the heartfelt gratitude of the whole of the fraternity to the Great Architect of the Universe for the preservation of the life of Her Majesty from the attack of an assassin. On the 10th day of May, 1882, the following deputation at- tended at Buckingham Palace, in full dress, Ala- sonic clothing: His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, K. G., Most Worshipful Grand Master; His Royal High- ness the Duke of Connaught, K. G., Past Grand Warden; the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, Pro- Grand Master; the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Lathom, Deputy Grand Master; the Rt. Hon. Lord Carring- ton, Senior Grand Warden; the Rt. Hon. John Whittaker Ellis, Lord Mayor of London, Junior Grand Warden; the Earl of March, M. P., Past Grand Warden; Sir Albert W. Woods, Garter, P. G. W., Grand Director of Ceremonies; Sir John B. Monckton, President of the Board of General Purposes; Mr. JEneas J. Mclntyre, Q. C, M. P., 273 The Prince of Wales Grand Registrar; Lieutenant-Colonel James Crea- ton, Grand Treasurer; the Rev. Ambrose W. Hall, Grand Chaplain; Colonel Shadwell H. Clerke, Grand Secretary. The deputation having been introduced to Her Majesty's presence, His Royal Highness the Most Worshipful Grand Master read the address of Grand Lodge. To this address Her Majesty was pleased to make the following reply: " I have received with gratification your loyal and dutiful address, and share with you the feeling of devout thankfulness to the Almighty, whose protecting hand has been so graciously extended to me." The members of the deputation were then sever- ally presented to Her Majesty by the Most Wor- shipful Grand Master, and withdrew. It could not fail to be observed that the novelty of the appear- ance of Royal and distinguished members of the craft at the Palace in full-dress Masonic clothing was productive of considerable amusement both to the Queen herself and to the Princess who accom- panied Her Majesty on the occasion. The Prince of Wales has during his long term of office performed many public Masonic ceremonies, 274 The Prince as a Freemason among the most notable being the laying of the first stone of Truro Cathedral some twenty years ago. None, however, has been of greater interest and at- traction than when, on the 12th day of March, 1891, the new buildings connected with the Centenary Celebration of the Royal Masonic Institute for Girls were inaugurated, in the presence of a crowded and distinguished gathering, by the Most Worship- ful Grand Master, who was accompanied by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales and the Prin- cesses. After the conclusion of the public proceed- ings the Royal visitors expressed a desire to see the schoolrooms and dormitories, over which they were conducted by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Lathom and the other members of the House Committee, at- tended by the Head Governess and the Matron; and on leaving the Institution the Most Worshipful Master expressed not only the sincere interest he felt and should always continue to feel in the Insti- tution, but also the great gratification he and the Princesses had experienced from their visit, and his entire satisfaction with all the arrangements — an expression that was confirmed by a letter afterward received from Sir Francis Knollys, K. C. M. G. At this visit the Princess of Wales, who is Grand 275 The Prince of Wales Patroness of the Institution (as the Prince himself is Grand Patron), graciously permitted the new Centenary Hall, one of the most beautifully propor- tioned halls in or near the metropolis, to be called by her name, and it is accordingly " The Alexandra Centenary Hall." Much might be added, did space permit, of His Royal Highness as an earnest and most useful Freemason. It is, however, quite suf- ficient to say that the science of charity, order, and regularity has in the Prince of Wales a sincere and enthusiastic upholder of these great Masonic at- tributes, and that no ruler of any organized body of men has, or can possibly have, a more loyal or at- tached band of supporters, truly devoted to their chief, than has the Royal and Most Worshipful Grand Master of English Freemasons. 276 CHAPTER XVII THE PRINCE A GOOD FELLOW The term " a good fellow " can need no apol- ogy, but it may admit of some explanation. At first sight it seems a somewhat familiar term to ap- ply to a Prince, and lacking in dignity, but this view has arisen from ill use. Singularly enough, it is the one expression which Shakespeare reserves as char- acteristic of Prince Hal. Falstaff rallies the Prince: " There is neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee"; thereby implying that a man may lack many good qualities and yet be a good fel- low. That Henry V liked the term may be gath- ered from the fact that, when pleading hardest with Katherine, he says of himself, " If he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good fellows." Indeed, a man may be rich, straight of limb, tall, handsome, generous, constant, and yet not be a good fellow. " A speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will 19 277 The Prince of Wales fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow; but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon — or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly." There you have it all — " a good heart," and that excuses many faults where they exist, and provides for many virtues that may be lacking. Doubtless there are sycophants who would pretend that any Prince is perfect, and the Prince of Wales the most perfect of them all; but the Prince is too good a fellow not to resent adulation that would attempt to put him above the frailties common to humanity. The healthiest of us are sometimes not quite well; the best humoured of us are sometimes a little touchy; the richest of us have not always the wherewithal to do the good service which we have at heart. It is on these occasions that the quality of good fellowship comes to the aid of those who have been so happily endowed by a good fairy at their christening. From time to time the Prince's position has compelled him to take a course of action which has not always been easy for others to appreciate, 278 The Prince a Good Fellow till that marvellous balm of the Prince's good fel- lowship has come to heal the wound, leaving the scar an honourable possession. Here is one exam- ple which is, perhaps, more generic and more easily understood by the general public than many other equally true stories about our Prince. He once invited to his house a number of the most distinguished men in a certain profession. They were all, no doubt, a little nervous at first, but the Prince's affability soon put each of them at his ease — so much at his ease, indeed, that it is quite possible to understand how one man among so many misunderstood his attitude. In the evening the Prince and his guests adjourned for smoking, and an impromptu entertainment ensued. One of the nicest and indeed possibly one of the best bred of the men took his turn at the piano and com- menced to sing a song which was decidedly coarse. Every eye but that of the singer was turned on the Prince of Wales. He made no effort to disguise his feelings. Whatever he may have thought, he felt that he was bound to take notice of this indiscretion. He first turned his chair slightly, but the singer went on singing. A terrible silence filled the room, but the singer took it for attention and continued. 279 The Prince of Wales The Prince coughed and fidgeted a little, but the singer did not hear or see, and nobody took the in- itiative in warning him. During the next verse the Prince started talking, and talked louder and louder, till the singer's voice was drowned, and he stopped, and turned, and looked, and when he realized his position, wished the ground would suddenly open and swallow him. There was no mistake about it, he had been snubbed. There, as far as the Prince was concerned, the matter might have ended. A blight had been thrown on the evening, and the poor devil had to face being cold-shouldered by his fel- lows, and explaining to his wife, as best he could, how they had all enjoyed their first experience of being the guest of the Prince of Wales. If there had been any honour among the Prince's guests, for their host's sake and for the sake of their profession, they would have held their tongues. But they went out into the highways and the byways and cried their comrade's shame and their own indignation. Some told it tragically, some comically; but none of them told it very carefully, and, needless to say, the gossipy papers made the most of it. Now, what do you think the Good Fellow did? When he saw what had happened, he drove straight up to Bond Street 280 The Prince a Good Fellow and purchased a box for the next entertainment at which his indiscreet guest was to appear. He drove back, and he asked the Princess to excuse herself from any social obligation which she might have, and the Prince and Princess of Wales made themselves particularly prominent in the front of that box, and effusively applauded the performer, whose indiscretion they deemed had been punished enough without the interference of his fellows. The Prince and Princess of Wales sent for him and his wife, and, letting bygones be bygones, shook hands with them, chatted with them cheerily, and sent them home the happiest man and woman in London, not forgetting to have the Royal visit duly chronicled in all the papers. That is to be- have not only like a good fellow, but like a prince of good fellows; and the Prince of Wales's conduct in this matter contrasts very favourably with the treatment which George IV, who was called " the first gentleman in Europe," dealt out to Brummel and other favourites who fell under his displeasure. Let us turn for our next example of good fellow- ship to the Sepolte Vive Convent in Rome. One would have thought that if the Prince of Wales, or indeed any young man, could be out of his element 281 The Prince of Wales it would be among a community of nuns. He could have little in common with them. Their re- ligion would be alien to him, their poverty, devo- tion, and silent good works not apparent to any casual visitor. They, too, might be singularly ill at ease, and yet, years after his visit to them, those little timid nuns remembered the courtesy and the consideration of the Prince, and spoke of him as " molto amabile." Some years ago the German Emperor and the Prince of Wales lunched officially at the Guild- hall, in the presence of some hundreds of people. The German Emperor's health was proposed. He stood up, looking a magnificent figure in his white uniform, and with his hand resting on his eagle- winged helmet, made a fine speech in English on the subject of peace. He was a young man then, and had the reputation here, and indeed through- out Europe, of being rather a firebrand, especially as regards England. All were greatly impressed with the pronouncement, but one radical journalist kept running about, when it was all over, telling everybody that the German Emperor had specially slighted the Prince of Wales by not proposing his health. The explanation was simple. The Prince 282 The Prince a Good Fellow of Wales had particularly desired that his health should not be proposed, and his reason was an ex- cellent one. He very emphatically pointed out that it was the German Emperor's " show," and that he wished him to be the only star. Surely this is a very fine example of good fel- lowship, which gets above the little vanities all flesh is heir to. Here is another example of how he be- haves toward men whom he has chosen to make of his own circle. One of his intimates, who was popularly known as " Christopher," was from time to time made the butt of the party, many quaint jokes being played upon him. On one occasion, when perhaps he was feeling a little bit off colour, he took offence, and, leaving the house where they were all staying, returned to town. To bring home to him more fully the fact that no offence was in- tended, and that his company was really appreci- ated, an advertisement was inserted in the Agony column of " The Times," which ran to this effect: " If C. S. will return to his sorrowing friends, all will be forgotten and forgiven." The signature made it apparent from whom it emanated. Need- less to say, it had the desired effect. It would be unjust, in an appreciation of this 283 The Prince of Wales side of the Prince's character, to omit examples of it, because they can not be illustrated by amusing stories. The necessity of extending good fellow- ship to his inferiors is ever present to the Prince, Thousands of instances might easily be given, but perhaps the most prominent was when some of his neighbours in Norfolk tried to make themselves im- portant by actually refusing the Prince's invitations to Sandringham Hall because, forsooth, the worthy farmers and their excellent wives were not excluded. The Prince made it very apparent that he was not going to stand any snobbery of that kind, and the uppish people had to assume the virtue of good fellowship if they had it not. The Prince's good nature has always been extended to old ladies. He will often leave a pretty partner, or break off in a story or an interesting game, to pay compliments to an old lady, whom he will take in to supper or fetch refreshments for, with the best good will in the world; and it is his delight not only to find part- ners for a " wall flower," but to show the younger men an example by dancing with her. On the occasion of the celebration of his birthday at Ox- ford many years ago, the jubilations terminated by a very serious " Town and Gown " row. It is easy 284 The Prince a Good Fellow to imagine that any young man might have been thoughtless enough to rejoice in such a spree. The Prince, however, saw further than the inclina- tion of the youth, and was not only seriously an- noyed at what had happened, but visited his grave displeasure on the college man who had been the ringleader in the affair. His sympathy for others has always been singu- larly acute. When an accident occurred to a sailor on the " Serapis," he was as deeply grieved as if it had injured one of his own relations, and failed to shake off the shock he had sustained for several days. While visiting Holland in his yacht he went over from Flushing to Middelburg and made some purchases at a bric-a-brac shop. When the old Jew who kept the shop came on board with the goods it was apparent that he had discovered who his new customer was. He was dressed in his best clothes, and seemed loath to part with his goods except to the purchaser. The Prince very soon saw what the man wanted, and good-naturedly extending his hand, greeted the old fellow with, " I am the Prince of Wales. This is my brother, Prince Leo- pold. We are both very glad to see you. Will you have a drink? " 285 The Prince of Wales The Prince is not only a good fellow in himself, but the cause of good fellowship in others. When he was travelling on the Nile he thus drew out many of the excellent qualities and humours of Captain Achmet Hassan and Mustapha Fazil, who amused the Prince very much. He put them quite at their ease by enjoying their broken English and the hard hits which their ingenuousness made, and by smok- ing pipes with them — and " such pipes," says the chronicler, " as they were! " On his voyage to In- dia he started the first day well by mixing with the officers and crew. He scarcely ever retired for the night without going on the bridge, even in the roughest weather, and invariably had what he called " a look round " and a few minutes* conversation with the officers on duty. Every morning he went for what he called " a cruise " between decks, and saw that everybody in the cabins was going on all right before breakfast. It was probably the knowl- edge of the Prince which Lord Charles Beresford acquired on this journey that caused him to refuse one of his invitations to dinner by a telegram which ran: "Sorry can not come; lie to follow," which tickled the Prince immensely. Not only is the Prince the cause of wit in others, 286 The Prince a Good Fellow but he is something of a wit himself. Some years ago, when Arthur Roberts was singing his song, " We are a merry family, we are, we are, we are! " the Prince was asked for the solution of a knotty point. He merely shrugged his shoulders, and said, "We are a Royal family, V. R., V. R., V.R.!" His resource, like his energy, is extraordinary. He is the life and soul of every party. Absolutely un- tiring not only in his business, but in his pleasure, after a hard day's work cooped up in a hot uniform and tired out with duties and talking, he will sit up all night, dancing and making merry, no matter whether his partner is a pretty young Duchess in a stately quadrille, or one of his old servants in a country dance at Sandringham. He likes a love story, and never misses an opportunity of making a good marriage for a plain girl or a younger son, of patching up a quarrel between a pair of lovers, or of bringing a foolish young husband and wife to- gether. One side of his character is delight in a little harmless mischief. He revelled in the wheelbarrow races at Homburg, when Duchesses were some- times ungracefully shot out upon the grass in atti- tudes that would have commended themselves to 287 The Prince of Wales Rowlandson; but he eventually found that a fire hose can be carried too far as an instrument for greeting guests at a country house. Country mayors almost invariably write to the Guildhall for instructions on the etiquette of receiv- ing Royalty. This course was taken by a certain Mayor of Chester, and a complete report of a similar proceeding was forwarded to him. He adopted it all, even down to his own address, which he learned by heart. When he came to repeat it, however, he stumbled, hesitated, and stopped, only to become more confused, when, with a twinkle in his eye, the Prince, who had heard it several times before, prompted him. The Prince is very appreciative of any defer- ence, and is always ready to excuse any accident, no matter how provoking. On one occasion he was ridden down in the Park. The horseman called at Marlborough House to make his apol- ogy. The Prince asked him to dinner. So sen- sible and so far removed from popular prejudice is the Prince, that his cachet is now always accepted. It may be remembered that some years ago there was a quarrel between Lord Durham and Sir George Chetwynd, which found its way to the Law 288 The Prince a Good Fellow Courts. It was impossible to exonerate Sir George altogether from the action of some of his servants, and the verdict was not, therefore, perfectly satis- factory to him. It was said, however, that there were other things behind the quarrel, and certainly it would seem so, for at the very next race meeting at Sandown the Prince of Wales made a point of going up to his old friend and shaking him by the hand. If, after all that has been said, there is one per- son who will question the Prince of Wales's right to being considered a good fellow in the best accept- ance of the term, that person will be His Royal Highness himself. 289 CHAPTER XVIII THE PRINCE AS A SON It is a popular error to suppose that the sur- name of the Prince of Wales is Guelph, because that is the family name of the House of Brunswick, from which our present Sovereign is descended. When the Queen married, she by the laws of the land changed her surname, as do the humblest of her subjects. The Prince Consort, who came from the House of Saxony, bore the surname of Wettin, and the Queen by marriage with him took that name. The Prince of Wales, therefore, and his children, though Guelph by descent, are really Wettin by name. The name of Guelph has existed since the time of Charlemagne, whose sister was the wife of Isen- bard of Altdorf in Swabia, and the mother of the first Guelph. Her husband was in attendance on the Emperor Charlemagne when a messenger came hot-footed to tell him a son had been born to him. 290 The Prince as a Son Isenbard asked leave to quit the French Court and go to see his heir. The legend runs that the Emperor said, " There is no need for haste to go and see this Wolpe " (Whelp). Charlemagne was subsequently sponsor to the babe, and again repeat- ed the name at the font, which has since through the centuries been transformed into Guelph. At the time of the Queen's marriage the suc- cession to the Throne was in a most unsatisfactory condition, and not unnaturally a Prince was eager- ly looked for; but the people had to wait another year after the Princess Royal was born for a male heir to the Crown. As the time drew near for the expected birth the keenest anxiety was dis- played by all classes, and when at twelve minutes to eleven on the morning of the 9th of November, 1 841, the Queen gave birth to a son at Bucking- ham Palace, great was the rejoicing throughout the kingdom and its colonies. The little Prince's introduction to the world was not attended with all the formality that is usual at such times. The Queen was for some hours so ill that her life seemed in great danger, and the Prince Consort, probably through natural anxiety, omitted to send for several of the dignitaries whose attend- 291 The Prince of Wales ance, according to long custom, is deemed neces- sary at the birth of a Prince or Princess. So it hap- pened that neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the Lord President of the Council arrived at Buckingham Palace till all was over. All the Min- isters of State were, however, present at the Council that was held at two o'clock in the afternoon, when the formal announcement of the great event was made to them and the usual public thanksgiving ordered. Meantime the greatest excitement prevailed in the Household. Messengers were sent post-haste to Marlborough House, where the Dowager Queen Adelaide was in residence, and to Kew, where the Duchess of Cambridge and her family then lived. A third was despatched to the city, where Lord Mayor John Pirie was just entering on his year of office, and the scene at the Guildhall banquet that evening was unparalleled for loyal enthusi- asm, when in the course of the dinner His Lordship read to the assembled company a highly satisfac- tory bulletin concerning the health of Her Majesty and the infant Duke of Cornwall. The Lord Mayor subsequently received a baronetcy in honour of the Prince's birth. 292 The Prince as a Son The little Prince's establishment was at once placed on an imposing footing. The nurse chosen by the Queen for her baby son was a Mrs. Brough, who had been housemaid at Claremont. Mrs. Hull, whom they called " dear old May," was also in the nursery. The fee paid to the Prince of Wales's wet nurse was £1,000, and rewards, titles, and promotions were given in all directions. The latter led to some tiresome complications. It had always been the custom to give a Major's commis- sion to the officer on guard at the Royal palace when an accouchement took place, but on this oc- casion there was considerable difficulty in deciding whether the captain of the guard going off duty at 10.45 A - M -> or tne captain of the guard coming on duty at the same moment, should receive the com- mission, as the changing of the guards had not been fully accomplished at 10.48, which was the exact moment the Prince was born. Custom has also ordained that as the heir to the Crown has always been created Earl of Chester, the Mayor of Chester should receive a Baronetcy; but the Royal babe being born on the 9th of November, when all Mayors throughout the kingdom are changed, there was much discussion as to whether the outgoing 20 293 The Prince of Wales Mayor who was a banker, or the incoming Mayor who was a linen-draper, should receive the title. Meanwhile the infant who was the cause of so much controversy flourished apace, and when little more than a week old he was already deemed strong enough to be wrapped in a splendid mantle of blue velvet and ermine, and shown to the various mem- bers of the family, and to all the Court circle who went to the palace to taste the caudle, sign the Vis- itors' Book, and inspect the baby. Before he was a month old Sir Robert Peel was sent for by the Queen to discuss the armorial bear- ings of the little Prince — a matter which would have been easy of arrangement if Her Majesty had not desired to quarter the arms of Saxony with the Royal arms of England. The Queen insisted that the Prince Consort was of Saxony, with the result that the Earl Marshal had entirely to remodel the Prince of Wales's Coat of Arms. Sir Robert Peel had further difficulty with the alteration which it was necessary to make in the Liturgy. The Queen was most anxious that in the special prayer for the Royal family the words " His Royal Highness " should be inserted before " the Prince of Wales," and Her Majesty only yielded this point when she 294 The Prince as a Son was reminded that after her marriage the Arch- bishop of Canterbury had particularly desired that the term " Royal Highness " should not be placed before Prince Albert's name. Some excitement was also caused in great cir- cles by the little Prince being formally gazetted " Duke of Saxony." At a political party given by Lady Holland, the fact that the foreign rank was given precedence over all English titles was much commented on. The public mind was set at ease a little later on, when the Queen by patent created " Our most dear son " Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. He also bore the titles of " Duke of Saxony," " Duke of Cornwall " and " Rothesay," " Earl of Carrick," " Baron Renfrew," " Lord of the Isles," and " Great Steward of Scotland." In 1849 the title of " Earl of Dublin " was added to those the Prince already bore. The next great event in the life of the Prince of Wales was his baptism, a most splendid ceremony, which took place in St. George's Chapel at Wind- sor. The christening was deferred till January 25, 1842, to accommodate King William of Prussia, who had accepted an invitation to stand personally as sponsor. The entertainments given during the 295 The Prince of Wales King of Prussia's visit to Windsor were on a most imposing scale, and His Majesty, who subsequently became the first German Emperor, on that occa- sion laid the foundation of a sincere friendship with the Queen, which was further cemented by the mar- riage of his eldest son Frederick to our young Prin- cess Royal, and only ended with the close of his long and prosperous life. The christening was carried out by the Arch- bishops of Canterbury and York, who were sur- rounded by a troop of other great dignitaries of the Church. In addition to the King of Prussia, the sponsors were Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, first cousin to the Queen; the Duchess of Cam- bridge, who was proxy for the Duchess of Saxe-Co- burg, and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge, proxy for the Princess Sophia. The font used for the occasion was of pure gold, and all the Queen's children and most of her grandchildren and great- grandchildren have been baptized in it. It stands between two and three feet high, and the shallow basin is surrounded by a wreath of acanthus leaves, with cherubs singing and playing about the base. Unlike most Royal children, the Prince of Wales was not overburdened with names, Albert 296 THE PRINCE AT SEVEN YEARS OF AGE From a painting by Winterhaiter The Prince as a Son Edward being the only two he received. After the ceremony, which concluded with Handel's " Halle- lujah Chorus," a splendid banquet was given in the state dining room at Windsor. This was the last occasion on which the enormous gold punch bowl, designed by Flaxman to the order of George IV, was filled with the thirty dozen bottles of wine which it was designed to hold. This quantity of mulled claret charged the glasses which were emp- tied by the company in honouring the four toasts of the day which were given by the Earl of Liver- pool, then Lord Steward of the Household. These were, " His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales," " The King of Prussia," " Her Majesty the Queen," and " His Royal Highness Prince Albert." After the banquet the company proceeded to the Waterloo Chamber, where the Queen had a re- ception, and where the huge Christening Cake, more than eight feet in circumference, was cut up and distributed. So splendid was the state kept at the Prince's Christening that it was afterward esti- mated that the ceremony, the luncheon, and the en- tertainment of the various guests cost £200,000. After such an imposing debut the little Prince retired for some years to a quiet and carefully super- 297 The Prince of Wales vised nursery, to share such lessons as his elder sis- ter the Princess Royal was receiving from various governesses. When he was six years old he and Princess " Vicky " were described as being " sweet things," the Prince in particular being a very pretty boy, with fine eyes and beautiful hair. He was ex- ceedingly shy, which may be accounted for by the fact that the little Princess Royal was of a decidedly masterful disposition. Two years later, by which time four more broth- ers and sisters had arrived in the Royal nurseries, the young Prince had a serious fall from an iron- barred gate, and for a time it was feared that he would be disfigured for life. Two very ugly black eyes and a badly cut nose, however, were luckily the only results of the accident. As her family grew, the Queen became stricter in the government of her nursery and children. Obedience was always insisted upon, and punish- ments for the breaking of that rule were speedy and severe. On one occasion the little Prince for some childish disobedience was picked up by Her Majes- ty and slippered before the entire Court. Being sent to bed in the daytime was another punishment strictly enforced among the little people of the 298 The Prince as a Son Royal nurseries, who were genuinely devoted to their parents, and singularly honest and truthful and high-minded in the best sense of the words. But the Prince of Wales remained exceedingly shy, and Prince Metternich, who saw him when he was a big boy, said of him, " Plaisait a tout le monde, mais il avait Fair embarrasse et tres triste." The Prince's education began very early in life, and though he learned music from Mrs. Anderson, the wife of the Queen's bandmaster, the majority of his lessons were given him by tutors. The Rev. H. M. Birch (Her Majesty's Birch he was some- times called) educated him from 1849 to 1851, after which Mr. Gibbs was intrusted with the responsi- ble task. There were few toys to be found in the Royal nurseries, as both the Queen and Prince Con- sort believed in training children from a strictly utilitarian point of view. At Osborne, a small Swiss cottage which stood in the ground was given to the Princes and Princesses when they were quite small. Here they were taught to cook, scour, wash, and to study all rudiments of housekeeping. For many years the Queen when at Osborne always had one dish served at her table that had been made by one or other of her daughters. The young Princes 299 The Prince of Wales were taught to build and to garden. They worked two or three hours a day side by side with labour- ers, under a foreman who criticised their work and checked the amount they did on a sheet which was sent each week to the Prince Consort, who paid his sons the regular rate of wages for the tasks they had performed. Each child had his or her garden in which they were obliged to do all save the very roughest work. A small shed contained their gar- den tools, each one bearing the initials of the child who owned it. In these days Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice were too small to do anything except to drag about a little cart, and generally to help their elder brothers and sisters. It must not for a moment be imagined that the Prince had no pleasure in his childish days. One of his earliest recollections is a visit that Tom Thumb paid to Buckingham Palace, when the Queen introduced the " General " to the Prince, who was then about four years old, an event from which sprang the historic name " Turn Turn." The Queen also took her children to Astby's fa- mous circus, and as they became old enough they were allowed to attend the " command " perform- ^oo The Prince as a Son ance given by the Keans at Windsor, and to go to the opera. From his early days the Prince has known what it is to travel. He and the Princess Royal were quite tiny when they paid their first visit to Ireland; and the little Prince imbibed his love of sport when he was about seven years old, and was taken out on a deer-stalking expedition in Scotland. His first visit to the Continent was made when the Queen and the Prince Consort stayed with Napo- leon III and the Empress Eugenie in Paris. At the end of this visit, which was delightful to the Royal children who had been brought up on almost Spar- tan lines, the young Prince begged the Empress to let him stay a little longer. The Empress laugh- ingly told the boy that his parents would not be able to spare him, to which he replied in his usual straightforward manner that he did not think he would be missed, as there were plenty more of them in the nurseries at home. Early in the year 1858 White Lodge at Rich- mond was prepared as a residence for the Prince of Wales, who lived there with Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Tarver his tutor, Lord Valletort, Major Teesdale, and Major Lindsey. These three performed the 301 The Prince of Wales duties of equerry in monthly rotation, while Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Tarver prepared the Prince for his coming confirmation, which took place on the ist of April of that year, in St. George's Chapel, Wind- sor. A great family party assembled for the oc- casion, and after this impressive rite, which was administered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, met in the Green Drawing Room, and gave the Prince some handsome presents in honour of the occasion. In the following November the Queen wrote a letter to the Prince of Wales, which in affectionate and touching terms informed him that he must now consider himself free from parental control. She spoke in the most impressive terms of the love that she and the Prince Consort had for him, and re- minded him that though he might sometimes have been taught to consider their government of him severe, and the ruling of his life strict, they had been actuated throughout only by anxiety for his welfare, and had wished to so strengthen his judg- ment that he should be proof against the evils of flattery and sycophancy that must beset his future. The Queen also offered in the most maternal 302 The Prince as a Son way always to place the best of her experience and advice at the Prince's disposal. The letter was of great length, and beautifully expressed. It pro- foundly touched the Prince, who burst into tears while reading it, and again when showing it to Gerald Wellesley. It was felt by those who were privileged to see these motherly words that they would make a lasting impression on his thoughts and mode of life. Life at the Universities, a trip to America, and a walking tour in the west of England largely occu- pied the following years of the Prince's life. The next great event that nearly touched him was the death of his father, in December, 1861. Only a few days before his fatal illness the Prince Consort visited the Prince of Wales at Cambridge. He was then in very poor health, and a few days after that visit the Prince was summoned to his father's deathbed. It is of course impossible to imagine what would have been the relations between Prince Al- bert and his son had the former lived; but during the Prince Consort's lifetime a great respect and affection for his father dominated the Prince of Wales. That he had great faith in his father's 303 The Prince of Wales methods of management and organization is shown by the fact that the Prince's estate at Sandringham is managed and modelled on the same plans that ruled the various properties about Windsor and Os- borne. When it was decided that the Royal mau- soleum at Frogmore should be erected to the mem- ory of Prince Albert, the Prince was among the first of the family to come forward, and from his own purse subscribe £10,000 toward the beautifying of the building. His observance of the anniversary of his father's death has always been sincere and voluntary. Amid all the pageantry of his splen- did progress through India the Prince set the 14th of December apart as a day to be spent in the strictest seclusion. He was at Madras at the time, and on the evening that preceded the sad anniversary he drove eight miles from the city to the governor's country seat, where he remained until the 15th, with only two or three gentlemen of his suite to share his strict privacy. The Prince has also kept his father's memory green by the energy, time, and money he has given to the advancement of education and his encour- agement of every branch of science and art. His early married life was marked by works of charity 304 The Prince as a Son and beneficence such as the Prince Consort would have approved. The Prince's relations to the Queen have always been those of an affectionate son and most loyal subject. The regard in which he holds Her Majes- ty is quite touching, and every one knows that nothing displeases him more than the suggestion that he himself should ever sit on the Throne of England. Even in such small matters as proposing and drinking the Queen's health the Prince is most punctilious, invariably standing uncovered when the National Anthem is played. He carries his sen- timents toward Her Majesty so far as to forbid the drinking of his own health standing, always saying, with charming simplicity, " I am only a subject of the Queen." During the long period of the Queen's retire- ment from active public life the Prince was per- mitted to appear at ceremonies and functions of a more or less social character, but was never con- sulted on matters of state policy, and his public acts were practically limited to the laying of foundation stones and the opening of charitable institutions. As time went on, and he saw younger men than himself holding positions of great power and influ- 305 The Prince of Wales ence, he could but regret that he had been relegated at the beginning of his career to the duties of a so- cial figurehead. There is no doubt that the Prince has aspired all his life after nobler things, for this is clearly shown by the energy and zeal with which he throws himself into whatever he finds to do. As a chairman of commissions, he is indefatigable as a worker and unique in business aptitude. It is in this way that he has been able to show the fruits of his education and upbringing, while the lessons he learned as a son he has utilized as a father, and will not forget when, in the natural course of events, still heavier responsibilities rest upon him. THE END 306 VALUABLE BOOKS The Private Life of the Queen. By a Member of the Royal Household. Illustrated, nmo. Cloth, #1.50. "The future historian will value 'The Private Life of the Queen' because it is in a sense so intimate. The contemporary reader will find it highly inter- esting for the same reason. . . . The book is agreeably written, and is certain to interest a very wide circle of readers." — Philadelphia Press. "A singularly attractive picture of Queen Victoria. . . . The interests and occupations that make up the Queen's day, and the functions of many of the members of her household, are described in a manner calculated to gratify the natural desire to know what goes on behind closed doors that very few of the world's dignitaries are privileged to pass." — Boston Herald. The Life of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort. By Sir Theodore Martin. In five volumes, each with Por- trait. i2mo. Cloth, $10.00. "A full and impartial biography of a noble and enlightened prince. . . . Mr. Martin's work is not gossipy, not light, nor yet dull, guarded in its details of the domestic lives of Albert and Victoria, but sufficiently full and familiar to contribute much interesting information. . . . Will well repay a careful and earnest reading." — Chicago Tribune. The Sovereigns and Courts of Europe. The Home and Court Life and Characteristics of the Reigning Families. By " Politikos." With many Portraits. 1 2mo. Cloth, $1.50. "A remarkably able book. ... A great deal of the inner history of Europe is to be found in the work, and it is illustrated by admirable portraits." — The Athenaum. "The anonymous author of these sketches of the reigning sovereigns of Europe appears to have gathered a good deal of curious information about their private lives, manners, and customs, and has certainly in several instances had access to unusual sources. The result is a volume which furnishes views of the kings and queens concerned, far fuller and more intimate than can be found elsewhere." — Neiv York Tribune. D . APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. DR. EGGLESTON'S GREAT HISTORY. The Transit of Civilization From England to America in the Seventeenth Century. By Edward Eggleston. Uniform with "The Beginners of a Nation." Small 8vo, gilt top, uncut, cloth, $1.50. All who have read " The Beginners of a Nation" will wel- come this new volume by Mr. Eggleston. Though it is an independent work, it is also the second in the series upon which the author has long been engaged. Its aim is to reveal to the reader the mind of the seventeenth century man — to show where he stood in the intellectual development of the race ; what he knew of science, and how his character was determined by his limi- tations ; his bondage to tradition, his credulity, and the unreality of the world in which he lived, with its witches, its omnipresent devil, its signaturism in plants and animals to guide medical practice, its belief in the virtue of sympathetic powder, weapon ointment, and the fabulous bezoar stone. The standards of con- duct of the age are shown, the educational aims and the evolu- tion of a school system unthought of then. The scope of the work may best be explained by the titles of the chapters, which are : 1. Medical Outfit of the Early Colonists. 2. Medical Notions at the Period of Settlement. 3. Folk Speech and Mother English. 4. Weights and Measures of Conduct. 5. The Tradition of Education. 6. Landholding in the Early Colonies. This is no ordinary historical work, but a startling view of life before science. No such account has ever been given of the colonists, and no such view exists of England in the seventeenth century. It may be read in entire independence of any other volume of the series. D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. c\i 7Q ++f