The Life of King Edward VII
decided that a training ship in early youth and the fresh air, vigorous
life and wholesome discipline of the Navy in immediately following years
would be the best system of education. Prince Albert Victor and Prince
George were, consequently, placed on board the _Britannia_ training ship
in 1870 and there they spent two years under conditions of study, work,
training, mess, discipline and dress exactly similar to those of their
shipmates. Their only dissipation was an occasional visit from their
parents and the usual holiday period at home. During the two years spent
on this ship they learned carpentering, the details of a ship's rigging
and a certain amount of engineering.
At the end of this period it was decided by the Prince to send his sons
for a prolonged cruise around the world as midshipmen on H.M.S.
_Bacchante_. They were to have the same duties and treatment as the
other midshipmen--except perhaps that their teaching would be more
careful and their studies more severe. Special instructors in
seamanship, gunnery, mathematics and naval conditions were appointed,
with the Rev. J. N. Dalton, M.A., as Governor, in charge while they were
on shore and with supervision over their ordinary studies when at sea.
Lord Charles Scott, Captain of the war-ship, was, of course, supreme
when the Princes were on board his vessel. The cruise of the _Bacchante_
commenced in September, 1879, and terminated in August, 1882. During
that period it traversed over fifty-four thousand miles and the Royal
midshipmen saw and visited Gibraltar, Madeira, Teneriffe, the West India
Islands, Bermuda, the Cape Verde Islands, Monte Video, the Falkland
Islands, Cape Colony, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and
Brisbane, Victoria and Melbourne, New South Wales and Sydney, the Fiji
Islands, Japan, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Canton, the Straits Settlements,
Ceylon, Egypt and the Holy Land, Athens, Crete, Corfu and Sicily. In
1886 two handsome volumes, carefully edited by the Rev. Mr. Dalton, and
comprising the private journals and diaries of the young Princes, were
published in London and were found to contain many sensible reflections
and much garnered information upon the many countries visited during
this circumnavigation of the globe. It was not all serious study and
work, however, during this period, and in almost every place touched at,
where the Princes had anything like a chance, there is still to be found
some cherished anecdote of Royal jokes or pranks--especially on the part
of Prince George.
Meanwhile great care and thought had been devoted to the education of
the three daughters. From the nursery they passed into a school-room in
which French and German, music, history and mathematics were the studies
most interesting to their father, while the learning of dressmaking and
sewing in various branches, cooking, dairy work, the superintending of a
garden and the management of a house were carefully watched over by the
Princess of Wales. The Princess Victoria was said, in the days following
the completion of her education, to have the most domestic turn of mind
of the three sisters, together with a pronounced artistic taste.
Latterly she had taken over much of the supervision of household matters
at Sandringham and Marlborough from her Royal mother and is, in 1902,
the only unmarried member of the family. The Princess Maud was, as a
girl, merry, pretty and clever; a capital all-round sportswoman and fond
of horses, dogs, birds, yachting and riding; possessed at home of the
nick-name "Harry," and said to be the Prince's favourite daughter; fond
of _incognito_ experiences, charities and amusements. The Princess
Louise was a quieter and less striking character, and, like her younger
sister, was afterwards allowed to marry the man of her choice, although
he did not possess the high position which the Royal father might
naturally have desired.
MEMORIES OF PRINCE ALBERT VICTOR
Following the return of the two Princes from their cruise, Prince Albert
Victor was taken by his father to Cambridge, in 1883, and duly installed
as an undergraduate of Trinity College. There he read regularly for six
or seven hours a day, made himself thoroughly familiar with French and
German, and associated himself in a most marked way with the men of
intellect and character who were around him--nearly all his companions
afterwards becoming distinguished in one way or another. Always modest
and retiring he liked to entertain very quietly and to enjoy any
possible musical occasion which presented itself. Hockey, polo and a
little riding were his outdoor amusements. He came of age in 1885, the
University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., and, during
the next few years, he worked as an officer in the Army. It was on the
attainment of his majority that Prince Albert Victor received a most
interesting letter, under date of January 7th, from Mr. Gladstone. In it
the veteran statesman said to the prospective Sovereign: "There lies
before Your Royal Highness in prospect the occupation--I trust at a
distant date--of a throne which, to me at least, appears the most
illustrious in the world, from its history and associations, from its
legal basis, from the weight of the cares it brings, from the loyal love
of the people, and from the unparalleled opportunities it gives, in so
many ways and so many regions, of doing good to the almost countless
numbers whom the Almighty has placed beneath the sceptre of England." He
went on to express the earnest hope that His Royal Highness might ever
grow in the principles and qualities which should adorn his great
vocation.
During the Session of Parliament in 1889, the Prince of Wales was voted
L36,000 annually in trust for the use of his children, and at about the
same time it was decided to send Prince Albert Victor on a visit to
India. On the way thither, at Athens, on October 20th, the latter was
present at the wedding of his two cousins, the Duke of Sparta and the
Princess Sophia of Prussia, daughter of the Empress Frederick. In the
great Eastern Empire he remained until April, 1890; visiting Hyderabad,
Mysore, Madras and Calcutta, and meeting with a cordial reception which,
however, lacked the great state and ceremony of his Royal father's
famous tour. Lord Lansdowne was Viceroy and made a most admirable host
and mentor. On May 24th, following, the young Prince was created Duke of
Clarence and Avondale and Earl of Athlone, and commenced to take his
place in public life as Heir Presumptive to the Throne. In November of
the year 1891 Prince George who had, meanwhile, been pursuing his
vocation in the Navy, was taken ill at Sandringham. The Princess was
away but, pending her return, his father nursed him personally with care
and devotion. Typhoid--the disease which had carried off the Prince
Consort and so nearly killed the Heir Apparent, developed and the family
anxiety was very great. At this point, on December 8th, the engagement
of the Duke of Clarence to his cousin, the very popular and beautiful
Princess May of Teck, was announced amidst general congratulations.
DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE
Then came one of the saddest events in the history of the British Royal
family. The young Duke had only been engaged a few weeks and
preparations had been commenced for the stately ceremonial of his
marriage, when it was announced that he had caught cold at the funeral
of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe and was confined to his room. With but
little notice pneumonia developed, the constitutional weakness of his
system was unable to throw it off, and within a few days he was
dead--January 15th, 1892. Prince George, in the meantime, had recovered,
but those who saw the Prince of Wales walking beside his eldest son's
body from Sandringham Church to the station, say that his obvious grief
was almost pathetic. As to the mother she never really got over the
sadness of that death and the removal of her favourite son. If there
was, at times, a sad expression in her eyes, years after the event, it
was no doubt due to the sudden shock and great loss which then came to
her.
Five days afterwards, the following telegram to Sir Francis Knollys was
made public: "The Prince and Princess of Wales are anxious to express to
Her Majesty's subjects in the United Kingdom, the Colonies, and in
India, the sense of their deep gratitude for the universal feeling of
sympathy manifested toward them at a time when they are overpowered by
the terrible calamity which they have sustained in the loss of their
beloved eldest son. If sympathy at such a moment is of any avail, the
remembrance that their grief has been shared by all classes will be a
lasting consolation to their sorrowing hearts, and, if possible, will
make them more than ever attached to their dear country." The affection
of Queen Victoria for this grandson, whom the _Times_ of January 19th
described as possessing "modesty, affectionateness, kindness, love of
order, the desire to render every man his due, and reverence for age and
greatness," is well-known to have been intense, and from Osborne, on
January 26th, Her Majesty issued the following letter:
"I must once again give expression to my deep sense of the loyalty
and affectionate sympathy evinced by my subjects in every part of
my Empire on an occasion more sad and tragical than any but one
which has befallen me and mine, as well as the Nation. The
overwhelming misfortune of my dearly-loved grandson having been
thus suddenly cut off in the flower of his age, full of promise for
the future, amiable and gentle, and endearing himself to all,
renders it hard for his sorely-stricken parents, his dear young
bride and his fond Grandmother to bow in submission to the
inscrutable decrees of Providence."
Meantime, on June 27th, 1889, the marriage of the Princess Louise had
taken place. Her engagement to the Earl of Fife was somewhat of a
surprise to a social world which does not like to be surprised. Though
the Princess was twenty-two and the groom forty they had known each
other for years and Lord Fife had been a frequent and welcome guest at
Sandringham, while the Prince and Princess of Wales had long been on
terms of intimacy with his parents. His was the only bachelor's house at
which the Princess of Wales had ever been entertained. It could not, of
course, be supposed that this first marriage in his family--the children
of which might be very close to the Throne--was quite as lofty a match
as the Royal father might wish, yet when he found that the matter was
settled so far as the couple were personally concerned, he accepted the
situation and asked the Queen's consent to the engagement. The wedding
was duly celebrated at Buckingham Palace in the presence of the Queen,
the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, the King of the
Helenes, the Crown Prince of Denmark, and the Grand Duke of Hesse. Lord
Fife, who was personally very wealthy, was created Duke of Fife and
Marquess of Macduff, and his wife shared in the subsequent special grant
given to the Heir Apparent for the proper maintenance of his children.
Afterwards, on the birth of the first child of the Duke and Duchess it
was decided that she should not assume Royal rank but be known by the
courtesy title due to her father's place in the Peerage. This
child--Lady Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise Duff--was born on
May 17th, 1891, and on April 3rd, 1893, the Lady Maud Alexandra Victoria
Georgia Bertha Duff was born. Meanwhile an interesting event had
occurred on March 10, 1888, in the celebration of the Silver Wedding of
the Prince and Princess of Wales. Illuminations in London and a ball at
Buckingham Palace marked the event.