The Life of King Edward VII
About this time the Prince of Wales made his first appearance in the
House of Lords, sitting beside the Queen as she received Addresses from
Parliament concerning the impending war with Russia. He seems to have
taken a keen interest in that conflict and, in March 1855, went with his
parents to visit the wounded at Chatham Military Hospital. In August he
accompanied the Queen and Prince Consort upon the first visit paid by an
English Sovereign to Paris since the days of Henry II. and shared in the
splendid reception given by the Emperor Napoleon and the French people.
Even here, however, his tutor was with him and idleness or pleasure was
not allowed to occupy the field entirely. With the Princess Royal, he
was present at a splendid ball given in Versailles--the first since the
days of Louis XVI--and they sat down at supper with the Emperor and
Empress. The young Prince enjoyed the visit so much and liked his
Imperial hosts so well--a liking which he never forgot in later years of
sorrow and suffering--that he begged the Empress to get leave for his
sister and himself to stay a little longer. The Queen and his father, he
explained, had six more children at home and they could, he thought, do
without them for a while.
Of course, this was not possible. The Prince Consort, however, was
greatly pleased with the way in which the children had behaved and wrote
to Baron Stockmar, shortly after, expressing his belief that the Prince
had been a general favourite. To the Duchess of Kent he wrote that "the
task was no easy one for them but they discharged it without
embarrassment and with natural simplicity." From this it is evident that
the shyness spoken of by Lady Lyttelton had largely passed away from the
manner of the Prince. During this year the latter--now fourteen years
old--took an incognito walking tour through the west of England
accompanied by Mr. Gibbs and Colonel Cavendish. The next two or three
years were spent in a happy life of mixed pursuits in England and
Scotland, or in travel abroad, alternating, according to the place and
season, between fishing and shooting, ponies and picnics, deer-stalking
and juvenile dances, studies, tours and occasional functions. Many
pictures of the Royal family in these days of childhood and youth have
been preserved from the brushes of Winterhalter, Richmond, Landseer,
Saul and others.
LATER EDUCATION OF THE PRINCE
Not the least important of the educative influences of this period were
the tours undertaken by the young Prince. In the autumn of 1856,
accompanied by those who could best instruct him in the matters
witnessed, he visited the great seats of industry in Provincial England
including mills, ironworks, coal mines and engineering centres. In April
1857 he enjoyed a tour through the beautiful Lake region and especially
appreciated the hill-climbing in Cumberland. During June he accompanied
the Queen on a state visit to Manchester and witnessed the first
distribution of the Victoria Cross medals in Hyde Park, London. In July
the Prince left England for Konigswinter with a short European tour in
view for "purposes of study," as the Prince Consort put it in a private
letter. With him were General Grey, Colonel (afterwards Sir Henry)
Ponsonby, his tutors and Dr. Armstrong. During the tour several young
men joined him as companions--the late Mr. W. H. Gladstone; Mr. Charles
Wood, now Lord Halifax; Mr. Frederick Stanley, now Earl of Derby and
Governor-General of Canada; and the present Earl Cadogan, Viceroy of
Ireland. The Prince on this occasion went up the Rhine and through
Germany and Switzerland. Upon his return, in October, he attended
lectures on science by Dr. Faraday while continuing his regular studies.
Early in the succeeding year he attended the marriage of his sister, the
Princess Royal, to the Prussian Prince who afterwards became the Emperor
Frederick, and parted from the sister "Vicky," to whom he was much
attached, with evident sorrow.
On April 1, 1858, when nearly seventeen years of age, the Prince was
confirmed in the Chapel Royal at Windsor. Writing of this ceremony, the
Prince Consort observed to Baron Stockmar that Lord Derby, Lord
Palmerston and Lord John Russell were amongst those who were present and
that the event "went off with great solemnity and, I hope, with an
abiding impression on his mind." At the examination before the
Archbishop of Canterbury and his Royal parents the Prince was described
as acquitting himself "extremely well." On the succeeding day he took
the Sacrament. Shortly afterwards followed a two weeks walking tour in
the south of Ireland in which the Prince was accompanied by Mr. Gibbs,
Captain de Ros--afterwards Lieutenant-General Lord de Ros--and Dr.
Minter. Succeeding this came a short period of steady study and the
formal establishment of the young Prince at White Lodge in Richmond
Park, under the tuition of Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Tarver and with three
companions carefully selected by his father--Lord Valletort, the present
(1902) Earl of Mount Edgecumbe, Major Teesdale V.C. and Major Lindsay
V.C. Of the first named the Prince Consort wrote privately that he had
been much on the Continent and was "a thoroughly good, moral and
accomplished man," who had passed his youth in attendance on his invalid
father. He also referred to the manner in which Major Teesdale had
distinguished himself at Kars and Major Lindsay at Alma and Inkerman and
of the latter said: "He is studious in his habits, lives little with the
other young officers, is fond of study and familiar with French and
Italian."[2] These considerations are interesting as indicating with
what care the companions of the young Prince were selected by his wise
father from time to time. Here the Prince had, amongst his elements of
instruction, lectures on History from the Rev. Charles Kingsley, the
well-known author of _Westward Ho_ and, for ten years following,
Professor of History at Cambridge. They were given by special desire of
the Queen and must have proved deeply interesting. Canon Kingsley was,
during the rest of his life, an object of special liking to the Prince
and always an honoured guest at Sandringham and Marlborough.
On November 9, 1859, the Prince of Wales completed his eighteenth year
and attained his legal majority. The Queen wrote him a letter which
Charles Greville, in his _Diary_, describes as "one of the most
admirable ever penned." On the same day he was appointed a Colonel in
the Army and given the Order of the Garter--that most distinguished of
all orders of knighthood. At the same time Colonel the Hon. Robert
Bruce, brother of the Lord Elgin who had proved so successful a
Governor-General of Canada and India, was appointed Governor to the
Prince and was described by the Prince Consort as possessing amiability
with great mildness of expression and as being "full of ability." He had
been Military Secretary to Lord Elgin in Canada and was at this time in
command of a battalion in the Grenadier Guards.[3] A month later the
Prince started on a Continental tour accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Tarver
as his chaplain and director of studies. He stayed some time in Rome,
where he visited the Pope, on May 7 reached Gibraltar, and from thence
visited the south of Spain and Lisbon. He reached home in the middle of
June and took up a serious course of study at Edinburgh, with the late
Lord Playfair as his instructor in chemistry, and with other equally
distinguished teachers in specific lines or subjects. The public was at
this time taking much interest in these studies of the Heir Apparent and
fear was expressed that he might, perhaps, be over-educated. _Punch_
expressed this feeling in the following lines:
"To the south from the north, from the shores of the Forth,
Where at hands Presbyterian pure science is quaffed,
The Prince, in a trice, is whipped to the Isis,
Where Oxford keeps springs mediaeval on draught.
* * * * *
Dipped in grey Oxford mixture (lest _that_ be a fixture),
The poor lad's to be plunged in less orthodox Cam.,
Where dynamics and statics, and pure mathematics,
Will be piled on his brain's awful cargo of cram."
After three months of Edinburgh training the Prince Consort went down
and held a sort of conference with the teachers. He wrote as to the
result[4] that they all spoke highly of their pupil, who seemed to have
shown zeal and goodwill. "Dr. Lyon Playfair is giving him lectures on
chemistry in relation to manufactures and, at the close of each special
course, he visits the appropriate manufactory with him so as to explain
its practical application. Dr. Schmitz gives him lectures on Roman
history. Italian, German and French are advanced at the same time; and
three times a week the Prince exercises with the 16th Hussars who are
stationed in the city." It was of this period that Sir Wemyss Reid, in
his biography of Lord Playfair, tells an amusing story. The Prince and
Dr. Playfair were standing near a cauldron containing lead which was
boiling at white heat. "Has Your Royal Highness any faith in science,"
said the Professor and the reply was, "Certainly." The latter then
carefully washed the Prince's hand with ammonia and said:
"Will you now place your hand in this boiling metal and ladle out a
portion of it?"
"Do you tell me to do this?" asked the Prince.
The answer was in the affirmative and the Prince instantly put his hand
into the boiling mass and ladled out some of it without sustaining any
injury. Following this period of study at Edinburgh University came the
celebration of the Prince's nineteenth birthday and a hunting party in
the Highlands. Thence the Prince went to Oxford for a time and was
admitted a member of Christ Church College where he joined freely in the
social life and sports of the institution. On January 16, 1861, after
his return from Canada, he became an under-graduate of Trinity College,
Cambridge, and was allowed, by special favour, to live in a neighbouring
village with his Governor--Colonel Bruce. Here lectures were again given
to the Prince by Canon Kingsley and the young man was kept pretty close
to his studies during the winter of that year. In the summer he went on
military duty in Ireland and the Queen thus recorded in her _Diary_ a
visit paid to him at Curragh on August 26th: "At a little before three
we went to Bertie's hut which is, in fact, Sir George Brown's. It is
very comfortable--a nice little bedroom, sitting-room, drawing-room, and
a good sized dining-room where we lunched, with our whole party. Col.
Percy commands the Guards and Bertie is placed specially under him. I
spoke to him and thanked him for treating Bertie as he did, just like
any other officer, for I know that he keeps him up to his work in a way,
as General Bruce told me, that no one else had done; and yet Bertie
likes him very much."
DEATH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT
This was the last birthday of the Prince Consort and it was spent
travelling to Killarney with the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the
younger members of the Royal family. A few days there and then the young
Prince returned to camp. In the autumn he visited the Rhine manoeuvres
of the German army and met his future bride, the Princess Alexandra. He
then returned to Cambridge and from thence journeyed in haste to Windsor
on December 13th to be present at his father's death-bed on the
following evening. No sadder event has occurred in the history of