The King and Queen Alexandra with their three daughters went to Windsor on 27th June and visited Queen Victoria, who formally gave her consent to the engagement. On the receipt of the news at Marlborough House the fact was at once communicated to the Household, and the Marquis of Salisbury, the Prime Minister, was also officially informed. The Earl of Fife was received by Queen Victoria the same evening at Windsor Castle. In the House of Commons a Message from the Queen formally announced the intended marriage, and the First Lord of the Treasury gave notice of a motion to grant a suitable provision for the Royal bride, though owing to the great wealth of the bridegroom this was perhaps less necessary than it had been on the occasion of other Royal marriages. The Earl of Fife (Alexander William George Duff), Baron Skene of Skene, Viscount Macduff, and Baron Braco of Kilbryde, County Cavan, was the only son of James, fifth Earl of Fife, and of the Countess of Fife, who was Lady Agnes Georgiana Elizabeth Hay, daughter of the Earl of Erroll. He was born on 10th November 1849, and was educated at Eton. He succeeded his father in the Scotch and Irish honours on 7th August 1879, and was created an Earl of the United Kingdom in 1885. He sat as Viscount Macduff in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1879 as Liberal member for Elgin and Nairn. Lord Fife, who is one of the largest landed proprietors in Scotland, owning extensive estates in Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen, was created Duke of Fife and Marquis of Macduff in the peerage of the United Kingdom, on his wedding day, 27th July, having declined to take the title of Duke of Inverness. [Illustration: THE DUKE OF FIFE _From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co._] The wedding was celebrated in the Chapel at Buckingham Palace, in the presence of Queen Victoria, King Edward, and Queen Alexandra, with their sons and two younger daughters, the King of the Hellenes, the Crown Prince of Denmark, and the Grand Duke of Hesse. The King of the Hellenes has always been one of the favourite brothers-in-law of the King, who, with Queen Alexandra, went to Athens in the autumn to attend the wedding of the Duke of Sparta and Princess Sophie of Germany. The following year was not very eventful. In March the King performed the ceremonies of finishing and opening the Forth Bridge in the presence of an illustrious assembly, including his son Prince George, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had travelled from Russia on purpose, the Duke of Fife, and the Earl of Rosebery, who entertained the Royal party at Dalmeny. The last rivet, which the King fixed, is on the outside of the railway, and holds together three plates. Around its gilded top there runs a commemorative inscription. At the hour appointed for the formal declaration of the opening of the bridge, the wind was blowing so violently that it was impossible for His Majesty to make a speech. He simply said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I now declare the Forth Bridge open.”