The month of May was naturally a very busy one for the King and Queen. On the 22nd their Majesties, representing Queen Victoria, opened the new Blackwall tunnel in State, the East End of London giving them a right Royal reception. On this occasion His Majesty was presented with one of the heaviest gold medals ever struck in England, weighing 12 ounces, and bearing on the reverse a representation of the tunnel in perspective. On the 26th His Majesty opened the new Medical School of Guy’s Hospital; on the 27th the King and Queen, with their son and two of their daughters, opened the Royal Military Tournament; on the 28th, at the request of Queen Victoria, the King and Queen, accompanied by Princess Victoria, laid the first stone of the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital in the City Road; on the 29th the King and Queen, with their son and two of their daughters, went down to Canterbury to open the restored Chapter-house of the Cathedral, and in the evening the King dined with the past and present officers of the Norfolk Artillery Militia, of which he is honorary colonel. On the 31st the King held a _levée_ at St. James’s Palace, and in the evening dined with the 1st Guards Club. [Illustration: THE KING IN THE UNDRESS UNIFORM OF AN ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET _From a Photograph taken in 1897 by Mullins, Ryde_] This is a short summary, which does not pretend to be by any means exhaustive of His Majesty’s engagements for a very few days, but it brings out perhaps more vividly than a detailed list could possibly do the whole-hearted manner in which the King threw himself into the great tide of national rejoicing which reached its flood in that memorable June of 1897. King Edward, for a variety of reasons, took a much greater part in the Diamond Jubilee festivities of 1897 than he did in those of ten years before. All the arrangements were submitted for his approval as well as Queen Victoria’s, and it was largely owing to his conspicuous organising ability that everything went off with such triumphant success. Both the King and Queen Alexandra associated themselves in a special manner with the occasion, the former by his Hospital Fund for London, and the latter by her thoughtful scheme of providing one good dinner for the very poorest. The Hospital Fund greatly benefited by the sale of a special stamp, the design of which was selected by the King himself.