The death of the Duchess of Teck on 27th October was a terrible blow to the King and Queen Alexandra. In the previous April the Duchess had undergone a severe operation with the magnificent courage characteristic of her, and as soon as she was able to receive visitors the very first who came was King Edward. Her Royal Highness seemed quite to have conquered her malady. She went up to London from White Lodge in June, and bore her part in many of the Diamond Jubilee rejoicings. No one who saw the Jubilee procession will ever forget the people’s welcome to the Duchess of Teck--great in the West End, but greatest of all in the poorer parts of London, and second only to the reception accorded to Queen Victoria herself. The Duchess attended the Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, and at the Duchess of Devonshire’s ball she appeared as the Electress Sophia. Visits to Northumberland and Westmoreland followed, but towards the end of October, when Her Royal Highness had returned to White Lodge, the illness returned. The surgeons again operated successfully, but the patient could not rally from the shock. There had been practically no warning, so that the news came with equal suddenness both to the Royal Family and the nation. King Edward and Queen Alexandra immediately hurried up from Sandringham, and afterwards, at the deeply impressive funeral in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, His Majesty represented his Royal mother. This bereavement was the more terrible from its utter unexpectedness, and, as has been so singularly often the case in our Royal Family, it happened in the autumn. Princess Mary, who stood in the relation of second cousin to King Edward, was, although belonging technically to the same generation as Queen Victoria, but a few years older than His Majesty, and the most affectionate and close relations had always existed between them, a fact shown on many occasions throughout their joint lives, and nowhere more strikingly than in the great satisfaction expressed by both the King and Queen Alexandra at the marriage of their only surviving son to the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. Earlier in the autumn an attempt was made to use the King’s great personal prestige and popularity in order to bring to a close the struggle between masters and men in the engineering trade. The writer received the following reply:-- “MARLBOROUGH HOUSE, PALL MALL, S.W., _8th October 1897_. “DEAR SIR--I am directed by the Prince of Wales to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th inst., and to inform you, in reply, that, while he deeply deplores the disastrous state of affairs in the engineering industry, he feels that it would not be right or proper for him to attempt in any way to interfere or to mix himself up in them. His Royal Highness regrets that he is unable to act on your suggestion.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant, “FRANCIS KNOLLYS.”