His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VIILowndes, Marie Belloc
History
His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII
Lowndes, Marie Belloc
Edward VII, King of Great Britain, 1841-1910
With regard to her son’s title of Duke of Rothesay, Queen Victoria
appends the following interesting note:--
“A title belonging to the eldest son of the Sovereign of Scotland, and
therefore held by the Prince of Wales as eldest son of the Queen, the
representative of the ancient Kings of Scotland.”
[Illustration: THE KING IN 1847
_From the Painting by Winterhalter_]
At Inveraray, which was next visited, the little Prince first met his
future brother-in-law, the Marquis of Lorne, whom the Queen describes,
in words which have often been quoted but will bear repetition, as
“just two years old, a dear, white, fat, fair little fellow with
reddish hair, but very delicate features, like both his father and
mother: he is such a merry, independent little child. He had a black
velvet dress and jacket, with a ‘sporran,’ scarf, and Highland bonnet.”
Naturally a good deal of interest was taken in the little Prince of
Wales by those who had an opportunity of seeing him. When the great
geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, went to Balmoral, the Queen’s eldest
son, “a pleasing, lively boy,” gave him an account of the conjuring of
Anderson, the “Wizard of the North,” who had just then shown the Court
some marvellous tricks. Said the Prince in an awestruck tone:--
“He cut to pieces Mamma’s pocket-handkerchief, then darned it and
ironed it so that it was as entire as ever; he then fired a pistol,
and caused five or six watches to go through Gibbs’s head; but Papa
knows how all these things are done, and had the watches really gone
through Gibbs’s head he could hardly have looked so well, though he was
confounded.”
Gibbs, it should be mentioned, was a footman.
The late Archbishop Benson, before he went up to Cambridge, was tutor
to the sons of Mr. Wicksted, then tenant of Abergeldie Castle. Writing
to his mother on 15th September 1848, young Mr. Benson gives the
following interesting description of a glimpse which he had of the King
as a little boy:--
“The Prince of Wales is a fair little lad, rather of slender make, with
a good head and a remarkably quiet and thinking face, above his years
in intelligence I should think. The sailor portrait of him is a good
one, but does not express the thought that there is on his little brow.
Prince Alfred is a fair, chubby little lad, with a quiet look, but
quite the Guelph face, which does not appear in the Prince of Wales.”
[Illustration: THE LANDING OF QUEEN VICTORIA, PRINCE ALBERT, AND THEIR
CHILDREN AT ABERDEEN
_From a Painting by Cleland_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account