The death of the Duke of Albany hushed the gaiety of a highly promising season, and West End tradesmen were full of lamentation when it was rumoured that the Court would shroud itself in gloom during the whole summer, though the official period of Court mourning was to end in May. But it was not alone in London that the Prince was mourned. His neighbours at Esher, rich and poor alike, felt his loss severely. They all spoke well of him and of his young wife, and recalled pleasant memories of his kindliness--how he joined the local chess club, sang at local concerts, and interested himself in the Duchess’s schemes for boarding out pauper children. After the death of the Duke the Queen announced her intention of maintaining Claremont as a residence for the widowed Duchess, a generous act, because Prince Leopold used to say that even with £20,000 a year to live on, Claremont kept him a poor man. But for the £20,000 which the Queen spent on the property during 1883 and 1884, this residence would in truth have seriously embarrassed him.[202] As a matter of fact, the favourite dwelling of the Duke of Albany was not Claremont but Boyton Manor, near Warminster in Wiltshire, of which place he was tenant when he died, and in the neighbourhood of which his memory is still lovingly cherished.[203] Soon after the funeral of the Duke of Albany the Queen was recommended by Sir William Jenner to go to Germany, and she thus resolved to visit her son-in-law and grandchildren at Darmstadt, where the marriage of the Princess Victoria of Hesse with Prince Louis of Battenberg was to be celebrated at the end of the month (April). Sir William believed that the change of scene and surroundings would do the Queen more good than a mournful sojourn at Osborne, where everything must recall reminiscences of her dead son. Her Majesty accordingly left Windsor on the 15th of April for Port Victoria, whence she embarked on the _Osborne_ and arrived at Flushing next morning. Therefrom she went by rail to Darmstadt, arriving early on the morning of the 17th. The voyage was unpleasant, and the weather between the Nore and the Scheldt so heavy that the Queen had to remain in her cabin during the greater part of her journey. Only the Grand Duke of Hesse and his daughters were on the platform to meet her Majesty, who had desired her reception to be as private as possible. Ere she left England she forwarded to the newspapers through the Home Secretary a letter expressing her gratitude to the people for their loving sympathy with her and the Duchess of Albany in their bereavement.