On February 18th, a number of appointments were made to the Household including Lord Suffield as Lord-in-Waiting with General the Right Hon. Sir D. M. Probyn, Sir John McNeill, Lord Wantage, V.C., Sir Fleetwood Edwards and Sir Arthur Bigge as Extra Equerries to His Majesty. General, Viscount Bridport and General the Duke of Grafton were appointed Honorary Equerries and Major-Generals Sir Henry P. Ewart and Sir Stanley Clarke to other positions at Court. Queen Alexandra appointed the members of her Household under date of March 8th and they included the Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry as Mistress of the Robes, the Countesses of Antrim, Macclesfield, Gosford and Lytton and the Lady Suffield and Dowager Countess of Morton as Ladies of the Bedchamber, Lord Colville of Culross as Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Gosford as Vice-Chamberlain, the Earl de Grey as Treasurer, and the Hon. S. R. Greville as Private Secretary. Numerous appointments of an honorary kind in connection with the Army and Navy followed and on July 24th the Earl of Pembroke was announced as Lord Steward of His Majesty's Household, the Hon. V. C. W. Cavendish M.P. as Treasurer, Viscount Valentia M.P. as Comptroller, Lord Farquhar as Master of the Household, the Earl of Clarendon as Lord Chamberlain, Major-General Sir Arthur Ellis as Comptroller of Accounts, the Duke of Portland as Master of the Horse, the Duke of Argyll as Governor of Windsor Castle and the following as Lords-in-Waiting: the Earl of Denbigh, the Earl of Kintore, Earl Howe, Lord Suffield, Lord Kenyon, Lord Churchill and Lord Lawrence. Many of these names may be recognized as amongst the friends or officials of the King, in his later years as the Heir Apparent, or as companions in some of his travels. On March 24th, following the custom of British Sovereigns, several special Embassies were appointed and announced to carry to European Courts the official intimation of His Majesty's accession. That to Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Russia, Germany and Saxony, included the Duke of Abercorn, the Earl of Kintore, Major-General Sir Archibald Hunter and the Marquess of Hamilton, M.P. and that to Belgium, Bavaria, Italy, Wurtemberg and the Netherlands, included the Earl of Mount Edgecombe, Viscount Downe and Admiral Sir Michael Culme-Seymour. Earl Carrington, the Earl of Harewood and others were appointed to France, Spain and Portugal and Field Marshal Lord Wolseley, Viscount Castlereagh and others to Austro-Hungary, Roumania, Servia and Turkey. CHAPTER XVIII. The First Year of the New Reign