Habits and Character of the Prince

During forty years of his career as Prince of Wales, King Edward VII. was probably the most talked-of man in the United Kingdom. Good-natured stories, ill-natured anecdotes, criticisms grading down from the malicious to the very mild, praise ranging from the fulsome to the feeble point, falsehoods great and falsehoods small, have found currency not confined to the English language and ranging through "yarns" of gutter journals in London, Paris, Berlin, New York or Calcutta, in varied languages, and in many degrees of fabrication. Outside of the United Kingdom some of these stories have been more or less believed; even in his own national home there were always people ready and willing to accept the worst that they heard about a great public personage. Where he was known best, however, the influence of these things upon the reputation of the Prince of Wales was least and, in fact, so small as to afford little or no excuse for dealing with them. Abroad, however, it had always been different, and in the United States, thirty years before his accession to the Throne, it was conspicuously so. With the passing years, of course, and with growing knowledge of the Prince's position and character, the situation greatly changed.

As a matter of fact the Prince of Wales, from the early days of his manhood, was in his personal and private relations a jovial, honest and honourable English gentleman; possessed of a full sense of his responsibility in much burdensome work and ceremonial and with a growing appreciation, as years passed, of his place as a sort of impartial Empire statesman; possessed, also, of a large fund of animal spirits and capacity for enjoying the pleasures of life. Within the full limits of his rights and his position he lived his life of work and pleasure, of public responsibility and of private rest and recreation. Yet it was almost always in the blaze of a noon-day publicity and few, indeed, were the times and seasons in which the Heir Apparent could amuse himself in any genuine incognito. Attempt it he might, but if any evil-minded critic were to seriously or conscientiously consider the situation—both of which suppositions are improbable—he might have seen that the best-known and most photographed man in the world would indeed have been foolish to trust to an incognito for any but the simplest and most innocent of objects. The actual impossibility of the Prince of Wales escaping from his entourage, his identity, and his surroundings, were sufficient to make Continental fictions and foreign fancies about him absolutely farcical to those who knew something of his daily life—aside altogether from those who knew and understood his real character.

THE MORDAUNT CASE

There was only one matter involving moral considerations which ever emerged from the low region of back-door insinuation to the upper air and it was threshed out in a cause celebre—that of Lady Mordaunt. Her husband, an English baronet, sued for divorce before the Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, alleging the usual grounds, and naming as co-respondents, Viscount Cole and Sir Frederick Johnstone. The case was heard on February 16th, 1870, and following days, and the defence on the part of Lady Mordaunt was insanity. The Prince of Wales, though not specified in the indictment, was so widely gossiped about as being connected with the case that he asked to be heard and swore positively that there had been no improper relations between himself and the defendant. Two of the Judges on Appeal—Lord Penzance and Mr. Justice Keating—agreed with the jury's verdict that Lady Mordaunt was insane, while Chief Baron Kelly differed. The woman in the case was for years afterwards confined in a lunatic asylum, and it has long since been quite well understood that the only basis for scandal was the fact that a Royal visit which had been paid upon one occasion was made under the invariable rule of etiquette, which prescribes that no other caller shall be received while the visit lasts. Before and after the trouble Lady Mordaunt's sisters, and especially the Dowager Countess of Dudley, were amongst the Princess of Wales' warm friends, while the daughter of the plaintiff in the case was, in later years, received at Sandringham, and was given many beautiful presents by the members of the Royal family upon her marriage to the Marquess of Bath. Such conditions would have been absolutely impossible to imagine with the Princess of Wales had she entertained the slightest belief in the stories floating about regarding that famous trial. During the succeeding thirty years, however, there was never even an apparent excuse for the repetition of such stories, and the happy home life of the Prince and Princess was patent to all who were willing to believe the evidence of their eyes and ears.

What may be said of the characteristics and habits of this many-sided heir to Royal position? Probably his first and most pronounced quality was one of difficult definition—tactfulness. Through its means he led society without rivalry and with unique success; promoted reforms without violence of agitation or the creation of antagonisms; carried out countless varied and delicate duties, with noiseless celerity, in an age of intense and active curiosity. In forty years of ceaseless political change and frequently acute political crises not a whisper of his private views became known to the million-tongued press or the curious public. He had known every kind of partisan and been liked by leaders of the masses as well as the classes—by Joseph Arch and Henry Broadhurst, as well as by the Earl of Derby or the Marquess of Salisbury. If he visited Mr. Gladstone at Hawarden on one occasion he paid the same honour to Lord Beaconsfield at Hughenden at another time. If Lord Randolph Churchill was a personal friend so also was Lord Rosebery, or Mr. Balfour. His genial manner and sometimes cosmopolitan view of society encouraged a popular opinion as to his natural democracy; while a personal dignity, never forced, or assumed, but always present, prevented the most courageous person from taking undue advantage of the freedom from ceremonial which he sometimes liked to encourage. His preferences in international matters were as little known as his political opinions, and yet, at times, his influence in this respect was very great.

SPORTING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRINCE

The next and perhaps most prominent characteristic of the Prince of Wales was his love for sports and his embodiment of qualities which, in everyday life, constitute the English country gentleman. Some reference has already been made to his interest in racing, yachting and shooting. But most of the lesser sports and games were also attractive to him at different periods, and there was hardly one with which he was not more or less familiar. Boating and riding in his University days and fox-hunting at Sandringham from time to time in later years, were incidents of this record. Croquet he was an expert in, but never very fond of. Lawn-tennis, when first introduced and for years afterwards, was a game to which he was very partial, and on the Serapis when traversing the route to India he played deck-tennis until everyone else was exhausted. The bowling-alley at Sandringham was one of the best in England and the Prince was always fond of a game of bowls. Quoits he played well, and billiards he played with frequency and skill—his daughters being also able to handle the cue with success. Hockey was a favourite game, especially on the lakes at Sandringham, and of this sport the other members of his family were equally fond. Skating and hockey parties were frequent during severe winter seasons and the Prince played in many specially arranged hockey matches—one of them against members of the House of Commons in the winter of 1894-5 included Mr. Balfour, Lord Stanley, Lord Willoughby de Eresby and Mr. Victor Cavendish.

Fishing never appealed to him and was, apparently, too quiet and easy a sport. He liked pigeon-flying, and bred some very fine birds at Sandringham for this purpose. Tricycling he was very fond of and kept good machines both at Marlborough and Sandringham. As soon as motor cars came into use he could be frequently seen driving a smart carriage along the country roads of Norfolk. Chess the Prince never mastered nor cared for. In dancing he was an expert, as well as in skating, and was always exceedingly fond of the amusement. At his Sandringham balls he was an indefatigable dancer, and at great balls all over the world he delighted many a partner and varied social circle by his obvious pleasure in the entertainment. From Halifax to Montreal, from Toronto to New York, in Canada and the United States, in Egypt and India, in Turkey and Greece, in all the greater Courts of Europe, from the days of Napoleon III. at Paris, to those of William II. at Berlin, he had been the central figure of some such occasions. Golf was played by His Royal Highness on the links of Musselburgh in early days and at a later time in Windsor Park. Cricket he was fond of in his younger days, but latterly he only showed his interest by patronizing matches as an onlooker. In these and other pursuits the Prince represented in his mode of life and his manner of enjoying himself the qualities of a distinct type amongst his countrymen and a type most popular throughout the community.

Another characteristic of the Prince was his good manners. The "first gentleman in Europe" always knew how to be pleasant without being familiar, dignified without being pompous, genial without being free. Myriads of stories are told in this connection. At the skating and hockey parties on the Sandringham lakes the farmers' wives and daughters were included and no Duchess in the land would be handed a cup of tea with more courtly manner by the Royal host than would the wife of a tenant on his estates. His servants, in houses and farms and stables, in sport or travel, at home and abroad, were treated in such a way as to make every one of them wish to serve the Prince for a life-time. No more charming incident is on record than the way in which His Royal Highness approached Mrs. Gladstone at the state funeral of her great husband, bowed low before her and kissed her proffered hand. Whether in high circles, or in those of ordinary people, in expected surroundings or amid unexpected conditions, the Prince seemed to always retain this faculty of politeness in the true sense of the word—a product of heart and mind rather than of mere instruction or habit.

His manner and style of public speaking was an incident in the Prince of Wales' career which exercised considerable influence upon his personal popularity. The pronounced factors in his style were not oratory, gestures, or brilliancy. Plain in matter and manner the speeches always were; full of meat and substance they frequently were; neat and effective they were generally considered. Mr. Gladstone once went further than this description would seem to warrant when he declared that there were few speakers whom he listened to with more pleasure. "His speeches are invariably marvels of conciseness, graceful expression and clear elocution". His voice was a good one, clear and distinct and well-trained. Nervous in his younger days and accustomed to learn the speeches off for delivery, he gradually changed with age and experience into the delivery of impromptu after-dinner remarks and speeches which did not show traces of the midnight oil or earnest preparation—although often full of facts and incidents about the immense variety of subjects with which he had to deal.

Intimately connected with these characteristics of his was the unquestioned ability to judge human nature. This quality enabled the Prince to play his difficult part so well as he did, to keep him in touch with all classes and the masses, to cultivate all the varied elements of a changing national life, and to be as much at home amongst business men as at the Royal Academy—amongst the aristocracy of London as with the farmers of Norfolk. He was ever a good judge of the people around him and, perhaps, no man in modern life was so well and faithfully served. His memory for names and faces was extraordinary and would remind Canadians of the unique faculty in this connection possessed by the late Sir John Macdonald. He always hated affectation and toadyism and liked sincerity and simplicity. Marie Corelli, writing in 1897, used the following expressive words: "To entertain the Prince do little; for he is clever enough to entertain himself privately with the folly and humbug of those he sees around him, without actually sharing in the petty comedy. He is a keen observer and must derive infinite gratification from his constant study of men and manners, which is sufficiently deep and searching to fit him for the occupation of even the throne of England. I say 'even', for at present, till time's great hourglass turns, it is the grandest throne in the world".

Patronage of music, art and the drama were characteristic incidents in the life and work of the Prince. The day for helping literature had perhaps gone when he came upon the scene and newspapers were then supposed to do for budding genius what royalty and aristocracy did for Johnson, Goldsmith, Swift or Pope. It is a curious fact of later-day democracy that, with the obvious exception of Kipling, most of the greater lights in literature—Browning, Rossetti, Tennyson, Mathew Arnold or Swinburne—were born with fairly comfortable means. This in passing, of course. Something has been said elsewhere as to His Royal Highness's patronage of music and there is no doubt that he taught smart society to support the opera, while his personal enthusiasm for Wagner was pronounced and sincere.

THE THEATRE AND THE CHURCH

He patronized the theatre for many years with regularity and discrimination; his taste in all matters of light comedy and opera was known to be good; and it goes without saying that his approval of a play or actor made many a reputation and fortune. He used to make his own selection of theatre or play, pay handsomely for his own box, arrive punctually on time and remain till the end, or very near it. His dislike of ostentation soon did away with the old fashion of a manager walking upstairs backward before royalty and his leaving a little early was to avoid causing delay and confusion with their carriages amongst the other guests of the theatre. Actors have greatly exaggerated the extent of his patronage and friendship. But he more than once took supper with Sir Henry Irving and it is understood to have been by his advice that the great tragedian was knighted. He it was who encouraged the late Queen to resume her patronage of the theatre and to begin by having Mr. and Mrs. Kendal appear before her at Osborne. He never liked, however, the appearance of members of the aristocracy on the stage and his daughters are said to have never taken part even in private theatricals. He is said to have enjoyed a private visit and smoke behind the scenes and George Grossmith is stated to have been one of those who were most patronized in this respect.

An interesting feature of his many-sided career and character was the Heir Apparent's attention to his religious duties. At Marlborough and at Sandringham prayers were read daily, in the morning, and guests, staff and servants were expected, though not compelled, to be present. On Sunday the Prince invariably attended morning service either at the Chapel Royal in London, or at the quaint and beautiful little Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, in the country. The latter was filled with handsome Memorial windows and tablets and there, for many years, worshipped the future King with the humblest labourers on his estate. The only distinction made was in the private entrance for the Prince and the reserved pews for his guests and family. His daughters taught in the Sunday School and the Princess had charge of the music. It has been said that the Prince never attended Divine service on a Sunday in any but an Episcopal church. Certainly the records of his travels and habits appear to confirm this statement. Whether in Bombay, or Montreal, or New York, he seems to have always attended the services of the Established Church or its daughter Churches. Even in Rome, where he once spent Easter Sunday, impressive ceremonies conducted by the Pope at St. Peter's did not prevent him from attending a quiet little English church and explaining that when members of the Church were in foreign lands they should be especially particular in encouraging their own form of faith.

Of course, as a traveller of wide experience the Prince visited all the great cathedrals of the Continent and was familiar with the splendid Mohammedan mosques and Hindoo temples and sacred shrines which helped to make the glittering East so attractive. But they were visited on week-days. He was supposed to be broad in his principles as a Churchman and certainly at state weddings and funerals in other countries he shared in various forms of worship. The Princess of Wales was known to have attended ritualistic services before her husband's accession to the Throne, but she far more often attended Low or Broad Church services. On Sundays at Sandringham the Prince used, in the afternoons, to walk about the grounds with his family or guests, visit the kennels, the bear-pit, the model farms or the Princess's lovely little dairy and its suite of tiny attached rooms where tea would often be served. In London he would sometime attend Divine service again or else pay calls in his private hansom and then dine quietly with friends or have a few of them to dinner at Marlborough. Sunday afternoons at Sandringham were always greatly enjoyed by Sir Frederick Leighton and Lord Beaconsfield but Mr. Gladstone is said to have best liked long, lonely rambles through the woods of the estate.

An important part of the character of a man in the position so long held by the Prince of Wales is the fact of moderation, or otherwise, in eating and drinking. It is a vital factor in the lives of all men but how much more so when great banquets are for months a daily function; when every luxury, or delicacy, or combination of cookery known to the civilized world and the barbaric East is at one time or another offered for his delectation; when the power of rulers and the wealth of millionaires are devoted to the furnishing of choice wines and liqueurs and drinks for his use. The good health always enjoyed by the Prince was perhaps proof enough of his moderation at the table. His habits in this respect became pretty well known. Tea at breakfast and in the afternoon he always liked; Moselle cup he enjoyed and was rather proud of possessing the receipt brought from Germany by the Prince Consort; champagne for many years was almost his exclusive beverage though afterwards claret took its place. Between meals he seldom drank anything though a well-known "cocktail" in the London clubs is credited to his invention. He always strongly disapproved of ladies drinking anything but a little wine and this was well understood by his own guests or by those at houses where he visited.

Reference must be made here to one unpleasant incident in the Prince of Wales' later career—unpleasant in its results and in the comments of the press and pulpit. To playing cards for an occasional evening's amusement the Prince was always partial, but not to the extent which was sometimes asserted.

CARDS AND THE BACCARAT AFFAIR

During his journeys abroad he seldom or never played and he made a strict and early rule against playing in clubs. His friends say that he used to frequently dissuade younger men or the sons of old friends from forming a habit in this connection and as a well-known man of the world, without affectation and with wide experience and a naturally commanding influence, his views no doubt had great weight. Hence the most regrettable feature in the famous Baccarat case of 1890 which was, for a time, one of the most talked-of and preached-at incidents in modern social life. To understand the matter it is necessary to look at the Prince's environment. He was the leader of society and society, together with a large proportion of people everywhere, saw no harm in a game of cards, or even in the accompaniment of playing for ordinary money stakes, any more than they saw harm in racing and betting upon the results, or in dancing and its accompaniment of late hours and perhaps frivolous dissipation. Yet to many people in the United Kingdom and the Empire danger and evil lurked in one or all of these amusements and it was a shock to them to find that the Heir Apparent actually indulged in card-playing; although everyone had known that he patronized the other two pursuits referred to.

The history of the affair may be told briefly. On September 8th, during the Doncaster races, Mr. Arthur Wilson, a very wealthy shipowner, was entertaining a large party at Tranby Croft, near Hull, which included the Prince of Wales, Lord Coventry, General Owen Williams, Sir William Gordon-Cumming, Lord Craven, Lord and Lady Brougham and Lord Edward Somerset. When each day's racing was over and the company had returned to Tranby Croft and finished dinner, Baccarat was introduced as the amusement of the evening and played for a couple of hours. The stakes were moderate—for such a party—and ran from five shillings to ten pounds. About seventeen people, ladies and gentlemen, usually sat down and the Prince of Wales was the life of the party, as he generally was, whatever the occupation or sport. On the date mentioned, Mr. Stanley Wilson, the host's son, thought he saw Sir W. Gordon-Cumming using his counters fraudulently and informed Lord Coventry and General Williams of his suspicions. On the third evening a committee of five—two ladies and three gentlemen—watched the baronet and unanimously agreed that they saw him cheating. He was privately accused of the offence, denied it vehemently, and brought the matter before the Prince, who practically acted as judge and regretfully told him that there could be no doubt of his guilt.

It was, perhaps the most difficult position the Prince of Wales had ever been placed in. To hand a friend and fellow-guest and well-known soldier over to justice meant in this case ruin to the man himself, disgrace to their host and his family and a considerable amount of discredit to the Prince. Of the latter point it is probable that the Prince thought least, as his fidelity to friends was always well-known. Yet to let the apparently guilty man go without punishment or restriction was impossible from every standpoint. The Prince, therefore, tried to square his duty all round by a compromise and made Sir W. Gordon-Cumming sign a pledge to never play at cards again. The natural result followed where at least seven people hold a secret of much importance. It became known, or rather rumored, the resignation of the baronet from the Army was not accepted pending inquiry and, finally, he precipitated the issue by sueing the committee of five—Mrs. Arthur Wilson, Mr. Stanley Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. Lycett Green and Mr. Berkeley Levett—for scandal. Sir Charles Russell acted for the defence and Sir Edward Clarke for the plaintiff and, after a sensational trial, the action was dismissed.

The case created the most intense interest and for a time His Royal Highness was the most criticised man in the United Kingdom. Press and pulpit thundered forth denunciations of gambling and card-playing, and lectured the Prince upon his duty to the nation and his responsibility for public morality. Every extreme religious speaker or writer, every Radical paper, or pamphleteer, or lecturer found the Heir to the Throne an excellent subject for abuse, while the best papers abroad teemed with reflections which could hardly be termed generous. Speaking of the counters which had been used in these games and which were brought by the Prince personally to Tranby Croft the New York Tribune declared that in them he had "fingered the fragments of the Crown of England." Upon one point all the home papers were united and that was that in trying to arrange and settle the matter the Prince had contravened the Army regulations.

The better class of papers were very serious upon the subject. The London Times declared that the Heir Apparent could not put off his responsibilities as he did his official dress and, while admitting the assiduity and tact and good-humour with which he performed his dull round of routine duties, it yet bitterly regretted the example he had now set. The Daily News thought that the Prince had only been guilty of an indiscretion, so far as his action toward Gordon-Cumming was concerned, but went on to say that what was blameless as an example in meaner men, was very different in one of his exalted position. The Standard denounced the whole affair from beginning to end. "The Prince of Wales is not as other men. His position demands a sobriety, a self-restraint, and a dignity from which people of less exalted position and lighter responsibilities are absolved." The religious press put no bounds to its denunciation. The Christian World spoke of the matter as an "outrage to the public conscience" and the British Weekly thought it "enough to sober the strongest supporters of the Monarchy." Resolutions were passed at some Church meetings of a similar character.

AFTERMATH OF THE INCIDENT

Then the re-action came. His Royal Highness expressed to the Military authorities and the House of Commons his apologies for an unintentional infraction of Army regulations; it was pointed out that playing a game of cards in a private house was not setting a public example and that the situation was so unique that any man in the Prince's place would have been pardoned in not knowing what to do; the cause of the trouble was dismissed from the Army and expelled from his clubs. The Daily Telegraph pointed out that the carrying of the Baccarat counters, which was apparently deemed the most serious part of the matter by many commentators, was a very common habit with players of this game as the symbols for money tended to moderation in playing, and were better in every way than slips of paper. Years afterwards, Mr. Arnold White stated it as a fact that these famous bits of pasteboard were actually a present from the Princess of Wales. The public came to feel after the first hasty judgment was given that, after all, the Prince had risked a good deal for a friend and the Observer went so far as to say that "under the most difficult and trying circumstances His Royal Highness has acted as ninety-nine Englishmen out of a hundred would have done." The Rev. Dr. Charles A. Berry, the eminent Non-conformist divine, declared that the people were not going to be unduly severe in their judgment. "They recognize the fact that he does a great deal of public work and is compelled to live almost continually a life of unnatural pressure. It is, therefore, to say the least, understandable that he should seek pleasure and relaxation in some form of excitement."

Then the issue cooled down as suddenly as the tempest had arisen, and before long it would have been hard to recognize that so stormy a stage of criticism had swept over the popular Prince's head. In the Life of Archbishop Benson, published many years afterwards, there appeared a long letter from the Heir Apparent in answer to a note of sympathy received at this time from His Grace. The Prince spoke of the "deep pain and annoyance" which the Baccarat incident had caused him; of the recent trial which had given the press occasion "to make most bitter and unjust attacks upon me, knowing I was defenceless—and I am not sure that politics were not mixed up in it." Speaking of the papers and the Nonconformists, who had been especially strong in their remarks, he added some interesting expressions as to his general view of gambling. "They have a perfect right, I am well aware, in a free country like our own, to express their opinions, but I do not consider that they have a just right to jump at conclusions regarding myself, without knowing the facts. I have a horror of gambling, and should always do my utmost to discourage others who have an inclination for it, as I consider gambling, like intemperance, is one of the greatest curses which a country could be afflicted with. Horse-racing may produce gambling, or it may not, but I have always looked upon it as a manly sport which is popular with Englishmen of all classes, and there is no reason why it should be looked upon as a gambling transaction. Alas, those who gamble will gamble at anything."

Such were some of the characteristics and habits and social incidents in the career of King Edward while he was Prince of Wales. They show how entirely he shared in the life of the majority of the people—a fact all the more illustrated in the occasions when he departed from his natural and usual course and seemed to participate in matters outside of the accepted and popular pursuits of the people. It is the picture of a man who loved his England, liked life and its pleasures, hated humbug, enjoyed sport, did his duty as it came to him and liked the play, the race-course and all the sports of a healthy, hearty Englishman. They prove the accuracy of that interesting description penned in his Diary by the King of Sweden and which, somehow, became public: "The Heir Apparent to the British Throne is Prince of Wales by name, Prince of Society by inclination, Prince of Good Fellows by nature."