A delightfully smooth grassy spot surrounded by magnificent fir-trees was the place chosen for the revels. The day was ideal for a September picnic—one of those warm, mellow autumn afternoons with magic melting blue distances, when departing Summer seems to put on her loveliest attire and most attractive mood before saying her final farewell. All the mosquitoes—that plague of Potsdam in summer—had departed, the fir-trees distilled their resinous balm in the sunshine, which played in flickering light and shade on their red sienna stems and dark-green masses of foliage; the beeches were beginning to turn a tawny yellow, while there was a fresh sparkle in the air, exhilarating to the spirits and peculiarly appropriate, it was felt, to the performance of feats of skill.
Four Kremserwagen—enormous wagonettes, much in request on fête-days in Germany—brought the smiling loads of happy maidenhood, all dressed in their neat white-linen uniform dresses and sailor hats, to the appointed place. There were seventy or eighty of them altogether, besides six teachers. The proceedings began with tea, and immediately it was finished the joyous crowd of girls, reinforced by some other young princes and princesses who came accompanied by their tutors, two young men wearing orthodox top-hats and frock-coats and a general air of funereal respectability, began to play “tag,” “drop-handkerchief,” and other games which they had confidently expected as a form of diversion usual to the occasion. But they were soon stopped and told that a totally new and superior form of entertainment had been provided for them, founded on English principles, of which I was to be the organizer and exponent.
Nervous apprehension took possession of my soul as, followed by the radiantly expectant “Backfische,” I wended my way anxiously to our Sportplatz. Here the hurdles, corn-sacks, and other material had been brought from the palace stables by two respectfully-interested grooms, who fondly hoped to witness the English sports from a suitable distance, but were remorselessly sent away.
The ropes, red flags, buckets, eggs, spoons and other things were regarded with excited anticipation and wonderment—especially the basket containing the prizes, which, I may as well mention here, cost individually not more than twopence each, collectively just eighteen shillings—a sum afterwards refunded to us by Her Majesty the Empress, who thought it “extremely cheap for so much joy,” providing, as it did, more than ninety prizes.
By a subtly-arranged system of handicapping and consolation races each girl, whatever her abilities in the domain of athletics, was eventually enabled to obtain one of the coveted prizes, presented, it is needless to say, at the conclusion of the proceedings by the little Princess herself, who, an ardent devotee of sport, had competed with success in many of the races, waiving, however, her right to a prize in favour of her guests.
This untried excursion into the unknown turned out a brilliant success from every point of view; the teachers, who had been formed into a Sports Committee, with quick feminine intuition had immediately grasped their duties, which they carried out with the greatest intelligence and impartiality; the girls themselves were the keenest and most enthusiastic I ever met; their achievements in the sack-race—won by the young Baroness Irma von Kramm—must have been seen to be believed (“Is this a usual English sport for ladies?” asked the head-mistress, as they hopped screaming past the winning-post); but the only rift within the lute was the attitude of the tutors, which, to say the least of it, was decidedly chilly. Perhaps they felt uncomfortable in the midst of that vortex of femeninity, or they may have been offended at not being on the Committee, or that they were not invited in their manly capacity to take the direction of affairs; be that as it may, they remained austerely aloof, only occasionally interfering when some one fell down or seemed likely to get overheated. One of more genial mood than his fellows had stood near the hurdle in the obstacle race, and on its being knocked
