Dipped in grey Oxford mixture (lest that be a fixture),
The poor lad's to be plunged in less orthodox Cam.,
Where dynamics and statics, and pure mathematics,
Will be piled on his brain's awful cargo of cram."
After three months of Edinburgh training the Prince Consort went down and held a sort of conference with the teachers. He wrote as to the result[4] that they all spoke highly of their pupil, who seemed to have shown zeal and goodwill. "Dr. Lyon Playfair is giving him lectures on chemistry in relation to manufactures and, at the close of each special course, he visits the appropriate manufactory with him so as to explain its practical application. Dr. Schmitz gives him lectures on Roman history. Italian, German and French are advanced at the same time; and three times a week the Prince exercises with the 16th Hussars who are stationed in the city." It was of this period that Sir Wemyss Reid, in his biography of Lord Playfair, tells an amusing story. The Prince and Dr. Playfair were standing near a cauldron containing lead which was boiling at white heat. "Has Your Royal Highness any faith in science," said the Professor and the reply was, "Certainly." The latter then carefully washed the Prince's hand with ammonia and said:
"Will you now place your hand in this boiling metal and ladle out a portion of it?"
"Do you tell me to do this?" asked the Prince.
The answer was in the affirmative and the Prince instantly put his hand into the boiling mass and ladled out some of it without sustaining any injury. Following this period of study at Edinburgh University came the celebration of the Prince's nineteenth birthday and a hunting party in the Highlands. Thence the Prince went to Oxford for a time and was admitted a member of Christ Church College where he joined freely in the social life and sports of the institution. On January 16, 1861, after his return from Canada, he became an under-graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was allowed, by special favour, to live in a neighbouring village with his Governor—Colonel Bruce. Here lectures were again given to the Prince by Canon Kingsley and the young man was kept pretty close to his studies during the winter of that year. In the summer he went on military duty in Ireland and the Queen thus recorded in her Diary a visit paid to him at Curragh on August 26th: "At a little before three we went to Bertie's hut which is, in fact, Sir George Brown's. It is very comfortable—a nice little bedroom, sitting-room, drawing-room, and a good sized dining-room where we lunched, with our whole party. Col. Percy commands the Guards and Bertie is placed specially under him. I spoke to him and thanked him for treating Bertie as he did, just like any other officer, for I know that he keeps him up to his work in a way, as General Bruce told me, that no one else had done; and yet Bertie likes him very much."
DEATH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT
This was the last birthday of the Prince Consort and it was spent travelling to Killarney with the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the younger members of the Royal family. A few days there and then the young Prince returned to camp. In the autumn he visited the Rhine manœuvres of the German army and met his future bride, the Princess Alexandra. He then returned to Cambridge and from thence journeyed in haste to Windsor on December 13th to be present at his father's death-bed on the following evening. No sadder event has occurred in the history of English royalty than this premature and much-mourned death of the good and really great Prince Consort. To the young Heir Apparent it meant the loss of a loving father, a careful guardian, a watchful and wise adviser. To the wife and widow it meant the ruin of a great happiness and a sorrow which no passing years could ever remove. Sir Theodore Martin's beautiful description of the scene at the death-bed, at which knelt the Queen, the Princess Alice, the Princess Helena and the Prince of Wales, may well be given here: "In the solemn hush of that mournful chamber there was such grief as has rarely hallowed any death-bed. A great light, which had blessed the world, and which the mourners had but yesterday hoped might long bless it, was waning fast away. A husband, a father, a friend, a master, endeared by every quality by which man in such relations can win the love of his fellow-man, was passing into the Silent Land, and his loving glance, his wise counsels, his firm, manly thought should be known among them no more. The Castle clock chimed the third quarter after ten. Calm and peaceful grew the beloved form; the features settled into the beauty of a perfectly serene repose; two or three long, but gentle breaths were drawn; and that great soul had fled to seek a nobler scope for its aspirations in the world within the veil, for which it had often yearned, where there is rest for the weary, and where 'the spirits of the just are made perfect.'"
Not long before his death the Prince Consort had readily agreed to his son's wish for a visit to the Holy Land and had planned the preliminaries of the tour before he was stricken by the disease which carried him off. After that sad event it was felt by the Queen that such a journey would now be doubly wise and proper and she made arrangements for General Bruce to accompany the Prince, together with Major Teesdale, Captain Keppel and a small suite. By special wish of the Prince Consort and at the urgent request of the Queen, the Rev. Dr. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley consented to accompany the Prince. He joined the Royal party at Alexandria on February 28, 1862, and they at once proceeded to Cairo and from thence visited the Pyramids. A little later Palestine was reached and, following in the historic steps of Richard Cœur de Lion and Edward I., another Heir to the British Throne finally reached Jerusalem. The closely-guarded Cave of Macphelah was opened to the Prince of Wales as well as the famous Mosque of Hebron which for nearly seven hundred years had been closed to even Royal visitors. Lake Tiberias, Bethany, Bethlehem, the Groves of Jericho, were visited and some time was spent in tents upon the journey to Damascus. From thence the party traveled to Beyrout, visited Tyre and Sidon, and proceeded to Tripoli. The journey was made by the Prince so as to include Patmos, Ephesus, Smyrna, Constantinople, Athens and Malta. From every place where it was possible the Prince collected flowers which he carefully sent to his sister, the Princess Royal. Of His Royal Highness during this interesting tour Dean Stanley put on record his opinion at the time: "It is impossible not to like him and to be constantly with him brings out his astonishing memory of names and persons.... I am more and more struck by the amiable and endearing qualities of the Prince."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Sarah, Lady Lyttelton, daughter of the second Earl Spencer and wife of the third Lord Lyttelton. Born 1787, Died 1870.