The Life of King Edward VII / with a sketch of the career of King George V

by J. Castell Hopkins

The Earl of Aylesford, Lord Carington and Colonel Owen Williams were invited, as personal friends of the Prince of Wales, to join the party, while Lieutenant the Lord Charles Beresford, M.P., who had accompanied the Duke of Edinburgh on his preceding hasty visit, also lent his experience and unflagging gayety to the suite, and was aided by Lieutenant Augustus Fitz-George of the Rifle Brigade. Mr. Sydney Hall was the official artist of the tour; Mr. Albert Grey (afterwards Earl Grey) was Private Secretary to Sir Bartle Frere; and the present Sir William Howard Russell was a special correspondent with the nominal duties of Honorary Private Secretary to the Prince. When Parliament met various questions were asked as to whether the expenses of the tour were to be charged to the British or Indian Governments; whether the Prince would represent the Queen; whether he would supersede the Governor-General for the time being, etc. On July 8th Mr. Disraeli made a full statement for the first time in connection with the subject. He alluded to the previous travels of the Prince of Wales and expressed the opinion that they were the best form of education for a Royal personage. But the rules and regulations and etiquette which sufficed for the Prince in Canada and other countries would not do in India. One important difference was the probably costly character of the ceremonial presents which would have to be exchanged between the visitor and his hosts amongst the native Princes. Money would have to be granted for this, and the sum of £30,000 had been casually estimated for the purpose. The estimate of the Admiralty for the expenses of the voyage and corresponding movements of the fleet was £52,000. He would ask for a vote of £60,000. The Prince would go as the Heir Apparent to the Crown and be the formal guest of the Viceroy from the time of setting foot upon Indian soil. The expenses of the tour were to be charged to the Indian Budget. This statement created some criticism, while the very small amount proposed for expenditure caused still more comment. As a matter of fact, the Prince did not exceed, in the end, the comparatively small amount voted.

THE JOURNEY COMMENCED

On Sunday, October 10th, a farewell sermon was preached at Westminster Abbey by Dean Stanley, who expressed the hope that the visit might leave behind it "on one side the remembrance of graceful acts, kind words, English nobleness, Christian principles, and on the other awaken in all concerned the sense of graver duties, wider sympathies, loftier purposes." On the following day the Prince left London amid marked popular demonstrations of respect and regard, and with every evidence of a deep public interest shown by the press of the country. At Dover thousands of people cheered the Prince farewell. He took the boat for Calais, accompanied by the Princess, who, however, did not land, but returned home next morning. At Paris he was accidentally met by President MacMahon, who was leaving on the train for another place, and welcomed to France; officially he was received by Lord Lyons, the British Ambassador. On the following day His Royal Highness lunched with Marshal MacMahon at the Elysée. This visit and the ensuing journey through Turin, Bologna and Ancona to Brindisi was carried out in a private and non-official capacity. Nevertheless, at every station there were officials, guards of honour and crowds of people to see the special go through and to do honour to the traveller. The bulk of the Royal suite followed the Prince a little later, and on October 16th the whole party met at Brindisi and the voyage proper commenced.

WELCOMED BY THE KING OF THE GREEKS

Later in the same day H. M. S. Serapis, under the command of Captain the Hon. H. Carr-Glyn, accompanied by the Royal yacht Osborne, left Brindisi, and two days later the Prince was being welcomed in Athens by the King of the Hellenes—Otto I—and by a picturesque Court clad in the attractive costumes of the nation. Visits to the Acropolis and to the country house of the King were followed by a State banquet at the Palace, which gathered together all that was eminent in modern Grecian life, glittering with laces, orders and decorations, and including some young men who have since become famous—Tricoupi, Delyannis, Commoundourus and Zaimés. Illuminations of the city ensued, and in the morning, after a Royal reception, the Prince left Athens through crowds of people, who seemed a little more demonstrative than had been the case at first. On October 20th the Piræus was left behind after a farewell visit from the King and at dawn the next day Crete was in sight. The ship steered steadily ahead and three days later was welcomed at Port Said by Egyptian frigates on sea and Egyptian infantry on shore.

There was no cheering from the people but much curiosity. A formal welcome was offered for the Khedive by Princes Tewfik, Hussein and Hassan, who were accompanied on their visit to the Serapis by the well-known statesman Nubar Pasha, and other officers of the Court. The Prince then transferred himself to a smaller vessel—the Osborne—and with a Royal Standard floating over the ship for the first time since the Empress Eugénie had opened the Suez Canal, he traversed that famous waterway. At Ismaila, the Prince and his suite landed and took a special train to Cairo, where His Royal Highness was welcomed by the Khedive in person, with the towering form of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia standing behind, and a brilliantly uniformed Court around him. To the Prince of Wales the Gezireh Palace was given as his temporary residence. The succeeding day was occupied with ceremonials of various kinds, a banquet being given by the Khedive at the Abdeen Palace in the evening, when the Prince passed to and fro in a lane of light made by myriad many-coloured lamps.

On October 25th, the Prince of Wales invested Prince Tewfik—afterwards Khedive of Egypt—with the Order of the Star of India amidst all possible state. In a letter he told His Highness that the honour was conferred to mark British appreciation of the Khedive's friendship to England, and his good work in promoting the safety of British communication with India. The next day saw the Royal departure from Cairo after a formal visit from the Khedive, the Princes his sons, and his Ministers, who were again at the station to see him off a little later. Suez was reached in the evening and, amid elaborate preparations from the Pasha of that place, crowds of people and illuminated men-of-war in the roadstead, the Prince and his party boarded the Serapis and, accompanied by the Osborne, proceeded on the voyage to Aden. Perim, which has been described as "a gigantic blistered clinker," was reached and passed on October 31st, and from the ship the Prince got his first view of Her Majesty's Indian troops. It is to be hoped that the cheering Bombay Infantry drawn up on that vitrified surface, got a fair view of the Prince in return. On the following day the volcanic-like Island of Aden was reached, and its fortifications gazed upon with interest. As the flag flew from the mast-head of the Serapis to announce its arrival the ships and crags rang with the roar of cannon. The Prince landed, clad in uniform of a somewhat mixed character, with Field Marshal's insignia, and accompanied by his suite. Upon, or around, the platform and triumphal arch erected at the landing-place, was every variety of picturesque oriental costume with a background of mountain and blistered rock and white, painted houses. Chiefs from the mainland in gorgeous array, the King's Own Borderer's Regiment, all the ladies of the island in European or Asiatic costume, fierce-looking Arabs, meek-looking Hindoos, sleek Parsees, people from all the regions between the Persian Gulf, Zanzibar and Arabia, were there to welcome him.

THE PRINCE RECEIVES AN ADDRESS

A formal address was presented to His Royal Highness by the Resident—a Parsee—and then followed a drive through decorated streets with numerous arches and curious mottoes to the Residency. A Levée was held here and later in the day the ship was again boarded and steamed away from the Indian Gibraltar as it lay bathed in lines of light along all its town and batteries.

Bombay was reached on November 8th, after a voyage which was upon the whole pleasant—certainly as far as surroundings and comforts could make it. For a few hours official visitors streamed on board, and then in the afternoon Lord Northbrook, Viceroy of India, appeared on the scene and was received with the honours due to his station. There had been some idea abroad that difficulties might arise as to the respective positions of the Heir Apparent and the Viceroy in State ceremonial, but from the day of this first formal meeting there does not seem to have been the slightest trouble upon the point. Each knew perfectly what pertained to the position and rank of the other. Then came the Governor of Bombay, Sir Philip Wodehouse, and with him the Commander-in-Chief of the Presidency, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Staveley, and the members of the Council. Meanwhile the harbour was filled with ships and boats of all kinds, flags were streaming everywhere, in the distance was a vast triumphal arch spanning the waterway between two piers, and, as the Royal and Vice-regal party stepped into the barge and started for the landing-place, the cannon roared, bands played, guards saluted and crews cheered.