At the end of this period it was decided by the Prince to send his sons for a prolonged cruise around the world as midshipmen on H.M.S. Bacchante. They were to have the same duties and treatment as the other midshipmen—except perhaps that their teaching would be more careful and their studies more severe. Special instructors in seamanship, gunnery, mathematics and naval conditions were appointed, with the Rev. J. N. Dalton, M.A., as Governor, in charge while they were on shore and with supervision over their ordinary studies when at sea. Lord Charles Scott, Captain of the war-ship, was, of course, supreme when the Princes were on board his vessel. The cruise of the Bacchante commenced in September, 1879, and terminated in August, 1882. During that period it traversed over fifty-four thousand miles and the Royal midshipmen saw and visited Gibraltar, Madeira, Teneriffe, the West India Islands, Bermuda, the Cape Verde Islands, Monte Video, the Falkland Islands, Cape Colony, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Brisbane, Victoria and Melbourne, New South Wales and Sydney, the Fiji Islands, Japan, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Canton, the Straits Settlements, Ceylon, Egypt and the Holy Land, Athens, Crete, Corfu and Sicily. In 1886 two handsome volumes, carefully edited by the Rev. Mr. Dalton, and comprising the private journals and diaries of the young Princes, were published in London and were found to contain many sensible reflections and much garnered information upon the many countries visited during this circumnavigation of the globe. It was not all serious study and work, however, during this period, and in almost every place touched at, where the Princes had anything like a chance, there is still to be found some cherished anecdote of Royal jokes or pranks—especially on the part of Prince George.
Meanwhile great care and thought had been devoted to the education of the three daughters. From the nursery they passed into a school-room in which French and German, music, history and mathematics were the studies most interesting to their father, while the learning of dressmaking and sewing in various branches, cooking, dairy work, the superintending of a garden and the management of a house were carefully watched over by the Princess of Wales. The Princess Victoria was said, in the days following the completion of her education, to have the most domestic turn of mind of the three sisters, together with a pronounced artistic taste. Latterly she had taken over much of the supervision of household matters at Sandringham and Marlborough from her Royal mother and is, in 1902, the only unmarried member of the family. The Princess Maud was, as a girl, merry, pretty and clever; a capital all-round sportswoman and fond of horses, dogs, birds, yachting and riding; possessed at home of the nick-name "Harry," and said to be the Prince's favourite daughter; fond of incognito experiences, charities and amusements. The Princess Louise was a quieter and less striking character, and, like her younger sister, was afterwards allowed to marry the man of her choice, although he did not possess the high position which the Royal father might naturally have desired.
MEMORIES OF PRINCE ALBERT VICTOR
Following the return of the two Princes from their cruise, Prince Albert Victor was taken by his father to Cambridge, in 1883, and duly installed as an undergraduate of Trinity College. There he read regularly for six or seven hours a day, made himself thoroughly familiar with French and German, and associated himself in a most marked way with the men of intellect and character who were around him—nearly all his companions afterwards becoming distinguished in one way or another. Always modest and retiring he liked to entertain very quietly and to enjoy any possible musical occasion which presented itself. Hockey, polo and a little riding were his outdoor amusements. He came of age in 1885, the University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., and, during the next few years, he worked as an officer in the Army. It was on the attainment of his majority that Prince Albert Victor received a most interesting letter, under date of January 7th, from Mr. Gladstone. In it the veteran statesman said to the prospective Sovereign: "There lies before Your Royal Highness in prospect the occupation—I trust at a distant date—of a throne which, to me at least, appears the most illustrious in the world, from its history and associations, from its legal basis, from the weight of the cares it brings, from the loyal love of the people, and from the unparalleled opportunities it gives, in so many ways and so many regions, of doing good to the almost countless numbers whom the Almighty has placed beneath the sceptre of England." He went on to express the earnest hope that His Royal Highness might ever grow in the principles and qualities which should adorn his great vocation.
During the Session of Parliament in 1889, the Prince of Wales was voted £36,000 annually in trust for the use of his children, and at about the same time it was decided to send Prince Albert Victor on a visit to India. On the way thither, at Athens, on October 20th, the latter was present at the wedding of his two cousins, the Duke of Sparta and the Princess Sophia of Prussia, daughter of the Empress Frederick. In the great Eastern Empire he remained until April, 1890; visiting Hyderabad, Mysore, Madras and Calcutta, and meeting with a cordial reception which, however, lacked the great state and ceremony of his Royal father's famous tour. Lord Lansdowne was Viceroy and made a most admirable host and mentor. On May 24th, following, the young Prince was created Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Earl of Athlone, and commenced to take his place in public life as Heir Presumptive to the Throne. In November of the year 1891 Prince George who had, meanwhile, been pursuing his vocation in the Navy, was taken ill at Sandringham. The Princess was away but, pending her return, his father nursed him personally with care and devotion. Typhoid—the disease which had carried off the Prince Consort and so nearly killed the Heir Apparent, developed and the family anxiety was very great. At this point, on December 8th, the engagement of the Duke of Clarence to his cousin, the very popular and beautiful Princess May of Teck, was announced amidst general congratulations.
DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE
Then came one of the saddest events in the history of the British Royal family. The young Duke had only been engaged a few weeks and preparations had been commenced for the stately ceremonial of his marriage, when it was announced that he had caught cold at the funeral of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe and was confined to his room. With but little notice pneumonia developed, the constitutional weakness of his system was unable to throw it off, and within a few days he was dead—January 15th, 1892. Prince George, in the meantime, had recovered, but those who saw the Prince of Wales walking beside his eldest son's body from Sandringham Church to the station, say that his obvious grief was almost pathetic. As to the mother she never really got over the sadness of that death and the removal of her favourite son. If there was, at times, a sad expression in her eyes, years after the event, it was no doubt due to the sudden shock and great loss which then came to her.
Five days afterwards, the following telegram to Sir Francis Knollys was made public: "The Prince and Princess of Wales are anxious to express to Her Majesty's subjects in the United Kingdom, the Colonies, and in India, the sense of their deep gratitude for the universal feeling of sympathy manifested toward them at a time when they are overpowered by the terrible calamity which they have sustained in the loss of their beloved eldest son. If sympathy at such a moment is of any avail, the remembrance that their grief has been shared by all classes will be a lasting consolation to their sorrowing hearts, and, if possible, will make them more than ever attached to their dear country." The affection of Queen Victoria for this grandson, whom the Times of January 19th described as possessing "modesty, affectionateness, kindness, love of order, the desire to render every man his due, and reverence for age and greatness," is well-known to have been intense, and from Osborne, on January 26th, Her Majesty issued the following letter:
"I must once again give expression to my deep sense of the loyalty and affectionate sympathy evinced by my subjects in every part of my Empire on an occasion more sad and tragical than any but one which has befallen me and mine, as well as the Nation. The overwhelming misfortune of my dearly-loved grandson having been thus suddenly cut off in the flower of his age, full of promise for the future, amiable and gentle, and endearing himself to all, renders it hard for his sorely-stricken parents, his dear young bride and his fond Grandmother to bow in submission to the inscrutable decrees of Providence."