Amongst hostesses other than those already mentioned whose entertainments the Prince liked to attend were Mrs. Bischoffstein and Mrs. Arthur Rothschild. Other personal friends were the late Earl of Lathom, the bright and witty Marchioness of Aylesbury, Lord James of Hereford and the late Sir Charles Hall. Amongst artists whom the Prince greatly favoured were Sir Charles and Lady Hallé and the late Lord Leighton. No closer and more devoted friends of the Prince could be found than the members of his own Household, and the public was long aware of this in the persons of Lord Suffield, Sir Francis Knollys and Sir Dighton Probyn, in particular. The Prince delighted in doing honour to those whom he accepted as friends. He marked his sorrow at the deaths of Colonel Oliver Montagu and Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild by personally attending their funerals—an exception to the rule which he had set himself in this connection.
His Royal Highness frequently gave his powerful patronage to the promotion of Memorials to those who had been honoured by his friendship and who deserved honour upon national grounds. An early instance of this was the case of Dean Stanley. A later one, on July 13, 1900, was the gathering called at Marlborough House and presided over by the Prince for the purpose of erecting a national memorial in Westminster Abbey to the Duke of Westminster. In speaking, His Royal Highness said: "To me personally the death of the Duke meant the loss of a life-long friend. I had known him from his boyhood and there is no one whose friendship I appreciated more than his. In my judgment there is no one whose public services more fully deserve public recognition by his countrymen."
Fidelity to friends and appreciation of manly qualities and special abilities were always characteristic of the Prince of Wales and, combined with his tact and the unusual qualifications of the Princess as a hostess, made Marlborough and Sandringham, in different ways, the most ideal centres of social entertainment. Taken as a whole, the Prince's leadership of society was emphatically for good. His approval and patronage of the opera or the theatre, the race-course or the shooting-box, may not have been agreeable to some people, but they represented the popular opinion of the great majority. He took things as they were, enjoyed them in a full-hearted and honest way, improved the morale of the social system and the practices in vogue in many directions and left Society infinitely better and more honest than he had found it.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Private Life of King Edward VII. By a member of the Royal Household. D. Appleton & Co. N. Y.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Prince as a Sportsman
In his devotion to the "sport of kings" the Prince of Wales followed the excellent example of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, Charles I, Charles II, William of Orange, Queen Anne, the Duke of Cumberland, George IV, and William IV. He represented in this respect an inherent and seemingly natural liking of the English people. With them the manly art of war, the physical excitements of chivalry, and tests of endurance in civil and foreign struggles, have been replaced by the games and sports of a quieter and more peaceful period. Riding to hounds, steeple-chasing and the amateur or professional race-course represent a most popular as well as aristocratic phase of this development. The Prince of Wales, early in his life, took a liking to racing in all its forms and encouraged steeple-chasing at a time when it was neither fashionable nor popular. He became a member of the Jockey Club in 1868. It was not, however, until 1877 that his afterwards famous colours of purple, gold band, scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap with gold fringe, were carried at Newmarket in the presence of the Princess and before a great and fashionable gathering. Five years later His Royal Highness won the Household Brigade Cup at Sandown and thenceforward his interest in the sport was keen, although it was not till some years afterwards that he established his own racing-stable which, in 1890, was placed under the efficient management of Lord Marcus Beresford.