Dr. Creighton, Bishop of London, died on 14th January, and the King, who was so soon to need the deepest sympathy himself, wrote a long and touching letter of sympathy to the bereaved widow.
Sandringham from the Grounds
Photograph by Ralph, Dersingham
CHAPTER XIX
THE KING AS A COUNTRY SQUIRE
Sandringham is so closely associated in the public mind with King Edward and Queen Alexandra, whose country home it was for so many years, and is still to be from time to time, that no apology is needed for devoting to it a special chapter.
When King Edward was about to set up a separate establishment, Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort instructed some of their most trusted friends to look out for a suitable country estate for the Heir-Apparent. At one moment it was proposed to buy Newstead Abbey, but its Byronic associations caused it to be purchased as soon as it came into the market. Eynsham, in Oxfordshire, an estate belonging to Lord Macclesfield, also came under consideration, as well as Elveden, in Suffolk, and Hatherop, in Gloucestershire. Lord Palmerston seems to have suggested Sandringham, which at that time belonged to his stepson, Mr. Spencer Cowper, and accordingly the Norfolk estate was bought for £220,000.
The estate consisted of eight thousand acres, the nominal rental being about £7000 a year, but everything about Sandringham was at that time in very bad order. The house was small and dilapidated, and the shooting and outlying portions of the estate had been utterly neglected. It is said that the whole rental has been expended on the property during the last thirty-five or forty years, and a very considerable sum has also been spent on the new house, the new gardens, the park, and the home farms. Every kind of improvement has been carried out, gradually but steadily, and now it may be considered a model estate from every point of view. One of the first institutions set up by the King was an admirable village club, entirely built at His Majesty’s own expense. The regulations enforced are based on what is called Dr. Arnold’s system, and give the maximum of freedom to the members.