At last, however, the fire was got under, and it was found that comparatively little harm had been done. Then for the first time it occurred to some one to ask if Marlborough House was insured. Strangely enough this very important precaution had not been taken. Now, however, both Marlborough House and Sandringham are insured to their full value.
King Edward from childhood has always shown the keenest interest in firemen and fires. During many years of his life he used to be informed whenever a really big blaze was signalled, and he has attended incognito most of the great London fires during the last thirty years.
King Edward, Queen Alexandra, and Prince Albert Victor
Photograph in 1864 by Vernon Heath, published by McQueen
About this time the King visited the gigantic steamship Great Eastern, off Sheerness, in order to see the Atlantic telegraph cable, which had just been completed. He was received by a number of prominent engineers, and while he was present the last section of the cable was being wound into the tanks on board the Great Eastern from the vessel alongside which had brought it from the works at Greenwich. A message was sent through one of the coils, the length of which was equivalent to the distance from Sheerness to Valentia. The signals transmitted, “God Save the Queen,” were received at the other end of the coil in the course of a few seconds, a fact which, commonplace as it may now seem, struck the onlookers in the year 1865 with amazement. The King visited every portion of the huge ship, and accepted specimen pieces of portions of the cable in various stages of manufacture.
In that same year, that is two years after her marriage, Queen Alexandra performed her first public act by opening the Cambridge School of Art. It was in 1865 also that the King attended his first public dinner as President of the Royal Literary Fund, and on this occasion he toasted the ladies in the following graceful words:—“In the presence of a society accustomed to cultivating with such success the flowers of literature, it would be unpardonable to forget the flowers of society.”
During that summer the Prince and Princess visited Cornwall, and went down the Botallack tin mine, near St. Just, the depth of which is about 200 fathoms. The bottom level of the mine extends horizontally about half a mile beneath the sea. A part of this mine then belonged to the Prince as Duke of Cornwall. During the same tour he visited Land’s End. The day was exceptionally clear and fine, and the Prince lingered for some time among the grim rocks which form the western-most point of England.
All this time Queen Victoria was living in the strictest retirement, and the great shadow of the Prince Consort’s death had thrown scarcely less gloom over the life of his eldest son. King Edward mourned deeply for his father, and it is significant that he never lost an opportunity of testifying in his public speeches to the high purpose and noble aims which had distinguished Prince Albert’s life. To the cost of the mausoleum at Frogmore the King contributed from his private purse no less a sum than £10,000. At the end of 1865 he sustained another severe blow in the death of Lord Palmerston, whom he had honoured with his special friendship, and whom he had been accustomed to consult in his private affairs.