“The Queen is very anxious to express her deep sense of the touching sympathy of the whole nation on the occasion of the alarming illness of her dear son, the Prince of Wales. The universal feeling shown by her people during those painful, terrible days, and the sympathy evinced by them with herself and her beloved daughter, the Princess of Wales, as well as the general joy at the improvement of the Prince of Wales’s state, have made a deep and lasting impression on her heart, which can never be effaced.…”
Queen Alexandra and Princess Alice now felt that their patient was well enough for them to leave him for an hour or two in order to assist at the distribution of Christmas gifts to the labourers on the estate. In the ceiling of the room afterwards occupied by Queen Alexandra as a bed-chamber, the mark of an orifice might be seen from which projected a hook supporting a trapeze, by the aid of which the patient, when on the slow and weary road to convalescence, could change his position and pull himself up into a sitting posture.
Another memento of the King’s terrible illness is the brass lectern in the parish church. On it runs an inscription:—
To the glory of God.
A thank-offering for His mercy.
14th December 1871.
Alexandra.
“When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord, and He heard me.”
The last bulletin was issued on 14th January, and nine days later Sir William Jenner was gazetted a K.C.B. and Dr. W. Gull was created a Baronet—rewards which gave particular satisfaction to the nation.
It was whispered at the time that King Edward, under Providence, really owed his recovery to one of those sudden inspirations of genius of which the history of medicine is full. He seemed to be actually in extremis, when one of his medical attendants sent in haste for two bottles of old champagne brandy and rubbed the patient with it vigorously all over till returning animation rewarded the doctor’s efforts.
King Edward’s recovery was hailed with feelings of deep thankfulness by the whole nation, and it was universally deemed appropriate that public thanks should be returned to Almighty God for His great mercy. The utmost interest was taken by all classes of society in the preparations for the proposed National Thanksgiving. Mr. William Longman wrote to the Times urging that, as in 1664 and 1678, subscriptions should be invited for the completion of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London as a perpetual memorial of the event.
During the interval before the day fixed for the National Thanksgiving, King Edward and Queen Alexandra paid visits to Windsor and Osborne. When they returned to London one of the first visitors they received was Dr. Stanley, who had now become Dean of Westminster. It was resolved that they should attend a private service of thanksgiving in the Abbey, which the Dean thus describes in a letter to an intimate correspondent:—
“I went to Marlborough House to suggest, through Fisher and Keppel, that the Prince of Wales should come. He consented at once, and it was agreed that he, the Princess, and the Crown Prince of Denmark, and if in town, Prince Alfred, should come. I kept it a secret except from the Canons. We met them at the great Western door; the nave (as usual) was quite clear. They walked in with me, and took their places on my right. I preached on Psalm cxxii. 1. The Prince of Wales heard every word, and has decided that it shall be published, which it will be, and you shall have a copy. It was one of those rare occasions on which I was able to say all that I wished to say. They were conducted again to the West door, and departed.”