The King and Queen of Denmark gave a silver-gilt tea and coffee service; the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark, a valuable vase of Danish china; the Empress Eugénie, a silver model of a two-masted ship of the time of Henry VIII.; and the King of the Belgians, a large silver tankard and a collection of the choicest exotics from the gardens at Laeken. The Austrian Ambassador presented an autograph letter from the Emperor Francis Joseph announcing that King Edward had been appointed to the Honorary Colonelcy of the 12th Hussar Regiment in the Austro-Hungarian Army. The French Ambassador was also received in audience, and offered an expression of good wishes on the part of the President of the French Republic and the French Government.
The presents received by the King and Queen were arranged in the Indian Room at Marlborough House. A prominent position was accorded to the gift from Queen Victoria—a massive silver flagon of goodly height and proportions, the counterpart of one in the Kremlin. One corner of the Indian Room was filled with floral gifts, bouquets, wreaths, pyramids of lilies of the valley, and rich and rare exotics, sent by all classes of the community from all parts of the country and from the Continent.
In strong contrast to these rejoicings was the deep shadow thrown over King Edward and his family by the serious illness of the Emperor Frederick. All the arrangements of their Majesties were naturally dependent on the news received almost hourly from the sick-chamber at Potsdam, but even in the midst of his terrible anxieties the King did not disappoint the loyal citizens of Glasgow, whose Exhibition he had promised to open, and who gave him a right Royal welcome. At length the long-dreaded blow fell. On 14th June the Emperor Frederick breathed his last after a reign of ninety-nine days.
The following year was notable for the first break in the King’s own family circle caused by marriage. But before the engagement of Princess Louise to the Earl of Fife was publicly announced, Queen Victoria paid one of her necessarily rare visits to Sandringham, spending altogether four days there. While there Her Majesty witnessed a performance of The Bells and of The Merchant of Venice, given by Sir Henry Irving and the members of the Lyceum Company. The King’s tenants presented an address of welcome to his Royal mother, to which Queen Victoria gave the following gracious reply:—
“It has given me great pleasure to receive your loyal address, and I thank you sincerely for the terms in which you welcome me to Sandringham, and for the kind expressions which you have used towards the Prince and Princess of Wales. After the anxious time I spent here seventeen years ago, when, by the blessing of God, my dear son was spared to me and to the nation, it is indeed a pleasure to find myself here again, among cheerful homes and cheerful faces, and to see the kind feeling which exists between a good landlord and a good tenant; and I trust that this mutual attachment and esteem may long continue to make you happy and prosperous, and to strengthen, if possible, the affection of the Prince and Princess of Wales for the tenants of Sandringham.”
Although Great Britain was not officially represented at the Paris Centennial Exhibition of this year, the King once more showed his friendship with France by going over with his Consort in semi-incognito. Their Majesties carefully inspected the whole Exhibition, paying special attention to the British section, and finished by ascending the Eiffel Tower.
The Duchess of Fife, Princess Victoria, and Princess Charles of Denmark
From a Photograph by Lafayette