CHAPTER XVI
THE DUKE OF CLARENCE AND AVONDALE
The year 1892 opened auspiciously both for the Royal family and the nation, inasmuch as, immediately on the convalescence of Prince George, the engagement of his elder brother, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck was announced. The projected alliance was received with every possible expression of popular approval. The public career of the Duke of Clarence, short as it had been, had already confirmed him in the public estimation as a worthy son of his father, who was known to have actively superintended the whole course of his education. A significant proof of the young Prince’s amiability and unpretending modesty was to be found in the large number of personal friends whom he attached to himself, both at Cambridge and among his comrades of the 10th Hussars, by ties of sincere esteem. Moreover, it was generally known that between the Duke of Clarence and his mother there existed the strongest possible link of filial and maternal love, and so the Prince came to share in a measure the high place which Queen Alexandra has always held in the hearts of the British people.
The circumstances of the mournful event which threw a gloom over the whole winter of 1892 are still fresh in the memory of the nation. On 9th January the Duke of Clarence, who was spending the Christmas holidays with his parents at Sandringham, was attacked with influenza, having caught cold at the funeral of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
The Duke of Clarence and Avondale
From a Photograph by Chancellor, Dublin
Two days later the late Duchess of Teck wrote to Lady Salisbury a letter which pathetically reflects the anxiety prevailing at Sandringham:—
“Sandringham, January 11, 1892.
“… After Sir Francis Knollys’s letter and the anxious tidings in this morning’s papers you will not be surprised to hear from me that we feel we must ask you and dear Lord Salisbury to let us postpone the so-looked-forward-to visit until we can really enjoy it; for although I hope and believe dear Eddy is doing as well as can be expected at this stage of this fearful illness, I cannot conceal from you that we are very anxious, and must continue so until the crisis is over and the inflammation has begun to subside. His strength is very fairly maintained; the night was a tolerable one; he has two admirable nurses, and both Doctors Broadbent and Laking [now Sir William Broadbent and Sir Francis Laking] are attending him; so that Eddy has every care, and with youth on his side and God’s blessing, I trust we may soon see him on the road to recovery, and who knows?—perhaps even our visit to Hatfield may yet come off before you move to London. As at present arranged we stay on here until Wednesday or so; but, of course, everything depends on the progress the dear patient (a most exemplary one, the Doctors say) makes. May is wonderfully good and calm, but it is terribly trying for her.…”