Queen Alexandra
From a Photograph by Gunn and Stuart
The Archbishop was a true prophet. It was indeed necessary now to separate the brothers. Prince George, as the younger son, might be left to continue his career in the noble service to which he had become devoted, but his elder brother, being in the immediate succession to the Throne, must, it was felt, be associated, as his father had been before him, with other walks of national life as well. First of all, it was decided, must come some terms at Cambridge University, and to prepare Prince Albert Victor in the particular kind of knowledge required Mr. J. K. Stephen was associated with Mr. Dalton in the summer of 1883. Mr. Stephen, the son of one of the greatest Judges who ever adorned the English Bench—Sir James Fitz-James Stephen—was not merely a most lovable man, possessed of extraordinary intellectual powers, but his total personality was of so rare a kind as to be indescribable to those who never came under its conquering influence. Probably from no human being were all things mean and paltry so utterly alien. Large in heart and mind as he was large in bodily frame, he left, when an untimely death snatched him away, not only a bitter personal grief among his friends, but a conviction that the nation’s loss was even greater than theirs.
Prince Albert Victor became warmly attached to Mr. Stephen, who gives in some private letters, quoted in Mr. J. E. Vincent’s memoir of the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, a characteristic picture of the life led by the Royal pupil and his tutors in a little house in the park at Sandringham.
“He is a good-natured, unaffected youth,” writes Mr. Stephen, “and disposed to exert himself to learn some history.… We are six in this little house, a sort of adjunct to the big one in whose grounds it stands, and we lead a quiet and happy reading-party sort of life with all the ordinary rustic pursuits.” The other four members of the party were Mr. Dalton, “a lively little Frenchman,” “a young aristocrat, whose father is the Earl of Strathmore, and a naval lieutenant, kept on shore by a bad knee, both of whom are very pleasant, and have more brains than they take credit for.”
In October 1883 the King accompanied Prince Albert Victor to Cambridge, and saw him matriculated as an undergraduate member of Trinity College, that ancient and splendid foundation to which he himself belonged. Two sets of rooms, one for the Prince and one for Mr. Dalton, were prepared on the top floor of a staircase in Nevile’s Court, the quietest court in Trinity.
It was at Cambridge that certain sterling qualities possessed by Prince Albert Victor first became manifest to any considerable circle, and through them to the public at large. His life at the University was simple and well ordered. He had not—nor was it desirable that he should have—the specialised intellect which wins University prizes and scholarships, but he displayed in a marked degree that peculiarly Royal quality of recognising intellect in others. Of those whom he admitted to his friendship while at Cambridge nearly all have become, or are becoming, distinguished in various walks of life. He was not distinguished from his undergraduate contemporaries except by the silk gown of the fellow-commoner—the Prince never wore the gold tassel to which he was entitled—and by immunity from University examinations.
It must not, however, be supposed that the Prince was idle at the University. On the contrary, he read for six or seven hours a day regularly—a good deal more than the average undergraduate can be persuaded to do; and he was in another respect intellectually ahead of most of his contemporaries, namely, in his familiar knowledge of modern languages. He had read German at Heidelberg with Professor Ihne, and he kept it up while at Cambridge with a German tutor. He spoke French easily and well, and he had also a literary knowledge of that language, having spent some time in Switzerland with a French tutor. His college tutor was Mr. Joseph Prior. Mr. Stephen exercised a general supervision over his reading, and he attended the late Professor Seeley’s History Lectures and Mr. Gosse’s Lectures on English Literature.
Prince Albert Victor strongly resembled his father in many respects, notably in his habits of order and method, and in his complete freedom from affectation or assumption. He was, indeed, if anything, almost too modest and retiring, but those who knew him bore witness to his real geniality and thoughtful consideration for others. At Cambridge he attended his College chapel twice on Sundays, and once or twice during the week. He generally dined in the College hall, when he would be assigned a place at the Fellows’ table. He was fond, however, of giving little dinner-parties of six or eight in his own rooms in College, usually on Thursdays, his guests on these occasions often including some of the senior members of the University.
After dinner, the Royal host would generally arrange a rubber or two of whist. He did not play cricket or football, but was fond of polo and hockey, and he occasionally hunted. He might often have been met in the neighbourhood of Cambridge riding in the company of a few of his undergraduate friends, to whom he liked to offer a mount, especially in cases where he knew it was needed. The Prince had an inherited love of music, and he attended pretty regularly some weekly concerts of chamber music given at the Cambridge Town Hall. He was also a member of the Cambridge A.D.C., and patronised its performances, and he occasionally attended the debates at the Union, though he did not speak himself. He joined the University Volunteer Corps, and was photographed in his uniform.