OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, AND THE CURRAGH
King Edward had now emerged from boyhood, and his loving parents set
themselves to make the arrangements suitable for his growing years.
What these arrangements were will be clear from the following passages
in the Prince Consort’s letter to Baron Stockmar of 2nd April 1858:--
“Next week he [the Prince of Wales] is to make a run for fourteen days
to the South of Ireland with Mr. Gibbs, Captain de Ros, and Dr. Minter,
by way of recreation. When he returns to London he is to take up his
residence at the White Lodge in Richmond Park, so as to be away from
the world and devote himself exclusively to study and prepare for a
military examination. As companions for him we have appointed three
very distinguished young men of from twenty-three to twenty-six years
of age, who are to occupy in monthly rotation a kind of equerry’s
place about him, and from whose more intimate intercourse I anticipate
no small benefit to Bertie. They are Lord Valletort, the eldest son
of Lord Mount Edgcumbe, who has been much on the Continent, is a
thoroughly good, moral, and accomplished man, draws well and plays, and
never was at a public school, but passed his youth in attendance on his
invalid father; Major Teesdale, of the Artillery, who distinguished
himself greatly at Kars, where he was aide-de-camp and factotum of Sir
Fenwick Williams; Major Lindsay, of the Scots Fusilier Guards, who
received the Victoria Cross for Alma and Inkermann (as Teesdale did for
Kars), where he carried the colours of the regiment, and by his courage
drew upon himself the attention of the whole Army. He is studious in
his habits, lives little with the other young officers, is fond of
study, familiar with French, and especially so with Italian, spent a
portion of his youth in Italy, won the first prize last week under the
regimental adjutant for the new rifle drill, and resigned his excellent
post as aide-de-camp of Sir James Simpson, that he might be able to
work as lieutenant in the trenches.
[Illustration: THE KING IN 1859
_From a Painting by G. Richmond_]
“Besides these three, only Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Tarver will go with him
to Richmond. As future governor, when Gibbs retires at the beginning
of next year, I have as yet been able to think of no one as likely to
suit, except Colonel Bruce, Lord Elgin’s brother, and his military
secretary in Canada, who now commands one of the battalions of
Grenadier Guards, and lives much with his mother in Paris. He has all
the amiability of his sister, with great mildness of expression, and is
full of ability.”
Of these early companions of the King, Lord Valletort succeeded to the
Earldom of Mount Edgcumbe in 1861, Major Teesdale was afterwards well
known as Sir Christopher Teesdale, while Major Lindsay was appointed
extra equerry to the Prince of Wales in 1874, and was created Lord
Wantage of Lockinge in 1885.
While the Prince of Wales was at White Lodge, where the suite of rooms
which he occupied still bears his name, he saw much of his relations
at Cambridge Cottage; he often rowed up from Richmond or Mortlake, and
mooring his boat alongside the landing-stage at Brentford Ferry, would
get out and take a stroll in the gardens with his aunt and cousin. The
first dinner-party the Prince attended was at the Cottage on Kew Green.
By Queen Victoria’s special desire, Charles Kingsley about this time
delivered a series of lectures on history to her eldest son, and the
Prince remained fondly attached to the famous author of _Westward
Ho_, who, till his death, was an honoured guest at Sandringham and at
Marlborough House.
On 9th November of the same year the King attained his eighteenth
year, and became legally heir to the Crown. Queen Victoria wrote him a
letter announcing his emancipation from parental control, and he was so
deeply touched by its perusal that he brought it to General Wellesley
with tears in his eyes, and we have the impartial testimony of Charles
Greville as to the character of the epistle, which was, says the famous
diarist, “one of the most admirable letters that ever was penned.” On
the same day he became a Colonel in the Army (unattached), and received
the Garter, while Colonel Bruce became his governor.
Exactly a month after his birthday, the King started on a Continental
tour, travelling more or less _incognito_ as Lord Renfrew. He was
accompanied by Mr. Tarver, who had just been appointed his chaplain
and director of studies. The King stayed some time in Rome and visited
the Pope, but on 29th April 1859 the Prince Consort wrote to Baron
Stockmar: “We have sent orders to the Prince of Wales to leave Rome
and to repair to Gibraltar.” For it was very properly considered, that
owing to the Franco-Italian and Austrian imbroglio, it was far better
that the heir to the British throne should be well out of the way of
international dissensions.
The King reached Gibraltar on 7th May, and visited the south of
Spain and Lisbon, returning home in the middle of the next month;
and then, after having seen something of the world, he again took up
a very serious course of study, this time at Edinburgh. Meanwhile
the education and training of the Heir-Apparent was being watched
very carefully by the British public, and a good many people began
to consider that their future King was being over-educated; indeed
_Punch_, in some lines entitled “A Prince at High Pressure,”
undoubtedly summed up the popular feeling, not only describing the
past, but prophesying, with a great deal of shrewd insight, the future
course of the Prince of Wales’s studies:--
To the south from the north, from the shores of the Forth,
Where at hands Presbyterian pure science is quaffed,
The Prince, in a trice, is whipped to the Isis,
Where Oxford keeps springs mediæval on draught.
Dipped in grey Oxford mixture (lest _that_ prove a fixture),
The poor lad’s to be plunged in less orthodox Cam.,
Where dynamics and statics, and pure mathematics,
Will be piled on his brain’s awful cargo of cram.
But the Prince seems to have borne his course of study very well,
and after his son had been in Edinburgh some three months the Prince
Consort wrote to Baron Stockmar:--
“In Edinburgh I had an Educational Conference with all the persons who
were taking part in the education of the Prince of Wales. They all
speak highly of him, and he seems to have shown zeal and goodwill.
Dr. Lyon Playfair is giving him lectures on chemistry in relation
to manufactures, and at the close of each special course he visits
the appropriate manufactory with him, so as to explain its practical
application. Dr. Schmitz (the Director of the High School of Edinburgh,
a German) gives him lectures on Roman history. Italian, German, and
French are advanced at the same time; and three times a week the
Prince exercises with the 16th Hussars, who are stationed in the city.
Mr. Fisher, who is to be the tutor for Oxford, was also in Holyrood.
Law and history are to be the subjects on which he is to prepare the
Prince.”
[Illustration: CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD]
The young Prince spent a delightful holiday in the Highlands, and
made an expedition up Ben Muichdhui, one of the highest mountains in
Scotland. Then, on 9th November, his nineteenth birthday was celebrated
with the whole of his family, for the Princess Royal had arrived from
Berlin in order to spend the day with her brother.
The King was at that time very fond of the writings of Sir Walter
Scott. He has always been a reader of fiction, French, English, and
German, and as a youth he was studious and eager to learn.
On leaving Scotland he went up to Oxford, being admitted a member
of Christ Church. The Prince seems to have thoroughly enjoyed his
life as an undergraduate. He joined freely in the social life of the
University, and took part in all the sports, frequently hunting with
the South Oxfordshire Hounds. Nor did he neglect his books, for we find
the Prince Consort writing to Baron Stockmar on 8th December 1859 to
say that, “The Prince of Wales is working hard at Oxford.”
[Illustration: TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE]
It seems more convenient here to abandon the strictly chronological
arrangement, and to leave the Prince’s visit to Canada and the United
States, which followed immediately, to be described in a separate
chapter, passing on at once to his life at Cambridge.
Early in 1861 the King became an undergraduate member of Trinity
College, Cambridge. Curiously enough, Dr. Whewell, at that time Master
of Trinity, did not think it necessary to make a formal entry of the
Royal undergraduate, but in 1883, when visiting Cambridge in order to
enter his son, the late Duke of Clarence, as a student of Trinity, the
King expressed the opinion that it was a pity that his own entry had
not been properly filled up, and he offered to fill in the blank spaces
if the book was brought to him. Accordingly the record may now be found
at its proper place in the King’s own handwriting. His entry is as
follows:--
_Date of Entry._ _Rank._ _Name._
January 18th, 1861. Nobleman. Albert Edward
Prince of Wales.
_Father’s Christian Name._ _Native Place._ _County._
Albert. London. Middlesex.
_School._ _Age._ _Tutor._
Private Tutor. November 9th, Admitted by order of the
1841. Seniority, Mr. Mathison
being his tutor.
The entry immediately preceding the King’s name is that of the Hon. J.
W. Strutt (now Lord Rayleigh), in connection with which the following
amusing story is told. A visitor to the library (where the book is
kept) having expressed her doubts as to the King’s intellectual
abilities, the librarian showed her the entry, and said: “You may be
right in what you say, madam, but allow me to inform you that the
Prince comes next to a former Senior Wrangler.” The lady’s astonishment
may be imagined, she being of course ignorant that mere coincidence was
the cause of the juxtaposition of the two names.
The position of the Prince of Wales in the University was very much
that of an ordinary undergraduate, except in one point--that he was,
by special favour, allowed to live with his governor, Colonel the
Hon. Robert Bruce, about three miles away from Cambridge, in a little
village called Madingley.
Charles Kingsley at the Prince Consort’s request gave some private
lectures to the Prince of Wales. The class was formed of eleven
undergraduates, and after the Prince settled at Madingley, he rode
three times a week to Mr. Kingsley’s house, twice attending with the
class, and once to go through a _résumé_ of the week’s work alone; and,
according to the great writer’s biographer, the tutor much appreciated
the attention, courtesy, and intelligence of his Royal pupil, whose
kindness to him then and in after-life made him not only the Prince’s
loyal but his most attached servant.
[Illustration: THE KING IN 1861
_Photograph by Silvy_]
The King certainly enjoyed his life at Cambridge. All sorts of stories,
perhaps more or less apocryphal, used to be told as to his University
career. He was not allowed quite as much freedom as the ordinary
undergraduate, and Colonel Bruce had strict orders never to allow him
to make any long journeys unaccompanied. On one occasion the King made
up his mind that he would like to pay an _incognito_ visit to London,
and he succeeded in evading the vigilance of those whose duty it was to
attend him. His absence, however, was discovered before he could reach
town, and to his surprise and mortification he was met at the terminus
by the stationmaster and by two of the royal servants who had been sent
from Buckingham Palace for that purpose.
Shortly after his marriage the King took his bride to visit Cambridge,
and after the usual reception, the Royal pair drove to Madingley, to
view the King’s former residence. On reaching one of the streets on the
borders of the town it was found to be barricaded, it being thought
that the carriage would proceed by another route. “This is the way I
always came,” said the King, “and this is the way I wish to go now.”
Forthwith the sightseers were removed and the barricade broken down,
but the King signified his intention of returning by the other road so
that the spectators might not be disappointed.
The King remained more or less constantly at Cambridge all the winter
of 1861, and it was arranged that during the long vacation he was to go
on military duty at the Curragh.
While the King was quartered there, Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort,
and the young Princesses paid a short visit to Ireland in order to see
him in his new character of soldier. On 26th August Her Majesty wrote
in her diary:--
“At a little before 3 we went to Bertie’s hut, which is in fact
Sir George Brown’s. It is very comfortable--a nice little bedroom,
sitting-room, drawing-room, and good-sized dining-room, where we
lunched with our whole party. Colonel Percy commands the Guards, and
Bertie is placed specially under him. I spoke to him, and thanked him
for treating Bertie as he did, just like any other officer, for I know
that he keeps him up to his work in a way, as General Bruce told me,
that no one else has done; and yet Bertie likes him very much.”
On the following day, which was a Sunday, the Prince Consort,
accompanied by the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, went with Lord
Carlisle to inspect the Dublin prisons.
Prince Albert spent his last birthday, 26th August 1861, with his
son in Ireland, and the Prince of Wales accompanied his parents and
sisters to Killarney, where they had a very enthusiastic welcome. They
travelled on the Prince Consort’s birthday. On the 29th Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert, with their younger children, left Ireland, and
writing to Baron Stockmar on 6th September the Prince Consort said:
“The Prince of Wales has acquitted himself extremely well in the Camp,
and looks forward with pleasure to his visit to the manœuvres on the
Rhine.”