THE KING AS A SPORTSMAN
_The author is indebted to an authority on sport for kindly
revising this chapter._
[Illustration: MR. JOHN PORTER AND MR. RICHARD MARSH, THE KING’S PAST
AND PRESENT TRAINERS, AND JOHN WATTS, HIS JOCKEY
_From Photographs by Elliott and Fry, and Clarence Hailey_]
An account of the King as a sportsman begins, appropriately enough,
with the sport of kings, though this is by no means the only pastime
with which His Majesty has identified himself. Still, at any rate
during his later years as Prince of Wales, he was chiefly associated
in the public mind with racing, and his colours--purple, gold band,
scarlet sleeves, and black velvet cap with gold fringe--were familiar
at all the principal meetings. After his accession His Majesty leased
his horses to the Duke of Devonshire for the season of 1901, but it was
understood that, following the example of several of his predecessors,
the King intended to resume his active connection with the Turf later
on. Although His Majesty has been a member of the Jockey Club for over
thirty years, his personal interest in racing is a matter of later
growth, for it was not till July 1877 that Queen Alexandra honoured
Newmarket with her presence to see her husband’s colours carried for
the first time. On that occasion the King had no luck, his horse
Alep, a pure-bred Arab, which started favourite, being beaten by Lord
Strathnairn’s Arab Avowal by twenty or thirty lengths. Five years later
the King won the Household Brigade Cup at Sandown with Fairplay.
[Illustration: THE EGERTON HOUSE TRAINING STABLES, NEWMARKET
_From a Photograph by Clarence Hailey_]
The King is generally agreed to be a very good judge of a horse. When
at Newmarket he makes it a point to watch the early morning gallops,
and at one time he was very fond of attending sales. His Majesty has
also given a great impetus to horse-breeding in the United Kingdom.
Many years ago he started a thorough-bred stud, a half-bred stud, and
a shire-horse stud--works of real public utility, which can only be
undertaken, be it remembered, by those who have wealth and leisure,
combined with intelligence and a real desire to forward the interests
of the British farmer.
The King’s great successes on the Turf during recent years, including
two famous Derbys, have been due to the introduction to the Sandringham
stables of Perdita II., bought by Mr. John Porter for £900. The union
of this mare with St. Simon produced Florizel II., and from that time
the King’s fame as an owner and breeder increased until it became
second to none.
It was in 1890 that His Majesty put his racers under John Porter, but
his total winnings were only £624. The next year, however, the King
won £4148; in 1892, £190; in 1893, £372; in 1894, £3499; and in 1895,
£8281; and in the last-named year His Majesty’s name stood tenth in
the list of winning owners. This satisfactory result was undoubtedly
greatly owing to Lord Marcus Beresford, who was entrusted with the
management of the King’s racing stable in 1890. The King’s horses were
removed from Kingsclere to Egerton House, Newmarket, in 1892, and since
then they have been under Marsh’s care. Persimmon was sent there as a
yearling from Sandringham in 1894.
The King’s most memorable triumph was his first Derby in 1896, when
Persimmon won. This fine horse is a bay by St. Simon, and own brother
to Florizel II., who was, by the way, the first really good horse
that ever carried the Royal colours, and is the sire of several very
promising animals. Persimmon was never beaten by any horse except
his own half-brother, St. Frusquin, who twice defeated him, and
Omladina, who finished in front of him in the Middle Park Plate. He
was bred by the King and trained by Marsh at Newmarket. He made his
first appearance in the Coventry Stakes at Ascot as a two-year-old,
and, starting favourite, won the race. On the occasion of his next
appearance, in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, he was again favourite,
and again won by a length. In the Middle Park Plate, though favourite,
he was beaten by St. Frusquin, but in the Derby of 1896 he beat his
half-brother by a neck. At the Newmarket First July Meeting he gave 3
lb. to St. Frusquin, and was beaten in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes.
He won the St. Leger by a length and a half; and in the Jockey Club
Stakes at Newmarket on the 1st October he won by two lengths from Sir
Visto, the Derby winner of 1897.
[Illustration: THE KING’S DERBY, 1896
_Reproduced by permission from the copyright Painting by G. D. Giles_]
Persimmon was ridden to victory in the Derby of 1896 by John Watts.
The race was witnessed by an extraordinarily large concourse of all
classes, including a considerable number of distinguished foreigners.
Never was there a more popular victory, and the enthusiasm all over the
country was almost as great as at Epsom. It was the fourth time in the
history of the Turf that the race had been won by a Royal owner. In
1788, eight years after its foundation, the Prince Regent won with Sir
Thomas; and the Duke of York won with Prince Leopold in 1816, and with
Moses in 1822.
Altogether, in 1896, nearly £27,000 in stake money was won by horses
from the Royal stables at Newmarket. Among the King’s notable successes
in that year may be mentioned the One Thousand Guineas, won by Thais,
by St. Serf out of Poetry, which also ran second to Canterbury Pilgrim
in the Oaks.
The King won the Derby again in 1900 with Diamond Jubilee, which, like
Persimmon, is by St. Simon--Perdita II. It is an extraordinary thing
for a mare to produce two Derby winners, but that they should be by
the same sire is believed to be a record in the annals of the Turf.
Perdita II. died soon after her very promising filly Nadejda--also by
St. Simon--was foaled.
The Derby-Day dinner is certainly one of the most important functions
held at Marlborough House during the year, and it is now difficult
to believe that it was only inaugurated comparatively few years ago.
Something like fifty invitations are sent out, and the guests, who
are all men, are expected to wear evening dress, not uniform. The
great silver dinner-service ordered by the King on his marriage, which
cost some £20,000, is always used on this occasion, and on the side
buffet are to be seen His Majesty’s racing cups, hunting trophies, and
gold and silver salvers, for everything in the strong rooms which is
associated with sport is brought out.
In addition to the Derby, Diamond Jubilee also won in 1900 the Two
Thousand Guineas, the Newmarket Stakes, the Eclipse Stakes, and the
St. Leger, and was second in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes. Giving
12 lb. to Disguise II., Diamond Jubilee was unplaced in the Jockey
Club Stakes. In his five great victories Diamond Jubilee won £27,985
in stakes, and so placed the King at the head of the list of winning
owners.
In 1900 also the King won the Grand National with Ambush II., and so
carried off the biggest flat-race and the biggest steeplechase--double
honours which no other owner had ever before gained, much less in the
same year.
From the sport of kings we pass by a natural transition to the Royal
and ancient game of golf. It is well known that golf was the favourite
pastime of some of the Stuart kings of Scotland, and Mary Queen of
Scots, her son, James I. of England, Charles I., and James II. all
played. But from the death of James II. to the accession of Edward VII.
none of our sovereigns were themselves golfers, though William IV. and
the lamented Queen Victoria gave their patronage to the game.
The King learnt to play on the Musselburgh Links years ago when he
was pursuing his scientific studies at Edinburgh, and Tom Brown, who
had the honour of being His Majesty’s caddie, still lives in hale old
age. In 1863 the King became Patron and then Captain of the Royal and
Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, and in 1882 he accepted the office
of President of the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, to which the late Queen
had granted the title “Royal.” His Majesty has played several times at
Cannes and on the private links of the Grand Duke Michael, and his love
of the game is notably shared by the Duke of Cornwall and York, the
Duchess of Fife, and the Duke of Connaught.
The King has lived to see the extraordinary development of cricket,
and its promotion to the rank of the typically national game which
Englishmen take with them to the ends of the earth. We may be sure that
the indirect political influence of the great contests between England
and Australia, for example, and of the tours of Indian, South African,
and West Indian teams, did not escape his quick intelligence. Certainly
His Majesty has always supported cricket, though he never became so
keen a player as the late Prince Christian Victor, for instance.
The King played at Oxford, and occasionally for I. Zingari. In 1866, at
the Park House, Sandringham, His Majesty played against the Gentlemen
of Norfolk for the Sandringham Household. He has frequently visited
Lord’s to see the Eton and Harrow matches, and in 1899 he went there
with the Duke of Cornwall and York when the M.C.C., of which club
His Majesty is patron, played the Australians. He has also seen the
Australians play at Sheffield Park. Kennington Oval being on the London
estate of the Duchy of Cornwall, the King, when he was Prince of Wales,
was ground landlord, and allowed the Surrey Club the use of the ground
at a nominal rental. The Surrey Club has benefited greatly through the
King’s generosity in this matter, and recently the Duchy of Cornwall
granted the club a thirty years’ lease at a very low rent, considering
the value of the property.
The King was for many years patron of both the Rugby Union and the
Football Association, and after his Accession he was approached by
both bodies with a view to his graciously continuing to grant them his
patronage. The game under neither code was played much until the King
had reached middle life, but he showed his interest in the popular
winter pastime by visiting the Oval in March 1886 on the first occasion
of a charity festival organised by the Rugby Union and Football
Association.
There can be no doubt that the King owes his remarkable bodily vigour
and healthy appearance to his love of all outdoor sports, for he was
never so content as when enjoying a long day’s tramp over the stubble
at Sandringham, or when deer-stalking in a soft Highland mist. His
Majesty’s life as a sportsman began early. When he was quite a child
he used to accompany Prince Albert on deer-stalking expeditions round
Balmoral; somewhat later he hunted with the harriers, and when he was
fifteen he could claim to be the best shot in his family.
Although the King has been a plucky and fearless rider from early
childhood, he has not been so fond of hunting as of some other sports,
and during the last few years he has seldom been seen following the
hounds. When an undergraduate at Christ Church, he constantly hunted
with Lord Macclesfield’s pack, and was then considered a very hard
rider; and it need scarcely be said that the meets which take place at
Sandringham are the most popular in Norfolk, and give both the King and
Queen many opportunities of showing gracious and kindly hospitality,
both to their wealthy and to their humble neighbours. The King is a
firm friend to the hunting of the fox, and it is understood that a pack
of fox-hounds is to be established in place of the Royal Buckhounds.
In 1888 the members of the West Norfolk Hunt presented to the King and
Queen Alexandra a beautiful silver model of a fox in full gallop as a
memorial of their Majesties’ silver wedding, and in returning thanks
the King said:--
“I can assure you that no present which has been offered for our
acceptance has been received by us with more pleasure than the one
which you have given us to-day--a model of the wily animal that we are
all so fond of following. Norfolk has always been considered to be a
shooting county; that may be so to a great extent, but I feel convinced
that the hunting is quite as popular, and I sincerely hope that it will
long remain so. There may be difficulties in preserving foxes, but I
feel sure that where there’s a will there’s a way. For twenty-five
years we have enjoyed hunting with the West Norfolk Hunt, both the
Princess and myself; and our children have been brought up to follow
that Hunt. I sincerely hope that for many long years we may be able to
continue to do so.”
Before the King had been at Sandringham six months he made it quite
clear that his country home should be in every sense a good sporting
estate, and it has been one of his chief pleasures to entertain parties
of keen sportsmen each autumn in Norfolk. Perhaps the best shooting
season Sandringham has ever seen was that of 1885-86. The total bag
was 16,131 head, including 7252 pheasants. The best day of that season
was the last day of the year 1885, when ten guns killed 2835 head,
including 1275 pheasants. The rabbit-shooting at Sandringham is also
first-rate, and it need hardly be said that the foxes are watched over
with the most tender anxiety.
[Illustration: THE KING AS A SPORTSMAN IN 1876
_From an Engraving published by Henry Graves and Co._]
Over ten thousand pheasants are annually reared at Sandringham, partly
by incubators and partly by the assistance of a thousand ordinary
hens. The lake near Sandringham affords wild duck, teal, and widgeon
shooting. The King has the largest game-room in the United Kingdom.
It holds between six and seven thousand head, and was built not very
long after the King bought the estate. After each day’s sport the game
is spread for inspection, and a careful record is made of the numbers
that have fallen to each gun. It is in the game-room that the game is
packed after a big _battue_ to be sent off in hampers to hospitals and
to friends. It need hardly be said that none of the King’s game is ever
sold. A good deal is kept for the use of the house, and a share is also
given to the tenants, to the _employés_ on the estate, and to London
tradesmen connected with the Royal Household.
The King’s shooting-parties rarely number more than ten guns, each of
whom is assigned his place in the shoot by his Royal host himself. All
the beaters at Sandringham wear a very becoming uniform composed of a
Royal blue blouse, low crowned hat, and long brown gaiters. Each bears
on his left arm a number by which he may readily be identified, and
after each day’s shooting every one of the beaters is allowed to take
home a hare and a pheasant.
The King is not often seen going north for the opening weeks of the
grouse-shooting season. Still, in the early years of his married life,
he and Queen Alexandra often entertained shooting-parties at Birkhall.
The King generally puts in a certain number of days pheasant-shooting
in Windsor Great Park. The preserves swarm with ground game. His
Majesty is also fond of shooting with the Duke of Devonshire at
Chatsworth, and at Wynyard, Lord Londonderry’s seat in Durham. The King
has, however, shot more or less all over England. He was frequently the
guest of Lord James of Hereford when the latter had Shoreham Place,
where one valley on the farther side of the park is locally known as
“The Valley of the Shadow of Death,” from the tremendous slaughter of
game that annually takes place there.
Like his father, the late Prince Consort, the King has always been a
keen deer-stalker, and when he is staying at Balmoral most of his time
is entirely devoted to this sport--in fact, deer-stalking is what first
brought him into close connection with his present son-in-law, then
the Earl of Fife, who possesses Mar, which is one of the two largest
forests in Great Britain, being over 80,000 acres of cleared ground.
Balmoral is situated in the heart of the deer country, being within
reach of a good number of forests adjoining each other, and extending
without a break into five counties. The King is well known to prefer
“stalking” to driving, but of late years he has taken an active part in
the drives organised at Mar. His marksmanship is universally agreed to
be excellent. At one time he was owner of Birkhall, in Glenmuick, but
it was purchased for him by Prince Albert, and he had no voice in its
selection. Still the King kept it till 1885, when he sold the property,
which was very extensive, to Queen Victoria.
[Illustration: THE “BRITANNIA”
_From a Photograph by Adamson, Rothesay_]
King Edward has been extremely fortunate as a yachtsman, and probably
one of the events to which he most looks forward each year is the
Regatta at Cowes. The King first won the Queen’s Cup, annually
presented to the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, in 1877, with his
schooner _Hildegarde_ of 198 tons. He won the Cup again in 1880 with
the _Formosa_, cutter, of 103 tons, and again in 1895 and 1897 with the
famous cutter _Britannia_ of 151 tons.
[Illustration: THE KING AS A YACHTSMAN
_Photograph by Debenham, Cowes_]
The Royal Yacht Squadron, as is well known, was founded as “The Yacht
Club” so far back as 1815. It early enjoyed the patronage of Royalty,
among the past and present members being numbered the Prince Regent
(afterwards George IV.), the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV.),
Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, the Tsar Nicholas I., Napoleon
III., the German Emperor, and Prince Henry of Prussia. The King became
Commodore in 1882 on the death of Lord Wilton, and he is Commodore of
nine other Royal yacht clubs, as well as President of the Yacht Racing
Association.
The King generally takes the chair at the annual dinner of the Squadron
held at the old castle at West Cowes, built as a fort by Henry VIII.,
which became the headquarters of the club in 1858. This festivity is
the great event of the year for all well-known yachtsmen. There is an
interesting display of plate, including the Queen’s Cup, the Nelson
Vase, and the beautiful model of the _Speranza_, which once belonged
to Lord Conyngham. His Majesty presented a few years ago twenty-one
cannon to the club-house at Cowes. They were taken by him from the
_Royal Adelaide_, the toy warship placed by William IV. to guard the
artificial ocean of Virginia Water. Now they are used for firing
salutes.
It need hardly be said that the King is the owner of many splendid
prizes won at Cowes and elsewhere. Both His Majesty and Queen Alexandra
are extremely fond of the sea, and he early made himself acquainted
with the less technical side of navigation. The King is very fond of
spending a certain number of days each year at Cannes, and when he
is there in April he generally takes an active part in the Battle of
Flowers, and he entertains large parties of his English and foreign
friends on board the _Britannia_.