The Prince as a Sportsman

In his devotion to the "sport of kings" the Prince of Wales followed the excellent example of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, Charles I, Charles II, William of Orange, Queen Anne, the Duke of Cumberland, George IV, and William IV. He represented in this respect an inherent and seemingly natural liking of the English people. With them the manly art of war, the physical excitements of chivalry, and tests of endurance in civil and foreign struggles, have been replaced by the games and sports of a quieter and more peaceful period. Riding to hounds, steeple-chasing and the amateur or professional race-course represent a most popular as well as aristocratic phase of this development. The Prince of Wales, early in his life, took a liking to racing in all its forms and encouraged steeple-chasing at a time when it was neither fashionable nor popular. He became a member of the Jockey Club in 1868. It was not, however, until 1877 that his afterwards famous colours of purple, gold band, scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap with gold fringe, were carried at Newmarket in the presence of the Princess and before a great and fashionable gathering. Five years later His Royal Highness won the Household Brigade Cup at Sandown and thenceforward his interest in the sport was keen, although it was not till some years afterwards that he established his own racing-stable which, in 1890, was placed under the efficient management of Lord Marcus Beresford.

During these years the Prince lost a good deal of money, though the amount was never known or even truthfully guessed at, but in 1889 his horses began also to win. In that year he won £204, in 1891 £4148, in 1894 £3499, and in the next four years a total of £57,430. In 1892 a Royal stud was founded at Sandringham and there Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee were bred. The Derby of 1896 was perhaps, the most historic of English racing events. Attended by a crowd of three hundred thousand people, raced in with horses owned by such generous patrons of the turf as the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Westminister and Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, watched with unusual interest by the crowd, it resulted in the most popular victory in the history of English sport. The Prince had fought hard for this blue ribbon of the turf, he had faced defeat and discouragement again and again and it was known that he would prize success more than anything within the limits of his ambition. When, therefore, Persimmon carried his colours to the first victory won at Epsom by a Prince of Wales in a hundred years, the delight of the Royal owner was evident. The great gathering of people cheered as if each person present had himself won the race and their obvious enthusiasm was an expression of personal liking as well as loyalty. This was a great year for the Prince whose horses not only won the Derby, the St. Leger and the £10,000 Jockey Club Stakes but also the Newmarket Stakes. In 1897 Persimmon won the Ascot Cup and the Eclipse Stakes (worth together £12,700) and was then retired from the turf. Trained by Richard Marsh and ridden by John Watts, this horse had given his Royal owner not only financial success but—what he valued infinitely more—great victories in a sport which he loved.

From that time on the Prince continued to be lucky with his horses. At the Derby of 1900 Diamond Jubilee won in exactly the same time as the Royal horse of 1896 had done. At this race, on May 30th, the Prince was accompanied by a large number of noblemen and ladies and gentlemen interested in racing. The Duke of Devonshire, Lord Rothschild, Lord Cheylesmore, the Marquess of Londonderry, the Duke of Portland, Lord Farquhar, the Earl of Chesterfield, the Earl and Countess of Crewe, the Earl and Countess Carrington, and others, came from London in the Royal special train. In the Royal box at the races were the King of Sweden, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, the Princess Victoria, the Duke of Cambridge and other royalties. The success of the Prince's horse in two minutes, forty-two seconds, was received with tremendous applause and with general congratulation in a large section of the press while, in the same year, the Royal colours were also carried to victory at the Grand National and the Two Thousand Guineas. The whole record was a unique one; the time at the Derby was the fastest in the history of the course; the winner of 1900 was a brother to the winner in 1896; and those who lost money appeared to be as glad that the popular Prince should win as if they had themselves backed his horse.

RACING FRIENDS AND YACHTING EXPERIENCES

The part taken by His Royal Highness in sporting matters naturally resulted in many friendships built around a mutual love of racing, of riding, and of the horse. Conspicuous amongst the good sportsmen who were also good friends of the Prince were the names of the Duke of Portland, Sir George Wombwell, Sir Reuben Sassoon, the Rothschilds, the late Lord Sefton, Mr. Henry Chaplin, the Earl of Zetland and Sir Frederick Johnstone. Sir John Astley, Lord and Lady Claude Hamilton, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur James, Sir Edward Lawson, Sir Edward Hulse, Lord and Lady Gerard, the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, Sir William Russell and Lady Dorothy Neville may be mentioned amongst other devotees of the turf who ranked in later years as friends of the Prince of Wales in this particular social "set." In this connection the annual Derby Day dinner must be mentioned. From 1887 to the time of the Prince's accession this Royal banquet to the members of the Jockey Club was an important institution and a much looked-for event in racing circles. Latterly it was the chief regular entertainment of the year at Marlborough House. The function was elaborate yet not too formal. Evening dress and not uniform was the custom; the guests included about fifty of the leading patrons of the turf and there were generally half-a-dozen of the Royal family present; the great silver dinner service ordered by the Prince at his marriage was always used; and the dining-room with its side-boards laden with gold and silver trophies of the race-course and attendants in scarlet, blue and gold, was a brilliant sight. Dinner did not usually last more than an hour and then the guests adjourned to the drawing-room for whist. In 1896 and 1900 the toast of the Derby winner, which had so often been proposed by the Royal host, had to be given to some one else—greatly to the enthusiasm of the guests.

The Prince of Wales was always a fearless rider and was fond of it from childhood. As an undergraduate at Christ-Church he constantly hunted with Lord Macclesfield's pack and was then considered a hard rider; but in after years his riding was mainly done in connection with military and other functions and for exercise, in a milder way than that of following the hounds. Akin, in some respects to the sport of racing, is that of yachting and to this the Prince of Wales was almost equally devoted. Naturally fond of the sea, trained in ocean travel in days when it was no pleasant drawing-room experience to cross the Atlantic, familiar with every part of a yacht and detail of its management, it was only fitting that the Heir to the throne of the seas should be an accomplished yachtsman. His first racing-yacht was the Aline and his next one, the Britannia, was for a time the most successful of large racing-yachts. Many splendid cups and pieces of plate graced the buffets of Sandringham and Marlborough and marked the victories of the Prince; though any prize moneys won in this way were always handed over to his Captain and crew as an addition to their already handsome pay.

His Royal Highness was a capital sailor. In returning from his Canadian and American tour in 1860 his ship was driven out of its course by a severe storm and so much alarm was caused by the delay that a British fleet was sent out to search for it; but, different as were the conditions of travel in those days, the Prince was not found to be any the worse for his stormy experience. In after years when cruising along the coasts of Europe, or traversing the Pacific and Indian oceans, he met with many a storm and severe strain, so far as weather was concerned, without effect. It is said, however, that he was troubled somewhat by rough weather in the English Channel. As Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron his patronage did very much in making the sport popular and fashionable and in creating the Cowes Regatta as a great yachting function. To this Royal Yacht Club every consideration in the way of prizes was given and the Queen, the Prince, the Emperor William of Germany, and Napoleon III. of France, offered prizes or trophies, from time to time. As Commodore—which office he accepted in 1882—His Royal Highness had as predecessors the Earl of Yarborough, the Marquess of Donegal and the Earl of Wilton. The Vice-Commodore for many years was the Marquess of Ormonde.

THE NAVY AND LOVE OF SHOOTING

On July 18th, 1887, the position of the Heir Apparent was recognized and the Navy complimented through his appointment by the Queen as Honorary Admiral of the Fleet. Some criticism was expressed in a portion of the Radical press mainly, it was stated, through ignorance of the Prince's real qualifications as both a seaman and yachtsman. Upon his accession to the Throne no single action was more popular than King Edward's retention of this latter title and the interest which he continued to show in the Navy. His Majesty took as great interest in Sir Thomas Lipton's efforts to win the America Cup as he had in the previous attempts of Lord Dunraven. Sir Thomas was, apparently, a congenial spirit in this connection and from both Prince and King he received a good deal of favour. It was while cruising with him on board Shamrock II., off Southampton, (May 22, 1901) that a heavy wind unexpectedly strained the spars and gear too much and brought down the top-mast and mainmast in a sudden wreck which crashed over the side of the frail yacht. The danger to the King was very great and a difference of ten seconds in his position would probably have given fatal results. The visit to the yacht was, of course, a private one, but such an incident as this made the affair very widely commented upon. The London Daily Express of the succeeding day embodied a good deal of public opinion in the following remarks:

Shooting was probably the favourite all-round sport of the Prince of Wales and in this he heartily embodied one more characteristic of the typical English gentleman. It has been described as a positive passion with him and as being "the love of his life." His father had been a thorough sportsman, though not a very good shot; the son became not only a thorough sportsman but perhaps the best shot in the United Kingdom. At seven years of age he was taught deer-stalking, at Oxford he frequently did a day's shooting on neighbouring estates, and, in his American and Canadian tour, a great pleasure to the young man was an occasional day's sport. At Sandringham he early mapped out his estate into a series of drives and soon combined with other famous shots to create and make popular the big battues which were afterwards so well known and which came to constitute so important an event in the shooting seasons at his Norfolk home. But His Royal Highness never confined himself to shooting pheasants, hares, or rabbits. Deer-stalking and shooting grouse were favourite pursuits, and he knew no greater pleasure than to spend a day, or days, upon the moors, accompanied by friends and hosts such as the late Duke of Sutherland, his son-in-law, the Duke of Fife, Mr. Mackenzie of Kintail and Colonel Farquharson of Invercauld. Going out from Abergeldie, or Balmoral, or Mar Lodge on a stalking expedition, the Prince cared neither for exposure to bad weather, nor severe exertion, so long as he could return with a bag of several head of deer. With the German Emperor and the late Duke of Coburg he enjoyed splendid sport in the vast forests of Central Europe from time to time, and with Baron Hirsch, on his great Hungarian estates, he had hunted deer, chamois, wild boar and roebuck, as he had shot game in America, hunted tigers and elephants in India, shot crocodiles in Egypt and hunted in the forests of Ceylon or Denmark.