THE PRINCESS ROYAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1356, 6 February 1912, Page 9

THE PRINCESS ROYAL.

A MAISUI.-UiK FOR LOVi:. Thpro is fomelhiiis romantic in the atmosphere of the Highlands. It inspired the courtship of flu- late Princess Royal and Prince Frederick William of I'nissin, of Princess Louise and the J)uke «r Argyll, of the Princess Royal and 11m Duke of File. Iu her interesting pon-and-eainora picture of the Royal Family, Sarah A. Tooley gives: an account of tho wooing. "The young Princess," says she, "was very torn! of country life, and rarly developed ii taste for fishing. She found excellent ■sport in the Dee when at Abergclclie Castle for the usual autumn season. The sport of Izaak Walton appealed particularly to the quiet mid gentle nature of Princess Louise. She is mistical, like her mother, and vtiy kind to members of the musical profession. Alter her marriage she developed a gifat taste for cycling, and learned to ride when at Brighton, whore the Duke has a winter residence. As a girl she was constantly out on the moors wiith her mother and sisters when the Prince- of Wales and his near neighbour, the Earl of Fife, were shooting together, and a romantic attachment sprung up between the young Princess and her father's friend. It is said that the presentation of h«r portrait, framed in silk taken from her first court train, was the first indication given by the Princess to the Earl of Fife that Ins suit would l>o favourably received. "The Princess was so fond of her English home-life, and so retiring in her disposition, that she shrank from a foroign alliance, and had no ambition to marry the. heir of a kingdom. The Prince and Princess of Wales valval their daughter's happiness too higuly to 'arrange an alliance' for her; she was allowed to bestow her hand where she had already given her heart. Queen Victoria gave a cordial sanction to the marriage, for the bridegroom's parents had been amongst the earliest Scottish friends on Dwsido. The engagement was announced in the height cf tho London season of ISS3. The late Shah of Persia was thou on a vi?f:t to England, and was most keenly interested in the match. lie offered his palace at Teheran for the honeymoon, and doubtless felt it difficult to understand why the young bride preferred the quietude, of Sheen Lodge, the smallest of her husband's houses. The Shah, however, manifested his friendliness in magliilioent gifts." The wedding took place in tho privqte chapel of Buckingham Palace on July 27, 188S). The year before—on March 10—the Prince and Princess of Wales had celebrated their silver wedding day. The year heforo that Queen Victoria had celebrated her jubilee. It is said that the Princess Louise was Victoria's favourite grandchild. Tho marriage ceremony was performed by tho Archbishop of Canterbury. In addition to the Princess and Princess of Wales, there were present her Majesty tho Queen and tho King of Greece and the Crown Prince of Denmark, uncles of the bride. The German section of tho Royal Family approved of the alliance, but the Duke of Hesse, who brought tho Queen into the chapel on his arm, was tno only member of that branch of the .family present. "Indeed," it was written at the time, "the wedding is said to havo given great offence to the German princelets, who, of course, look upon the matter rfom the point of view of .self-interest. The English "Court has afforded them splendid pickings in the past, but now that the Prince of Wales has allowed his eldest daughter to set the example of marrying an English peer this happy hunting-ground threatens to be closed." It is a somewhat curious fact, also, that, the match should have been regarded rather coldly by the English nobility. Tli? fact was that English nobles felt a lit Uo jealous at peeing a Scotch peer wedded to the daughter of tho Heir Apparent, ar/.l they disliked still more what was at the time regarded as the by no means improbable contingency of his children ascending the English throne. The feeling of the middle and lower classes, however, was unmistakable: they warmly approved of the marriage. It was a people's wedding. As a Royal wedding it was a nuiet function—both lie Duke of Fife and his Royal bride wished it so —and such display as was made was mainly for the benefit of the populace, who turned out in thousands into St. James's Park to witness it, and ns tho bride rodo to and from Buckingham Palace the people wildly cheered her. The Princess Alexandra, born in 1801 fliC'ir by special remainder), and Princess Maud, Wn in 1803, are the children of tho marriage.

The Duke of Fife went on a special mission to the King of Faxony in ISB2. and ho acted as T.nnl Hi"h Cons Mile at the Coronation »f ICim? Ed«-nrd VIT. Up iva; fonn°rlv well-known os Viee-TVesident of flic British-Smith Africa Coninany, liavimr lield that position from the formation of the company, nine yonrs before, until the snringof ist.l, when he severed his connection with th.p company on tho ground, as stated by him in a speech n' the annual ('inner of the Rival Colonial Institute in March, that "a board of ?■">- tlemen si'tins in Tonrfou, however able and honest- they mHit be- could nor exerP Hip sani<> '•wteA as the Tmnorinl autliorUv." In the some «>°<"ch 1 , - , ! wnicnin/»<1 the sc'ieni" formed "by Mr. .Tcsenli ChnnilyM-ii.in for H:» fiiturc government nf the Charlerwi Cotnnniiv's and tainted ont Hint tHf .Tsmiwon Paid. f»f whioli r.lot 'in <ind 'vis tpiv 'I»monstrpWv e n "l'l npver Wp Ir'-n enrn'pd out l>y imUvi'lunls "wl>" fell tii<i"ici>lr»s under the '''vect control of tlis British G-w-rumniit."