EDWARD VII AS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 9

EDWARD VII AS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.

The following article from the pen of Channing Arnold, written a few months ago, is an interesting word picture of the free, and easy life led by the late King at Sandringham, his country home at Norfolk, England : Whether one be prince or pauper, the words of the sweet old song are always true. "Amid pleasures and palaces" though it has ever been his destiny to iioam, King Edward has felt, with lesser mortals, the romance of those tender associations which cluster round the home. Ever since the early days of his marriage his beautiful house amid the pines and sands of Norfolk has been " home." It is there that he can free himself from the trammels of state and live the unceremonious simple country life he would probably have always wished himself entitled to live. His accession has made no kind of different to his love for Sandringham, and it is the seclusion and quiet which has .always held his affections. Howgreat is the seclusion may be gauged by the fact that for many years the only guardian of the heir to the Throne was one country polioeman. His Majesty has always jealously guarded his rustic peace, and has never allowed the railway to come nearer than Wolferton, about two miles off. The drive from the station to the house is through the most typical of Norfolk scenery, wild sandy stretches and pine plantations. The house is built of red brick with stone dressings in imitation of Elizabethan work.

—The Royal Estate.— The estate was purchased from • Mr Spencer Cowper in 1851, but the mansion house proved past repair, and was rebuilt. The King had every farm and cottage on the estate repaired before the house was begun. Amusing stories are told of the way in which he astonished his new tenants by his personal supervision of all details, going into tenements and climbing ladders, amid the confused reverence of the inmates. From the first the King made the estate his home, and won the affection of all his neighbours by his unaffected kindness. The watohword of the place is simplicity, and those who are privileged to be. his guests meet kindly host and hostesses, not sovereigns, in the hall. —A Sandringham Ball. —

The dinner hour at Sandringham is 8.30 according to the house clocks, which are always kept an hour fast. The dining room is a comfortable room, with oak roof and wainscoting, and furnished with finely-carved oak furniture. The floor is polished and the walls are panelled and hung with tapestries, presented by the late King of Spain. The great sideboard built into an alcove is on occasions of ceremony covered with the gold and silver racing and yacht prizes won by the King. The table is narrow and oval at each end, and the decorations are chiefly flowers, as the King dislikes all table ornaments. He and the Queen sit facing each other at the centre. After dinner the guests adjourn to the drawing room on the west side of the house. It is decorated in Frenoh style, a pale blue and gold. The ceiling is painted, . and the furniture is upholstered in pale blue silk, but for everyday wear is covered with chintzes. Off the drawing rooms opens a conservatory, used much for smoking. The three annual balls .to the county, the farmers, and the servants were held here formerly; but now there is a special ballroom in the new wing. It is a huge apartment, with dado of carved wood, the walls decorated with panels of pale blue adorned here and there with shields and arms. At one end is a gallery for the orchestra. Sandringham balls always begin with a quadrille, the King and Queen leading off. His Majesty was always an energetic dancer, "dancing tx> the tune," as he himealf puts it. Highland flings and reels, country dances, Sir Roger, and a dance called "Triumph," a vigorous measure very popular with the King, are included in the programme. <# When the dance is over there is a generial adjournment to the smoking room, and sometimes the King will start a game of bowls. Of this game he is most fond, and often, as soon as midnight on Sunday strikes, leads the way thither. A story is told of a cleric invited to Sandringham to preach and stay the week-end. He was a punctilious man, and it was believed he might be shocked at the starting of a game so soon after the Sabbath, so as the fatal hour arrived he was adroitly persuaded to seek his couch. The little plot was, however, given away by an innocent fellow-guest at breakfast the next morning. "You were lucky last night," he said to the churchman, "to get off to bed. They lured me to the bowling alley and kept me there till 4 this morning." But bedtime at Sandringham, tl-ough at no fixed hour, ;is not usually so dissioated as that. The King is a resolute early riser, and, no matter at what hour he retires, he is up and at work on State papers soon after.

—The Best of Landlords. — Breakfast at Sandringham is at 9.30, the puests taking it at round tables seating six or eight persons. The King has long made the rule that none of the Royal Family _ aire present, and this as much in the interests of his guests as •his own. .Each morning his Majesty spends at least an. hour in his small business room', -very plainly furnished, opening off the hall. Here with his comptroller and private secretary ,-ie receives reports, interviews tenants, examines into all the minutiae of his estate, the question of repairs, the adjustment of disputes, the granting or refusing of the numerous requests which almost daily inundate a great landowner. Stock3teep3rs, • crame-keepers. stewards are all seen in their turn, and all are sure of a kindly attention and generous treatment from the hest of landlords. Scon after 11

the King is ready for a tour of the estate, which when in residence he regards as a sacred daily dluifcy. He appears clothed in knickerbockers and stout boots, and those guests who care to do so are at liberty to go with him. First there is an inspection, of the stables. These are built on the system of courts as at Buckingham Palace, the right side of the courtyard being known as "harness side," and the left as

"saddle side." for riding and driving horses respectively. There are in all 50 stalls, and these are often full, as the King has bis racers there when out of training. His Majesty likes Hungarian horses, and a team of these diraws the family waggonette which is so- well known around Wolferton. A great pet to which a visit is always i= the King's shoot-

; "g pony, a sturdy animal who carries his royal master from covert to covert. Among the carriages are fine 6ledges, a Japanese rickshaw, and several carts which the Queen drives herself, notably that known as the Blues cart, from it being decorated in the colours of the Guards, red and blue. The King is verv proud of the saddle room, which is full of equine curiosities, mounted hoofs of famous steeds. Mexican and other harness of exquisite make.

Next, the kennels, where are housed some 60 doss. Here are to be found every breed, for his Majesty is very catholic in his tastes; and St. Bernards a.nd terriers, Great Danes and tiny Spitzes bark a chorus of welcome. Each dog has a sleeping room and a grass run. —The Royal Farms.—

From the kennels the King leads the way to the two farms which he has reserved for his own special use. Beside maintaining the herds of shorthorn, Here ford, and Devon, cattle which made the royal farms of Windsor celebrated during the reign of Queen Victoria, and the famous Aberdeen-Angus herd at Abergeldie Mains, the King has devoted much of his time to scientifically perfecting his s.horthorns at Sandring.ri.am, and has added a herd of Kerrv cattle to the royal stockyards. And horses—both thoroughbred and Shire—the King has bred at Sandringham since his early days, until it: would' be difficult to find finer studs of these two breeds anywhere in the Eastern countries. It is on these two farms aW that his renowned flock of Southdown sheep are seen and his special breed of pigs known as "Improved Norfolks" is reared.

Nor is his Majesty's interest in agriculture merely a perfunctory one. He takes a zealous interest in all shows his stock attends, being present himself whenever opportunity offers. As King his manifold duties will not allow of his displaying the active interest «jb Prince of Wales. Then it will be remembered he was_ president of the Royal Agricultural Society of England on no less than four separate occasions, as well as president of the Shire Horse Societv in 1886, and president of the Smithfield Club during 1888, its centenary Year. —The Simple Life.—

After _ the survey of the estate •'+ ; s lunch time, but at this meal the Royal Family seldom appear. With the afternoon there are manifold' duties for the royal _ landlord. There are village sports to visit or flower shows to patronise. The schools, too. on the estate have ever been specially dear to him, and often he and the Queen pay unexpected calls to hear the children, sing or to ask questions of the curtseying little children. The King has erected in everv village working men's clubs with reading rooms and billiard rooms. For these all boys over 14 are eligible, a.nc" here there is served eood British ale, but there are no publichouses on the estate. It is a fact worth noting that drunkenness is unknown among_ the farm hands. These clubs the King is particularly fond of. and he will eonstantlv look in, stopping to talk to the men, and' even perhaps playing a game of billiards. To the estate,"too, is attached a cottage hospital.

Tea, which is a substantial meal, -"s usually in the hall, and quests forget the augustness of their hosts in the simple kindness of the Royal Family. Sometimes the lea is at the Queen's tea room, which adjoins her model dairy, a building of Swiss cottage type, lined with tiles made in Bombay. So complete, indeed, is the simplicity of life at Sandringham that there is probably less ceremony than at many country seats. Perhaps it is seen at, its best on Sund.av, which the King always_ spends in that dignified' ouietude so typical of the real country gentleman's life. Lord Bpaconsfield declared he preferred the deligrhtful home life and quiet peace _ of a Sunday at Sandringnam to anything else in the world. Countless stories might be told of the genuine kindness of the King and his family to all around. There is~not a cottager who is not known to him. The Queen will drop in on some old body, and sit chatting over a cup of tea. One old soul, pottering in her garden, proudly wears a fur which the Princess Victoria sent to town specially to get her; another treasures signed photographs; everybody has experienced kindness' and. attention from a King who is himself an ideal country gentleman.