THE LATE KING EDWARD

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 27

THE LATE KING EDWARD

ADDITIONAL REMINISCENCES. LONDON, October 26. Additional reminiscences, richly anecdotal, of King Edward by Edward Legge, published in Nash’s magazine, are creating tremendous interest. King Edward was a lifelong reader of Reynolds’s Newspaper and, as a court official attempted to dissuade him from reading it on the ground that it was a revolutionary paper. King Edward responded ; “Never mind, my friend; I know what tho Government thinks, and I want to know what other people think as well.” The late King’s intimate relatiomship with the Dudley family is recalled. Lord Dudley’s grandfather was very eccentric and absent-minded. On one occasion when he visited King Edward and Queen Victoria, liking a choice dish and forgetting Palace etiquette, he turned to the Queen and said : “You really ought to take some.”' The Queen smiled and thanked him. After short intervals he repeated the advice a second and a third time, and the Queen finally remarked : “ It must bo a very good dish. This is the third time you have told me.” Lord Dudley then exclaimed ; “ Damn the woman; so it is.’’ King Edward was distressed when the Dublin Crown jewels vanished. He pulled off his glove and thumped the table savagely, saying : “ I will have no scandals; I’ll never come to Dublin again. I’ll give nobody honours.” The writer says he had never seen the King in such a rage before. Mr Legge says that King Edward once said : “ You might expect politeness from Englishmen, but not manners.” King George years later requested the Bishop of

Worcester to emphasise the value of manners when addressing schoolboys. The Bishop inquired why, and King George replied : “ Because mixing among all sorts and conditions of men has been a positive distress to me. See how often when abroad Englishmen lose in the race with Frenchmen, Italians, and Germans, because of their want of manners.”