Royal Honeymoons

Southland Times, Issue 22499, 8 December 1934, Page 21

Royal Honeymoons

In selecting Himley Park, Warwickshire, as the place for their honeymoon, Prince George and Princess Marina have followed the British Royal tradition by spending their honeymoon in Great Britain, writes the Hon. Mrs Frances Lascelles. When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert their honeymoon lasted only four days, and Windsor was the chosen spot. At that time it was considered not quite the thing for a newly-wed couple to be seen by their friends and relations until a few weeks had elapsed, but Queen Victoria and her consort threw this convention to the winds, and in a ponycarriage they moved about everywhere in the neighbourhood and acknowledged the salutations of the enthusiastic people with smiles and bows. Short though it was, the Queen always cherished the memory of her honeymoon, and when her eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, married the Crown Prince of Germany—afterwards the Emperor Frederick, the exKaiser’s father—she advised the young pair to spend the first part of their honeymoon at Windsor. The Empress Frederick, whose married life was so tragic, told an archbishop years later that she had a foreboding the first evening at Windsor that she would never be happy. She and her newlymarried husband sat for over two hours in the drawing room not knowing what to say to each other! When King Edward VII., then, of course, the Prince of Wales, married the beautiful Princess Alexandra of Denmark, it was rumoured that the honeymoon was to be a grand European tour. Instead of this, however, the Prince took his lovely bride to Osborne, in the Isle of Wight. Osborne was Queen Victoria’s favourite residence in England, and the house in which she died in 1901. There are still a few people who’remember the honeymoon of King Edward and Queen Alexandra over seventy years ago, and they tell of the happy young couple romping on the sands just like children —and walking along hand in hand in the woods. The Royal bridegroom, it must be remembered, was only 21, and the bride even younger. King George and Queen Mary even in their young days thought that there was no place like home, and they selected York Cottage, on the Sandringham estate, for their honeymoon. This modest house, built by King Edward to accommodate his bachelor guests, was destined to be not only the scene of King George’s honeymoon, but his home for eight years—and the place where all his children, except the Prince of Wales, were born. The honeymoon of the present King and Queen was a very quiet and secluded one, and they seldom strayed outside the confines of the Sandringham estate. There is a tree still standing—although few people know its exact location—which bears on its trunk a carved heart, in the centre of which is cut the initial “G.M.” They were cut by the King on his honeymoon, and he often goes with the Queen to look at “the honeymoon tree,” as he himself jokingly describes it! When Princess Mary, the King s only daughter, married Lord Lascelles in 1922, those who knew the bridegroom were not surprised in the least when it was revealed that the newly-married couple were going to spend their honeymoon in the Midlands. Lord Harewood’s love for the Midlands and the North of England is intense. After a week at Weston Park the Royal couple went to Italy and took up residence in the Villa Medici, near Florence, the beautiful home of Lady Sybil Scott. The brilliant scenes connected with the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1923 are still vividly remembered; but how many can recall where the honeymoon was spent? After the impressive Westminster Abbey ceremony the young Royal couple went on to Polesden Lacy, in Surrey, the stately and beautiful residence of that great friend of the Royal family, Mrs Ronald Greville. A few miles from Dorking, Polesden Lacy is set amid lovely surroundings, and the Duke and Duchess found it an ideal place for a honeymoon. From there they afterwards proceeded to Glamis Castle, the historic Scottish house of the Duchess’ parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. After a few weeks at Glamis, where, of course, they were enthusiastically acclaimed, the Duke and Duchess travelled south again, this time to Frogmore near Windsor, where the last part of a rather long honeymoon was spent. Prince George and Princess Marina are a very modem couple in ways and outlook, and the kind of honeymoon they have decided upon may well set a fashion.