CHAPTER XXV

THE KING AS A SPORTSMAN

_The author is indebted to an authority on sport for kindly revising this chapter._

An account of the King as a sportsman begins, appropriately enough, with the sport of kings, though this is by no means the only pastime with which His Majesty has identified himself. Still, at any rate during his later years as Prince of Wales, he was chiefly associated in the public mind with racing, and his colours--purple, gold band, scarlet sleeves, and black velvet cap with gold fringe--were familiar at all the principal meetings. After his accession His Majesty leased his horses to the Duke of Devonshire for the season of 1901, but it was understood that, following the example of several of his predecessors, the King intended to resume his active connection with the Turf later on. Although His Majesty has been a member of the Jockey Club for over thirty years, his personal interest in racing is a matter of later growth, for it was not till July 1877 that Queen Alexandra honoured Newmarket with her presence to see her husband’s colours carried for the first time. On that occasion the King had no luck, his horse Alep, a pure-bred Arab, which started favourite, being beaten by Lord Strathnairn’s Arab Avowal by twenty or thirty lengths. Five years later the King won the Household Brigade Cup at Sandown with Fairplay.

The King is generally agreed to be a very good judge of a horse. When at Newmarket he makes it a point to watch the early morning gallops, and at one time he was very fond of attending sales. His Majesty has also given a great impetus to horse-breeding in the United Kingdom. Many years ago he started a thorough-bred stud, a half-bred stud, and a shire-horse stud--works of real public utility, which can only be undertaken, be it remembered, by those who have wealth and leisure, combined with intelligence and a real desire to forward the interests of the British farmer.

The King’s great successes on the Turf during recent years, including two famous Derbys, have been due to the introduction to the Sandringham stables of Perdita II., bought by Mr. John Porter for £900. The union of this mare with St. Simon produced Florizel II., and from that time the King’s fame as an owner and breeder increased until it became second to none.

It was in 1890 that His Majesty put his racers under John Porter, but his total winnings were only £624. The next year, however, the King won £4148; in 1892, £190; in 1893, £372; in 1894, £3499; and in 1895, £8281; and in the last-named year His Majesty’s name stood tenth in the list of winning owners. This satisfactory result was undoubtedly greatly owing to Lord Marcus Beresford, who was entrusted with the management of the King’s racing stable in 1890. The King’s horses were removed from Kingsclere to Egerton House, Newmarket, in 1892, and since then they have been under Marsh’s care. Persimmon was sent there as a yearling from Sandringham in 1894.

The King’s most memorable triumph was his first Derby in 1896, when Persimmon won. This fine horse is a bay by St. Simon, and own brother to Florizel II., who was, by the way, the first really good horse that ever carried the Royal colours, and is the sire of several very promising animals. Persimmon was never beaten by any horse except his own half-brother, St. Frusquin, who twice defeated him, and Omladina, who finished in front of him in the Middle Park Plate. He was bred by the King and trained by Marsh at Newmarket. He made his first appearance in the Coventry Stakes at Ascot as a two-year-old, and, starting favourite, won the race. On the occasion of his next appearance, in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, he was again favourite, and again won by a length. In the Middle Park Plate, though favourite, he was beaten by St. Frusquin, but in the Derby of 1896 he beat his half-brother by a neck. At the Newmarket First July Meeting he gave 3 lb. to St. Frusquin, and was beaten in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes. He won the St. Leger by a length and a half; and in the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket on the 1st October he won by two lengths from Sir Visto, the Derby winner of 1897.

Persimmon was ridden to victory in the Derby of 1896 by John Watts. The race was witnessed by an extraordinarily large concourse of all classes, including a considerable number of distinguished foreigners. Never was there a more popular victory, and the enthusiasm all over the country was almost as great as at Epsom. It was the fourth time in the history of the Turf that the race had been won by a Royal owner. In 1788, eight years after its foundation, the Prince Regent won with Sir Thomas; and the Duke of York won with Prince Leopold in 1816, and with Moses in 1822.

Altogether, in 1896, nearly £27,000 in stake money was won by horses from the Royal stables at Newmarket. Among the King’s notable successes in that year may be mentioned the One Thousand Guineas, won by Thais, by St. Serf out of Poetry, which also ran second to Canterbury Pilgrim in the Oaks.

The King won the Derby again in 1900 with Diamond Jubilee, which, like Persimmon, is by St. Simon--Perdita II. It is an extraordinary thing for a mare to produce two Derby winners, but that they should be by the same sire is believed to be a record in the annals of the Turf. Perdita II. died soon after her very promising filly Nadejda--also by St. Simon--was foaled.

The Derby-Day dinner is certainly one of the most important functions held at Marlborough House during the year, and it is now difficult to believe that it was only inaugurated comparatively few years ago. Something like fifty invitations are sent out, and the guests, who are all men, are expected to wear evening dress, not uniform. The great silver dinner-service ordered by the King on his marriage, which cost some £20,000, is always used on this occasion, and on the side buffet are to be seen His Majesty’s racing cups, hunting trophies, and gold and silver salvers, for everything in the strong rooms which is associated with sport is brought out.

In addition to the Derby, Diamond Jubilee also won in 1900 the Two Thousand Guineas, the Newmarket Stakes, the Eclipse Stakes, and the St. Leger, and was second in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes. Giving 12 lb. to Disguise II., Diamond Jubilee was unplaced in the Jockey Club Stakes. In his five great victories Diamond Jubilee won £27,985 in stakes, and so placed the King at the head of the list of winning owners.

In 1900 also the King won the Grand National with Ambush II., and so carried off the biggest flat-race and the biggest steeplechase--double honours which no other owner had ever before gained, much less in the same year.

From the sport of kings we pass by a natural transition to the Royal and ancient game of golf. It is well known that golf was the favourite pastime of some of the Stuart kings of Scotland, and Mary Queen of Scots, her son, James I. of England, Charles I., and James II. all played. But from the death of James II. to the accession of Edward VII. none of our sovereigns were themselves golfers, though William IV. and the lamented Queen Victoria gave their patronage to the game.

The King learnt to play on the Musselburgh Links years ago when he was pursuing his scientific studies at Edinburgh, and Tom Brown, who had the honour of being His Majesty’s caddie, still lives in hale old age. In 1863 the King became Patron and then Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, and in 1882 he accepted the office of President of the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, to which the late Queen had granted the title “Royal.” His Majesty has played several times at Cannes and on the private links of the Grand Duke Michael, and his love of the game is notably shared by the Duke of Cornwall and York, the Duchess of Fife, and the Duke of Connaught.

The King has lived to see the extraordinary development of cricket, and its promotion to the rank of the typically national game which Englishmen take with them to the ends of the earth. We may be sure that the indirect political influence of the great contests between England and Australia, for example, and of the tours of Indian, South African, and West Indian teams, did not escape his quick intelligence. Certainly His Majesty has always supported cricket, though he never became so keen a player as the late Prince Christian Victor, for instance.

The King played at Oxford, and occasionally for I. Zingari. In 1866, at the Park House, Sandringham, His Majesty played against the Gentlemen of Norfolk for the Sandringham Household. He has frequently visited Lord’s to see the Eton and Harrow matches, and in 1899 he went there with the Duke of Cornwall and York when the M.C.C., of which club His Majesty is patron, played the Australians. He has also seen the Australians play at Sheffield Park. Kennington Oval being on the London estate of the Duchy of Cornwall, the King, when he was Prince of Wales, was ground landlord, and allowed the Surrey Club the use of the ground at a nominal rental. The Surrey Club has benefited greatly through the King’s generosity in this matter, and recently the Duchy of Cornwall granted the club a thirty years’ lease at a very low rent, considering the value of the property.

The King was for many years patron of both the Rugby Union and the Football Association, and after his Accession he was approached by both bodies with a view to his graciously continuing to grant them his patronage. The game under neither code was played much until the King had reached middle life, but he showed his interest in the popular winter pastime by visiting the Oval in March 1886 on the first occasion of a charity festival organised by the Rugby Union and Football Association.

There can be no doubt that the King owes his remarkable bodily vigour and healthy appearance to his love of all outdoor sports, for he was never so content as when enjoying a long day’s tramp over the stubble at Sandringham, or when deer-stalking in a soft Highland mist. His Majesty’s life as a sportsman began early. When he was quite a child he used to accompany Prince Albert on deer-stalking expeditions round Balmoral; somewhat later he hunted with the harriers, and when he was fifteen he could claim to be the best shot in his family.

Although the King has been a plucky and fearless rider from early childhood, he has not been so fond of hunting as of some other sports, and during the last few years he has seldom been seen following the hounds. When an undergraduate at Christ Church, he constantly hunted with Lord Macclesfield’s pack, and was then considered a very hard rider; and it need scarcely be said that the meets which take place at Sandringham are the most popular in Norfolk, and give both the King and Queen many opportunities of showing gracious and kindly hospitality, both to their wealthy and to their humble neighbours. The King is a firm friend to the hunting of the fox, and it is understood that a pack of fox-hounds is to be established in place of the Royal Buckhounds. In 1888 the members of the West Norfolk Hunt presented to the King and Queen Alexandra a beautiful silver model of a fox in full gallop as a memorial of their Majesties’ silver wedding, and in returning thanks the King said:--

“I can assure you that no present which has been offered for our acceptance has been received by us with more pleasure than the one which you have given us to-day--a model of the wily animal that we are all so fond of following. Norfolk has always been considered to be a shooting county; that may be so to a great extent, but I feel convinced that the hunting is quite as popular, and I sincerely hope that it will long remain so. There may be difficulties in preserving foxes, but I feel sure that where there’s a will there’s a way. For twenty-five years we have enjoyed hunting with the West Norfolk Hunt, both the Princess and myself; and our children have been brought up to follow that Hunt. I sincerely hope that for many long years we may be able to continue to do so.”

Before the King had been at Sandringham six months he made it quite clear that his country home should be in every sense a good sporting estate, and it has been one of his chief pleasures to entertain parties of keen sportsmen each autumn in Norfolk. Perhaps the best shooting season Sandringham has ever seen was that of 1885-86. The total bag was 16,131 head, including 7252 pheasants. The best day of that season was the last day of the year 1885, when ten guns killed 2835 head, including 1275 pheasants. The rabbit-shooting at Sandringham is also first-rate, and it need hardly be said that the foxes are watched over with the most tender anxiety.

Over ten thousand pheasants are annually reared at Sandringham, partly by incubators and partly by the assistance of a thousand ordinary hens. The lake near Sandringham affords wild duck, teal, and widgeon shooting. The King has the largest game-room in the United Kingdom. It holds between six and seven thousand head, and was built not very long after the King bought the estate. After each day’s sport the game is spread for inspection, and a careful record is made of the numbers that have fallen to each gun. It is in the game-room that the game is packed after a big _battue_ to be sent off in hampers to hospitals and to friends. It need hardly be said that none of the King’s game is ever sold. A good deal is kept for the use of the house, and a share is also given to the tenants, to the _employés_ on the estate, and to London tradesmen connected with the Royal Household.

The King’s shooting-parties rarely number more than ten guns, each of whom is assigned his place in the shoot by his Royal host himself. All the beaters at Sandringham wear a very becoming uniform composed of a Royal blue blouse, low crowned hat, and long brown gaiters. Each bears on his left arm a number by which he may readily be identified, and after each day’s shooting every one of the beaters is allowed to take home a hare and a pheasant.

The King is not often seen going north for the opening weeks of the grouse-shooting season. Still, in the early years of his married life, he and Queen Alexandra often entertained shooting-parties at Birkhall. The King generally puts in a certain number of days pheasant-shooting in Windsor Great Park. The preserves swarm with ground game. His Majesty is also fond of shooting with the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, and at Wynyard, Lord Londonderry’s seat in Durham. The King has, however, shot more or less all over England. He was frequently the guest of Lord James of Hereford when the latter had Shoreham Place, where one valley on the farther side of the park is locally known as “The Valley of the Shadow of Death,” from the tremendous slaughter of game that annually takes place there.

Like his father, the late Prince Consort, the King has always been a keen deer-stalker, and when he is staying at Balmoral most of his time is entirely devoted to this sport--in fact, deer-stalking is what first brought him into close connection with his present son-in-law, then the Earl of Fife, who possesses Mar, which is one of the two largest forests in Great Britain, being over 80,000 acres of cleared ground. Balmoral is situated in the heart of the deer country, being within reach of a good number of forests adjoining each other, and extending without a break into five counties. The King is well known to prefer “stalking” to driving, but of late years he has taken an active part in the drives organised at Mar. His marksmanship is universally agreed to be excellent. At one time he was owner of Birkhall, in Glenmuick, but it was purchased for him by Prince Albert, and he had no voice in its selection. Still the King kept it till 1885, when he sold the property, which was very extensive, to Queen Victoria.

King Edward has been extremely fortunate as a yachtsman, and probably one of the events to which he most looks forward each year is the Regatta at Cowes. The King first won the Queen’s Cup, annually presented to the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, in 1877, with his schooner _Hildegarde_ of 198 tons. He won the Cup again in 1880 with the _Formosa_, cutter, of 103 tons, and again in 1895 and 1897 with the famous cutter _Britannia_ of 151 tons.

The Royal Yacht Squadron, as is well known, was founded as “The Yacht Club” so far back as 1815. It early enjoyed the patronage of Royalty, among the past and present members being numbered the Prince Regent (afterwards George IV.), the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV.), Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, the Tsar Nicholas I., Napoleon III., the German Emperor, and Prince Henry of Prussia. The King became Commodore in 1882 on the death of Lord Wilton, and he is Commodore of nine other Royal yacht clubs, as well as President of the Yacht Racing Association.

The King generally takes the chair at the annual dinner of the Squadron held at the old castle at West Cowes, built as a fort by Henry VIII., which became the headquarters of the club in 1858. This festivity is the great event of the year for all well-known yachtsmen. There is an interesting display of plate, including the Queen’s Cup, the Nelson Vase, and the beautiful model of the _Speranza_, which once belonged to Lord Conyngham. His Majesty presented a few years ago twenty-one cannon to the club-house at Cowes. They were taken by him from the _Royal Adelaide_, the toy warship placed by William IV. to guard the artificial ocean of Virginia Water. Now they are used for firing salutes.

It need hardly be said that the King is the owner of many splendid prizes won at Cowes and elsewhere. Both His Majesty and Queen Alexandra are extremely fond of the sea, and he early made himself acquainted with the less technical side of navigation. The King is very fond of spending a certain number of days each year at Cannes, and when he is there in April he generally takes an active part in the Battle of Flowers, and he entertains large parties of his English and foreign friends on board the _Britannia_.