in 1906 i came in for a most interesting cruise in the royal yacht, which took me further afield than i had been for many a long year, for early in april the king and queen and princess victoria joined the royal yacht at marseilles for a cruise in eastern waters.
the voyage cannot be said to have commenced auspiciously, as the yacht was compelled to remain for four days at marseilles, whilst weatherbound by an atrocious gale. however, nothing lasts for ever, and eventually the gale came to an end, so by the 8th of the month the yacht was on her way to messina, at which port she arrived early next day. taormina, the beautiful, being within easy reach, had, of course, to be visited. it was always a pleasure to me to see it again; but i knew the place well, having been there in the old surprise days, and later, in the course of a winter trip to sicily.
from messina it was only a short journey to corfu, and there the royal yacht was to spend some days not only in very beautiful, but also amongst very interesting surroundings. to commence with, the king of the hellenes was there with a number of his family on board his yacht the amphitrite; the prince and princess[320] of wales, on their way home from india, were on board the renown; and, finally, the mediterranean fleet was at anchor in the bay under the command of the late lord beresford, flying his flag from the masthead of h.m.s. bulwark.
various entertainments were given on board the flagship in the shape of dinners, and we were also shown a good deal of what was then the new navy, for even as late as 1906 the fleet in the mediterranean was our most up-to-date naval asset, and its command was still looked upon as the most important in the navy. except for the great beauty of the island itself, there is nothing very remarkable in the way of sight-seeing to be done at corfu, so in default of any other short excursion, the achilleion was frequently visited; the house itself consists of a sort of rather tawdry villa, built in what is evidently meant to be a pompeian style, the whole edifice being extremely ugly and characteristically german in taste. but there criticism ends, for as regards situation, and the view from the garden, it is absolutely beautiful. from where the statue of achilles stands, from which the villa takes its name, one can see right over the little town of corfu, with its charming old venetian fort, and ulysses’ island, enshrined in a most beautiful bay, the whole view being rounded off by a background, consisting of the mountains of albania.
in fact, corfu is a very charming place, and i always wonder that more people do not winter there; it has a delightful climate, the scenery is superb, the roads we made during our long occupation of the island, although sadly neglected by their present owners, make[321] excursions in all directions still feasible. on the other hand, islands are always troublesome to arrive at, and get away from, and there is no such thing as a casino there, though were it to become a fashionable winter resort, that necessity (?) would doubtless be soon provided by some enterprising greek syndicate.
after four or five pleasant days at corfu, the victoria and albert proceeded to the pir?us, and on her arrival there, the king and queen and princess victoria and the suite left pir?us for athens, and took up their temporary residence at the palace.
shortly after our king’s arrival, the olympic games, that were intended to be a sort of international sporting tournament, to be held in turn in various capitals, were inaugurated in the new stadium that had been built for the occasion. the stadium, in another thousand years or so, when the white marble of which it is built has become coloured and patinaed with age, may become beautiful; but to my mind, nothing is so hideous as the staring white, of brand-new marble, and the stadium at athens was no exception. it was of huge size, and being new, could look like nothing in the world but a wedding cake. personally, i am not fond of looking on at what are called “sports,” especially when they consist largely in teams of extremely well-drilled and well-set-up athletes doing, what used to be called in the navy “physical drill,” and a large part of the competition seemed made up of these exercises, which are, i fancy, very popular in germany and among the northern races generally. but one very interesting competition i did see, that took place outside the[322] stadium in a garden in the vicinity; for there the english team of épéeists (if there is such a word!) encountered the german representatives, and to our great joy soundly trounced them. our team was headed by lord desborough, and eventually fought its way into the final, in which they were defeated, after a very close contest, i think, by the belgians. the particular bout that delighted me, was one between lord desborough, and a remarkably corpulent german expert, who received such a prodding from his powerful and active antagonist that, in spite of the plastron and the button on the épée, i fully expected to see daylight let into the teutonic “corpulency”!
towards the end of the month, the royal yacht was once more under weigh, anchoring for a night at katakolo to enable a visit to be paid to olympia. i had been several times to athens before, but never had managed to get to olympia, which is really very difficult of access. to get there in any comfort a yacht is required, supplemented by a short railway journey and a long drive, and as the hotel—or rather the village inn—is quite remarkably bad, the whole expedition has to be compressed into the inside of a day. with a yacht at one’s disposal, there is no great difficulty, and indeed the actual journey by sea from athens to the anchorage in katakolo bay is a very pleasant one, and wonderfully lovely as to scenery. athens itself is more beautiful when seen from the sea than from any other aspect, and, after going through the corinth canal, the gulf of corinth, which is never more than about thirty miles across at its broadest portion, provides a succession of views whose[323] beauty, both as to colour and to outline, are difficult to over-estimate. olympia itself is wonderfully interesting. when the original town was at the height of its fame, with its wealth of temples and shrines, to say nothing of the most important feature of all,—the stadium for the olympic games,—it must have been one of the wonders of the world. much has been done in the way of excavation, so, from the summit of kronos hill, just to the north of the town, which lies in a sort of natural amphitheatre, it is possible to form some sort of idea of what its appearance must have been, when olympia was in its glory. but, to my mind, far more beautiful than anything else there, and alone worth any length of journey to see, is the hermes of praxiteles that is safely lodged in the little museum. this statue was, i believe, found some twenty or thirty years ago by an excavating party, and was lying at the bottom of the little stream which is still dignified with the name of the river alphios. it is exquisitely beautiful. the slight turn of the head that enables the hermes to glance at the lovely little bacchus perched on his shoulder, the beauty of every detail, and the wonderful patina, perhaps produced by the many hundreds of years immersion, make up altogether what is, in my poor judgment, far the most attractive, if not the finest, statue in the world. i remember how difficult it was to tear oneself away from this wonderful group, and how almost disagreeable it was to look at anything else in the museum, though, as a matter of fact, not far from it stands the niké of paconios, which is extremely fine, and there are also a quantity of interesting fragments;[324] but the hermes is so compellingly wonderful, that everything else under the same roof seems to be second-class.
altogether the trip to olympia was an immense delight, and even the names on the signposts were attractive. there was something very pleasant in driving, (even in a shandrydan of a greek fly), down the road to arcadia!
from katakolo the royal yacht proceeded to naples, at which port the king disembarked for paris and london, the queen and princess victoria remaining on board for a further cruise on the italian coast.
later in the year i was present at buckingham palace at a rather mournful little ceremony. under the new army organisation scheme, it had been decided to disband the 3rd battalion of the scots guards. naturally, the officers and men of the battalion were much distressed at their disappearance from the army list, and, as some sort of consolation, the king took the opportunity of parading them at buckingham palace, so as to take leave of them, accepting, at the same time, the custody of their colours. this fine battalion paraded under the command of colonel lawrence drummond, their colonel. after the parade, the colours were handed over by the colour party to the two equerries-in-waiting, and by them were duly placed in the private chapel of the palace, where i have no doubt they remained until the late war, when a third battalion was reformed.
early in 1907 i was once more in paris in attendance on the king and queen, who took the opportunity[325] of paying a week’s visit to that capital. with the exception of a luncheon with the president, there were no official functions, and for once in a way it was a real holiday for their majesties. the king and queen occupied the embassy during the whole of their visit, the ambassador and ambassadress (then the late sir francis and lady feodorovna bertie) taking up their residence for the time at the h?tel bristol.
the british embassy in paris is worthy of a few words of description, both on account of its historical interest and its magnificence as a residence. i question whether many of my countrymen realise what a bargain was made by the nation, when it was purchased for something under ￡30,000, its value before the late war being estimated at about a quarter of a million sterling. it was bought on the advice of the duke of wellington during the occupation of paris by the allies after waterloo, and was at the time the paris home of the prince and princess borghese, the princess being the beautiful pauline, a sister of the great napoleon.
it is most conveniently situated for an official residence, standing as it does, to use the french expression, “entre cour et jardin,” with its entrance on the rue du faubourg st. honoré, only a very few hundred yards from the palace of the élysée, the official residence of the president of the french republic. the garden is unusually large for a paris house, extending its border almost to the avenue des champs élysées.
the interior of the “hotel” (to again use the french term) is very magnificent, decorated profusely in the approved style of the period of its occupation by[326] pauline borghese, and consequently filled with fine specimens of empire furniture, decoration, and bibelots, extending even to a fine dinner-service of gold plate. the proportions of the great reception and dining-rooms on the ground floor are very imposing, and they contain some remarkably good specimens of mantelpieces and garnitures de cheminées of bronze and ormolu.
just at the top of the great staircase is the small dining-room that was used by the king and queen for private luncheons and dinners. this little room is hung with some early seventeenth-century gobelin tapestries, which were sent over in the late lord bertie’s time by our foreign office for cleaning and restoration; at his request they were, after their treatment, allowed to remain there, and are the principal ornament of the small dining-room to this day. the state bed-rooms were, of course, occupied by the king and queen during their visit; the larger of the two is absolutely untouched, and remains exactly as it was in pauline borghese’s time. the bed is a splendid specimen of empire work, and so are the toilette tables with their hand-chased bronze medallions. the candelabra on the mantelpiece are especially beautiful, and there are interesting medallion portraits of pauline and her husband on either side of the fire-place.
the drawing-rooms on the first floor were hung with pale amber-yellow damask, and also contained all their original empire furniture, with beautiful candelabra and chimney-pieces. the smaller of the two in those days was used by the ambassadress as her[327] sitting-room, and amongst other interesting pictures there was a portrait of herself and her sister, lady hardwicke, as girls, (they were the daughters of the lord cowley who was a long time ambassador in paris, and i fancy that one, if not both, of the sisters was actually born at the embassy); there was also another portrait of lady feodorovna wellesley (as she was then) dressed as a bridesmaid to princess alexandra of denmark, on her marriage with the prince of wales in 1863.
to proceed with the king and queen’s stay in paris:—amongst the several theatres visited was the théatre sarah bernhardt, where that wonderful artist, madame bernhardt, was playing in a very pretty little poetical piece called les bouffons, and apropos of madame bernhardt and les bouffons, the conjunction of the two resulted in an extremely pleasant half-hour for me. i was sent round to see the illustrious artist in question, on the morning of the performance, to ask her to put off the hour fixed for the entertainment, to enable their majesties, who had a dinner party, to be in time for the beginning. i had known the great sarah in england, but very slightly, and on this occasion when i called at her house, though she evidently had risen straight from her bed to receive me, she kept me long after our business had been disposed of, gossiping, and relating all the amusing cabotinage of paris, for, besides being a transcendent artist, she was one of the most agreeable of women.
there was a constant succession of luncheons given in honour of the distinguished visitors, but the one[328] that remains in my memory was at the apartment of the late sir reginald lister, then, as reggie lister, the first secretary of the embassy. it was quite a small party, but amongst the guests were monsieur and madame jean de reszke. madame jean, though nominally only an amateur, was practically a great artist, and after luncheon was over, she sang as she only could sing. she possessed one of the most lovely and sympathetic voices i have ever heard, and was, moreover, a perfectly trained musician; indeed, jean always averred that she was a better singer than he, and i can still remember the enormous pleasure it was to listen to her. i had heard her before, at one or two of those delightful musical parties that the late lady ripon used so constantly to give at coombe,—parties, the like of which i can remember in no other house, and i can never expect to experience anything comparable to them in the future. for there all the greatest artists in the world used to sing as they sang nowhere else, knowing, as they did, that in their hostess alone, to say nothing of her guests, they had the most sympathetic of audiences, and, moreover, in her, a kind and constant friend. at so many concerts where great singers give us of their art, though they cannot help singing well, there is always a feeling that they are faithfully performing a contract for which they are paid, and the contract being completed, are very pleased to have earned their money and to go home to bed. at coombe, on the contrary, they sometimes almost fought as to who was to get to the piano, and the accompanist first. there[329] never was such a thing as a programme; but they simply sang whatever came into their heads, or whatever they were asked for, for the popularity of that very gifted and beautiful lady in musical circles was simply boundless. i remember once seeing such artists as destinn, caruso, and scotti, with signor ricordi at the piano, with only one book between the four of them, trying through, what was then, an unheard-of opera in london,—madame butterfly. alas! that those days have gone for ever, through the untimely death of one of the kindest of my friends, and the most interesting hostess of my time.
the paris visit being concluded, the rest of 1907, as far as my duties were concerned, was spent to a great extent on board the royal yacht, for in july the royal family once more embarked on board her at holyhead for a visit to ireland and wales. after spending the night on board at holyhead, bangor was visited to enable the king to lay the foundation-stone of the new buildings of the university college of wales.
two days afterwards the victoria and albert was at kingstown, from which port the king and queen and princess victoria drove to dublin for the purpose of visiting the dublin exhibition, the marquis of aberdeen being, at that time, viceroy. to use the usual form of the court circular, during all the driving that was done on this occasion, and on a subsequent visit to leopardstown for the races, “the equerries-in-waiting were in attendance on horseback.”
i have ridden many miles in my time on these sorts[330] of occasions, and any one with any sense of humour can get a good deal of fun out of them, by studying the attitude of the mobs that one has to pass through; but nothing is half so amusing as an irish crowd. the irish people are always supposed to be the very reverse of loyal, but none the less they love a show of any kind, and whenever i have been riding in attendance in ireland, though passing only an arm’s length off the packed masses of humanity that line the streets, i have never heard a word, or seen a gesture, of anything that was not at any rate friendly.
the following day the royal party went by road to the leopardstown races. racing is always good sport in ireland, even when one is dressed in an equerry’s riding-kit, which includes a cocked hat, and when feeling very hot and dusty after having ridden in front of the escort for several miles on the hard high road. that particular meeting at leopardstown produced even more amusement than usual. the king gave a cup for the winner of an officers’ race, for which there were some thirty starters. there were some fairly decent animals entered, the property of officers, and ridden by their owners or some brother officer; but amongst the whole lot there was only one serious race-horse. this horse had been given by a large race-horse owner to a departmental officer so short a time before the race, as to call forth serious comment. good odds were laid on this animal to win, but curious things happen in racing, and especially in ireland. some of the young officers who were riding in the race with no particular chance of winning, but more for the sake[331] of taking part in a very amusing contest than anything else, had evidently made up their minds, rightly or wrongly, that the gift was not a very genuine one, and that whatever won, they would take care that this particular horse did not. and he did not! at the start, a sort of zareba of horses was formed round him, and after the flag was dropped, curiously enough, whenever he seemed to have a chance of getting through his horses, and taking his place, he was invariably unlucky in being knocked into, and eventually came in with the ruck. an irish crowd loves and understands racing, and is endowed with the keenest sense of humour, and the shouts of laughter that went up to heaven during this contest did one good to hear.
after leaving kingstown, the royal yacht steamed up the bristol channel on her way to cardiff. it was a lovely morning and full of interest to me, as i could recognise many of my old haunts when passing; such as hartland, lundy island, beautiful clovelly,—where, from boyhood onwards, i have spent some of the happiest days of my life,—and the outline of exmoor, where i had so often hunted in my boyhood and youth.
the function at cardiff consisted in the formal opening of the new alexandra docks, and, later on, after lunching with lord and lady bute at their great house, which is literally within the town of cardiff, a special non-stop train ran the royal party up to london in time for dinner. i am afraid to say at what pace the train must have been running. i only[332] know that the permanent way of the great western is so well laid that there was no shaking; we might have been pottering along at thirty miles an hour instead of at considerably over double that speed.
in august the royal yacht was again in full commission for cowes, and the opportunity was taken of paying a visit to the then brand-new dreadnought, and going outside the island in her, to see the target-practice of the then, also new, 12-inch guns. to me, of course, it was very interesting, and the visitors on board (there was quite a large party, amongst which were a great number of ladies, who came by the invitation of their majesties) were, i think, agreeably disappointed in the noise made by the firing, which was nothing like so ferocious as had been generally expected.
and so ended the year 1907 as far as court duties were concerned.
