THE PRINCE OF WALES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 152, 24 December 1929, Page 4

THE PRINCE OF WALES

HIS PEW LEISURE HOURS

HOW HE SPENDS THEM

(Copyright.)

The Prince has no regular working day like other people. Ho i 3 at the beck and call of duty day and night. Sometimes he will not have a minute to himself from the moment he rises until the time when he retires to his plain little bedroom for his six hours of sleep.

Most official gatherings must bore the Prince, although in his characteristic manner he does not permit himself to show his true feelings. There is at least one official evening engagement which-,the Princo always enjoys, however, and this is a regimental dinner or an old comrades' reunion. At most banquets the Prince is always the Prince. He has to make long speeches and comport himself with dignity. At regimental dinners he can feel like a man amongst comrades. For this reason the Prince is also fond of an occasional private dinner party to which he can invite his friends. READY CONVERSATIONALIST. At these little affairs, he can, on occasion, exhibit to the full his remarkable powers as a conversationalist. Although normally the Prince employs the common slang of speech with all its humour and inconsequence, he can, if necessary, discuss engineering with an expert, electricity with a scientist, literature or art with a dilletante, frocks with a woman, health with a hygienist, and politics with a statesman. Pew, people really realise what excellent company he can be. Again, the Prince finds relaxation in dancing, which he enters 'into with characteristic vim, and although the Prince is far from being a jazz maniac, the girls who dance with him find him an ideal partner. In fact his sister, Princess Mary, is the only one to dub him a bad dancer. Music does not arouse the Prinee^to any great enthusiasm. Although he has a musical ear, and can pick out tunes on the ukelele, the "Great Masters" leave him cold. At the same time, he likes nothing better than a good choir or a military band, and enjoys listen-ing-in when he has time—which is but seldom. When his duties permit, His Royal Highness likes to pay an informal visit to a cinema or theatre. In many cases his visits are so informal that not even the management know of his presence. A short while ago he paid a visit <;o a well-known cinema near Piccadilly, London, "and was told "Standing room only!" "I'll stand," said the Prince, and put down his money. A short while later he was given a seat, but lie had hardly been seated for ten minutes before he gave it up to a lady who was unaware of the courteous gentleman Js identity. ON THE GOLF COURSE. When circumstances forced the Prince to give up hunting and racing, it was a bitter blow, bnt time has healed the wound, and now one of his favourite games is golf. When he has a free week-end the Prince, likes nothing better than to get away .from London with one or two friends and play golf on some quiet course. The quietness of a course is more important to the Prince than its quality, for he is seldom able to play on club courses with tho privacy and freedom of a normal man. Before he has gone far the links will be crowded with people, and on more than one occasion public curiosity has been so great that the Prince has been forced to abandon the game.

That he does not care with whom he plays as long as the played is good is ■well known. Everyone remembers how ne recently played with Walter Hagen and a village postman in the course of one day.

Tho Price is not keen on tennis, but lie generally contrives to get in a game of squash before he begins work in the morning. Those in the vicinity of York House, London, just after breakfast, will often see him cross on foo» to the Bath Club, where he is in the labit of playing.

The Prince has often said that his ideal day would be a day spent alone. But I am sure that he would need a games partner to be really happy.