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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 20 November 1912, Page 3

J I SIDELIGHTS ON ROYAL LIKE. I LONDON, OCT. 2*. : There »r© ni;) j-- interesting stories _ iy tha biography just published of the j lata King. Mr Edward Le.gge , s y lt j author, and lie entitles hin book '*ivir:p; Fxhvard VII. in his true colours." Mr Leggo says that until King Edwa;M:i's LaSt illness his appetite was the envy of young diplomatists. The fc'-ir ' v < nia<lo of rook, and it was impossible for him to remain unoccupied. . In the selection of his friends ho displayed considerable acumon, 7ho finances of the royal household were j muddled, and ho engaged Lord Eshor, Lord Farquhar, and Sir Ernest Ca.s- , sel, three of his closest acquaintances, to place them in order. They established an amortisation scheme, and after a few years of energetic treatment solvency was the result. An interesting little incident is re-

lated regarding.Sir W. H. Russel, tlio famous journalist, who accompanied King Edward to India. Lord Roseberry recommended Russel for a knighthood, and Queen Victoria conferred the honour at Buckingham Palace. Russel said," when I hopped in the King remarked, '.Don : t kneel, Billy; just stoop.' " Sir Dighton Probyn, an officer of ner Majesty's household, handed, the ribl.on of the order, and King Edward slipped it over Rnssel's head. Mr Legge contends that King Edit ards relation with the German Emperor were always inharmonious. On one occasion the Emperor arrived in England, and his suite was so num-

erous that Windsor Castle was unequal to the demands made upon it to house thorn. "

Some of the staff was accordingly j sent to Frogmore, and they wrote 1 homo saying that the hospitality ex- ) tended to them was not good enough, j This gossip reached tho King's ears. /

[ 75(1 ward's conception of good brooding continually caused him to flout ' tlio exuberant loquacity of liis German nephew. Wilhelm used to chat--tor with scant reticence before other people concerning the gentlemen whom his uncle had chosen as per- , sona] friends. Knig Edward w a ,s annoyed, and ho showed his annoyance. Fie read the newspapers every day. and oven when lie was ill at the last, and could not sleep, his memory was still good.

He never forgot. After tho baccarat case, when ho was drawn into a scandal at the home of the Wilsons, the well known Yorkshire shipping family, he was disappointed at the coolness of the Morning Post, and pleased with a chivalrous article which appeared in the Daily Telegrap. One paper, which accorded him a Roman burial, was consigned to the (lames, and the writer of the article publicly snubbed.

In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury 7\ing Edward said. "T have a horror of gambling, and T •should always do my utmost to discourage others. | consider that- it is one of the greatest curses that- the country could be afflicted with."

The King was passionately fond of theatres, and -was a regular firstnighter He had a . predilection for the Comedie Franchise in Paris and loved to smoke a cigar and drink a glass of beer with tho directors in their private room. -He was a hearty spectator of farces, oven when they were of a rather pointed character. Very fpiy. fournalistfe or authors were welcomed at Marlborough House. Fn addition to Mr Russell, 7,ord Bumham (pi'opietor of the Daily Telegraph'). .Marie Corelli, Mr Hall (of the Daily Graphic), and the late Mr Melton Prior, the famous war correspondent and artist, were constant visitors. So was tho late Hr Henry I'jabouchere, who dispensed with such predicates as "Your Royal Highness" or "Your Majesty," and was content to address Edward simply as "Sir." At a Prime Minister's dinner on one occasion the late King circled the

[ room nJid bade adieu to tho guests, j but missed ono of them, When ho ; reacted the door 'ho turned back and walked kick to the solitary guest by the fireplace and wished him a friendly "Good-night." King Edward, says Mr Legge, bad a greater variety of bats and caps than any otlior sovereign. His ]iats for ordinary wear numbered 30, and his military helmets and hats covered a larger ran go than those of the kaiser. He did not like straw hats.

A German barber is quoted in the book as recalling an occasion when tho King, then Prince Albert, was passing; through Kronberg. Ho wont jnto tho hairdresser's and in colloquial German asked that his beard should l>o trimmed, and then relapsed into silence. When asked a. question ho answered most politely that as princes were on. the free list he had nothing to pay. .• A waiter at Marienbad, where the King went nearly every year, was pestered by an American notoriety-hunt-er for something that Edward had touched. The astute waiter gave him a fish-bone off tho King's plate, for which ho received three dollars. Then he collected all the other fishbones in the restaurant and sold them to i other Americans, clearing 48 dollars : over tho business. Other seekers of souvenirs were indefatigable. Theyp aid fancy pricey for the King's cigar butts, and scrambled for the water in which he had washed his hands. He once told a story against himself, in which a girl of 13 years of age was .said to have seen the King and his suite, and to have remarked to her mother that "it was very handy. He didn't die till we'd seen him.

Edward stated that he had scarcely time to read novels. "But" he added, "[ do sometimes. Tt seems to me that n writer's talent manifests itself not in dealing with psychological problems, but -rather.- in the fine, descriptive passages. Nothing is °-o difficult to describe as a landscape. "When I ji.m in tho theatres T prefer pieces which make me laugh." Mr Legge maintain? that hi?. Majesty was a. srreat diplomat, a lender of public opinion, a. democratic monarch, and skilled in -worldly lore.