The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-03 00:00:00

THE LIFE OF THE LATE PRINCE
CONSORT.

From the fifth and final volume of Mr. Theodore Martin's
"Life of His Royal Highness the' Prince Consort," recently
published by Messrs. Sitlitli, Elder, & Co., London, we
make the following extracts, which give an interesting de-
scription of the Prince in various phases of daily life :

"Like most men who have done great things in the
world the Prince got to his work early, and had made
good progress with it before other people were stirring.
Summer or winter he rose as a rule at seven, dressed,
and went to his sitting-room, where in winter a fire
was burning, and a green German lamp ready lit. He
read and answered letters, never allowing his vast
correspondence to fall into arrear, or prepared for her
Majesty's consideration drafts of answers to her
Ministers on any matters of importance. Not feeling
sure of the idiomatic accuracy of his English, he would
constantly bring his English letters to the Queen to
read through, saying, Lese recht aufinerksant, tend sage
wenn irgend em n Felder da ist ! ' ('Read carefully, and
tell Ind if there be any faults in these !') Or, in the
case of drafts on political affairs, he would say, Ich
hab Dir hier em n Draft gentacht, lese es mat I Ich deichte
CS Ware recht so.' ('Here is a draft I have made for
you. Read it. I should think this would do.') He kept
up this habit to the close of his life, and his last memo-
randum of this description—a paper of the greatest
importance, to which we shall hereafter have occasion
particularly to advert—he brought to the Queen on
December 1, 1861, at eight a.m., having risen to write
it, ill and suffering as he was, saying, as he gave it,
Ich bin so schtcach, ich habe kaunt die Feder halten
konzten.' ('I am so weak, I have scarcely been able to
hold the pm')
"Every morning the ,leading newspapers were
placed on a table in the breakfast-room, near the
Prince. He never failed to examine them—sometimes,
to quote a Memorandum of the Queen's, of January,
1862, 'reading aloud good or, important articles. A
good article gave him sincere pleasure.' How much a
mischievous one pained him has already been told.
'Often,' says the same Memorandum, 'when break-
fast was over, he would get um and spreading a news-
paper over one of the tables, bend over it, and refuse
to listen to any questions, saying, Store mid:, nicht,
ich lese dczs fertig. ('Don't disturb me, I'm busy read-
ing.') And his papers are full of evidence, that no
article in any of the leading journals of real value for
its facts or arguments escaped his notice. . ,

"In the shooting season he generally went out three
or four times a week, and later on hunted once a week,
but he had almost given up hunting since 1858. He
was generally home by two, or a little before. He
never went out, or Caine home, without coming through
my room, or into my dressing-room, with a smile on
his face; saYing `Sehr schOn I' ('Very fine 1') or /ch

bin achrecklich van' or schmutzig' ('I am frightfully-
wet ' or dirty '), and I treasured up everything I
heard, kept every letter or despatch to show him, and
was always vexed and nervous if I had any foolish
draft or despatch to put before him, as I knew it would
distress or irritate him, and affect his delicate stomach.
He always walked very fast when out shooting, and
got very quickly through with it. He would say, 'I
don't understand people making a business of shooting,
and going out for the whole day. I like it as an
amusement for a few hours.'

"At breakfast and luncheon, and also at our family
dinners, he sat the top of the table, and kept us all en-
livened by his interesting conversation, by his charm-
ing anecdotes, and droll stories without end of his
childhood, of people of Coburg, of our good people in
Scotland, which he would repeat with a wonderful
power of mimicry, and at which he would himself
laugh most heartily. Then he would at other times en-
tertain us with his talk about the most interesting and
important topics of the present and of former days, on
which it was ever a pleasure to hear him speak."