ognized principles of etiquette and
intercourse and common customs of amusement and fashion. Taken in this
wide sense of the word, no personage in the history of Europe during the
nineteenth century wielded so great an influence as His Royal Highness.
He helped to make the unbounded after-dinner drinking of a previous
period unpopular and socially un-orthodox; he encouraged in his more
youthful days and always enjoyed the pleasures of dancing; he introduced
very largely the popular fashion of a cigarette after dinner in place of
endless heavy cigars and their accompaniment of liquors; he did much to
encourage and popularize a love for music; he led the fashion in the
matter of men's dress and, upon the whole, society in most civilized
countries has to thank him for simple and dignified customs in this
respect; he supported the race-course with courage and persistence and
not only made racing more popular but helped to establish its code and
operation upon a high plane of honour--by far the highest and cleanest
in the world; he made charity and the support of its varied public
institutions popular and fashionable; he showed the gilded youth of a
great social world that work was a good thing for a Prince and a peer
as well as for a peasant; he, with his beautiful wife, presented for
many years a model home and family life to the nation and they,
together, discouraged many of the petty vices and small faults which
creep into all social systems from time to time.

LIFE AT MARLBOROUGH HOUSE

The official and social centre of this leadership in the British world
was at Marlborough House--a large and unpretentious residence in the
heart of London. That the place was exquisitely furnished and equipped
goes without saying; that it was comfortable in the extreme is equally a
matter of course to those acquainted with the taste and house-keeping
capacities of the Princess of Wales. It was filled with fine engravings
and paintings illustrative of the Victorian era; it teemed with
mementoes and memorials of past incidents, travels and friendships in
the lives of the Royal couple; it contained rooms suited for every
purpose required in the exacting life and multifarious public duties of
its occupants. The Prince's study, where only intimates were admitted,
has been described as the room of a hard-working man of business. When
at Marlborough House, His Royal Highness used to mark out his time, each
day, with care and precision and e