the House of Commons in the winter of 1894-5 included Mr.
Balfour, Lord Stanley, Lord Willoughby de Eresby and Mr. Victor
Cavendish.

Fishing never appealed to him and was, apparently, too quiet and easy a
sport. He liked pigeon-flying, and bred some very fine birds at
Sandringham for this purpose. Tricycling he was very fond of and kept
good machines both at Marlborough and Sandringham. As soon as motor cars
came into use he could be frequently seen driving a smart carriage along
the country roads of Norfolk. Chess the Prince never mastered nor cared
for. In dancing he was an expert, as well as in skating, and was always
exceedingly fond of the amusement. At his Sandringham balls he was an
indefatigable dancer, and at great balls all over the world he delighted
many a partner and varied social circle by his obvious pleasure in the
entertainment. From Halifax to Montreal, from Toronto to New York, in
Canada and the United States, in Egypt and India, in Turkey and Greece,
in all the greater Courts of Europe, from the days of Napoleon III. at
Paris, to those of William II. at Berlin, he had been the central figure
of some such occasions. Golf was played by His Royal Highness on the
links of Musselburgh in early days and at a later time in Windsor Park.
Cricket he was fond of in his younger days, but latterly he only showed
his interest by patronizing matches as an onlooker. In these and other
pursuits the Prince represented in his mode of life and his manner of
enjoying himself the qualities of a distinct type amongst his
countrymen and a type most popular throughout the community.

Another characteristic of the Prince was his good manners. The "first
gentleman in Europe" always knew how to be pleasant without being
familiar, dignified without being pompous, genial without being free.
Myriads of stories are told in this connection. At the skating and
hockey parties on the Sandringham lakes the farmers' wives and daughters
were included and no Duchess in the land would be handed a cup of tea
with more courtly manner by the Royal host than would the wife of a
tenant on his estates. His servants, in houses and farms and stables, in
sport or travel, at home and abroad, were treated in such a way as to
make every one of them wish to serve the Prince for a life-time. No more
charming incident is on record than the way in which His Royal Highness
approached Mrs. Gladstone at the state funeral of her great husband,
bowed low bef