Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/601

 in a published letter of thanks the prince and princess gratefully acknowledged the national condolence. The duke's death was the more distressing owing to his approaching marriage to Princess Mary (May) of Teck. Next year, after the shock of mourning had passed away, Princess May was betrothed to the second son, Prince George, who filled his brother's place in the succession to the throne and was created duke of York on 24 May 1892. The marriage took place on 6 July 1893, and the succession to the throne was safely provided for when a first child, Prince Edward of Wales, was born on 23 June 1894.

The prince's recreations.

The theatre.

Amid all his domestic responsibilities and his other engagements the prince always found ample leisure for sport and amusement. Of the theatre and the opera he was from boyhood an ardent admirer, and both in London and Paris he enjoyed the society of the dramatic and musical professions. The lighter forms of dramatic and musical entertainment chiefly attracted him. But his patronage was comprehensive. Wagner's operas he attended with regularity, and Irving's Shakespearean productions at the Lyceum Theatre from 1872 onwards stirred his enthusiasm. With Irving, the leader of the dramatic profession through a great part of the prince's career, his social relations were of the friendliest. He supped on the stage of the Lyceum with Irving and a few of his friends after the performance of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ (8 May 1883), and when Queen Victoria was on a visit to Sandringham (26 April 1889), he invited Irving to perform in her presence ‘The Bells’ and the trial scene from ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ With the comic actor J. L. Toole he was on like cordial terms, and thrice at the prince's request Toole appeared in characteristic parts on visits to Sandringham. Toole was there at the celebration of Prince Albert Victor's coming of age on 8 Jan. 1885. (Sir) Charles Wyndham, (Sir) Squire Bancroft, (Sir) John Hare, and many other actors in addition to Irving and Toole were the prince's guests on occasion at Marlborough House. The dramatic profession generally acknowledged his sympathetic patronage by combining to present him on his fiftieth birthday (9 Nov. 1891) with a gold cigar box. To the prince's influence is attributable the bestowal of official honours on leading actors, a practice which was inaugurated by the grant of a knighthood to Henry Irving in 1895.

The prince and the turf.

His racing successes.

But the recreation to which the prince mainly devoted himself from middle life onwards with unremitting delight was horse-racing. He joined the Jockey Club on 13 April 1864. But it was not for at least ten years that he played any part on the turf. His colours were first seen at the July meeting at Newmarket in 1877. In 1883 he leased a few horses at John Porter's Kingsclere stable, and two years later he inaugurated a breeding stud at Sandringham. In 1893 he left John Porter's stable at Kingsclere, and thenceforward trained horses at Newmarket under Richard Marsh, usually having at least eleven horses in training. By that date he was a regular visitor at Newmarket, occupying a set of rooms at the Jockey Club. That practice he continued to the end of his life. He was a fair judge of horses, though hardly an expert. His luck as an owner was variable, and signal successes came late in his racing career. His main triumphs were due to the merits of the three horses Florizel II, Persimmon, and Diamond Jubilee, which he bred in 1891, 1893 and 1897 respectively out of the dam Perdita II by the sire St. Simon. With Persimmon, the best thoroughbred of his era, the prince won for the first time the classic races of the Derby and the St. Leger in 1896, and the Eclipse Stakes and the Gold Cup at Ascot in 1897. In 1900, when his winning stakes reached a total of 29,585l., he first headed the list of winning owners. In that year his racing triumphs reached their zenith, when Persimmon's brother, Diamond Jubilee, won five great races, the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby, Newmarket Stakes, Eclipse, and St. Leger. He had played a modest part in steeplechasing since 1878. But his only conspicuous success in that sport was also achieved in 1900, when his Ambush II won the Grand National at Liverpool. So imposing a series of victories for an owner in one year was without precedent. No conspicuous prosperity attended his racing during the early years of his reign. But in 1909 he was for a third time winner of the Derby with the horse Minoru, and was in the same year third in the list of winning owners. At the time of his death he had twenty-two horses in training, and his winning stakes since 1886 then amounted to 146,344l. 10s. 1d. The pastime proved profitable. He sold Diamond Jubilee to an Argentine breeder for 31,500l. The skeleton of Persimmon he presented to