Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/602

 the South Kensington Museum (5 Feb. 1910).

With fellow patrons of the turf the prince always maintained cordial intimacy. The members of the Jockey Club included his closest friends. For twenty years he entertained to dinner all the members at Marlborough House and afterwards at Buckingham Palace on Derby night. Rarely missing an important race meeting, he was regularly the guest of Lord Sefton at Sefton Park or of Lord Derby at Knowsley for the Grand National, of Lord Savile at Rufford Abbey for the St. Leger at Doncaster, and of the duke of Richmond at Goodwood for the meeting in the park there.

In yacht racing also for a brief period he was only a little less prominent than on the turf. In 1876 he first purchased a racing schooner yacht, Hildegarde, which won the first queen’s cup at Cowes in 1877. In 1879 he acquired the well-known cutter Formosa, and in 1881 the schooner Aline, both of which enjoyed racing reputations. But it was not till 1892 that the prince had a racing yacht built for him. The vessel known as the Britannia was designed by George Lennox Watson [q. v. Suppl. II], and was constantly seen not only in the Solent, on the Thames, and on the Clyde, but also at Cannes. For ﬁve years the yacht enjoyed a prosperous career, winning many races in strong competitions, often with the prince on board. In 1893 prizes were won on the Thames (25–26 May), and the Victoria gold challenge cup at Ryde (11 Sept.). Twice at Cannes the Britannia won international matches (13 March 1894 and 23 Feb. 1895); and on 5 July 1894 it defeated on the Clyde the American yacht Vigilant; but that result was reversed in a race between the two on the Solent on 4 Aug. 1895. In 1895 the German emperor ﬁrst sent out his yacht Meteor to meet his uncle's Britannia, and for three years interesting contests were waged between the two vessels. Thrice in English waters during 1896 was the German yacht succcssful—at Gravesend (4 June), at Cowes (11 June), and at Ryde (13 Aug.). But after several victories over other competitors the Britannia won the race for the queen's cup against the Meteor at Cowes (3 Aug. 1897), and three days later the emperor’s Meteor shield was awarded his uncle's vessel.

The prince's open indulgence in sport, especially in horse-racing, attracted much public attention, and contributed to the general growth of his popularity. But in 1891 there was some recrudescence of public impatience with his avowed devotion to amusement. An imputation of cheating against a guest at a country house when the prince was of the company led to a libel action, at the hearing of which the prince for a second time appeares as a witness in a court of law (5 June 1891). The host was Mr. Arthur Wilson, a rich shipowner of Hull, and the scene of the occurrence was his residence at Tranby Croft. The evidence showed that the prince had played baccarat for high stakes. A wave of somewhat reckless gambling had lately enveloped English society, and the prince had occasionally yielded to the perilous fascination. Cards had always formed some part of his recreation. From early youth he had played whist for moderate stakes, and he impressed Gladstone in a homely rubber at Sandringham with his ‘whist memory.’ On his tours abroad at Cannes and Homburg he had at times indulged in high play, usually with fortunate results. The revelations in the Tranby Croft case shocked middle-class opinion in England, and there was a loud outburst of censure. In a private letter (13 Aug. 1891) to Dr. Benson, archbishop of Canterbury, long on intimate terms with the royal family, the prince expressed ‘deep pain and annoyance' at the ‘most bitter and unjust attacks’ made on him not only ‘by the press’ but ‘by the low church and especially the nonconformists.’ ‘I am not sure,’ he wrote, ‘that politics were not mixed up in it.’ His genuine attitude he expressed in the following sentences: ‘I have a horror of gambling, and should always do my utmost to discourage others who have an inclination for it, as I consider that gambling, like intemperance, is one of the greatest curses which a country could be afflicted with.’ The scandal opened the prince's eyes to the perils of the recent gambling vogue, and he set himself to discourage its continuance. He gradually abandoned other games of cards for bridge, in which, though he played regularly and successfully, he developed only a moderate skill.

VII During Lord Salisbury’s ministry (1886–1892) the prince’s relations to home and foreign politics remained as they had been. Queen Victoria's veto on the submission of oficial intelligence was in no way relaxed. The prince was socially on