Page:King Edward VII. as a sportsman by Watson, Alfred Edward Thomas.djvu/260

 he can afford to pay,' he once wrote in a Confession album. His thinly-veiled incognito—'the Earl of Chester'—is another proof of his desire as far as possible to avoid publicity in his private travels. On an occasion when he had been on a visit to one of his subjects in a very remote part of the Highlands, an old family retainer summed up the King's love of retirement in an unconsciously neat paradox: 'The King seems to enjoy the privacy of the public road.'

Another story is told of the King at the same place. It is not a sporting story, but as it throws a light on the innate kindliness of his nature, it is worthy of record. On his arrival at the house the children from the school were assembled to welcome him. It was a great event in the lives of these little lads and lassies from the crofts and hamlets of a Highland glen—an event which would live in their memories for the rest of their days—and a right loyal reception they accorded him. His Majesty referred to the children in conversation with his hostess, and was told of the keen gratification which this opportunity of seeing the King afforded them, and of the deep disappointment of a little girl—the gardener's child—who was prevented by illness from attending with the rest. In the afternoon the King went out for a stroll by himself. He found out the gardener's cottage, and called in to pay a visit to the sick child, who was alone in the house. When the mother returned she found the King sitting by her child's bedside. Before he left he gave the little girl a half-sovereign, carefully choosing one that bore his own 'image and superscription' as a memento