Page:The golden book of King Edward VII.djvu/22

 He did not appeal in vain. He was "loved not only as an accomplished man of the world," not only as a supremely able ruler, but as a friend, a companion,—one who had "come to seem at last an inseparable, inalienable, part of all our daily doings." "King Edward," as has been written, "was Great Britain,"—"more English than most Englishmen."—"the representative man of the race." "King Edward was Great Britain"; and, and now that his labours are accomplished, "Great Britain mourns as for herself." King Edward evinced the same interest in the Arts and professions as in the more humble callings of life. That large and patient body, the brain of the nation, the British middle-class, was not ignored by him in favour of either the "classes" or the "masses." Sir Frederick Leighton once observed of a Royal Academy banquet:

"Sir, of the graces by which your Royal Highness has won and firmly retains the affectionate attachment of Englishmen, none has operated more strongly than the width of your sympathies, for there is no honourable sphere in which