Page:The life and times of King Edward VII by Whates, Harry Richard 1.djvu/30

12 12 LIFE AND TIMES OF EDWARD VII. lady the Prince may be left for a time to his pothooks and hangers, the spelling of monosyllables, the counting of tens and hundreds, and other intellectual avoca- tions of childhood. But not without a word or two of some contemporary pre- sentations of him. People who rummage in old portfolios and bureaux may not unlikely come across a print which was in almost every household in 1843, for it was highly popular because of its artistic skill and the clearness and delicacy of its drawing, but who the artist was does not appear on the copy seen by this writer. It shows the Prince as a shapely and graceful child of two, standing on a circular table ; then, as now and ever, it was the custom to place children in their best clothes on a table as soon as they could stand alone, and thus make them the centre of an admiring group of elders. It is one of the inevitable rites of baby worship when infancy is passing. On this idea the artist has exercised a fanciful and courtly pencil. Certainly he has drawn a very handsome child, for the face is full of intelligence and vivacity. It is endowed with what I/eigh Hunt, who constituted himself a sort of informal Poet I/aureate during the long and melan- choly illness of Southey, the holder of that office, rather audaciously called, in some verses to the Queen, " the ripe Guelph cheek and good, straight Coburg brow " ; and the eyes are full and open. The face, indeed, expresses in a few strokes the Queen's rather rapturous description of the beauty of the child. The Prince is wearing a bonnet adorned with the striking white plumes of the Prince of Wales, and this device, and the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock, are the themes embroidered on the frock, which is fast- ened with bows at the shoulders and reaches just below the knees. In his right hand the Prince carries a posy of roses, thistles and shamrock, and the pose of the figure is most spirited and graceful. For background there is a dark, flowing, richly decorated robe half encircling the figure, and beyond it a representation of the cushion bearing the Royal regalia. Altogether it is a very happy production, in which the artist has contrived to suggest a strong likeness to the Queen herself as she was at this period of her life. With a print such as this passing from hand to hand, no wonder the impression grew that the Heir to the Throne was a child of quite exceptional charm. At the age of three the Prince was painted by Hensel, who represented him half clad, seated cross-legged, and placing a chaplet of flowers round the neck of a toy eagle. Here again the beauty of the child is noticeable ; it was evidently no artist's flattery. This pic- ture is in the possession of the present German Emperor, to whom it must now have a sorrowful significance indeed. Winterhalter also painted him at the age of eight with his brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, afterwards Duke of Saxe- Coburg-Gotha. Both lads are in Highland costume, and the scene is one of loch and mountain and cloud-swept northern skies. A very quaint presentation of the Prince, and, indeed, of the Queen and Prince Con- sort, the Princess Royal and the little Duke, is given in Cleland's painting of the landing of the Queen at Aberdeen during one of the Royal visits to Scotland. The lad was in a long tunic belted at the waist, with a linen collar adorned with a large bow, and he was wearing broad white trousers. Here the Prince, with one