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Contents

Foreword by Gareth James xix

Foreword by Ravi Bapna xxi

Preface to the R Edition xxiii

Acknowledgments xxvii

PART I PR EL I MI N A RI ES
CHAPTER 1 Introduction 3

1.1 What Is Business Analytics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2 What Is Data Mining? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Data Mining and Related Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Big Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Data Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.6 Why Are There So Many Different Methods? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.7 Terminology and Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.8 Road Maps to This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Order of Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CHAPTER 2 Overview of the Data Mining Process 15

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 Core Ideas in Data Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Association Rules and Recommendation Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Predictive Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Data Reduction and Dimension Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Data Exploration and Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Supervised and Unsupervised Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 The Steps in Data Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Preliminary Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Organization of Datasets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Predicting Home Values in the West Roxbury Neighborhood . . . . . . . . . . . 21

vii
viii CONTENTS

Loading and Looking at the Data in R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Sampling from a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Oversampling Rare Events in Classification Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Preprocessing and Cleaning the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5 Predictive Power and Overfitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Overfitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Creation and Use of Data Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6 Building a Predictive Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Modeling Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.7 Using R for Data Mining on a Local Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.8 Automating Data Mining Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Data Mining Software: The State of the Market (by Herb Edelstein) . . . . . . . . 45
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

PART II DATA EX P LO RATI ON AND DIMENSION REDUCTION

CHAPTER 3 Data Visualization 55

3.1 Uses of Data Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Base R or ggplot? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.2 Data Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Example 1: Boston Housing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Example 2: Ridership on Amtrak Trains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.3 Basic Charts: Bar Charts, Line Graphs, and Scatter Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Distribution Plots: Boxplots and Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Heatmaps: Visualizing Correlations and Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.4 Multidimensional Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Adding Variables: Color, Size, Shape, Multiple Panels, and Animation . . . . . . . 67
Manipulations: Rescaling, Aggregation and Hierarchies, Zooming, Filtering . . . . 70
Reference: Trend Lines and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Scaling up to Large Datasets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Multivariate Plot: Parallel Coordinates Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Interactive Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.5 Specialized Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Visualizing Networked Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Visualizing Hierarchical Data: Treemaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Visualizing Geographical Data: Map Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.6 Summary: Major Visualizations and Operations, by Data Mining Goal . . . . . . . 86
Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Time Series Forecasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Unsupervised Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

CHAPTER 4 Dimension Reduction 91

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.2 Curse of Dimensionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
 CONTENTS ix

4.3 Practical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Example 1: House Prices in Boston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.4 Data Summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Summary Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Aggregation and Pivot Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.5 Correlation Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.6 Reducing the Number of Categories in Categorical Variables . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.7 Converting a Categorical Variable to a Numerical Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.8 Principal Components Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Example 2: Breakfast Cereals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Principal Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Normalizing the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Using Principal Components for Classification and Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.9 Dimension Reduction Using Regression Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.10 Dimension Reduction Using Classification and Regression Trees . . . . . . . . . . 111
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

PART III PER F ORM AN CE EVALUATION

CHAPTER 5 Evaluating Predictive Performance 117

5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

5.2 Evaluating Predictive Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Naive Benchmark: The Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Prediction Accuracy Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Comparing Training and Validation Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Lift Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.3 Judging Classifier Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Benchmark: The Naive Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Class Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
The Confusion (Classification) Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Using the Validation Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Accuracy Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Propensities and Cutoff for Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Performance in Case of Unequal Importance of Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Asymmetric Misclassification Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Generalization to More Than Two Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.4 Judging Ranking Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Lift Charts for Binary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Decile Lift Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Beyond Two Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Lift Charts Incorporating Costs and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Lift as a Function of Cutoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.5 Oversampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Oversampling the Training Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
x CONTENTS

Evaluating Model Performance Using a Non-oversampled Validation Set . . . . . . 144

Evaluating Model Performance if Only Oversampled Validation Set Exists . . . . . 144
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

PART IV PR ED I CT I ON AN D CLASSIFICATION METHODS

CHAPTER 6 Multiple Linear Regression 153

6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

6.2 Explanatory vs. Predictive Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.3 Estimating the Regression Equation and Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Example: Predicting the Price of Used Toyota Corolla Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.4 Variable Selection in Linear Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Reducing the Number of Predictors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
How to Reduce the Number of Predictors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

CHAPTER 7 k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) 173

7.1 The k-NN Classifier (Categorical Outcome) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Determining Neighbors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Classification Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Example: Riding Mowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Choosing k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Setting the Cutoff Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
k-NN with More Than Two Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Converting Categorical Variables to Binary Dummies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.2 k-NN for a Numerical Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.3 Advantages and Shortcomings of k-NN Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

CHAPTER 8 The Naive Bayes Classifier 187

8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Cutoff Probability Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Conditional Probability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Example 1: Predicting Fraudulent Financial Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
8.2 Applying the Full (Exact) Bayesian Classifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Using the “Assign to the Most Probable Class” Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Using the Cutoff Probability Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Practical Difficulty with the Complete (Exact) Bayes Procedure . . . . . . . . . . 190
Solution: Naive Bayes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The Naive Bayes Assumption of Conditional Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Using the Cutoff Probability Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Example 2: Predicting Fraudulent Financial Reports, Two Predictors . . . . . . . 193
Example 3: Predicting Delayed Flights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
8.3 Advantages and Shortcomings of the Naive Bayes Classifier . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
 CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER 9 Classification and Regression Trees 205

9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

9.2 Classification Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Recursive Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Example 1: Riding Mowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Measures of Impurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Tree Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Classifying a New Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
9.3 Evaluating the Performance of a Classification Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Example 2: Acceptance of Personal Loan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
9.4 Avoiding Overfitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Stopping Tree Growth: Conditional Inference Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Pruning the Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Cross-Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Best-Pruned Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
9.5 Classification Rules from Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
9.6 Classification Trees for More Than Two Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
9.7 Regression Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Measuring Impurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Evaluating Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
9.8 Improving Prediction: Random Forests and Boosted Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Random Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Boosted Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
9.9 Advantages and Weaknesses of a Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

CHAPTER 10 Logistic Regression 237

10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

10.2 The Logistic Regression Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.3 Example: Acceptance of Personal Loan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Model with a Single Predictor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Estimating the Logistic Model from Data: Computing Parameter Estimates . . . . 243
Interpreting Results in Terms of Odds (for a Profiling Goal) . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
10.4 Evaluating Classification Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Variable Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
10.5 Example of Complete Analysis: Predicting Delayed Flights . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Data Preprocessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Model-Fitting and Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Model Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Model Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Variable Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
10.6 Appendix: Logistic Regression for Profiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Appendix A: Why Linear Regression Is Problematic for a Categorical Outcome . . . 259
xii CONTENTS

Appendix B: Evaluating Explanatory Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Appendix C: Logistic Regression for More Than Two Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

CHAPTER 11 Neural Nets 271

11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

11.2 Concept and Structure of a Neural Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
11.3 Fitting a Network to Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Example 1: Tiny Dataset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Computing Output of Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Preprocessing the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Training the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Example 2: Classifying Accident Severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Avoiding Overfitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Using the Output for Prediction and Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
11.4 Required User Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
11.5 Exploring the Relationship Between Predictors and Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . 287
11.6 Advantages and Weaknesses of Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

CHAPTER 12 Discriminant Analysis 293

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Example 1: Riding Mowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Example 2: Personal Loan Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
12.2 Distance of a Record from a Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
12.3 Fisher’s Linear Classification Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
12.4 Classification Performance of Discriminant Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
12.5 Prior Probabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
12.6 Unequal Misclassification Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
12.7 Classifying More Than Two Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Example 3: Medical Dispatch to Accident Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
12.8 Advantages and Weaknesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

CHAPTER 13 Combining Methods: Ensembles and Uplift Modeling 311

13.1 Ensembles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Why Ensembles Can Improve Predictive Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Simple Averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Bagging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Boosting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Bagging and Boosting in R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Advantages and Weaknesses of Ensembles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
13.2 Uplift (Persuasion) Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
A-B Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
 CONTENTS xiii

Uplift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Gathering the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
A Simple Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Modeling Individual Uplift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Computing Uplift with R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Using the Results of an Uplift Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
13.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

PART V MI N I N G RE LATI ON SH I PS AMON G RE CORDS

CHAPTER 14 Association Rules and Collaborative Filtering 329

14.1 Association Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Discovering Association Rules in Transaction Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Example 1: Synthetic Data on Purchases of Phone Faceplates . . . . . . . . . . 330
Generating Candidate Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
The Apriori Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Selecting Strong Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Data Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
The Process of Rule Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Interpreting the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Rules and Chance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Example 2: Rules for Similar Book Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
14.2 Collaborative Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Data Type and Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Example 3: Netflix Prize Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
User-Based Collaborative Filtering: “People Like You” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Item-Based Collaborative Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Advantages and Weaknesses of Collaborative Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Collaborative Filtering vs. Association Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
14.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

CHAPTER 15 Cluster Analysis 357

15.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Example: Public Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
15.2 Measuring Distance Between Two Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Euclidean Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Normalizing Numerical Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Other Distance Measures for Numerical Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Distance Measures for Categorical Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Distance Measures for Mixed Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
15.3 Measuring Distance Between Two Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Minimum Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Maximum Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
xiv CONTENTS

Average Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Centroid Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
15.4 Hierarchical (Agglomerative) Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Single Linkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Complete Linkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Average Linkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Centroid Linkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Ward’s Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Dendrograms: Displaying Clustering Process and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Validating Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Limitations of Hierarchical Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
15.5 Non-Hierarchical Clustering: The k-Means Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Choosing the Number of Clusters (k) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

PART VI F O RE CA ST I NG TI ME SERIES

CHAPTER 16 Handling Time Series 387

16.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

16.2 Descriptive vs. Predictive Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
16.3 Popular Forecasting Methods in Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Combining Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
16.4 Time Series Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Example: Ridership on Amtrak Trains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
16.5 Data-Partitioning and Performance Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Benchmark Performance: Naive Forecasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Generating Future Forecasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

CHAPTER 17 Regression-Based Forecasting 401

17.1 A Model with Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Linear Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Exponential Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Polynomial Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
17.2 A Model with Seasonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
17.3 A Model with Trend and Seasonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
17.4 Autocorrelation and ARIMA Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Computing Autocorrelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Improving Forecasts by Integrating Autocorrelation Information . . . . . . . . . 416
Evaluating Predictability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
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 CONTENTS xv

CHAPTER 18 Smoothing Methods 433

18.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

18.2 Moving Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Centered Moving Average for Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Trailing Moving Average for Forecasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Choosing Window Width (w) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
18.3 Simple Exponential Smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Choosing Smoothing Parameter α . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Relation Between Moving Average and Simple Exponential Smoothing . . . . . . 440
18.4 Advanced Exponential Smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Series with a Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Series with a Trend and Seasonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Series with Seasonality (No Trend) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

PART VII DATA AN ALYTI CS

CHAPTER 19 Social Network Analytics 455

19.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

19.2 Directed vs. Undirected Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
19.3 Visualizing and Analyzing Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Graph Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Edge List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Adjacency Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Using Network Data in Classification and Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
19.4 Social Data Metrics and Taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Node-Level Centrality Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Egocentric Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Network Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
19.5 Using Network Metrics in Prediction and Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Link Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Entity Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Collaborative Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
19.6 Collecting Social Network Data with R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
19.7 Advantages and Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

CHAPTER 20 Text Mining 479

20.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

20.2 The Tabular Representation of Text: Term-Document Matrix and “Bag-of-Words” . 480
20.3 Bag-of-Words vs. Meaning Extraction at Document Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
20.4 Preprocessing the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Tokenization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Text Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
xvi CONTENTS

Presence/Absence vs. Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
From Terms to Concepts: Latent Semantic Indexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Extracting Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
20.5 Implementing Data Mining Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
20.6 Example: Online Discussions on Autos and Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Importing and Labeling the Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Text Preprocessing in R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Producing a Concept Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Fitting a Predictive Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
20.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

PART VIII CASE S

CHAPTER 21 Cases 499

21.1 Charles Book Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

The Book Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Database Marketing at Charles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Data Mining Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
21.2 German Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
21.3 Tayko Software Cataloger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
The Mailing Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
21.4 Political Persuasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Predictive Analytics Arrives in US Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Political Targeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Uplift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
21.5 Taxi Cancellations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Business Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
21.6 Segmenting Consumers of Bath Soap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Business Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Key Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
 CONTENTS xvii

Measuring Brand Loyalty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
21.7 Direct-Mail Fundraising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
21.8 Catalog Cross-Selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
21.9 Predicting Bankruptcy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Predicting Corporate Bankruptcy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
21.10 Time Series Case: Forecasting Public Transportation Demand . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Available Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Assignment Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Tips and Suggested Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

References 531

Data Files Used in the Book 533

Index 535
Foreword by Gareth James

he field of statistics has existed in one form or another for 200 years, and by
T the second half of the 20th century had evolved into a well-respected and
essential academic discipline. However, its prominence expanded rapidly in the
1990s with the explosion of new, and enormous, data sources. For the first part
of this century, much of this attention was focused on biological applications,
in particular, genetics data generated as a result of the sequencing of the human
genome. However, the last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the availability
of data in the business disciplines, and a corresponding interest in business-related
statistical applications.
The impact has been profound. Ten years ago, when I was able to attract a
full class of MBA students to my new statistical learning elective, my colleagues
were astonished because our department struggled to fill most electives. Today,
we offer a Masters in Business Analytics, which is the largest specialized masters
program in the school and has application volume rivaling those of our MBA
programs. Our department’s faculty size and course offerings have increased
dramatically, yet the MBA students are still complaining that the classes are all
full. Google’s chief economist, Hal Varian, was indeed correct in 2009 when he
stated that “the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians.”
This demand is driven by a simple, but undeniable, fact. Business analyt-
ics solutions have produced significant and measurable improvements in business
performance, on multiple dimensions and in numerous settings, and as a result,
there is a tremendous demand for individuals with the requisite skill set. How-
ever, training students in these skills is challenging given that, in addition to
the obvious required knowledge of statistical methods, they need to understand
business-related issues, possess strong communication skills, and be comfortable
dealing with multiple computational packages. Most statistics texts concentrate
on abstract training in classical methods, without much emphasis on practical,
let alone business, applications.
This book has by far the most comprehensive review of business analytics
methods that I have ever seen, covering everything from classical approaches
such as linear and logistic regression, through to modern methods like neural

xix
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flowed past close to the lodge, which was itself a picture of comfort, and for off-days
there was a small but beautifully kept golf-course.
Glenquoich was another forest Lodge, where I have stayed several times, when in
attendance on the late King. Lying, as it does, on the West Coast, the nearest point of
the sea being only some eight miles distant, it combined a first-class forest with perhaps
the most beautiful scenery in Scotland. When on the high ground, stalking on a fine day,
I do not remember ever seeing anything that quite came up to the beauty of the scene
around. One of the features of the scenery consisting in the number of tiny lochs that
made small patches of that most gorgeous blue that combines so well with the colour of
the heather and the grey-brown of the rocks. The late Lord Burton had a lease of
Glenquoich for many years, and was really a benefactor to the whole neighbourhood, as
through the long winter months, when life is very hard for the gillies (who, in general,
have to make all they can out of the shooting and stalking season) he used to employ
them in making pony-paths on the hill, so that he could ride pretty nearly all over the
forest.
Then, for golf purposes, I constantly used to stay with my kind friends, Mr. and Mrs.
William James, who had bought a charming house, Greywalls, built by the late Alfred
Lyttelton, close to the club house at Muirfield. Since poor Willy James’ lamented death,
Greywalls has, I think, recently passed into other hands; but probably as a headquarters
for golfing purposes it could not be surpassed, standing, as it did, on a Championship
Course, and being within the easiest reach of North Berwick, Archerfield, Gullane,
Gillspindie, Loughness, and indeed many other first-rate courses.
I was also a constant visitor at Gordonstown, as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. John
Hanbury, where there was excellent low-ground shooting, and a delightful golf-course
close by at Lossiemouth.
And, finally, another of my happy hunting-grounds has been, and is, Kinross, where,
for many years past, I have been the guest of Sir Basil and Lady Montgomery, at their
beautiful home on the shores of Loch Leven. Kinross deserves more than a passing
mention. The beauty of the situation of the house is alone worthy of note. Built to face
the island on the loch, where Queen Mary of Scots was imprisoned, I know nothing more
beautiful in the way of a peaceful landscape, than the view from the windows. It
commences with a foreground of walled garden, the centre of which is formally laid out
and terminated by an imposing gate-way, known as the Fish Gate. Immediately opposite,
as a mid-distance, is the principal island of Loch Leven, with its ruined castle embowered
in trees, with various smaller islands dotted about, and the whole group encircled by the
waters of the loch. In the distance are the outlines of the low Fife hills; while, as a finish
to the picture, the loch is framed by the massive bastions of hill formed by Fife-Lomond
and Glenarty, which rear themselves up from the placid waters to the right and left. The
house, too, is very beautiful and interesting. The first owner and architect of the present
building was Sir William Bruce, and there is a tradition that he built, with the object of
disposing of it to the Duke of York for a Scottish residence when his succession to the
Throne was in doubt, at the time of the passing of the Exclusive Bill. This hope, if it ever
existed, speedily came to an end, for before Kinross House was finished, the Duke of
York had ascended the Throne as James II, and had Holyrood for a Scottish palace.
Kinross House is a fine example of one of the early mansions of the Scotch Renaissance.
It contains many beautiful things, principal amongst which is a fine staircase, with
pierced and carved panels, which leads directly to the ball-room, a very large saloon
taking up the greater part of the first floor. In the saloon are hung, amongst other family
pictures, a very fine full-length portrait of Lady Montgomery by Raeburn, faced by a
Hoppner of Lady Elizabeth Montgomery, and there are two very good three-quarter-
length Romneys of the Marquis and Marchioness of Townshend. Altogether, the house
and its surroundings make up one of the most beautiful and “liveable” homes that I have
ever come across in my wanderings in Scotland.
 CHAPTER XI

KING EDWARD’S FOREIGN TOUR

In the spring of 1903 I was one of the suite in attendance on the occasion of King
Edward’s official visits to the Capitals of France, Portugal and Italy. The sea route having
been selected, His Majesty took the opportunity of visiting Gibraltar and Malta at the
same time.
There are not wanting those who are of opinion that this expedition was what Sir
Sidney Lee, in his biographical notice, calls a “vacation exercise.” Others, including a
humble spectator, such as myself, think, on the other hand, that our subsequent happy
relations with France are mainly due to the personal characteristics and influence of King
Edward himself. At any rate every man is entitled to his own opinion, and, having
expressed mine, I go on to say that those five weeks,—more especially the days of them
that were passed in Paris,—were among the most interesting of my life. Under these
circumstances I think it worth while to give the names of those who were in attendance
during the trip.
The King embarked on board the Royal Yacht, Victoria and Albert, on March 30th. The
Marquis de Soveral, Portuguese Minister in London, was a guest on board, as far as
Lisbon, and the suite in attendance were as follows:—

The Hon. Charles Hardinge (now Lord Hardinge of Penshurst), Minister

Plenipotentiary.
The late Major-General Sir Stanley Clarke, Equerry and Acting Master of the
Household.
Rear-Admiral the Hon. Hedworth Lambton (now Admiral of the Fleet Sir Hedworth
Meux), Extra Equerry and in command of the Royal Yacht.
The late Sir Francis Laking, Physician in Ordinary.
Captain Frederick Ponsonby (now Colonel Sir Frederick Ponsonby), Equerry and
Acting Private Secretary.
The late Cavaliere de Martino, Marine Painter to His Majesty.
And another Equerry in the person of myself.
 On the following day the Royal Yacht proceeded on her journey to Lisbon, escorted by
the cruisers Venus and Minerva; and not encountering the best of weather, rolled very
heavily on her passage across the Bay. When approaching the entrance to the Tagus on
April 2nd, our escort was reinforced by four Portuguese ships of war, which made the
procession up the river quite an imposing spectacle.
As soon as the Royal Yacht had taken up her moorings she was boarded by King
Carlos and his brother, the Duke of Oporto, and their Suites. They arrived in a procession
of Royal Barges, the leading boat being certainly one of the most curious and beautiful
craft that I have ever seen afloat. She was built in the eighteenth century, with a huge
dragon, the arms of Braganza, as a figure-head, and pulled twenty oars a side, each oar
being double manned, which made up a crew of over eighty, all dressed in scarlet caps
and jackets. Never have I seen such a smart turn-out afloat. The coaches, too, which
conveyed the King to the Necessidades Palace, where he took up his abode, were mainly
about two hundred years old, and magnificently horsed,—or rather, to be accurate,
“muled.” Nearly all the Royal carriage work at Lisbon used to be done by splendid mules
well over sixteen hands high.
The two monarchs landed together in the forty-oared boat, and processed through
the streets of Lisbon with the usual ceremonies to the Palace, where King Edward was
received by the Dowager Queen Maria Pia. The usual addresses inevitable on those
occasions were presented, and responded to, during the course of the visit; there was
the customary State banquet, and every hour of the day was occupied. But there was
time for a short visit to the Royal Palace of Peña, situated at the very summit of the
mountain of Cintra, which I have attempted to describe before; and on the Sunday, after
Service at the English Church, the King took luncheon at the Legation, with the British
Minister, Sir Martin Gosselin, and his wife.
The afternoon before the Royal Yacht sailed was given up to what was looked upon
(anyhow by the people of Lisbon) as the most important part of the whole visit, namely a
bull-fight. A Portuguese bull-fight is an extraordinarily beautiful spectacle. The bull has his
horns padded, and so good are the horses and so well are they handled that, as a
general rule, not a horse is ever touched by the bull, and the bull is only irritated by pin
pricks in the literal sense, the lances used by the picadors having nothing more
formidable at their points than a useful-sized pin. So neither man, horse, nor bull is any
the worse, and when the latter is getting tired he is man-handled by some of the under-
strappers of the ring and taken back to his stall. But the beauty of the spectacle really
consists in its details and surroundings.
The bull-fighters arrive at the arena in a procession of delightful old coaches, with six
horses apiece and endless outriders, from which they slowly descend with great pomp.
They are all beautifully turned out, the picadors in particular being gorgeously apparelled
and splendidly mounted. The surroundings consist in the huge amphitheatre, packed with
people, (the women being all in bright colours), and a cloudless blue sky. When the
performance begins, what with the bull charging, and the horsemen worrying him, the
cries of the spectators, and the clanging of bands,—even the most callous spectator finds
himself being carried away, and becomes gradually roused to some slight measure of
enthusiasm.
 On the 7th April the visit to Lisbon terminated, and the Royal Yacht was once more
under way en route to Gibraltar.
And now for the practical outcome of the visit.
Just before the King started from England a very mischievous article had been
published in a newspaper, hinting that the object of the visit to Lisbon was the acquisition
of Delagoa Bay; indeed, vague rumours to that effect had been in circulation for some
time. This canard was at once seized upon by the Anglophobe journals of the Portuguese
and foreign Press, and great capital was being made of it. In the course of his speech,
when accepting an address from the Commercial Association of Portugal, the King took
the opportunity of saying that “Our respective countries and colonies, the integrity and
preservation of which is one of my dearest aims and objects.” This announcement
absolutely put an end to all the mischief at once. The Prime Minister of Portugal
expressed his gratification to Sir Martin Gosselin, who happened to be standing near him,
for what he described as “those golden words.” In fact, in a few seconds more was done
to remove a cause of friction between two countries than could have been accomplished
in the same number of months by official correspondence.
In lovely weather the Royal Yacht made her way to Gibraltar, where she arrived on the
following day. An address of welcome was presented by a deputation from the Chamber
of Commerce, to which a reply was duly given. There was an official dinner at the
Convent given by the Governor, who was then the late Sir George White, the stout-
hearted soldier who had so resolutely defended Ladysmith. The King, in responding to
the toast of his health, took the opportunity of announcing his intention of promoting
General Sir George White to the rank of Field-Marshal. No announcement could have
been better received, as Sir George White, a very gallant man, and a loyal and capable
soldier, was exceedingly popular, not only in Gibraltar but throughout the Army.
It was during the King’s visit that I first had the pleasure of making the acquaintance
of Sir Arthur Nicolson, then Minister at Tangier (since then so well known as our
Ambassador in Russia, and subsequently as Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign
Affairs. He recently became Lord Carnock). He came over to present the Envoy of the
Sultan of Morocco, and bore a letter from His Shereefian Majesty to King Edward. This
Envoy rejoiced in a name so gorgeous that it is well worth while to print it—Cid
Abderrahman ben Abdelsadok! The Governor of Algeciras also paid an official visit,
arriving in a Spanish gunboat; but with the exception of a review of the troops of the
garrison there was no other official function. The King was, of course, shown all the
newest work in connection with the defences of the fortress and the developments of the
dockyard, where he laid the first stone of a new dry dock. Personally, having spent a
good deal of my youth there in frequent short visits, I was delighted to have a look at
Gib. (as we all used to call it) again.
During the Royal Yacht’s stay at Gibraltar, it had been arranged that a squadron of
battleships of the Channel Fleet should be there under the command of Rear-Admiral
Curzon-Howe, but with King Edward’s usual genius for doing the right and gracious thing,
at his suggestion the squadron was ordered to Algiers in order to salute the French
President, Monsieur Loubet, on his arrival there, in connection with some official function.
 On the morning of April 13th, the Royal Yacht with her escort, which had been
reinforced by four more cruisers belonging to the Mediterranean Station, left for Malta.
En route we passed near enough to Algiers to be saluted by the shore batteries and by
the Russian, Spanish and Italian ships that were there in compliment to the French
President, and on the 16th the Royal Yacht steamed into the Grand Harbour, Valetta.
Never have I seen that most picturesque of harbours looking better. It was a day of
brilliant sunshine; all the ships in the harbour were dressed; there seemed to me to be
more of those gaily painted dhaisas than ever, and as for the old knight’s fortifications,
they were almost black with the crowds that came to see, and acclaim, the first British
Sovereign who had ever visited their historic island.
On landing, the King was received by the Governor-General, Sir Mansfield Clarke, and
the Naval Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Compton Domville, and drove with the
Governor to the palace. During the afternoon endless deputations were received, and
later in the day the King held a levée, which was attended by the officers of the Fleet and
Garrison and the Government officials. There were the usual official dinners at the Palace,
and on board Sir Compton Domville’s flagship the Bulwark; a review of the troops of the
Garrison, and the day before the visit ended a review of the seamen and marines of the
Fleet at the Marsa, where I had so often played polo and raced ponies in the days of my
youth. It was a good show. Eight thousand bluejackets and marines duly marched past,
and I believe it was the first time that Aides-de-Camp had ever been mounted on
bicycles,—the “gallopers,” consisting of a number of midshipmen on wheels. What I
confess interested me most was to see again the beautiful Gobelin tapestries that are
hung on all great occasions round the whole of the interior of St. John’s Cathedral. It is
very seldom that they are all produced, but of course for the King’s visit they were very
much in evidence.
The last evening at Malta was given up to a water carnival and illuminations that had
been organised by the Fleet. The feature of the carnival was a procession of miniature
ships, twelve in number, ranging from Noak’s Ark to H.M.S. Edward VII, which was then
our latest battleship. Some of the twelve I can remember: there was a Greek Galley, a
Chinese War Junk, a Roman Trireme, the Revenge (Grenville’s flagship at the Azores),
and the immortal Victory. Every unit of this quaint fleet, with the crews dressed in the
supposed costumes of the various periods represented, passed by the Royal Yacht either
under oars or under their miniature sails. Evidently the details had been carefully studied,
and much loving care had been bestowed on the white dove that flew in and out of the
Ark!
And now for the practical value of this Royal visit to Malta,—and considering the many
years that I have passed, on and off, as man and boy, in that little island, I think I may
venture to claim some slight knowledge of its inhabitants. To begin with, I like the
Maltese; even now, if I were to go back to Valetta, I am sure I should find some old
boatman, tradesman, club-servant, or horse-coper, who would still remember, and be
glad to see me. It must be realised that Malta literally swarms with priests: indeed one of
its few drawbacks as a winter residence is the never-ending clanging of bells in the
multitudinous churches there. Small wonder, then, that there is a strong clerical party of
very extreme views, and, as usual, this party consists not only of the members of the
priesthood themselves, but also of a large section of the Maltese nobility. These gentry,—
I expect in humble imitation of what are known as the “Papalini” in Rome,—are violently
pro-Italian and anti-English, just as the afore-mentioned “Papalini” were, and, for all I
know, are, almost to a man, pro-German and opposed to their own Government. The
result of this is, that trouble is apt to be stirred up at Malta by the local Press. Everything
English is reviled, and an immense amount of mud is thrown at us. But I am convinced
that all the best of the Maltese upper classes, and the entire peasantry and working
classes, when not too severely priest-ridden, are thoroughly conscious that they are
extremely well off under the Union Jack, and have not really the smallest desire to
become Italian subjects. They like, however, to flirt with the idea. As the Irishman said
when comparing Home Rule to Heaven, “Every one wants to go there eventually, but no
one had ever been met with who was ready to go there next day.”
The effect of the King’s visit and his remarkable personality was immediate. The
minority, who are always there striving to stir up disaffection, were reduced at any rate to
comparative silence for some considerable time, owing to the remarkable demonstration
of loyalty and affection that was shown towards the King by the bulk of the population.

On April 21st the Royal Yacht, escorted by the Mediterranean Fleet, passed through
the Straits of Messina and proceeded to Naples. The Fleet must have given the tourists at
Taormina a fine show, consisting, as it did, of eight battleships and four cruisers, to say
nothing of the small craft in the shape of destroyers, with the Royal Yacht flying the
standard, leading between the two lines of battleships. I have passed up and down those
same Straits many scores of times, during my service in the Navy, and on every occasion
that I have seen it I have been more and more obsessed by its beauty. The loveliness of
the surroundings there never palls, and one of the only advantages of getting old is that
one becomes more and more appreciative of both artistic and natural beauties. I have
stood outside the temple at Taormina in brilliant sunshine, when a slight rain squall in the
Straits has bridged Sicily and the mainland with a perfect rainbow, and the difficulty is
then to decide whether the view of the Straits from the land on either coast, or the view
of both coasts from the sea, when passing through the Straits, is the more magnificent.
Meanwhile, the last is generally the best, and my last passage through, up to the time of
writing, was on this particular occasion.
After having left the Straits behind us, as there were two or three hours to spare, the
Yacht and Fleet steamed slowly through the Lipari Islands. The small volcano that exists
on the crest of the Island of Stromboli really behaved remarkably well on the occasion.
Just at dusk, when only a few hundred yards off the island, the Royal Yacht was indulged
with three successive and very considerable explosions, formidable enough to send up
clouds of flame and smoke, to say nothing of stones, that fell hissing into the sea.
Whether a volcano can be treated in a medical way I know not, but at the time, I had a
strong personal suspicion that the leading inhabitants must have administered some sort
of emetic to the mountain to produce these happily-timed explosions. On the other hand,
it might only have been an instance of extreme tact on the part of Dame Nature.
Anyhow, it made a very beautiful spectacle, and was at once immortalised by my friend
Martino, who made a very lovely water-colour sketch of it.
Naples was reached on April 23rd in abominable weather. This, mercifully, did not last
long, as it was the King’s intention to stay there for three or four days before proceeding
on his official visit to Rome. The Royal Yacht accordingly was berthed inside the Mole,
and four very pleasant days were spent—a welcome relaxation to all concerned, after the
continual functions.
A very old friend of mine, then Sir Francis Bertie (who, alas! as Lord Bertie, died very
recently), was then Ambassador in Rome, and he and the late Mr. Rolfe, then still Consul
at Naples—another very old friend—were speedily on board to pay their respects. There
were a number of yachts at Naples at the time, with owners obviously lying in wait for
the King’s arrival, and soon there was a considerable influx of visitors. Queen Amelie,
then Queen of Portugal, was with her son, the present ex-King Manoel, on board her
yacht. A cutter belonging to the Duke of the Abruzzi, an enthusiastic yachtsman, and also
an old Cowes acquaintance and friend of the King’s, was in the port, as were also the
yachts of the German Crown Prince, with Prince Eitel Friedrich, and of Mr. and Mrs.
Cornelius Vanderbilt. Though it was announced that the King’s visit was entirely private
and unofficial, he was most warmly greeted by the Neapolitans wherever he landed, and,
as a concession to the wish expressed by the Mayor, consented to be present at a gala
performance at the Opera.
During the next three or four days various excursions were made, one to the Royal
Palace of Caserta, which I had not seen since I was a small midshipman, another to
Posilipo, where Lord Rosebery was in residence at his charming villa (now made over by
him to the country as a summer residence for our Ambassador in Rome). So what with
excursions, and sight-seeing, the days passed like a flash.
On the 27th the King left Naples for Rome. Admiral Lambton, who had just been
relieved of his command (of the Royal Yachts) by his successor, Sir Berkeley Milne,
travelled on with us, in attendance on His Majesty as extra Equerry-in-Waiting.
The Royal train arrived at Rome in the early afternoon, and the King, after being
received at the station by the King of Italy, who was accompanied by the Royal Dukes of
Genoa, of Aosta, of the Abruzzi, and the Count of Turin, proceeded to the Quirinal Palace
where His Majesty and the whole of his suite were lodged.
As always, during the three days that the official visit lasted, there was no rest for the
King, every hour of the day and evening being fully occupied. Official visits had to be
paid, a deputation of the British Community was received at the British Embassy, Foreign
Ambassadors and Chefs de Mission were received; there was a gala dinner at the palace,
a gala performance at the Opera, and the review of a large number of Italian troops. In
reality, far the most interesting incident was the visit the King paid to the Pope. I
regretted at the time, and I regret still, that I was not one of the suite present on that
occasion. Though I am not particularly wrapped up, in what the French call la calotte,
Pope Leo XIII was such a very remarkable personality, as well as such a great Pope, that
I should like to have the recollection of having seen him, and his royal guest, together at
the Vatican. The visit was, naturally, rather a delicate matter. The Government of
England, in their eternal terror of the Nonconformist conscience, and their natural love of
the line of least resistance, were of course against it. There were also difficulties of
etiquette as to His Majesty visiting the Vatican whilst a guest at the Quirinal Palace.
Moreover, the King was anxious that, though his visit should be considered private and
informal, it should be made on the initiative of the Pope, to the extent of a letter being
sent to the Ambassador acquainting him with the fact, that the Holy Father expressed a
desire to see the King, if it were His Majesty’s pleasure to pay him a visit. All the details
were settled, I believe, at an interview between Cardinal Rampolla and Mr. Hardinge, and
any awkwardness that might arise from being in residence at the Quirinal, was got over
by starting from the Embassy in Sir Frank Bertie’s private carriage. As usual, the King was
right. His visit to the Pope was accepted by the King of Italy and the Italian Government
as a matter of course. It was popular in Italy and, naturally, with all King Edward’s
Catholic subjects, and the entire Italian Press, of all shades, commented most favourably
on it.
And so ended the Italian visit. It was a complete success and gave pleasure to all
classes in Italy from the King and Pope down to the small tradesmen and contadini.
The Royal train left Rome on the morning of April 30th on its way to Paris. The only
feature of interest on the journey was that at Pisa, where the train made a short stop,
the Duchesse d’Aosta took advantage of this delay to board the train and pay a short
farewell visit to the King. As Princesse Hélene d’Orleans she had, of course, lived a great
deal in England before her marriage, and was extremely intimate with our Royal Family.
At Dijon next morning the official visit to France really commenced, for there the train
took up, as additional passengers, Sir Edmund Monson, British Ambassador in Paris, who
was accompanied by the Naval and Military Attachés of the Embassy, Captain Charles
Ottley, R.N., now so well known as Sir Charles Ottley, who served for some time as
Secretary of the Defence Committee, and the present General the Hon. Edward Stuart
Wortley, then a Lieutenant-Colonel. With them arrived the French officers who were
attached to the King during his visit—le Vice-Admiral Fournier, le Général de Lacroix, and
an old friend of mine, and a very popular personage in Paris Society, le Commandant
Chabaud, belonging to the Military household of the President.
After leaving Dijon, the Royal train ran straight through to the station of the Bois de
Boulogne in Paris, where the King was met by the President of the Republic, (Monsieur
Loubet), the Presidents of the two Chambers, and all the highest Military and Civil
Authorities of the Capital. The customary presentations having been made, His Majesty
and Monsieur Loubet entered the President’s state carriage and, followed by the carriages
conveying the suite, the personnel of the British Embassy and the French Ministers,
moved off in a procession to the British Embassy in the Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, that
beautiful house, formerly the residence of the great Napoleon’s sister, Pauline Borghese,
which was acquired for our nation by the first Duke of Wellington.
The streets were lined with troops, and there was a large escort of Cuirassiers of the
Garde Republicaine. An immense crowd had collected in the streets, and the windows
and balconies of the houses on the route were crammed with spectators, but, in the
interests of truth, I am compelled to state that, though not unfriendly, the reception was
distinctly chilly.
 There was not room in the Embassy for the whole of the suite, so a portion of it, of
which I was one, was quartered at the Hôtel Bristol in the Place Vendôme, which was
conveniently near our “Headquarters.”
After the usual ceremonial visit to the President at the Élysée, the next official
function was the reception of the President and a Deputation of the British Chamber of
Commerce in Paris by the King, and in his reply to the address presented by the
Deputation, one of the first steps forward was taken towards the establishment of an
Entente between England and France. In the course of his speech the King made use of
these words:—
“A Divine Providence has designed that France should be our near neighbour, and, I
hope, always a dear friend. There are no two countries in the world whose mutual
prosperity is more dependent on each other. There may have been misunderstandings
and causes of dissension in the past, but all such differences are, I believe, happily
removed and forgotten, and I trust that the friendship and admiration which we all feel
for the French nation and their glorious traditions may in the near future develop into a
sentiment of the warmest affection and attachment between the peoples of the two
countries. The achievement of this aim is my constant desire, and, gentlemen, I count
upon your institution, and each of its members severally, who reside in this beautiful city
and enjoy the hospitality of the French Republic, to aid and assist me in the attainment of
this object.”
The most favourable impression was made in Paris, by the immediate publication of
the King’s speech.
The first evening in Paris was a comparatively quiet one, but after a small private
dinner at the Embassy, the King and his suite went to the Théâtre Français to see
Maurice Donnay’s play, l’Autre Danger, the President and Madame Loubet being also
present.
Next morning the President came round to the Embassy at nine, and the King left in
the President’s carriage in his company for Vincennes, where the review was held. The
greeting he received from the crowd was noticeably far warmer than on his arrival the
previous day. The review was admirably conducted. There was an unusually large force
of cavalry on the ground, and I, personally, was much impressed with the quality of the
horses, and the admirable horsemanship of the men. A very few years later I happened
to be present at a large manœuvre review of troops near Breslau, and, to my mind, there
was no comparison between the cavalry of the two nations, France and Germany. In
every way, the French, except no doubt in point of numbers, were infinitely superior. As
an instance of the way in which some of the crack cavalry corps were mounted, I noticed
at Vincennes that the same man, was riding the same horse, in that part of the escort
that was close to the carriage of which I was an occupant. For a troop-horse to carry a
heavy man (probably in his full kit putting up some eighteen stone) at a fast trot for the
best part of eighteen miles, even with a good interval of rest while the review was taking
place, will, I am sure, be acknowledged by any English cavalry officer as being no
inconsiderable performance, testifying, as it does, alike to excellence and good condition.
 On his return journey to the Embassy, after the termination of the review, the King
stopped for a few minutes at the Hôtel de Ville, where he was received by M. Deville, the
President of the Municipal Council. In answer to the toast of his health, the King replied
in the following words, which merit being quoted in full, the concluding sentence doing
more, perhaps, to complete the success of his visit than any other utterance that was
made in Paris:—
“Je désire vous exprimer combien je suis vivement touché de vos bonnes paroles. Il
aurait été fâcheux, en passant par votre belle ville, de ne pouvoir m’arrêter a l’Hôtel de
Ville. Bien sincèrement, je vous remercie de l’accueil que vous m’avez fait aujourd’hui.
“Je n’oublierai jamais ma visite à votre charmante ville, et je puis vous assurer que
c’est avec le plus grand plaisir que je reviens à Paris, où je me trouve toujours comme si
j’étais chez moi.”
After the return to the Embassy, the President took leave of the King, and His Majesty
entertained a few of his old friends at luncheon, before attending a race-meeting that
was to take place at Longchamps in the afternoon.
Amongst some of those present at the luncheon were Prince d’Arenberg, Duc de la
Force, Général le Marquis de Gallifet, the Marquis and Marquise de Jaucourt, Mr. and Mrs.
Standish, Admiral Duperré, Prince Mohamed Ali, and the Marquis de Soveral, who was on
a private visit to Paris.
The race-meeting was an enormous success. It was a lovely day and all Paris was
there. The King’s reception, instead of being chilly, was enthusiastic. The races were all
named after some of the King’s most famous horses, and for one of them, the
Persimmon Stakes of £1000, he had offered a splendid gold cup as an additional prize.
The greater part of the time was spent by him in the Presidential box, with his official
host and hostess; but towards the end of the afternoon he passed a few minutes with
some of his old friends in the Jockey Club stand.
Rarely have I witnessed such friendliness and enthusiasm as was evinced by this huge
crowd, and, moreover, there were not a few Frenchmen present who were secretly
delighted at being able to shout “Vive le Roi” without being arrested by a policeman!
The evening was given up to the official dinner at the Élysée, followed by a gala
performance at the Opera.
Once more the best possible impression was conveyed by the King’s speech in answer
to the toast of his health, and in toasting the President of the Republic and drinking to
the prosperity and grandeur of France.
In the course of his speech he touched his audience by a phrase he used: “Je connais
Paris depuis mon enfance; j’y suis revenu bien des fois, et j’ai toujours admireé la beauté
de cette ville unique et l’esprit de ses habitants,”—while, later on, he used the words:
“Notre grand désir est que nous marchions ensemble, dans la voie de la civilisation et de
la paix.”
There was a very representative company at the banquet. I heard that there were
over 130 guests present,—amongst numberless other celebrities an old acquaintance of
mine, M. Victorien Sardou, the dramatist, was there; M. Carolus Duran and M. Saint-
Saëns were also pointed out to me.
In connection with the King’s speech on this occasion, I remember that two or three
of the leading representatives of the Press came to see Fritz Ponsonby and myself after
our return from the races, and asked us kindly to supply them with the King’s speech in
writing, as it was very important that, having to be published broadcast, and telegraphed
all over the world, it should be absolutely word perfect. We could only tell them in answer
to their request that it was quite impossible. We had no knowledge whatever of what the
King was going to say; that, probably, he would not even write it himself, as he habitually
spoke without notes unless he had to deal with a mass of figures. Polite incredulity was
visibly expressed in their faces, but obviously there was nothing more to be done for the
present, so they withdrew. After the gala they came round again, and this time we had to
produce something. By appealing to the King himself, and by pooling our joint memories
we succeeded in evolving what was probably quite an accurate version, but a copy was
impossible, for the speech had never been written. The astonishment of those worthies
was prodigious; they were really épaté—to use their own expression—at the King’s nerve
and confidence in himself, in being able to make one of the most important speeches of
his life, (except for the careful thought that no doubt preceded it), in this extempore
fashion.
The next day was Sunday. The King and his suite, and the personnel of the Embassy,
duly attended Divine Service at the little English Church in the Rue d’Aguesseau, that
stands almost opposite the Embassy.
After Church there was a huge luncheon at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. All the
Foreign Ambassadors and Ministers were present, and altogether there were something
like a hundred guests. After luncheon I remember that the King had a long conversation
with M. Waldeck Rousseau; but I have no further knowledge of anything else that
happened on that afternoon, for Prince d’Arenberg, one of the leading racing men in
France (I think he was the President of the Jockey Club), came up to Hedworth Lambton
and myself and suggested that, if we could decently slip away, he would drive us down to
Longchamps where there was a good day’s racing on. The King, with his usual good
nature, readily assented, so away we went, and spent a very pleasant afternoon with our
many French racing friends. It was delightful to hear the enthusiasm with which they, one
and all, spoke of our King, and of the wonderful success of his visit.
The last evening was spent at the Embassy, where the King gave a great dinner to the
President and Madame Loubet, to the members of the French Government and their
wives, and the heads of Foreign Missions. After dinner there was a concert, the music
being provided by some of the artists of the Opera, and this, practically brought the Paris
visit to a conclusion.
The next morning the King started for home via Cherbourg. The train left, after a very
cordial leave-taking with the President, at eleven o’clock, and arrived at its destination in
the evening. There was the usual official reception on arrival, and subsequently the King
entertained all the principal Naval, Military, and Civil Authorities at dinner on board the
Royal Yacht, and left the next morning for Portsmouth.
 As so ended this journey of five weeks.
I have already commented on what I believe to have been the useful work done at
the other Capitals that were visited. To my mind, the visit to France was infinitely the
most important, and the most fruitful, of them all. For many preceding years I had spent
weeks, if not months, of every year in France, and I knew well, since Fashoda, how
strained the relations between the two countries had become;—naturally, I am only
speaking from the point of view of a very ordinary spectator. It was evident to me that,
though not actually uncivil, one’s old friends in Paris, and on the Riviera, were anxious to
avoid one, when they could decently do so. Probably the estrangement there was
between individuals was also existing quite as strongly amongst the officials of the two
countries; but from the time of the King’s visit onwards, there has certainly been steady
improvement, culminating in the alliance that has held together during the years of the
lately finished war. I venture to maintain that, though this same result might have been
brought about gradually by the politicians of the two countries, only one man in the
world, and that man was King Edward, could have established, what was almost an
immediate rapprochement, between our two great nations. The difference between the
civil, but chilly, welcome that was extended to him on his arrival, and the enthusiastic
reception that he received everywhere, in an increasing measure, during the last days of
his visit was due to his personality, charm, and tact. As an instance of the change in the
feeling of Parisians for Englishmen that took place during those few days, I can give a
personal experience. Owing to some oversight in the giving of an order, on the evening of
our arrival, those of us who were lodged at the Bristol found ourselves later on, standing
outside the hotel, waiting impatiently for a carriage in which to drive round to the
Embassy. There was a huge crowd in the Place Vendôme, and the neighbouring streets,
and to walk round was impossible. Meanwhile, those of the crowd who were in our
vicinity, quickly realising our embarrassment, manifested the greatest delight, and almost
openly jeered at us. Eventually the carriage arrived, and while it was forcing its way
slowly through the crowd, some of them put their heads close to the windows and raised
the cry of “Vivent les Boers.” I am afraid I could not resist the very obvious repartee,
“Vivent les Boers, pourquoi pas? ce sont nos sujets maintenant.”
Three days later there was again some delay about the carriage, and we were once
more waiting outside the hotel. If anything the crowd was even denser, but instead of
being treated with discourtesy, we met, on the other hand, with the greatest kindness. A
French gentleman detached himself from the crowd, and said that he had noticed our
difficulty, but fortunately he could come to our assistance, and begged us to make use of
his own carriage, which was waiting round the corner. When the hour arrived for the King
to leave the French Capital I shall never forget the enthusiasm of the French crowds that
lined the streets to bid him farewell before his journey home. That he had always been
popular in Paris from his youth up, is quite true; but at no time was he more so, than
when this official visit came to an end on the 10th of May, 1903.
Mr. Charles Hardinge, who acted as Minister Potentiary in attendance on His Majesty
during the trip, wrote an admirable little book in the shape of a Short Record of the King’s
Journey, March 30th-May 5th, 1903. This little work was completed by June 5th of the
same year, and so was written when everything that occurred was fresh in the memory of
the writer.
 With his kind permission, I will, while thanking him for the assistance his book has
been to me in writing my recollections of that time, quote the sentence with which he
concludes:—
“Honour to whom honour is due. It only remains for the writer of this record to
respectfully state his conviction that the success of the King’s journey and the happy
results which may be confidently anticipated therefrom, are entirely due to his Majesty’s
own personality, to his courteous tact, to his frank and genial manner, and to his
unrivalled knowledge of men and of the world.”
 CHAPTER XII

MARIENBAD AND OTHER HEALTH RESORTS

In July 1903 President Loubet arrived in England on a return visit to the one I have
attempted to describe in my last chapter. He arrived in London on the 6th and was
lodged at York House, St. James’s Palace, as the guest of the King.
The English Mission attached to him during his visit consisted of Lord Howe, then a
Lord-in-Waiting to the King, as Chef de Mission, General Sir Reginald Talbot, at one time
Military Attaché in Paris, Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont, Captain Ottley and Lieutenant-
Colonel Stuart Wortley, the Naval and Military Attachés in Paris, and myself.
One official visit is very like another. Apparently the necessary procedure is that every
hour of the visiting Potentate’s day, from 8 a.m. until past midnight, should be filled up; a
somewhat exhausting process for all concerned, but as the official visit only lasts from
three to four days, as a general rule, no harm to life or health ensues. There is always a
banquet, and a review of troops, and the illustrious visitor, be he King or President,
invariably receives the resident Corps Diplomatique, as well as a deputation of his own
countrymen, in what is theoretically a portion of his own fatherland, namely at the
Embassy of his own country. The principal duty of the officers of the Mission, is to see
that their illustrious charge and his suite, are produced punctually for all the unending
functions, and, generally, to look after their comfort. Though there is a great sameness
about these visits, there is nearly always something of interest to remember about them,
and President Loubet’s was no exception.
To begin with, it was the first time in history that a French President had been the
guest of an English Monarch,—an event in itself,—furthermore, following as quickly as it
did on the King’s successful visit to Paris, the arrival of the President in London gave
proof of the wish of the French nation to live on better terms with ourselves, and, indeed,
from that time onwards, the bitterness and bad feeling between the two countries, that
arrived at its culminating point during the time of the Fashoda incident, may be said to
have vanished, I hope for ever. In fact, the hatchet was buried.
Though contemporary history is not the subject with which I am dealing, it is
interesting to remember that in October of the same year, an arbitration treaty was
signed by the Governments of England and France, and, in the following April, what was
known as the Anglo-French Agreement, was concluded.
 Personally, I was very pleased to have been selected to be in attendance on the
President. To begin with, I like Frenchmen. Monsieur Loubet, though of extremely humble
origin, was a gentleman. His perfect naturalness and simplicity invested him with a sort
of dignity, that was enhanced by the way in which he received every attention and
compliment paid him during his visit. He never lost an opportunity of emphasising the
fact that every attention he received, was addressed to the “President of the French
Republic,” and had nothing to do with “Monsieur Loubet.”
Another reason I was glad to be of the Mission was that it gave me the opportunity of
making the acquaintance, however slightly, of M. Delcassé, then French Minister of
Foreign Affairs, who had accompanied the President to England. I remember one
afternoon, when there were some few hours of interval between the unending functions,
I accompanied M. Delcassé and a number of the French gentlemen, on a hurried visit
they paid to Windsor. It was typical of Frenchmen, and of their extraordinary quickness of
artistic sense, that these very busy public men, who probably had little time to study art,
at once rushed at all the best of the many beautiful things in Windsor. What I had often
heard of before, was, on that afternoon, brought home to me practically, namely, the
great admiration the French have for the work of Sir Thomas Lawrence. It is true that the
Lawrences at Windsor are exceptionally fine; though I have the profoundest respect for
French taste, I am not sure that they are right in their inclination to prefer Lawrence to
Gainsborough and Reynolds, in English Art.
I was present at the great State dinner given by the King at Buckingham Palace, and
a very beautiful sight it was. Orchids, and the Windsor gold plate go very well together;
but far more beautiful, to my mind, are those splendid family portraits by the three great
artists just mentioned, that adorn the walls.
In proposing the toast of the President of the French Republic and the French Nation,
King Edward, an admirable after-dinner speaker, was at his very happiest. In the course
of his speech he pointed out to the President that he was about to drink his health, out of
the beautiful cup, that had been given him at the Hôtel de Ville, during his never-to-be-
forgotten, and delightful visit to Paris. This little attention might not make any great
impression on Englishmen, but Frenchmen are particularly susceptible to any graceful act
or word. I happened to be sitting next to M. Mollard, the Ministre du Protocol, who
always accompanies the President on his official journeys. He was genuinely delighted
and whispered to me:—“Dieu! quel homme que votre Roi! Comme il a la parole heureuse,
et comme il montre de l’esprit, et de la finesse!” And Monsieur Mollard, was no mean
judge of that important kind of after-dinner speech that is connected with official visits.
In the course of M. Loubet’s visit, I once ventured to hope that Monsieur le President was
not being completely worn out by the strenuous days he was living. With a typical
Frenchman’s shrug of the shoulders, he answered, “Mon Dieu! Commandant, je résiste
toujours!”
At the termination of the visit, the English Mission accompanied the President and his
Staff as far as Dover, and there my companions and I took leave of the very courteous,
and nice old gentleman, that was Monsieur Loubet. I was to see him again before very
long, for, during the semi-private visit that the King and Queen paid to Paris a few years
later, during which they lived at the British Embassy, Monsieur and Madame Loubet, then
living very simply en bourgeois, after the expiration of his term of office as President,
came to the Embassy to take tea with his late hosts, and former guest.
In the autumn of 1903 I was in attendance when the King went to Marienbad for a
cure, and for the next few years I was nearly always there for a portion of August and
September, sometimes of my own accord, but more generally in waiting, and moreover
for a succession of spring seasons, during his customary visits to Biarritz, I was nearly
always on duty, at any rate for a part of his stay there.
I used greatly to like doing my turn of duty abroad, especially at those two very
pleasant health resorts, the more so as it was evident that his visits to them really did
King Edward a great deal of good. Like his mother, Queen Victoria, before him, he
revelled in the strong air that can be breathed in mountainous countries and at the
seaside. Moreover, the waters of Marienbad were good without being too strong, and
during those last years of his life I think he was never better than after his Marienbad
cure. He had been there once or twice as Prince of Wales, but, as far as I can recollect,
after he came to the Throne, except for the year of his illness before his Coronation, I do
not think that he ever missed a season there, but regarded his annual visit as a
necessary sequel to the London season.
A certain number of English people have always patronised Marienbad, notably the
late Sir Henry and Lady Campbell-Bannerman, and the late Mr. Labouchere. Of course, as
soon as the King made a practice of going there for his cure, quite a number of English
people suddenly discovered the extraordinarily healing properties of these Bohemian
Springs, and the little “Kur Ort” became quite as fashionable with English people as with
foreigners. It really had many good points. I cannot speak with any authority on the
efficacy of the waters from a personal point of view, for I only drank them for one
season, when the outstanding effect I noticed, was, that such little memory as I ever
possessed vanished entirely, a most inconvenient symptom for an Equerry-in-Waiting.
During all my subsequent visits I contented myself with an “air” cure, and some parts of
Marienbad being upwards of 2000 feet above the sea-level, the air is of the most
approved quality, and all meals being taken practically out of doors, and long walks
forming part of the cure, every one is in the open air all day long. After the early morning
walk, during which time most of the water-drinking was done, the whole community,
from the King downwards, used to eat their solitary egg and drink the best coffee in the
world, at one of the numerous open-air cafés that lay in all directions. After breakfast,
there was generally more drinking and walking, and three or four times a week, some
sort of Marienbad bath. Some patients, I fancy, wallowed in mud. Personally, I escaped
with some delightful baths, in which some pine extract was mixed up, and most
agreeable they were. Then, after luncheon, there were delightful walks and drives to be
taken, to say nothing of golf.
 A SHOOTING PARTY AT MARIENBAD
Hon. E. Capt. Hon. S. Col F.
Sir S. Macdonell
Stone Fortesque Ponsonby
H.H. Prince Philip of
The Abbot of Tepl H.M. King Edward
Coburg

But the golf-course at Marienbad needs further mention. To begin with, it owed its
very existence to King Edward. It was he who “squared” the authorities, from the Abbot
of Tepl downwards, to give the necessary ground, and, moreover, he gave it his generous
patronage, by constantly stopping for tea there, on his return from his afternoon drives,
and in a still more practical form, by giving the most beautiful prizes for competitors of
both sexes.
Having mentioned the Abbot of Tepl, and being on the subject of Marienbad
amusements, I must go on to say a little more about the Religious Community of which
he is the head, and the sport to be had in the neighbourhood, and I feel that I cannot do
this better than to quote from an Introduction I once wrote for a book of the Badminton
Series:—

“As an amusing specimen of a somewhat peculiar ‘branch’ of the sport in

question (the shooting of driven birds), I remember well King Edward accepting an
invitation from the Abbot of Tepl to a partridge-drive on the Tepl estates, which
surround the famous old Monastery of that name. For those who have never ‘made a
cure’ at Marienbad, I must explain that the Religious Order in question owns not only
 the Springs and Baths of Marienbad, but also a vast tract of agricultural land, which
is farmed by the monks and their tenants. The Abbot himself is a great dignitary of
the Roman Catholic Church; he has a seat in the Austrian House of Lords, and his
principal duty is to administer the vast properties belonging to the Monastery, which
has existed without intermission from the thirteenth century to our own time.
“Bohemia in general, and the Böhmischer Wald,—above which Marienbad is
situated,—in particular, is famous for its partridges; but driving them was a new form
of sport as far as the monks themselves were concerned. It had been their practice
from time immemorial to have them shot by any obliging man who happened to own
a gun, for the purpose of supplying their table. However, for so distinguished a guest
as King Edward an exception had to be made, so the Abbot, with the assistance of a
travelling Englishman, arranged a partridge-drive on the most approved pattern. The
performance began with a Gargantuan luncheon in the refectory of the Monastery, at
which repast the whole of the King’s party, which included several ladies, was
present. So long was the bill of fare, and, it may be added, so excellent were its
items, that it was well past two in the afternoon before the guns were posted. On
arriving at the butts, which had been beautifully constructed for the occasion, it was
evident that the services of the whole population of the neighbourhood for miles
round had been called into requisition. Those employed as drivers and flankers were
under the immediate command of some of the more venerable members of the
fraternity; those who came as spectators, unfortunately for the bag, wandered about
at their own sweet will. The Abbot himself, in a very short shooting-coat over his
white cassock, a most rakish wide-awake hat on his head, and an enormous cigar in
his mouth, took up a commanding position in the King’s butt, various horns sounded,
and the fun began. Partridges there were in plenty; but, unfortunately, the monks
had felt inspired to fly two gigantic kites, with the laudable desire of concentrating
the birds and driving them over the King’s butt. The desired result of concentration
was undoubtedly obtained, but the general effect of the kites was to cause the birds
to run down the furrows instead of flying over the guns, and this, combined with the
intense caution and self-restraint that had to be exercised by the shooters, in order
to avoid hitting either a flanker, or one of the numerous spectators before alluded to,
resulted in a remarkably small bag. However, it was all excellent fun, and no one was
more amused at the incongruity of the whole chasse, than the King himself.
“Shortly afterwards King Edward had a very different experience in the same
neighbourhood, when partridge-driving with Count Trautmansdorff. In a short day’s
shooting the party bagged 500 brace of partridge, the King himself accounting for
100 brace to his own gun. Though it hardly comes under the province of sport,
perhaps I may be permitted to mention that the following winter Count
Trautmansdorff was one of the guests at Sandringham during the best shooting
week there, and also that not long afterwards the Abbot of Tepl was invited to
Windsor, and found himself being taken round the Castle and shown its treasures by
the King himself.”

Another distraction at Marienbad was the comparative proximity of Karlsbad. Karlsbad

was by way of being far gayer, and more fashionable, than its humbler neighbour, and
certainly the hotels and shops were on a more luxurious scale. The King generally went
over there for the day, once or twice in the season. One of the constant Cure guests
there in those days, used to be Monsieur Clemenceau, and, as a general rule, the late
Grand Duke Alexis, and several other members of the Imperial Family, were to be found
at Karlsbad. Indeed, it was greatly patronised by Russians in general.
On looking back on those seasons at Marienbad, it is curious to remember what a
kaleidoscope of people of all countries, and some of considerable distinction, are
associated with the place. To begin with, in early times there were Sir Henry Campbell-
Bannerman, Mr. Henry Labouchere, and Miss Maxine Elliott—I was going to write, then at
the height of her beauty, but she is always beautiful—her sister, Lady Forbes Robertson,
in those days, if I may dare use the expression, a flapper. Another marvellously beautiful
woman, Princess Mirko of Montenegro, was there for a season with her husband, who
was one of the numerous progeny of the old Prince Nicholas of that curious little
principality. Prince Mirko died (so I heard) in Vienna, having disowned his country, during
the War. The lady in question was, I believe, the daughter of some Serbian General, and
was certainly one of the most lovely women I have ever met in my life. Another constant
visitor was that remarkably astute, and still more remarkably antipathetic personage, who
was then Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The late Prince Kinsky, Slatin Pasha, and Count
Tassito Festitics, with his wife and daughter, were occasional visitors; Count Szapary was
another Hungarian who occasionally indulged in a cure, and on one occasion he arrived
at Marienbad with his own Tzigane band, so one night, after dining at a restaurant, he
gave us a regular concert, conducting his band himself on the cymballen. Amongst the
more regular visitors were a host of friends of mine, such as Sir Charles Mathews, Mr.
Charles Gill, and Mr. Charles Hawtrey, the latter, mimicking his doctor, the celebrated Dr.
Ott, to his (perfectly unconscious) face, was as good as he ever was, on any stage.
Other friends who were apt to do a Marienbad Season were, the late General Sir
Lawrence Oliphant, one of the most amusing and quick-witted of men, Mr. Henry Chaplin,
Colonel Mark Lockwood, and Sir John Fisher—now known respectively as Lords Chaplin,
Lambourne, and Fisher; then amongst well-known Parisians I may quote Princesse Murat,
the Marquise de Ganay, Comtesse de Chevigné, M. and Madame Jean de Reszke, Count
Boni de Castellane, and Count Joseph de Gontaut-Biron, and I must not forget the British
Ambassadors at Vienna, Sir Edward Goschen and Sir Fairfax Cartwright, who invariably
settled down at Marienbad during the King’s stay there, accompanied by one or two
Secretaries of their Embassy.
In the course of his earlier visits, the King generally went over once or twice in the
Season to the seat of the late Count Metternich. Metternichs of sorts used to, and I
suppose still, swarm in both Germany and Austria; but this particular Metternich was the
direct descendant of the great man of that name who flourished during the Napoleonic
era. Amongst his other properties was the celebrated Johannisberg Vineyard on the
Rhine, and I must say, that a glass or two of real Johannisberg Cabinet of one of the
great vintage years, at luncheon made a man take a very roseate view of life, even of
that dullest of so-called sports,—a deer-drive in the woods, which generally used to
follow the Metternich luncheon parties.
 An annual fête that was regularly celebrated at Marienbad during King Edward’s
sojourn there, was the birthday of the late Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. The King
made a practice of entertaining the various officials of the neighbourhood, in honour of
the occasion. The guests consisted mainly of the officers commanding the troops of the
district, any hoch geboren Austrians who might happen to be there, the principal
municipal authorities, and last, but by no means least, our friend the Abbot of Tepl.
Almost the pleasantest memory of Marienbad that remains to me, is that, of our
breakfasts under the trees at one of the outdoor cafés, where a number of us met after
the morning drink. Sir Edward Goschen, Colonel Mark Lockwood, Mr. Charles Gill, Mr.
Charles Hawtrey, and generally about the same number of ladies, used to assemble
round, what was really a very festive board, and consume coffee and eggs with the
appetite that follows a two-hours’ walk in keen mountain air, and the good spirits
engendered by the consciousness, that the greater part of the water-drinking business
was over for the day.
As I have already mentioned, I was generally in attendance on the late King during,
anyhow, a portion of his yearly stay at Biarritz, and, being very fond of the little place, I
have also frequented it a good deal when not on duty. Biarritz was eminently social, as
not only were there a good many charming villas in the neighbourhood, owned by French
residents, but in what was called the English Season, English visitors abounded. A great
deal of entertaining was done first and last, principally by my previously mentioned
friend, Consuelo Duchess of Manchester, who often took a villa there, and also by an
extraordinarily hospitable American lady, who, I regret to say, died not long ago, Mrs.
Moore by name. She had practically lived in France all her life, and her apartment in Paris
had always a lighted candle, for she loved entertaining, and was an excellent hostess.
She talked the most impossible French, with a strong American accent, and mixed her
metaphors to such an extent that she became a sort of Mrs. Malaprop, to the huge
delight of her French friends. I never quite believed in the authenticity of the numerous
malapropisms for which she was made responsible; I verily believe that she could speak
French extremely well, and that she really was only amusing herself, when she spoke in
the extraordinary jargon that she affected. Anyhow, her parties were the greatest fun,
and not only all Biarritz, but all Paris went to them.
The King was very fond of making excursions by motor-car after he had finished off
his morning business, and lovely drives could be taken to St. Sebastian, Fuentarabia, and
in the Pyrenees. On one occasion he motored over, with a large party of friends, to Pau,
to see what was then the greatest wonder of the age, namely, Mr. Wilbur Wright and his
brother actually flying in the air.
But as far as I was personally concerned when not on duty there, my greatest
amusement was to play golf on that sporting little course, part of which lies on top of the
cliffs, and part at their feet, close to the sea. There was also a pack of fox-hounds, but if
anybody was keen about hunting, and could not manage to hunt in England, Pau was, on
the whole, infinitely preferable to Biarritz, as there was much less woodland, and in some
parts quite a fine grass country. For the fortunate people who always winter away from
England, and are fond of creature comforts and easy journeys, there is nothing like the
South of France; the difficulty was to choose between the two French Departments, the
Alpes-Maritimes and the Basses-Pyrénées. I have listened to endless arguments as to
their respective merits, and, as usual, there is a great deal to be said on both sides.
Both at Pau and Biarritz there was a great deal of very fair sport to be obtained, as
between them they could produce two packs of fox-hounds, a certain amount of wild
shooting, excellent fishing, for in some of the valleys in the neighbourhood of Pau there
are first-class trout streams, and some good salmon are to be taken occasionally.
Moreover, both towns rejoice in a Club, that of Pau being one of the most comfortable
establishments of the sort I have ever come across, and there is plenty of golf. But, mild
as is the climate, it is, nevertheless, a grey Northern winter. On the Riviera, it is the
genuine South, with its brilliant sunshine and colour, and masses of flowers, and,
moreover, that general air of gaiety that seems to spring naturally from sunshine and
colour. Then, again, the Riviera is wonderfully beautiful. A stroll round the promontory of
Monaco on a fine morning at Christmas time, is one of the most satisfactory promenades
in the world, and there were few pleasanter places than Monte Carlo until it became
spoiled, as Venice and Florence, and, indeed, as all the pleasantest and most beautiful
places in the world were, in recent years, by the invasion of that most atrocious sample,
of a very odious race,—I mean the low-class German tourist. Swarms of these detestable
people used to be let loose in Monte Carlo, arriving in cheap trains from Germany, and
spoiling everything by their horrible manners, and general shoddiness. The normal
population of Monte Carlo may have consisted of scamps, male and female, but, at any
rate, until the wholesale arrival of the Germans they were well-mannered and well-
dressed scamps, and were not eyesores to the surrounding scenery.
There have always been numerous legendary suicides connected with Monte Carlo. In
old days, these scandals used to be freely invented by some of the local newspapers,
until a decent subsidy was obtained from the Casino Company, when they invariably and
unaccountably (?) ceased. I do not suppose that in reality there have been more suicides
at Monte Carlo than in any other place where there is a constantly shifting and
cosmopolitan population, but, oddly enough, I witnessed one once, and without any
particular feeling of regret. There had been a particularly vile specimen of the German
tourist, playing a very small game at a table I had been patronising in the afternoon, who
made himself odious to every one in his vicinity by his noise and bad manners. That
evening, I happened to be dining early and alone in the Restaurant of the Hôtel de Paris
before going to the Opera. I had just begun my dinner, and was seated close to the
windows that look out on the Rond Point, just outside the steps of the Casino. It was
about the hour that most people would be dressing for dinner, so the little “Place” was
quite deserted. Suddenly I saw a figure come hurrying down the steps, and when it
reached the Rond Point I recognised the man who had made himself so objectionable in
the rooms during the afternoon. Just as he arrived opposite the window he produced a
revolver and shot himself. And then what interested me, was the intervention of the
Police. The “Place,” which before had seemed quite deserted, swarmed with them; they
appeared to come out of the ground. In a trice the suicide,—for the man, I am sure, was
dead,—was seated in a victoria, with an agent de police by his side, and driven rapidly
away. The last I saw was Monsieur l’Agent putting the man’s hat on with a sort of fatherly
air, as if saying, “It is all right; you are not the least hurt, only a little frightened.” The
local newspaper subsidies must have been in full blast just then, for I never heard nor
read any mention of the incident.
KING EDWARD

, WITH EQUERRIES IN ATTENDANCE, ON THE PROMENADE

AT MARIENBAD
 CHAPTER XIII

SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF AN EQUERRY

To return to Marienbad: on the 31st of August, his cure having been completed, the
King paid a visit to the Emperor Franz Josef at Vienna, and was lodged with his suite at
the Hofburg. I have written so much about official visits in the last two chapters, that I
do not think it the least necessary to enlarge on the Vienna visit. There was a Court
representation at the Opera one evening and a dinner at the Palace of Schönbrunn,
followed by a Court performance at the Burg Theatre. The Emperor himself was an
interesting personage, in a sense, and though I believe not in the least remarkable for
brains or intelligence, he will be remembered in history as having succeeded in keeping
together the heterogeneous bevy ofNationalities, that was known as the Austro-
Hungarian Empire, during a very long reign. He was often described as a sort of Royal
Martyr, owing to the succession of tragedies that occurred in his family; but those who
knew him best, always said that these tragedies that shocked the world, left him perfectly
unmoved, so completely selfish and self-centred was he. Great capital was made out of
his industry, and the fact that he rose at five in the morning, but in reality there was
nothing particularly remarkable about this early rising (except for the appalling
inconvenience it was to his suite and servants), for he dined at five in the afternoon and
went to bed at eight. Eight hours cannot be looked upon as a very short night’s rest.
Latterly, I believe, he lived almost entirely at Schönbrunn, and in his old age used to
breakfast daily with an aged actress who had been a friend of his in old days, and was
established in a villa close to the palace. There was, naturally, at their age, no
concealment about what had become a very harmless liaison, and the whole Viennese
public were perfectly aware of it.
I was not enormously impressed with Schönbrunn. The most noticeable feature there,
to my mind, was the mounting of two guards of honour outside the Emperor’s
apartments, when the King and his suite arrived to dine there. On one side of the
corridor the guard was Austrian, and opposite were posted a similar number of
Hungarian troops, both guards looking as if nothing would please them so much as to fly
at each other’s throats. I had visited Vienna before on my way home from Galatz, and
knew the town pretty well, but was not then made an Honorary Member of the Jockey
Club, as we all were in 1903. It was a most agreeable Club, and admirably managed.
Amongst other details, the Club had a large permanent box at the Opera, which any
member could use at his discretion.
 The visit lasted the usual three or four days, and so the King and his suite were back
in England in excellent time for the Doncaster races.
In October I was again on duty, spending most of the time between London and
Newmarket, and was in attendance on the 9th of that month when the change of
Government took place. There is an immemorial custom on those occasions that the
outgoing and incoming Ministers do not meet; they are carefully shepherded into
separate apartments. I remember, even to this day, my delight and amusement in
watching the performance of one of the noted political wire-pullers of that period. I never
quite grasped why he should have been at the palace at all on that occasion, but there
he was, and, characteristically, going constantly in and out of both rooms!

The year 1904 was a busy year, as far as my duties were concerned, for I was in
attendance when the King and Queen and Princess Victoria paid a three weeks’ visit to
Copenhagen. The Royal Yacht conveyed the whole party as far as Flushing, the rest of
the journey being done by the train, which was put bodily on board the ferry between
Nyborg and Korson, the distance across being about equal to our Channel route between
Dover and Calais.
The first two or three days of the visit were decidedly official, but after the usual
ceremonial in the shape of gala dinners, etc., had been got through, the Royal Family
were living very simply with their relations, Queen Alexandra, of course, being delighted
to revisit her old home in her comparatively new capacity as Queen. It was a fairly full
family circle, as Prince and Princess Charles, now King and Queen of Norway, were living
in their apartment close to the Amalienborg Palace, in two different portions of which the
two monarchs were lodged.
The Amalienborg Palace certainly deserves more attention than it generally receives;
the proportions of the “Plads” that are formed by the four uniform buildings that enclose
the “Plads” and are the Palace, make up, altogether, one of the most perfect architectural
sites that I know in Europe. I have often heard it compared to the Place Vendôme, but,
to my mind, though smaller, it is even handsomer, with its four mid-eighteenth century
buildings at the four corners of the octagon, and the equestrian monument of Frederick
V, of the same date, in its centre.
The Society in Copenhagen is naturally limited, as it is a comparatively small capital;
but in those days, when it was constantly visited by the numerous and extremely
influential relations of the then King Christian, to be Minister there was looked upon by
representatives of the great Continental Powers, as a sure stepping-stone towards the
highest diplomatic posts. In my time there I can remember such men as the late Count
Benckendorff, M. Isvolsky, M. Crozier, as respectively Russian and French Ministers at
Copenhagen. In 1904 that very charming house, the British Legation, was tenanted by
two great friends of mine, Sir Alan and Lady Johnstone. They were both immensely
popular in Copenhagen Society, and entertained most hospitably and gave the
pleasantest of dinners. The Opera, too, was a great distraction, some of the
performances being very well given, the ballets, in particular, being quite first-rate.
Altogether, the time there passed very agreeably.
By the middle of April the King and Queen were back at Buckingham Palace, but for a
short time, for, before the end of the month, they had crossed from Holyhead to
Kingstown, on a short visit to Ireland. Two or three days were spent at the Viceregal
Lodge, Dublin, as the guests of Lord and Lady Dudley, the then Viceroy and Vicereine,
during which the King laid the foundation-stone of the Royal College of Science in Dublin,
with the usual formalities, and saw some good racing at Punchestown and in the Phœnix
Park. In the course of the short tour that had been arranged, their Majesties visited
Kilkenny, where they stayed for a couple of nights as the guests of the late Marquis of
Ormonde and Lady Ormonde, and also paid a similar visit to the late Duke and Duchess
of Devonshire at Lismore.
Lismore is very beautiful. The Castle itself is not a very genuine specimen of a castle,
but it is so perfectly situated on some high ground on the banks of the Blackwater, that it
looks most imposing, and the view from the windows, looking up and down the river, is
quite lovely. During the stay of the Royal party, great dinners were given at the Castle, to
which numbers of the gentry of the neighbourhood were invited. There is a fine dining-
hall at the Castle, so the dinners were veritably banquets. By way of thoroughly carrying
out the banquet scheme, the host and hostess—neither of whom cared in the least for
music—had engaged the services of the band of the local Militia Regiment, which was
very correctly stationed in the gallery. Never have I heard such appalling sounds as
proceeded from that gallery; but, none the less, the Bandmaster was thoroughly enjoying
himself, and conducted, much to his own satisfaction, a lengthy programme of the
noisiest and most discordant music (?) from which I have ever suffered.
Talking of being at Lismore reminds me of the many times, and the many different
places, in which I have been a guest of those two most hospitable people, the late Duke
and Duchess of Devonshire. Probably no two people ever entertained to the extent that
they did. At Chatsworth, in the winter, there were almost incessant large parties for the
Derby November Race Meeting, which they always attended, and where the Duke always
ran some horses; until past the New Year. They were at Lismore, generally, for three
weeks in the spring, during which time, besides having friends to stay with them, the
whole countryside was entertained at dinner. Then, at that charming place just outside
Eastbourne, Compton Place, all through the summer they had a constant flow of visitors
staying there for Sundays. At Newmarket, their little house in the High Street was always
full for the Race Meetings, and, finally, what perhaps the Duke enjoyed most of all, there
were the weeks spent at Bolton Abbey, from which, he and his guests daily cantered
away on their ponies to shoot grouse on those famous moors. All of these houses were
delightful to stay in, but I think, on the whole, I preferred my visits to Chatsworth, which
was a veritable museum of beautiful things. The greater part of the wonderful collection
there was formed by the sixth Duke, who was known in his time as the “Magnifico.” In
reality, as regards art, he was less of a Patron and more of a Collector than the Medicean
Potentate with whom he shared the appellation. The result, as seen at Chatsworth,
eminently justified what must have been a combination of connoisseurship, good advice,
and great wealth. Besides the family pictures, amongst which is that lovely Sir Joshua of
the beautiful Duchess playing “hot codlins” with her baby daughter, there is a gallery of
collected pictures amongst which there are some real treasures, such as the famous Van
Eyck triptych. There is also a sculpture gallery containing some of the best work of
Canova and Thorwalsden. Personally I do not greatly care for the work of either of these
masters, but none the less the examples at Chatsworth were very good of their kind.
Then the library was wonderful, containing as it did endless treasures, such as volumes
of Van Dyck’s original drawings, the unique Liber Veritatis of Claude Lorraine, and, in
addition, some beautiful illuminated missals and fine bindings. Finally, what appealed to
me most of all, was the collection of drawings of the great Italian masters which, simply
framed, were hung in a long well-lighted gallery where they could really be seen and
studied in comfort.
So much—or, more correctly, so little—about the interior of Chatsworth, except a
passing mention of the number of pleasant people of all sorts that made up the parties
there. Outside the house, the gardens and shrubberies were on a magnificent scale: in
the midst of the latter stood the miniature Crystal Palace, used as a palm and fern house,
erected by Sir Joseph Paxton. The best of covert shooting, (for nowhere can high
pheasants be better shown than on the steep-wooded hillsides of Derbyshire,) an
excellent grouse moor on the high ground above the house, and an eighteen-hole golf-
course in the park, combined to make up a really magnificent English home of the sort
that is so rapidly disappearing, and that probably in another generation will have ceased
to exist.
It used to be rather the fashion in those days to talk as if the Duke was only busily
engaged in politics because greatness in that line had been thrust upon him, and
because, from a keen sense of duty, he felt obliged to play his part as a constant Minister
of the Crown. To my mind, this was an absolutely false conception of the man. I believe
that, fond as he was of sport, and also of being surrounded by younger people,
nevertheless, the constant love of his life was politics.
Talking of his liking for younger people, there was a famous story about him years
ago at Newmarket. One of his guests had heard him returning to the house in the small
hours, and at breakfast next morning asked him what had kept him up so late. He replied
that he had been playing whist at the Jockey Club Rooms with some young men whose
names he did not know. “They called each other,” he said, “‘Putty,’ ‘Tops,’ and the ‘Shaver,’
and had it not been that the ‘Shaver’ had to attend a prize fight at six in the morning, I
probably should have been playing whist there still.”
But to return to the Duke as a politician. Though I have heard him groan at having to
prepare a speech when he might otherwise have been out shooting with his guests, and
probably be rather bored when he had to deliver it; yet, none the less, I think that he
enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that his closely-reasoned utterances would be read in
the Press next morning by thousands of his countrymen, who, on any important subject,
were always glad to study the opinion of one of the wisest, and most perfectly honest of
Englishmen. In his last years his position in this country was very remarkable. The public,
in spite of the attractions of those who might possibly be described as “Headline
Politicians,” have a great respect and belief in a man whom they know instinctively, as
well as by reputation, to be honest, truthful, and absolutely disinterested. The cynical
might remark that it is easy for a man with the late Duke’s position and possessions, to
be the reverse of self-seeking, but I think those who knew him best will agree with me,
that whatever had been his position, his character would have been the same.
In November 1904 I was in attendance on King Carlos of Portugal, when His Majesty
and Queen Amelie arrived in England to return the King’s visit to Lisbon of the previous
year.
At the conclusion of the official visit King Carlos remained for some weeks in England,
which he spent principally in paying a series of visits to various country houses for
shooting, about which sport he was extremely keen. He was a very fine shot, and for that
reason alone would have been a welcome guest at any shooting party. He visited in
succession Didlington Hall, then in the possession of the late Lord Amherst of Hackney;
Elveden Hall, Lord Iveagh’s wonderful shooting manor, once tenanted by another great
shot, the late Maharajah Duleep Singh; Bowood, Lord Lansdowne’s beautiful seat in
Wiltshire, and finally Chatsworth. It was a bitterly cold winter, and both at Elveden and
Chatsworth there was deep snow on the ground. I have never met a man so completely
impervious to cold as was the late King of Portugal. He would stand outside a cover in a
bitter wind with nothing on but the thinnest of shooting coats, as he found that thick
clothes hampered his quickness with the gun, which was really very remarkable; he was
not only very accurate as a shot, but quick,—phenomenally quick,—in getting on to his
bird.
During the whole of this tour, the Marquis de Soveral, Lord Suffield and I were in
attendance. It was an extremely pleasant round of visits, and the shooting at all of them
was very good,—at Elveden, of course, particularly so. Queen Amelie had, meanwhile,
been paying some visits on her own account; but she accompanied the King to
Chatsworth, which was the last private visit he paid before returning to the Continent.
King Carlos was the personification of good nature and kindness, and was also an
extremely accomplished man, which made his brutal murder in the streets of Lisbon on
February 2nd, 1908, seem to any of those who had the honour of knowing him
personally, to be not only one of the foulest, but also one of the most meaningless
murders in history.
Before the year 1904 ended, I was to take part in yet one more official visit, having
been detailed to be in attendance on H.R.H. Prince Arthur of Connaught, when
representing the King at the christening of the infant son and heir of the King and Queen
of Italy. Prince Arthur and his suite, consisting of Field-Marshal Lord Grenfell, Captain
Windham, then one of the Duke of Connaught’s Equerries, and myself, duly arrived in
Rome during the first days of December. The actual christening took place in one of the
drawing-rooms of the Quirinal Palace. It really was rather a pretty sight. A temporary
altar had been set up, there was a procession of the Royal Families and their
Representatives, headed by a bevy of priests, with a band in the gallery playing suitable
music.
When the ceremony was over there was an enormous luncheon, followed in the
evening by a gala dinner. In a letter which I wrote home at the time, it is evident that I
was much impressed with the beauty of the jewels worn by some of the ladies at the
banquet! “Some of the women certainly had on the most marvellous jewels; there was
one opposite me, whose name I cannot remember, who wore such diamonds as I doubt
if I ever saw before, even on Royalties. Donna Franca Florio (one of the most beautiful
women of her time) was beautifully dressed, and had on a long row of splendid pearls
that reached to her knees. She looked very handsome, as also did Princess Teano. But
the beauty of the jewels that were worn impressed me greatly. Some of them looked as if
they must have been heirlooms dating from the Renaissance.”

During all these years, some events of which I have been endeavouring to describe,
notwithstanding a good deal of duty, much of which entailed being out of the country, I
was by no means neglecting racing—a sport to which, in those days, I was very devoted.
To go racing meant being amongst almost the pleasantest of one’s friends, and amidst
the cheeriest of surroundings, and, in addition, it became more interesting to me owing
to the large increase in the size of the Sandringham Stud. The bloodstock in the
paddocks there had been largely augmented in the way of brood mares by the purchase,
amongst others, of such fine animals as Laodamia and Nonsuch, the natural result being
that every year there were more foals and yearlings to inspect, and prophesy about. But
racing is a curiously fluctuating business, and, unfortunately, beautiful as these young
things were to look at, from 1901 onwards they turned out, with hardly an exception, to
be singularly worthless. After Diamond Jubilee’s great year of 1900, for a long spell,
Richard Marsh was hardly able to win a race for his leading patron. For the entire racing
season of 1901, during which time the King was in mourning for Queen Victoria, the
race-horses were leased to the Duke of Devonshire (another of Marsh’s patrons) and ran
in his colours. Great things were expected of them. To begin with, Diamond Jubilee
seemed to have the three races, open to four-year-olds, at his mercy, but he was a
queer-tempered animal and declined altogether to exert himself any further, and though
he ran in succession in the Princess of Wales, the Eclipse, and Jockey Club Stakes, the St.
Leger of 1900 was his last victory. Lean year followed lean year, and it was not until
1908, when the Sandringham Stud could only send up one colt seemingly worthy of
training, that the luck began to turn. To make up for this shortage of colts, the King
leased half a dozen two-year-old colts from Colonel Hall Walker (who has lately become
Lord Wavertree) and partly thanks to Minoru, one of the leased animals, but mainly to
the home-bred Princesse de Galles, who won five nice races, there was at last a
respectable winning balance in the way of stakes.
But 1908 was easily eclipsed by the season of 1909, when the King was placed at the
head of the winning list of owners. This was mainly owing to the success of Minoru, who
won five good races in succession, including the two classics,—namely the Two Thousand
and the Derby. The King’s Derby victory was acclaimed with wonderful enthusiasm by the
immense crowd at Epsom; His Majesty followed the tradition of leading in his horse, but
how he managed to get on to the course, inundated as it was with a surging crowd of
enthusiasts, and, having got there, how he ever got inside the neighbouring enclosure
again, is almost past the wit of man to understand. However, supported by Lord Marcus
Beresford, Marsh, and an Equerry or two, to say nothing of the still more efficient aid of
two or three men of the Metropolitan Police, the impossible was duly performed, and
Minoru was led in. I was not at Epsom when Diamond Jubilee won the Derby, but I saw
Persimmon win, so knew something of the cheering of which an Epsom crowd is capable,
but even then it was nothing to the delight displayed by the crowd, when the Derby was
won by their own reigning Sovereign.
One other occasion I remember at Epsom, when the crowd was wonderfully pleased
and enthusiastic, and that was when Signorinetta had won the Oaks for the Cavaliere
Ginistrelli, having scored the double event by winning the Derby two days before. The
King and Queen Alexandra were present in the Royal box, and I happened to be in
waiting at the time. As soon as the mare’s number had gone up I was dispatched to find
the Cavaliere, and inform him that the King wished to congratulate him personally on his
dual victory. With great difficulty I succeeded in getting him to accompany me to the
Royal box, (so shy and confused was he at the sudden honour that was to be thrust on
him), but I eventually succeeded. On his arrival in the Royal box, the King placed him in
the front of it between the Queen and himself, so that he could bow his
acknowledgments to the cheering crowd. The crowd was delighted, for he was a very
popular man in the racing world, especially at Newmarket, where he lived, and though
the crowd on Oaks day is very much smaller than it is on the day of the Derby, the
cheering was, nevertheless, terrific in its intensity.
But my racing recollections are getting far in advance of their time, and I must revert
to a few years earlier and get on with my story.
 CHAPTER XIV

MORE RECOLLECTIONS OF AN EQUERRY

In 1906 I came in for a most interesting cruise in the Royal Yacht, which took me
further afield than I had been for many a long year, for early in April the King and Queen
and Princess Victoria joined the Royal Yacht at Marseilles for a cruise in Eastern waters.
The voyage cannot be said to have commenced auspiciously, as the yacht was
compelled to remain for four days at Marseilles, whilst weatherbound by an atrocious
gale. However, nothing lasts for ever, and eventually the gale came to an end, so by the
8th of the month the yacht was on her way to Messina, at which port she arrived early
next day. Taormina, the beautiful, being within easy reach, had, of course, to be visited.
It was always a pleasure to me to see it again; but I knew the place well, having been
there in the old Surprise days, and later, in the course of a winter trip to Sicily.
From Messina it was only a short journey to Corfu, and there the Royal Yacht was to
spend some days not only in very beautiful, but also amongst very interesting
surroundings. To commence with, the King of the Hellenes was there with a number of
his family on board his yacht the Amphitrite; the Prince and Princess of Wales, on their
way home from India, were on board the Renown; and, finally, the Mediterranean Fleet
was at anchor in the bay under the command of the late Lord Beresford, flying his flag
from the masthead of H.M.S. Bulwark.
Various entertainments were given on board the flagship in the shape of dinners, and
we were also shown a good deal of what was then the new Navy, for even as late as
1906 the Fleet in the Mediterranean was our most up-to-date Naval asset, and its
command was still looked upon as the most important in the Navy. Except for the great
beauty of the island itself, there is nothing very remarkable in the way of sight-seeing to
be done at Corfu, so in default of any other short excursion, the Achilleion was frequently
visited; the house itself consists of a sort of rather tawdry villa, built in what is evidently
meant to be a Pompeian style, the whole edifice being extremely ugly and
characteristically German in taste. But there criticism ends, for as regards situation, and
the view from the garden, it is absolutely beautiful. From where the statue of Achilles
stands, from which the villa takes its name, one can see right over the little town of
Corfu, with its charming old Venetian fort, and Ulysses’ Island, enshrined in a most
beautiful bay, the whole view being rounded off by a background, consisting of the
mountains of Albania.
 In fact, Corfu is a very charming place, and I always wonder that more people do not
winter there; it has a delightful climate, the scenery is superb, the roads we made during
our long occupation of the island, although sadly neglected by their present owners,
make excursions in all directions still feasible. On the other hand, islands are always
troublesome to arrive at, and get away from, and there is no such thing as a Casino
there, though were it to become a fashionable winter resort, that necessity (?) would
doubtless be soon provided by some enterprising Greek syndicate.
After four or five pleasant days at Corfu, the Victoria and Albert proceeded to the
Piræus, and on her arrival there, the King and Queen and Princess Victoria and the suite
left Piræus for Athens, and took up their temporary residence at the palace.
Shortly after our King’s arrival, the Olympic games, that were intended to be a sort of
International Sporting Tournament, to be held in turn in various Capitals, were
inaugurated in the new Stadium that had been built for the occasion. The Stadium, in
another thousand years or so, when the white marble of which it is built has become
coloured and patinaed with age, may become beautiful; but to my mind, nothing is so
hideous as the staring white, of brand-new marble, and the Stadium at Athens was no
exception. It was of huge size, and being new, could look like nothing in the world but a
wedding cake. Personally, I am not fond of looking on at what are called “sports,”
especially when they consist largely in teams of extremely well-drilled and well-set-up
athletes doing, what used to be called in the Navy “physical drill,” and a large part of the
competition seemed made up of these exercises, which are, I fancy, very popular in
Germany and among the Northern races generally. But one very interesting competition I
did see, that took place outside the Stadium in a garden in the vicinity; for there the
English team of épéeists (if there is such a word!) encountered the German
representatives, and to our great joy soundly trounced them. Our team was headed by
Lord Desborough, and eventually fought its way into the final, in which they were
defeated, after a very close contest, I think, by the Belgians. The particular bout that
delighted me, was one between Lord Desborough, and a remarkably corpulent German
expert, who received such a prodding from his powerful and active antagonist that, in
spite of the plastron and the button on the épée, I fully expected to see daylight let into
the Teutonic “corpulency”!
Towards the end of the month, the Royal Yacht was once more under weigh,
anchoring for a night at Katakolo to enable a visit to be paid to Olympia. I had been
several times to Athens before, but never had managed to get to Olympia, which is really
very difficult of access. To get there in any comfort a yacht is required, supplemented by
a short railway journey and a long drive, and as the hotel—or rather the village inn—is
quite remarkably bad, the whole expedition has to be compressed into the inside of a
day. With a yacht at one’s disposal, there is no great difficulty, and indeed the actual
journey by sea from Athens to the anchorage in Katakolo Bay is a very pleasant one, and
wonderfully lovely as to scenery. Athens itself is more beautiful when seen from the sea
than from any other aspect, and, after going through the Corinth Canal, the Gulf of
Corinth, which is never more than about thirty miles across at its broadest portion,
provides a succession of views whose beauty, both as to colour and to outline, are
difficult to over-estimate. Olympia itself is wonderfully interesting. When the original town
was at the height of its fame, with its wealth of temples and shrines, to say nothing of
the most important feature of all,—the Stadium for the Olympic games,—it must have
been one of the wonders of the world. Much has been done in the way of excavation, so,
from the summit of Kronos Hill, just to the north of the town, which lies in a sort of
natural amphitheatre, it is possible to form some sort of idea of what its appearance must
have been, when Olympia was in its glory. But, to my mind, far more beautiful than
anything else there, and alone worth any length of journey to see, is the Hermes of
Praxiteles that is safely lodged in the little museum. This statue was, I believe, found
some twenty or thirty years ago by an excavating party, and was lying at the bottom of
the little stream which is still dignified with the name of the River Alphios. It is exquisitely
beautiful. The slight turn of the head that enables the Hermes to glance at the lovely
little Bacchus perched on his shoulder, the beauty of every detail, and the wonderful
patina, perhaps produced by the many hundreds of years immersion, make up altogether
what is, in my poor judgment, far the most attractive, if not the finest, statue in the
world. I remember how difficult it was to tear oneself away from this wonderful group,
and how almost disagreeable it was to look at anything else in the museum, though, as a
matter of fact, not far from it stands the Niké of Paconios, which is extremely fine, and
there are also a quantity of interesting fragments; but the Hermes is so compellingly
wonderful, that everything else under the same roof seems to be second-class.
Altogether the trip to Olympia was an immense delight, and even the names on the
signposts were attractive. There was something very pleasant in driving, (even in a
shandrydan of a Greek fly), down the road to Arcadia!
From Katakolo the Royal Yacht proceeded to Naples, at which port the King
disembarked for Paris and London, the Queen and Princess Victoria remaining on board
for a further cruise on the Italian coast.
Later in the year I was present at Buckingham Palace at a rather mournful little
ceremony. Under the new Army Organisation Scheme, it had been decided to disband the
3rd Battalion of the Scots Guards. Naturally, the officers and men of the battalion were
much distressed at their disappearance from the Army List, and, as some sort of
consolation, the King took the opportunity of parading them at Buckingham Palace, so as
to take leave of them, accepting, at the same time, the custody of their colours. This fine
battalion paraded under the command of Colonel Lawrence Drummond, their Colonel.
After the parade, the colours were handed over by the colour party to the two Equerries-
in-Waiting, and by them were duly placed in the private chapel of the palace, where I
have no doubt they remained until the late war, when a third battalion was reformed.
Early in 1907 I was once more in Paris in attendance on the King and Queen, who
took the opportunity of paying a week’s visit to that Capital. With the exception of a
luncheon with the President, there were no official functions, and for once in a way it was
a real holiday for their Majesties. The King and Queen occupied the Embassy during the
whole of their visit, the Ambassador and Ambassadress (then the late Sir Francis and
Lady Feodorovna Bertie) taking up their residence for the time at the Hôtel Bristol.
The British Embassy in Paris is worthy of a few words of description, both on account
of its historical interest and its magnificence as a residence. I question whether many of
my countrymen realise what a bargain was made by the nation, when it was purchased
for something under £30,000, its value before the late war being estimated at about a
quarter of a million sterling. It was bought on the advice of the Duke of Wellington during
the occupation of Paris by the Allies after Waterloo, and was at the time the Paris home
of the Prince and Princess Borghese, the Princess being the beautiful Pauline, a sister of
the great Napoleon.
It is most conveniently situated for an official residence, standing as it does, to use
the French expression, “entre cour et jardin,” with its entrance on the Rue du Faubourg
St. Honoré, only a very few hundred yards from the Palace of the Élysée, the official
residence of the President of the French Republic. The garden is unusually large for a
Paris house, extending its border almost to the Avenue des Champs Élysées.
The interior of the “hotel” (to again use the French term) is very magnificent,
decorated profusely in the approved style of the period of its occupation by Pauline
Borghese, and consequently filled with fine specimens of Empire furniture, decoration,
and bibelots, extending even to a fine dinner-service of gold plate. The proportions of the
great reception and dining-rooms on the ground floor are very imposing, and they
contain some remarkably good specimens of mantelpieces and garnitures de cheminées
of bronze and ormolu.
Just at the top of the great staircase is the small dining-room that was used by the
King and Queen for private luncheons and dinners. This little room is hung with some
early seventeenth-century Gobelin tapestries, which were sent over in the late Lord
Bertie’s time by our Foreign Office for cleaning and restoration; at his request they were,
after their treatment, allowed to remain there, and are the principal ornament of the
small dining-room to this day. The State bed-rooms were, of course, occupied by the King
and Queen during their visit; the larger of the two is absolutely untouched, and remains
exactly as it was in Pauline Borghese’s time. The bed is a splendid specimen of Empire
work, and so are the toilette tables with their hand-chased bronze medallions. The
candelabra on the mantelpiece are especially beautiful, and there are interesting
medallion portraits of Pauline and her husband on either side of the fire-place.
The drawing-rooms on the first floor were hung with pale amber-yellow damask, and
also contained all their original Empire furniture, with beautiful candelabra and chimney-
pieces. The smaller of the two in those days was used by the Ambassadress as her
sitting-room, and amongst other interesting pictures there was a portrait of herself and
her sister, Lady Hardwicke, as girls, (they were the daughters of the Lord Cowley who
was a long time Ambassador in Paris, and I fancy that one, if not both, of the sisters was
actually born at the Embassy); there was also another portrait of Lady Feodorovna
Wellesley (as she was then) dressed as a bridesmaid to Princess Alexandra of Denmark,
on her marriage with the Prince of Wales in 1863.
To proceed with the King and Queen’s stay in Paris:—Amongst the several theatres
visited was the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, where that wonderful artist, Madame
Bernhardt, was playing in a very pretty little poetical piece called Les Bouffons, and
apropos of Madame Bernhardt and Les Bouffons, the conjunction of the two resulted in
an extremely pleasant half-hour for me. I was sent round to see the illustrious artist in
question, on the morning of the performance, to ask her to put off the hour fixed for the
entertainment, to enable their Majesties, who had a dinner party, to be in time for the
beginning. I had known the great Sarah in England, but very slightly, and on this
occasion when I called at her house, though she evidently had risen straight from her
bed to receive me, she kept me long after our business had been disposed of, gossiping,
and relating all the amusing cabotinage of Paris, for, besides being a transcendent artist,
she was one of the most agreeable of women.
There was a constant succession of luncheons given in honour of the distinguished
visitors, but the one that remains in my memory was at the apartment of the late Sir
Reginald Lister, then, as Reggie Lister, the first Secretary of the Embassy. It was quite a
small party, but amongst the guests were Monsieur and Madame Jean de Reszke.
Madame Jean, though nominally only an amateur, was practically a great artist, and after
luncheon was over, she sang as she only could sing. She possessed one of the most
lovely and sympathetic voices I have ever heard, and was, moreover, a perfectly trained
musician; indeed, Jean always averred that she was a better singer than he, and I can
still remember the enormous pleasure it was to listen to her. I had heard her before, at
one or two of those delightful musical parties that the late Lady Ripon used so constantly
to give at Coombe,—parties, the like of which I can remember in no other house, and I
can never expect to experience anything comparable to them in the future. For there all
the greatest artists in the world used to sing as they sang nowhere else, knowing, as
they did, that in their hostess alone, to say nothing of her guests, they had the most
sympathetic of audiences, and, moreover, in her, a kind and constant friend. At so many
concerts where great singers give us of their art, though they cannot help singing well,
there is always a feeling that they are faithfully performing a contract for which they are
paid, and the contract being completed, are very pleased to have earned their money
and to go home to bed. At Coombe, on the contrary, they sometimes almost fought as to
who was to get to the piano, and the accompanist first. There never was such a thing as
a programme; but they simply sang whatever came into their heads, or whatever they
were asked for, for the popularity of that very gifted and beautiful lady in musical circles
was simply boundless. I remember once seeing such artists as Destinn, Caruso, and
Scotti, with Signor Ricordi at the piano, with only one book between the four of them,
trying through, what was then, an unheard-of opera in London,—Madame Butterfly. Alas!
that those days have gone for ever, through the untimely death of one of the kindest of
my friends, and the most interesting hostess of my time.
The Paris visit being concluded, the rest of 1907, as far as my duties were concerned,
was spent to a great extent on board the Royal Yacht, for in July the Royal Family once
more embarked on board her at Holyhead for a visit to Ireland and Wales. After spending
the night on board at Holyhead, Bangor was visited to enable the King to lay the
foundation-stone of the new buildings of the University College of Wales.
Two days afterwards the Victoria and Albert was at Kingstown, from which port the
King and Queen and Princess Victoria drove to Dublin for the purpose of visiting the
Dublin Exhibition, the Marquis of Aberdeen being, at that time, Viceroy. To use the usual
form of the Court Circular, during all the driving that was done on this occasion, and on a
subsequent visit to Leopardstown for the races, “the Equerries-in-Waiting were in
attendance on horseback.”
I have ridden many miles in my time on these sorts of occasions, and any one with
any sense of humour can get a good deal of fun out of them, by studying the attitude of
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