ROYAL INTEREST 113 



pursuits, in some of which His Royal Highness is so 

 well versed, thus demonstrates that our Association 

 is truly national,' and so forth. Murchison no doubt 

 felt that this mark of favour went far to discoun- 

 tenance the ignorant opposition to the Association 

 which, as we have seen (p. 36), somewhat dis- 

 concerted him about this time. Prince Albert, 

 again, was at the Ipswich meeting in 1851, when he 

 recorded his visits to five sections in succession 

 between 11.30 and 2.30 on one day, in a letter to 

 Queen Victoria, to which was appended what he 

 termed ' a plan of the battle '- a tabular summary 

 showing his progress and the topics which he heard 

 discussed. 



The prospect of his own appearance in the 

 presidential chair evidently caused him some appre- 

 hension : it is recorded that he ' dreaded failure ' ; but 

 Queen Victoria was able to write to King Leopold 

 that * Albert left me yesterday morning for his great 

 undertaking at Aberdeen, which, I have heard by 

 telegraph, went off extremely well.' He conveyed 

 in his address a very clear message from the Queen : 

 ' I saw in my acceptance [of office] the means, of 

 which necessarily so few are offered to her Majesty, 

 of testifying to you, through the instrumentality 

 of her husband, that your labours are not unappre- 

 ciated by your Sovereign, and that she wishes her 

 people to know this as well as yourselves.' The 

 Prince was no mere figure-head : the Council, during 

 his year of office, met under his chairmanship at 

 Buckingham Palace. 



The Royal Patronage was extended to the Associa- 

 tion by King Edward VII in 1904, and was con- 

 tinued by his successor. To him the Association 



