134 THE NEW FOREST 



to the Queen's House for this or that purpose, 

 among them the Duchess of Gonna ugh t and Prince 

 and Princess Henry of Battenberg, who visited 

 the church and surroundings of the house, and 

 remained to tea. 



No more royalties visited us until 1902 or 

 thereabouts (I am not quite sure of the date), 

 when the present Crown Prince of Germany 

 then quite a young man came over to England 

 to pay a series of shooting and other visits, with 

 a sojourn in London, under the auspices of my 

 old friend Count Metternich, then German Am- 

 bassador, whom I had known for many years. 



My first intimation of this, followed by an 

 explanation from Metternich, was a telegram from 

 Lord Lansdowne, which reached me when I was 

 grouse-shooting at Allenheads in Northumberland, 

 asking me to take charge of the Crown Prince 

 and show him the Forest, and to provide four 

 nice hacks to ride about upon, for the use of 

 himself and his staff! a pretty tall order for a 

 man to comply with in the month of August, 

 with the ground like iron, who at the best of 

 times was master of a very small stud. 



However, I hurried home, and provided the 

 Crown Prince with a nice horse of my own, be- 

 cause, at that date, I thought it was important 

 that he should not break his neck. Things are 



