ROYAL VISITS 135 



altered now and our universal provider of horse- 

 flesh, Mr. Bradford, found me mounts the best 

 he could for the rest of the staff, with a gentle 

 beast for the ambassador. Well, we wandered 

 over the Forest for two whole days, and I wonder 

 who was the most bored person amongst us 

 probably Metternich. I who had been to German 

 forests, and knew something of their manage- 

 ment, was sorely put to it not to expose all 

 the difficulties and deficiencies lying in the path 

 of New Forest management in forestry matters. 

 However, we got through very pleasantly, with 

 a long interval for tea at the King's House, a 

 luncheon with Sir William Harcourt, and so forth. 

 Metternich had got the Crown Prince out of 

 London for two days, to his own great relief, 

 and the day after he left us he was off to 

 Scotland, and, as I think and believe, to merrier 

 surroundings. 



There must be many a heart besides my own 

 thinking sadly of that visit of a cheery lad, and 

 of all that has taken place since. Although one 

 cannot forecast such things, there certainly fell, 

 by look or word, from any of his staff or himself, 

 nothing to cause a foreboding of the terrible 

 shadow that was to fall over us in a brief dozen 

 or so years. 



And again, curiously enough, the next sovereign 



