Farmers, Prince

Edward of Wales endured with a jaunty good humor last week the elaborate bandage which holds his bruised arm and side in such a way as to prevent strain upon his fractured collar bone (TIME, Feb. 8). Since the bandage would have made it awkward for him to attend the King in full court regalia (see "Parliament Opens") he slipped off to his hunting centre at Melton Mowbray and amused himself among the peasantry on his estates.

One evening his brothers, the Duke of York and Prince Henry, arrived in evening dress to find him receiving the local farmers and their families in a grey lounge suit while his personal cronies stood about somewhat awkwardly in formal morning clothes.

While buxom farmer-waitresses piled his plate with boiled joints, boiled vegetables, boiled puddings, he plied a fork with his free hand, rising now and then to join the farmers in a toast.

Said he, "I propose the toast 'Farmers and Fox-hunting,' with certain words of President Theodore Roosevelt on my lips. President Roosevelt said: 'I stand for the Ten Commandments. They're just bully!' I stand for Farmers and Foxhunting. They're just bully!"

The ensuing ovation for the Prince was declared "memorable."