Since King Edward’s death I have had but few opportunities of being a spectator of events. Instead of travelling all over England and Europe on visits, official and otherwise, except for an occasional trip to the South of France, I have hardly left London. During the very first week of the present reign His Majesty King George, with that extraordinary kindness and consideration that he has always shown towards his father’s old servants and his own old comrades of the Navy, commanded me to Marlborough House, and there most graciously informed me that I might continue to occupy the rooms at St. James’ Palace that had been granted to me by the late King, and that, moreover, I was to receive the appointment of Groom-in-Waiting and Gentleman Usher. This dual office did not last very long, for when a vacancy occurred, through the death of General Sir Stanley Clarke, the King very kindly gave me the post of Sergeant-at-Arms in the House of Lords, which very pleasant appointment I still continue to hold, as well as another that I prize very highly, namely that of Extra Equerry to His Majesty the King.
During the few months that I was on the personal[380] Staff of King George, I came in for one very interesting experience. Towards the end of the summer I was in attendance when the King, Queen Mary, and some of the younger members of the Royal Family, embarked on board the Royal Yacht for the purpose of witnessing the man?uvres of the Home Fleet, then under the command of the present Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward May. During these exercises the headquarters of the Fleet was Torbay, and there the Victoria and Albert generally anchored for the night, or remained during the day, while the King was on board one of the battleships of the Fleet. Though it is many years since I have served afloat, it is, even to this day, impossible for me to stand on the quarter-deck of a man-of-war without the sensation of being amongst familiar surroundings, so those days spent in the midst of old comrades were very pleasant ones, and remain to me as a very happy memory. I believe it was during that week that an aeroplane flew for the first time over a British Fleet. The plane in question was piloted by one of the pioneers of flying, who was giving an exhibition of aviation, and, naturally, seized such an opportunity as being the first man to fly over a British Fleet, a Fleet, moreover, that had the Royal Standard flying at a masthead. I have still among my belongings the photograph, here reproduced, of the King on the bridge of the flagship watching the movement of the plane as it approaches.
 
ON BOARD THE FLAGSHIP OF THE HOME FLEET, 1910
 
Before the end of the year 1910 the health of my poor old friend, Stanley Clarke, became so bad that he was unable to carry on his duties at the House of[381] Lords as Sergeant-at-Arms, and it having been settled that I was to succeed him eventually, I officiated for him until the end of the session. Consequently, I am now about to commence the tenth year of my tenure there, and am becoming quite an old “Officer of the House.”
The day may come, perhaps, when there might be something written about events that have occurred, and speeches that have been made, in what the newspapers delight in calling the “Gilded Chamber,” but certainly as far as I am concerned the time is not yet, and meanwhile the only memory I will allow myself to mention is the passing of the Parliament Bill. For a man like myself, who has absolutely no politics, and is firmly convinced that the whole philosophy of governing and of government, is contained in the Abbé Jérome Coignard’s delightful fable of the old woman of Syracuse, the assertions made across the table of the House are sometimes very interesting. Readers of Anatole France will remember that the old lady in question was living in Syracuse when the tyrant, Dionysius, was behaving more inhumanly than usual. Being asked by him why she daily prayed that his life should be spared, she replied, “I am very old, and have lived under many tyrants, and I h............