A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator'. 17 July 1869—The Prince of Wales, on Tuesday, laid the first stone of a new orphanage at Watford, Hertfordshire, whither the Clapton Orphanage, now sixty years old, intends to migrate; and the proceed- ings were marked by a noteworthy incident. There was a grand lunch after the ceremony, and the instant the guests rose the ladies look- ing on made a rush at the Prince's plate. The purveyor who, perhaps, thought his spoons were in danger, interfered; but it turned out that the ladies wanted the cherry-stones the Prince had left from his dessert. They were actually distributed one by one as relics, and one young lady, when the stones were all gone, begged and prayed for the crumbs the Royal fingers had touched. A week or two ago the Princess of Teck had to be protected in the Botanical Gardens by a cordon of police, the ladies rushed after her in such mobs, and, according to one account, made little clutches at her dress. There is a perfection of combined baseness and impudence in such scenes of which only our countrymen seem capable.
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