Show A JOKE ON KING EDWARD On one ne occasion occasions at Virginia Water I witnessed the shipwreck of King Edward Edward Edward Ed Ed- ward ward and about a score of his friends Including the comman commander of the vessel Capt Welsh It was In the summer of ot 1896 and happened thus In the middle of the lake a a. ton fifty-ton miniature minia ture frigate w was was s moored mOOTed This Vessel was used as a dining place for those who preferred It and the then Prince of Wales with others took boats and boarded the vessel with the intention of having g a good time with what re resources resources resources re- re sources they had 1 d with them These choice spirits very soon were In the gilded glIded saloon pf of t the e vessel and with laugh and song and cards and good cigars were oblivious of those on shore or or- orOn on the lal lake e in boats But the spirit of mischief was aboard in the person of ot Lord Charley Beresford and he hevery hevery hevery very very soon made its influence felt The wind was blowing half a gale as his lordship quietly crept into nto a dingey I anc and before he be was seen seen by the company company com corn pany on the frigate he had with hammer hammer hammer ham ham- mer and nd chisel cut the vessel loose from the tte buoy to which it was moored In a moment the buoyant wooden ship was going at at ata a great rate before the wind dj drifting If ting irresistibly down the lake Nothing could stop her and no noone noone noone one one could do anything She rocked and andI I rolled roPed and her crew with shouts and Imprecations vowed vengeance on Charley Beresford who meanwhile sat in his little b boat at holding on to the buoy looking calmly on and putting pullIng a cigarette The shipwrecked crew could do nothIng noth noth- ing Ing- The vessel finally stranded at a point Inaccessible from the land and the crew were finally taken off In boats Albert Edward of course couise among them and by no no means the least dem demonstrative demonstratiVe In his disgust at the Joke played upon him by his Irrepressible friend and Comp companion The latter disappeared dis die die- appeared in the of pf Windsor before the stranded mariners could seek him or there would have been a ducking ducking ducking duck duck- ing bee that day dayS in w which Lord Charles Beresford would have been t the e hero John H. H Keene in Field and Stream |