2-981-804 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Royal Visit to India: the Madras Club Ball, from a sketch by an officer of the Serapis, 1876. The future King Edward VII '...attended a ball given in his honour...The Prince [of Wales] wore full-dress Field Marshal's uniform... There were no native Princes...Nothing could exceed the taste or the brilliancy of the decorations, the ball-room itself being adorned with palm-trees placed between each of the arches opening into the colonnade...About 600 guests were present...The Prince...opened the ball with Mrs. Shaw Steward, the wife of Colonel Steward, the president of the club...his Royal Highness and Mrs. Steward had for their vis a vis an Austrian Prince and Lady Mary Grenville...[the] dancing went on most gaily, and it was nearly four o'clock [am] before the Prince left. He danced many times, and appeared to enjoy himself most thoroughly'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.