3-021-744 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Melford Hall, Suffolk: the bonfire on the Green, 1865. 'The Prince and Princess [future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra]...drove up to the hall with considerable festive pomp, and were soon received within its hospitable walls. A few hours later, there was a grand pyrotechnic display on the green near the hall, concluded by a huge bonfire. The whole village was already illuminated, stars and feathers and other devices in gas being seen on all hands. The carriage drive in the park was lit up with lamps; and the crown and feathers, with the initials A. A., in gas, gave a very good effect to the east or main front. Within the house there was a ball, to which many of the county families were invited'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.