3-034-867 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A messenger from Sandringham to Lynn Regis, 1871. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) suffered - and survived - an attack of typhoid fever (the illness of which his father had died 10 years earlier) while at his home at Sandringham in Norfolk. 'The medical bulletins issued by the physicians of his Royal Highness three or four times a day were instantly telegraphed to London, there being a private telegraph office in Sandringham House, and inquiries as to the Prince's condition were promptly answered by the same means. But express messages were frequently sent to Lynn upon various urgent occasions, and many a hard gallop over the road to that town or to the nearest railway station had the Prince's grooms and other servants to perform at their best speed. We in London shall not easily forget the intense eagerness of all classes of our population, last week, to get the morning, mid-day, and evening news from Sandringham...The happy recovery of the Prince of Wales from the dangerous illness, which last week seemed to threaten us from hour to hour with the dreaded announcement of his death, is a theme of general congratulation throughout the kingdom'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.