(2 of 3)
"Not all of the gifts of medicine come by mail. Every day the police on duty at the gates receive parcels of stuff which are delivered in person. One old lady rode up from the country in a motor car which must have been any age at the outbreak of the late War, and demanded to be taken in front of Lord Dawson of Penn, the King's chief physician. She was handled tactfully, and when she realized that she was unable to see the great doctor she disclosed that she had brought up a jar containing a mixture of linseed, aromatic herbs and toad's blood which she had religiously stirred through the night in accordance with instructions left by her great-great-grandmother, who was said to be a wonderful herbalist and who was even credited, in her day, with performing miracles. On receiving an assurance that the lotion would be applied to the King's chest, she left contentedly. . . .
"Another old lady arrived with two ring doves in a wooden cage. 'These,' she told officials at the Palace, 'must be placed in His Majesty's sleeping room for their breathing purifies the air.' The birds too were retained and, so rumor has it, were released a few hours afterwards in the beautiful Palace gardens, where they will no doubt flourish far better than they would have done in their wooden cage.
"The other morning a dignified and white haired gentleman, faultlessly dressed in morning coat and top hat applied at the Palace gates for an interview with an official of the King's household. He was at once passed in, for he is quite a well known figure in society and it was discovered to the amazement of the official whose duty it was to interview him, that he had come to tell the King's doctors that they were dealing with the case on a hopelessly wrong diagnosis. The King, he told the official, was suffering from the ill effects of his accident during the War when he was thrown from his horse, and nothing would do but that His Majesty must be treated with a certain type of embrocation, generally used for bruised limbs after a hard day in the hunting field, and which is incidentally nationally advertised.
"It must not be thought, from these few examples, that the people who are sending and bringing these medicines and suggestions to the Palace are slightly unbalanced. Anything but. They are men and women who take the King's illness as a personal affliction and they honestly feel that their quack medicines and prescriptions are not only an expression of their loyalty but that they are the only things which can save the King. The arrival a few days ago of a special serum from the United States which was rushed to the Palace and given much publicity in the newspapers has encouraged thousands more to send in their own 'unfailing' restoratives, cures and strength builders.
"Indeed, if faith and loyalty could cure King George, he would rise from his bed today."
¶ The four correspondents who have been privileged to enter Buckingham Palace during the King's illness have learned from servitors that:
1) When Queen Mary is getting into a temper she is apt to purse her lips and whistle softly; 2) Edward of Wales is commonly called by Palace minions "the young guv'nor";