win the affection and confidence of these self-retained hardy mountain people, his memory will a century hence be as green as are the firs and pines that cling so tenaciously to their native rock; and the deeds and words of the popular “Herr Herzog” will there be spoken of when in the outer world his name will be remembered only by the historian. The dead sportsman's hunting - knife, which I saw so often in his strong hand, is now lying before me, a cherished memento, kindly sent me by the stricken dowager-duchess a few weeks after the funeral. It will ever remind me, not so much of a sportsman prince, as of a prince among sportsmen.” From the book: Sport in the Alps in the Past and Present, An Account of the Chase of the Chamois, Red Deer, Bouquetin, Roe-deer, Capercaillie, and Black-cock, with Personal Adventures and Historical Notes and Some Sporting Reminiscences of H.R.H. the Late Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha – William Adolphus Baillie-Grohman. As fitting as these final words was the act that closed this long and distinguished sporting career, for less than an hour before that fatal attack of apoplexy, his master hand had brought down two royals ! A lifelong sportsman, his last words were apparently "Let the drive commence!" His funeral was held in the Morizkirche in Coburg; thousands of spectators came to the funeral, including Emperor Wilhelm II and the Prince of Wales. He is buried in the ducal mausoleum in the which he himself had built in 1853–58. Ernest was succeeded by his nephew Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Inheritance to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha For much of Ernest's reign, the heir presumptive to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was his only sibling Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria. When it became increasingly clear that Ernest would be childless, the possibility of a personal union between his duchies and the United Kingdom became real, a reality that was deemed undesirable. Special arrangements were made by a combination of constitutional clauses and renunciations to pass Ernest's throne to a son of Albert while preventing a personal union. Consequently, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, his brother's second eldest son, was designated the childless Ernest's heir presumptive, when his older brother, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom), renounced his succession rights. Issues arose over authority to control the upbringing of his heir-presumptive. As