travellers from abroad and incoming mail set gossip circulating . the stories gained in effect from the surrounding secrecy . correspondents wrote home to ask why the lurid reports were not being officially denied and disposed of . it was not long before all Mayfair was gossiping . in every club there was an indignant member spluttering against the indignity done to the crown . it was an outrage . and who was this Mrs Simpson , anyhow ? on their way back to England the King and she paused in Vienna for some pleasant hours of dancing . the reporters were still following . the headline told the tale - Edward rumbas with Wally . in Paris Mrs Simpson saw for the first time a few examples of what folks were reading about her back home in the States . she was aghast . she telephoned her alarm to London . the King was comforting - he had been through all this publicity himself before ; it would wear itself out . he pointed reassuringly to the silence of the British press . nevertheless as he sat down to dinner with his mother at Buckingham Palace , he wondered how much Queen Mary was aware of what America was saying . she gave no indication that anything out of the ordinary had reached her . in tones of polite enquiry she asked about his holiday . did n&apos;t you find it terribly warm in the Adriatic , she innocently enquired . she was , of course , fully informed and highly indignant about the publicity her son &apos;s association was causing . but her reserve remained unbroken and another occasion for a confidential talk between mother and son went by , the opportunity lost . the King had missed the Twelfth and the grouse , but he sufficiently conformed with custom to spend the last two weeks of September in the Highlands . his house-party was not formed of members such as had been gathered about them by Queen Victoria or King George 5 . statesmen were conspicuously absent - Mrs Simpson conspicuously present . her arrival was the occasion for growing feeling against the King in circumstances in which he was not at fault . it chanced that the day she reached Aberdeen station was also the occasion for the opening of Aberdeen &apos;s royal Infirmary . while the King was driving across from Balmoral to meet her , his brother , the Duke of York was performing the opening ceremony at the hospital . earlier in the year the King had decided that because of court mourning he could not perform the ceremony in person and had asked his brother to deputize . these facts were not known to the Aberdonians and there was an outcry that his majesty should have neglected the hospital so that he might be free to meet his guest . it was a baseless charge , but it was spread around and gained wide acceptance before the truth caught up with rumour and scotched it . by that time harm had been done to King Edward &apos;s reputation amongst his Scottish subjects . there were happy days amongst the heather and in the evenings the King in his kilt played the laird in his castle . Mrs Simpson was fascinated , enjoying every moment . but the King &apos;s brothers in their Scottish retreats nearby felt themselves neglected , shut out of his confidence . Bertie ( Duke of York ) in particular , considered himself to have lost a friend ( in his father ) and to be rapidly losing one in his brother . as September ran out the royal guests departed , leaving Balmoral to the grouse and the deer . the King turned south to face the future and its complications . he came back to a London that was agog with gossip and concern over the wretched reports from the United States . by that date it was Mrs Simpson all the way in every American paper , headlines , story and pictures . Palace car at Wally &apos;s disposal , King chooses clothes to match with Wallis - there was no aspect of life untouched . imaginations made good when facts ran out . one paper scurrilously described how Edward was neglecting a bereaved mother to dance attendance on Wally . another told how Premier Baldwin sent for the monarch to lecture him on his carryings on . British residents were sorely tried by the daily barrage of the news-hounds . it was disconcerting enough to learn that their sovereign was in love with an American lady already twice married . the accompanying scurrilities made the plain fact odious . in Canada there was dismay at what was reported across the border . in their concern writers discharged their indignation in letters home to King , Prime Minister or Archbishop - indeed to any person with influence on affairs - Ministers of the crown , Bishops , M.P.s , parsons , editors . the inevitable effect was to raise opinion against the author of these mischiefs . how could he expose himself , his crown and his country to ridicule and contempt ? of course the worst of the reports were exaggerations and inventions , but , they were a scandal arising from the same source . the captain was letting down the side . there can be no exaggerating the effect produced . long enough before the crisis broke the king &apos;s position had been undermined amongst the pillars of the establishment . much of the scandal had flowed from the Nahlin cruise and once again one thinks of the prudent man who would have foregone the hours of pleasure afloat to promote his prospects in the future . instead , a prolonged stay in the Highlands , at home amongst the family and his ain folk , might have helped him towards realizing his hopes . he could have used the time to entertain and captivate members of his cabinet . he related afterwards , almost with self-approbation , that he had of design omitted to invite the succession of Ministers , Bishops , Admirals and Generals who had filled the Balmoral guest list since Queen Victoria &apos;s time . but a prudent king would have seen the benefit to himself in bringing the softening influence of hospitality to bear upon those forming the pillars of his throne . meanwhile , Mrs Simpson prepared herself for the hearing of her suit for divorce . by a device common enough at the time by those seeking to avoid the publicity of a London hearing , it was arranged for the petition to be filed for the Suffolk assizes . to this end the petitioner had to acquire a residential qualification , and so Mrs Simpson moved into a house she had taken by the sea at Felixstowe . so effective had been the silence of the British press that the townsfolk remained completely unaware of the presence of a notability in their midst , who across the Atlantic was hailed as the most talked-of woman in the world . Felixstowe had scarcely heard of Mrs Simpson and certainly did not recognize her when she passed down the street of a morning to buy her paper . when she walked by the sea she might as well have been in Tasmania for all the notice that was taken . a little while was to pass and she would be looking with envy on those tranquil days of her obscurity . at last the date was fixed for the court hearing - October 27 . it acted as a goad on the various interested persons . after weeks of inaction something , at last , must needs be done . 9 . Mr Baldwin calls . York : vex not yourselves , nor strive with your breath , for all in vain comes counsel to his ear . the King &apos;s matter - how convenient the phrase - now occupied the attention of the pillars of the establishment . hitherto it had been the King &apos;s emotional complication and his own concern . with divorce impending there were graver implications . the Archbishop of Canterbury contemplated the possibilities and was dismayed . divorce spelled the possibility of marriage , and the wife of a king became a queen . would he , the primate of all England , be faced with the ultimate harrowing possibility of officiating at the coronation of a sovereign married to a woman with two previous husbands ? thus to participate would mean a surrender of the Church &apos;s principles on one of the cardinal points of its teaching . it was unthinkable , but it seemed it might come to pass . what was his duty as primate ? he concluded that for the present the wiser course was to take no action . but would not the government intervene ? Ministers of the crown began to look with distaste at the contents of their postbags . every delivery added to the letters from correspondents anxious about the King &apos;s reputation . there was the generally expressed opinion that something ought to be done , something of course by the government . the plaguy divorce suit would add a new urgency to the letters and the need for action . Queen Mary viewed the possibilities with her sharp , clear vision unclouded by the concern and anger she felt . she had given no expression to her feelings when she met her son - there was always the chance his affections might cool . but divorce - she grew indignant at the thought of what might be contemplated . that a woman with two husbands alive should become the wife and consort of her son the King , was out of the question . action was essential before the divorce case came up for hearing and she urged that the government should take it . characteristically she placed what she considered to be her obligations to the British monarchy before her affection for her son . so Mr Baldwin took the front of the stage , which he was to share with the King , others , in the background , till the play was done , for , as his majesty phrased it , they were to settle the matter alone . it is the King who serves as ceremonial figure-head for his country . it falls to his Prime Minister to speak on behalf of England . not long afterwards another man was to speak for England in another mood in the voice of Winston Churchill giving the lion &apos;s roar , voicing the might and power of the British commonwealth . Stanley Baldwin in his wistful musings pictured another England - a country of hill and valley and meadowlands , the rolling Cotswolds - and the silver serpentining Severn , of the perfection of England seen from the Malvern heights looking towards the marches of Wales , an England of quiet country-folk , pipe-smoking farmers , decent townspeople and factories where old men could sit about on barrows . these quiet scenes showed him the England that he loved , but for all his wistful brooding Stanley Baldwin , by some curious twist of character , was as shrewd a politician as ever reached ten Downing Street . he drew his strength , perhaps , from his understanding of the English folk of his brooding , not only the yeomen and the squires , but also those sent to Westminster to represent their fellows . it was his boast that his worst enemy would not say of him that I did not know what the reaction of the English people would be to any course of action . no man was more sensitive than he to the changing moods of the House of Commons . of late he had gone astray over the carve-up of Abyssinia and his health was failing , indeed , he had continued in office only to see the new King established , for he shared the doubts of those who questioned whether Edward would rise above the handicaps of his character and his upbringing . for the weeks , whilst the House was up , Baldwin had complied with his doctor &apos;s orders , for absolute rest . he returned to number ten to face the problem of the King &apos;s future . Mrs Simpson , divorce , marriage - the sequence seemed to point to one inevitable conclusion and a decree granted in October , he noted would become absolute about the date of the coronation in May . Queen Mary was pressing for intervention - but what was a Prime Minister empowered to do ? a king could regulate the marriage of his children but the statute book makes no provision for regulating the marriage of a king . no one had ever thought of defining the eligibility of women to be queen . nor was there precedent to fall back on , for no Premier had ever faced this problem before . he shared Queen Mary &apos;s repugnance , but as to thinking the King &apos;s marriage out of the question - there he disagreed . all his information pointed to the contrary conclusion . 