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S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 2 0 2 course of their African travels, that he loved her deeply and was willing to risk widespread censure, which was mitigated to some degree by the his close friendship with Edward, the Prince of Wales, although predictably Queen Victoria "did not approve," informing her son that she had learned "Lady Baker had been on intimate terms with her husband before they were married." That apparently made little difference to her son, a notorious rake, because he invited Baker to guide him on a tour in Egypt prior to ceremonies scheduled in connection with the opening of the Suez Canal. During this trip Baker met the Egyptian khedive and would soon be in his employ as governor general of vast regions of the Upper Nile. By 1870 he and Florence were once more back in Africa. While Baker failed in suppressing the slave trade or bringing order to the chaos prevalent in the region, he did draw a huge salary and at the conclusion of the tour wrote the now almost obligatory travelogue, the two-volume Ismailia: A Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for the Suppression of the Slave Trade (1874). For the remainder of his years Baker would lead the life of an affluent country squire to the hilt. He purchased a fine estate, Sandford Orleigh, in southwest England and eased into the existence of a sporting social butterfly. But ever his own man and not one to be bound by the rigid dictates of Victorian society, despite moving in its upper echelons, Baker and his wife gained some degree of notoriety for their staunch independence. On one occasion Florence left the future king Edward VII cooling his heels for upwards of an hour while Baker was out hunting (it was laundry day and she was busy supervising household staff), while another time Baker gave the future King George V (Prince Edward's son), a sound thrashing after he broke a limb on a prized fruit tree. B aker continued to write regularly on African sport in magazines and