Photograph showing King Edward VII seated in a 24-horse-power Daimler of 1901, with a blanket around his legs. There is a house with a verandah behind the car.

During the spring of 1902, the year of his coronation, King Edward VII took a short holiday cruise in the Solent on board the Royal Yacht Alberta. On 31 March he disembarked at Buckler's Hard and was taken to Beaulieu Abbey in a motor car belonging to the Hon. John Douglas-Scott-Montagu (later the second Baron Montagu). Having called on Lord and Lady Montagu at Beaulieu, the King was driven in the car to Lymington and Thorn's Beach. After what must have been a very pleasant run, the King took tea at five p.m., afterwards returning to Buckler's Hard and rejoining the Alberta just under two hours later. Although this journey was doubtless a memorable one, it was not the King's first motor-car drive. He had acquired the first motor car to be bought by a member of the Royal Family, a Daimler Tonneau, in 1900.