Festival Times

‘You don't presume to suppose, I hope, that we are thinking of you, and wars, and misfortunes, and distresses, in these festival times. Mr. Pitt himself would be mobbed if he talked of any thing but clothes, and diamonds, and bridemaids’.

Does this sound familiar? Horace Walpole was writing about the forthcoming nuptials of the young King George III in 1761 and it proves that nothing really changes in terms of the excitement-verging-on-hysteria that surrounds the antics of the British royal family.

A quick trip down the Mall today proved that it is all too easy to be caught up in the hullaballoo. You can be almost literally swept away by the workmen, flags, TV crews, William and Kate lookalikes, police and, of course, tourists. Everyone was terribly good-natured, and although it seemed busy today, there was only a fraction of the numbers that are expected this Friday. 


Or as Walpole put it, 'O! the buzz, the prattle, the crowds, the noise, the hurry'!

Pipes & drums of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment leave St James's Palace