![]() "A roast-pork sandwich with applesauce and sage-and-onion chutney, ma'am." "Well, it's a beautiful day, and it's great to see some of the English countryside." "Yes, Your Royal Highness," I reply, trying not to trip over the honorific. "Oh," she says, "here you are again." I've heard that she has a deep voice, but I'm surprised at just how husky it really is, apparently from decades of chain-smoking. James's Palace reception for recipients of the Victoria Cross and George Cross, honors given for war heroism. ![]() As instructed, I stand waiting in her path, and when she sees me, she greets me like an old acquaintance, even though we have been briefly introduced only the day before, at a St. Hello, how are you?" As the wife of the market's organizer, Felicity Davy, has explained to me while we were waiting, "people have mixed feelings," even though "it's pretty royalist around here out in the sticks." But she, too, visibly brightens as she curtsies to the Duchess and presents her with a bouquet of white hydrangeas, calla lilies, and lilies of the valley.Īs planned, Charles and Camilla then separate, so that he can work one side of the market and she the other. "Hello, how are you?," I can hear her saying. One can sense the townspeople warming up, however, as the Prince and the Duchess immediately start reaching out and shaking hands. Women far outnumber men in the well-behaved crowd, which is polite and curious but not adulatory. "With all the intensity of first love, Charles lost his heart to Camilla almost at once." Accompanied by the mayor, Stuart Parsons, wearing his ceremonial "fur-trimmed" velvet robe ("This is actually a politically correct fake," he confides later, adding, "The original, which is mink, is back in Town Hall"), they then walked to the square, where they were greeted by a few chants of "Charlie! Charlie!" and general applause. Their first stop in Richmond was the Georgian Theatre Royal, where they watched a short play on the history of the town put on by the local youth theater. The couple paused a moment for the cameras, then were whisked off by a quartet of officers from Royalty Protection, the British equivalent of the Secret Service. Her hair is blonder now, her makeup more expertly done, her once tentative smile broad and welcoming. The look is stylish but understated: pale-pink bouclé jacket, beige straight-cut skirt, three strands of modest pearls, beige medium heels, and a slim caramel-colored alligator handbag. The Duchess, too, has adopted a kind of public uniform since acquiring her title. He wore one of his customary double-breasted bespoke suits with a light-blue shirt, a navy-blue-and-yellow rep tie, and brown leather shoes so old but well maintained that they gleamed like agate. Prince Charles stepped off the train first, followed by Camilla. ("Brilliantly! Brilliantly!" he bellowed when I asked how he thought the Duchess was taking to her new royal duties.) A half-dozen photographers from the Royal Rota (or press rotation) greeted them as their train pulled in this morning, as did Lord Crathorne, the lord-lieutenant of North Yorkshire, Her Majesty's representative for the county, erect and spiffy in his full-dress black uniform, complete with epaulets, medals, and sword. ![]() Their Royal Highnesses made the 250-mile trip up from London on the Royal Train, which has eight deep-purple coaches adorned with the crest of the House of Windsor and interiors decorated in dark-green velvet they spent the night on a siding outside the train station in Darlington, the largest nearby city. ![]() Trash bins have been sealed in heavy-duty plastic, and the local police are out in force, as well as Beefeaters armed with automatic rifles. It's a bright mid-September afternoon, the slate-roofed shops around the square sport window boxes bursting with pink and white geraniums, and a special farmers' market has been set up in the square itself, with stands selling everything from fresh-killed partridge to handcrafted organic soap. Along with three or four thousand residents of Richmond, North Yorkshire, I am standing in the town square awaiting the arrival of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, who are spending one of their typical working days helping the town celebrate the 850th anniversary of its first market charter.
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