Diary – 20 August 2004

Summertime, and the house is open. Often people ask me what it is like having your home ‘invaded’ by the public. Well, it all comes down to attitude. If you see the approach of a coach, and the theme tune of Mastermind — ‘Approaching Menace’ — starts to well up in your brain, then you really should absent yourself from proceedings. If, however, you and those working with you can give a genuine welcome, then happiness is transmitted and received. Also, so many come who have their personal connections to Althorp: the centurion who was a housemaid to my great-grandfather, yet who had never before been allowed through the front door of the house; the second world war contingent — young evacuees who lived in dormitories here, and gunners from the anti-aircraft unit in the park; the stable lad who caught the young Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon — the future Queen Mother — experimenting with cigarettes behind the straw bales.