St Aubyns invited back to Buckingham Palace
All enjoy Year 7 and 8 Trip Monday 22 September 2008
YEARS 7 AND 8 AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Our joint Art/History trip this year was, for the first time, to Buckingham Palace. Fine weather made the visit particularly enjoyable, after the rain and grey skies of August and early September. We started with a tour of the Royal Mews, looking at the horses which pull the royal carriages: these must be some of the best housed and fed in the world! They are also very large, a minimum height of sixteen and a half hands, as they have to pull some heavy carriages the largest of which, the Golden State Coach, weighs four tons. We looked closely at some of the carriages, including the Australian State Coach (complete with heating and electrically operated windows) and the Golden State Coach itself, with its five layers of gold leaf.
The afternoon was spent visiting the State Rooms in the Palace. Most impressive of all was the Ballroom where State Banquets are held. 170 guests can be entertained: place-laying is so precise that a ruler is used and laying all the tables takes two days. Paintings from the magnificent Royal Collection were hung in every room, and a few were commented on via the audio tape, which each of us was given. Our visit ended with a walk in the extensive gardens, which looked lovely in the sunshine. This was a most interesting trip: who knows which of the pupils will enter the palace again in the future, perhaps to receive an honour of some kind or other?
To finish our tour guide asked Mr.Greet that when our students returned for another trip we should ask for her. "Please come back!" she exclaimed. She was that impressed by the questions and good behaviour of our pupils - she must also have forgiven Mr.Greet for ripping one of the coachman's jackets he tried on!!