By the time the Queen settles into her first-class cabin for the long flight to Australia today, her luggage — all three tons of it — will have been at Heathrow for 24 hours.

The trunks, hatboxes, and suitcases, together with boxes of official Government papers that travel with her everywhere, were moved there under cover of darkness and sealed in tamper-proof containers that even the Queen's Customs officers are not permitted to open.

Marked with yellow labels bearing the words 'The Queen', her own belongings had been carefully sorted by the 'travelling yeoman', her personal baggage master. Those she would need for the 22-hour flight were marked 'Wanted on Aircraft'.

There is still something medieval about the great travelling circus — including 30 aides — that makes up a modern royal tour. Even the presents that the Queen and Prince Philip will exchange with their hosts over the next 16 days reflect a peck­ing order.

Photographs of the royal couple as gifts are framed, or not, to denote status. There is a silver frame for Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, and his wife Jeanette.

This visit, the Queen's longest in recent years, is set to be one of the most divisive and political of her reign, coming just four months after Australians voted in a referendum to retain her as head of state. But all the finely tuned planning will ensure that, where possible, she has every comfort.

So the centerpiece of this extraordinary royal caravan is the Queen's luggage. Two six-foot wardrobe trunks contain her day outfits. With Australia in the grip of hot late summer temperatures, it could mean four changes a day.

Each trunk, which folds out into two halves, contains 20 dresses. Some are recycled old favourites; others are newly made by designer Karl Rehse of the John Anderson Fashion House.

Evening wear is packed separately, each item lovingly wrapped in acid-free tissue paper. Even the sleeves are stuffed with paper to prevent creasing.

To the Queen, clothes are props, part of her job, which is why she likes colours that stand out. ‘I can't wear beige because people won't know who I am,' she once said.

In another trunk labelled 'Hosiery', the Queen's dresser Angela Kelly will have packed up to 50 pairs of white gloves.

'It's always white for the tropics, although there will be long black gloves for evenings, too,' says a former royal valet.

Nothing is left to chance. On a visit to Pakistan two years ago, staff forgot to include a pair of socks, vital for a Queen expected to observe custom and go without shoes in mosques. British Airways came to her rescue with a pair.

Even shoe trees and hangers are brought along. And among her outfits there will also be a suit of mourning clothes in case of tragedy.

For every occasion there will be a handbag to correspond. Famously, of course, the Queen's never contains money. But along with a pair of reading glasses and a scented handkerchief, her handbags also include a small bunch of keys for the boxes of state papers she has to read.

Despite the heat, her wardrobe for Australia also includes cashmere cardigans to ward off the chill of air conditioning.

Taken on every trip is a hot water bottle, not for warming her bed but for airing it. The Queen and Philip dislike duvets and prefer their beds — they sleep separately — to be made with cotton sheets and blankets.

One box in particular will receive special attention. It contains the jewels the Queen and her dresser will have already chosen for her evening engagements, includ­ing a priceless brooch of yellow diamonds that was a Coronation gift from the people of Australia.

To hand on board the air­craft will be a battered black box full of medicines many High Street chemists will never have heard of. Homeo­pathic treatments taken from bee stings, snake venom and poison drawn from a black widow spider lie alongside fragments of belladonna — or deadly nightshade — a cure for headaches, and even an onion for a runny nose.

There is one item, however, that the Queen herself packs and which is with her when­ever she travels abroad. It is a photograph of her father George VI.

‘Wherever she is in the world, everything stops for tea at 5pm,’ says a former royal aide. 'She likes to plug in the kettle herself.'

Contrary to reports, one accessory that will not begoing with her is a white kid-leather lavatory seat. 'She never takes her own loo seat,' says a royal official. 'Only Prince Charles does that.'

A portable office of sta­tionery, laptop computers and printers, now goes with her.

The royal party includes the Queen's private secretary Sir Robin Janvrin, assistant private secretary Tim Hitchens, five police body­guards, three dressers, a page, three footmen, two ladies in waiting, maids and a valet for Philip, a Press attaché, cleri­cal assistants (called lady clerks) and secretaries to the secretaries.

There is even an Australian equerry, who has spent the past week learning the ropes at Buckingham Palace.

Her tour promises to be controversial and, for a couple long past normal retirement age, tiring.. Monarchists are hoping it will rekindle the spirit of the visit in 1954 when this young country fell in love with the young Queen. But those were more deferential times.

Now, not only does she face the wrath of beaten republi­cans but also anger from Aborigines, who blame the Queen for signing legislation in 1954 that resulted in thou­sands of Aboriginal families being split up from their chil­dren, and they are demanding a meeting.

No wonder then that the Queen likes to travel with the comforts of home.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16