Vice-Regal Saint: The Duke and his d'Orsay
I must say the Duke of Edinburgh is looking rather dapper here in his morning suit and beaver hat. Is that a d'Orsay or Regent, I think it's a d'Orsay, which fell from fashion eons ago when beaver felt made way for silk. Whatever the style, the choice of pearl gray is perfect for afternoon garden parties like this one at Holyroodhouse, though strictly forboden as evening wear. 
Prince Albert singlehandedly saved the Canadian beaver from extinction, when he donned the silk top hat as a statement of royal pleasure in 1850. For the three hundred years prior (1550-1850), virtually all hats were produced from beaver pelt, from the bicorn/tricorn cocked hats of the navy and army, to the mass of gentlemen toppers across civilised Europe, and the Hudson Bay Company flourished as a result. The beaver was trapped out of existence in mainland Europe and then Scandanavia before operations really took off in British North America. Thanks to Prince Albert, the great and glorious beaver never met the same fate in the New World. Isn't that right, dear Beaverbrook!
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6 comments:
Right you are Tweedsmuir! My, our Duke does look rather dapper doesn't he. Gabrielle d'Orsay would be proud.
I'm off to Europe for the rest of the month. So be good, everyone. And don't forget to feed the fish!
Enjoy your time there/here! (I don't know whether you include Britain or not in the word Europe... and there lies all we need to know, incidentally, about why the EU is ridiculous!).
Europe, as in not Britain. I will be in Iceland and France, no disrespect to the Mother Country intended.
I must say, your name is an improvement over "Scott". It didn't quite meld with the theme, did it.
It did rather make it look like it was my first name, yes. I got frustrated with it!
Great Britain has never been part of "Europe."
No, I know. But part of the trouble is that technically - and only very technically - it is now.
And yet of course it very physically, and politically, and culturally isn't.
Hence many of our present woes.
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