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Well today the King and Queen opened Ascot week of races at tradition since 1825 created by King George IV with a beautiful procession of carriages with the Royals. The King and Queen were in the first carriage with their old friends Arthur Charles Valerian Wellesley, Duke of Wellington and his wife Princess Antonia of Prussia, Duchess of Wellington, her father was the grandson of the German Kaiser. Today is the Anniversary of the victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. They live at Apsley House originally built by Robert Adam and extensively remodelled in the 1820s for the Duke of Wellington.

Apsley house is still the London residence of the Dukes of Wellington today in London, a stone throw away from Buckingham Palace. Ascot week and being invited to attend in the Royal enclosure is a big thing. Lord Francis Spencer was in charge of looking at requests around 1840 from people wishing to go and he would have 3 responses; Certainly, perhaps, certainly not. Today Sir Francis Brooke is His Majesty’s Representative at Ascot,  heads the Ascot Office at St James’s Palace and is responsible for admitting people to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot race course.

Throw back to a few years ago, this photo of my Will, taken at the tender age of 19 probably in Toronto. Such a cutie.

This one is for people who own cats or vice versa, you may understand the humour.