QUEEN GETS BACK ON THE HORSE
EDINBURGH: THE Queen has made an unexpected visit to Scotland for her first public duties since the Platinum Jubilee.
While seen without a cane during official duties at Windsor of late, the walking stick returned for the monarch’s travel north for a week of royal events.
Despite continued questions about her health, the Queen took part in the Ceremony of the Keys in Edinburgh with youngest son, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie.
The monarch wore a powder-blue silk wool coat and dress with a matching hat at the ceremony, the first of several engagements she hopes to attend which include a meeting with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
It was the Queen’s first venture outside her estates since her June 5 appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to mark the end of the Jubilee celebrations.
It also came after she defied doctors to get back on her horses nine months after she was ordered to stop riding, according to The Sun.
“The Queen had missed her riding over these nine months,” a palace source told the outlet.
“She had been able to whiz around the castle’s quadrangle in her golf buggy to walk her corgis.
“Riding again is a wonderful sign after all those worries we had about her health. To be able to do so at 96 is pretty remarkable.”
In the Ceremony of the Keys, the Queen was handed the keys of the city and welcomed to her “ancient and hereditary kingdom” of Scotland. As part of the tradition, the Queen then returned the keys to the city’s officials.
A guard of honour was provided by the Balaklava Company, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Prince Charles – called the Earl of Rothesay in Scotland – and Princess Anne, are also in Scotland this week.
The monarch’s disgraced second son, Prince Andrew – the Earl of Inverness north of the border – was not involved in the event at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
The Queen had previously held audiences at Windsor Castle with foreign diplomats and the Archbishop of Canterbury but had not been certain to travel to Edinburgh.
In May, royal officials said the Queen would not attend this summer’s royal garden parties at Buckingham Palace and at Holyrood.
She spent an unscheduled night in hospital last October, forcing her to cancel a series of public engagements.