Hats off to synchronised doffing and donning
sir – Having viewed the clip on your online edition of the Queen’s arrival at Ascot racecourse on Wednesday, I was much struck by the proud expression on the faces of the liveried footmen immediately behind Her Majesty in the carriage.
And I noticed that they replaced their top hats with such precise synchronisation.
Alyson Persson
Henfield, West Sussex
sir – The Queen was keen to get to Royal Ascot, and opened Parliament out of duty.
Prince Harry (report, June 22) has stated that being king or queen is done out of a sense of duty.
If only politicians, having a liking for the varied pleasures of life, saw their work as duty and put leadership vanities firmly to one side.
John Barstow
Fittleworth, West Sussex
sir – As the writer of a First World War blog, I am an avid reader of your 1917 archive edition. Yesterday a report on the ex-tsar Nicholas, imprisoned at Tsarskoye Selo, included this quotation from him: “As far as I am concerned, I am scarcely less free than I was before, for, as a matter of fact, have I not been a prisoner all my life?”
Though Prince Harry is unlikely to suffer the same fate as the Tsar, maybe his recent words indicate that he feels he too is submitting himself to being a “prisoner for life”. Desmond Devitt
Oxford