Our Best Friends

Before the Queen travels abroad she leaves detailed instructions in her own hand, complete with maps, as to where her dogs are to be taken for their walks. There is a different route for each day.

When the Queen is naming her horses, which she does herself, her flair for puzzles and crosswords is much in evidence. Her rule is that the name must reflect the parentage of the horse. Thus she arrived at Church Parade for the offspring of Queen’s Hussar and Christchurch and Round Tower for a filly ‘by’ High Top ‘out of Circlet. When the parents were Amnesia and Lord Elgin, Lost Marbles was the perfect choice.

Two horses returned from Ireland. The Queen spotted at once that something was amiss. Doutelle had been accidentally renamed Agreement and Agreement had turned into Doutelle. Nobody else had noticed.

‘Come here, you little bugger!’ the Queen exclaimed at Balmoral to an escaping corgi. She was restored to graciousness when a guest of one of the staff shoved the animal back through a hole in the fence for her.

A friend of the Queens received a letter of condolence from Her Majesty on the death of her mother. It was typewritten and occupied one side of the paper. When this same friend’s Labrador died, however, she got six sides of handwriting.

When the couturier, Ian Thomas, first started to design for the Queen, he was annoyed that the corgis would run off with his samples of fabric or roll all over them or chew them up. But eventually he found that he could use the animals to his advantage. By dint of a little strategic placing, he could see to it that the samples the corgis got hold of were the ones he didn’t want the Queen to choose.

Corgis really are rather difficult animals, despite, in the case of the Queen’s pets, the attentions of the animal psychologist, Dr Roger Mugford. Once, in Windsor Great Park, the Queen could not persuade one especially awkward one to get back into the car after its walk. At first it sat stubbornly on the grass, then, despite repeated, very clear orders, it actually went so far as to go and sit under the vehicle. But the Queen knew exactly what to do. She got back into the car herself and ordered it to drive on. It was, of course, the perfect way to flush the wretched animal out.

It is well known that the Queen feeds her dogs with great ceremony – silver bowls, finest tartan rugs, etc. What is less well known is that she feeds them in order of dog precedence.

When the Queen’s corgi, Crackers, became decrepit and unable to walk, a special dog wheelchair was constructed for him.

The Royal Family have been animal lovers since Queen Victoria’s day but none of them have gone quite as far as Queen Alexandra. When her Pekinese, Togo, died in 1914, she was beside herself. She refused to have the corpse removed but kept it in her bedroom, where she would ‘look at it and sob’. After two days the smell was such that the lady-in-waiting was ‘nearly knocked down’ on entering the room. She pleaded with the Queen to have the dead dog removed. High officials were involved and expressed grave concern. But nobody could do anything. Eventually egg sandwiches appeared at tea. The Queen smelt them. Tearfully, she said, ‘Just like my sweet little Togo.’ This caused an outbreak of hysteria in the lady-in-waiting. Soon Queen Alexandra caught it too. Demented laughter raged for some time. Then the lady-in-waiting got a grip on herself sufficiently to seize the initiative. ‘For goodness sake, ma’am, have him removed or I shall never be able to look at an egg again.’

‘All right,’ conceded the Queen at last. At once the lady-in-waiting was in the corridor, giving the order to a passing page.

In the 1990s, Clarence House was rigged up with every kind of digital and cable TV so that the Queen Mother could watch the racing. A surprise consequence of this was that she became mad about the dogs. On one occasion there was great agitation because a horserace at Doncaster had overrun and it was looking as if the 3.51 from Catford wouldn’t be shown.

Presenting the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Races, the Queen Mother chatted at length with the jockey but she talked to the horse the longest.