Balmoral Castle - 5

Her Majesty will be staying at Balmoral Castle throughout August and September this year. That is why she will be granting Pope Benedict XVI an audience in Scotland (rather than England) during his forthcoming State Visit to Great Britain. This audience is to be held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.



Naturally, not all the staff who come up from London with Her Majesty for the two month summer vacation are able to stay in the Castle itself. Many are put up in the Garden Cottage - which is shown in the photo above. Those who come for the first time are probably in for a shock, because the accommodation is quite spartan. Still, the grounds are truly magnificent.

Teach me, my God and King,
in all things thee to see,
and what I do in anything
to do it as for thee.

A man that looks on glass,
on it may stay his eye;
or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
and then the heaven espy.

All may of thee partake;
nothing can be so mean,
which with this tincture, "for thy sake,"
will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause
makes drudgery divine:
who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone
that turneth all to gold;
for that which God doth touch and own
cannot for less be told.

George Herbert, 1633