Letter: The Royal Family: a lost generation or a symbol of greater freedom?

Sir: I notice from your Court Circular that yesterday the Princess Royal, as President of the International Equestrian Federation, received the President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and went on in the afternoon as Master of the Worshipful Company of Loriners to attend a Trade Liaison Sponsored Committee Meeting at Saddlers Hall. After that, as President of the Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief, she attended the Annual General Meeting at the Institute of Civil Engineers. Today, as Patron of Sense, the National Deaf-Blind and Rubella Association, she visits the association's shop at Leyton and goes on to visit Castleton House.

Then, as President of the British Knitting and Clothing Export Council, she visits Alec Berman and Son of Walthamstow and Drake's of London. As Chancellor of London University, she then opens the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biochemical Materials at Queen Mary and Westfield College and in the evening, as President of the Save the Children Fund, she attends the Festival of Trees Dinner at the Banqueting House.

Is that all? Oh well, perhaps she wants to spend some time planning her forthcoming wedding.

Yours faithfully,

PAUL GROUT

Heversham,

Cumbria

9 December