Her arrival is often signaled by trumpet fanfares, gun salutes or the strains of “God Save the Queen,” but within the privacy of her own homes another sound presages Her Majesty’s approach: the pitter-patter of tiny feet. During their stay at Buckingham Palace this month, President Obama and the First Lady will discover that Queen Elizabeth II is rarely parted from her panting devotion of corgis and dorgis . Canine outriders announce her appearance a good few seconds before she enters any room and circulate among her guests like Victorian children: seen, unheard and slightly pungent.
The Obamas met the Queen at her London residence once before, ahead of a 2009 summit of the G-20 nations, but this will be their first experience of the full-on hospitality Britain’s royals extend to state visitors to the U.K. And as POTUS and FLOTUS may suspect after observing recent Windsor-family nuptials, nobody does hospitality quite like the Queen. In the mixture of grandeur and eccentricity, tradition and cautious adaptation, tiaras and dog hair awaiting the First Couple behind palace doors, they could spot a wealth of clues not only about their host but also about their host country.
Yet it would be easy to overlook those clues amid the pressure of remembering laws of etiquette that, just for example, advise against hugging Britain’s monarch.
The Obamas will doubtless enjoy an audience with the Queen, possibly a luncheon. Never speak across the table, though the ebullient Prince Philip tends to do so, or feed the dogs beneath it. The Queen is bright and acerbic and, though particularly fond of discussing the breeding and racing of horses, is game to talk about subjects as evidently remote to her as scuba diving and rock music.
On May 25 the President is set to address both houses of the British Parliament in Westminster Hall, only the fourth dignitary invited to do so since World War II. The preceding evening, the Obamas will be guests of honor at a state banquet.
Such banquets are curious affairs, attended by politicians from the visitor and host countries and an array of worthies with connections to the guests of honor or the diplomats who represent them at the Court of St. James’s. Numbers are made up by functionaries from the royal household such as the Master of the Horse and the Keeper of the Privy Purse and an assortment of red-faced gents and well-spoken ladies with family diadems perched atop bird’s-nest hairdos and evening gowns of surpassing ugliness. The air is frigid, the dishes delicious, the wines magnificent. The Queen and her spouse sit at the apex of the massive U-shaped table, flanked by their guests of honor and senior members of the royal family. An orchestra plays, and toward the end of the meal, bagpipers noisily circumnavigate the room. After speeches — and Obama will win points for brevity — come the toasts. Guests are expected to stand and listen to the national anthem before raising their glasses.
