LONDON/TRADITION
St. James's Palace - lunch. It was quite an honor to be invited to the Queen's Guards Officer's Mess in St. James's Palace for lunch and it was one of the "highlights" of our trip to London. The table was laid with an impressively huge amount of very, very polished silver. The most unusual piece, which you can just see in the foreground, is a snuff box made with one of the hooves of Napoleon's famous horse Marengo. It is astonishingly small as it has shrunk since being "preserved". Lunch was also exceptionally good for "army food". After a spicy tomato and pepper soup, the chef prepared chicken breasts Wellington, which was very appropriate as the Duke of Wellington was a predecessor to our host, the current General Officer Commanding and Major General Commanding the Household Division, Major General Sebastian Roberts.