Chief Scout Dwayne Fields (left) introduces the princess of Wales and first lady Melania Trump to some young scouts in Frogmore Gardens. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
By the end of the engagement, the princess and first lady had handed out badges to the four, five and six-year-old Scouts in the “Squirrel” group, and received honorary ones of their own.
The engagements were the final royal moments of the state visit, after which Melania Trump travelled to Chequers to join her husband and the Starmers.
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On Wednesday night, all had attended the banquet in Windsor’s St George’s Hall, at which the president said his second state visit had been “one of the highest honours of my life”.
The following morning, after having breakfast separately, the King, Queen, president and first lady met again for an official farewell at the Sovereign’s Entrance of the castle.
They posed for another group photograph in the Green Corridor, joking about their mismatched expressions from the state banquet pictures.
“I looked at the picture we took last night,” said the president, as the King laughed. “But you were more serious than me… She [Melania] said ‘You’re smiling’ and I said ‘Yeah, I like it when I smile’.”
The princess was seated beside President Donald Trump at the previous night’s lavish state banquet.Credit: Getty Images
The Windsor Castle detachment of the King’s Guard turned out in the Quadrangle outside to mark Trump’s departure.
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The president, addressing the media, hailed the King as a “great gentleman and a great King”, pulling his hand towards him and patting him on the arm for extra emphasis.
Trump climbed into the Beast, his armoured car, and departed. Meanwhile, Melania Trump began her own programme with the Queen.
Queen Camilla showed her Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, the 1:12 scale replica of an Edwardian residence which was given to Queen Mary, the King’s great-grandmother, as a gift from the nation following the First World War.
Earlier, the first lady joined Queen Camilla for a tour of the Royal Library and to view Queen Mary’s Dolls House.Credit: Getty Images
The house features electricity, working lifts, running water, luxurious royal suites, below-stairs servants’ quarters, and a library of more than 170 works by authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Vita Sackville-West, AA Milne, Thomas Hardy and Aldous Huxley, who all contributed miniature books.
“It’s so cute,” said the first lady.
Queen Camilla and the first lady inspect the Edwardian dolls house.Credit: Getty Images
The Queen told her: “I love the garden. Look at the table. It’s so beautiful.”
Melania Trump replied: “It’s so beautiful.”
In the Royal Library, a short walk away, the women were shown some of the 200,000 items housed across three former state apartments, with a selection of miniature books including one by Tom Parker Bowles, the Queen’s son.
The first lady and the Queen tour the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.Credit: Getty Images
The library, the Queen said, is “full of such treasures”.
The first lady was then taken to the grounds of Frogmore House for an outing with the Princess of Wales, joining her in nature activities, a parachute game and a picnic with young Scouts.
The princess and first lady chat at the scout event in Frogmore Gardens.Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
The children took the chance to quiz their high-profile visitors about their roles.
One child asked the princess whether she wore a crown. The princess replied that she sometimes wore a tiara, but only in the evening.
Another asked the first lady whether she was going to be the “next princess”.
Melania is said to have smiled and gestured to the princess, saying, “She’s the only princess here”.
Catherine is reported to have told one child that the first lady was “a very important person”.Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
The princess told the child that Melania was “a very important person”.
She arranged packed lunches for her guests earlier in the day, with honey sandwiches made from her own beehives.
The princess is known to keep her own bees at Anmer Hall, a new hobby which she has spoken about on recent engagements.
‘The first ladybug’
Melania Trump, dressed in flat shoes for the countryside outing, allowed one little girl to sit on her lap as she joined in the nature activities, and gave each child a jar of White House honey.
Moving on to making bug hotels out of boxes, sticks and straw, Mrs Trump joined a conversation about the Scouts’ favourite insects, saying hers was a “ladybug”.
Catherine, Princess of Wales and Melania Trump play a game with young scouts in Frogmore Gardens.Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
“The First Ladybug,” one of the children joked.
Afterwards, as the Scouts sat on hay bales waiting to receive their Go Wild badges, Dwayne Fields, the Chief Scout, told them they had all earned it, adding: “It’s very special because the first lady and the Princess are going to be handing them out.”
Fields gave the first lady his own Scouts neckerchief to take home. He said afterwards that it had been an “incredible” day.
“The Princess of Wales is an advocate for the outdoors and young people, so to have both those aspects here today has been amazing,” he said.
“The first lady was amazing, she came out and joined some of our young people making artwork. Their interaction was really key.
Catherine, Princess of Wales and first lady Melania Trump meet young scouts at Frogmore Gardens on the Windsor estate.Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
“She had a keen interest in nature and being kind, and those are key themes for us in the Scout movement.”
Speaking about the royal part of the state visit, a palace source said, “You can tell from the expression of the King, Queen, president and first lady how much they appreciated the awesome spectacle of the British Armed Forces in full pomp.
“It was very pleasing to see the way the state visit has been warmly received both by the guests and the media on both sides of the Atlantic,” they said.
“It’s a clear sign of soft power and diplomacy.
“The visiting party was very easy to deal with and very appreciative of the hospitality.”
The Telegraph, London
