Nijinsky:
Windfields equine royalty
Windfields Farm was not only home to equine royalty, but, on occasion, members of the Royal Family. The most memorable Royal visit, for me at least, was HRH Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Among her staff was the Queen’s Piper who’s job was playing the bagpipes at 9:00 a.m. for 15 minutes beneath the Sovereign’s window.
The aspect of this wonderful and moving ritual that will always stay with me was the warming-up of the bagpipes, which, as it turned out, took place for at least 30 minutes beneath my window.
I was not the only Windfields resident taken aback by the early and discordant sounds. Despite being chained to his kennel, the gardener’s hound took off across the fields. We eventually found him – still tethered to his dog house.