Bonny Prince Charlie and the hooves of death

Brushes with fame #2

Given the overwhelming response to my piece on meeting the  Queen (OK, it was just Mahoney who begged for more) I thought I’d continue in the Brushes with Fame series, and the Brushes with Royalty subset. Yeah, yeah, another anecdote from my distant past… You want I should rob a bank just to blog about it? Besides, this isn’t a bad headline:

When I was a young lad, I was nearly trampled by Prince Charles on a horse.

My family is from England, and we used to travel back there every other summer. On one occasion, when I was about seven years old, we attended a charity polo match in which Prince Charles was competing.

One of the charming traditions of polo (along with tight pants, jaunty hats and other foppery) is the custom of allowing the spectators to come out onto the field at half time to stomp the divots of grass back into place. (In Miami, they let you onto the turf at Dolphin Stadium to backfill the craters where Daunte Culpepper was sacked.)

Anyhow, it’s really just a chance to mingle with the players, including the celebrities like the Prince of Wales.

Charles was still astride his steed, muttering “jolly goods” to the great unwashed. I was shy, and short, so my mother urged me to push my way forward to catch a glimpse of His Royal Highness. I did, and found myself almost directly underneath his horse.

Charles looked down at the wee colonial child about to be trodden on by princely hooves, and grew concerned. He paused in mid-sentence, leaned down from on high, and said to me:

“Push off a bit.”

That’s it. But how cool is that? I’ve never washed my ears since (though I have tried stretching them, in imitation.) And I’m sad to say that if you haven’t yet been almost-trampled by the prince, you’ve missed your chance: he’s retired from playing polo.

Here’s a poll-o on which brush with greatness should come next:

If there’s only one vote, I’ll know it was Mahoney.

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 10-27-2006 | 01:10 AM
Posted in: Brushes with fame