Kates parents: Carole & Michael Middleton

Kate's parents: Carole & Michael Middleton

Kate Middleton’s parents have just been guests at a private shooting party on the Queen’s Scottish estate. Michael and Carole Middleton spent the weekend with their daughter and Prince William at Birkhall, Prince Charles’s private residence on the Balmoral estate. The invitation is the clearest sign yet that Kate and William are poised to announce their engagement after a marathon eight-year courtship.

Kate’s parents were photographed receiving instructions in shooting, apparently ahead of a day’s stalking on the hills above Birkhall. Carole Middleton, 55, a former air hostess, is seen lying on the damp ground, sighting a rifle with the help of a ghillie while her 61-year-old husband looks on.

The couple were there as part of a ‘country pursuits’ house party which William hosts for a group of guests about once a year. Neither the Prince of Wales nor the Duchess of Cornwall was there. Senior royal aides confirmed the Middletons were part of a group of middle-aged adults and young 20-somethings, mostly staying at Birkhall while some were put up in cottages in the grounds.

William is thought to have arrived at Birkhall on Thursday evening after carrying out an official engagement. Kate’s parents travelled up from the family home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, on the same evening, it is thought, and were pictured the following morning. That afternoon, Kate was seen being driven along the quiet country roads around Balmoral in a black Range Rover Discovery.

The move is highly symbolic according to aides, showing firm welcome into the royal fold. “It’s just a matter of time. That they should be guests at a shooting party should not be underestimated. This is the Middletons being taught to be able to join the royals at play.” The invitation would have been approved by Prince Charles and known about by the Queen.

Article and Pictures: Daily Mail

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Significantly, although 28-year-old Prince William has a cottage of his own on the Queen’s Deeside estate, Charles generously offered the grander Birkhall for the visit of Kate’s parents and a handful of other close friends. He also loaned William’s shooting party his personal chauffeur, Tim Williams.

True, they have been to Highgrove, once. But staying at Birkhall is different. It is a very intimate royal residence where houseguests are thrown very much together en famille.

The years of princely courtship have not been very easy for the Middletons. Unlike other putative parents-in-law, Carole and Michael cannot indulge in the pleasure of talking to friends and acquaintances about their daughter’s boyfriend – and they certainly cannot wonder out loud why it has taken him so long to propose.

And now, pictured with her husband at Balmoral joining in the country pursuits which are such a crucial element of Royal Family life, she can at last be said to have outlived envious gossip that she was a ‘pushy’ mother and ambitious social climber who sent her beautiful daughter to St Andrews University just because Prince William was going there.


Article: Daily Mail

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