Here鈥檚 a nice thing about Victoria: Nobody was looking for Prince Harry on Horth Hill on Friday.
After we reported that the hiking the trails there, you might think the Saanich Peninsula park would be crawling with celebrity hounds on the hunt.
Nope. By mid-morning, the parking lot was fullish, but not overflowing. Regular dog-walkers (almost everyone had a dog; it must be a North Saanich bylaw or something) figured the park might have been a little busier than usual, but put that down to it being a nice day for a Christmas ramble. The usual Friday trail-running groups were there, too.
If some park users were intrigued by the potential presence of the holidaying Harry, Meghan Markle and their son, Archie, they appeared more interested in giving the Royals their space. One guy, a visitor from Vancouver, said he was led to the park by the Harry story, but only because he thought the article made Horth Hill sound like a hidden gem, a good place to tromp around for the morning.
What would locals do if they ran into Harry on the trail?
鈥淚鈥檇 just give him the regular hello I give everybody,鈥� said Malcolm Northcott, who lives on the edge of the park. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 imagine they鈥檙e going to stop and have a long-winded conversation with anybody.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檇 do nothing,鈥� said Ashley Jackson, who was on one of her twice-a-day walks with her young black lab, Sula. 鈥淚鈥檇 just hope Sula wouldn鈥檛 jump on him.鈥�
Actually, Jackson seemed more excited to learn that Northcott was the owner of a donkey named Pepe, who is something of a neighbourhood rock star. 鈥淧rince Harry, that鈥檚 awesome, but Pepe is the talk of the town around here.鈥�
People bring their carrot-clutching children and grandchildren to see the donkey. One fellow visits every day to feed Pepe peppermints. That man is the one who first told Northcott that Harry and Meghan were around, though it鈥檚 not like he went gaga about it. It鈥檚 just not done.
Maybe that reserve is one of the reasons 麻豆传媒映画Island has a history of royal holidays.
Harry鈥檚 great-grandparents, King George VI and Elizabeth, enjoyed a 1939 picnic outside Hatley Castle so much that, two years later, they asked Canada鈥檚 prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, about using the Colwood estate as a royal residence.
Our current monarch has spent a few holidays hereabouts, including a three-day stay at Qualicum Beach in 1987 with the aristocratic Veronica Milner (who, as a descendant of the first Duke of Marlborough, was related to Harry鈥檚 mother, Diana, Princess of Wales).
The Queen was also reported to have twice stayed at the lodge at the privately owned Twin Islands, southeast of Cortes Island in the northern Strait of Georgia. The property was at one point owned by her husband鈥檚 nephew Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, Duke of Z盲hringen (or, if you prefer, Maximilian Andreas Friedrich Gustav Ernst August Bernhard). The Queen spent time there just before opening Victoria鈥檚 Commonwealth Games in August 1994.
Then there was the time in 1951 that the 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip concluded an official visit to Victoria by heading up-Island for a three-day vacation at Eaglecrest, near Qualicum. After we wrote about that trip in 2012, Oak Bay鈥檚 Brian Young passed on the recollections of his granddad, who had been the senior Mountie on the journey: 鈥淎s they were heading up the Malahat, Philip asked my grandfather if he could drive. It was totally against protocol, but how do you say no to a prince?鈥�
Alas, the Duke of Edinburgh drove like the Dukes of Hazzard. 鈥淧hilip took the wheel and my grandfather hung on for dear life. Philip was both a terrible driver and a very fast driver. Supposedly they made the trip in record time. All the while Liz is in the back seat loving it.鈥�
Duncan鈥檚 Flora Mackenzie remembered taking her children to see the royal couple: 鈥淲e waited on the highway just north of the silver bridge to see the procession. I had camera and binoculars ready when suddenly 鈥� whoosh 鈥� an Oldsmobile sped by with a tiny girl in the back seat looking terrified. That was our future queen.鈥�
Saanich鈥檚 Don Duke, a retired RCMP officer, remembered Philip going so fast 鈥渢hat our four motorcycle escorts had difficulty keeping ahead of him, to the extent that two of them momentarily locked together.鈥�
Just four months later, Elizabeth鈥檚 father died. Imagine the weight of the crown that was on her young head. Imagine the need to, occasionally, get away.
