My royal appointment (From Western Telegraph)

My royal appointment

They say everything stops for tea - it certainly does when your tea party invitation comes from Her Majesty.

In the year of celebrations and events to mark the 150th anniversary of the Western Telegraph an invitation to a Buckingham Palace Royal Garden Party has to rank up there with the best.

Our preparations for the event began back in February when the clerk to the Lord Lieutenant wrote to me telling me my name had been submitted for an invitation to a Royal Garden Party - and would I wish to accept.

Would I? Quite apart from the obvious honour of being invited, and the recognition an invitation made of the Western Telegraph's proud history; it also presented me with the opportunity to buy a new outfit - and I have never been known to miss out on that! I signed on the dotted line straight away.

Deputy editor Ted Goddard agreed to accompany me, and weeks later - presumably after the powers that be were sufficiently satisfied that we were not a threat to national security - our invitations arrived, together with a copy of the dress code.

Ladies have to wear hats. Generally I don't. Hats have the ability to make even the willowy-est of supermodels look like angry mushrooms, but eventually I found a suitable ensemble and we were all set.

On the day, our taxi driver couldn't get close enough to the front entrance to drop us off, so we entered the hallowed halls through the minor Grosvenor Place Gate entrance and meandered along tree-lined paths, through informal borders and flower beds until we came up the enormous lawn at the front of the Palace.

The grass stretches almost as far as the eye can see, down to the lake, and must be quite a sight out of the palace window over breakfast. Although the royal corgis weren't in evidence, there were those sparse looking patches of grass familiar to any dog owner!

The lawns were bordered by marquees - one for the visitors - us; one for visiting ambassadors and diplomats, representing the Portuguese Republic, Colombia, Macedonia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Seychelles, and a magnificent affair for the royals.

Ted and I enjoyed a little celeb-spotting, recognising personalities as diverse as Baroness Thatcher and political reporter John Sergeant, before joining one of the three lines of guests dissecting the lawns.

Down each of these lines walked a 'royal'. We were lucky enough to be in the Queen's line; others attended the Duke of Edinburgh; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent.

Various people were presented to the Queen, who wore a striking dress and coat outfit in bright green and cream with a matching hat.

She chatted for some time with each one while her ladies-in-waiting looked on. The lines were organised by an amiable bunch of men known as Her Majesty's Corps of Honourable Gentlemen at Arms, clad in top hats and tails and carrying the ubiquitous British brolly, for which there was, thankfully, no use that afternoon.

Providing additional royal security was the Queen's Body Guard of the Yeoman of the Guard, resplendent in the bright red outfits, dating from Tudor times, and more familiar to visitors to the Tower of London. They proved an impressive sight - and few would have argued with the fearsome looking pikes they carry.

Once Her Majesty arrived at the Royal tea tent the rest of us walked around the gardens, sat and listened to the music provided by the Bands of the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the Welsh Guards, and enjoyed tea.

It was a classic British summer tea; small smoked salmon sandwiches with the crusts cut off; tiny scones with jam and cream the size of a 10p piece and miniature strawberry tarts.

We also took a turn around some of the state rooms, sat on one of the royal sofas, and viewed vast collections of porcelain and pictures of Queen Victoria and her family and long-dead royals whose names we didn't recognise.

Throughout the day, despite the formal settings, the atmosphere was low-key, pleasant and good-humoured.

At 6pm the National Anthem was played, the Queen departed and we left - this time via the main entrance.

All around us were women wearing beautiful clothes, and many people in national dress. There were representatives of every creed and colour; a great many ecclesiastical figures from cardinals in red robes, to country vicars in wide-brimmed straw hats; there were uniforms and kilts, but most of all, I will remember the hats.

* Editor's note: For the record, Ted wore a lounge suit and pale gold tie!