QUEEN ELIZABETH, spectacles in place and holding her handbag with both hands behind her, peered over the display case all the better to show US president Barack Obama the 1783 letter when King George III declared famously: “America is lost.”
The president, followed by his wife Michelle and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, carefully studied the ageing letter – one that was more hopeful about the future of Anglo-US relations than its opening words would indicate.
“That was only a temporary blip in the relationship,” Mr Obama said.
The president and the first lady, who had left Ireland for fear that their travel plans would be upset by the ash cloud, arrived just minutes before noon from the American ambassador to London’s nearby mansion in Regent’s Park.
The four appear to get on. Last time, Michelle Obama broke etiquette rules by putting her arm around the Queen, although Buckingham Palace was later quick to say that it was “a mutual and spontaneous display of affection”.
Meanwhile, the Obamas, who have a less-than-perfect record when it comes to bringing gifts for British notables, took more care.
Two years ago, they gave Queen Elizabeth an engraved iPod loaded with videos and photographs of her 2007 US state visit – a gift described then as stunningly tacky.
On first meeting British prime minister Gordon Brown in the White House, where Mr Brown gave him a penholder crafted from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet, Mr Obama proffered a set of 25 DVDs which Mr Brown could not play when he got home.
Yesterday, though, the Obamas struck the right note, given a hand-made leather-bound album of the first visit to the United States of a British monarch, made by her father and mother, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939.
The album brought back memories, leading Queen Elizabeth to show the Americans a letter from her late mother written during that trip.
In it, she had excitedly written to her daughter that she had eaten hot dogs with the Roosevelts.
“There were a lot of people there and we all sat at little tables under the trees round the house and had all our food on one plate – a little salmon, some turkey, some ham, lettuce, beans HOT DOGS too!” her mother then wrote.
Old letters featured prominently yesterday.
Mr Obama received letters between some of his predecessors and a variety of British monarchs over the centuries.
His wife received an antique brooch fashioned from gold and red coral.
Meanwhile, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla went home with an array of plants, seedlings and seeds. They were taken fresh from the gardens of the White House, George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
They also got some White House honey.