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Buckingham Palace, Grouse, Salmon and Cornish Wines

© Stuart Buchanan MacWatt

London is bursting at its seams in August and September as the world comes to visit. There was a time when I would caution anyone from visiting Europe's most thrilling city at such a time, However few can choose their vacation dates, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has changed London's summer visiting scene by opening up Buckingham Palace during August and September while she and the Royal Family are enjoying a Highland respite at Balmoral Castle.

Buckingham Palace is a lived-in working residence for Britain's Head of State. Its State Rooms are in constant use for what they were designed and decorated for by George IV and succeeding monarchs; Occasions of State. Unlike museums which so often have the dead feel of a flyblown case of butterfly specimens, the Palace is vibrant with the energy of use.

I visit the Palace each summer now to admire the works of art, horological masterpieces, porcelain and furniture that are on display in the State Rooms and make up part of Britain's Royal Collection heritage. This year Her Majesty has authorised an added bonus: access to the hugely opulent State Ballroom, now used for Palace investitures and State banquets. The Ballroom features an exhibition of memorabilia commemorating Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's years at the Palace, (1937-1953), during the summer opening.

Those who can get away for a Friday to Monday house party will pack their treasured Purdey and head north to the purple heather-covered Yorkshire moorlands or further north over Hadrian's Wall to Scotland for the grouse shooting. The season starts on 12th August but the big landowners let out their keepers and the shooting, not to mention their castle, butler and cook, to parties of Americans and Europeans for the first few weeks. During this time grouse shooting is big business - and you need to be big in business to afford the big bucks you must pay per week per gun.

But my shooting days are over. I prefer the gurgling waters of a Cornish stream, the peaceful pleasures of a day with rod and line on the River Fowey below Bodmin Moor, an evening game of skittles over a pint of 'Wreckers' in a moorland or quayside pub. There is nothing to beat the simple pleasure of freshly caught trout or salmon, lightly poached in white wine and served with minted Cornish potatoes. And when day is done an evening visit to the moorland pubs at St.Mabyn and St.Tudy, or the London Inn at Padstow finds me good company and a fine brew of beer.