“The Duchess of Cambridge showed she was fully prepared when she braved the snowy weather to visit a Scout camp in the Lake District today.” (22nd March 2013)
“Her Royal Highness, who is a volunteer in the Scout Association, joined fellow adult volunteers as they trained to work with Beaver and Cub Scouts at the Great Tower Scout Camp near Newby Bridge in Cumbria.
She used her training to help look after a group of Cub Scouts from Cumbria and Manchester taking part in a pack holiday event at the 250-acre activity centre close to Lake Windermere.
As part of their programme, the Cub Scouts will get a chance to try outdoor cooking, fire-lighting and tree-climbing under the guidance of The Duchess and the other volunteers.”
To read more, visit princehenryofwales.org
According to Claudia Joseph’s biography of Kate ‘Princess in Waiting’, the Duchess is distantly related both to Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome. The link is explained by the Daily Mail here
The Duchess is obviously fond of Donny Osmond hats. My mother wore one on location in the Lake District whilst filming SWALLOWS & AMAZONS (1974) . She can be seen here teaching Lesley Bennett, who played Peggy Blackett, to shoot with a bow and arrow for the scene on Wild Cat Island when the Amazons attack the Swallows who are occupying their camp.
Our Director, Claude Whatham took a shine to it and would put it on to amuse us, although in this instance he was wearing it for warmth, probably like the Duchess on Friday. Click on the photo above to see me wearing the original purple velvet, 1973 winter season designer version, bought in Carnaby Street. I wear it all the time. It is very useful in this weather.
Peter Walker has found more photos of the Duchess in Cumbria in the Westmorland Gazette ~ she was visiting a scout camp next door to Low Ludderburn where Arthur Ransome wrote ‘Swallows and Amazons’ about a mile above Blakeholme, the island on Windermere he originally envisaged as Wild Cat Island.
Is the Duchess a ‘Swallows and Amazons’ fan?
Sophie Neville 
More photos here Sophie from our local paper The Westmorland Gazette:
http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/photos/march_2013/katemiddletonvisit/
Thank you Peter!
The story is on the front page of the Telegraph ~ but we managed to get there first. I sent my Facebook link to the Westmorland Gazette.do they know the Duchess is vaguely related to both Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome?
… and that Low Ludderburn, where the Ransome’s lived, is the next property up the road from the Great Tower Scout Camp!
Can you see Blakeholme from the Scout Camp?
I wonder if the Duchess is a ‘Swallows and Amazons’ fan?
Great Tower is just over a mile north of Blakeholme but the island would be obscured by the hillside of Moor How. The road junction to the Scout Camp is directly opposite Silver Holme, Ransome’s Cormorant Island, but that too is usually obscured by trees.
This recent photo I took from Gummers How looking north gives you the lie of the land :
Gorgeous view!
This was a lovely photo of Kate with one little girl in the Westmorland Gazette – very reminiscent of Daphne helping the Amazons!
http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/photos/march_2013/katemiddletonvisit/view/gallery_326023.Kate_Middleton_visit/
Great Tower is a fabulous place for a scout camp. It’s good that the Duchess was helping to raise the profile a such activities in these days of computer games, etc.
I think she enjoyed it!
She certainly looks as though she did!
She might like to bring her children to a 50th Anniversary screening at the BFI.
You are planting seeds of an idea in my mind. Should I start thinking of drafting some more requests, perhaps!
BFI should think of doing something to celebrate Virginia McKenna’s film career. She appeared in more than 32.
That’s a very good point. It would be good if the two things could be combined perhaps, in some way. It needs some careful thought.
I wonder how many of Virginia McKenna’s films are distributed by StudioCanal, as S&A is. They could help in some way. It would be worth writing to them.
I will. I will do some research first.