I'll bet they're in the Palace protocols. Everything is done with precision.
My source for the second comment is a documentary I saw on the state dinner the Queen gave at Windsor Castle some years ago for Lech Walesa. Each place setting was incredibly precise and someone went along each side of the incredibly long table with a special measuring stick, ensuring that every chair was precisely the same distance as all the others from the table. There were exactly the same number of servers as diners, so the servers could put the dishes down simultaneously and then remove the domed covers at exactly the same instant. Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Behalf Of Chris KEENAN >Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 09:49 >To: U.S. Metric Association >Subject: [USMA:27631] Buckingham Palace story > > >Today's Independent gives coverage (might be at >www.independent.co.uk under >"Behind the scenes...") to the 'infiltration' of the Palace staff >by a Mirror >reporter. He is quoted as saying: "My role was to take the tray 20 >metres to >the page's vestibule and hand it to the page, who then carried it another >eight metres to the Queen in her dining room." The Times uses >this, but not >in quotes, and the metres strangely metamorphise into yards. I >couldn't find >any mention in the Telegraph. I wonder if those distances were the >reporter's >estimates, or if they were, in fact, laid down somewhere in the Palace >protocols. >-- >Chris KEENAN >UK Metric Assoc: www.metric.org.uk >
