Queen Mary, the princesses' grandmother, also provided it with antique furniture and flower prints as a mark of her appreciation.
[9] After their wedding, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh conducted an overseas tour, visiting Canada and the United States of America.
Shortly afterwards, Bruce and Beatrice Gould, editors of the large circulation American magazine Ladies' Home Journal, contacted Buckingham Palace and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to seek stories for publication across the Atlantic.
Although the approach was refused by the Palace, the British government proved keen on the idea and suggested Marion Crawford, as the recently retired governess of the princesses.
Nevertheless, I do feel most strongly that you must resist the allure of American money and persistent editors and say No No No to offers of dollars for articles about something as private and as precious as our family.
[6] So deep was the feeling of betrayal within the royal family that, for years afterward, servants who spoke publicly for money were said to be "doing a Crawfie".
[4] Crawford's unauthorised work was published in Woman's Own in the UK and in the Ladies' Home Journal in the United States, becoming a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1955, one column contained a reference to the Trooping the Colour ceremony and the Ascot races, when in fact they had been cancelled that year because of a national railway strikes.
[4] Courtiers believed that Crawford was deeply under the influence of her husband George Buthlay, whom she married after her retirement, and that he pressured her to capitalise on her royal connections, as he himself did.
[9] Crawford retired to Aberdeen, buying a house 200 yards (180 m) from the road to Balmoral; she completely withdrew from public life and refused all media requests.