I am very pleased to have this chance to introduce the Living Paintings Trust's twenty-first Album of paintings a selection from the Royal Collection.
I had the enormous good fortune to grow up and live amongst the pictures and objects which make up that collection, and am delighted that it should be enjoyed as widely as possible. Now, as Chairman of the Trustees of the Royal Collection, I am able to support marvellous initiatives like this one. It is not always easy I am told that library members have been asking for this new album since 1993 but we are making progress, and it is wonderful that the money has been found to make this twenty-first Album a reality at last in time for the beginning of the 21st century. The Royal Collection is not an art gallery. Its paintings were bought over the centuries to decorate the homes and official residences of sovereigns, or indeed, Princes of Wales! To all intents and purposes, they are national heirlooms of which each successive sovereign is the guardian, adding to them as she, or he, thinks fit and is able, and looking after them as well as possible.