The Daily Mail has an interesting piece on how Princess Beatrice seems almost a reincarnation of the young Queen Victoria (pictured below).

There is certainly a remarkable likeness.

The article also reproduces a whole series of stunning pictorial comparisons with present Royals and their predecessors, some going back centuries. Check out the one between King Edward I (1239-1307) and Prince William. The old King comes to life before our eyes.

My favourite though, is Louis Frederick Prince of Wales (1707-1751) and Freddie Windsor. Frederick was the eldest son of George II and father of George III as well as the Great-Grandfather of Victoria. He died before his father, allowing his son to succeed to the Throne.

Lord Frederick Windsor — spookily bearing his lookalike’s name — has very individual eyes and a face that bears few comparisons. Until now.

Bear with me on this one. I’m not a natural teddy bear type, unlike our bare bear expert — believe it or not we have one — Adelle Tilton over in Nebraska, from where she authors our Bears and Dolls blog.

Windsor Bear is specially made by Steiff, the inventors of the modern teddy, for the Queen’s 80th birthday. It is a special edition and likely to rise in value over the years, so get your order in quickly — if you really need one.

The blurb says: “Windsor is hand-made from the finest golden-brown mohair [don't you just envy him?] and wears the famous Steiff button in his ear [perhaps not].”

The bear costs £185 ($340) direct from Danbury Mint, Cox Lane, Chessington, Surrey, KT9 1SE. Tel: [+44] (0)870 112 3711.

If you’re ooohing and aaahing, you definitely need one of these.

Princess Michael (right) with son Lord Freddie and daughter Ella.

What is it like to be Royal and have every facet of your life examined by the media? Prince and Princess Michael of Kent must know the feeling well.

Yesterday, the UK Sunday Times ran an article on the level of debt charged against their country home, Nether Lypiatt, which has been on the market for nearly a year. It seems that Land Registry documents reveal the couple remortgaged the house in Bisley, Gloucestershire, a few months before putting it on sale for £6m in May last year.

In February the couple were forced to drop their asking price by £500,000 to £5.5m after failing to attract a buyer. The mortgage, says the paper, taken out with Coutts in September 2004, is clocking up interest charges of at least £100,000 a year, even if it is at a highly competitive rate of 5%.

“The couple decided to sell Nether Lypiatt — which they bought in February 1981 for £259,745 — after the Queen told them she would not pay the reported £125,000-a-year rent on their London apartment at Kensington Palace beyond 2009.”

In an interview last year Princess Michael spoke of her distress following parliamentary criticism. Labour MPs described the couple as “squatters” after it emerged that the Queen was allowing them to live in the apartment for a peppercorn rent.

Princess Michael said: “Having been given the Kensington Palace apartment for life, I assumed we would live the rest of our days there and I thought we would sell [Nether Lypiatt] and that would be our income. The shock is that we’ve lost our old-age pension because we can’t do that any more.”

To top all that, they can’t sell the house either. As we reported earlier, various celebrities have turned it down because of the lack of privacy. Estate agents have advised them to drop the price to £4.5m, matching an offer made by artist Damien Hirst which was rejected. But that would only leave £2 million for the pension pot — chicken-feed for a family of Royals.

The betting, though, must be that a lower asking price will eventually be inevitable.

If you’re a dashing Lord about town, an Oxford graduate, and a cousin to the Queen, you might be surprised if your girlfriend dumped you for a 46-year-old former boyfriend of Joan Collins.

But that’s what has happened to Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Freddie, 26, has been dealt a body blow by the actions of Marina Hanbury, 22, former model and clothes designer.

Such was the shock that boulevadier Lord Frederick hardly ever goes out now, according to press reports.

A friend laments: “He really loved Marina, but she prefers older men.”

Time is a great healer, Freddie.