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.

Robert Jobson, author of the excellent 2006 book, William’s Princess, wrote in yesterday’s News of the World:

Prince William has ruled out marriage to girlfriend Kate Middleton next year because he is too busy.

Instead, he will step up his role as a roving royal with two ground-breaking official tours to South Africa and Australia.

The prince is also determined to complete his tough helicopter training course, to become an RAF search and rescue pilot.

His hectic schedule means Kate and Wills — both now 27 — could be approaching 30 before they wed. One high-ranking Palace figure told the News of the World: “All this talk of a wedding next summer is wide of the mark.”

William’s trip to Australia is expected to take place early in the New Year.

He will travel to South Africa in June, where he will carry out a series of engagements and attend the World Cup in his role as President of the FA.

While there he will also promote England’s bid to host the 2018 tournament.

I won’t comment on the sourcing of this information, merely point out that it fits with what I’ve been writing here for two years.

Another year, another excuse.

John Evans

I’m often asked why I don’t report on the many rumours zipping around about the endlessly ongoing relationship between Kate Middleton and Prince William.

The simple answer is that most of them are untrue.

Now Judy Wade of Hello! magazine has shot down another batch of these phantom birds.

First, the plausible sounding report that Kate and William will be off to meet the Queen at Balmoral at the end of August. It’s definitely not on, says Judy. Nor is the linked tale of an engagement announcement on August 31, the anniversary of William’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales’s death.

That never seemed a goer for me, since the two events are completely incompatible. The same goes for a wedding at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The new (or rehashed) idea that Kate is yet again planning a rendezvous with New York to enhance her photographic skills, explodes when you consider the paparazzi onslaught that would result in a city far from the protection squad she would need.

If Princess Eugenie is under the cosh for taking police guards abroad, how much more intense would it be for a non-Royal, non-engaged girlfriend of a Prince? And whatever happened to Eugenie’s arrival at an American university? Newcastle is a long way from New England.

It seems that Kate enjoys the privacy that working from a home office allows her, despite the constant barrage of derision it brings. I can understand that as I do the same myself. She will not lightly give it up in favour of a stint in an overseas city, however tempting that might be. Prince Harry’s reception by New Yorkers was a foretaste of what it might be like.

The story appears to be an echo of the Mario Testino affair last year, which went the rounds until he declared, “Where did this story come from? It’s new to me.”

There’s a rhythm to all this speculation. Stories are punted, based on clearly misleading information, only to be shot down later as “completely untrue”.

It may be that William’s friends are putting up smokescreens, like helicopter chaff, to deflect attention from what’s really going on, or, more likely, the sheer humdrum nature of both his RAF training and Kate’s work with Party Pieces.

The true story of Kate and William’s romance would never have become a Barbara Cartland novel, that’s for sure.

So Prince William and Kate Middleton attended a polo match over the weekend and *gasp* he put his arm on her shoulder in a gesture of affection (pictured).

This is a couple who have been in and out of “going out” for so long, you almost have to be of the Queen Mother’s generation to remember when it all began.

Nowadays, they are spotted together two or three times a year, usually at polo or shooting parties. Their public appearances go round in circles without ever getting anywhere. It’s a bit like watching one of those everlasting film loops on the 24-hour news channels.

What is the real story behind this sporadic romance that would never make the pages of Mills and Boon? Sometimes I think even they don’t really know where it will end. They act like a couple whose early romance has spluttered out, but are so comfortable with each other, they can’t bring themselves to end it completely.

When the Prince finished his military training last year, it was generally assumed he would settle down and help out the family firm, especially his elderly grandmother. Visions of a glittering Royal wedding became the norm in the media and beyond.

Then, William surprised everyone, including Kate and his minders, by signing up for a long stint as a helicopter pilot in the RAF. Incredibly, his brother, Prince Harry, also sank his future in a similar role with the Army. We now have the second and third-in-line to the Throne training to fly helicopters in hazardous circumstances for years to come.

While I can understand Harry wanting to see action, it doesn’t make sense for his elder brother also to seek harm’s way. The Armed Forces can’t be that short of helicopter pilots that a whole generation of Royal heirs have to be drafted in.

While the Queen is sensibly rationing her daily workload, and the Prince of Wales — now the oldest occupier of that title in history — is not the sprightly youth he once was, it is inexplicable that the Monarchy’s future, the younger Princes, should absent themselves when the Queen needs them most.

This loop will run and run. I suspect most of us are bored stiff with it already.

William should take care that the public don’t forget about him entirely, hardly recognizing the man when he finally ascends to the Throne, a stranger to his people.

John Evans