Charles Hails Welcome Fit for a Princess

WASHINGTON â€”  Prince Charles, heir to Britain’s 919-year-old throne, displayed some dry wit Sunday when a reporter asked how he coped with a grueling social schedule atop the jet lag of a round-the-world trip.

“It’s all in the breeding,� he said.

Whatever it was, it came in handy as the Prince of Wales and his wife, Diana, sped through the second day of their tour of the nation’s capital along streets lined with thousands of gawkers--some shouting, “Princess! Princess!�

Charles, who has visited Washington before without causing quite that much stir, called the welcome “amazingly warm� and wryly acknowledged, “It has a lot to do with my wife.�

Diana Demurely Silent

At a brief press conference, in fact, the prince was peppered with questions mainly about his consort, who sat demurely silent, as protocol demanded, behind him.

Tradition mandates that it is the prince’s thoughts, and not Diana’s, that are important, so the princess was not allowed to answer questions. That left Charles fielding one query after another while Diana blushed and looked away.

How did the princess find dancing with hip-swiveling movie star John Travolta the night before at the White House?

“Well, I’m not a glove puppet, so I can’t answer that,� Charles said. “But in any event, she did enjoy dancing with John Travolta.�

Diana’s impressions of America?

‘Favorably Impressed’

“How many of you manage to reply on behalf of your wives on these occasions and then get beaten up afterwards for getting it wrong?� the prince sighed. “I can only say . . . she is very favorably impressed.�

On a bright and unusually balmy November Sunday morning, Charles and Diana attended services at the Washington Cathedral, where 6,000 admirers competed for 2,000 unreserved seats.

Next, the royal couple got on to the business that, speaking practically, brought them here--promoting tourism and British goods--by viewing the “Treasure Houses of Britain� exhibit at the National Gallery of Art.

Then they dashed out to banking heir Paul Mellon’s estate in the Virginia fox-hunting country for lunch with John F. Kennedy Jr., his sister, Caroline, and others, before returning to the capital for dinner at the British Embassy with 129 guests, including the cream of the capital’s political crop.

Their favorite stop so far, Charles told reporters, was the White House soiree--a glitzy gem packed with Hollywood stars, society-page wealth and Nancy Reagan pals.

“It was the greatest possible fun,� said the prince.

Besides Travolta, the princess also danced with actors Tom Selleck and Clint Eastwood, singer Neil Diamond and President Reagan, as the scheduled 15-minute dance period stretched on for an hour, past midnight.

Olympic swimmer Steve Lundquist said he was too shy to ask the princess to dance. He noticed that when someone tried to cut in on Eastwood to dance with her, “he gave him that Clint Eastwood look,� Lundquist said. “I couldn’t believe it.�

There were only two missteps. First was that nightmare of every woman invited to a gala party: Carolyn Deaver, wife of former White House aide Michael K. Deaver, and Moira Forbes Mumma, daughter of magazine tycoon Malcolm Forbes, showed up in the same dress.

Then, in his after-dinner toast, President Reagan referred to “Princess David� but recovered to call her “Princess Diana.� Technically, he was wrong both times, since--although she is often given the latter title--the correct reference is “the Princess of Wales.�

(By the way, the proper salutation--should you ever find yourself on a street corner near the royal couple--is not “Princess!� but “Your Royal Highness!�)

For his part, the prince proposed his toast, then sat down without raising his glass.

Forgot the Toast

“I’ve forgotten the toast,� the prince said, leaping up.

At Charles’ news conference, reporters were sternly advised by the royal press secretary, Michael Shea, to restrict their questions to Charles and to concentrate on his opinion of the “Treasure Houses� exhibit that he and the princess had just viewed.

But it didn’t work out that way. The first two questions, and more, were about the princess.

Charles said he hoped that the exhibit, which contains 700 items from historic British country houses, “will entertain and amuse Americans.�

Asked to explain the purpose of the exhibition, the prince replied, “I didn’t arrange the thing myself.

“But the idea is to try to show the great degree of taste and the amazing way the people collected these things. It shows people in this country what they can look at when they come to Britain.�

A Cigar Humidor

The exhibit ranges from priceless French and Italian paintings collected by British aristocrats abroad to hang over their fireplaces to horse-racing trophies and a cigar humidor. The piece that has attracted the most comment is a rather alarming settee made entirely from deer’s antlers and hooves. It was borrowed from Charles’ mother, so the prince may have had an odd sensation of deja vu as he admired it in the museum.

The fact that Charles and Diana are patrons of the exhibit, combined with their scheduled visit today to a J.C. Penney store promoting British goods, led to the question of whether the couple had been turned into, well, royal salespersons.

“I don’t know if I would really be described as a salesman,� the prince demurred. “We’re trying to create good will and interest in things British. By being photographed and written about, we might make some British things appear more attractive.�

The high point of what Penney’s is describing breathlessly as “our royal visitation� will be the display of a Rolls Royce parked atop four Wedgwood teacups--a meeting (perhaps collision is the better word) of British style and American promotional genius.

On other subjects, Charles said he would like to visit Wyoming (“The queen has told me about it�) and expressed the opinion that King George III, the one who lost the American Revolution, “got a bit of a raw deal in history.�

The Declaration of Independence refers to George as a tyrant, but Charles has made a bit of a hobby out of improving his ancestor’s image.

“Maybe my efforts to rehabilitate haven’t managed to succeed so far,� he said. “But I think slowly but surely, people are starting to realize he wasn’t quite such the ogre as they made out, and he wasn’t quite as mad as they made out, either.�

Sunday night’s party guest list was top-heavy with American political heavies and may have even included the 1988 presidential candidates, with Vice President George Bush, Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) all in attendance.

Times staff writer Doyle McManus also contributed to this report.