The Prince of Wales was forced to cancel a string of public appearances early this week after he injured his eye in a minor gardening mishap on Sunday.
“Yesterday afternoon, the Prince of Wales was sawing tree branches in the garden at Highgrove House. Some sawdust got into his left eye, which became irritated,” a spokesperson for the heir said on Monday. “His Royal Highness went to Cirencester hospital, where he was treated by an eye specialist.”
Doctors gave the Prince an eye patch and expect a full recovery within the next couple of days. However, they advised him to rest on Monday rather than keep up his schedule of appointments, which included a meeting of the governors at the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford, a group which he chairs.
“He was very disappointed,” reports a St James’s Palace aide of the cancellations. “It is rare for him to pull out of any commitments, but the doctors were adamant he must rest the eye. He was suffering huge discomfort.” Charles is scheduled to keep up all of his engagements on Tuesday, assures the palace.
Charles had been dining with his longtime companion Camilla Parker Bowles on Sunday afternoon when he noticed an unsightly branch just outside a window. The Prince, who employs a team of four gardeners to look after the estate, decided to chop down the pesky branch himself rather than wait for the landscape workers’ visit on Monday.
The Prince, a noted outdoorsman, took a saw to the branch without the protection of safety goggles and was then injured.
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