伊丽莎白女王急盼曾孙出世

英国女王伊丽莎白二世也加入了王室宝宝观察团的队伍，急切盼望威廉王子和凯特王妃的第一个孩子赶快降生。近日，女王参访英格兰西北部湖区国家公园时表示，她不介意曾孙是男是女，只希望宝宝能早点诞生，因为她很快将启程前往苏格兰巴尔莫勒尔堡度过夏季假期。按照传统女王会是第一个得知宝宝何时出生的人，到时候会有一个纸条从医院传递到白金汉宫，然后白金汉宫门外将会张贴出通知。

即将出生的宝宝是王室的第三继承人，排在女王的儿子查尔斯王子和孙子威廉王子之后。至今，英国王室对孩子何时出生一直守口如瓶，只是宣布预产期在7月，来自世界各地的记者已经在伦敦圣玛丽医院四周扎起了帐篷，有媒体将此称为“伟大的凯特等待”。查尔斯王子的妻子卡米拉之前说 ：“我们所有人都在电话的一端等待。”她希望宝宝能在本周末诞生。

对宝宝降生的漫长等待为博彩公司创造了巨大的商机，全世界的博彩者都在对王室宝宝的出生日期、性别、姓名下注。公关公司也凑热闹策划有关王室宝宝的活动，跟需要暑期故事的记者们争夺市场。球星大卫•贝克汉姆曾开玩笑说，这个孩子应以他的名字命名，有一家博彩公司就下注贝克汉姆会是王室宝宝的教父。

Queen Elizabeth joined the band of increasingly impatient royal baby watchers hoping Prince William and his wife Kate's first child arrives soon, saying she is due to go on holiday.

With the future heir to the British throne due any day, the queen, on a series of engagements in the Lake District in northern England, was asked if she would like her third great-grandchild to be a girl or a boy.

"I don't think I mind. I would very much like it to arrive. I'm going on holiday," she told children at the Wiggonby Church of England Primary School on Wednesday, dressed in a green suit and matching hat despite the summer heat.

Every summer the queen leaves London for her Scottish country estate, Balmoral. Her final public engagement before her holiday is next Tuesday.

Queen Elizabeth is the second senior royal this week to publicly express hopes of a imminent arrival for the baby who, regardless of sex, will be third in line to the throne after her son Prince Charles and his son Prince William.

Royal officials have remained vague about the due date of the baby so the world media's has been camped since July 1 outside St. Mary's Hospital in London where Kate is due to give birth, growing increasingly impatient with what has been dubbed the "Great Kate Wait".

Prince Charles's wife Camilla said earlier this week that everyone was "just waiting by the telephone" at the moment and she hoped the baby would arrive by the end of the week.

By tradition, the queen will be the first person to be informed when the baby is born, with a handwritten note taken from the hospital to Buckingham Palace.

A note will then be pinned outside the gates of the palace.

The waiting game has proven a boon for bookmakers offering odds on the date of the birth and for public relations companies pulling royal-related stunts to pique the interest of journalists in need of stories during the summer lull.

Former England football captain David Beckham made headlines this week when he jokingly suggested that the baby could be named David and one bookmaker was offering odds on him being named as a godfather to the royal heir.

A newspaper's website is even streaming live footage of the entrance to the private Lindo wing at the hospital, where Prince William, a helicopter search-and-rescue pilot, was born to the late Princess Diana 31 years ago.

The gender of the baby is said to be unknown as the couple, who married in April 2011 and are known officially as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, want a surprise.

But bookmakers expect a girl and have made Alexandra the favorite for the baby's name, followed by Charlotte, Diana and Elizabeth. George and James are hotly tipped if it is a boy.