Did your grandfather ever get you a £18,000 gift? Well, Prince George can answer that question with a confident yes—and not only was the gift pricey, but it was also meaningful, too.
The gift was a Victorian style “Shepherd’s hut,” given to George on the occasion of his first birthday. The hut was installed at Charles’ Gloucestershire home and includes everything from a wood-burning stove to a day bed, The Mirror reports. The hut can be spotted by visitors during guided tours through Charles’ gardens and is thought to be a favorite play place of not just George but also Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Nearby the playhouse is a treehouse, constructed for their father, Prince William, in 1989, when the new Prince of Wales was seven. It has since been refurbished for William’s kids to play in.
Charles is a grandfather of five—George, Charlotte, and Louis, and Prince Harry’s children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. He is known to be a good gift giver, and, in addition to his playhouse, George has also been the recipient of another tribute from his grandfather. The King opened up on The One Show, answering questions about how we can all live more sustainably. It was filmed in Prince George’s Wood, which the King called “an old man’s obsession.”
“This was a rather empty field that the farm didn’t need anymore,” Charles said. “The great thing was that I managed to plant it the same year that my grandson was born, the eldest, George—so I thought I’d call it Prince George’s Wood. It is really for autumn color and a bit of spring, but autumn is the magic up here. So finding all the interesting trees and shrubs that turn an interesting color is half the battle.”
A grandfather that buys five-figure playhouses and plants a field and names it in our honor? How sweet, indeed. And beyond expensive gifts, the King is working on something far more important to leave behind to all of his grandchildren: “It does seem to me insanity if we are going to bequeath this completely polluted, damaged, and destroyed world to them,” he said during a tour of Ghana in 2018. “All grandchildren deserve a better future.”
