Amid the fallout from a revived race row inside the House of Windsor, she went to the Garden Museum in London and heard her host cite Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s opening line from Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Christopher Woodward, the museum director, quoted the Russian writer during a speech as he hosted Camilla’s visit to his institution’s Winter Flowers Week, an exhibition of five installations celebrating seasonal and sustainable festive decorations.

But he explained afterwards that it had not been intended as a comment on the Royal Family’s show of unity after controversy surrounding author Omid Scobie’s book, Endgame, and the naming in its Dutch edition of two royals alleged to have expressed concern about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first child, Prince Archie.

It was intended, he said, as a declaration that flowers and gardening provide the same joy to everyone.

“We all need a balcony to go out in, sometimes,” he said. “Half an hour with flowers can change the feeling of a day. Flowers make people happy.”