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.

英國女王伊麗莎白二世也加入了王室寶寶觀察團的隊伍，急切盼望威廉王子和凱特王妃的第一個孩子趕快降生。近日，女王參訪英格蘭西北部湖區國家公園時表示，她不介意曾孫是男是女，只希望寶寶能早點誕生，因為她很快將啟程前往蘇格蘭巴爾莫勒爾堡度過夏季假期。按照傳統女王會是第一個得知寶寶何時出生的人，到時候會有一個紙條從醫院傳遞到白金漢宮，然后白金漢宮門外將會張貼出通知。

即將出生的寶寶是王室的第三繼承人，排在女王的兒子查爾斯王子和孫子威廉王子之后。至今，英國王室對孩子何時出生一直守口如瓶，只是宣布預產期在7月，來自世界各地的記者已經在倫敦圣瑪麗醫院四周扎起了帳篷，有媒體將此稱為“偉大的凱特等待”。查爾斯王子的妻子卡米拉之前說 ：“我們所有人都在電話的一端等待。”她希望寶寶能在本周末誕生。

對寶寶降生的漫長等待為博彩公司創造了巨大的商機，全世界的博彩者都在對王室寶寶的出生日期、性別、姓名下注。公關公司也湊熱鬧策劃有關王室寶寶的活動，跟需要暑期故事的記者們爭奪市場。球星大衛?貝克漢姆曾開玩笑說，這個孩子應以他的名字命名，有一家博彩公司就下注貝克漢姆會是王室寶寶的教父。

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.

(Source: Reuters)

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