One last day of joy before the Palace gates clang shut for Kate Middleton

For any bride, the week before her wedding is a precious time. Particularly if she happens to be marrying into the institution known as the House of Windsor; the famously dysfunctional and unyielding establishment with its own peculiar traditions and conventions.

Part monolith, part secure unit, it is a place where a young bride with her own hopes and dreams can expect little quarter.

Perhaps that is why the photographs taken of Kate Middleton shopping in London this week are so poignant. In her last days of carefree singledom, the princess-to-be looked happy and lovely in the spring sunshine, browsing for last-minute items for her trousseau. Hers was a modest spree on High Street fashion items, the everyday tops and frocks purchased by thousands.

Kate Middleton shopping in Chelsea this week. The princess-to-be looked happy and lovely in the spring sunshine, browsing for last-minute items for her trousseau

In a branch of Whistles, Kate even bought The Kate, a blouse so-called because it was the one she wore in her Mario Testino engagement photographs. Perhaps she spilled soup on the original.

With her flowing hair and inky, wraparound Issa dress, she exemplified street style for the modern, well-heeled girl about town. Sexy and simple. Informal curves. No restrictions here. Free woman walking!

Yet by this time next week, Kate Middleton’s life will have changed forever. By marrying Prince William, she leaves behind for ever these happy-go-lucky days and this unstructured lifestyle. Shopping, clubbing with friends, roller disco nights, girly lunches of sea bass and wine, last minute plans? All gone.

Never again will she skip down a city street with such a blithe spirit, her days of being just another face in the crowd will be long, long gone.

This time next week, Kate Middleton's life will have changed forever. By marrying Prince William, she leaves behind for ever her unstructured lifestyle

When she steps inside Westminster Abbey next Friday, Kate leaves behind her life as a commoner to face a new dawn of royal reality; the starchy hierarchy, the endless protocols, the inevitable rules and restraint. Not to mention the insistence upon irreproachable behaviour at all times closely followed by the inexorable, crinoline parachute drop into endless, dowdy dowagerdom.

So perhaps it is to the Middleton family’s great credit that they have raised a daughter prepared to be quite so selfless, to take on such a damaged and difficult husband; a man laden with the baggage of history through no fault of his own.

Almost since the day William and Kate started dating, there has been constant carping that Kate and her mother are arriviste social climbers who have spent years plotting how to snare the prince.

The romantic in me likes to think that the truth is exactly the opposite. That Kate Middleton must love her prince a great deal, to be willing to give up so much for him.
So will these sun-splashed images turn out to be haunting ones, a brief glimpse of a girl we once knew before she disappeared from sight for ever? For it is no secret that marrying into the top tier of the Royal Family is like joining a religious order.

A week from now, Kate Middleton will be behind the grille, looking back at the life she once knew and the freedoms she took for granted.

As the gates clang shut behind her, what on earth does the future hold for Miss Middleton of Bucklebury?

Well, she has one great advantage over both Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah, Duchess of York.

Prince William often seems unfathomable, even tetchy, yet he has at least an understanding and working knowledge of real life that might engineer a more sympathetic entrée for Kate into royal life — rather than the shocking assault course endured by Diana and Sarah.

And for much of the first two years of their married life, Kate and William will live far from prying eyes in an isolated farmhouse in a corner of Wales. There, the new princess will be left in peace to do her royal duty — get pregnant.

And over the coming years she must get used to seeing less and less of the parents she was once so close to. For whatever happens, there will be little time or room for the Middletons in royal circles. The Queen only met the couple for the first time this week, surely a foretaste of what to expect.

In the meantime, Kate Middleton retains her spark of joy. And whatever she may or may not be, she is clearly a young woman who is very much in love, a bride to reckon with.

To be honest, the Windsors’ track record on welcoming new brides into the family firm is not good, as the fates of poor dead Diana and broken, ruined Fergie can attest to.

Have they learned their lesson this time? For Kate’s sake, let us hope so.