Five-year-old gets reply from Queen after swan request

A five-year-old girl who wrote to the Queen asking for permission to keep a swan as a pet for the weekend was astounded to get a reply from Buckingham Palace.

Lyndsay Simpson, from Petersfield in Hampshire, promised the monarch she would look after it and keep it in the bath.

A spokesperson from Buckingham Palace wrote back to explain people often thought the Queen owns all swans, but she actually only owned mute swans on certain parts of the River Thames.