Francis Bedford’s photographs of the Middle East in 1862, taken when he accompanied the 20-year-old Prince of Wales, Albert Edward (“Bertie”), on a four-month tour, are now on show at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. In The Guardian, Christopher de Bellaigue tells the story behind the tour, on which the prince was “less moved by the scene of Elijah’s sacrifice on Mount Carmel than [by] the prospect of shooting quail on the same slopes”.